As early as 1960, Gene Roddenberry had put together a proposal for the science fiction series which would become Star Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space, a so-called "Wagon Train to the Stars", he privately told friends that he was actually modeling it on Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels, first as a suspenseful adventure story, but also as a morality parable.[2]

In the Star Trek universe, humans developed faster-than-light space travel, using a form of propulsion referred to as "warp drive", following a nuclear war and a post-apocalyptic period in the mid-21st century. According to the story timeline, the first warp flight happened on 5 April 2063, and the Vulcans, an advanced alien race, made first contact with Earth on that day after detecting the warp drive signature. Partly as a result of the intervention and scientific teachings of the Vulcans, humans largely overcame many Earth-bound frailties and vices by the middle of the 22nd century, creating a quasi-utopian society where the central role is played not by money, but rather by the need for exploration and knowledge. Later, mankind united with some of the other sentient species of the galaxy, including the Vulcans, to form the United Federation of Planets.
 

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