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Frank Herbert’s “Dune” has a longer timeline than one might expect. The first book takes place in the year 10,191 A.G., referring to a time after the inception of the Spacing Guild, the organization devoted to faster-than-light travel. Later sequels refer to the year 11,200 B.G. as the year humans first developed space travel, lining it up with A.D. 1960. “Dune,” then, takes place about 20,000 years in the future.
“Star Trek,” in contrast, takes place in the relatively near future. The original series takes place in the 23rd century, and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — and its immediate spinoffs “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Star Trek” Voyager,” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” — all take place in the 24th century. Extending the timeline, “Picard” takes place in the early 25th century, and the bulk of “Discovery” takes place in 32nd century, thanks to a time warp. Comparatively, those are small temporal potatoes when compared to “Dune.”
Sadly, the lore of “Dune” is so involved and unique, one cannot squint their eyes and pretend that the two franchises take place in the same universe. Their respective histories are simply too different.
But that hasn’t stopped the makers of “Star Trek” from dropping in a few “Dune” references from time to time. The writers of “Voyager” are, as one might expect, science-fiction nerds, and would, in tiny ways, drop in references to other sci-fi stories. Trekkies will be able to tell you about a planetary manifest on the U.S.S. Enterprise that, when examined closely, list the planet of Alderaan, the planet the Galactic Empire blows up in “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.”
On “Star Trek: Voyager,” there have been passing references to planets within the “Dune” universe as well, particularly Arrakis (a.k.a. Dune) and Geidi Prime, the home planet of House Harkonnen.
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