10 Star Trek Episodes Based On Real-Life Events
5. Little Green Men
Now. Ok. This one may lean a little heavy on the conspiracy theory side of things but Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's fourth season episode, Little Green Men, is a slightly fictionalised retelling of the Roswell, New Mexico incident of the forties. While it remains to be seen if that 'weather ballon' really was Quark's Treasure, the episode is a wonderfully funny twist on the tale.
The Roswell UFO incident is one of the most thoroughly researched and thoroughly debunked alien encounter stories of all time. The 1947 incident featured a Nuclear Test Surveillance Balloon from Project Mogul crashing into a ranch in the town, immediately leading to thousands of accounts, tales and stories of alien invaders and government cover-ups.
On July 8th 1947, RAAF public information officer Walter Haut issues a press release indicating that a 'flying disc' had indeed been recovered from the crash site, which was one of the catalysts to the theories that it was a flying saucer from another world. While Haut would regret his choice of words in the future, the episode Little Green Men sticks as close as possible to both the truth and the various fictional accounts. In fact, it is through a nuclear blast - the very event that the real balloon was monitoring - that Quark's Treasure is able to return home.
Of course, whose to say that this isn't the real story, after all?