Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, also developed Earth: Final Conflict, a lesser-known five-season science fiction series that only reached production after his death in 1991. Originally conceived under the working title Battleground: Earth, the project was shelved while Roddenberry focused on the Star Trek films and The Next Generation, and it was his widow, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who oversaw its eventual development and renaming to avoid confusion with Battlefield Earth.

The series imagines an early 21st-century Earth visited by aliens called the Taelons, who eliminate disease, repair the climate and end armed conflict, seemingly ushering in a utopia. However, police officer William Boone, played by Kevin Kilner, becomes drawn into a human resistance movement convinced the Taelons harbour a hidden agenda, and the first four seasons explore this escalating conflict in detail, offering a darker counterpoint to Star Trek's optimistic vision.