star trek into darkness who is khan

Khan Noonien Singh (alternate reality)

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Khan Noonien Singh (or simply Khan ) was the most prominent of the genetically-engineered Human Augments of the late- 20th century Eugenics Wars period on Earth . Many Augments were genocidal tyrants who conquered and killed in the name of order, with Khan and his kind being frozen in cryogenic sleep.

In the 23rd century , Khan was revived by Admiral Alexander Marcus to design weapons and ships to prepare for war against the Klingon Empire . He was given a new identity, that of John Harrison , an English Starfleet commander . Khan, however, rebelled, and after believing his crew had been killed, he began a one-man campaign against Starfleet. His crew of augments remained frozen and Khan struggled to save them during his campaign. After gaining his revenge on Admiral Marcus, he was later stopped by the crew of the USS Enterprise and returned to cryogenic sleep with his crew.

• 1.1 20th century origins
• 1.2 21st century temporal changes
• 1.3 23rd century return
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Background information
• 3.2 Apocrypha
• 3.3 Reception
• 3.4 External link

Biography [ ]

20th century origins [ ].

One of the few historic pictures of Khan from the 1990s

Records of the period, including Khan's origins, are vague. Khan was born, or created in 1959 . ( Star Trek Into Darkness ) He was the product of a selective breeding or genetic engineering program called Project Khan , based on the eugenic philosophy that held improving the capabilities of a man improved the entire Human race. Augments produced by the program possessed physical strength and analytical capabilities considerably superior to ordinary Humans, and were created from a variety of Earth's ethnic groups. Khan's background was suspected by McGivers to be Sikh , from the northern region of India . ( PIC : " Farewell "; TOS : " Space Seed ")

Khan lived up to the axiom coined by one of his creators, "superior ability breeds superior ambition". By 1993 , a wave of the genetic "supermen," including Khan, had simultaneously assumed control of more than forty of Earth's nations. From 1992 to 1996 , Khan was absolute ruler of more than one-quarter of Earth's population, including regions of Asia and the Middle East . Considered "the best of tyrants "; Khan's reign was considered the most benevolent. His regime was free of much of the problems that plagued Earth history of that era – as Khan was never known for engaging in massacres, genocide or wars of aggression. However, the citizens of his regime enjoyed little freedom. Khan had little, if any, respect for individual liberty, which was also a key issue for Earth history. As such, personal initiative and financial investment were low, and scientific progress suffered as a result.

Khan aboard the Botany Bay

In the mid- 1990s , the Augment tyrants began warring among themselves. Other nations joined in, to force them from power , in a series of struggles that became known as the Eugenics Wars . Eventually, most of the tyrants were defeated and their territory recaptured, but up to ninety "supermen" were never accounted for.

Khan escaped the wars and their consequences along with eighty-four followers, who swore to live and die at his command. He saw his best option in a risky, self-imposed exile. In 1996 , he took control of a DY-100-class interplanetary sleeper ship he christened SS Botany Bay , named for the site of the Australian penal colony . Set on a course outbound from the solar system but with no apparent destination in mind, Khan and his people remained in suspended animation for Botany Bay 's centuries-long sublight journey. ( TOS : " Space Seed "; Star Trek Into Darkness )

21st century temporal changes [ ]

Khan as a child in 2022

Due to the changes caused in the timeline as a result of various Temporal Wars , the original events concerning the rise of Singh were pushed back, and events reinserted themselves at a later date in the timeline. According to Romulan temporal agent Sera , in a revised 2022 timeline, " And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992, and I've been trapped here for 30 years trying to get my shot at [Khan]. "

The Khan of this era lived in Toronto , Ontario , Canada , at the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement .

As a child in the revised timeline, he witnessed La'an Noonien-Singh shoot and wound Sera, his would-be assassin . La'an entered Khan's room and found her infamous ancestor cowering behind his bed. When Khan asked if she was going to kill him, she looked at the gun and sat it on the desk next to the bed. La'an assured him that she would not hurt him, as she proceeded to wipe Romulan blood from his face. Curious, La'an asked if he was alone, or if there were others like him. Khan gestured to a photograph on the wall of himself and six other children. He then asked if she was going to take him away. La'an told him that it may not make sense to him, then or maybe ever, but he was where he needed to be. She walked to the entrance of the room, activated the temporal transporter device in front of Khan, and returned to her own time period.

Khan’s legacy in the altered timeline was a history of torture, genocide, and his descendants.

In an alternate timeline , which was created from the revised timeline, Sera successfully assassinated Khan by blowing up a nearby fusion reactor (also destroying Toronto ) after a Federation Department of Temporal Investigations agent was shot and failed to protect Khan. As a result, a dark future for Humanity emerged in which Earth was nearly uninhabitable, Starfleet and Federation never formed, and the Romulan Star Empire was the dominant force of the region.

This timeline was averted after Khan's descendant, La'an, encountered the temporal agent aboard the USS Enterprise who directed her to return to the past, and with the help of James Kirk , from the, now, alternate timeline. The two time traveled to the past and La'an stopped Khan's assassination and restored the timeline to as she knew it. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

23rd century return [ ]

Khan's false ID "John Harrison"

Following the destruction of Vulcan in 2258 , Admiral Alexander Marcus of Section 31 initiated a program to militarize Starfleet and began searching the galaxy for weapons to be used in the war with the Klingon Empire that he now believed was inevitable. Soon after, he discovered the SS Botany Bay adrift.

Despite knowing Khan's history, Marcus decided to bring him out of cryogenic suspension, believing his savagery and superior intellect would be prime assets to his cause. Having his voice and physical appearance heavily altered, Khan was reawakened and recruited under the identity of Section 31 agent, "John Harrison". Marcus forced Khan into working with him by threatening to kill his fellow Augments, and set him to work designing weapons and ships for Starfleet, including the Dreadnought -class USS Vengeance .

Disgruntled, Khan tried to smuggle his crew away in advanced long-range torpedoes but was discovered and forced to flee alone. Believing Marcus had killed his crew, he coerced Section 31 agent Thomas Harewood into betraying Starfleet by offering a blood transfusion for Harewood's terminally-ill daughter . Harewood agreed, and Khan replaced his Starfleet Academy ring with a bomb .

After his daughter was cured with a vial of Khan's blood and its regenerative platelets , Harewood went to work at his office in the Kelvin Memorial Archive in London , where he dropped the false Starfleet ring into a glass of water, igniting the bomb and destroying the facility. In the midst of the chaos, Khan used the opportunity to inspect a salvaged terminal to gain the confiscated formula for transwarp beaming .

Harrison piloting Jumpship 208

Before he set off the explosion, Harewood sent Marcus a message, explaining he had been threatened by Khan. Knowing that Marcus would call an emergency meeting in the light of the bombing, Khan rigged a combat efficient jumpship with a portable transwarp beaming device and headed to the Daystrom Conference Room . As the conference was underway, Khan appeared and laid waste to the conference, killing Admiral Pike , Captain Abbott and many other high ranking Starfleet officers. James T. Kirk disabled the jumpship , but Khan beamed himself away before it crashed. He arrived in the one place Starfleet could not go: Qo'noS , the Klingon homeworld.

"John Harrison" reveals himself on Qo'noS

Undeterred, Kirk was granted permission by Marcus to travel to Qo'noS and fire 72 experimental photon torpedoes on Khan's location. However, at the behest of his crew, Kirk chose to defy his orders and opted to arrest Khan instead. While Kirk led an away team with Spock , Uhura , and Hendorff , acting captain Sulu transmitted a message to Khan, warning him to surrender or be destroyed by the newly designed shipboard torpedoes.

Suspecting the newly designed torpedoes were the very torpedoes he smuggled his crew into, Khan sought out the away team to confirm. Khan found Kirk, Spock, and Uhura being attacked by a Klingon patrol and single-handedly killed dozens of Klingons . Confronting the landing party , Khan asked how many torpedoes the USS Enterprise had on board. Spock informed him of the count, which corresponded exactly to the number of his former crew members which were still in stasis. Khan then surrendered to the landing party. Kirk, angry that his mentor's murderer had saved them, punched Khan repeatedly but was unable to render him unconscious.

Khan in custody

From the brig , Leonard McCoy took a blood sample to analyze the secret behind Khan's superhuman strength and abilities and injected it into a dead tribble . Khan refused to answer Kirk's questions; he instead gave him coordinates to the spacedock near Jupiter where the Vengeance was constructed, and suggested he open one of the experimental torpedoes.

Kirk gave the coordinates for the absent Montgomery Scott to investigate, while McCoy and Marcus's daughter Carol opened up a torpedo and discovered a cryogenically frozen man within and realized that he was 300 years old. Khan finally explained who he was to Kirk, and revealed that the torpedoes contained his fellow surviving Augments as part of a cover-up.

Marcus appeared in the Vengeance and demanded Kirk hand over Khan. Kirk refused, and the Enterprise warped back to Earth with the intent of putting Khan on trial, which would certainly expose Marcus in the conspiracy. As Khan predicted, Vengeance caught up in subspace and fired on the Enterprise as it arrived outside Earth.

Kirk and Khan team up

Marcus beamed his daughter over to the Vengeance and prepared to destroy the Enterprise but Scott, who had snuck aboard the Vengeance at its spacedock, deactivated its weapons. Kirk and Khan donned thruster suits to fly over and commandeer the Vengeance .

Meanwhile, Spock consulted his older counterpart from another timeline regarding whether he ever encountered Khan Noonien Singh : the old Spock responded he had, that he was dangerous, and that it had required a great sacrifice to stop him. Kirk had also grown suspicious of Khan and advised Scott to stun him after they had taken over the bridge of the Vengeance .

When they arrived on the bridge, Scott stunned Khan while Kirk admonished Marcus for compromising the Federation. However, Scott's phaser stun only temporarily subdued Khan, who quickly recovered and flung himself at Scott and Kirk, overpowered them, then stomping upon Carol's leg. Khan then used his bare hands to crush Marcus's skull, extracting revenge on his once tormentor.

Khan then sat in the command chair and ordered Spock to hand over the torpedoes or he would kill Kirk and resume bombarding the Enterprise . Spock obliged, and Khan beamed Kirk, Scott and Carol back into the Enterprise 's brig, but reneged on the deal. Spock, having predicted Khan's betrayal, had ordered McCoy to remove the stasis pods and detonated the torpedoes after they were beamed over, crippling the Vengeance before she could destroy the Enterprise . Khan cried out in anguish at the apparent loss of his crew.

Khan sets the Vengeance on a course with the heart of Starfleet

The damage sustained caused both ships to be drawn by Earth's gravitational pull. To prevent the ship crashing into western North America, Kirk sacrificed himself reactivating the ship's warp core . Khan, on the other hand, directed the Vengeance on a crash course for Starfleet Headquarters , though the computer could not guarantee that Khan would make it.

The Vengeance slammed into the old prison on Alcatraz Island, careened across San Francisco Bay , and then plowed into several buildings, demolishing several skyscrapers. When the Vengeance crashed into the city, Khan leapt off the bridge and posed as a shocked survivor. Spock beamed down to execute Khan and avenge Kirk's death, pursuing him onto automated flying barges. In the Enterprise 's medbay , McCoy had just examined Kirk's body when the dead tribble on his desk came back to life.

Khan in stasis following his defeat

The fight took the two combatants on to two automated barges. Spock had the advantage of creativity, and extensive knowledge of martial arts, but Khan had the superior advantages of superhuman strength, speed, thought and durability. Spock attempted to subdue Khan with a nerve pinch but Khan managed to overcome the pain.

As Khan attempted to use his bare hands to crush Spock's skull, Spock managed to counter it with a mind meld . Near the end of the melee, with Spock again in Khan's cranial crushing lock, Uhura beamed down and fired several stun shots to distract Khan. Spock tore a piece of metal from the barge and broke Khan's arm. Spock started repeatedly pummeling Khan, coming very close to killing him, Fortunately, Uhura revealed Khan's blood could save Kirk, and Spock just knocked him out.

After his blood was used to revive Kirk, Khan was placed back in suspended animation with his crew from the Botany Bay . ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

The geneticist Arik Soong believed Augments like Khan could be created without exhibiting his more vicious, psychopathic or megalomaniacal instincts. Soong's "children", created from Augment embryos stolen in 2134 , failed to live up to the hopes of their "father". Soong believed Khan and the Botany Bay to be nothing more than a myth, although his "children" believed differently. ( ENT : " Borderland ", " The Augments ")

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I can save her. " " What did you say? " " Your daughter, I can save her. "

" Captain, are you going to punch me again, over and over, until your arm weakens? Clearly you want to. "

" John Harrison was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your Admiral Marcus to help him advance his cause. A smoke screen to conceal my true identity. My name… is Khan . "

" Why would a Starfleet Admiral ask a three-hundred year-old frozen man for help? " " Because I am better. " " At what? " " Everything. "

" Alexander Marcus needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time, and for that, he needed a warrior's mind – my mind – to design weapons and warships. " " You are suggesting the Admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold, simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect. " " He wanted to exploit my savagery! Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock. You, you can't even break a rule; how can you be expected to break bone? "

" My crew… is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do… for your family?"

" You… You should have let me sleep! "

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

Bringing back Khan Noonien Singh was discussed before the release of Star Trek ; on the film's audio commentary , it is stated the filmmakers considered having a shot of the SS Botany Bay after the credits, but opted out in case they decided not to use the character. Director J.J. Abrams said, " It'll be fun to hear what Alex and Bob are thinking about Khan. The fun of this timeline is arguing that different stories, with the same characters, could be equally if not more compelling than what's been told before […] Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there… even if he doesn't have the same issues. " [1]

Co-writer Damon Lindelof said the jumping-off point for the sequel's story was deciding whether Khan would be the villain, and he, Kurtzman and Orci weighed the pros and cons of using the character. [2] Abrams commented that, in comparison to Nero from Star Trek , the writers wanted "a much more nuanced and complex villain" for Into Darkness . ( Cinefex , No. 134, p. 72) Due to the massive popularity of how Khan had been represented before, however, "there was a good year of debate," explained Alex Kurtzman, over whether to include Khan in the upcoming movie. With a laugh, Orci phrased this issue, " To Khan or not to Khan. " Kurtzman observed, " The choice to play in that sandbox is really complicated because when a character was as beloved as Khan, you really have to have a reason to do it. " [3] During the debate, Lindelof wanted to use Khan, while Orci was against this option.

The filmmakers found a compromise by developing a story that would not entail Khan, and then determining if he could be "reverse engineered" into it. [4] Stated Kurtzman, " If we could take that [tale] and then incorporate Khan into the mix in a way that felt reverent and appropriate for that story, we would do it. Without that standard, we wouldn't […] We all loved the 'Space Seed' back story, the idea that he was a man who loved his crew as his family – that was the understandable and relatable agenda. And then we built outward from there. " [5] Eventually, Orci felt " the details became too juicy to avoid. Genetic super man from a time that understood war and savagery, etc. Once we had a basic structure that did not necessarily necessitate him, we were able to tailor the script itself to details and inspirations that he brought. " [6] Lindelof added the story-line avoided " The audience [knowing] something the bridge crew did not, which was 'Whatever you do, don’t wake that dude up.' So we didn't want to put the bridge crew behind the audience in terms of what they knew about Trek . " [7]

Khan's undercover name was inspired by his name in an early draft of the script for " Space Seed ", John Ericssen. Orci said, " We shot the movie using the name Ericsenn [sic] but decided it would give it away[,] so we cheated the name Harrison into everyone's mouth! " [8] According to John Eaves , the character's production code-name was April , another character Orci said he had considered as a villain. [9] [10] Once they chose to bring Khan into their film, the screenwriters were not necessarily eager to additionally incorporate a moment when the character's name is shouted in anger, as happens in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , because they considered it vital that such a reaction be a natural and realistic one. [11]

Khan was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch . Before he was cast, Abrams approached Benicio del Toro for the role. [12] There were some complaints, particuarly from the Sikh community, over casting a white actor for a role of a Indian Sikh. [13] [14] [15] Orci said they shied away from casting an Asian actor as Khan because " it became uncomfortable for me to support demonizing anyone of color, particularly any one of middle eastern descent or anyone evoking that. One of the points of the movie is that we must be careful about the villain within US, not some other race. " He also stated the "true essence" of Khan's character was "that he was a genetically engineered superman," "not where he was from or the color of his skin." [16] In response to a question asking whether Khan's appearance was "cosmetically altered to avoid detection," Orci said that the theory was an "interesting idea. Could be." [17] Also, in answer to a question about Khan's change in features, Orci stated, " Uhm… one of his abilities is that he is a shape shifter? " [18]

Cumberbatch commented the role was "daunting because of the legacy involved and the amount of speculation about [Khan] possibly being the villain." ( Empire issue 289, p. 23) Lindelof said of writing for Cumberbatch that " when you can get [a] monologue to come out of [his] mouth, does the 'writing' even matter? I mean, seriously, I made that guy say 'Milk, milk lemonade, and this is where the fudge is made' and it scared the living shit out of me. " [19]

Cumberbatch was cast two weeks before filming. Mary L. Mastro , head of the film's hair department, wanted Khan to have black hair to contrast with the blond Kirk. She recalled, " JJ called a meeting with the creators involved in what he was going to look like and [Cumberbatch] walks into the room with super-short blond hair. My mouth dropped open, like, 'Oh, great.' " The schedule was altered slightly to give more time to determine Cumberbatch's appearance in the film. [20] The filmmakers considered giving Cumberbatch a shoulder-length wig, but Abrams felt he looked better without it. ( Star Trek Into Darkness iTunes enhanced commentary) Costume Designer Michael Kaplan wanted Khan to be "dapper," giving him " a number of very long, elegant coats. It's nice, even in the distance, to be able to recognise a character right away. He's pretty high fashion-looking. "

Cumberbatch trained one-to-one with his stunt double, Martin De Boer , learning basic martial arts. De Boer described Cumberbatch as "'very receptive to learning. I've had actors who want to be an action star but don't want to put in the work, and he was the opposite, he said, "'I want to train as much as I can.' He was very committed. Besides working with us, he was working with his personal trainer five, six days a week; he really got in shape." De Boer said that, because of Khan's strength, Cumberbatch "wanted to have more static and powerful movements. That strength changes the rules of the martial arts we use. You don't have to do five punches, you just have to use a couple of moves and he takes out the guy already." [21]

Bad Robot Productions went to great lengths to hide Khan's identity, even screening the space jump scene to the press with life sign readouts displayed as "Harrison" and Spock's lines referring to Khan overdubbed to refer to Harrison. Bryan Burk defended the strategy, stating, " Even if you don't even know who Khan is, you know that you're watching a film where for forty-five minutes or an hour of the movie you are ahead of the characters. So you're just kind of waiting for them to catch up with what you already know, that he is not who he says he is. " [22] Cumberbatch said the secrecy was fine for him, though Alice Eve did tease him, saying, " The lies, Benedict, the lies! " Recalling times when he had sneaked into screenings to see the audience's reaction to Khan revealing himself, Cumberbatch remarked that "to have that moment – that's worth any amount of subterfuge or holding back on reveals." ( Empire issue 289, p. 23)

The creative staff were ultimately very pleased with how Khan is depicted in Into Darkness . " Ultimately, I think we felt that we found a reason and a way to do it that was all of the things we needed it to be, and yet really different, " voiced Kurtzman. "I think the mistake that we could have made, that we didn't want to make, was to do a version of what Ricardo Montalban had done so brilliantly, and then fall short of that […] There are things about Khan that are very familiar, and there are things that are entirely different, and that's exactly what we wanted to do. " [23]

However, Abrams voiced regret over keeping Khan's identity a secret. " The truth is I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront 'This is who it is.' It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that's what the thing was, " he said. He added that hiding Khan's presence was mandated by the studio, who did not want to alienate non- Star Trek fans with the impression they had to learn about who Khan was to enjoy the film. Abrams agreed with that notion but " wonder[ed] if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it. " [24] Responding to Burk's comment that it might have hurt the film if the audience knew Harrison was Khan before Kirk did, Abrams added "the truth is it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in that regard." [25]

When asked if Cumberbatch could reprise the role, Lindelof replied, " To answer that question would be to determine whether or not he actually survives this movie, but if he survives this movie, we would be incredibly stupid to not use him again. " [26] As to whether Khan's blood could disrupt dramatic tension in the next film, Orci said they "figured there are so many horrible ways to die in space that no medicine could save you from that we would be okay." [27]

In the Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 411), the authors considered it possible that the red matter -created black hole caused differences in the past from the Prime Timeline. On page 414 of volume 1, this is the information on the Khan of " Space Seed " and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan :

• Brilliant, charismatic, and extremely aggressive, Khan was a genetically engineered human who attempted to gain control of the entire planet Earth in the 1990s during the Eugenics Wars. From 1992 to 1996, Khan was absolute ruler of more than a quarter of Earth, from South Asia through the Middle East. He was the last of the tyrants to be overthrown. Khan escaped in 1996 aboard the sleeper ship S.S. Botany Bay .

On the following page, this is the information on the Khan of Star Trek: Into Darkness:

• In the Kelvin Timeline, Khan Noonien Singh was the brilliant, ruthless leader of a group of genetically engineered humans, or Augments, who nearly conquered Earth during the 20th-century Eugenics Wars. Khan attempted to commit genocide of those whom he deemed inferior, that is, most of Earth's population. Khan and his people were condemned as criminals, placed into cryogenic sleep in cryo tubes , and exiled aboard a ship sent into space.

Apocrypha [ ]

Cumberbatch also portrayed Khan/Harrison in three "Disruptions" videos to promote the film, in which he analyzes Kirk, Spock, and Uhura's weaknesses and declares he will threaten them. [28]

According to his biography on the Star Trek movie app, "John Harrison" was born in 2228 in Dover , Great Britain , Earth to Richard and Sara Harrison. Harrison was one of nine survivors of the attack on the colony on Tarsus IV in 2246 , and both of his parents were killed in the attack. He graduated from the London School of Economics in 2250 .

After graduating, he was appointed associate researcher, Starfleet Data Archive (London), East Annex in 2255. He was tasked with collection, organization and analysis of declassified data received from Starfleet-commissioned starships and from Federation member states.

The 2013 virtual collectible card battle game Star Trek: Rivals uses two cards showing Khan: #105, titled Commander J. Harrison, and card #111, titled Human Augment Khan.

Khan, undergoing reconstructive surgery

The comic book series Star Trek: Khan begins after Khan's capture and him being brought to trial before the Federation Court and establishing his history subsequent to the divergence of the timeline but prior to his encounter with the Enterprise . The Section 31 starship USS Vanguard discovered the Botany Bay drifting in space and take custody of Khan. Quickly using their databanks to determine his identity prior to awakening him, Admiral Marcus orders that Khan's face and voice be reconstructed from their Indian origins to a more northern European origin and has his memory blocked with the intent of convincing Khan that he is John Harrison, a Starfleet researcher in London's Kelvin Memorial Archive who lost his memories in an accident during a failed mission to Qo'noS.

He is given the task of helping advise Section 31 on possible enhancements to Starfleet weapon, shield and propulsion technology (which is to be incorporated aboard the USS Vengeance ) as well as taking on a mission to destroy Praxis with the help of a portable transporter he designed and built. The mission is a success (explaining the destroyed moon seen in orbit of the Klingon homeworld in the film), but in the process, Khan rediscovers his memories of his true identity.

Discovering that his crew is being held in the London facility and forging transmissions from Marcus, Khan is able to load his crew into the long-range torpedoes with the intent of stealing a starship with them aboard, but before departing, Khan invades Marcus' home and demanded to know the truth before planning to kill him. The admiral, planning for Khan's rediscovery, has him targeted by a jumpship outside the window, forcing Khan to flee. His plan, now circumvented, forces him to coerce Thomas Harewood into destroying the London facility and set the events of the film into motion.

Star Trek: Khan also establishes that he was originally an ordinary Indian boy named Noonien Singh and was an orphan living in an impoverished New Delhi slum. In 1972, he was captured, along with other impoverished children, and taken to a research facility to be a test subject for genetic engineering experiments. In August 1985, as a young man, he escaped from the research facility, along with the other genetically engineered test subjects, and began a rebellion. He later gives himself the title of "Khan", out of admiration for historical Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan , naming himself "Khan Noonien Singh".

By the end of series however, doubt is cast about how much of the events depicted in Khan's backstory is in fact truthful. Given the fact that his backstory is mostly only conveyed through what Khan tells the Court, Kirk points out that it is entirely within Khan's best interests to paint an overall sympathetic story of himself rather than simply disclosing a factual retelling of his actual past. Khan was then placed back into stasis, with Kirk noting that despite everything, Khan had managed to get exactly what he wanted.

In the second issue of the Star Trek: Ongoing story arc The Khitomer Conflict , it was established that Khan and the other Augments were stored at a top-secret facility on an asteroid , with the location of the facility highly classified to the point that even Kirk himself didn't know where they were held.

Khan's female counterpart

Like the rest of the characters in the parallel universe of Parallel Lives, Part 1 and Part 2 , he has a female counterpart ( β ).

Khan as a Red Lantern

Khan returned in the comic crossover mini-series Star Trek - Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds , where he serves as one of the primary antagonists. In 2262 , the Red Lantern Atrocitus needed to find a source of rage to recharge his Power Ring and his journey lead to him to discover the asteroid facility where Khan and the other Augments were locked away. He then broke into the facility and begun freeing them, including Khan. However, Khan overpowered the alien and knocked him out while also taking possession of his ring. Before he could slay his foe, he was confronted by Green Lanterns Kilowog , Guy Gardner and John Stewart . After Gardner revealed that the ring was loyal only to Atrocitus, Khan crushed the alien with his foot and he became the ring's new bearer, using his rage to easily defeat his new foes. After explaining his new appearance to his troops, Khan led his men to seize control of the USS Bryant where he once again encountered Kirk and Spock. Though Hal Jordan tried to fight Khan, the Augment managed to best him as well, but his boasting left him open to an attack from the other Lanterns and a photon torpedo barrage from the Enterprise . Defeated, Khan used his ring to recharge the Bryant and make his escape. Making his way to Qo'noS, Khan overthrew Orange Lantern Larfleeze and bargained with the Klingon High Council to aid him in attaining the power of the planet Oa and use it to conquer the Federation. Using his ring to supercharge the Klingon warships, Khan followed Kirk to Oa, only for the captain to be chosen by a Green Lantern Power Ring before the Augment could slay his foe. As the fighting intensified, the Augments were all defeated, depriving Khan of his power. Though he attempted to goad Kirk into slaying him, Kirk stuck to his morals and simply knocked Khan out and returned him to prison while Khan's ring was seized by the Enterprise crew for study.

Reception [ ]

Entertainment Weekly saw parallels between the new Khan and figures such as Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein , as both men were allied with the US before turning on them. [29] Simon Pegg commented " Iraq had nothing proven to do with 9/11 , and yet Bush used that as an excuse to start a war with those people. You can always see the Klingons as like Iraq and John Harrison the proxy for Osama bin Laden. " [30]

Lindelof further acknowledged the terrorism parallels in an interview with StarTrek.com , as Khan's 72 torpedoes reminded them of the notion of 72 virgins in paradise. Lindelof responded " Of course it is a coincidence, because that is a number taken from canon. It was pointed out to us at the scripting phase – the 72 virgins – and that actually gave us pause, because we didn't want people drawing that comparison… but there it is. " [31]

The New Yorker also saw parallels between the debate to execute or arrest Khan with that of the issue of targeted killing . [32]

External link [ ]

• Khan Noonien Singh (Kelvin timeline) at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Star Trek: Discovery

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Khan Noonien Singh (Alternate Timeline)

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Khan Noonien Singh , also known as John Harrison , is the main antagonist of the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness .

He is an extremely intelligent and ruthless terrorist, and was the most prominent of the genetically engineered Human Augments of the late-20th century Eugenics Wars period on Earth. Considered genocidal tyrants who conquered and killed in the name of order, Khan and his kind were frozen in cryogenic-sleep. In the 23rd century, Khan was revived by Admiral Alexander Marcus to design weapons and ships to prepare for war against the Klingon Empire. He was given a new identity, that of John Harrison , an English Starfleet commander. Khan, however, rebelled, and after believing his crew had been killed, he began a one-man campaign against Starfleet. After gaining his revenge on Admiral Marcus, he was later stopped by the crew of the USS Enterprise and returned to cryogenic sleep.

He was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch , who also played Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit film trilogy, William Ford in 12 Years a Slave , Dormammu , Sinister Strange , and Strange Supreme in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Grinch in the 2018 film of the same name and Shere Khan in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle .

• 1.1 Background and Brainwashed by Marcus
• 1.2 Betrayal and Stealing Transwarp Beaming Equation
• 1.3.1 Revealing Marcus' True Nature
• 1.4.1 Defeat
• 2 Personality
• 3 Powers and Abilities
• 5 Reception
• 6.1 Indirectly
• 8 External Links
• 9 Navigation

Biography [ ]

Background and brainwashed by marcus [ ].

Khan during his facial reconstruction before his memory blocked.

This version of Khan's backstory was the same as his prime reality counterpart 's, until the destruction of Vulcan in 2258 changed the latter's future that led to the events of the movie from that point on.

Vulcan's destruction led Admiral Alexander Marcus of Section 31 to begin a plan in militarizing Starfleet, and he searched the galaxy for weapons to be used in a potential war with the Klingons. Discovering the SS Botany Bay , Marcus brought Khan out of stasis, believing his savage intellect would give him an advantage. Khan was then recruited into Starfleet under the new identity of Commander John Harrison, and tasked with designing weapons and ships for Starfleet, including the Dreadnought -class USS Vengeance .

The prequel comic Star Trek: Khan gave more insight about Khan's physical change and betrayal. Shortly after being discovered, Marcus had his appearance surgically changed to a male Caucasian and blocked his memories with the intent of convincing him that he was John Harrison, the amnesiac Starfleet researcher in London's Kelvin Memorial Archive who lost his memories in an accident during a failed mission to Qo'nos, the Klingon homeworld. As Harrison, he was given the task of helping advise Section 31 on possible enhancements to Starfleet weapon, shield, and propulsion technology (which is to be incorporated aboard the USS Vengeance ) as well as taking on a mission to destroy Praxis with the help of a portable transporter he designed and built. The mission is a success (explaining the destroyed moon seen in orbit of the Klingon homeworld in the film) but, in the process, Khan regains his memories.

Betrayal and Stealing Transwarp Beaming Equation [ ]

Khan as John Harrison.

Disgruntled by everything that has happened to him, Harrison tried to smuggle his crew away in experimental photon torpedoes he himself had designed, but was discovered and forced to flee alone. Believing Marcus had killed his crew, he coerced Section 31 agent Thomas Harewood into betraying Starfleet by offering a blood transfusion for Harewood's terminally-ill daughter. Harewood agreed, and Harrison replaced Harewood's Starfleet ring with a bomb. After his daughter was cured with a vial of Harrison's blood, Harewood went to work at his office in the Kelvin Memorial Archive, where he dropped the false Starfleet ring into a glass of water, igniting a bomb and destroying the facility. In the midst of the chaos, Harrison used the opportunity to inspect a salvaged terminal to gain Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott's transwarp beaming equation.

Attempted Murder at Daystorm Institute [ ]

Before he set off the explosion at the archive, Harewood sent Marcus a message, explaining he had been threatened by Harrison. Marcus called a summit at the Daystrom Institute, ordering a manhunt for Harrison. During the meeting, James T. Kirk deduced that Harrison had not left Earth because he was aware that protocol would dictate that a meeting like this one would be held at that location. Harrison suddenly appeared in a jumpship and attacked the conference, injuring many and killing Admiral Christopher Pike. Kirk disabled the jumpship, but Harrison beamed himself away before it crashed. Later, Scott contacted Kirk and Commander Spock to inform them that Harrison had beamed himself to the one place Starfleet couldn't follow: Qo'noS. Undeterred, Kirk was granted permission by Marcus to travel to Qo'noS and fire 72 experimental photon torpedoes on Harrison's location. However, at the behest of Spock, Kirk decided to arrest Harrison and bring him back to Earth to stand trial for his crimes.

Revealing Marcus' True Nature [ ]

Khan on the Klingon homeworld.

While Kirk led an away team with Spock, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, and Hendorff, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, in temporary command of the USS Enterprise , transmitted a message to Harrison on Qo'noS, warning him to surrender or be destroyed by the torpedoes. Moments later, Harrison found Kirk, Spock, and Uhura being attacked by a Klingon patrol and single-handedly killed the patrol. Confronting the Starfleet officers, Harrison asked how many torpedoes the Enterprise had aboard. After Spock informed him of the count, which corresponded exactly to the number of his Botany Bay crewmembers still in stasis, Harrison surrendered to the landing party. Kirk, angry that his mentor's murderer had saved them, punched Harrison repeatedly, but was unable to render him unconscious.

Khan on the Enterprise .

Once aboard the Enterprise , Harrison was placed in the ship's brig. Dr. Leonard McCoy took a blood sample to uncover the secret behind Harrison's superhuman strength and abilities. Harrison refused to answer Kirk's questions, instead giving him coordinates to a spacedock near Jupiter where the Vengeance was constructed, and suggested that Kirk open one of the torpedoes. Kirk contacted an absent Scott and gave him the coordinates to investigate, while Dr. McCoy and Dr. Carol Marcus opened up a torpedo and discovered a cryogenically-frozen man within.

When Kirk and Spock confronted him with what they discovered, Khan finally explained who he was to Kirk, revealing that the torpedoes contained his fellow surviving Augments as part of a cover-up. Not long afterward, Marcus arrived aboard the Vengeance and demanded that Kirk hand over Khan. Kirk refused and ordered the Enterprise to warp back to Earth so Khan could be brought to trial. The Vengeance caught up with the Enterprise and fired on it as it arrived in Earth's solar system. Marcus then beamed up Carol and prepared to destroy the Enterprise ; fortunately for the Enterprise , Scott, who had sneaked aboard the Vengeance , deactivated its weapons.

Truce With Kirk and Betraying Enterprise Crew [ ]

Kirk and Khan then performed a space-jump to the Vengeance . Meanwhile, Spock consulted Spock Prime, his older counterpart from the prime reality, regarding whether he ever encountered Khan in the past; Spock Prime responded that he had, that Khan was dangerous, and that it had required a great sacrifice to stop him.

Aboard the Vengeance , Kirk, suspicious of Khan, told Scott to stun him once they had taken over the Vengeance 's bridge. When the three of them arrived on the bridge, Scott shot Khan while Kirk admonished Marcus for compromising the Federation. However, Khan was not easily subdued, and he attacked Scott and Kirk and broke Carol's leg before crushing her father's skull with his bare hands before her very eyes. Khan then contacted the Enterprise and ordered Spock to hand over the torpedoes or he would resume bombarding the Enterprise . Spock agreed, and Khan beamed Kirk, Scott, and Carol back aboard the Enterprise , but reneged on his deal with Spock. However, Spock, having predicted Khan's betrayal following his talk with Spock Prime, detonated the torpedoes, crippling the Vengeance . Khan cried out in anguish at the apparent loss of his crew (in actuality, Spock had earlier ordered McCoy to remove the stasis pods from the torpedoes much to Kirk's disgust due to Khan now angrier than ever).

The damage sustained caused both ships to be drawn in by Earth's gravitational pull. To prevent the Enterprise from crashing into San Francisco, Kirk sacrificed himself while re-activating the ship's warp core. Khan, on the other hand, directed the Vengeance on a crash course for Starfleet Headquarters, though the ship's computer informed him the ship would not hit its target. When the Vengeance crashed into San Francisco, Khan leaped down from the wreckage and posed as a shocked survivor.

Moments later, Spock beamed down to execute Khan and avenge Kirk's death. An exciting chase ensues, with Spock pursuing the superhuman onto automated flying barges. A climactic fight erupts between the two, which Khan gradually wins. Uhura beamed down, firing several stun shots to weaken Khan and revealed to Spock that they needed Khan alive to save Kirk (McCoy had just discovered that Khan's blood possessed regenerative properties). Spock finally knocked Khan out.

After his blood was used to revive Kirk, Khan was placed back in suspended animation with his crew and was last seen in a room frozen, where he presumably remains their for the rest of his life.

Personality [ ]

Khan is an extremely powerful, unpredictable, ruthless and brutal person who mostly enjoys terrorizing and killing people and destroying everything in his path. Also, as he is confronting and negotiating with Spock in exchange for Kirk and Marcus' daughter, he seems to have a very massive sense of manipulation. Besides being ruthless and powerful, Khan is also an extremely intelligent and brilliant individual who has vast sophistication and wisdom. Despite this Khan deeply cares for his fellow Augments and manipulated many people just to get them to safety.

Powers and Abilities [ ]

• Superhuman Strength : Having been engineered to be an upgraded human life form, Khan, like any Augment possesses the physical strength of a five human beings combined. He could overpower multiple Klingons and even fight Spock in hand-to-hand combat. Khan was even able to crush people's skulls by applying pressure to their heads with both of his hands.
• Superhuman Resilience : He is also extremely durable and greater stamina than even the most rigorously trained human being. He survive Phaser Stun Settings with the bolts only dazing him for a second. He is able to resist a Vulcan Neck Pinch and even overpower Vulcans and Klingons.
• Superhuman Speed : Khan showed incredible speed and mobility when he took down the Klingon forces single handed and when he outran Spock.
• Healing Factor/Regenerative Blood : An Augment's blood platelets have regenerative properties, allowing him to regenerate from any injury or toxicity at a superhumanly fast and far more efficient rate compared to human being's recovery rate. His healing factor even provides him with a greatly extended lifespan or the Augment's regenerative blood can also be used as a medical tool to heal, cure or revive medical subjects via to a blood transfusion.
• Environmental Survivability: Although not witnessed, Khan has stated that him and other Augments are able to survive in an Oxygen Deficient Atmosphere when he was threatening Spock. "Your crew requires Oxygen to survive whilst mine does not, I will target your life-support systems located behind the aft nacelle and as every one of your crew suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people".
• Superhuman Intelligence : Khan has a genius-level intellect, which is superior to many human intellectuals. Despite being frozen for 300 years, when he was awoken, he was abel to immediately study, understand and assimilate all the knowledge of the 23rd century in a very short time. His advanced intellect was the key in the Federation Admiral Marcus created advanced war machines, which were designed for a war with the Klingon Empire.
• Mental Resilience : Khan was able to resist and Break a Vulcan Mindmeld.
• Master Combatant : Khan is a ferocious warrior with years of honed combat prowess, which combined with his superhuman abilities, makes him an extremely deadly foe in battle. He is extremely resourceful in battle and was able to secure weapons to go up against a battalion of Klingon soldiers to save Kirk and his crew. He was also close to defeating Spock in battle, had backup not arrived.

Reception [ ]

Cumberbatch received universal acclaim for his performance as Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness . Peter Travers of the Rolling Stone called it a "tour de force to reckon with" and his character "a villain for the ages". Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News wrote that Cumberbatch delivered "one of the best blockbuster villains in recent memory". Jonathan Romney of The Independent noted Cumberbatch's voice, saying it was "so sepulchrally resonant that it could have been synthesised from the combined timbres of Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Alan Rickman holding an elocution contest down a well". The New York Times praised his screen presence: "He fuses Byronic charisma with an impatient, imperious intelligence that seems to raise the ambient I.Q. whenever he's on screen".

Despite his acclaimed performance, however, Cumberbatch’s casting as the character was criticized by both critics and fans alike, considering that the character had been "whitewashed into oblivion". Reason of this was due to the fact that in previous films, Khan was actually in Indian ancestry, not European. There have been similar accusations of whitewashing by fans and American Sikhs, with Star Trek: Voyager actor Garrett Wang tweeting "The casting of Cumberbatch was a mistake on the part of the producers. I am not being critical of the actor or his talent, just the casting". George Takei, the original Hikaru Sulu, was also disappointed with the casting, as he thought it would have been better to cast Cumberbatch not as an established villain like Khan but as a new character. On Trekmovie.com, co-producer and co-screenwriter Bob Orci addressed Khan's casting: "Basically, as we went through the casting process and we began honing in on the themes of the movie, it became uncomfortable for me to support demonizing anyone of color, particularly any one of Middle Eastern descent or anyone evoking that. One of the points of the movie is that we must be careful about the villain within US, not some other race". The problem was later rectified through prequel comic Star Trek: Khan which reveals details of his drastic change throughout the film which stemmed from Nero's omnicidal campaign starting from destruction of Vulcan's homeworld.

Entertainment Weekly saw parallels between the new Khan and figures such as Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, as both men were allied with the US before turning on them. Simon Pegg commented " Iraq had nothing proven to do with 9/11, and yet Bush used that as an excuse to start a war with those people. You can always see the Klingons as like Iraq and John Harrison the proxy for Osama bin Laden. "

Lindelof further acknowledged the terrorism parallels in an interview with StarTrek.com, as Khan's 72 torpedoes reminded them of the notion of 72 virgins in paradise. Lindelof responded " Of course it is a coincidence, because that is a number taken from canon. It was pointed out to us at the scripting phase – the 72 virgins – and that actually gave us pause, because we didn't want people drawing that comparison... but there it is. "

The New Yorker also saw parallels between the debate to execute or arrest Khan with that of the issue of targeted killing.

Victims [ ]

• Christopher Pike
• Frank Abbott
• Alexander Marcus
• Several unnamed Starfleet officers
• Numerous unnamed San Francisco citizens
• Numerous unnamed Klingons
• Numerous unnamed people

Indirectly [ ]

• Thomas Harewood
• James T. Kirk
• Numerous unnamed Starfleet officers
• This incarnation of Khan is the third main villain in a Star Trek film not to be killed, first being V'Ger and Whale Probe. Of these, he is the first who is not a probe.
• He is the main villain of the second film in the reboot series. His Prime Reality Counterpart was the main villain of the second film and in the original series episode "Space Seed" as well.

External Links [ ]

• Khan Noonien Singh (Alternate Timeline) on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki

Navigation [ ]

• 1 Skar King
• 2 Owl (Twisted Childhood Universe)
• 3 Winnie-the-Pooh (Twisted Childhood Universe)

Why Khan Noonien Singh Casts A Shadow Over The Entire Star Trek Universe

According to its own mythology, the utopia of "Star Trek" had to be earned. Sometime between the present day and the franchise's idyllic future, several destructive wars will break out, causing humankind to experience a reckoning. Recall that Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was born in 1921, so he had very sharp memories of World War II and all of the horrors it produced. Roddenberry came to feel that humanity ought to learn from such horrors, and began to depict war — at least in "Star Trek" — as humanity's "low point." Once faced with self-destruction, Roddenberry felt, humans would eventually set themselves on the path to healing and recovery. 

It was antithetical, then, for Roddenberry to depict the character of Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalbán ) the way he did. In the "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" (February 16, 1967), the Enterprise rescues Khan from a cargo ship called the Botany Bay. Khan and several of his compatriots were in cryogenic sleep, having fled Earth about 200 years previous, fleeing extradition. Khan, you see, was one of Earth's most famous dictators during the Eugenics Wars. He had conquered most of the planet with the aid of his genetically enhanced retinue. Khan was confident, forthright, and convinced of his innate superiority, qualities that — bafflingly — Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the ship's historian Lieutenant McGivers (Madlyn Rhue) greatly admired. 

"Star Trek" may have been a pacifist show at its heart, but too often the characters stood in unironic awe of violent military commanders. McGivers especially folded to his charms. It was a little gross.

Although Khan left the show after "Space Seed," he would return in cinematic form. From 1982 onward, Khan would alter "Star Trek" forever, both for better and for worse.

The impact of Khan

In "Space Seed," Khan, seeing an opportunity to begin his old nation-conquering habits again, tried to take over the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock outwit him, knock out his genetically enhanced retinue, and wrest back control of the ship. Rather than punish Khan for his malfeasance, however, Kirk gives the villain an ultimatum: can he create the ideal society he's always dreamed of on an uninhabited planet somewhere? Khan accepts the challenge, and he is left on a planet called Ceti Alpha V to build his masterpiece society. Khan was out of sight and out of mind. 

Until the release of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in 1982. In the film, it was revealed that shortly after Khan arrived, Ceti Alpha V experienced a massive natural cataclysm that transformed it into an inhospitable desert world. For decades, Khan and his retinue lived huddled in a ship, barely surviving, growing increasingly preoccupied with getting revenge on Kirk. Over the course of "Star Trek II," Khan commandeers a Starfleet vessel called the U.S.S. Reliant and goes hunting for Kirk, now an admiral. Kirk, meanwhile, is going through a midlife crisis wherein he finally faces the consequences of several forgotten transgressions. Khan is the personification of Kirk's absent-mindedness; he never bothered to check in on Khan. 

Popular opinion typically dictates that "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is the best of the 13 extant "Star Trek" movies. Montalbán brings a glorious, melodramatic oomph to his performance that thrills audiences and handily balances Shatner's occasional tendency to play Kirk as larger-than-life. He is a great "Star Trek" villain. 

But then, that's a problem. Since when was "Star Trek" about "heroes" and "villains"? Since 1982, it seems. Ordinarily, Trek is more morally nuanced than that.

Moral absolutism

Throughout its history — and throughout the 1990s in particular — "Star Trek" writers have often bent over backward to present dramas with a palpable element of moral ambiguity. It's rare that a character will be presented as wholly heroic or villainous, as that's not true to life; heroes and villains don't exist. Only people. People of all walks may commit acts of heroism, or even acts of villainy, all the while convinced that what they're doing is right and correct. "Star Trek" analyzes human values and philosophies, and attempts to find a careful middle ground within a matrix of diplomacy and pragmatism. Justice and morality are more nuanced than "good" vs. "evil." In Trek, conflicts are rarely solved by a hero besting a villain in violent combat. That's "Star Wars" stuff. 

But, it cannot be denied that such conflicts are exciting, easy to consume, and imminently cinematic. On TV, Trek could afford a slower pace and episodes that centered on conversation and philosophy. On the big screen, however, everything needs to wrap up more dramatically and tidily. As such, most of the "Star Trek" movies are a lot more action-forward than anything on TV. And when the franchise discovered the effectiveness of Khan as a "Star Trek" supervillain, they hit a groove. A charismatic villain who wants personal revenge on a Starfleet captain? Bully! Let's do that as often as we can get away with. Also, more shooting and yelling and space battles and explosions.

By the early 1990s, a fan consensus began to form around the first six Trek movies, and many agreed that "Wrath of Khan" was the best. The franchise soon began to imitate it, looking for their next Khan.

The revenge quartet

It's telling that four Trek films in a row — "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 2009 film, "Star Trek Into Darkness," and "Star Trek Beyond" — all centered on vengeance-obsessed villains. The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" also retreaded the concept. In "Nemesis," Shinzon (Tom Hardy) wanted to kill Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) because he was cloned from Picard's DNA. Shinzon's ship and the Enterprise-E ended the film facing off in a nebula, just like in "Wrath of Khan." In the 2009 film, a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) sought revenge on Spock. In "Darkness," Khan was resurrected in a parallel universe form, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He still wanted revenge. "Beyond" was about Kroll (Idris Elba) a man who came to hate being abandoned by the Federation — just like in "Wrath of Khan." 

And "Picard," made 41 years after "Wrath of Khan," still followed a lot of the same beats. Vadic (Amanda Plummer) was a dark, vengeful villain with an overpowered ship. "Picard" even went so far as to borrow music cues directly from "Khan" to invite comparison. 

Again: a supervillain is a dramatically satisfying archetype, especially in your typical Hollywood melodrama. Their villainy is easy to understand, and the means to stop them clear (usually violence). Seeing a bad guy get murdered is cathartic. But seeing Khan as a "villain" was the wrong lesson to have taken from "Star Trek II." In a more sane Trek plot, Kirk would find a way to give Khan what he wanted and talk his way out of the problem. The villains in all the above movies have legitimate grievances, and TV "Star Trek" would spend more time addressing and repairing said issues. 

Khan's shadow is long, and his legacy is simultaneously fun and very, very unfortunate. 

Strange New Worlds Fixes J.J. Abrams' Khan Mistake

Strange New Worlds dives into franchise history and subtly fixes the biggest mistake J.J. Abrams made with Star Trek Into Darkness.

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek 's most famous villains aren't the Klingons, the Romulans or the Borg. Rather, it's a single human individual: Khan Noonien Singh. Strange New Worlds brings the character back again and, in doing so, fixes the most egregious mistake made in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness . Young actor Desmond Sivan takes on the role last played, inexplicably, by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Sivan, previously heard as a voice actor in kids' shows like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood , is an actor of color like the person originally cast for the role. Khan made his debut back in 1967 on Star Trek: The Original Series , played by Ricardo Montalbán. He most famously reprised the role for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , which cemented his status as the nemesis of the original USS Enterprise crew. He became such an iconic villain that when the sequel to J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek was announced, fans already expected Khan to make an appearance. However, rather than cast an actor of color, Benedict Cumberbatch took on the role. Perhaps this was done to help facilitate the equally inexplicable misdirection in the marketing to hide Khan's inclusion. Yet, a franchise singularly responsible for diversifying TV casts in its day, whitewashing the most famous villain is its greatest unforced error. Strange New Worlds corrects this mistake by bringing in Sivan, a talented actor who steals his scene, to play the character as a child.

RELATED: Star Trek Fans Would Hate The Voyage Home if It Were Released Today

Cumberbatch's Khan Is Unforgivable Given Star Trek's Commitment to Diversity

Perhaps the most important guidance Gene Roddenberry left for future Star Trek storytellers was the aspirational motto of "infinite diversity in infinite combinations." It's known that characters like Nichelle Nichols's Uhura and George Takei's Sulu advanced representation on network TV in the 1960s. However, Roddenberry's commitment to diversity went beyond that cast. The background characters frequently featured women and actors of color at a time when the only roles were housewives and stereotypes, respectively. Khan Noonien Singh is clearly a South-East Asian name, but Star Trek cast Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán. However, this was still a subtle, representational coup.

Montalbán was a known actor, though he was mostly relegated to guest spots as "the Latin lover." This was, in part, because Montalbán was incredibly fit. These physical qualities are what led to his casting in the role of a character described as superhuman . In the original script for "Space Seed," the villain was a Nordic man first named "John Ericksen" (perhaps where Into Darkness got "John Harrison" from). This changed in subsequent drafts to Khan Noonien Singh, allegedly named after a long-lost friend of Roddenberry's from World War II named Kim Noonien Singh (or Wang, Roddenberry's accounts differ). Roddenberry wanted to stick a finger in the eye of then-contemporary expectations by clearly establishing that the genetically perfect man was not white.

Into Darkness briefly explains away the phenomenally bad casting by saying a corrupt Starfleet officer used sci-fi surgical procedures to change the character's appearance. That adds an altogether different problematic layer to the choice of a character who amounted to an "angrier Doctor Strange." Montalbán imbued Khan with a sinister charm that belied a hidden, cunning intellect. He is the reason Star Trek fans adore Khan, which has nothing to do with his heritage. Rather, looking past real-world prejudices allowed Roddenberry to find the perfect actor for the role.

RELATED: Paul Wesley's Jim Kirk Is Strange New Worlds' Biggest Risk

Strange New Worlds Found a Brilliant Way to Bring Back Khan

Like the actor who originated the role, there is nothing about Desmond Sivan's heritage that makes his character shine. For the first time, Star Trek fans get to see the world's greatest villain as they never have before. Yes, he's the youngest version of the character, but he's also the only Khan that's ever been afraid. Into Darkness tried to retell Khan's story, but Strange New Worlds is, instead, building on it. This episode makes it clear that time travel changed the canon of Star Trek , noting that Khan's rise to power was supposed to happen in the 1990s. Would Strange New Worlds dare try to "change" Khan Noonien Singh?

Sivan's scene with Christina Chong, playing his far-future descendant La'an Noonien Singh , is a standout in an episode full of great scenes. The young actor nonverbally establishes young Khan is afraid but also shows hints of his cunning nature and intellect. When he asks her, almost too sweetly, if she is there to kill him, viewers get the sense he already knows the answer. What's most interesting is that when Khan asks La'an if she's there to take him away from the Noonien Singh Institute, it sounds almost hopeful. It leaves viewers wondering if Khan is a prisoner being molded into a villain. Conversely, his creators could know what they've created, and the already-evil Khan yearns for escape so he can get to conquering.

Star Trek doesn't need another Khan story. Examining his origins and the roles nature and nurture played in his heel turn is already a fresh approach to one. If the storytellers revisit the character in future episodes, Sivan should return to the role. Again, this is not because he's an actor of color but because inclusive casting is how to find "the best actor" for the role. The Original Series proved it with Montalbán, one of his generation's greatest. Strange New Worlds corrects the mistake Star Trek Into Darkness made when its filmmakers forgot that important, fundamental lesson.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+ .

Source: RedshirtsAlwaysDie.com , Reddit.com

Khan-firmed? EW May Have Spoiled the Reveal of Benedict Cumberbatch's Character in J.J. Abrams' Sequel STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

A recent caption for an Entertainment Weekly image from J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS listed Benedict Cumberbatch's character as Khan.

After new images from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness emerged today, one little photo caption has sparked renewed interest in the continuing debate over whether or not Benedict Cumberbatch's character John Harrison is, in fact, Khan.  Entertainment Weekly has had a slew of the  Star Trek  sequel's images and poster reveals to date, so it's a bit odd to think that this caption wasn't cleared by someone in the know.  Then again, it could have just been an editorial oversight (and if so, that editor might be about to get the Red Shirt treatment).  Hit the jump to get this sorted. 

Check out the image below (via CBM ):

The Khan rumors have been floating around for a while now and this one headline is definitely not a confirmation, but it does throw fuel on the fire.  In the most recent TV spot , Cumberbatch was recently heard to utter something along the lines of "I am better...at everything."  Since Khan is a genetically enhanced individual, this bit of dialogue jibes with the idea of Cumberbatch actually being Khan.  Abrams has denied the existence of Khan in his film, but he's not exactly the most reliable person when it comes to secrets he wants kept.  We could debate this until opening day, but the fact is that Cumberbatch's performance will make or break his character (I'm betting on the former).

Check out some of our recent coverage on  Star Trek Into Darkness  below:

• 5 New Images from STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Show Benedict Cumberbatch Ready to Go Loki on Everyone’s Ass
• Check Out the STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Entertainment Weekly Covers
• STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS to Open Two Days Early on May 15th Starting at 8:00PM, Tickets Purchased Through STAR TREK App
• Super Bowl TV Spots for FAST AND FURIOUS 6, IRON MAN 3, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, THE LONE RANGER, and More
• New STAR TREK App Reveals Exclusive Content for STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and Beyond
• J.J. Abrams Talks Action, IMAX, and More in New Featurette for STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
• Esurance Partnering with STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS for Exclusive Content
• J.J. Abrams Will Still Be Involved with STAR TREK 3 and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 Despite Commitment to STAR WARS
• J.J. Abrams Says Paramount Wouldn’t Make STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Unless It Was in 3D
• J.J. Abrams Talks STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, 3D, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5, the FRINGE Finale, Future Projects, Maintaining Secrecy and More
• 11 New High-Resolution Images from STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS; Plus Dying Fan’s Reaction to Seeing the Full Film
• Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve Talk STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, Comparisons to THE AVENGERS and SKYFALL, the Audition Process, and More

Here’s the official synopsis for  Star Trek Into Darkness :

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness. When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan vs. Star Trek Into Darkness, Compared

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It's difficult to compare two different films from different decades, especially as far as which one is "better" than the other. In the case of the Star Trek franchise, there are two films based on the same story but share very little else in common.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a beloved sci-fi classic that sees Kirk's old adversary, Khan Noonien-Singh, return to hunt down and destroy the man that left him to rot on a dying planet years before.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a loose adaptation of that Khan storyline, which sees the feared warrior wage a solo war against Starfleet for the kidnapping and assumed death of his crew.

Both films are vastly different when it comes to tone, with Into Darkness being J.J. Abrams' attempt to bring Khan Noonien-Singh into a newer, more modern era of Star Trek movies.

Which one is better, the 1982 original or the 2013 remake? Here's our comparison of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan versus Star Trek Into Darkness and how they fare together.

Overall Direction

Most people today know about J.J. Abrams, but they aren't familiar with the career work of Nicholas Meyer, the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . For that reason alone, most tend to side with Abrams as the superior sci-fi storyteller.

But when you pit both films side-by-side, Meyer's work can't be underestimated. He managed to create a sense of tension throughout the film without ever having Khan and Kirk meet one another in person.

Meyer drew exquisite performances from his leading actors, with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy at their very best under Meyer's delicate direction. Meanwhile, Ricardo Montalbán's Ahab-like madness gave the Enterprise their greatest threat—and an impressive adversarial chest.

On the other hand, Abrams leaned on Meyer's work enough that Into Darkness can be called a remake, but not so much that it can be considered a rip-off. He made a strong hire in Benedict Cumberbatch to replace Montalbán in the role of Khan.

On balance, Meyer did a better job in the director's chair than Abrams. He managed to find a way to work with the egos of his actors—who all knew their roles inside out—while creating a tale that made Star Trek feel like a work of classic literature.

Khan's Portrayal

The silliest part about both Ricardo Montalbán and Benedict Cumberbatch portraying Khan is that neither have Indian heritage.

Montalbán is South American while Cumberbatch is British, meaning neither should have been handed the role in the first place. However, with that aside, how well did each one actually do in the role?

The two actors draw entirely different performances from the material they found in their scripts: Montalbán had a more Shakespearean take on the character than the more terrorist-minded Cumberbatch.

Looking back at Montalbán's Khan, he's an impressive warlord who seeks revenge against Kirk for abandoning him and his crew on a desolate planet—something that wasn't the fault of Kirk.

As the original Khan, Montalbán—who also portrayed the villain in the actual series—was fearsome due to his ability to command and his enhanced body that was designed by eugenics.

However, Cumberbatch chose to give Khan a more outwardly ruthless exterior with no mind for posturing or taunting. Instead, he replaced the self-aggrandization with a burning rage felt through the screen.

Moreso, Cumberbatch's Khan felt smarter than Montalbán's. He used whomever he could to gain the upper hand, knowing his physical superiority was enough to fall back on should anything turn against him.

In the end, Cumberbatch wins simply because of his menace and terrifying single-minded mission of destruction.

Emotional Impact

The entire point of Spock's role in The Wrath of Khan was to die at the end because Leonard Nimoy wanted to bow out after almost two decades in the role. Meanwhile, Into Darkness flipped the script on Spock's death and gave the heroic sacrifice to Kirk (who's later revived, anyway).

Though the films handled their situations differently, the plot point is almost identical: both have to save the Enterprise by fixing the core, becoming exposed to lethal radiation in the process.

Into Darkness is no slouch when it comes to its big moment, with Spock watching Jim die from the other side of protective glass—then subsequently becoming angry enough to hunt down Khan himself.

However, the final moments of The Wrath of Khan , in which Kirk says goodbye to Spock after he's saved the Enterprise from destruction, is heartbreaking. The funeral scene shows the depth of emotion Kirk has for Spock when he breaks while delivering the eulogy.

Between the two, there is no contest: The Wrath of Khan has far more depth of emotional impact than Into Darkness .

Overall Performances

Both movies feature impressive ensemble performances that are great examples of how to showcase life on a starship.

Into Darkness succeeds in its smaller moments, as the relationship between Kirk and Spock becomes solidified by loss while the rest of the crew find their places under Kirk's leadership.

However, with The Wrath of Khan , the crew had already been on many adventures together for years on the series. This gave the film's performances a different dynamic with all the pre-established depth and history between the characters.

There's a sense of fun distrust in Into Darkness that doesn't exist in The Wrath of Khan , while the core of the original feels deeper with the wealth of experience we'd already had with the characters.

Ultimately, this one comes down to what you prefer in a sci-fi film, but we're giving it to The Wrath of Khan for better ensemble performance.

And the Verdict Is...

Between the two films, one ekes out ahead of the other, but not by much. The winner is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan !

There's plenty to like about Star Trek Into Darkness , which benefits from modern filmmaking technology and an updated story that's vibrant and fun in a new way.

But there's a reason why The Wrath of Khan is a sci-fi classic. It simply has a depth that the remake lacks, along with a sense of intimidation that's hard to replicate.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

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Star Trek Into Darkness

2013, Sci-fi/Adventure, 2h 12m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Visually spectacular and suitably action packed, Star Trek Into Darkness is a rock-solid installment in the venerable sci-fi franchise, even if it's not as fresh as its predecessor. Read critic reviews

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The crew of the Starship Enterprise returns home after an act of terrorism within its own organization destroys most of Starfleet and what it represents, leaving Earth in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Capt. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) leads his people (Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoë Saldana) on a mission to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction, thereby propelling all of them into an epic game of life and death.

Rating: PG-13 (Intense Seq. of Sci-Fi Violenc|Intense Seq. of Sci-Fi Action)

Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure, Action, Fantasy

Original Language: English

Director: J.J. Abrams

Producer: J.J. Abrams , Bryan Burk , Damon Lindelof , Alex Kurtzman , Roberto Orci

Writer: Alex Kurtzman , Roberto Orci , Damon Lindelof

Release Date (Theaters): May 16, 2013  wide

Release Date (Streaming): May 14, 2015

Box Office (Gross USA): $228.8M

Runtime: 2h 12m

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Co: Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Datasat

View the collection: Star Trek

Cast & Crew

Capt. James T. Kirk

Zachary Quinto

Dr. Leonard McCoy

Zoe Saldana

Nyota Uhura

Anton Yelchin

Pavel Chekov

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

Hikaru Sulu

Benedict Cumberbatch

John Harrison

Carol Marcus

Bruce Greenwood

Christopher Pike

Peter Weller

Admiral Marcus

J.J. Abrams

Alex Kurtzman

Screenwriter

Roberto Orci

Damon Lindelof

Dana Goldberg

Executive Producer

Paul Schwake

David Ellison

Jeffrey Chernov

Cinematographer

Maryann Brandon

Film Editing

Mary Jo Markey

Michael Giacchino

Original Music

Scott Chambliss

Production Design

Ramsey Avery

Supervising Art Direction

Kasra Farahani

Art Director

News & Interviews for Star Trek Into Darkness

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Critic Reviews for Star Trek Into Darkness

Audience reviews for star trek into darkness.

While it may rehash some elements from other films in the franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness is still a worthy and very fun installment with a powerhouse villain performance and staying as visually stunning as usual.

I really love the direction that this new "Star Trek" franchise is going. It's not the normal exploration drama anymore, but it's more an action piece. And it's a very good one. I really love this movie. If you take away all the previous movies, this is probably better than the first one, because it really does a lot more than the first one and it does go to new planets, for example Kronos which was a treat to see. The acting is great, especially from Cumberbatch who gives a great performance as the main villain. He gives a scary performance as well as a really emotional and lovable performance. One of the reasons, however, why we need to look at the other movies like canon, is because of a scene featuring Leonard Nimoy. And that's where the movie haults for me. This movie is a soft reboot of the great "The Wrath of Khan," and when the movie tries to be that masterpiece, it really feels sloppy for me. I didn't like the fact that Cumberbatch turned out to be Khan and that they wanted to give the character a little twist. The fact that his blood can bring people back from the dead is the most ridiculous thing that anyone has ever done in a movie and that took me out of the movie and really had a big impact on my final thoughts. But, I still ended up liking the movie very much and, while I can't say that it's better than the first one, I can say that it is definitely a worthy follow-up and a great addition to this new franchise.

Though it feels much more like a Star Wars film than anything Star Trek has ever done, 'Into Darkness' succeeds in most of the areas in sets out to, even if it wasn't the general direction most Trekkies wanted the series to go after a brilliant reboot in 2009. Most of the scrutiny from the film comes from its handling of the character, Spock, and the unnecessary hiding of him for the entire marketing campaign. While the ladder is a fair criticism, it doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the film. Though I can understand a particular third act plot choice that felt like a forced homage to 1982's The Wrath of Khan, this rendition of Khan is still well realized. Most of the credit there should go to the relentless performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Not as flashy nor as memorable as Ricardo Montalban's Khan, Cumberbatch is far more brutal and deceptive. Even on repeat viewing, I found myself captivated by every scene with Khan, especially those which also involved Kirk and/or Spock. There's something about the dialogue between them that feels vintage good vs evil while also presenting such a tremendous amount of gravitas as well. J.J. Abrams is a genius filmmaker, but I don't think he gets enough credit for what he did with both his Trek films. The series was nearly dead before he came aboard and revamped and refreshed the entire idea of what a Trek film is. Even if it deviates from lore, 'Into Darkness' is a really well made film. The effects have never been better and the way Abrams seamlessly takes us from a CGI or green screen landscape into an integral one on one dialogue battle is very impressive. Though not every key emotional moment feels earned in the third act, it's nice seeing all of the actors start to come into their own as the respected crew members of the Enterprise. Scotty has never been better, Sulu gets more than enough time to shine, Quinto brought a new layer to Spock not seen in 2009, and Chris Pine feels much more like an heir apparent to William Shatner than he did in the first entry. To me, it was much easier to care about the characters this time around. With all this said, there's plenty that I wish the film did differently. The Khan reveal and 3rd act mishandle of the infamous moment are just some of the mishaps that could have been fixed. Or even the entire subplot with the Admirals daughter, but I digress. 'Into Darkness' is a far better film than it probably has a right to be with a fun and exciting direction from Abrams and lively performances from the good and bad side of the coin. +Cumberbatch +Abrams directing style +Great dialogue between Kirk, Khan, and Spock -3rd act mishaps 8.2/10

Before the reboot of Star Trek I hadn't really paid much attention to the Star Trek universe and was excited to see what all the fuzz was about, although trekkies might disagree with this being a good starting point.. I loved it, so I've been looking forward to a sequel ever since the last one. WELL, it has arrived and it KICKED some serious ASS. Star Trek Into Darkness is what modern action filmmaking has evolved into. The movie was fantastic and I absolutely loved it but the script felt dumbed down and JJ did his best with what he was given. The visuals were gorgeous and the score was just amazing through the whole movie. I'm glad they managed to give most of the characters more personality and a moment to grow and develop. Having mentioned that, it's worth to note that Benedict Cumberbatch stole the show with his acting as the ruthless villain and I wouldn't hesitate to give him the title of villain of the year, even if it's still May. (although many people might disagree) Overall I would say this is THE movie of the summer. It brought to the table a great story, outstanding acting, out-of-this world visuals (pun intended) and spotless directing with some lens glare. As I've seen, this is a hit or miss for a lot of people and honestly it's all up to you!

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The now-tossed Star Trek 4 went through many iterations since the first announcement in July 2016 , including a story by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, a surprise 2022 Kelvin cast announcement that apparently Chris Pine and company only learned about through the press, and prequel story set “decades before the 2009 film.”

Following the new Star Trek 5 announcement, star Chris Pine reportedly reacted “with a deep sigh” according to Deadline . “Chris is excited learn about this new film through today’s studio announcement,” said a representative for the actor, “because it went really well the last time this happened, right?”

Also expected for the Trek 5 reunion are co-stars Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (“Bones” McCoy), and John Cho (Sulu). Actor Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Chekov in the first three films, passed away in 2016.

While little is known about the planned story of this new film, sources close to Trek 5 development hear that Paramount is pursuing  Dune and  Wonka star Timothée Chalamet for the role of “Sybok,” half-brother of Spock, originated by actor Laurence Luckinbill in 1989.

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Discovery Season 5 is Taking a Huge Swing With Star Trek Canon

Get out your space history books.

Why do so many Star Trek aliens look like humans? The real-world explanation is that way back in 1964, Gene Roddenberry said the format of Star Trek would focus on stories that took place on “parallel worlds.” This didn’t mean Trek was an alternate universe-hopping show, but that allegorically, the people encountered by the Enterprise were humanoid, thus making the stories easier to write and understand (and, from a budget perspective, easier to make). But there’s an in-universe explanation for this, too.

In 1993, Star Trek: The Next Generation devoted an episode to answering this big question. And now, 31 years later, Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down with a Season 5 storyline that serves as a direct sequel to that story. Here’s what this means and why it matters. Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2.

The return of Star Trek’s Progenitors

The Progenitor’s message in the Next Generation episode “The Chase.”

At the end of Discovery Season 5, Episode 1, “Red Directive,” we learn that the data the crew has been assigned to protect is connected to discoveries made by a Romulan scientist in the year 2369. Season 5 happens roughly 820 years after that date, but as Kovich (David Cronenberg) tells Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), this information has been kept hidden for centuries. Why?

Well, in “The Chase,” Picard, Crusher, and the Enterprise-D crew — along with representatives from the Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans — discovered an ancient message coded within DNA that revealed everyone descended from the same ancient aliens. The Progenitors, as their message explains, “...seeded the primordial oceans of many worlds, where life was in its infancy. The seed codes directed your evolution toward a physical form resembling ours.”

Captain Burnham is floored by this information, which makes sense since she’s originally from the 23rd century, and her pre-time travel adventures in Starfleet predate Picard’s by about 100 years. But Burnham’s ignorance of the Progenitors isn’t because she and the Discovery crew are time travelers. There’s another reason why this has all been classified.

Discovery’s new God-mode tech

Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is racing to find the most powerful Trek tech of all time.

The fact that most humanoid-looking life in Star Trek descended from an ancient alien species isn’t a new revelation to longtime Trek fans. Even Original Series episodes “Return to Tomorrow” and “The Paradise Syndrom” hinted that several species originated thanks to some kind of organized panspermia . What is new is that the technology the Progenitors used to create life on thousands of worlds has been found.

In Discovery’s “Red Directive,” the journal left by the Romulan scientist is just the first piece of the puzzle. The larger mission is to find the technology the Progenitors developed millions of years ago, and so Discovery has revealed the most powerful technology in all of Trek canon to date. In The Wrath of Khan , we got the Genesis Device , a tech capable of instantly terraforming planets. In Voyager’s “Year of Hell,” the Kremin weapon ship pushed entire planets out of the spacetime continuum, altering history in the blink of an eye.

But those examples of super-tech were unstable. What’s interesting about the ancient Progenitor tech is that it obviously works . Discovery’s imperative to find the tech is classic Trek: if the ability to seed life on a planetary scale falls into the wrong hands, the galaxy could be changed forever. In the grand tradition of Star Trek, the biggest superweapons aren’t planet-destroying superweapons, but something that could redefine and rewrite life itself.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 airs on Paramount+.

Ryan Britt's new book on the history of Star Trek's biggest changes. From the '60s show to the movies to 'TNG,' to 'Discovery,' 'Picard,' Strange New Worlds,' and beyond!

• Science Fiction

Star Trek: The Next Generation's 'Skin of Evil' Story And Impact Explained

Quick links, what happens in 'skin of evil', how does 'skin of evil' end, the reputation of 'skin of evil' and its impact on the star trek franchise.

“Skin of Evil” remains one of the most shocking and controversial episodes in the long-running saga of Star Trek . More often than not, the different eras of the franchise have taken a while to find their space legs, and that’s particularly true of the first live-action sequel to The Original Series . Star Trek: The Next Generation may have presented a more enlightened Federation of the 24th century than its 1960s predecessor, but its first year was notoriously troubled.

The show suffered from a revolving door of writers, with many falling out with Star Trek ’s creator Gene Roddenberry, who kept a tight grip on the series' direction. Roddenberry rewrote 15 episodes of the first year’s run, which also included some blatant remakes of The Original Series episodes. The result was a dysfunctional environment that found actors like Denise Crosby, who played Security Chief Tasha Yar, unhappy with their character development. Crosby’s decision to end her contract during The Next Generation’s first year resulted in the events of the 23rd episode of the first season. The repercussions of “Skin of Evil" would be felt for a long time.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10 Things You Didnt Know About The Shows Production

“Skin of Evil” finds the crew of the Enterprise-D attempting an unusual rescue mission. When a shuttlecraft transporting Counselor Deanna Troi and Lieutenant Ben Prieto mysteriously crashes on the deserted planet Vagra II, the Enterprise crew is blocked from beaming up their missing personnel. An away team comprising Data, Dr Crusher, and Lieutenant Tasha Yar, led by Commander Riker, discovers why: A sentient ‘oil slick’ that calls itself Armus is using its impressive powers, including psychokinesis and teleportation, to block access to the crashed shuttlecraft.

Picard frowns at Riker’s description of Armus as “Trouble,” but the Enterprise’s first officer is soon proved right. When Yar attempts to cross to the craft, Armus lashes out, apparently killing her instantly. Despite Crusher’s best efforts on board the Enterprise, the ship’s security chief is pronounced dead.

Star Trek Fans Explain Why The Next Generation Cast Should Never Return

The remainder of the episode is split between somber scenes aboard the Enterprise and return trips to the planet as the crew desperately tries to rescue their hostage shipmates without any further loss of life. While taunting Troi, who’s conscious aboard the crashed craft, Armus reveals itself as a single-minded, rage-filled creature driven by loneliness and emptiness. As the counselor discerns that it’s the rejected side product of an alien culture that managed to separate and maroon their “dark and vile” side, the enterprise notices power fluctuations in the shield Armus has projected around the craft.

The game of oily cat and Starfleet mouse continues, including some haunting visuals when Riker is sucked into the creature and held captive. It ends when Picard beams down to confront the creature, and Armus reveals its goal is to leave the planet to rejoin those who abandoned it. Picard bargains a meeting with Troi, confirming his suspicions that the creature’s powers diminish as its rage grows. He then taunts it into a fury that weakens its shield enough for the Enterprise to beam up everyone safely . Armus, the skin of evil, is left raging on the surface as Picard orders the remote destruction of the shuttle so there’s no chance it can ever leave its prison planet.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's Most Boring Episode

Despite declaring Vagra II off-limits and ensuring Armus cannot escape, Picard admits that "the damage has been done." The senior crew steps into a blue-skied paradise aboard one of the ship’s holodecks, where the captain conducts a short and emotional memorial to his lost Security Chief. In a farewell unlike any Star Trek fan had seen before, Picard hands over to a holographic recording of Tasha Yar.

In a moving speech, she praises each of the assembled crewmembers for their contributions to her life, explaining that she had expected to die quickly and on duty. It’s a lovely narrative move that makes good use of the innovation of the holodeck, although it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny unless Yar regularly re-recorded it during her year aboard the Enterprise-D.

Where it succeeds is putting an emphasis on the crew she’s left behind, with “no goodbyes, just good memories.” That’s summed up in the final lines of the episode when Data queries why his thoughts are not with Tasha but how empty he will feel without her presence. Picard simply confirms that the android’s “got it’.”

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best Data Episodes

Unsurprisingly, “Skin of Evil” was instantly controversial, and its bad reputation has persisted for 30 years. Star Trek supremo Gene Roddenberry intended Yar’s blunt and senseless death to show the dangers facing security officers. However, the general response was that the result was that Yar’s death just felt pointless. It’s even worse that it fails to add any real threat to the villain Armus, who, despite some ingenious physical effects, is barely remembered beyond being a relatively shapeless dark blob.

The decision to kill Yar was prompted by Crosby’s disappointment with the character’s development over the season. However, it was fitting that the show’s eulogy turned attention to the surviving crew. With Worf’s immediate promotion to Acting Chief of Security, taking point behind the command chairs, the core crew started to resemble the one the show became famous for.

Geordi La Forge would become Chief Engineer in the second year, and Yar’s departure allowed secondary characters like Chief Miles O’Brien to become more prominent. It was this restructured team that helped propel the series’ massive success. However, Tasha Yar’s death also provided the show’s creators an opportunity they couldn’t resist, leading to one of The Next Generation ’s classic episodes.

Star Trek: The Next Generations 'Cause and Effect' Explained

In the third season’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise, ” the USS Enterprise-D’s crew is amazed to see the long-destroyed USS Enterprise-C emerge from a spacetime rift. However, the ship’s arrival in 2366 immediately transforms the 24th-century timeline. Picard now commands a warship in a fleet locked in a devastating war with the Klingons, with a crew including a survived Tasha Yar as tactical officer. Only the El-Aurian bartender Guinan senses something is wrong and that Yar shouldn’t be there — a neat touch, as Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan was a female character introduced to fill the gap left by the departure of Denise Crosby.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” is regarded as one of Star Trek ’s greatest time travel episodes , featuring a solid meditation on fate and choice. Picard must wrestle with the decision to restore a timeline he doesn’t remember by sending the crew of the Enterprise-C back to its death, including volunteer Tasha Yar, who realizes she doesn’t quite belong. However, this great episode was also a clever way for Crosby to retain a role in the franchise.

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Future seasons brought the actress back as the villain Sela, the half-Romulan daughter of Yar, born from the paradox of her mother being sent back in time to 2344 and captured before the destruction of the Enterprise-C. Sela’s vengeful masterplan as a Romulan commander was the backbone of the Season 4 cliffhanger two-parter “Redemption,” and she would later become a primary antagonist in Star Trek: Online .

For a little-loved episode, overshadowed by a significant but poorly received death, “Skin of Evil” had major repercussions for Star Trek: The Next Generation . Yar never gained the chance to enjoy the celebrity of her crewmates, but her death was more than the repeat of Spock’s legendary death five years before in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . This was the first time Star Trek permanently killed a regular character, and thanks to the show’s time-twisting potential, her tragic journey didn’t stop there. The Security Chief is one of very few Star Trek characters with the tragic distinction of dying twice.

Star Trek is a space exploration franchise originally created by Gene Roddenberry. The series has spanned shows like The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Voyager. More recently, developer Scopely came out with Star Trek Fleet Command, a mobile title where you get to be captain of your own ship.

Star Trek: 5 Deaths That Rocked The Franchise's Foundation

Screen Rant

I'm glad star trek into darkness deleted kirk lying in his captain's log.

Star Trek Into Darkness deleted a scene where Captain Kirk lies in his Captain's log that painted Jim in a truly terrible light.

• Deleting the scene of Captain Kirk lying in his log was a wise move by J.J. Abrams, as it painted Kirk in a poor light.
• Spock emerges as the true hero in Star Trek Into Darkness, adhering to Starfleet values while Kirk falters repeatedly.
• Kirk's actions in the film make him harder to root for, as Spock shines in his ability to effectively manage escalating crises.

Star Trek Into Darkness deleted a scene in which Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) publicly lies in his Captain's log, which painted him in a terrible light. The second Star Trek reboot film directed by J.J. Abrams pits Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise against two foes: the genetically engineered madman Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the diabolically corrupt Starfleet Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller). But in many ways, Captain Kirk's worst enemy in Star Trek Into Darkness is himself.

Before Captain Kirk tangled with Khan and Marcus to prevent all-out war the Klingons, Star Trek Into Darkness opened with the USS Enterprise's disastrous mission on the planet Nibiru. Ordered to simply survey the primitive world, Kirk allowed the natives to see the Starship Enterprise as he tried to rescue Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) from a volcano. While Kirk's intentions to save Nirbiru from a planetary apocalypse were noble, Jim's reckless actions grossly violated Star Trek 's Prime Directive . Worse, Kirk lied about it.

Star Trek Into Darkness Ending & Problems Explained

Kirk lying in his captain's log in star trek into darkness' deleted scene makes him worse, falsifying a captain's log in front of his crew is indefensible..

A deleted scene from Star Trek Into Darkness posted by @AosdailyBTS on X shows Captain Kirk composing his Captain's log about the Nibiru mission on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Kirk blatantly lies about what transpired on Nibiru, claiming he "thought it wise to stay off the planet altogether" and calling the catastrophe "uneventful." Making matters worse, Captain Kirk spun his falsities and mockery of Starfleet's code of honor in full view of his appalled bridge crew . Check out the scene below:

J.J. Abrams was wise to leave this scene out of Star Trek Into Darkness' final cut. The arrogant way Kirk lies in his Captain's log is indefensible, and it casts James in a poor light. As it plays out in Star Trek Into Darkness , Kirk does lie in his log, and he's called out by Admiral Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) immediately after Spock filed a truthful report in his log. But to actually see Kirk so flippantly lie in front of his crew is a blight on his character , and makes Kirk harder to root for in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Into Darkness Made Spock A Better Enterprise Captain Than Kirk

Spock rose to the occasion in star trek into darkness.

In many ways, Chris Pine's young Captain Kirk is at his nadir in Star Trek Into Darkness, while Spock shines as the hero Kirk ought to be . Star Trek Into Darkness paints Spock as unable to "break a rule," but the Vulcan Science Officer acts honorably throughout the film, and maintains Starfleet's values while Captain Kirk repeatedly falters. It's Spock who told the truth about Nibiru because ethics demanded it, and Spock again successfully argued against the immorality of Kirk firing torpedoes to kill Khan instead of apprehending him for a trial.

Spock rose to the occasion and captured Khan with Lt. Nyota Uhura's (Zoe Saldana) help.

Kirk admitted to Spock that, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I only know what I can do." Comparatively, the Vulcan didn't take a false step as he effectively managed Star Trek Into Darkness ' escalating crises. To Kirk's credit, he did align the Enterprise's warp core to save the ship , which led his (temporary) death by radiation poisoning. Without Kirk, Spock rose to the occasion and captured Khan with Lt. Nyota Uhura's (Zoe Saldana) help, bringing the madman to justice and resurrecting Kirk with Khan's "super blood." Vulcans cannot tell a lie, unlike Captain Kirk, and Star Trek Into Darkness was better for Spock doing what Kirk could not.

Source: @aosdailyBTS on X

Star Trek Into Darkness is streaming on Paramount+

Star Trek superfan turns his home into a Trekkie’s dream

As many Star Trek fans may know, Friday was “First Contact Day,” but one superfan got to spend the day in his own starship.

Jason Roach, also known as Captain Jay Roach, is about as big of a Star Trek fan as they come. In fact, he’s even turned his home into his own “U.S.S. Enterprise,” which he’s dubbed the “U.S.S. Acadia.”

“I’ve been a Star Trek fan all my life,” Roach said in an interview with CTV’s Mike Lamb on Friday.

Roach said when he first saw “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” as a kid, he was hooked by the U.S.S. Enterprise.

“I said, ‘Well, I want one,’” Roach added. “After all the years of collecting and whatnot I finally decided to put this together and built a fully functional – sort of – Star Trek house.”

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“Whatever you can do on the show, I can program the house to mimic it,” said Roach.

“It’s no different from a Jay’s room or a Leaf’s room, Star Trek’s my thing.”

“I think the message of Star Trek is hope, hope for the future, hope that we can solve all our issues and our problems,” he said.

“We’ve gone out into space and we’re meeting all these new people, and new races, and we’re going out to the stars, and we’re exploring the final frontier.”

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