Khan Noonien Singh (alternate reality)

Alternate reality
(split 2233)

Species:	Human Augment
Affiliation:	Section 31
Rank:	Dictator Commander
Occupation:	Former absolute ruler of more than one-quarter of Earth, from Asia to the Middle East Agent
Status:	In stasis (2259)
Born:	Mid-20th century, Earth (original timeline) Early 21st century, Earth (temporal altered timeline)
Marital Status:	Single
Played by:	Benedict Cumberbatch

For the prime reality counterpart, please see Khan Noonien Singh.

"I took a tactical risk and I woke that bastard up, believing that his superior intelligence could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next. But I made a mistake, and now the blood of everybody he's killed is on my hands. So I'm asking you, give him to me so that I can end what I started."

– Alexander Marcus, 2259 (Star Trek Into Darkness)

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.

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")

This event predates the point of divergence to the alternate reality, and so does not differ from the prime universe.

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.

Star Trek: Khan, Issue 5 explains Khan's face and voice were surgically modified.

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)

Legacy

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."

- Khan Noonien Singh and Thomas Harewood

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

- Khan Noonien Singh to James T. Kirk

"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."

- Khan revealing his identity to Kirk and Spock

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

- Kirk and Khan

"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?"

- Khan and Spock

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

- Khan to Kirk, trying to justify his actions

"You… You should have let me sleep!"

- Khan to Alexander Marcus before crushing his skull.

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