My WhatCulture colleague Adam Borders wrote an article recently on why Khan should feature in the upcoming Star Trek sequel. He gave a great run down on what makes Khan Noonian Singh such a great complex villain and why he is still held in such high regard since his first appearance 46 years ago. Even though I agree with his fine analysis of Khan, I disagree with his argument that he should make an appearance in the new film.
To say i was relieved when Simon Pegg poured water over the rumor that Benedict Cumberbatch will play Khan in ”Star Trek 2” recently is an understatement. When the news first broke that Khan might be in the new film, my heart sank as my immediate reaction was that Cumberbath was a total miscast and why??? But the casting rumor could still prove to be true and until there is concrete proof either way, people will continue to speculate. Also the original rumor and Simon Pegg’s denial could just be part of JJ Abrams plan to drum up excitement and throw fans off the scent.
So until we know one way or the other, here the main reasons why I believe Khan should not appear in ”Star Trek 2”!
1) You Can’t Better Ricardo Montalban
There are some roles that will always be associated with the actor who first played them. Captain Kirk will always be William Shatner, Han Solo will always be Harrison Ford and Khan is Ricardo Montalban. He played the role perfectly and gave the character far more dimensions than a lesser actor would have struggled to. He could have played him as the bog standard super villain who’s main power is his super strength but instead fleshed him out and made his ego and self perceived intelligence his strength but also his weakness. He was capable of deep compassion, love and pride which meant that if he was hurt, it would bring his anger to the forefront and blind him to the route that he should be following and lead him to do the wrong thing, i.e the fatal mistake he made following the Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula in Wrath Of Khan.
If Khan appears in ”Star Trek 2” you can guarantee he will be written as a standard movie villain like all the bad guys in films penned by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. You just have to look at Nero as an example. You couldn’t have asked for a more credible actor than Eric Bana to play the seriously annoyed Romulan but he was given such dubious motivation and boring lines, it resulted in Nero being one of Star Trek’s most weakest villains. He was a standard antagonist who shouted out a lot and who’s only memorable feature was his facial tattoos. The same will happen with Khan. He will be so diluted that anything that makes him special will make way for cliches revolving around him being strong and clever but underneath there will be no actual substance. The same has happened with Spock and Kirk in JJ’s Star Trek.
If its already been done perfectly by Montalban then you are better off just leaving it and accepting that some things just can’t be topped.
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11 Comments
Adam Borders is stupid. I and a few others left comments on his article that adding khan will only undo everything Abrams did with the last film. Plus by using khan, people will inevitably compare it to “Wrath of Khan” and thus it will never be good enough in their minds because to them- Wrath of Khan is untouchable. Abrams would be opening up a can of worms by REHASHING Khan. Star Trek has been literally dragged through the mud long enough. Time for people to finally move on and leave khan where he belongs- in the PAST on Talos V
A fresh, NEW villain is needed for this. Not Khan. That would be rehashing and no matter how differently Abrams used Khan, it would still be compared to Wrath of Khan and will never win against a nearly 30 year nostalgiac film like that.
This is a brand new trek universe. It MUST stand on its own. Plus damn they kept us waiting for 4 years. To keep us all waiting 4 YEARS just to rehash Khan would be the biggest insult ever.
This is a reboot. So I say- treat it as such. If they wanna make use of khan. Either reference or even a minor cameo. But Benedict Cumberbatch needs to make this role HIS OWN and not be living in the shadow of the late and great Ricardo Montalban ;)
Damn it’s late, I f’d up, CETI ALPHA V
aye…talos V…i’m sleepy.
But yeah no Khan
LOL Talos V… :)
Actually, my personal opinion didn’t factor much in my article about Khan in the upcoming J.J. Abrams film. My article comes after the announcement that Khan is indeed in the film, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. I wasn’t saying whether this was good or not or whether he should or not, I was pointing out the reasons why it has happened. Thanks for the comments and the rebuttals though. Particularly the personal attacks from LP4. Those made me laugh.
Yeah the personal comments by LP4 did is arguments no favors at all. The reasons why Khan would make a great villain in JJ’s Star Trek universe are clear but the problems that come with it are also obvious. Also, JJ’s team wont handle it the way it needs to be and dilute him down for the modern general audience which will be a total disrespect to the character.
Cumberbath!?? New one i like it
Oh dear, well spotted :), ”Cummberbath” sounds quite dirty.
Very well written article! I like the way the reasons are presented and I love that Khan is such a beloved villain that there is such a passionate discussion happening simply because of the rumor that he’ll be in the film. I admit my article was written from the point of view that it was a done deal (read: nothing we could do about it) because it was written before the announcement by Pegg debunking this as a rumor. Time will tell, in the meantime stay tuned for more Star Trek Goodness from myself and Amarpal.
Adam- I prefer Amarpal’s views. At least he’s thinking of the SUCCESS of the movie rather than going backward and digging up an over 40 year old villain
Amarpal- Yeah I was sleepy and was thinking of talosians at the time, not sure why. I mean I did want talosians in the film, so maybe that’s why xD
I tend to agree that Khan is not just an established character that had been brought to life by an exceptional actor, the character is ultimately iconic. You can’t just duplicate iconography, its not really possible. If Star Trek 2 does feature Khan then the film will be in an uphill battle that will unnecessarily, in my opinion, strain the fledgling reboot series’ hoped for success.
I enjoyed the first reboot film and I would hate to see the franchise falter after only two installments.
I would certainly prefer a fresh approach (if that is even possible these days).
BTW I enjoyed both Adam and Amarpal’s articles very much.
While both Adam and Amarpal have presented excellent reasons for and against, what I can’t seem to find in either is the obvious argument against Khan appearing as the vengeful counterpart to Kirk; continuity. The events of ‘Space Seed’ never occurred in this timeline. Kirk and the Enterprise never found Botany Bay adrift with its sinister sleeping cargo in this iteration of reality. So any encounter would have to be a reselling of that story in some form, and while that served us well on the small screen I think it would lack the scale and scope needed for the big screen. An epic tale is needed for this new Trek to keep the franchise alive, and ther can be no vendetta when the key players are unknown to each other.