Star Trek 2: Khan's Legacy & Why He Should Appear In Sequel

By Adam Borders / June 2, 2012

Since the announcement that Benedict Cumberbatch would appear as the villain in the sequel to 2009€™s Star Trek the fan world has been abuzz with only one word---breathed as a sigh of near reverence---Khan. Of course, the role popularized by Ricardo Montalban couldn€™t possibly be reprised by Sherlock€™s Cumberbatch. The character was believed to be Indian and the actor himself was from Mexico City. Still, the fans seemed to have somehow known since Cumberbatch€™s name was attached that the resurrection of Khan Noonien Singh was imminent. The questions beg to be asked---is this because it is another €œStar Trek II€? Is the character of Khan so deeply associated with Star Trek II that we cannot imagine the film without him? Is it the strength of the character and/or Ricardo Montalban€™s performance? Perhaps it is the strength of the original series episode Space Seed that has fans believing that, even in an altered timeline the meeting of James T. Kirk and Khan Noonien Singh is inevitable? Looking to the original source material---Space Seed---aired in 1967 as part of Star Trek€™s first season, the character of Khan Noonien Singh appears as a ghost from the past. Throughout the history of Star Trek, the character has been painted as a dictator of €œHitler-esque€ tyranny. The story presented here, however, shows only roughly 80 humans displaced in time by a few centuries thanks to the miracle of cryogenic stasis. The crew is understandably fascinated to find a ship from Earth€™s 20th Century though it becomes a far more provocative plot with Spock€™s revelation that the ship comes from the era of Earth€™s Third €œso called€ World War. A war identified by Doctor McCoy as €œThe Eugenics Wars.€ Words like €œsupermen€ and €œgenetically enhanced€ painted a picture of a war that was the exact opposite of the utopian future of Star Trek. For the first time fans are given a glimpse at the cost of that future and the embodiment of that is alive in sickbay---not just alive but compared to the bold men of history, Lief Erickson, Richard the Lionheart. Ricardo Montalban brought the character or Khan Noonien Singh to life with all of this in mind. In a televised sixty minutes we witnessed the genetically enhanced supermen come back to life and take over the Enterprise---nearly killing Captain Kirk and destroying the ship in the process. It is in the episode€™s final moments, though, that Gene Roddenberry€™s vision prevails along with the crew of the Enterprise. Captain Kirk, having stopped the supermen and their tyrannical leader chooses to drop all charges against Khan and his band of supermen---opting instead to give Khan exactly what he wanted, a world to conquer. In this one moment we are shown the hope for the future that Gene Roddenberry promised and that is what makes this episode stand out. Though it is Spock€™s final line that would lay the groundwork for Khan€™s return:

€œIt would be interesting, Captain, to return to that world in 100 years and learn what crop had sprung from the seed you planted today.€

Khan€™s fate remained unknown as the Enterprise warped into the sunset on to its next 57 adventures until its cancellation in 1969. The enigmatic Khan was relegated to anecdotal status at conventions and his ultimate fate the stuff of fan imagination. Something was brought to life in Khan, however, and like his televised character there was something in him that refused to die. So much so that when the time came to create a sequel to the financially successful Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Space Seed was chosen as the episode that was most deserving of a direct sequel. Everything about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was bold. In fact, Gene Roddenberry was very vocal about his distaste with the film, believing it to be too violent. The movie itself looked to the future of the characters, boldly embracing the fact that fifteen years had passed---questioning the relevance of the ship and the crew. The once again promoted Admiral James T. Kirk€™s fondness for collecting antiques is an apt analogy and the death of Spock took the story where no fan had gone before---up until that point it was extremely rare for a main character to be killed off. The villain himself though---Khan---still proved relevant, somehow; his descent into madness matched only by a hatred for Kirk that proves him worthy of the Melville quotes throughout the film. Khan himself, however, was no longer enigmatic. Fans are aware that he was a product of genetic enhancement; that he was a tyrant on Earth---centuries in the past. The mystery now is what happened over the last fifteen years? What happened to Ceti Alpha V? What drove Khan over the edge to insanity? What killed Marla McGivers? The film itself wastes little time exploring such questions, focusing instead on Khan€™s need to exact his vengeance on Kirk. This makes for an exciting 2 hours on film---the reason why Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a fan favorite in this writer€™s opinion---and draws the audience and the fan into a new enigma. What happened to Khan over that 15 years? What happened to Ceti Alpha V? What drove him insane? More mystery surrounding Khan makes him all the more enticing a character. The legacy of Khan has always been far more than his link from Earth€™s tumultuous past (A.K.A. present day) and Gene Roddenberry€™s future---though that did cement a certain amount of speculative realism into the mythos of Star Trek. Khan represents all of humanity€™s potential gone wrong. The perversion of everything mankind needs in order to achieve the ideals of Starfleet, the Federation and the end of poverty, discrimination and hate. Superior ambition, will and greed, all trademarks of Khan; all things we see in ourselves as a race and things most of us struggle against. A villain like Khan placed in the center of not one but two Star Trek stories shows us two divergent paths of humanity---utopia and dystopia. In one man Khan is the yin to the Federation€™s yang. More than anything this is what makes him intriguing---compelling, even. This is what makes him worthy of the J.J. Abrams alternate timeline. The Federation simply cannot exist, in any timeline, without Khan floating around out there in the S.S. Botany Bay waiting for James T. Kirk and the Enterprise to find him.