Starfleet Penthouse Massacre: Khan's idea, or Marcus'?

Due to missing out on the past half a year here, I don't know if this has been discussed to death already, and I'm too lazy to find out by myself, so please bear with me, or point me towards the relevant thread...

Khan lashes out against Starfleet twice, for no discernible reason: a man of his character should be above irrational attacks, and we get little personal or tactical motivation for either the S31 lab strike or the Godfather III style penthouse massacre. These do plausibly establish "John Harrison" as a dangerous madman, though, and thus splendidly support the efforts of Admiral Marcus to get a war with the Klingons going. After all, he needs

a) an excuse to send somebody stupid to fire weapons at Klingons
b) everybody non-stupid eliminated from the picture

and the penthouse massacre achieves exactly that.

Yet which of the two villains planned the strikes? Khan alone should have little reason to do Marcus' bidding in a plan where his own death at the Ground Zero of a drone strike is a major element. Except he needs to have those drones deployed because that's his clever plan of smuggling out his imprisoned crewsicles. But bombing the S31 lab seems to endanger that very thing, as the drones were being assembled right there.

Marcus alone should have no reason to ask Khan to blow up the S31 lab, though. It's a rather excessive way to justify "John Harrison" later so cleverly striking at the penthouse kowtow, as Marcus needs the S31 goodies for his war (there's even a cut scene where he's shown to be surprised by that earlier strike).

Did Khan decide to blow up S31 essentially for fun first, and then contact Marcus to convince him to organize the penthouse meeting where Khan could kill everybody but Marcus and the young idiot he needed for the Klingon-angering mission? Or did Khan perform the latter strike all on his own, too, calculating (rather riskily!) that Marcus' response would be to deploy the drones?

The chain of events that ends with Kirk delivering Khan's crew to the superman requires concerted action from Khan and Marcus. Since it best serves Khan's interests, Khan appears to be leading Marcus on a leash. But Marcus can't be agreeing to a plan that delivers his precious prisoners to Khan; his idea of the plan must be somewhat different. Does it include the massacre of Starfleet skippers, a seemingly vital element in getting Kirk launched towards Klingon space - or is that purely Khan's doing?

Timo Saloniemi

 

With the caveat that trying to figure out the motivations of Into Darkness' villains is basically a recipe for madness: I think what they're going for is that Khan is being forced to play the "renegade" at the outset by Marcus, who has his people hostage on account of his decision to try smuggling them in torpedoes for... because of reasons... but then turns the game around on Marcus when he makes contact with Kirk and reveals what's really going on. So Marcus would be responsible for the strikes.

(As to why he chooses the S31 lab? No idea. For that matter why does the bomber even go through with the strike after Khan gives up his leverage? No idea.)

 

The comics obviously aren't canon, however, they do provide a pretty good explanation for what you're asking:

Spoiler: Khan in the comics

Marcus had plastic surgery performed on Khan to change his appearance, and had him "reprogrammed" to believe he actually was a Starfleet operative named John Harrison - which he believed up until something about the shock of watching Praxis explode above him brought his memory back. After that, he was out to recover his people, but also for revenge, and not in Admiral Marcus's control. He blew up the S31 lab because that's where they did that to him, and he probably attacked the penthouse because he expected Marcus to be there.

I haven't actually read that, so if I've made any mistakes in that - which I have gathered only second-hand from internet conversations - then hopefully someone who has read it will correct. But I think I have it right.

 

What the hell was Kirk shooting in that sequence, a BB gun? Aren't Starfleet's handheld weapons better than that?

 

Maybe I filled in the blanks, but I thought that Kirk put together that Khan's attack on the S31 building required a meeting of officers (Admirals, Captains, XOs?). That put them all together in one place where Khan could easily attack and kill them all.

In my mind it was only Kirk's realization of what was about to happen that gave the only warning of what was about to happen and saved several of the officers.

But again, maybe I just filled in the blanks.

 

It's established in dialogue that Khan's plan to smuggle his crew out in the torpedoes was discovered, and he had every reason to believe his crew were dead. He bombed London so that Starfleet would assemble their senior officers (including Marcus) in one place where Khan could kill them all at once. There's little evidence on screen that Marcus orchestrates either attack or exerts any control over Khan to initiate them.

Seemed pretty straightforward and spelled out in the movie I saw.

 

Didn't Kirk damage Khan's "hovercopter" ship enough that Khan had to bail out, or transport to wherever?

 

^ He does that with the old "fire-hose in the engine" trick.

 

Ah, yes. There you go. Thanks.

Now that I think about it, the problem with that scene is that after a terror attack they should not have convened the senior officers in one place. They should have held a teleconference. Much like when there is a joint session of Congress (i.e. State of the Union Address), at least one in the chain of command is in an undisclosed location in case of an attack.

 

It would not surprise me to find that other senior officers and staff were teleconferencing in from elsewhere in Sol Sector, and other provisions such as you describe would also have been employed.

Khan had to settle for what he could get a targeting solution on under such circumstances.

 

Well, Khan's little futuro-helicopter was described as a full-fledged spacecraft when the admirals wondered why he stole a vessel that lacked warp drive. Handheld weapons have never brought down spacecraft in Star Trek, presumably because spacecraft are at least moderately shielded.

That's what Kirk figured out, what he was supposed to figure out (it's a no-brainer really - and Khan opens fire just after Kirk figures it out. It's as if Marcus had a channel open to Khan's chopper, cuing him in at the correct dramatic moment!). But that leaves wide open the question of why Khan would want to kill Starfleet admirals in the first place. Note that he does not manage to hurt Marcus, his tormentor, at all - which is extremely poor showing from a supposedly capable man. It appears he is deliberately killing everybody else but Marcus. So the question goes, is that his own idea, or a task given to him by Marcus?

But that would be a show of cowardice when the public wanted a show of confidence.

The public saw a mindlessly brutal strike against a civilian target. Starfleet would need to mount a very public response to that, even when they knew that it had actually been a surgical strike against a military target. The key difference here is that people who terror-bomb libraries aren't plausible candidates for cunningly assassinating Starfleet brass, so there would be no publicly acceptable reason for Starfleet to go on the defensive here.

So it is mindless revenge after all? I could buy that otherwise, but it smells to high heaven that every detail in Khan's actions plays right into the hands of Marcus. Why does Khan escape to the Klingon homeworld, of all places? Using a traceable device manufactured by Marcus' minions? How come this all so exactly coincides with plans Marcus must have put in motion years before, plans involving starship construction and modification and weapons manufacture and Khan's consultation?

Also, once on the Klingon planet, Khan does everything consistently with the idea that his crew is still alive and arriving as planned - he no longer attacks Starfleet but instead defends it at every turn!

Timo Saloniemi

 

You're doing an impressive set of mental gymnastics when it's all there, on screen.

As others have pointed out, Khan's attack on S31 was only a provocation in order to try and get Marcus in a room with the senior captains of Starfleet. He then did his best to take them all out before air defence arrived. It's simple, blind-rage revenge.

As for why Khan flees to Quo'nos, that is again spelled out in the script. He went to the one place he thought that Starfleet couldn't come and get him. Once Kirk arrives, Khan intervenes against the Klingons because Sulu tells him that the Enterprise has 72 'advanced torpedoes' targeted on Khan's location. Since Khan knows that his people are in the torpedoes (he put them there) it's the only way Khan can attempt to rescue his super-crew.

Now, you can criticize the inability of Khan to kill everyone except Marcus during the Starfleet attack or his choice to teleport to Quo'nos as lazy screenwriting (and I'd agree) but it's hardly some conspiracy with Marcus at the top, pulling the strings. Marcus does a good job of pivoting towards war with the Klingons with the situation he's given.

 

Blind revenge doesn't convince when Khan is supposed to be a mastermind. At the very least, he should do revenge that is aimed at those responsible for his woes. But his actions don't hurt Marcus; he doesn't, say, kill the guy, or destroy his precious dreadnought.

"Spelled out in the script" carries little weight when the whole idea is that the characters are lying bastards all. If something is said onscreen, it is untrue, at least for the first half of the movie. And going to the Klingons for safety is ridiculous: Khan has the wits and resources to remain at large indefinitely even in San Francisco - this is the same man who, at a time of heightened alert, flies a vehicle right up to a top Starfleet meeting and opens fire on it, keeping this up for several minutes with total impunity.

Umm, except that it is this very thing - now that is explicitly spelled out in the movie!

Marcus has gone to a lot of trouble to achieve exactly what transpires here: a provocation against the Klingons, using special hardware prepared long beforehand. And he achieves that thanks to the actions of a man he employs and blackmails. It would be really, really weird if he were not "pulling strings" here!

Further, killing of Starfleet officers is right up his alley, as a key element in his provocation plan is getting the Starfleet officer responsible for the provocation killed, along with his entire crew. It's not as if he could be "reacting to events" when everything he does requires lead time in planning and hardware manufacture...

I'd say there's very little lazy writing in this movie, perhaps the least for any Trek flick, although some lazy watching might be involved.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Whatever floats your boat. None of what you're saying is supported by what actually happens in the film, but when has that ever stopped a classic case of internet overthinking?

 

The bomber probably realized that if his daughter's miraculous recovery was discovered, he'd be in trouble with Starfleet, so he decided to carry out Khan/Harrison's directive and blow up the building and himself (it's possible Khan had threatened his family with death.)

 

Based on the dialogue from Khan and Marcus, here is how I think it all happened:
Marcus uses Khan's 72 crew as leverage to force Khan to help him militarize Star Fleet (build the Vengeance). Khan hides his crew in the advanced torpedoes, hoping to smuggle them out to safety but he is discovered and is forced to flee without his crew. Since he was discovered, he assumes that Marcus has found his hidden crew and killed them. Filled with rage and losing his beloved crew, Khan orchestrates the bombing of the library in order to get all the Star Fleet decision makers together in one room so that he can attack it and kill Marcus along with the rest of Star Fleet which he has no love for. Unfortunately for Khan, Kirk's quick thinking helps save Marcus although Pike dies. Khan escapes to Kronos. Marcus needs to kill Khan since a) he is extremely dangerous to have on the loose and b) Khan could expose Marcus' illegal plans, what he did with Khan, the Vengeance and his plans for war with the Klingons. So, Marcus sends Kirk and the Enterprise on a mission to launch the advanced torpedoes at Khan on Kronos. Marcus hopes to kill 3 birds with one stone, 1) Kill Khan 2) Kill Khan's crew and 3) Start his war with the Klingons in a way that he thinks will give Star Fleet the upper hand thanks to the Vengeance.

 

Sums it up nicely.

 

A couple of additional points:

1. I think Khan put his augments into the torpedos as a means of smuggling them aboard Vengeance, with the plan being that once there, he would thaw them out and have his people take over and crew that ship.

2. Everyone is forgetting "What's in the bag?" - the attack on S31 had two purposes, to obtain the transwarp beaming device* and spur Starfleet into meeting at the Daystrom room, where I'd say Khan's primary target was Marcus.

* = I wanted to mention that the transwarp beaming device might only have been capable of sending someone to Kronos, using a bunch of relays specifically set up for that trip. My guess is that once he was there Khan planned on stealing a Klingon ship when the opportunity arose.

 

Hmm. Why would Marcus have ordered exactly 72 of the long range torpedoes? If he ordered a different number, and Khan only modified the significant 72, then knowing that Sulu is aiming 72 at him should be indication of nothing much.

Also, the idea seems to be to let Kirk fire the shots, after which Kirk dies in the hands of the Klingons. Firing the shots from the Vengeance would be a bit less clever, as Marcus apparently wants to expend a Starfleet vessel so that it looks like the Klingons are the bad guys, and he certainly wouldn't want to expend his best warship!

In any case, we're left wondering whether those fancy lateral gunports are something found on every starship type, or something specifically installed into the Enterprise, with or without this specific mission in mind, or something in between.

That's a clever one! (I guess the coordinates Scotty so conveniently finds in the wreckage ought to be to the relay chain rather than to the Klingon planet, then, though. I mean, they aren't just any techno-numbers, but something Scotty can identify as spatial coordinates and associate with Qo'noS.)

Timo Saloniemi