Who is John Harrison (Possible SPOILERS or Insane Babbling)

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies: Kelvin Universe' started by The Green Mushroom, Dec 11, 2012.

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Who is John Harrison?

  1. A new character named John Harrison

    23.6%
  2. A new character with the psuedonym John Harrison

    14.5%
  3. Khan

    17.3%
  4. Gary Mitchell

    17.3%
  5. Harry Mudd

    2.7%
  6. Nero

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  7. Trelane

    0.9%
  8. Other (Please Explain)

    23.6%
  1. Titus Andronicus

    Titus Andronicus Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    To be honest, I've started to wonder the same thing. To me, in the trailer at least, it almost seems as though Harrison is saving Kirk and co. from the Klingons.
     
  2. Bengoshi2000

    Bengoshi2000 Ensign Red Shirt

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    Now we're making sense! Spock and Spock Prime are alternate universe incarnations of William Bell. :guffaw:

    On a serious note, though...

    FRINGE has shown that JJ likes to see how an established cast of characters can be expanded upon by depicting them in an alternate universe. No doubt that's what we have going on in ST since Nero's intervention.

    My gut feeling is that the WOK elements we've seen are not just JJ's homage to TOS, but in the AbramsVerse, these similar events happen because they were destined to.

    Ok, so does JJ re-hash Khan? I hope not. But it seems that the Eugenics Wars is a lush garden to pick from and it's not too much to ask the question, "Were there any 'eugenics' kept in secret' after the war?

    Either way, I've already requested to take 5/17 off from work!
     
  3. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Except that Abrams isn't really the head creative mind behind Fringe. He doesn't have time to run TV series now that he's a big movie director, so most of the stuff on TV that has his name on it doesn't really have his direct or close involvement. Fringe was created by Abrams, Kurtzman, & Orci, but K&O haven't actually written for the show since midway through the first season and Abrams hasn't written for it since the second-season premiere. For most of its existence, the show's writing staff has been run by Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman (though Wyman only came aboard in season 2 and Pinkner is not working on the current, final season). And the alternate-universe aspects of Fringe didn't really emerge until season 2. I'd say they probably owe more to Pinkner and Wyman than to Abrams or K&O.



    Except it wouldn't make sense to rehash TWOK at this point. The relevant story would be "Space Seed." People keep forgetting that. There's no way that the storyline of TWOK -- about Khan seeking vengeance on Kirk for stranding him on a hellhole a decade and a half earlier -- would make any sense at this point in the timeline, when Kirk has only been in command of the ship for less than a year and has never met Khan.
     
  4. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Okay, here's one - if it's been proposed already I apologize for missing it.

    Cumberbatch's emphasis in his final line of the trailer is "anything you would not do for your family?"

    Harrison is a descendant of Khan Noonian Singh. The "supermen" continue to exist as a secret clan, and the information about the Botany Bay has been passed down for generations. Harrison knows approximately where to look for it, in fact. So his life's goal is to enlist the resources to locate it and revive his ancestors.

    We're going to get Khan from these guys one way or the other, eventually.

    The likelihood of that may be contradicted by a stray line somewhere in one of the Enterprise "Augment" episodes, but big deal. ;)
     
  5. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Sounds like a good plot.

    Enterprise did introduce a group of Augments raised in secret by Arik Soong.
     
  6. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The idea that a guy like Khan didn't father a number of children during his reign is...not terribly plausible. What became of all of them?

    In fact, the whole notion of a moratorium on genetic engineering when there must have been hundreds if not thousands of "superchildren" by the time eighty adult political/military leaders secretly boarded a spacecraft is...rather a conundrum. How were all of these folks descendants prevented from breeding?
     
  7. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    I once played around with the idea that there were descendants of the Augments in the 23rd Century, but they were confined and controlled by Earth's government.
     
  8. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, that really raises questions about the kind of government Earth has as opposed to the way it's usually described.

    Now, of course, that would apply to the children that they knew about. And how resentful do you suppose that the families who escaped discovery would be of such treatment?

    Maybe angry enough, after a long while, to detonate some things.

    Cumberbatch as described his character as a terrorist. One might ask what sort of causes and conditions give rise to terrorists (particularly of the fictional variety). Certainly deep grievances borne for generations by a people who consider themselves oppressed and apart from the culture in power help. ;)
     
  9. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    If Secton 31 in Enterprise and DS9 demonstrated anything, it's that the governing authorities of both Earth and the Federation had a dark and dishonest underbelly that often not only covered up and hid things to keep them from the public but also resorted to striking secret deals with their enemies, violence and even murder to accomplish their goals.

    The supposedly pristine, knight-in-shining armor governments of Earth and the Federation would probably be more than capable of hiding the existence of a group of potentially dangerous human beings that had been legally outlawed generations earlier. If that's indeed what happens in the new film it won't be any big revelation to some Trek fans.
     
  10. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

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    At first, I was convinced he was Khan. Not my first choice to play him, but he made a lot of sense until more information came about.

    Now, I'm fairly certain that he is, in fact, Garth of Izar as a couple of others believe. Garth was a member of Starfleet, a contemporary of Pike, a masterful tactician, and a looneybird bent on genocide and universal domination who was eventually locked away. The fact that he learned how to change his shape fits in really well with having an assumed name (which only makes sense since there wouldn't have been any reason to keep it a secret for so long if he was in fact a new character), that he was an explorer, that he is a recognizable character from TOS, and that revealing one of his pseudonyms is a way to give people what they want without letting the actual secret out all fits.

    At least far more than Gary Mitchell or the others listed on the poll anyway. The fact that Cumberpatch bears a (very, very slight) resemblance to him is just icing on the cake.
     
  11. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's not Garth of Izar.
     
  12. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Earth seems quite paranoid about genetic engineering, even to the point of pushing it's views down the throats of the rest of the Federation. In DS9 we've seen there are severe penalties for using genetic engineering illegally On the other hand, the Federation has no qualms about using genetically engineered people to further its aims. So I can imagine there might be some resentment.;)
     
  13. Ovation

    Ovation Admiral Admiral

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    Of course it's not Garth. It's Lazarus. :p

    I don't think we'll see Khan in this movie but I think he'll be in the background indirectly. He'll likely figure more prominently in the next movie, though I can imagine scenarios where he is not central to the story (perhaps as a flashback--Abrams loves them--that ties into events set up in this movie). Or maybe he'll be the main adversary in the next film. But nothing I've seen or read about the current film makes me think Khan will be a major character this time out.
     
  14. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    It's also not lupus.
     
  15. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

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    It is Garth of Izar.

    Look ma, I can make pointless statements, too. (Oh, and I also listed reasons backing my belief up, too. But that's neither here nor there.)

    Speaking of, however, I just remembered the most damning reason of all that leads me to think its Garth. The first few minutes of the IMAX preview is all about him showing up to offer help healing a little girl. The whole reasoning behind his shapechanging abilities was "cellular metamorphosis" that he, himself, was taught in order to help heal himself. That offer certainly isn't anything that any of the other guesses on the poll could offer (aside from the "new guy" options, of course).
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2012
  16. Ryan8bit

    Ryan8bit Commodore Commodore

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    What would have stopped him or his clan in the main timeline from finding it before Kirk did?
     
  17. Jackson_Roykirk

    Jackson_Roykirk Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    No. However, his name spoken backward sounds like "turn me on, dead man".
     
  18. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Nah, it sounds like "I buried Khan".
     
  19. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    All I get when I play it backwards is "Obey your coming Lizard overlords."

    The hell?!
     
  20. Lord Garth FOI

    Lord Garth FOI Commander Red Shirt

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    He will be revealed as Khan. They are making this film for the masse who thinks Star Trek is for dorks but you know, khan was really cool

    Don't go waffling on me now brother