Why Khan?

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies: Kelvin Universe' started by WarpFactorZ, Feb 27, 2013.

  1. WarpFactorZ

    WarpFactorZ Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It seems like the speculation that the villain in STID is Khan has been going on since before the movie was even planned. I have one question for those of you who still support this theory: WHY SHOULD IT BE HIM?

    What drove the drama in TWOK was the PERSONAL agenda Khan had against Kirk, an urge for vengeance that festered for 15 years on Ceti Alpha V after seeing his crew and loved ones destroyed.

    At this point in the timeline, whether original or reboot, Khan HAS NO BEEF with Kirk. If Khan is the enemy, he'll be no more original than Nero: bland villain #230975 who wants to destroy the Federation... which according to Abrams seemed to be entirely localized on the Earth, including every starship in service (if they're not in the Laurentian system, that is).

    If Khan is introduced in this capacity, it'll be lame. But personally, I don't think this is going to happen.
     
  2. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

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    Why does he need a "beef" with Kirk?

    What drove Khan in TWOK was Montalban acting chops. All that nonsense you spouted was just something extrapolated from the off-screen ethos that Meyer threw in there to provide some evidence of a plot. Really, Khan of TWOK could have just have easily been "bland villain #230975." All the stuff that made him interesting as a villain and work as a formidable advisory was left back in "Space Seed."

    The Khan of TWOK was neither physically superior nor intelligent. Those are ingredients that can work in any capacity, and if Bad Robot plans on using them, they may as well use ones that are familiar.
     
  3. HaventGotALife

    HaventGotALife Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    We don't know how old these characters are supposed to be. They could've skipped introducing Khan, played out that history off-screen, and have him a part of a plot, not the centerpiece of the story. If my instinct is right and this is going to be about Captain Kirk's mistakes, it could be a culmination of several missions that come back to bite him.
     
  4. WarpFactorZ

    WarpFactorZ Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Because that's what defined Khan's *wrath* in The WRATH of Khan!

    Off-screen ethos? Have you seen the movie? Did you miss Khan's background explanation of why they weren't on Ceti Alpha VI? The Ceti Eels, his crew, his beloved wife? That was hardly off-screen.

    I disagree. Khan's superhuman abilities were highlighted, but aside from his intellect and learning curve, there's not a lot he can do with them on a starship. They did overpower the entire crew of Regula One, though, and he does some pretty heavy power-lifting on the Reliant. Also, there's that thing about surviving 15 years in a completely hostile environment...

    Anyway, despite these super advantages, it was his *human* ego that was his downfall. THAT's the point of TWOK, and THAT's what made Khan a complex villain.

    In Space Seed, aside from throwing people against a wall and locking Kirk in a barometric chamber, how did he display his superior intellect?
     
  5. WarpFactorZ

    WarpFactorZ Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This movie is supposed to take place about 6 months after the last one.

    I suppose they could throw out a line saying something like "Hey, Jim, remember that 20th century sleeper ship we found two months ago and handed over to Starfleet instead of thawing them out ourselves? You'll never *guess* what's happened since!..." But that would be lame and contrived.

    I agree with your last point about Kirk's "mistakes," but I would be disappointed if Khan somehow figured into them at this point.
     
  6. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I don't think it will be Khan. But this...

    ... is something I really like the sound of. The implication of lots of missions between ST09 and this, possibly even getting to see some of those missions, and the culmination of that building to John Harrison, the villain, taking on the Federation. :bolian:
     
  7. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Because the writers realised that their next script was "Star Trek 2" - and they'd already joked that, in this new timeline, they could encounter old foes and we'd see events play out differently.

    If someone does/did encounter Khan's sleeper ship, at some time after Nero's arrival, anything could have happened... with a result totally different to "Space Seed".

    And irrelevant in this new timeline. The drama will be different, the agendas will be different.

    But Khan - and Klingons - are certainly Star Trek antagonists with a very high public profile. Free publicity!

    Which is what they've been doing in the IDW comic. People complaining to Pike that Kirk needed reigning in. Now, only about 2% of the audience has read those comics, but the movie will no doubt show us more evidence. The scenes in the red forest may be another incident.
     
  8. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Why does anyone assume a movie with Khan as the villain has anything to do with TWOK?

    Tim Burton made a Batman movie featuring the Joker. Big success. Many years later Nolan made another. What did the movies have in common? Not much.

    Khan is by far the best-known antagonist in Star Trek to the general audience. That is reason enough to use him. That said, TWOK was far from the most interesting story that can be constructed around such a character.
     
  9. Ovation

    Ovation Admiral Admiral

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    I guess it would depend if the current production team is looking at their movies as a closed trilogy (like the Nolan Batman movies) or as the beginning of an open-ended set of movies (like, say, the Mission Impossible movies). If the former, I think using the second film to set up Khan for the finale would be a more interesting way to go (but that's just one viewer's opinion). If the latter, then there is no unassailable reason not to go with Khan (though there is no unassailable reason not to, either).

    Of course, the "logic" of tying Khan in this setting to TWOK is rather absurd, as it is no more viable than arguing ST09 should and must have been about V'ger.
     
  10. chardman

    chardman Vice Admiral In Memoriam

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    So? He didn't "have a beef with Kirk" in "Space Seed" either, yet that didn't at all hamper his ability to be a really great villain, now did it? Despite having no "beef" with Kirk, Khan was such a compelling villain that years later they opted to revisit his character with a big budget movie.
     
  11. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

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    They're not remaking The Wrath of Khan.

    You mean a planet exploded and his wife died on screen? :confused: You're right. I guess I haven't seen it.

    You mean aside from understanding "The infinite extension of the three-dimensional region in which all matter exists," has three-dimensions?

    How do you know? Did you see it? Terrell said Khan did, but Terrell also had a magic space slug in his ear. For all you know, he was lying.

    He lifted nothing that a "normal" fit human couldn't lift under an adrenalin rush--unlike Cumby, who've already seen swing a significantly larger object around like a whiffle bat.


    By "hostile" you mean "without food or water." Once again, there were no on-screen indications he had access to either (Magic space slugs don't seem to fill many dietary needs.), so we can only assume he didn't. As he so astutely point out, he and his friends were still human. Surviving under such conditions isn't a matter of genetic superiority, but rather movie magic.

    No. It's what made him a trite, one-dimensional villain. Take Montys performance out of it, and he's no different than half the bad-guys in any other SF&F film, or, you know, Nero. The difference is Nero wasn't essential to the plot. He was just the means to the end.

    He didn't really, aside from we actually SEE him craft a plan and execute it.

    Really, though, the fact is the character has never been used to the fullest of his potential. That's why the redo.
     
  12. HaventGotALife

    HaventGotALife Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Khan is safe and free of thought. No one would accept a Batman series of movies without "the Joker." The same cannot be said for Star Trek and Khan. The only way I would hate them doing Khan is if they try to recapture the magic of Khan by ripping off Khan the way that Nemesis, Nero in 2009, etc. He set the tone for the rest of the movies, which sucks. You can't talk to a space blob, a piece of CGI, but it makes it more interesting to me because it's "strange, new life," and it usually can't be reasoned with. It's about the characters proving their mettle, using their brains, with their brawn. How would McCoy approach this problem? It says something about the character, their position on the ship. Instead, in '09, they split up the natural conclusions between the characters when they are postulating who Nero is and what he wants.
     
  13. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    What, no love for Cesar Romero in the even earlier movie? :)
     
  14. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Why, because you say so? You're mistaken.

    Says who?

    It doesn't have to be. If the studio and producers think that Khan is the character who will draw the most positive attention and publicity to the movie, that's reason enough to consider him.

    It's not like Star Trek has a history replete with awesome antagonists, after all, which is why when they come up with one that works - say, the Borg - they go back to that well over, and over, and over.

    Khan's been used in one movie. Klingons have been used in - God, how many? Enough with the Klingons and Romulans and other bumpy-headed caricatures - another advantage that Khan has for the broader audience is that he is a human being, from Earth, who because he is a man nearly of our own era is relatable and whose back story can be made to encompass all kinds of contemporary issues and angst.

    All Klingons can do is wave pointy objects and chant gutturally about honor and death. Apparently.
     
  15. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You mean a gun, something presumably meant to be held and fired?
     
  16. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's TNG's fault. Who's to say what Klingons can and can't be? Before TNG came along, they weren't like that at all. They were evil bastards that were part of some rival superpower to Starfleet. Return them to that template and the Klingons could be anything the writers want them to be. To think of them in terms of what TNG did with them is to limit their potential. Think outside the box.
     
  17. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    True - before TNG they were mustache-twirling fascists from a propagandistic war movie. Fuck the Klingons. Cool spaceships, though.

    They're using the Klingons in this movie anyway, but choosing them as an adversary is in no way "thinking outside the box." Using Khan is far more daring than dragging the bumpheads out of the costume closet One...More...Time!
     
  18. Lance

    Lance Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    You say that like it's a bad thing. ;)

    I don't know really. I see the new universe as a real opportunity to retcon the Klingons away from all that crap TNG did with them, to really open them up as actual villains again. To say that Klingons are a bad choice is almost as insular as those (other) people here who say that bringing back Khan limits what can be done with that villain versus using a brand new one. Both Khan and the Klingons are each capable of being much more than what we currently think of them as being. We're conditioned, as fans, to think of Klingons as being Space Vikings. Why not wind the clock back? Let's use the more simplisitic portrayal of them in TOS as a template for a brand new type of Klingon. Open up the Klingons again, with a fleet of rival starships, a ruthless darker reflection on a Starfleet-style superpower. Let's forget about the shitty ritualistic crap that TNG (and DS9) foisted on us. Just give them ships and make them a viable enemy again, instead of those hideous caricatures who prattle on about Blood Wine and Death With Honor that we've had to deal with ever since Ron Moore got his hands on them.

    I do appreciate what you're saying though, vis-a-vis the way Klingons have been waaaaaay over used (out of twelve movies, they've been either seen or mentioned in nine of them - in fact, all twelve if we count Worf :rommie: ). I'd like to see them used properly as badass enemies again, but Khan is definitely a (relatively) cleaner slate to work from, having only appeared twice before.
     
  19. WarpFactorZ

    WarpFactorZ Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm not saying they are. But recycling Khan because he is "Khan" -- without including the big impact the character had on the Trek universe -- doesn't make that much sense (other than some "nod" to the fans).

    Furthermore, I think it would majorly backfire, for the reasons I listed. Khan's major role in Trekdom was as Kirk's foil.

    Whether you *saw* it or not doesn't change the fact that it was an explicit part of the story.

    So, who trashed Regular One? Terrell and Chekov?

    He lifted Chekov clean off the ground with one hand (that one *was* on-screen). And the "bat" Cumberbatch wields, as some else pointed out, is a gun.


    I simply don't see what's left to use. He'd become a supervillain with superpowers, and would basically be someone the Avengers need to stop. In that sense, why do we need Khan again? Make him someone else.
     
  20. Lord Garth FOI

    Lord Garth FOI Commander Red Shirt

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    Re:Klingons
    Since next gen ruined them that is