The Path Of Khan...

[SpyOne]

Yes, Khan was surprised by the shields going down and reluctant to admit that he had lost what had been a significant advantage.
But at the beginning of the engagement he couldn't have known he'd gain that advantage. Certainly he hoped to catch Enterprise by surprise, but it was a very real possibility that Enterprise would raise shields as Reliant approached. Khan's overconfidence manifests there in his belief that he will gain the upper hand against an experienced captain and (what he must assume is) an experienced crew.

My point at the end of my post was that Khan is so bent on revenge that it is pretty clear that when splitting his forces he would give the order "nobody but me kills Kirk," which would explain why Tyrell didn't immediately kill Kirk.

 

[Discofan]

Yes, Khan was surprised by the shields going down and reluctant to admit that he had lost what had been a significant advantage.
But at the beginning of the engagement he couldn't have known he'd gain that advantage. Certainly he hoped to catch Enterprise by surprise, but it was a very real possibility that Enterprise would raise shields as Reliant approached. Khan's overconfidence manifests there in his belief that he will gain the upper hand against an experienced captain and (what he must assume is) an experienced crew.

My point at the end of my post was that Khan is so bent on revenge that it is pretty clear that when splitting his forces he would give the order "nobody but me kills Kirk," which would explain why Tyrell didn't immediately kill Kirk.

But then again Khan thought it was very important to kill Kirk and you could see the look of upset on his face when it didn't happen. He also fell rather easily for Spock's simple trick of using Days instead of Hours and Hours instead of minutes and was confident that Kirk would never be rescued from the place where he was. For a superhuman being, he's really easily fooled.

 

[Maurice]

...would explain why Tyrell didn't immediately kill Kirk.

Terrell. Tyrell makes replicants.

 

[Maurice]

More or less.

The story goes (at least insofar as I understand it) that Bennett wasn't happy with any of Sowards's scripts (there were a couple) and they were running out of time before they needed to start shooting. So he tasked Meyer to do a whole rewrite. Meyer then hammered-pages in a hodgepodge of the Sowards scripts, Bennett's notes, and his own ideas in what was essentially a single weekend.

The result was more or less the shooting script.

Meyer turned the script around in 13 days. Not over a weekend.

 

[SpyOne]

But then again Khan thought it was very important to kill Kirk and you could see the look of upset on his face when it didn't happen. He also fell rather easily for Spock's simple trick of using Days instead of Hours and Hours instead of minutes and was confident that Kirk would never be rescued from the place where he was. For a superhuman being, he's really easily fooled.

Yes, Khan is easily fooled, especially if the lies he's being told exaggerate his own success.
And he habitually underestimates Kirk since he doesn't think of Kirk as a worthy adversary but rather as a lesser man who happened to get lucky with a trick.
Because his ego is bigger than his intellect. And, because Kirk knows about that, Kirk deliberately pushes that button at every opportunity, grinding in every little victory in an effort to make Khan increasingly irrational throughout their interactions. Because angry Khan makes mistakes.

But that doesn't really matter when considering whether Khan might have had multiple plans for multiple contingencies at a much earlier point in the story.
How much information did Khan have about where Kirk was, how long it would take him to get to Regula, and which direction he'd be coming from.
Does it seem plausible that Khan would have a plan in case he failed to intercept the Enterprise and Kirk got to Regula before facing Khan? Or at least that he might have such a plan?

Terrell. Tyrell makes replicants.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[MAGolding]

Terrell. Tyrell makes replicants.

And in 1100 Sir Walter Tyrell "accidentally" shot King William II while hunting. His possible descendant, William Tyrrell, was beheaded in 1462, and William's son Sir James Tyrrell (c.1455-1502) was allegedly the leader of the killers of King Edward V and Richard Duke of York in 1483.

 

[Timo]

Which makes it a wonder the last of the Tyrells was poisoned just last year.

Khan indeed strikes me as a "master planner" who, despite being long on the teeth and mad as a hatter, still thinks in terms of those super-clever nested plans that once served him so well in ruling over millions. Those plans just happen to be as crazy as their creator, but woe the underling who points this out.

The exact circumstances of Khan abandoning the Lethargic Duo on the station still cause confusion. Did Khan leave in a hurry, without having acquired Genesis, because he had a meeting with Kirk? Our heroes think so, and the Duo outright claims so, but we see it's not quite true - Khan is on his way to somewhere already when Kirk's ship is spotted and an argument ensues, as the result of which Khan "alters course" to intercept Kirk.

Now, we could say Khan always was en route to intercept Kirk and only made a minor course correction to achieve this. But this ignores the more important elements of the scene: 1) that Kirk is only spotted in this scene, meaning the spotting did not prompt Khan to leave Regula One in a hurry, and 2) that an argument is due when Kirk is spotted, and not at the putative earlier date when Khan decided to intercept Kirk.

Thankfully, the wording of the scene is ambiguous enough to allow it to take place twenty seconds after undocking at Regula One, negating both 1) and 2). But it's still odd for Joachim to raise the issue of "should we even be doing this?" only after the supermen have already placed the Duo in that crate as part of a Big Plan.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Discofan]

Which makes it a wonder the last of the Tyrells was poisoned just last year.

Khan indeed strikes me as a "master planner" who, despite being long on the teeth and mad as a hatter, still thinks in terms of those super-clever nested plans that once served him so well in ruling over millions. Those plans just happen to be as crazy as their creator, but woe the underling who points this out.

The exact circumstances of Khan abandoning the Lethargic Duo on the station still cause confusion. Did Khan leave in a hurry, without having acquired Genesis, because he had a meeting with Kirk? Our heroes think so, and the Duo outright claims so, but we see it's not quite true - Khan is on his way to somewhere already when Kirk's ship is spotted and an argument ensues, as the result of which Khan "alters course" to intercept Kirk.

Now, we could say Khan always was en route to intercept Kirk and only made a minor course correction to achieve this. But this ignores the more important elements of the scene: 1) that Kirk is only spotted in this scene, meaning the spotting did not prompt Khan to leave Regula One in a hurry, and 2) that an argument is due when Kirk is spotted, and not at the putative earlier date when Khan decided to intercept Kirk.

Thankfully, the wording of the scene is ambiguous enough to allow it to take place twenty seconds after undocking at Regula One, negating both 1) and 2). But it's still odd for Joachim to raise the issue of "should we even be doing this?" only after the supermen have already placed the Duo in that crate as part of a Big Plan.

Timo Saloniemi

I think you're onto something, maybe initially Khan was only planning to kill Kirk through Terell and Chekov and later changed his mind when he saw Kirk's ship. That would explain Joachim's objection. Of course, that doesn't explain what Terrell said to Kirk about Khan having to hurry because he wanted to blow him to bits but maybe that's due to Terrell's being under the influence of that parasite. Note that neither Chekov nor Terrell said anything about being surprised that Kirk survived his encounter with Khan.

 

[Timo]

The saving grace is that Khan indeed caught Kirk alive. Kirk was at his mercy, barring secret code sequences that drop Khan's pants at just the wrong moment. So Khan could have been saving Chekov purely for a happy reunion where Chekov would be tasked with skinning his former captain alive, or whatever method of slow death Khan had planned for his opponent. Certainly it need not be Khan's plan to blow Kirk to bits with a photon torpedo in deep space when he could - because from "he could" it directly follows "he need not". His revenge would be served properly chilled on a more sedate schedule, with Kirk and a select few of his officers still alive and watching as the Enterprise explodes...

Timo Saloniemi