Is Khan really Kirk's greatest adversary?

Kirk met and defeated more adversaries, that were more diverse and powerful, than anyone could realistically expect in a space career. A lot of stories set out to give him the biggest challenge they could. As with James Bond, there comes a point where you have to take one episode at a time, and not dwell too much on what he's done before.

 

This is how I see it as well. When people say "Khan is Trek's greatest villain", what they are really saying is that TWOK was Trek's greatest movie.

Others have called it: aside from getting caught with his britches down, Kirk manhandled Khan and his 'superior intellect' like a chump.

That does beg the question, however: who was Kirk's most dangerous enemy? I might make an argument for the opening adventure of the series: Gary Mitchell in WNMHGB. He knew Kirk well, Kirk had a weakness for him due to their friendship, and Mitchell possessed godlike powers and was losing his conscience and humanity. That was definitely a touch-and-go situation.

Charlie X was pretty damn dangerous too, and unpredictable the way only a teen with raging hormones can be. If his keepers hadn't reined him back in, Kirk and co would have had a real problem on their hands.

 

Rojan wasn't Kirk's greatest adversary! By the standards of Kirk's typical month, defeating Rojan was "super-easy, barely an inconvenience."

 

I concur it’s the hype of TWOK that has many buying into Khan being Kirk’s greatest adversary.

Having said that we have to remember that Khan almost pulled off taking over the Enterprise in “Space Seed.” He arrogantly assumed he had totally won over Marla McGiver’s loyalty to him and totally discounted the possibility of her having any lingering doubt and loyalty to her shipmates and her commanding officer. She obviously had second thoughts upon seeing Khan in total control.

She didn’t quite have the courage to challenge Khan openly, but she had enough to help Kirk get free to give him a chance to defeat Khan.

Khan’s weakness was his own arrogance and sense of superiority, and totally discounting anyone else being able to challenge him.

 

10, 11, whatever it takes.

I was thinking the capture of the Enterprise. I'm not sure how many (if any) crew were actually killed. They did regain the Enterprise at the end, so maybe loss was poor wording.

 

The Enterprise got taken over enough times that Khan’s action was hardly unique.

 

Let’s just pretend it’s 1970, and we have no frame of reference for anything that came after TOS was cancelled. Would Khan, as he appeared in TOS, be considered the greatest adversary of the series? I would say he’d be a VERY strong contender.

Why? Because he actually succeeded in subjecting our main crew. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura on their own had no hope. Kirk was just seconds from suffocating to death. Spock was being marched to his death. Everyone was hopeless against Khan’s followers. It is only because of Marla McGivers’ change of heart and Khan’s hubris that they had a fighting chance, rather than their own ingenuity like in so many other episodes. That’s why Khan was unique, and why Harve Bennett thought he made a compelling adversary to bring back in TWOK.

 

But aside from Khan the movie has many memorable moments. Most of which (in analog) were missing in subsequent films.
- Kirk has a son who hates him but eventually changes his mind
- Kirk has a former lover who is actually significant
- Spock of course makes the ultimate sacrifice
- Kirk is “going senile” and really loses to Khan twice, barely escaping
- Genesis is a high stakes weapon/wonder and he can’t even save that

THAT is a lot of development and it is well executed. The space battle was icing on that cake.

 

Are you trying to say that like truly poor marksmen they keep missing the target?

 

Thank you for this post. It perfectly verbalized every quarrel I’ve had with Wrath of Khan’s status in the franchise. As stated before, the whole “laughing at the superior intellect” is the core of what Khan represents: a human can overthrow a superhuman. Joachim rightfully pointed out that Khan can just be on his merry way conquering the universe with the Genesis torpedo, but he stupidly pursued Kirk into the nebula and had to succumb to suicide to (what he believed) defeat him. I’ve always argued that Kruge was a better villain than Khan and more worthy of appreciation.

 

Kruge was smart and ruthless, but not up to dealing with Kirk. He just got suckered by someone better than him at Klingon Guile.

Looking back, Lloyd's portrayal of Kruge was almost a precursor to the Klingon culture we eventually got with TNG.

 

You left out the music, one of the greatest film scores of all time.

 

Well, honestly, Kirk is the hero. That's gonna pretty much apply to anybody. Even Soren didn't "kill" Kirk in the final cut of the film.

 

It’s Horner’s stock variation #4 as heard in a dozen early 80s flicks he scored.

 

Doesn’t make it less great.

 

I actually think that Khan is Kirk's greatest adversary.

Now, that doesn't mean this is the "best" or "my favorite." I'm thinking of it from a standpoint of pure impact.

1. Khan is engineered to be superior, intelligent, strong, arrogant. He is physically and mentally superior to Kirk, despite Kirk's ability to overcome that and get the best of him.
2. He was the first bad guy to hijack the Enterprise on the show, and if it wasn't for Marla's quick flip-flop, Kirk was moments from being killed in the decompression chamber, with Spock slotted to be next.
3. The events of TWOK are well known to everyone, but if you think about it...what happened in that film as a result of the conflict had more impact on the TOS universe than anything else.
-Khan crippled the Enterprise essentially beyond repair, sealing her fate
-Many crewmembers / cadets were killed or wounded. A member of Scotty's family died
-Spock is forced to sacrifice himself to allow the Enterprise to escape intact.
-The incident re-introduces Kirk to Carol and David, which ends up with the consequence of Kirk's son being executed by the Klingons
-Khan's theft and subsequent detonation of the Genesis Device re-intensifies the cold war with the Klingon Empire, results in a deadly skirmish, and a major intergalactic incident
-Kirk is demoted to Captain due to his actions associated with Spock's death and resurrection, and given a new starship command as a result.
-Kirk and company are uniquely positioned to save Earth from the whale probe due to the fall-out of all this.

I'd say no other adversary has had the impact on TOS or its characters than Khan has. For that reason, I'd have to say that I believe Khan is absolutely Kirk's "greatest adversary." That doesn't mean "most powerful" or "my favorite..." but from an impact standpoint, I don't believe anyone else even comes close. Khan blew the doors off the entire Trek universe at the time. That's saying something.

 

Well, not so fast.

There was LT. Riley in 'The Naked Time'
There was Charlie X
Spock hijacked the ship in "The Menagerie"
Trelane stopped the ship from leaving his planetoid in "Squire of Gothos"
The Metrons completely disabled the ship in "Arena."

All of these were before 'Space Seed.' So the Enterprise had been hijacked plenty of times before Khan came along.

 

...Is there an echo in here?

 

The last three though were done in subsequent films.

- Data makes the ultimate sacrifice in X
- Picard in FC is "going senile" in the face of the Borg in VIII
-The Son’a Collector in IX (high stakes wonder), Thaleron in X (high stakes weapon) and red matter in XI(high stakes weapon/wonder)

Its the first two that have never been done again.

As for whether Khan is Kirk's greatest adversary, the only other major ones are the Klingons. And Klingons are just general antagonists in Trek.

Kirk also has a history of almost never facing off against a number of previously encountered adversaries again. Not like later captains. And anyone that did get to meet Kirk a second time did so in TAS.

Khan meets Kirk again in a movie, and one that is critically acclaimed at that. No one else can claim that.

 

Even though the writers claim that Nimoy is playing the same Spock from the series, I have a hard believing that even original Spock would say that. However, original Spock is still the one character that I could see SAYING that, because Khan's actions led to Spock's death. I do not think that Scotty or Uhura, or even Kirk would likely say that Khan was the worst villain they faced, but Spock possibly could.

I'm not even sure that Spock would really mean it exactly as it sounded, since he was apparently preparing his younger self to have to die in the line of duty. You would not say, "Prepare to die to save the crew from the 3rd worst guy we ever defeated!" LOL.

As I recall, this (Star Trek II) is Horner's first movie score. So this one would create a pattern many others follow. It is noteworthy in this regard.