What do people know about Khan in Star Trek? And are there differences between Trek and Trek?
In TOS, Kirk did not recognize the man by his looks, or even by him calling himself Khan. He quickly deduced that the man from the 1990s might be an Augment, but even this didn't make the name Khan ring any bells. With all this information, a library search then easily turned up Khan's entire history, though, including the fact that he held some fame in the Augment circles: "The last to be overthrown", "The best and the most dangerous". Apparently, then, when the heroes were having their little joke on Spock's expense by praising Khan, they were merely quoting stuff they had just read, and had no real previous knowledge of Khan and his antics. And thus we learn that recorded history labeled Khan a benign tyrant.
In ST:ID, Kirk did not recognize the man by his looks, or even by him calling himself Khan. But this Khan freely reveals his true nature, origin and history, which Kirk wholly accepts. Spock wants to know more, and asks himself - suggesting either that he had no access to history books, or that he didn't trust those books. And sure enough, Spock Prime adds the previously unknown tidbit that Khan had genocidal aims. Meanwhile, Admiral Marcus has told Kirk the previously unknown tidbit that Khan was a war criminal.
Are the two Khans different, then? Genocidal aims were not mentioned in "Space Seed", but Khan there was credited with "no massacres" - so perhaps he was a loser who never got to pursue his aims? War crimes were not mentioned in "Space Seed", either. But should we trust Admiral Marcus there? By his own words "He's playing you, son"... Marcus says Khan was condemned to death. Khan himself says he was condemned to exile. Lo, Khan is alive - so Marcus is a liar. Doesn't mean Khan wouldn't be, too.
Certainly nothing about Khan's face creates a contradiction between the two stories. His face isn't memorable enough to be recalled by random starship skippers or science officers in the 23rd century. OTOH, if he changed it for ST:ID purposes, this wouldn't crop up if the heroes never get a chance to properly study those historical records, and both the hectic pacing of the events and the fact that Spock consults Spock instead of (in addition to?) the ship's computer banks support this idea.
Timo Saloniemi
In TOS, Kirk did not recognize the man by his looks, or even by him calling himself Khan. He quickly deduced that the man from the 1990s might be an Augment, but even this didn't make the name Khan ring any bells. With all this information, a library search then easily turned up Khan's entire history, though, including the fact that he held some fame in the Augment circles: "The last to be overthrown", "The best and the most dangerous". Apparently, then, when the heroes were having their little joke on Spock's expense by praising Khan, they were merely quoting stuff they had just read, and had no real previous knowledge of Khan and his antics. And thus we learn that recorded history labeled Khan a benign tyrant.
In ST:ID, Kirk did not recognize the man by his looks, or even by him calling himself Khan. But this Khan freely reveals his true nature, origin and history, which Kirk wholly accepts. Spock wants to know more, and asks himself - suggesting either that he had no access to history books, or that he didn't trust those books. And sure enough, Spock Prime adds the previously unknown tidbit that Khan had genocidal aims. Meanwhile, Admiral Marcus has told Kirk the previously unknown tidbit that Khan was a war criminal.
Are the two Khans different, then? Genocidal aims were not mentioned in "Space Seed", but Khan there was credited with "no massacres" - so perhaps he was a loser who never got to pursue his aims? War crimes were not mentioned in "Space Seed", either. But should we trust Admiral Marcus there? By his own words "He's playing you, son"... Marcus says Khan was condemned to death. Khan himself says he was condemned to exile. Lo, Khan is alive - so Marcus is a liar. Doesn't mean Khan wouldn't be, too.
Certainly nothing about Khan's face creates a contradiction between the two stories. His face isn't memorable enough to be recalled by random starship skippers or science officers in the 23rd century. OTOH, if he changed it for ST:ID purposes, this wouldn't crop up if the heroes never get a chance to properly study those historical records, and both the hectic pacing of the events and the fact that Spock consults Spock instead of (in addition to?) the ship's computer banks support this idea.
Timo Saloniemi
