Picard vs Khan??

[Spicy Thunder]

They would have forcefully quoted classic literature at each other until one of them died of old age.

 

[Makarov]

Picard would knock Khan out with a single sucker punch

 

[Prax]

It might have been interesting to see Khan on TNG, but only if he was more like Space Seed Khan.

The only problem with it is that Picard acts all weird and annoying around TOS characters. The episode would have a good chance of being stupid stupid.

 

[Lance]

I honestly think "Space Seed" and Khan's rep got retroactively inflated by TWOK. It was never an episode that I ever heard much love for prior to the movie.

Yeah, Khan was always conceptually an interesting character, but "Space Seed" handles that well enough on it's own, and the ending poses an interesting philosophical dilemma (what do you *do* to punish the unstoppable enemy?), but there's nothing there IMHO which hints at or suggests an 'ultimate nemesis' for Kirk any more than, say, Kang from "The Day of the Dove" is his ultimate nemesis. He was a decent villain of the week. His character, and importance, has largely become over-inflated by pop culture osmosis as much as by anything else.

It's very telling that in TWOK, Khan has made Kirk *his* mortal enemy after many years of obsessing, but when Khan appears on the Enterprise viewscreen, Kirk's reaction is one of recognition and a little surprise to see him, but otherwise not particularly fussed that it's Khan *specifically*. Fast forward to "Into Darkness", where Nimoy!Spock claims Khan is the deadliest enemy they ever faced, which is... a stretch, IMHO.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Well, to be fair, Spock Prime did die because of Khan. And when TWOK happened, Khan's maneuvering did almost get everyone killed.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Well, to be fair, Spock Prime did die because of Khan. And when TWOK happened, Khan's maneuvering did almost get everyone killed.

Always wondered if Spock Primes line 'at great cost' referred to himself (which would seem very self serving and unlike Spock) or if he means bringing down Khan caused all kinds of deaths on the Enterprise (including his own) but more so it made Kirk go all 'Endgame' which led to the destruction of the Enterprise and the death of Kirks son which Spock logically must have felt was partly his fault* (I always felt spocks 'at great cost' line mirrored Sareks line in III 'at what cost .your ship your son')

*then again David and Saavik would've been blown to smithereens had they not beamed down to genesis to investigate Spock body

 

[Peach Wookiee]

There's also the deaths of the Regula scientists, Scotty's nephew and other cadets, Captain Terrell and other officers of the Reliant.

 

[Lance]

That's one of the things I most love about TWOK. Yes, I argue that Khan is maybe not Kirk's arch enemy, bwahahaha, twirls moustache, as popular osmosis might have it, but Khan does function as Kirk's nemesis (in the traditional meaning of the word) in that he acts as something of a mirror to Kirk's own flaws. Khan is only slightly responsible for those deaths, including Spock's, inasmuch as Khan is the one pointing the gun and pulling the trigger, but it's Kirk's own hubris that is the chink in the armour that Khan exploits. Kirk kills those people, through his belief in his own gut instinct over adherence to regulation, which has never failed him before, but which catastrophically deserts him now. Khan also represents a reminder that Kirk has gotten old. Seeing him on the screen isn't necessarily something Kirk recognises as a major threat in itself, but it is further reminding him that his glory days of galavanting across the cosmos are a part of the past. Khan is a living representation of the young man Kirk was in his prime, and the choices that young Kirk made.

That's why TWOK is a great movie, and why it enhances virtually every character in it. Layers. Shades of grey. Khan is only an... adequate... villain, I would suggest, but one which is perfectly placed inside that movie to antagonize Kirk at a particularly raw time of the Admiral's life. These traits are good, but they are not to the 'Khan is the most brilliant and deadly villain in all of Trek' reputation espoused by popular culture. Including later incarnations of Trek.

Heck, for all the kvetching about Khan in the likes of Deep Space Nine's "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", the original "Space Seed" actually takes some pains to describe Khan as one of the more benevolent of Earth's superhumans...