• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Why did people complain about Khan's white-washing in STID...

So have we settled on anything about nuKhan? Is the comic's explanation (that he was surgically altered) a reasonable one?

No. It would have only been a reasonable explanation if it had been made clear in the movie.
I should not be required to read supplementary material to understand what's going on.

I don't like the movie as a whole so it doesn't bother me too much who plays the villain. I just don't like their (real life) justification and I'm not a fan of Cumberbatch, in any of his roles.
 
We are assuming evens on the Botany Bay repreat and Kahn's chamber activates first. However that might not have been the case (luck). There were more chambers on the Botany Bay. Not all of Kahn's people survived the hundreds of years. Also the ship would have been discovered roughly nine years earlier.

That's all I'm saying. ;)

Otherwise, I have no problem with Cumberbatch not being Spanish or Indian or even not having a Coppertone Tan™.
 
^ If Harrison was not Khan, then where WAS Khan?

It'd be unlikely that he'd simply be one of the other people in the tubes, since Khan - as leader - would have been woken up first. So if Harrison hadn't been Khan, then something must have HAPPENED to Khan...like if Section 31 tried to wake him up and his life support system failed, killing him. Then there'd be a missing augment...

People make mistakes. Marcus made a couple of serious ones. Who's to say that he didn't accidentally wake up the wrong guy? One more vicious than Khan, who was only tamed by his loyalty to the real Khan?

I always assumed that the cryogenic system on the Botany Bay was designed to wake Khan up first. So there'd be no risk of Marcus waking up somebody else, because it would be automatic.

In any case, once Harrison claimed to be Khan, wouldn't it be fairly easy for the Enterprise crew to check to see if it was really Khan? DNA samples, for instance?
 
^ If Harrison was not Khan, then where WAS Khan?

It'd be unlikely that he'd simply be one of the other people in the tubes, since Khan - as leader - would have been woken up first. So if Harrison hadn't been Khan, then something must have HAPPENED to Khan...like if Section 31 tried to wake him up and his life support system failed, killing him. Then there'd be a missing augment...

People make mistakes. Marcus made a couple of serious ones. Who's to say that he didn't accidentally wake up the wrong guy? One more vicious than Khan, who was only tamed by his loyalty to the real Khan?

I always assumed that the cryogenic system on the Botany Bay was designed to wake Khan up first. So there'd be no risk of Marcus waking up somebody else, because it would be automatic.

In any case, once Harrison claimed to be Khan, wouldn't it be fairly easy for the Enterprise crew to check to see if it was really Khan? DNA samples, for instance?

Well, I don't think there would be any DNA records from that time to match against. Spock, in "Space Seed" says something to the effect that the records were not preserved well. Khan, in that instance, was identified by visual record, I believe, not by any DNA testing.

I could be wrong though.
 
Hmm perhaps the PrimeUniverse and NuUniverse split at the sequencing of Khan's DNA way back in the 20th century. PrimeU got the IWantToBeCaeser Khan and NuU got IAmNomad Khan.:lol:.
 
As many time JJ fans need to find reasons to defend the indefensible STID by launching fruitless attacks on TOS.

Why do we need to defend it, the movie made money, got good reviews, and got a sequel greenlit. Thats pretty much the definition of success.

Slide that question over to this board's JJ-ST fans who feel the need to defend it...usually attacking TOS along the way.

Examples? Many of the "JJ-ST fans" count TOS as their favorite Trek show.
 
Why do we need to defend it, the movie made money, got good reviews, and got a sequel greenlit. Thats pretty much the definition of success.

Slide that question over to this board's JJ-ST fans who feel the need to defend it...usually attacking TOS along the way.

Examples? Many of the "JJ-ST fans" count TOS as their favorite Trek show.

Search through JJ-ST threads over the past couple of years; there's more than enough anti-TOS / pro-JJ posts.
 
Slide that question over to this board's JJ-ST fans who feel the need to defend it...usually attacking TOS along the way.

Examples? Many of the "JJ-ST fans" count TOS as their favorite Trek show.

Search through JJ-ST threads over the past couple of years; there's more than enough anti-TOS / pro-JJ posts.
Search them? I've participated in most of them. Can't say I've noticed a lot of anti-TOS statements. Though I'm sure there are some.
 
Examples? Many of the "JJ-ST fans" count TOS as their favorite Trek show.

Search through JJ-ST threads over the past couple of years; there's more than enough anti-TOS / pro-JJ posts.
Search them? I've participated in most of them. Can't say I've noticed a lot of anti-TOS statements. Though I'm sure there are some.

Very, very few, usually focused on the silly and inconsistent elements of TOS. Those statements are usually prompted by a person claiming that nuTrek is an abomination due to some minor inconsistency or silly scene.
 
Slide that question over to this board's JJ-ST fans who feel the need to defend it...usually attacking TOS along the way.

Examples? Many of the "JJ-ST fans" count TOS as their favorite Trek show.

Search through JJ-ST threads over the past couple of years; there's more than enough anti-TOS / pro-JJ posts.

Isn't that kind of like saying "Search the TOS board boards for anti-JJ statements?" There is of course going to be varied opinions regarding the films.

Personally, TOS is my favorite series, as mentioned. It is what got me in to Star Trek, and was a lot of fun to read about when I was younger.

One doesn't have to like TOS and hate JJ or vice-versa in order to like something the other. That's like saying that since I like Star Trek I must hate Star Wars or Babylon 5.
 
Looking at the opposite side, the Harewood family is obviously of South Asian descent (judging by the actors cast). Why an English surname? Wouldn't a name reflecting their ethnicity have been better?

I'm wondering if it was a conscious choice, or as Bob Ross would say, just a happy accident. ;)

Well, Noel Clarke, the actor who played the husband/father, was of black African, not South Asian, descent. His parents came from Trinidad.

As for Khan...

I thought the comic explanation was completely unnecessary, just like the convoluted "Enterprise" story arc that did nothing but explain Klingon foreheads.

Just let it remain a mystery and let people scratch their heads forever. :evil:

In-universe, it did take some deep digging for Kirk and Co. to identify Khan Noonien Singh in "Space Seed." Records of the Eugenics Wars period were fragmentary, and they didn't immediately recognize him even though he told them his name was Khan.

NuKhan's different appearance was really to keep viewers in the dark until the last possible moment.

Arguably, Section 31 was being overly cautious if they surgically altered his appearance. Even if a commander in Starfleet Intelligence happened to look like a failed despot who disappeared a couple centuries ago (presumed dead) during a period of scanty historical records, I think it's highly doubtful that everyone would immediately think "Khan Noonien Singh is back!" when they saw him walking down the street. If you saw some random guy on a downtown sidewalk whose face looked like Napolean's, would you automatically assume that Napolean was back from the dead?

And I think Faran Tahir would have been a great Khan, if he hadn't already appeared as Captain Robau in ST09. But, of course, he isn't exactly the right ethnicity either, so everyone would still be complaining. :eek:

Kor
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top