After seeing the first two episodes of Star Trek Discovery and watching how Michael Burnham unwittingly helped bring about the very war she was trying to prevent I couldn’t help but think “There but for Khan, goes James T Kirk.”
The parallels between Michael Burnham’s actions and Kirk’s actions are quite strong. Where they differ is in their reasons and in their outcomes.
In many ways Burnham and Kirk’s backgrounds are also similar and that is where we need to begin. Both of them lost their parents to attacks by the Federations’ enemies, Michael lost both her parents to a Klingon bombing of Doctari Alpha. But then she was taken in as a foster child by Sarek and Amanda. Jim on the other hand lost his father at birth to the Romulan Nero and the attack of the Narada. His childhood after that was much darker than Michael’s. In canon we only have that one scene from the 2009 movie but it is illuminating. First that Kirk’s mother is off planet.
"You get one scratch on that car and I'm going to whip your ass . . . "
Second that the man on the phone (Frank he’s called in a deleted clip) threatens Kirk with abuse. Third Kirk drives that car off a cliff into a huge mining pit, only jumping out at the last minute. No ten-year-old child attempts to commit suicide, last minute change of heart or not unless there is a serious and dangerous level of abuse going on at home. And for Winona Kirk to be completely unaware of this is signs of a very distant and absent parent. All of this led to Jim Kirk being a “genius level repeat offender” by the age of 22.
Then Michael and Kirk enter Starfleet. Both of them gain parental figures and mentors there; Captain Georgiou for Michael and Captain, later Admiral Pike for Kirk. It is where they face their greatest fears, that of losing those that they love that their two parallel lives collide.
Michael acted in fear and advocated striking first against the Klingons because that is what worked for the Vulcans. Captain Georgiou thought that it was the Vulcan part of her that was in control here but it was actually the human part. She was faced with her greatest fear, losing her new family to the same enemy that had killed her first one. She said it over and over again.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
When Georgiou wouldn’t listen to her, she mutinied.
“You want to know how I turned on you? I believed saving you and the crew was more important than Starfleet's principles. Was it logical? Emotional? I don't know.”
It is after the battle when Georgiou is planning a Kamikaze attack on the Klingon sarcophagus ship that Michael intervenes with another plan. Killing T’Kuvma would make him a martyr, a rallying point for the Klingons. Capturing him alive would shame them and give them a bargaining point as leverage. The plan backfires horribly and everything that Michael feared came to pass because of her. Captain Georgiou was killed by T’Kuvma and in revenge Michael killed T’Kuvma thereby making him the martyr. Her fear and her actions cost her everything but her life.
Kirk on the other hand has already lost his Captaincy and his ship and crew due to his violation of the Prime Directive when Khan attacks the Daystom Conference. Pike’s death sends Kirk careening out of control as much as Michael’s fear did her.
Kirk went to Marcus and practically begged to go after “John Harrison” and kill him. He did so knowing that he was violating not only Starfleet regulations but also Federation law as the Federation Charter explicitly forbade the interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. He also knew that if he got caught war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire would be the result.
Fortunately for all parties involved Spock was able to talk Kirk down off that ledge, much as Captain Georgiou tried to do for Michael. The difference is that Michael’s “family” was still in harm’s way from the Klingons while Kirk knew that “John Harrison” was hiding on Qo’noS.
“He's got to be hiding there, sir! He knows if we even go near Klingon space, it'd be all-out war. Starfleet can't go after him, but I can. Please, sir.”
There is no mention in any of Kirk’s speeches about “John Harrison” being any kind of threat to either Starfleet or the Federation. It’s all about Pike.
Now he does change kill to capture thus derailing Marcus’ original plans somewhat. But then he leads his ship into Klingon territory and his away team to Qo’noS to capture Khan and by so doing he puts his crew in danger and almost brings about the destruction of everyone he loves. Just as Michael did when she talked Captain Georgiou into boarding the Klingon vessel to capture T’Kuvma albeit for somewhat different reasons. And this is where their parallel lines diverge. Michael’s path led into dishonour and the death of the one she was most trying to protect. Kirk’s lead into redemption and heroism, all because of the actions of Khan Noonien Singh.
Because it is Khan who saves the lives of Kirk and his away team and by extension Kirk’s ship and crew and ultimately prevents the war that Marcus wanted.
Without Khan’s timely intervention on Qo’noS, Kirk, Spock and Uhura at the very least (we don’t know the fate of the two red shirts) would have been captured, tortured and then executed . . .
I knew what awaited them on Qo’noS, degradation, torture, slow public death.”
. . . the Enterprise would have been discovered and probably destroyed, the Klingons would have declared war on the Federation, Marcus would have lived to enjoy the fruits of his treachery and all of those deaths would have been laid at Jim Kirk’s doorstep or tombstone in this case.
If Marcus’ plan had worked Kirk would have been branded a rogue captain, blinded by the pain at the loss of his mentor, who mutinied and went off on his own mission of revenge and struck first thereby bringing the Klingons into war just like Michael Burnham is held to have done in the original timeline. Kirk’s unthinking recklessness and pain and loss led him to blunder blindly straight into Marcus’s trap. One of the greatest acts of ironies in the movie is that it was the actions of the very man he originally sent out to destroy who prevented the destruction of everything and everyone he held dear and saved him from death or utter ruin.
What do you think the differences would be between how Khan and Stephen Strange would handle their PTSD? They would definitely have it after all they've been through. Both have enormous responsibilities on their shoulders and both I would say have trust issues (albeit for different reasons and to differing degrees). Both have been willing to endure hell to protect their charges and have a strict code of honour. But they are very different men. I wonder how they would deal with their torment?
Oh noooo, this question… XD *can’t help writing meta*
Wall of text incoming. lol
They would indeed both have PTSD, but imho, in different ways/for very different reasons. And they are indeed both extremely different people who inevitably wouldn’t handle it the same way.
KHAN
I feel like Khan’s fear of failing his people, and of them all dying because he wasn’t “enough”, would likely be worse for him than the PTSD itself (something we don’t really see in Space Seed --where he’s fresh off the ice and super confident still--, and which is at its most visible in STID, where he’s just gone through a year of being kept away from them, struggling against horrible odds to try and rescue them, and failing), although those two things would go hand in hand together, fueling one another.
Also, Khan likely has gotten PTSD since an early age, due to his life in the labs and so on. But he also would be a lot better prepared to deal with it, and his military mindset as well as life experiences (+ his extremely focused willpower and determination) would make him better able to cope with things that would have crushed a normal man. The fact that he can function at all after everything he’s gone through in his life, is proof enough of that...
He’d likely already have some degree of PTSD at an early age and while that sucks, it also means he would have learned along the way the best ways for him to cope with it, because as we’ve seen, he’s super effective even now, so whatever methods he’s using, they are working for him, so far at least… (He managed to take over such a large part of the world despite all the past trauma, and that requires a multitude of skills that he couldn’t have been using if PTSD was controlling his daily life then. Although it’s quite possible he might have moments where things aren’t as tightly controlled.)
Khan would also likely react to some things in a significantly more proactive and even aggressive manner – imho he would actively fight his trauma, as if it was a physical enemy. (He’s a great chess-player when it comes to handling enemies, but you can’t really play the same games when the enemy is inside you.)
On one hand, it’s not ideal, because there are moments where he clearly uses wrath as a method of coping (stuff can’t hurt as much if you’re focusing on the anger instead, ergo vengeful thoughts are a way of not thinking of the loss etc. –he’s always moving forward, even when he can’t at all, it’s a form of escapism, an unhealthy coping mechanism in a way. As long as he is prepping plans to attack the conference room to avenge his crew, or trying to crash a ship etc., he isn’t having to face the void without them, or figure out how to live after that –if he was even going to consider the possibility of outliving them much longer, that is. Whatever is the what-to-do-after reasoning in his mind, the momentary violence of vengeance is a thing he chooses over the alternative of giving in to mourning and passivity).
I’m sure it’s also how Khan deals with fear. Nothing can hurt you as badly if you’re putting all of your focus on going forward and on the anger rather than the pain. In many ways, he’s like a volcano, but with extreme composure and self-control, preventing that anger erupting at the wrong time & damaging his prospects. So he only “blows up” when it can be of service to his plans (unleashing extremely effective violence like when they were making their way to the Vengeance bridge), or when he’s so lost that there’s nothing else left (like when he thought his crew was dead.)
He’s been made and brought up in a world where violence is the language spoken, and it’s one he’s mastered well, even if it’s not the one he prefers when he has a chance to chose another path. As we’ve seen clearly mentioned in canon, when he has the chance to chose peace, he does. But if he thinks that’s not an option, then he can speak the other language perfectly...
Imho, Khan bottles his problems up, but uses parts of it to fuel his anger and determination to accomplish what he set out to do (save his people, take them to safety, get them a new world) that keeps him going. Although he’s nowhere as indestructible as he appears/as he tries to make others think he is, far from it.
So in conclusion, Khan’s methods are not the healthiest but they work for him, and he’s able to cope with his pain and traumas in a way that while not ideal, helps him remain stronger and keep going.
(Though if he completely broke, he’s not necessarily the kind who can get back up after. This is what happened in TWOK, he lost it completely because of the death of his wife and so many of his crew, and madness consumed him, poor thing. But that was an event horizon of despair crossed there, like when he thought his people were dead at the end of STID. If they remain living, he likely would manage to heal or at least keep going until they’re safe.
Without his loved ones, he likely would remain lost or not survive. But as long as they are alive, he has a reason to go on, and somehow manages to pull through no matter what. He’s the ultimate survivor.)
STEPHEN STRANGE
Stephen on the other hand, is in a far more vulnerable situation. He has none of the military training, preparedness or life experience (let alone augmented stuff), and he was a complete civilian until recently.
He too has gone through traumatic experiences over the years (the loss of all his family), but that doesn’t necessarily prepare someone for additional trauma, especially of such a vastly different nature; in fact, if you look at his life you can see that the reason why he became such a materialistic and arrogant doctor was precisely because of all the loss that’s happened in his life. That was his escape, his coping mechanism to close himself away from the pain, and it did not work. It only made things worse.
After Kamar Taj, he’s stripped of that too, as well as of his arrogance and the huge ego.
He’s now selfless and wide open, exposed. And while he certainly has learned a lot about finding peace within himself and through meditation etc., and he’s now far more in control of himself and centered, it doesn’t change the fact that he always had such high fear of failing, and now the fate of the whole world is on his shoulders. (At least Khan only has to protect his people, Stephen has to prevent the entire planet being destroyed).
“It’s not about you”, of course, but he’s still the one who has to do his best to prevent the world ending. Hence his willingness to take upon himself hardships that no one else would even think of facing.
If that wasn’t hard enough in itself, Stephen just received more brutal trauma and on a higher amount than any other hero, going through what must have felt like an eternity of agony and suffering.
That he went through that and didn’t break/didn’t give in and undo the timeloop, is truly amazing and awe-inspiring, but it does not negate the extreme damage it must have left him with.
When he came back to Earth he was so shaken still that he seemed both extremely elated that it was over (inevitable, with the horror he just got out of) and somewhat out of things, even acting weird and cracking a joke about Kaecilius’ death (something he would not normally have done, as we saw from his behavior in the NY Sanctum earlier, about the value of life. The end Kaecilius and the two zealots got was worse than death itself, and if Stephen was not totally out of it then, he would never have joked about it. He likely was later horrified by his joke, if he could remember it when he woke up).
Imho, after Mordo left, Stephen likely didn’t last much longer before collapsing, not only from all the mental trauma but also because he was extremely injured still (the stab wound alone likely required either hospitalization or better yet, whatever medical intervention they have in Kamar Taj for those cases, especially after Kaecilius ripped the stitches by kicking him in the chest during the battle. It’s likely that it was through sheer willpower and determination alone (+ the fact that he was timelooping endlessly while facing Dormammu, rather than having more time elapse) that Stephen lasted this long rather than passing out sooner.)
There’s also the fact that the life Stephen has ahead of him now is going to be extremely hard. This selfless sacrifice he’s made was not a one off. He’s been conditioned to do this (by feeling like he has to, as well as by simple lack of others to take his place – the responsibility is there, and he’s the one with the highest potential of them all, now that TAO is gone –there’s really no one else for the job of Sorcerer Supreme), feels obligated to ensure everyone’s well-being, and will put himself through countless horrors in the future also.
It was always so in the comics. He’s no longer the arrogant surgeon, and Stephen never does anything halfway: The Sorcerer’s code demands that he be always ready to die if needed, the poor thing. And then there’s also the extreme loneliness of the position.
In the comics, fairly often, things would be so bleak that Stephen would have to force himself to act cheerful because, as he said, otherwise magic might fail him, if he allows himself to become too disheartened or depressed.
At times in the comics, he was so broken that he could not even focus enough to use magic. (When his personal life fell apart even more with Clea leaving, he couldn’t even travel between dimensions due to being so depressed that he couldn’t function enough to make the magic work.)
So he has to artificially force himself to go through the motions and act cheerful etc. even when he’s not. (Something we’ve seen he has also used as a coping method for when he’s scared –cracking jokes to defuse situations where he feels uneasy, like when Wong threatened him during their first meeting– so that tendency of his will most likely keep on going).
It’s kind of heartbreaking, to imagine him so torn up inside, but still having to force himself to go on forward, to put on a brave face and force himself to smile and try to focus on not letting the depression etc. swallow him, lest he loses the ability to use the necessary magic when he has to save the day. Poor thing.
Also, the PTSD from Dormammu will likely leave him with so much trouble sleeping and so many moments of panic at random things that reminds him of it. He will likely search for so many ways to cope and try to bottle it up so much, put on a brave face etc., but hopefully Wong might be able to see through it and help him.
I wish there were so many more fics exploring this theme about Stephen. Not only the horrors he goes through as the price of having saved everyone, but also what ways he might find to get better and move forward, and the times when that doesn’t always work.
One thing is certain, this isn’t trauma you can heal from on the short run, and even once he eventually gets better, he will still have some of it with him forever. It could be years later and he will still flinch or jump when hearing something making a noise reminiscent of one of Dormammu’s piercing rocks, or have a panic attack due to something that feels too much like when he was trapped in Dormammu’s tentacles (and Stephen is a character who is constantly getting attacked by tentacles in the comics…), and so on.
It’s the most broken up characters, with jagged edges still cutting them inside, who are the most interesting and the most heroic.Especially in how they manage to still get back up and keep going, to keep helping and so on, despite the terrible damage that’s been done to them. ;-;<3
I want to play a little “What if” game with you. Not exactly an AU, more like a comparison to provoke thought.
Let’s say that the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war in the original timeline. The Enterprise is defeated in battle. Then the ship is thrown 250 years into the future (by whatever means, wormhole, unstable nebula, whatever you like) but it arrives into this future badly damaged. Only Kirk and 84 members of the crew counting his bridge crew and McCoy have survived. Failing life support kills a further 12.
In this future the Klingons have won but over the 250 years their culture has changed. Slavery is abolished and all people have equal rights. It is a great deal like the Federation except for one important thing. There is no Starfleet. In fact, Starfleet having lost the war have been condemned by history as the villains. All of Starfleet was massacred by the Klingons and while it is not common knowledge there are records that survive, telling of Kirk and the Enterprise.
Now the Enterprise is found floating and adrift by a Klingon Imperial ship. The Captain beams Kirk over (perhaps by doing so he saves Kirk’s life) and questions him as to who he is and where he comes from.
What do you think Kirk would do then? Would he tell the truth or would he evade?
The Klingon Captain refuses to release the remainder of Kirk’s crew from the damaged Enterprise until they reach a space station where the Imperial fleet has a base. And then a beautiful woman enters the picture. She’s a member of the Imperial crew and she’s obviously smitten with Kirk.
What would Kirk do then?
The Captain of the Klingon vessel has granted Kirk access to his ship’s technical manuals as a gesture of hospitality and has planned a welcome feast for him. At the end of the dinner the ship’s first officer starts asking Kirk probing questions and is obviously hostile while the Captain watches silently.
The first officer insults the Starfleet of the past, calling them outlaws and pirates. Kirk is a proud man, proud of Starfleet.
What would he do? In his anger, would he let something slip?
The ship’s Captain having made it clear that he shares his first officer’s opinion of Starfleet, questions Kirk as to where his sympathies lie.
What would Kirk say?
Alone in his room later Kirk paces . . . thinking . . . desperate. His crew is still trapped helpless on the almost destroyed Enterprise. The Klingon Captain of this ship holds them all in his power, is bent on taking them to his base, and refuses to release his crew. Kirk has seen so many of his fellow Starfleet officers die in the war that is for the Klingons now long past.
He paces, thinking, worrying. Kirk, genius-level “walking books on legs” in the Academy, has read the history texts as well as the manuals in the database the Captain gave him access to. He knows what those history texts say of him.
Then the woman comes to him. She makes her attraction know again, makes it clear she idolizes him but she is still loyal to her own captain and crew.
What does Kirk do?
Meanwhile the Klingon Captain and his top officers are having a meeting. The First Officer has discovered who Kirk is. The Captain and the rest express admiration for Kirk, his intelligence and his skill in battle. The First Officer disagrees, calls Kirk a criminal and a traitor to the Empire. The Captain states that a brave warrior is worthy of recognition but agrees with his First Officer’s assessment of the danger Kirk poses. Then based on nothing more than fragmented reports, written centuries ago by the winner’s side of a war, he orders that Kirk be confined to quarters with a guard on his door. Then he goes to confront him.
When the Klingon Captain confronts Kirk with his identity and challenges him as to his intentions what would Kirk say? Would he lie about who he is, about Starfleet? Would he lie about his intentions towards the Klingons and the Empire? What would he say?
The woman helps him beam over to the Enterprise and rescue his crew. But then what? The Enterprise is derelict, destroyed past repair outside of a Star base and they have neither the equipment nor the manpower to salvage her. So what can they do?
Kirk and his crew are stranded in this inhospitable future where they are all condemned as criminals for losing a war centuries ago. The Federation and Starfleet are no more. What would Kirk do? Would he try to reform the Federation or would he and his crew simply try to disappear into the black?
The Captain refuses to surrender his ship and his crew are loyal to him. They believe the history texts that condemn the Federation and Starfleet. The Klingon vessel is too large and complex to be manned by only 73 people, 74 if you count the woman. Without the Klingon crew he can’t fly the ship any more then he could fly the Enterprise even if she could fly.
So what does he do?
The woman helps the Klingon Captain and First Officer escape. The Klingons flood the ship with gas, knocking out all of Kirk’s crew except for him. Kirk manages to escape to engineering but he knows the Captain is following. His crew are once again prisoners and given the slaughter that the Klingons of the past wrecked on Starfleet he knows what to expect at their hands.
What does he do?
Kirk is defeated as is his crew. What does the Klingon Captain do? The Empire has changed from what Kirk and his crew knew 250 years ago. They are not the war mongers that Kirk fought. They’ve learned to value life as well as strength and courage although they do make the mistake of viewing Kirk and his crew through the eyes of the winning side of the war. But the Captain respects Kirk so what does he do? Would he offer Kirk the same choice that Kirk offered Khan and if so, would Kirk take it? Would he accept exile on an undeveloped and uninhabited planet or would he gamble that he and his crew could still escape to rebuild Starfleet and the Federation?
What would Kirk do?
Now let me pose this same puzzle in the reboot universe of Into Darkness.
Let’s say that in a war with the Romulans the Federation falls, Starfleet is destroyed and only Kirk and the Enterprise survive by being thrown 250 years into the future. Most of the crew dies but for 85 and 12 more die due to failing life support.
But then the Enterprise is found by the top General for the Romulan Star Empire. He takes Kirk but imprisons his crew while keeping them unconscious so that they can’t rebel or escape. He doesn’t tell the Romulan Senate about Kirk or his crew because in the 250 years the Romulans have moved away from war as a first resort and now seek to assimilate all new cultures, having learned that many minds can bring greater results and solutions and that willing citizens are much better than subjects ruled by terror and force.
But Starfleet is still the enemy of legend. Kirk and his crew are still remembered as criminals and enemies of the Empire.
The Romulan General wants to restore the Empire to the days of its glory and thinks it has become soft and weak.
So the General tells Kirk, “Build me weapons, build me ships, and aid me in winning wars. Do it or your crew dies.”
What does Kirk do?
His escape plan fails. He believes that his entire crew, his family, Spock, Bones, Uhura and all the others have been murdered. He is utterly alone in this unrecognisable and hostile future with no Starfleet, no Federation, and no one to turn to.
What does he do now that everything he knew is gone and everyone he loves has been taken from him? What does he do?
His attempt to avenge his loved ones fails due to the counter-attack of one Romulan. His “just in case hole card” yanks him out of danger and takes him to the one place he thinks he can’t be pursed to, the home world of his enemy’s enemy. The devise that transported him away was mostly likely destroyed with his vessel, leaving no trace of where he went, or so he thinks.
But he’s wrong and the Romulan officer who beat his first attack has followed him looking for revenge for the death of his father who fell in Kirk’s attack.
Hiding on the planet Kirk receives a communication ordering him to surrender. In that com is a mention of something that triggers hope in Kirk, a wild desperate hope that his crew might still be alive and are on that ship. But then he sees that the vessel that was on its way to capture him has come under attack by the planet’s inhabitants. Without intervention their capture or death is certain.
What does Kirk do?
After the battle Kirk gets the confirmation that he has so desperately been hoping for. His crew is alive after all and they are on board that ship. But they are up there and he is down here. True he has three prisoners of his own to bargain with but it’s obvious that this Romulan is going against the General’s orders; otherwise Kirk and his crew would all be dead. So what does Kirk do now? How can he save his crew without causing more death?
It’s clear these Romulans have no idea about his crew. They can’t be part of the General’s plans nor do they likely have any idea of the danger they are in from him. Kirk’s crew is on board this ship, so near but still so far, still unconscious and helpless. Kirk is alone, without allies, but the Romulan General is still out there and if he doesn’t know yet that this Captain has disobeyed orders to kill Kirk he will soon.
So what does Kirk do?
The Romulan Captain and his officers have learned the truth of Kirk’s crew. They confront him in their ship’s brig, demanding the truth. What does he say to them?
Kirk gives them his truth, his pain at the loss of his family. But the death of his father burns hot within the Romulan Captain.
“Murderer!” he cries at Kirk.
So what does Kirk say to that? How does he reach this man through his pain when his own is still so strong?
The Romulan General has come. Kirk listens from the med bay as the Captain and General verbally spar through the vid screen; Kirk hears the Captain lie to protect him and then feels the ship go to warp. He knows they’re headed back to Romulus but knows that they won’t make it. Not with the ship he built on their heels. But the General’s daughter is here. Kirk recognises her from his time of servitude to the General. She knows about the ship, what it can do. She knows what her father is capable of. So he reminds her of the danger and it’s enough. The attack when it comes is short and the ship he’s on survives. But it’s obviously sustained further damage. They aren’t moving either.
Then the Captain is there. He practically reeks of desperation and anger. He makes it clear that the deaths that lie between them are not forgotten or forgiven, merely put aside for the moment. But he also make Kirk a bargain; his crew’s safety in exchange for Kirk’s help.
So what does Kirk do?
They take over the enemy ship together; they fight side by side, Kirk protecting the Romulan more often than not, saving his life once again in the process. Once the bridge is taken Kirk has a chance. He’s a better fighter then the Romulan; he could take him in a fight. And his enemy, the Romulan General who took his crew from him is helpless before him. But there is the bargain he made with the Romulan Captain who had promised to protect Kirk’s crew, his crew who are still helpless on the Romulan Captain’s ship. Kirk has no vessel of his own . . . or does he?
What does Kirk do?
The Romulan Captain betrays him. The bargain between them is null. The General is about to make his escape and there is no Federation or Starfleet to bring him to trial, to be held accountable for what he did.
What does Kirk do?
Kirk’s crew is still on the Romulan vessel, still helpless and Kirk is desperate to save them. Any chance that his crew might receive justice and mercy at the hands of the Romulans died when their Captain betrayed him. He can understand the Captain’s pain and rage at the loss of his father, none better. But he will not, cannot trust him with the lives of his crew. They are his family, yes, but he is also their captain. His first duty is to their survival and well-being before all else.
So what does Kirk do?
He bargains with the Romulan’s First Officer. A crew for a crew. The First Officer throws challenges and accusations at Kirk, delaying him, obviously stalling. He even accuses Kirk of crimes in the past that he didn’t commit, of plotting the destruction of Romulus with the Vulcans.
What does Kirk say to that? How much time can he waste in argument this close to Romulus? The fight between the two ships had to have been noticed. Time is running out. What does Kirk do?
The First Officer lowers his shields and Kirk beams his crew over. Finally he has them back. After everything they’ve been through, after a year of torment and fear he has crew, his family back!
But there is still the matter of the Romulan Captain and his ship. His crew isn’t safe yet. The Romulan has vowed to stop at nothing to see Kirk answer for the death of his father and he cannot count on him holding to his word to protect Kirk’s crew. There will be no justice for Starfleet personnel here in the Romulan Empire. The Romulan ship is damaged true but repairs are surely under way and Kirk has no way of telling how bad the damage to its engines are through the ship’s shielding.
So what does Kirk do?
Mercy for mercy. Kirk sends the Captain back to his vessel alive along with his two crew members then fires to cripple the Romulan vessel. The advanced weaponry of his ship allows for pin point accuracy. But then the belly of his own vessel explodes including the area where his crew was waiting for him to wake them up. Explodes and kills 72 innocent people, Kirk’s crew, his loved ones, all dead and at the hands of someone whose life he had saved, to whom he had just shown mercy! His ship is going down, caught in Romulus’ gravity well and even if he could surrender it meant turning himself back over to the same people who had enslaved him and had just murdered the last of his crew.
So what does Kirk do?
One final question before I end this Meta, one that again turns everything around and looks at things from a different angle. What if, in the original timeline instead of Kirk judging Khan and his crew solely on the basis of their race (remember that at the beginning Kirk left Khan’s crew in their cryotubes even though he knew that 12 of them had failed, killing the people inside them when all that he knew about Khan at that point was that he was an augment), what if instead Kirk held out his hand to Khan as an equal? What if instead of condemning him based on nothing more than fragmented reports written centuries ago by the winning side of a war, what if Kirk said to him “While our histories say that your race committed atrocities against mine, it cannot be denied that my race committed atrocities against yours. But that was centuries ago and times have changed. The Federation embraces all races, all peoples as equals and there are many races who can match augments in both intelligence and strength. There is a place for you and yours here is you will meet us half way. I offer you my hand as an equal, will you take it brother?”
What do you think Khan would have said to that? Khan, who in his way had always been a builder rather than a destroyer until the end, in his madness? What would Khan have said to a normal human in a position of power over him extending his hand in friendship and equality?
What if in the Kelvin Timeline Kirk had been able to see past his own pain and rage at the loss of Pike to see that Khan too was Captain, a Captain with a crew to defend just like Kirk? What if that along with the fact Khan had saved Kirk’s life twice had weighed more to Kirk on the bridge of the Vengeance then his fear and his anger? What if he had stood by Khan’s crew and demanded that they be accorded the rights of any sentient being guaranteed by Federation law and Charter instead of allowing them to be condemned to indefinite incarceration in cyrostasis without trial on the basis of their race, on the basis of what one of them, their leader had done after Starfleet attacked him first and on the basis that they had lost a war 250 years ago.
On the one hand I can understand why McCoy did what he did. Jim Kirk was his best friend, his brother in all but blood. The man in the cryotube was a stranger. I doubt if it even occurred to him at the time that he was risking his life by taking him out of that cryotube.
On the other hand, if it did occur to him, I doubt that it would have stopped him either. For McCoy Kirk's life was far more important than an unknown member of Khan's crew.
But that member of Khan's crew had never broken any Federation law nor had he ever harmed one single Federation citizen. Whatever Khan had done, his crew was innocent. Yet McCoy still didn't even hesitate to risk killing him in order to save the life of his friend.
And McCoy is a doctor. Between the Hippocratic oath which says among others " . . . that warmth, sympathy and understanding my outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist drug . . . Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life all thinks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with grave humbleness and awareness of my own fragility. Above all I must not play at God. . . I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being. " and the Primum non nocere I can't help but ask; is there one single solitary healer's oath that McCoy and his entire medical staff didn't violate in trying to bring Kirk back from the dead.
But I do understand why he did it. And so I think did someone else.
This is why it is my personal headcanon theory (please note I said HEADcanon, not canon. We don't know what happened in those 2 weeks it took McCoy to heal Kirk when Khan healed Lucile Harewood instantly) that it was Khan who taught McCoy how to make that serum. Not just in repayment for Kirk inadvertently saving Khan's crew but also because like him, Kirk and McCoy would do anything for their families.
But even if my headcanon theory is wrong and McCoy figured it out all on his own it still means that it's not just Kirk, Spock and Uhura who own Khan. McCoy owes his own debt for treating Khan at the very least as his own personal living blood bank and taking his blood without his consent (and if he did figure out that serum on his own then he was probably also conducting experiments on Khan and not just his blood). I'm not saying he directly hurt Khan but he did violate the most basic right of any sentient being; the right to own his own body.
McCoy has his own debts to pay. This is why I keep praying for a sequel.
For those who know Khan's history from either the original Star Trek episode or from the Star Trek Ongoing comic series there is a pressing question that has not been definitively answered. "What happened to those 12 missing cryo-tubes?!"
In the original timeline which supposedly remains unchanged up until Nero's arrival in 2233 (although if we go by the comic series this is questionable) those 12 cryo-tubes failed due to age and malfunctions. But in the original timeline the Botany Bay wasn't discovered until 2267, nine years later then the events in the movie. Now it's possible that all 12 of those cryo-tubes had failed and then there was a nine year gap until Khan's started to fail in Space Seed, but it's not probable.
However it is in the above scene that Abrams, Orci and the rest of the writers give us a clue (an Easter Egg if you will) as to the fate of those missing crew members.
Khan said that he had "every reason" to suspect that Marcus had killed his crew. What reasons?
Khan is not a man to be impressed by mere words, threats don't phase him. Only deeds matter to a man like Khan.
We are shown this over and over again throughout the movie. It was nothing that Kirk said that convinced Khan to place the lives of his entire crew in Kirk's hands. It was what Kirk did. Please notice that he wasn't in the least bit concerned by Sulu's threats to kill him, his only concern was for his crew.
Likewise it was Kirk's betrayal of Khan on the Vengeance that sparked Khan's attack on Kirk. As shown here Khan blatantly waited to see what Kirk would do next after they took the bridge.
Actions not words are what matters to Khan. For Khan to say that he had every reason to believe that Marcus had killed his entire crew it had to be because of something Marcus did, not something Marcus had said. Based on this, my theory is that Marcus killed at least one, probably more of Khan's crew and forced Khan to watch in order to break him. Which would explain Khan's extremely emotional method in executing Marcus. For a man crush an enemy's face with their bare hands is a way of trying to erase their very existence. He could have just snapped Marcus' neck after all. Khan's method of killing Marcus was very personal and Khan's own sense of superiority and self-confidence would allow him to brush any insult or injury done to himself aside as being beneath his regard. But the Khan in this movie loved his family more than he did his own life as evidenced by his choosing to go down with the Vengeance rather than escape via transporter or escape shuttle. For Marcus to have killed some of them while forcing Khan to watch would be the one act that would drive Khan to unrelenting fury and rage.
But please note, even in the depths of his rage he still showed more honour and compassion than Marcus.
He did not respond in kind. He did not kill the ones that Marcus held most dear, leaving Marcus alive to mourn them. Even though he had her in his power and he had reason to hate her, Khan spared Carol Marcus' life. (See This or This for metas on Carol Marcus and how Khan showed mercy).
If we look closely at the motivations and actions of Khan in “Into Darkness” we can see that the writers and Benedict Cumberbatch have crafted the character, not of a homicidal maniac or a blood thirsty terrorist but rather that of a warrior, a man who lives by a warrior’s code of honour.
The first time we see Khan is when he approaches Thomas Harewood with his bargain.
Your daughter. I can save her.
What must be noted here is the fact that Khan didn’t kidnap Harewood’s family to use them as hostages or hold out the promise of a cure until after Harewood had completed his end of the bargain, both of which Marcus had done to him. Instead he gave his own blood to heal the child and did so in advance of Harewood’s sacrifice thereby giving up the tactical advantage. After all, once Khan had healed the child Harewood could have told Marcus right from the start without keeping his end of the deal. Since Marcus had the resources and the manpower to keep Khan’s crew from him then he certainly could have protected Harewood’s family from Khan’s retaliation. Given Khan’s reputation as a strategist and tactician he had to know this but he did it anyway. Khan is a warrior by nature and a leader by inclination. Both aspects would demand that he protect an innocent child even if such a move put him at a tactical disadvantage.
That doesn’t mean he’s not going to be as ruthless as circumstances demand in order to protect his crew. Khan is a warrior which is by definition a killer. And he did kill a great many people. But we need to look beyond what the surface appears to be and look deeper at both his intentions and the results of his actions to truly understand this warrior.
In his first attack on the Kelvin archive Khan’s bomb destroys the Section 31 base and kills 42 people. This is an undeniable fact. But why did he want to destroy that particular base? If Khan’s motivation was to declare a “one man war on Starfleet” as Admiral Marcus later claims then it would have made more strategic sense to blow up Starfleet Headquarters. This would have been far more crippling to Starfleet and Marcus then one weapons facility. The answer lies in the torpedoes that we can see in the background behind Harewood.
These are the same torpedoes that Khan designed while under Marcus’ control. But Marcus already had those designs saved on Section 31’s computers. So Khan didn’t blow up the base to destroy the torpedoes. Marcus could make more any time he wanted to. Nor was Marcus at the base when it was destroyed so Khan’s attack wasn’t for revenge on him. This leaves us with the rescue of his crew as Khan’s only reason for the attack. In short, Khan conspired to kill 42 people in order to save the lives of 72 people who were being held hostage under the threat of either slavery or death at the hands of the head of Starfleet. As Mr. Spock would say “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” There are some who might claim that Khan shouldn’t have killed at all. But what else could he do? Who could he go to and accuse the head of Starfleet, the second most powerful and respected man in the entire Federation of slavery, torture and probably murder and attempted genocide and be believed?
I also need to point out the probable lack of civilian casualties in that bombing.
That explosion took out an entire downtown city block of a major metropolis during the day.
The death toll should have been well within the hundreds just for the initial explosion alone, never mind those who later died of their injuries. I did a head count as Harewood was walking to his station. I came up with between 25 – 27 Section 31 personnel in the background behind him. That leaves only 15 – 17 unaccounted for. Given the size of the explosion and the number of people we see on the street outside with Harewood before the bombing, the only way those numbers work is if someone evacuated not only the street outside but most of the buildings as well. Only two people knew that the bombing was going to happen, Khan and Harewood. Since Harewood waited until the last moment to send the message to Marcus we can safely assume that he didn’t arrange in advance for the people to be evacuated. That leaves only Khan.
Here we see an integral part of Khan’s code of honour. When he can show mercy to the innocent and helpless he will. And he will do his utmost to limit the casualties, especially among the non-combatants. Yes, Harewood was innocent of any direct crimes against Khan and his people. He didn’t recognise Khan at the hospital so he couldn’t have been directly involved in Khan’s enslavement. But he would have been a military man in Khan’s eyes, not a civilian. To a warrior such as Khan he is not a non-combatant to be shielded but rather an enemy solider and the lives of Khan’s people were on the line.
His warrior’s code shows again in Khan’s attack on the Daystrom. Here Khan’s attack was focused solely on the high command. As has been mentioned in metas by myself and other authors while there were undoubtedly many injured the only confirmed casualties were Admirals. In fact Khan tagged Kirk three times with his weapons targeting system and spared him.
Khan’s targeting here is very specific. He doesn’t simply strafe everything that moves. We can clearly see that Khan’s primary target is Marcus, so much so that Khan doesn’t bother to return fire against the gun crew that Pike calls in to defend them. Rather he merely dodges their fire while remaining focused on Marcus and the other Admirals. He doesn’t even retaliate against Kirk when he opened fire on Khan’s jumpship, he simply ignores him.
If Khan was truly about to start a war against Starfleet without any regard to the loss of innocent lives as Marcus claimed then it would have been far simpler and effective to bomb the entire building, killing everyone inside, not just those within the conference room. In one strike he could have eliminated all of Starfleet’s high command but he didn’t. This was not an attack aimed at the Federation or Starfleet. It was a matter of personal revenge against the man Khan believed had murdered his entire family and committed the genocide of the last of his race.
Here once again is his warrior’s code. He sought retribution when justice was denied him. But again: What else could he do? Who could he turn to for justice? Yes he killed and innocents such as Pike died. Khan is a solider, a warrior not a plaster saint to turn the other cheek in the face of what he believed to be such a great atrocity and crime against his people. So he responded in kind as he himself later states.
But even in his rage he still holds to his code. Unlike Marcus who would later try to have Khan and his entire crew killed, Khan focused his rage only on those he held responsible and stayed his hand against those he did not.
This same code is shown again on Qo’nos when he saves Kirk, Spock and Uhura. His actions are those of a warrior. He fights and kills in order to protect others. He saved 3 lives in order to protect 72 more. As soon as he established that his crew are still alive he immediately surrendered.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that Khan didn’t have to surrender. He had Kirk, Spock and Uhura at his mercy. He could just as easily have taken them hostage and forced Sulu to give up his crew. Since “Captain Sulu” hadn’t fired those torpedoes at him when it was just Khan on Qo’nos then he certainly wasn’t going to do it while three of his crew were in the line of fire. And if Sulu had proven stubborn Khan could have tortured one to death and forced Sulu to watch. But he did none of this. Instead he disarms Spock
and surrenders unconditionally. He even stands there and lets Kirk beat him without raising a hand in self-defence.
Now I’m going to move briefly beyond interpreting his actions and motivations and go deeper into a more speculative look at Khan’s character. As we know from Space Seed Khan is a man who admires intelligence, integrity, loyalty and fierceness of will. These are the reasons he calls Marla McGivers a superior human after all. I believe he saw these same things in James Kirk in this reboot universe.
Kirk showed that intelligence when he bested Khan at the Daystrom. Up until Kirk’s unorthodox method of taking down a jumpship with a fire suppressant system no one there had presented any kind of serious threat to Khan. It was Kirk’s intelligence and ingenuity that allowed him to stop Khan and for a single normal human to be able to do this to an augment would have impressed Khan. He wouldn’t have been happy about it but it definitely would have marked Kirk as being above Khan’s standards for normal humans.
It was after Khan’s surrender though that Kirk showed him his integrity and loyalty. “On behalf of my friend Christopher Pike I accept your surrender.” With this one sentence Kirk showed Khan why he has come all this way, pursued him straight into enemy territory; to seek retribution for the death of his friend. The beating that followed, while unethical and in most circumstances against Kirk’s own moral code, is an action that Khan would have sympathy for. He had felt that same pain and rage 72 times over. Then Uhura cried out “Captain!” to get him to stop and with that one word Khan realizes it is this man who has chosen to go against the orders that he knows Marcus must have given him. A man who, like Khan has his own code of honour. Khan acknowledges this to Kirk later.
“Despite your attempt to convince me otherwise, you seem to have a conscious Mr. Kirk.”
Many arguments have been made that Khan was manipulating Kirk. In fact Spock himself states just prior to this scene, “I believe he will only attempt to manipulate you further”. And I agree; Khan was fighting for his people’s survival against a military that wanted to destroy them. Manipulating Kirk into seeing the truth was the best way to do that. That doesn’t mean that his manipulation was evil or with bad intentions towards Kirk or his crew. Quite the opposite, without Khan’s manipulation Kirk would have been caught unawares by Marcus when he showed up. The most likely result of this would have the destruction of the Enterprise. Khan’s manipulation saved Kirk and his crew.
To return now to the subject of Khan’s code. As stated earlier Khan is not a man to kill without need or what he holds to be a just cause. To have killed those who were innocent, even by mistake would be a harsh blow to not only his sense of honour but also his integrity and sense of justice. The pain and guilt he felt at Kirk’s accusation that he is a murderer is clearly written on his face.
Khan’s code of honour also prohibits him from striking first. We are told in Space Seed that all the wars he fought were defensive ones. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated then when Kirk and Khan take over the Vengeance. It is on their race to the bridge that Kirk orders Scotty to stun Khan as soon as they take over the ship, thinking that Khan was using the two of them and would betray them once the bridge was taken.
“The minute we get to the bridge drop him.”
What? Stun him? Khan? I thought he was helping us.”
“I’m pretty sure we’re helping him.”
But once on board the Vengeance Kirk and Scotty were of no further use to him. After all why would the man who took down 30 – 40 armed Klingon almost single-handedly need the help of two men to take down around 14 – 16 humans, half of which couldn’t even use their weapons due to the proximity to the warp core. And then there is this.
That’s a phaser rifle in Khan’s hands and I highly doubt that it was locked on stun as the pistol Kirk had given him was.
Here are the facts as I see them. First Khan has superior combat skills and physical strength as evidenced by his taking down about 6 of the Vengeance’s crew in the same amount of time it took Kirk and Scotty to take down 2 combined. Second, he knew the best way to the bridge. Third, he now had advanced fire power. Fourth, he knew that the Vengeance was minimally crewed and fifth, he knew that time was running out. He was with Kirk when Scotty told them that they had only 3 minutes until the Vengeance had full weapons again and would destroy the Enterprise and all on board, Khan’s crew as well as Kirk’s. This was the same crew that he had endured a year of slavery (and possibly torture) at the hands of Admiral Marcus. Yet he still put down the advanced phaser rifle, took back up the locked on stun phaser pistol and went back for them. In short if Khan really was the homicidal maniac he’s been called elsewhere then he would have snapped Kirk and Scotty’s necks just as soon as he was on board because he didn’t need them anymore at that point. It is against Khan’s code of honour to harm an ally who has not betrayed him first.
This is shown again when they get to the bridge. Once all of the bridge crew had been dropped and Kirk, Scotty and Khan have surrounded Marcus there is a moment when they all pause and Khan looks over at Kirk.
In that moment he does the one thing that we earlier saw Spock Prime tell reboot Spock that Khan would never do. He hesitates and looks to Kirk to see what he would do next. In that moment of hesitation Kirk betrayed the man who had saved his life twice. In doing so Kirk violated his own code of honour for as he told Spock:
“Where I come from, if someone saves your life you don’t stab them in the back.”
This did not go over well with Khan as we saw. Yet despite the beating that Khan delivered to Kirk in retribution he neither killed Kirk nor crippled him. Given that augments have 5 times the strength of a normal human plus Khan’s training and experience in unarmed combat it was not by accident that Kirk got off so lightly. He did more damage to Carol Marcus then he did to Kirk and Scotty combined.
Khan’s shattering Carol’s knee when she pleaded with him to stop seems to fly in the face of Khan’s code of honour. Starfleet or not she is clearly unarmed and appears to be far less of a threat to him then Kirk or Scotty. Yet he did to her what he didn’t do to either Kirk who had betrayed him or Scotty who had stunned him. He broke bones.
But unlike Kirk and Scotty Carol was or had been an active Section 31 agent and Khan knew it. In this earlier Meta (Carol Marcus' role in Section 31) I made my case for this. But what is relevant here are the facts that when the three men stormed the bridge not only did Khan try to stun Carol but when the shooting stopped Kirk and Scotty are covering Admiral Marcus but Khan is covering Carol. He sees her as an active threat as Kirk and Scotty do not. This makes Khan’s attack on Carol far more understandable. He immobilized an enemy solider, one he obviously saw as being a threat to his goal. But please note, for all the violence that he did to her he still spared her life. If Khan was in a completely unthinking rage, consumed only with a desire for revenge then he could have just as easily dispatched Carol by grabbing her by the hair and smashing her head right into the bulkhead, killing her instantly. But he didn’t. An enemy she may have been but Khan’s code of honour forbade doing more damage than was necessary to someone who had not directly harmed him or his crew as her father had done. So he crippled the adversary that he deemed the greatest threat and moved onto his true enemy, the man who had harmed him and his loved ones the most.
This code of honour continues to show in his dealings with the Enterprise.
I’m speaking of his negotiating with Spock for the release of his crew. Every time I see this movie the same question keeps coming up for me at this point. Why was he bothering to negotiate at all? When he said:
“I will target your life support systems located behind the aft nacelle and after every single person on board your ship suffocates I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people.”
Khan made it clear that he didn’t need to negotiate. All he had to do was destroy the life support (and possibly take out the command bridge as an added precaution), wait for them all to die or evacuate the ship as per General Order 13 and then walk in and take the cryotubes. Negotiating was a pointless waste of time, if he intended to kill them all anyway. If he had taken the pre-emptive first strike as Kirk had done then he would have won. He and his people would have been free. But Khan never strikes first. It’s against his code of honour.
If one takes the next scene where Khan returns Kirk, Scotty and Carol to the Enterprise at face value it would seem as though he is betraying that code. But this is wrong on two levels. First of all, it was Kirk who struck first and betrayed him and by so doing proved to Khan that he couldn’t be trusted, especially not with the lives of Khan’s crew. Yet as I’ve argued in other metas Khan showed mercy to Kirk and his crew. When he fired on the Enterprise he was aiming to cripple not destroy her. The only areas that he hit were the warp core and engineering sections. If he had targeted the life support as he earlier said he would as well the command bridge it wouldn’t have mattered if Kirk had gone into the warp core or not. Plus as I said before the only damage he did to Kirk when he beat him amounted to little more than a spanking to a warrior such as Khan. That the Enterprise would lose power and fall into Earth’s gravity well is something that not even Khan could have predicted. The two most heavily shielded areas of the ship are Engineering and Med bay. If the scanning capabilities of the Vengeance had been good enough to penetrate that shielding then would it have told Marcus that Khan wasn’t in Engineering when Kirk said he was:
“He’s in Engineering.”
Plus it would also have been able to penetrate the shielding around the torpedoes and tell Khan that the cryotubes were in Med Bay.
Both Spock and Khan used the truth to tell lies in that scene. When Khan said “No ship should go down without her Captain” he meant for the Enterprise to go down in defeat but not down in destruction. When Spock said “The torpedoes are yours” he too was saying one thing while implying another.
Lastly we come to Khan’s Kamikaze attack on Starfleet headquarters. The truly horrific number of civilian casualties cannot be either denied or discounted. Hundreds of innocent people died because of Khan. Yet despite the bloodshed I still claim that Khan held to his warrior’s code.
First of all, as we are shown in the first movie, all Starfleet vessels come equipped with a self-destruct mechanism. If Khan had programmed the Vengeance to self-destruct upon impact as George Kirk had done with the Kelvin and the Narada then the resultant explosion would have turned the entire city of San Francisco into a crater and made the land, sea and air around it for miles a radioactive wasteland for centuries.
We also know that the Vengeance had transporters located on the bridge and the bridge suffered no damage when the torpedoes detonated. There is no reason why Khan couldn’t have beamed off the ship before it crashed.
In addition we can see from this picture:
#2 is a Bridge Escape Corridor which probably leads to the evacuation shuttle for the Enterprise’s bridge crew. Given that the Enterprise was used as the model for the Vengeance then there had to be an escape shuttle for the Vengeance’s bridge crew too, probably through the same door that Marcus was trying to open when Khan caught up to him. Both of these facts mean that Khan could have easily escaped the Vengeance to continue his war on Starfleet. Instead he chose to go down with the ship.
Second, Khan’s intended target was a military one, not a civilian one. That he missed and wiped out part of the city I think horrified him.
Again, if he didn’t care about the loss of innocent lives, then he would have armed the warp core and taken out the entire city.
Third, after the crash why would Khan run from Spock when he was surrounded by potential hostages if the lives of those people meant nothing to him?
What could Spock have done if Khan had grabbed one and threatened to kill them if Spock did not drop his weapon? For that matter why did Khan run at all? In the brig he described Spock as being unable to break bones. In this Spock proved him wrong (although it’s worth pointing out that until Uhura showed up with a phaser set on max stun Spock was losing that fight against Khan) but this just goes to show that even Spock can be consumed by a blind homicidal rage, leaving only a desire for revenge on the man who had caused the death of a loved one.
I don’t believe that either of them were thinking clearly but were instead so lost in their pain that there were no thoughts of strategies or tactics, no future plans or cool logic, no codes left at all. There was only pain and sorrow, grief and rage. Even the greatest can fall as all three did; Khan, Kirk and Spock. All three were driven in their pain and grief into doing things that violated their codes of honour. It remains to be seen when Khan returns if they can redeem that honour and repay the debts they owe to each other.
“Do you know if there were any weapons on the Botany Bay? Because I was...”
Totally flying in from left field here. I am familiar but by no means an expert. If they were a super race, good at physical combat, hard to kill, maybe they didn't need weapons? Or maybe they weren't really trying to take over?
It’s quite possible that it was indeed because they didn’t intend to take over with weapons at first, going by that line about Khan wanting to find a place that welcomed them, rather than a place to conquer.
(Things got more complicated than just that once they were on board the Enterprise and Khan got paranoid about Kirk wanting to take them to a military base, and refusing to let him wake up his crew --considering what they lived through in the past, there was no way for him to believe Kirk had no bad intentions, and a kneejerk reaction was sadly inevitable. Khan was likely expecting them to be imprisoned and executed upon arrival at the base.)
Although it still feels weird that they wouldn’t have even something on board to defend themselves. After all, they have superior strength and intelligence (five times the strength of a normal human), but they definitely are still human and not invulnerable etc., so if there was combat, weapons would definitely be needed. Khan uses them in STID, and steals a phaser in Space Seed also...
So perhaps it really is like I was theorizing in the meta post, a lack of weapons from the past due to them figuring out that whatever they took with them would be obsolete in the future anyway, and it was better to appear harmless at first to avoid whoever finds them viewing them as a threat, and then just procure non-obsolete weapons locally wherever they end up being, if and when weapons are needed.
One of the most contentious points made againstKhan is that after stating “No ship should go down without her captain” hefires on the Enterprise, seemingly to destroy her. But as with all of Khan’s actions one needs to look deeper. With him it’s as much as what he doesn’t say or do as what he does.
If Khan was truly trying to destroy the Enterprise then he suddenly became the worst shot in the entire Federation because the only areas of the Enterprise that he actually hit were the warp core and main engineering sections. Compare this to the damage done to the Enterprise by Admiral Marcus during the first attack by the Vengeance.
We also know that Marcus said earlier “I’ll make this quick. Target the aft torpedoes on the Command Bridge.” But when Khan fires the command bridge is clearly not Khan’s target. It is not even anywhere near the areas Khan hit. Nor was the life support, the area Khan threatened to target when he was negotiating with Spock. Khan also didn’t fire on the weapon’s bays, the phaser banks, and the secondary command bridge, any of the evacuation shuttle bay areas or the crew quarters. Any damage done to those areas was done in the first attack by Marcus.
Now consider this. Khan was arguably one of the most brilliant and skillful warriors the planet Earth ever produced. He was in control of the most advanced warship in the entire Federation, a ship he himself helped design (as evidenced by his innate knowledge of it) and he was firing at a stationary target no more than 2 to 5 kilometers away, well within range of the Vengeance’s weapons. Take all of these facts together and then ask yourself just how likely it was that Khan not only missed his target but missed it multiple times? I’m no Spock to be able to calculate those odds but I’m sure it’s very small, as in there is a zero in front of the decimal point and at least one or two more zeros after it.
If it was truly Khan’s intention to destroy the Enterprise as is implied by his words then he chose an extremely inefficient way of going about it. However if Khan’s intention was to merely cripple the Enterprise so that he and his crew could safely make their escape then both his actions and his words make sense. The Enterprise would have gone down in a very real sense, paralyzed and helpless. Just as Mr. Spock did when he told Khan “The torpedoes are yours.” both of them used the truth to tell a lie.
There are some who might argue that Khan would have known that crippling the Enterprise to that extent would cause it to lose power and fall into Earth’s gravity well. But if that were true then Khan would have also known that the torpedoes didn’t contain the cryotubes anymore. If the superior scanning ability of the USS Vengeance could tell just exactly how badly the Enterprise was damaged then it should have been able to scan the torpedoes deeply enough to see that the cryotubes were missing.
Nor was this the only time that Khan showed mercy to Kirk, even after Kirk betrayed him by having Scotty stun him on the bridge of the Vengeance.
After the Enterprise loses power and starts to fall we see Kirk running through his ship, leaping over corridors which is quite a display of athletics given the beating he just received at Khan’s hands. Which is odd when you remember that Khan shattered Carol Marcus’ knee with one kick, crushed Admiral Marcus’ skull with his bare hands in under 10 seconds and defeated (by my count) six to eight armed Section 31 agents on the way to the bridge while being unarmed himself. Yet he pounds on Kirk and throws him about the bridge like a rag doll while still leaving him in a good enough condition to be capable of all that? My point here is that for all the time Khan spent beating on Kirk he did him very little if any actual physical damage. Oh there would have been deep tissue bruising certainly and I have no doubt that Khan wanted Kirk to feel pain after what he had done to Khan, but there were no broken bones, no crippling injuries, in fact, judging by the way Kirk was jumping about I’d be surprised if Khan had given him so much as a concussion. For a warrior as powerful and as skillful as Khan this cannot have been accidental.
If Khan really was the homicidal maniac, the monster that others have described him he would have sent Kirk back to the Enterprise a broken, shattered, ruin of a man who couldn’t even crawl to Med Bay let alone to the Warp Core. He would have killed Carol Marcus and Scotty and sent them back with Kirk as nothing more than bloody corpses. He would have destroyed the Enterprise’s main and secondary command bridges so that even if Kirk made it to engineering there would have been nothing Kirk could have done to save his ship because all the controls needed to bring her out of free fall would have been destroyed along with the people needed to use those controls, Kirk’s entire bridge crew.
He did none of those things. Instead he gave to Kirk what was for a man of his physical strength and combat skills, little more than a spanking. He spared both Dr. Marcus and Mr. Scott, returning them alive to the Enterprise. He fired to cripple the Enterprise, not destroy her.
Mercy: even though Kirk was a member of the same military organization that had, by the legal definition of those terms, enslaved and tortured him and had held everyone he loved as hostages against him and even though Kirk had betrayed him after Khan had save his life twice Khan still showed Kirk mercy; or tried to at any rate.
As the poet Robert Burns said “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
