Characters / Star Trek: The Original Series - Khan Noonien Singh

Khan Noonien Singh

"Social occasions are only warfare concealed."

"Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space."

^{Click here to see him as a child in the year 2022}

Played by: Ricardo Montalbán, Desmond Sivan (child, Strange New Worlds)

Dubbed in French by: François Chaumette (Star Trek II)

Dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese by: Darcy Pedrosa

Appearances: Star Trek: The Original Series | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Khan: Khan is my name.

Kirk: Khan, nothing else?

Khan: Khan.

A 20th-century genetically-engineered tyrant who ruled a quarter of the world in the 1990s. As his fellow "supermen" (or Augments) were overthrown, Khan and roughly 80 of his followers launched themselves into space in cryogenic sleep before being found by Kirk. With his weakness being his ambition, Khan then tried to seize control of the Enterprise with the help of Marla McGivers, the Enterprise ship historian whom he managed to seduce. It failed thanks to the crew's opposition and an attack of conscience from McGivers. Kirk then exiled Khan, his followers, and Marla to a remote but hospitable planet as an act of mercy, giving them the chance to build a new society. Unfortunately, not long afterwards, the planet suffered a catastrophic ecological disaster and, being completely forgotten by Kirk, Khan grew vengeful toward the man who cast judgement on him...

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Tropes involving Khan

• A Father to His Men: He saw his fellow super humans as a family, to the point where he vowed to avenge Joachim when he died following a crippling blast on the Reliant.
• Affably Evil: In his first appearance, Khan's pretty charming, polite, and a bit of a rogue, just like Kirk. However, come Wrath of Khan and Khan is just losing it.
• Alas, Poor Villain: At the end of Wrath of Khan, he's lost everything, including his beloved wife as well as his people, along with any hope of being able to establish a society for them. As he's left to die in the exploding Reliant, he remains Defiant to the End, reciting dialogue from Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick before the Reliant explodes. All that potential he had as a superhuman was essentially wasted out of a desire for control and revenge.
• Ambiguously Brown: He's a genetically-augmented human from some point in the late 20th century. Culturally, he's a North Indian Sikh, but as he is also a genetically-engineered human, his DNA could contain many different genetic traits (his Mexican accent, however, is difficult to explain - especially after the effects of various Temporal Wars caused his birth to be bumped a half century later... and to Canada).
• Anti-Villain: Cruel and immoral his actions may be, he wants a society that he and his people can thrive in, no matter how many others have to suffer for it.
• Arch-Enemy: More than a hundred years later, Spock would credit him as being "the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced."
• Ascended Extra: Goes from a random Villain of the Week to the main antagonist of The Wrath of Khan and one of the franchise's most iconic villains.
• Been There, Shaped History: Given that "Space Seed" states Khan lived in the late 20th century and "it's 2001 and Khan wasn't on the cover of People magazine," two novels titled The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh tries to explain that the Eugenic Wars was some sort of Secret History. Among Khan's achievements are fighting the USSR alongside Afghanistan, causing a plane crash that killed the leader of Pakistan's military government, and opening a hole in the ozone layer (and in a kind of Actor Allusion, his hideout is an island in the French Polynesia).
  • A tie-in comic to Star Trek Into Darkness addresses Trek's Alternate History directly, starting with Khan nuking Washington, D.C. in 1992.
  • The final episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 implies and the first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds confirms that under the Alex Kurtzman production umbrella the Eugenics Wars are being moved from the 1990's to the 2030's, with the implication that the 1990's is when the technology to create Khan was developed. This could be explained as Spock getting the dates wrong due to incomplete records, if it weren't for one line from The Wrath of Khan in which Khan himself states he departed Earth in 1996.
  • The third episode of Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds untangles the thread by revealing that Khan is responsible for bringing humanity to a dark age, which ultimately brings humanity to eventually form the Federation and Starfleet. Khan himself is the target of a temporal war to prevent this from occuring, which only succeeds in delaying his rise from the 1990's to the 2030's. His failure to rise culminates in humanity failing to progress beyond their own Solar System, having failed to ally with other species such as the Vulcans who are eventually wiped out in a war with the Romulans.
• Bread and Circuses: His ruling style back when he was a dictator over a fourth of Earth, at least compared to his competitors, which was enough to give him a legacy as "the best of tyrants." Notably, there were no massacres under his rule, and he didn't involve himself in the Eugenics Wars until after his territory was attacked. On the other hand, the people under his rule were reduced to subjects with few freedoms.
• Breakout Villain: Originally just a Villain of the Week. Ever since Wrath of Khan, he's arguably the most highly-regarded villain in the entire franchise.
• Character Catchphrase: He has a particular way of saying "Admiral" he develops once he learns Kirk has gotten a promotion. At least one interpretation is Khan thinking Kirk got that for dumping him on Ceti Alpha V (because why wouldn't it be about Khan?), and raging jealousy that that's what he got while Khan got the shaft.
• Classic Villain: Khan represents a nice combo of Pride and Wrath.
• Control Freak: Khan demands absolute obedience from everything. While some of his followers can object, none of them will sway him from his course.
• Damned by Faint Praise: He is seen as "the best of tyrants" in regards to the Eugenic Wars.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: A fan of Moby-Dick, Khan sees himself as Captain Ahab and Kirk as his White Whale. Khan seemed to have forgotten how Ahab's quest for vengeance ended. Not just self destruction - he understands and accepts that - but that Ahab didn't even get a chance to make sure he succeeded.
• The Dreaded: Even a century after his death, Starfleet is still terrified of him. It's outright said that the main reason the Federation still has a No Transhumanism Allowed policy in the Star Trek: Prodigy era is because they're scared of a new Khan rising from the ashes. His reputation even extends into a new timeline: When young Spock asks for information about Khan, Spock breaks his own oath not to tell him about the future to warn him about how dangerous Khan is, outright saying that he's the most dangerous enemy the Enterprise ever faced.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he started manipulating Marla McGivers to betray Starfleet as a tool to escape, he came to passionately love her after she joined him in exile. He forgave her betrayal of him to her old crew, and she ruled as his queen. Her death on Ceti Alpha V - more than that of his other loyal followers - is what drives the man who once conquered a quarter of Earth.
• Evil Overlord: Back in the day, anyway. He tries to give it another go in "Space Seed" but is thwarted and offered the opportunity of becoming one to an abandoned planet. But when the planet unexpectedly suffers a catastrophe that devastates him and his followers, he settles on a simpler motive.
• Fatal Flaw: His pride. In Space Seed he is so confident in his hold over McGivers and his superior intellect and strength that he will easily be able to topple Kirk. In The Wrath of Khan, he is pressed to pursue the Enterprise into the Mutara Nebula once Kirk tells him "I'm laughing at the superior intellect."
  • Joachim begs Khan to ignore Kirk and exploit Genesis. Khan shoves him aside and orders the Reliant to follow the Enterprise into the Nebula.
• Faux Affably Evil: Becomes one in The Wrath Of Khan, blinded by his desire to get revenge on Kirk. That doesn't undermine his intelligence, though.
• Genius Bruiser: A Superhuman with immensely powerful physical and mental capabilities.
• Glass Cannon: Has the physical strength to bend a phaser in half with his bare hands and effortlessly lift a spacesuit-wearing Chekov with one arm, but gets taken down by Kirk with a pipe.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Arguably his interactions with the Enterprise are much smaller in significance compared to how much his role as a 20th Century Dictator defines and causes the creation of the Federation.
• Heinousness Retcon: In Space Seed, and to a lesser extent Wrath of Khan, Khan is introduced as a 20th century dictator, but otherwise fairly little is made of him. It's in fact noted that he's only one of several dictators active at the time - if the strongest of them. He's otherwise unremarkable and obscure enough that unraveling his identity is a huge chunk of the episode, and the crew need a briefing to explain who the man was. Scotty, and later Kirk even confesses having a degree of admiration for the man. Bones even mentions in slight defense of Khan that "there were no massacres" in his rule, though Spock immediately states, "and little freedoms." Later series would characterize Khan as basically Trek's version of Hitler (with Captain Picard alluding to both of them in the same breath). A man whose name is a byword for evil and death, and whose actions are so despicable, the Federation centuries later is still sort of processing the trauma of them, and has laws on the books to stop a man like him from ever being made. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds even had admirals admit that these laws are draconian and discriminatory but humans are still so sensitive about what Khan did that repealing them is unthinkable.
• Hero Killer: He was directly responsible for Spock's death in the second movie. Hard to fit the trope more plainly when you've done that.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: His descendant La'an Noonien-Singh has to save his life as a child in 2022, not just so she will be born but also as Romulans had sent an agent back in time to kill him. It turns out that without the Eugenics Wars to make humanity want to be better, whilst humanity will still reach space they will become the isolationist United Earth Fleet an easier smaller target amongst many rather than the alliance that is the Federation.
• In Love with the Mark: He started off manipulating Marla, but quickly came to genuinely love her.
• Karma Houdini: He was this In-Universe for his crimes during the Eugenics Wars. While all the other superhumans were implied to have been killed or imprisoned, Khan managed to escape on the Botany Bay. Even when he's later released by the Enterprise crew, there's no serious talk of putting him on trial and he's eventually given a whole planet of his own to rule. Then Ceti Alpha VI exploded, depriving Khan of his beloved wife and sentencing him to a hellish existence on a Death World.
• Morality Pet: His possible son Joachim, who he genuinely loves and cares about.
• Motive Decay: Initially, all he wants is to create a society where he and his people can thrive, but by the time of The Wrath of Khan, all he wants is revenge against Kirk.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's almost always wearing an outfit that displays his muscular chest and great physique.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Khan's final moments include one of these with the death of Joachim, who may very possibly be his biological son and almost certainly is his adopted son. Realizing he got him killed doesn't deter him from further actions, though.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: A Rare Male Example, his pecs are well displayed.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: In the movie (though the jacket is quite damaged), to show off Montalban's great shape.
• No Transhumanism Allowed: In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it's explained that Khan is the reason the Federation prohibits genetic modification or engineering.
• Photographic Memory: Implied to be one of his genetically engineered gifts, and stated explicitly in the novelization of Wrath of Khan and the expanded universe's "Khan trilogy". He tells Chekov he never forgets a face, and even after 15 years he still seems to have the Enterprise's technical specifications committed to memory, given that he still has perfect knowledge of the ship's weak points.
• Pride: He has oodles of it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: At least to his fellow superhumans. His interactions with Joachim in Wrath of Khan show that his followers are comfortable enough with him to give him critical feedback without any hesitancy, although in the end his own authority is absolute.
• Remember the New Guy?: In both Star Trek Into Darkness and his debut episode Space Seed, each set in different continuities, Khan Noonien Singh is established to be a genetically / eugenically engineered übermensch despot from the late 20th / early 21st century - the most prominent of several, in fact - who ruled various nations across the globe and who partook in a destructive global conflict known as the Eugenics Wars. Despite this, it takes them half an episode to identify him even after he interacts with several characters - including the ship's historian - whereupon both Kirk and Scotty admit to being aware of Khan and even admiring him somewhat, the ships' computer is shown to have photographs of him, and everyone on board knows about the Eugenics Wars and the superhumans who started them, not to mention that he freely tells them his name from the beginning. The crew might as well have ran into a cryogenically frozen French general named Napoleon and failed to think he might be that Napoleon until the 11th hour.
  • Vaguely justified in that Khan and Singh are both overwhelmingly common Indian names, however.
• Revenge Before Reason: He will do anything to kill Kirk, no matter how self-destructive. Even when Kirk is clearly baiting him into an obvious trap, Khan seems physically incapable of resisting the urge to roar into it, so fervent is his hatred.
  Khan: No... you won't get away. From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee...
• Revenge Myopia: Khan ignores Chekov's observation that he attacked Kirk after the latter had taken in him and his crew.
• Rule of Symbolism: Much of the conflict between Kirk and Khan plays out like Paradise Lost, with Kirk as God and Khan as Lucifer. Khan even lampshades this in "Space Seed." In The Wrath of Khan, he has two copies of Paradise Lost on his bookshelf (one which included Paradise Regained).
• Sanity Slippage: By the time of The Wrath of Khan, he’s lost it thanks to being stranded on Ceti Alpha V and the death of his wife and most of his followers.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He and his cryogenically-frozen followers, in the episode "Space Seed." And again in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when he's abandoned on Ceti Alpha V (which the crew of the Reliant mistake for Ceti Alpha VI after a natural disaster alters its orbit and destroys its environment).
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: Star Trek: The Motion Picture had the crew of the Enterprise confront V'ger as the antagonist. Wrath of Khan brought Khan back and more dangerous than ever.
• Silver Fox: For a man who was stranded on a nightmare planet for two decades, Khan still managed to age pretty damn well, and he clearly knows it. Check out them pecs, for one.
• Skilled, but Naive: Other than his pride and ambition, one of Khan's greatest weaknesses is that, despite his incredible intellect, all his knowledge and experience is that of a 20th century man, and he lacks the decades of experience in space that Kirk has. This shows when he's unable to quickly find the Reliant's command console override despite having memorized Starfleet's standard starship technical specifications, and when he fails to consider that space is three-dimensional during starship combat.
  Spock: He's intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In Wrath, at least regarding Kirk and all collateral damage.
  Khan: I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you... and I wish to go on hurting you.
• Stalker with a Crush: Meyer confirmed that the Foe Romance Subtext between Khan and Kirk was intentional, and Khan twists Moby Dick lines to “he tasks me, he tasks me and I shall have him.”
• Star-Crossed Lovers: He and his wife, a crewman on the Enterprise who suffered from Heel–Face Revolving Door Syndrome.
• Suddenly Shouting: "This is Ceti Alpha Five!!
• Take Over the World:
  • Why Khan wants Project Genesis. With his homeworld destroyed and his people dwindling in numbers, he feels that terraforming a planet is the only way to ensure his and his people's continued existence.
  • In "Space Seed", Khan makes it clear he believes that he would have been the eventual victor of the Eugenics Wars if things had gone differently ("One man would have ruled eventually. As Rome under Caesar, think of its accomplishments!")
• The Bad Guy Wins: Yes, Khan is killed by the end of The Wrath of Khan, but what happens after that? Spock — Kirk's closest friend — dies painfully as a result of radiation poisoning in his efforts to repair Enterprise enough to escape the Genesis Device detonation. Then as a result of his quest to bring his friend back from the dead, Kirk loses not only his beloved Enterprise but also his son. Ultimately, Khan has done far worse to Kirk than kill him — he hurt him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Khan becomes far more ruthless and unhinged in The Wrath of Khan, thanks to his Sanity Slippage and single-minded vendetta against Kirk.
• Tragic Keepsake: Khan wears a Starfleet emblem on a chain around his neck, strongly implied to have been part of Marla McGiver's uniform.^note It's also a continuity problem: The insignia is similar to the belt buckle worn as part of the movie uniforms, however was not actually present on the uniform McGivers would have worn.
• Tragic Villain: Subverted. Khan has all the hallmarks of a tragic character, having suffered a great loss that drives him to committing evil, but while he is sympathetic, he was a ruthless dictator even before this. The only thing it really changed was how evil he was, causing him to go from Affably Evil to a spiteful, unhinged demagogue.
• Trouble from the Past: He perfectly embodies both the modern age's charismatic daring and its prideful ambition, transported through time almost 300 years to menace the utopian future of the 23rd century, which he comes to believe is ill-prepared to resist himself and his crew of supermen. Kirk ultimately proves him wrong on that account.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Kirk and company find a stasis ship just in the nick of time, as Khan's own capsule is about to fail, revive him and his followers, and treat him with frankly undue courtesy given who he is— so Khan decides to steal his ship. Then Khan resents Kirk leaving him and his people on Ceti Alpha V, even though that was more lenient than taking him back to Earth, where he would have been prosecuted as a war criminal.
• Visionary Villain:
  • Justifies his quest to Take Over the World as an attempt to unify humanity during a time of war.
  • Subverted by the movie, in which it becomes abundantly clear he isn't as interested in conquering as he is in killing one man over a grudge.
• Wicked Cultured: His Final Speech comes from Moby-Dick, he mentions Paradise Lost before Kirk exiles him, and the Botany Bay appears to have other classic books. Part of his obsession with Moby-Dick in particular seems to be because Khan was stuck on Ceti Alpha V with only a handful of books to read, leading him to read them over and over again.
• Young Conqueror: Both Expanded Universe versions of his Origin Story (the 2001 novels by Greg Cox and the 2014 comic book tying in to Star Trek Into Darkness) place him as being either in his early or late 20's during the Eugenics Wars. The novels indicate that faster-than-normal maturation is part of his genetic modifications.

Commander John Harrison/Khan Noonien Singh (Kelvin Timeline)

"You think you are safe. You are not."

Played by: Benedict Cumberbatch

Dubbed in French by: Pierre Tissot

Dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese by: Ronaldo Júlio

Appearances: Star Trek Into Darkness

Starfleet's top agent, before a perceived betrayal by his superiors sent him on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the entire Federation command structure.

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Tropes involving Khan

• The Ace: As Harrison himself claims, he is simply "better" at everything. Justified, as he is genetically designed to be so.
• Adaptational Jerkass: The original Khan was in no way a nice person, but he was Affably Evil, at least in "Space Seed", and had an entertainingly hammy persona. This one is far more cold blooded and stoic.
• Adaptational Villainy: As seen above, in Space Seed Khan had committed no massacres in his reign. Here Spock accuses him of planning to commit mass genocide on any being he deems "less than superior".
• Aesop Amnesia: Openly vows to resume "the work" he and his crew had done prior to banishment. Despite having failed in his despotism in the Eugenics Wars, he still hopes to start right over.
• All There in the Manual: His past as a tyrant from our current modern age who once controlled a quarter of Earth isn't mentioned; it's only stated that he was a war criminal from Earth's distant past.
  • He also has a spinoff comic. See Villain Episode.
• Alternate History: The Villain Episode tie-in comics tackle the Failed Future Forecast issues around the Eugenics Wars head on... by showing Khan nuking Washington D.C. and Moscow... in 1992.
• The Antichrist: He's not supernatural, of course, but the tie-in comics use a fair share of "The Beast of Revelations" imagery when describing his rise to power during the Eugenics Wars.
• Arch-Enemy: For Kirk, much like Nero for Spock in the last film. And well, himself for Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• Badass Boast:
  • Boasts about his superhuman abilities.
    Harrison: I am better.
    Kirk: At what?
    Harrison: Everything.^note In the novelization, the tone of voice he says this with isn't that of a boast, but a simple statement of fact by a man who knows that it's true.
  • Boasts about how he's going to end you.
    Harrison: I will walk over your cold corpses.
• Badass Longcoat: Sports a black trenchcoat with a hood. He even steals one off a chair towards the end of the film to replace it. Presumably, this was to help disguise him to some extent.
• Benevolent Boss: Zig-zagged between this and Bad Boss. While he does seem to truly care for his crew, he was also a ruthless tyrant and war criminal 300 years prior.
  Harrison: My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
• Berserk Button: Threatening his crew or implying that they're dead is a seriously bad idea. Admiral Marcus found that one out the hard way.
• Big Bad: A Starfleet agent with superhuman abilities turned terrorist. He's really Khan Noonien Singh, an infamous war criminal working for Starfleet under an assumed identity.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Serves as Into Darkness's main antagonist, alongside Admiral Marcus. Towards the climax, however, Khan kills Marcus, establishing himself as the sole Big Bad.
• Big "NO!": He yells "No" when he thinks that his crew has been killed after the torpedoes explode on his ship.
• Bio-Augmentation: Genetically engineered for superhuman strength, endurance and intelligence.
• Bullying a Dragon: Nice job trying to force a 300-year-old superman stronger, smarter and more ruthless than you to do your dirty work by threatening to kill his crew (which is essentially his family), Marcus.
• Byronic Hero: A Villainous example. He fits the bill in a few ways: Brooding, charismatic, sympathetic and physically attractive but also incredibly vengeful, prideful and was once an Evil Overlord back in the day.
• Canon Character All Along: This is one of Into Darkness's main twists. John Harrison is revealed to be none other than Kirk's Arch-Enemy Khan Noonien Singh.
• Canon Foreigner: Subverted. He's actually Khan Noonien Singh.
• The Chessmaster: Most of the events of Into Darkness are the result of Harrison's planning and manipulations.
• Chewing the Scenery: While there is some mugging during "annoyed/angry exposition", when he gets furious, Evil Is Hammy gets into full force.
  You should have let me SLEEP!
• Commanding Coolness: Harrison's falsified rank in Starfleet was Commander.
• Cool Starship: The USS Vengeance, a jet black Federation dreadnought that Harrison helped design and later steals after killing Admiral Marcus.
• Creepy Monotone: Making him even more scary. And a complete inversion of Ricardo Montalban's hammy original. Benedict Cumberbatch's performance just drives the whole thing home since you really can't watch him like this without shuddering at least once.
• Dark Is Evil: Dresses exclusively in black clothing. Benedict Cumberbatch also dyed his hair black for this film again. Also, the Vengeance, a pitch-black monster of a warship, was his design, and he takes command of it near the climax of the film.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • After Kirk's utterly ineffective beatdown on Kronos, Harrison contemptuously repeats Uhura's invocation of Kirk's rank.
    Harrison: Captain.
  • During his conversation with Spock after Harrison hijacks control of the Vengeance.
    Spock: You betrayed us.
    Harrison: Oh, you are smart, Mr. Spock.
• Death Seeker: When he thinks his crew is dead, Khan has shades of this when he attempts to ram The Vengeance into Starfleet Headquarters.
  Harrison: SET DESTINATION: STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS!
  Vengeance's computer system: Engines compromised. Cannot guarantee destination. Confirm order.
  Harrison: Confirm.
• Despair Event Horizon: He crosses it when he believes his beloved crew to have been killed. After that, Khan stops caring if he lives or dies, setting the Vengeance on a suicide run to Starfleet Headquarters.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: As he notes, Starfleet really should have kept him asleep.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Marcus forced him to help design the USS Vengeance for Starfleet but he is a much more direct threat to the heroes than the Admiral and only serves him to save his crew, and Harrison shows himself to be the more competent villain when he kills Marcus to commandeer the Vengeance.
• The Dreaded: Spock Prime's encounters with Harrison/Khan's prime universe counterpart are enough to convince him to give Spock information about him, despite his previous pledge to let Spock walk his own path.
• Driven to Villainy: Subverted. While his present motivations are to get back at Starfleet for Admiral Marcus for holding his family hostage, Khan was a war criminal before being frozen, and was specifically defrosted for both his intellect and his willingness to use it aggressively.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has dark hair, retains his actor's pale complexion and serves as a contrast to Kirk and Admiral Marcus.
• Emperor Scientist: In the tie-in comics it's indicated that this was his ruling style after he accomplished his initial conquests.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Being a bio-engineered super-human, he's a Nigh-Invulnerable One-Man Army Evil Brit in a Badass Longcoat. Not even an extremely angry Vulcan on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge was enough to stop him without help.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Wants to save his former crew who were on board the SS Botany Bay.
  Harrison: Is there anything you would not do for your family?
• Evil Brit: Retains the accent of his actor, the British Benedict Cumberbatch.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His terrorist attacks are motivated by his suspicions that Starfleet has already killed his crew, mainly because that's exactly what he would have done in their place. Later, after the torpedo incident, he again assumes that his enemies have killed off his crew and decides to make the Vengeance's name very literal. One gets the impression that Khan just can't wrap his head around other people not being as murderous and willing to kill for convenience as him.
• Evil Counterpart: While he's Kirk's traditional Arch-Enemy, he comes off as an evil Spock in Into Darkness. He's introduced in a subordinate command position despite being smarter and stronger than his nominal superior, has a unique biology that makes him both human and more than human, is uniformly polite even while moving to kill you and is striving to resurrect his "race." At the end of the movie, the differences between the two start disappearing even more, with a pissed-off Spock going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the guy who codified the trope in Trek, and the two even exchanging signature attack moves in a fist fight where they're both angry, snarling savages.
  • While Harrison/Khan displays similar mannerisms to that of Spock in his initial appearance, the differences in their character increasingly become apparent following The Reveal. Khan actually goes so far as to distinguish himself from Spock by pointing out that he indulges and takes pride in his savagery while Spock suppresses such emotions.
    Harrison: Intellect alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock. You, you can't even break a rule. How could you be expected to break bone?
• Evil Is Hammy: Even when he's not raising his voice, he is full of Cold Ham with the way he overenunciates his words.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Starfleet really shouldn't have tried to manipulate or threaten him.
• Evil Is Petty: Being shunned after helping Marcus with his warmongering plans is as bad for him as the fact the admiral kept his "family" hostage.
• Evil Overlord: Ruled over a quarter of Earth centuries ago.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Benedict Cumberbatch plays the character with a deep baritone voice.
• Fantastic Racism: He finds being at the beck and call of the genetically "inferior" humiliating.
• Face–Heel Turn: He went from a decorated member of Starfleet to a terrorist trying to destroy it. Only not; the John Harrison identity was created for him when he was thawed, and the closest he came to working for Starfleet was his unwilling stint making weapons for Admiral Marcus.
• Fallen Hero: Subverted. He was a bad guy long before his falsified past.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. While his original timeline version was more defined by the It's Personal nature of Wrath pushing him to obsessively pursue Kirk in Revenge Before Reason, here, his condescending contempt for Kirk’s crew manifests as arrogance bordering on blindness— in particular, he seems incapable of conceiving that Spock could have the cunning to match him even briefly, or meet Khan’s savagery with his own. The first costs him his ship, and the second leads to a brutal fist fight with the half-Vulcan that is more than even Khan could have predicted.
• A Father to His Men: He genuinely cares about his crew and will do anything to protect them.
  Harrison: My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
• Faux Affably Evil: Though Harrison genuinely cares for his crew, the politeness he demonstrates towards Kirk and others is relatively fake. Once his nominal allies have outlived their usefulness, he'll have no hesitation about killing them.
• First-Name Basis: Upon the revelation of his true identity, he's addressed solely as "Khan". Only Spock Prime even mentions the rest of his name.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Harrison is a One-Man Army created through genetic manipulation. It turns out to be the first hint of his true identity.
• Genius Bruiser: He's incredibly intelligent (within a year, he learned enough about 23rd century technology to design advanced weaponry, as well as the nigh-unstoppable USS Vengeance) and extremely strong (enough so to crush a man's skull with his bare hands).
• Guns Akimbo: For the shootout with the Klingons, he wields a phaser rifle in one hand and a Chainsaw-Grip BFG in the other.
• Hannibal Lecture: Delivers several speeches while captured over the heroes' shortcomings.
• Healing Factor: Heavily implied but not seen. Harrison's blood allows his cells to heal at an astonishing rate, which he uses to heal a sick girl in the beginning in exchange for a favor. Later, Bones revives a dead tribble with it, and then uses it to save Kirk.
• The Heavy: Harrison's actions are what set off and move along the plot of Into Darkness.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: The tie-in comics show that after they found the Botany Bay, Section 31 gave Khan extensive plastic surgery, a memory wipe, and a fake life history in an attempt to turn him into John Harrison, Hero of the Federation. After he finds out what was done to him, he's understandably pissed.
• Hero Killer: This guy has killed a whole bunch of Starfleet officers, including Pike. Near the end of Into Darkness, Khan's attack on the Enterprise manages to kill Kirk himself, although the crew do manage to save their captain.
• Human Popsicle: Was cryogenically frozen for about 250 years. He ends the film this way, too.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Which serves to highlight his cold, calculating personality.
• Implacable Man: Over the course of the film, Harrison withstands a (completely ineffective) beating from Kirk, stunning shots from a phaser, an explosion that cripples the Vengeance, and the Vengeance crashing into San Francisco, all of which barely slows him down. Exaggerated during his fight with Spock, where he forces his way through a Vulcan nerve pinch and takes roughly a dozen stun shots from Uhura's phaser without going down. Ultimately, it takes Spock beating him nearly to death to subdue Khan.
• In a Single Bound: The first time we see him, he jumps an enormous distance into battle and lands perfectly.
• In Spite of a Nail: No matter the universe, Khan and Kirk will always end up at each other's throats.
• Ironic Echo: He does underestimate Spock somewhat, telling him that intellect alone is useless in a fight and that Spock "can't even break a rule. How would [he] be expected to break bone?" Guess what, Spock manages to do exactly that just fine to him in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the climax of the film.
• I Shall Taunt You: He loves doing this to his opponents.
  • Taunts Kirk as he destroys the Enterprise.
    Harrison: No ship should go down without her captain.
  • Taunts Admiral Marcus as he crushes his skull.
    Harrison: YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME SLEEP.
  • Taunts Kirk while securely imprisoned.
    Harrison: Captain, are you going to punch me again, over and over and over, until your arm weakens? Clearly you want to.
• Karmic Death: Marcus was planning one of these for Harrison when you take into account that he was to be killed by the torpedoes he designed, which also contained his crew. Luckily, Kirk didn't go through with that plan and opted to arrest him. Even better, Harrison surrenders himself the moment he finds out about the number of the torpedoes.
• Kick the Dog: Right before he kills Admiral Marcus, he stomps on Carol's leg hard enough to break it.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Murders Carol's father, the equally evil Admiral Marcus.
• Knight of Cerebus: If you thought Nero was nasty, he pales compared to this guy.
• Kubrick Stare: Harrison occasionally tilts his head down and to the right and then angrily stares up to look more threatening.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Subsequent release materials, his Villain Episode comic mini-series, and even the DVD/Blu-ray cases of Into Darkness make no secret of the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch's character is, in fact, Khan.
• Leitmotif: Besides the main theme, Khan's theme is the most noticeable leitmotif in the movie. It's oddly heroic, which makes sense when you look at the movie's symbolism and realize he's not so much meant to be Osama Bin Laden as he is meant to be Leonidas.
• Lightning Bruiser: The thing that stands out most about his fighting style is just how damn fast he is. The second thing is how strong he is, to the point that he can carry a cannon with one hand or squash people's skulls like melons. The third thing is how he can withstand multiple punches and phaser stuns without slowing down.
• Love Makes You Evil: Played with. He was certainly evil before, but his actions in Into Darkness are driven almost entirely by his love for his crew.
• One-Man Army: Harrison is a "one-man weapon of mass destruction" who takes on entire Klingon security teams by himself.
  Admiral Marcus: For reasons unknown, John Harrison has just declared a one-man war against Starfleet.
• Manipulative Bastard: He cures Thomas Harewood's comatose daughter to manipulate him into suicide-bombing a Starfleet records office. This in turn causes most of the Starfleet officers to gather in one place, where he promptly tries killing most of them.
• Manly Tears: When he talks about his crew during his capture on-board the Enterprise, tears are seen streaming down his face while he looks away from Kirk and Spock the entire time.
• Meaningful Name: John Harrison was a brilliant man who developed a revolutionary new technology that helped his country's Navy become the dominant power in the world, and found himself screwed out of the credit by the government. Sound familiar?
• Meaningful Re Name: The Villain Episode tie-in comics reveal that his birth name was Noonien Singh; he named himself Khan after completing his conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia.
• Mirror Character: As he points out to Kirk, both of them would do anything to protect their respective crews.
• Moral Myopia: Genuinely cares for his former crew and is distraught and furious when he thinks they've been harmed, and while his actions toward Starfleet and the Enterprise crew may possibly be justified, in his mind they were unlawfully kidnapping him for justified actions, his other actions make it clear that he barely considers the rest of the genetically inferior population to even be people. In fact, Spock mentions that Khan was accused of practicing eugenics in Earth's past.
• More Dakka: His attack on the meeting at Starfleet Headquarters basically consists of him shooting the crap out of his target. He doesn't exactly skimp on bullets when it comes to fighting the Klingons, either.
• Never My Fault:
  • Downplayed. When Kirk confronts him over his massacre of Starfleet officers, he indignantly protests that Marcus was holding his crew hostage. In his eyes, they weren't innocent civilians, as Kirk claims, but military personnel that Khan believes killed his defenseless crew, so he sees it as a case of Pay Evil unto Evil.
  • He also claims that he was labeled a criminal and exiled from Earth, ignoring his actions as a tyrant.
  • When he threatens to kill everyone on the Enterprise if Spock does not return his crew, he says he "will have no choice" but to do it if Spock defies him. However, it was Kirk and Scotty who double-crossed him by having him stunned once they had taken the Vengeance, so in Khan's eyes, the crew is not entirely innocent and have proven untrustworthy, which is solidified when Spock double crosses him again by arming the torpedoes.
• Nigh-Invulnerable:
  • Takes a huge pounding over the course of the movie, and only ever shows a few scratches.
  • Faked being stunned by a phaser shot at point blank range.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He delivers a pretty vicious one to Spock during the finale of Into Darkness. Once Uhura arrives and Spock manages to recover, Khan finds himself on the receiving end.
• No-Sell: Takes a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Kirk, and only registers some mild annoyance. He also manages to shrug off the Vulcan nerve pinch, albeit with some pain, but considering most beings crumple after being subjected to it...
• Not So Stoic: At three points of Into Darkness: he sheds a tear as he reveals his story to Kirk and Spock, dissolves into sheer rage while beating Kirk and killing Admiral Marcus, and loses it completely during his Villainous Breakdown.
• Older Is Better: When Kirk wonders what possible value a man who's been frozen for the past 250 years could be to the leader of Starfleet, Harrison implies that he was awakened to help militarize Starfleet because as a conqueror from the savage 20th century he has a better understanding of combat and warfare than the more peaceful, evolved humans of the 23rd century. His 20th century genetic enhancements also make him far stronger and smarter than any 23rd century human.
• One-Man Army: Takes out an entire squad of Klingon commandos and several of their gunships by himself, wielding an assault rifle and a beam cannon.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Inverted: the only scene in which he is not menacing is pure comedy, with him giving Kirk a shocked look at Kirk's casual reply to their imminent space jump.
• Papa Wolf: He's completely bent on recovering and protecting the rest of his people, and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge is mostly because he thinks they're all dead (twice). He even refers to them as his family— see Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Harrison was Starfleet's best agent before he rebelled. Subverted, however. While he could be considered a "paragon" in the sense of his physical and mental abilities, Khan was never truly a Starfleet agent (or if he was, it wasn't by choice); that position, like the entire identity of "John Harrison", was nothing but a lie fabricated by Section 31.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Depending on how you look at it, using his blood to cure Lucille Harewood of her illness could count at this. Granted, Harrison was most likely manipulating her father's desperation to get him to agree to carry out a terrorist attack for him, but even so, he could have found someone easier to coerce.
  • Also, his saving Uhura from the Klingons by attacking before they kill her. She was distracting them from him while alive, but her death itself would have been just as good. And sure, it was probably in his favor to keep all of the Starfleet officers alive, since a MORE pissed-off Kirk might have been less receptive to what he had to say, but it's not like Harrison needed a communications officer alive to carry out his plans.
• Poisonous Captive: The Enterprise crew manage to shut Harrison in the brig, only to receive a withering Hannibal Lecture from him.
• Pride: His defining character trait is his certainty in his own superiority. The hell of it? He's not even wrong. This is a man so ridiculously good at literally everything that he nearly single-handedly designed an entire militarized sub-Starfleet and then nearly destroyed the entire Starfleet/Federation edifice on his own, with no help from anyone else.
• Race Lift: He goes from being played by the brown-faced make-up-wearing, Mexican Ricardo Montalban to the white-skinned, British Benedict Cumberbatch. And Khan is meant to be Indian, which neither men are. The tie-in comics detailing his youth and origins reveal that he is really Indian. It's shown that Admiral Marcus gave him extensive plastic surgery along with a memory wipe in an attempt to recruit him as a Section 31 super-operative.
• Really 700 Years Old: The guy's been in cryo for 300 years.
• Retired Monster: He wanted to be this... but they wouldn't let him sleep.
• The Reveal: His true identity is Khan Noonien Singh, of Space Seed and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a genetically modified superhuman who had been awoken after centuries of cryosleep by Admiral Marcus and forced to develop advanced weapons.
• The Rival: While he shares several traits with Spock, he and Kirk's relationship has a somewhat competitive edge to it. What did you expect? It's Kirk vs. Khan the remake. They also have a pretty clear understanding of each other, and both are cunning enough to prepare for their inevitable betrayal during an Enemy Mine. And without his revenge hard on from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan proves the victor, because he is "better."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Is out to take revenge on the entire Federation for what he believed was the murder of his beloved crew.
• Rogue Agent: Was Starfleet's best agent before a perceived betrayal by his superiors sent him on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the entire Federation. It's a cover story for his work at Section 31 and his true identity.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Khan, in a change up from the original chain of events, ends up with Spock as his primary adversary in this film. He lacks the grudge that defined him from being marooned by Kirk in the prime-timeline, and ends up spending more time in an Enemy Mine with Kirk than he does fighting him, since without that glaring flaw of It's Personal with Kirk, he can make wiser decisions around him. Kirk still seems to gain his respect as a Worthy Opponent with a similar care for his crew, but this movie might be called Wrath of Spock once Kirk's Almost Dead.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: A former Evil Overlord accused of war crimes, cryogenically frozen for centuries in a derelict ship... until Starfleet Intelligence found him. He ends the film this way, too.
• Self-Serving Memory: Khan described himself and his followers as being meant to "lead others to peace in a world at war" before being branded as criminals and forced into exile. While it's likely that this genuinely is how Khan sees himself, he conveniently leaves out the minor detail that he and his crew were war criminals who did everything in their power to take over the world. This is quite similar to the scene in Space Seed where Khan gives another romanticized description of the Eugenics Wars, stating that he and the other supermen "offered the world order" and an attempt to unify humanity.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: A shining example. Canon Foreigner Nero was the villain of the first film, and Khan, one of the most famous Star Trek villains ever, was the villain of the sequel. Word of God was even openly discussing the possibility of his appearance in the reboot franchise shortly after the first film just released.
• Shower Scene: Averted in the film itself, as a shower scene was shot, but cut in the editing process. Sherlock fans immediately made gifs of the cut footage while bemoaning that it wasn't included in the movie.
• Shrouded in Myth: His reputation as Starfleet's top agent precedes him. In his past life, he was also an infamous superhuman tyrant, who was so feared that by the 24th century of the origin timeline his name was apparently on par with Hitler's as shorthand for ultimate evil.
• Smug Super: Harrison is well aware of his superhuman abilities and makes no effort at false modesty.
  Harrison: I am better.
  Kirk: At what?
  Harrison: Everything.
• The Social Darwinist: Implied. Spock says that he intends to destroy those he deems inferior. Khan doesn't confirm it, but he doesn't deny, either. The tie-in comics show that Khan genuinely saw himself as humanity's savior and that (unlike some of the other Augment rulers) he explicitly wanted to rule, not destroy. However, the methods he employed to achieve his goal (including nuking Washington D.C. and Moscow) would certainly justify humanity recording in their history that he was an Omnicidal Maniac.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Khan notably died at the end of his outing in The Wrath of Khan, but was simply put back on ice in Into Darkness— definitely a kinder fate.
• The Spock: To Admiral Marcus's Kirk. Cold, calculating, and brilliant.
• The Spook: He worked for Section 31 before the film started.
• The Stoic: He's usually very calm and calculating.
• Superhuman Transfusion: Being injected with Harrison's bio-augmented blood temporarily grants others his Healing Factor.
• Super-Toughness: Barely even flinches when Kirk tries beating on him as hard as he can. Also, nothing seems to be able to incapacitate him for more than a few moments. It takes a Vulcan nerve pinch, a dozen or so point-blank stun phaser hits, a vicious Tap on the Head, then an arm-break, all in rapid succession to finally stun him enough for Spock to get the upper hand.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Shares a number of character traits with Khan Noonien Singh from Space Seed and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. That's because he is Khan.
• Tom the Dark Lord: "John Harrison" isn't an impressive name for a villain. Subverted, as it's actually an alias disguising his true identity as A Villain Named Khan.
• Tragic Villain: To an extent. See Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
• Transhuman: Harrison has gained superhuman abilities thanks to a little genetic engineering, including a decent Healing Factor, Super-Intelligence, Super-Strength and Super-Toughness.
• The Unfettered: Khan would do anything for his crew, and after believing them dead, would do anything to avenge them.
• Villain Episode: Like Nero, he stars in a comic book mini-series exploring his background. The Race Lift issue is brought up on the very first page, with Kirk pointing out at his trial that "Harrison" looks nothing like the very Indian Khan.
• Villain Respect: As expected from Khan, he gains some genuine, if condescending, admiration of Kirk, especially during their Enemy Mine, and even seems intrigued by Kirk’s reference to his adventure in the preceding film. However, without the It's Personal nature of their feud in the original timeline, Khan is more of a No-Nonsense Nemesis towards Kirk here, and wastes no time in incapacitating him without any fanfare when their alliance is done.
• Villainous Breakdown: After believing that his crew had been killed, Khan seems to decide "screw it all" and sets the fatally damaged Vengeance on a collision course with San Francisco. The breakdown continues during his fight with Spock. Any emotional control he'd had before is gone, and he brutally pummels Spock in sheer, undiluted rage.
• Walking Spoiler: Not to the degree that Admiral Marcus is, but he counts as one by virtue of his name being a pseudonym for Khan Noonien Singh. It's gotten to the point that The Reveal is spoiled if you enter "Benedict Cumberbatch" into Google. You have been warned.
  • Hell, most of the DVD's, Blu-Rays, and even a few digital services outright state who he is.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Believes he's ultimately doing what's best for humanity, regardless of what they think.
• Wham Line: "My name is Khan."
• Wicked Cultured: Harrison is pretty well spoken for a madman and even paraphrases Moby-Dick (a book that Khan loved in the Prime timeline) at one point when he beams Kirk, Carol and Scotty off of the Vengeance and back onto the Enterprise.
  Harrison: No ship should go down without her captain.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He may be a bit of an asshole, as well as a ruthless killing machine, not to mention an Evil Overlord at one point, but he's been frozen for 250 years, then turned into a killing machine by the Federation, then tried saving his crew only for Admiral Marcus to take them away from him once again. It's a bit hard not to feel sorry for him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Breaks one of Carol Marcus' legs.
• Your Head A-Splode: He can do this with his bare hands and seems to reserve it for people who have really pissed him off. Just ask Admiral Marcus. He also tries to do the same to Spock during their fight and would have succeeded if Uhura hadn't beamed down.

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