Khan Noonien Singh

Khan Noonien Singh is a fictional villain in the Star Trek universe. He first appeared in the original ' series episode "Space Seed", and then in the film '. In both cases he was played by Ricardo Montalbán. He is generally referred to simply as Khan.

Backstory

Khan was one of the Augments, a group of genetically engineered "supermen", born in the late 1960s or early 1970s as the result of an ambitious project to improve the human race. Scientists used a selective breeding program combined with genetic engineering to achieve their aims, and in many ways they succeeded; the "supermen" were mentally and physically superior to ordinary men and women. They were roughly five times stronger than the average person, their lung efficiency was 50 percent greater than normal, and they had an increased capacity for absorbing new information. What the scientists failed to anticipate was that creating a superior race meant creating a superior ambition; the "supermen" felt that their advanced abilities gave them the right to rule the rest of humanity.

Related Topics:
Augments - 1960s - 1970s - Human - Lung

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In 1992 a group of "supermen" seized power simultaneously in more than 40 nations. Khan was considered the most dangerous of the ambitious cadre. At his most powerful, he ruled all of Asia and half of the Middle East — more than a quarter of the entire planet — but even this was not enough for him. He envisaged ruling the entire world, but so did the other genetically engineered leaders, and they ended up fighting among themselves.

Related Topics:
1992 - Asia - Middle East

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This led to the Eugenics Wars, during which whole populations were bombed out of existence and the entire planet was threatened with a new dark age. Fortunately, by 1996 the tyrants were brought under control by a rebellious population. Most of the "supermen" died or were sentenced to death, but 84 of them, including Khan, escaped aboard the sleeper ship S.S. Botany Bay. According to Greg Cox's novel Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars, Khan and his followers stole the Botany Bay from Area 51, where government agents were building top secret technology that was based on the Klingon communicator and phaser left behind by Pavel Chekov in '.

Related Topics:
Eugenics Wars - 1996 - ''Botany Bay'' - Greg Cox - Area 51 - Pavel Chekov

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On board the ship, the crew were cryogenically frozen to allow them to remain in suspended animation. Khan was considered so dangerous that even four centuries later, genetic engineering was banned throughout the United Federation of Planets for fear of creating another tyrant like Khan.

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