Star Trek's Khan Noonien Singh Originally Had A Different Name & Look
The characters of "Star Trek" have faced many iconic villains since the show's inception in 1966, but Khan Noonien Singh was one of the first. A megalomaniac intent on world domination, the antagonist was a main player in The Eugenics War. Khan and his followers were genetically augmented and enacted genocide against anyone who wasn't.
First portrayed in "Star Trek: The Original Series" by Ricardo Montalban, repercussions of the character echoed through J.J. Abrams' reboot and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." But as iconic as the figure is, the origins of Khan looked quite different. Sociology professors John and Maria Jose Tenuto researched how the character of Khan began, delving into Gene Roddenberry's papers and the CBS-Paramount archives.
"He wasn't even a criminal with an empire, just a criminal," John Tenuto told Gizmodo in 2013. In the original script for "Space Seed," written by Carey Wilber, Khan wasn't Khan at all. He was an Aryan character by the name of Harold Erickson who had not been genetically modified. When Kirk and the Enterprise come across his crew, their ship, the Botany Bay, has been stranded. They plan to commandeer the Enterprise and become space pirates. A significantly lower-stakes plot than Montalban's Khan, whose intelligence and manipulations make him a serious threat to Kirk, Harold was not long for this world.
Khan became more than a villain of the week
Once Gene Coon started getting involved, the wheels started turning. The "Star Trek" writer considered the possibility that Khan should be more of a threat to Kirk. Instead of a low-level villain, he could be something much more ambitious like a warlord who ruled during the darkest parts of "Star Trek" history. As a relic from an era long since passed, he did not adhere to the rules of Starfleet and would be that much more dangerous. Coon finished his own script with these changes in mind, but the final touches came in the casting process. Up until then, Khan was still a Viking-type character who did not resemble who he became when it was time to film.
"Montalban's casting really altered the character in terms of who he became," Tenuto said, continuing: "Once they knew that Montalban was taking the role, you can see a shift in the dialogue [in the scripts] to become more romantic." This also caused the name to change from one of Scandinavian origin. Ultimately the "Star Trek" team came up with Khan Noonien Singh, in part to honor Noonien Wang, a friend of Roddenberry's. All of this came together to create a character that is arguably one of the most significant characters in the "Star Trek" canon and returned to cause moments that stunned "Star Trek" audiences.