How many followers of Khan?

[Ichneumon]

So, just out of pure Geekhood I wanted to find out how many of Khan's "supermen" were left at different points in the original Star Trek episode "Space Seed" and in the movie "Wrath of Khan".

So... let's begin.

Space Seed

How many escaped earth in their ship the Botany Bay? Spock says there were around 80-90 superman missing from earth that were never found.

So, we start our journey with 80-90 men (including Khan himself).

When Khan is revived he asks Kirk how many of his men are still alive. It seems not all of them, after 200 years, have survived, as only 72 are left.

During the entire episode "Space Seed" none of Khan's men die. 1 gets an injection of tranquilizer by McGivers and one gets a vulcan nerve pinch by Spock, but it seems unlikely they were killed. Some more are, together with the regular crew of the enterprise gassed, but judging from the fact the regulars survived, I think we can assume the gas wasn't lethal.

So, at the end of the episode we still have 72 men + Khan + McGivers.

Wrath of Khan

Khan and his followers were exiled to Ceti Alfa 5 for 15 years. What happened in those 15 years?

One thing we know is that those worm things that he uses to mind control Chekov killed 20 of his men (including his wife), so that's 53 people left, assuming that McGivers was Khan's wife.

So, we begin Wrath of Khan with 53 people.
I'm going to rewatch Wrath of Khan tomorrow and will count all the on-screen deaths and list them here!

[hamishspence]

There's also an unknown number of children- Khan's blond lieutenant in the movie- Joachim, may be one.

In the Star Trek novelization of Space Seed (every episode in the season is novelized and all put into one book- and there are 3 books, one for each season) it says "By the time it was all over, at least one of the supermen were dead and everyone on both sides were somewhat banged up". However, the novelizations don't always exactly match the episodes.

There's a book (The Eugenics Wars III: Exile of Khan Noonien Singh) which tells what happened between Space Seed and Wrath of Khan. However, it may not count since it's only a novel.

There is a lot of fighting between Khan and rival supermen- and one implants Marla with one of the "Ceti eels" in an attempt to have her assassinate Khan. Like Terrill, she manages to commit suicide rather than kill who she's been ordered to kill, at the last moment.

Chekhov is present- he's shown saying goodbye to Marla McGivers and Khan before the Enterprise leaves- which explains why, despite not being present in the TV episode, he knows Khan in the movie.

[kamikasei]

Chekhov is present- he's shown saying goodbye to Marla McGivers and Khan before the Enterprise leaves- which explains why, despite not being present in the TV episode, he knows Khan in the movie.
Bah. I prefer Koeing's version.

[hamishspence]

The existence of one doesn't preclude the existence of the other- Chekhov could have bumped into Khan in one of the loos of the Enterprise as well.

[The Big Dice]

The existence of one doesn't preclude the existence of the other- Chekhov could have bumped into Khan in one of the loos of the Enterprise as well.

I don't know what Walter Koenig's version of the reason Khan recognised him was. But in TOS, the Checkov character didn't even exist in the first season. He came about because of someone asking why there were no Russians on the Enterprise. So they made him more Russian than Russian and he was part of the scenery from season 2 on.

[hamishspence]

That's what the publicity department said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Koenig


Koenig played Ensign Pavel Chekov, navigator on the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek television series (starting in Season 2) and in several movies featuring the original cast. He was cast as Chekov primarily because of his resemblance to British actor/musician Davy Jones of the Monkees, in a bid to attract a younger audience. As the 30-year old's hair was already receding, costume designers fashioned a Davy Jones-style "moptop" hairpiece for him. In later episodes, his own hair grew out enough to accomplish the look with a comb-over. (The studio's publicity department, however, ascribed the inclusion of Chekov to an article in Pravda that complained about the lack of Russians in Star Trek.) Gene Roddenberry asked him to "ham up" his Russian accent to add a note of comic relief to the series.

[IthilanorStPete]

I don't know what Walter Koenig's version of the reason Khan recognised him was.

To quote TVTropes:


When asked about this at conventions, Walter Koenig likes to tell a humorous story about how Chekov, then a lowly Red Shirt, met Khan by using a restroom Khan had much need of. Upon discovering that Chekov had also depleted the toilet paper, Khan cursed the poor ensign and declared he would never forget his face.

[Ichneumon]

I've watched it, and the only real "onscreen" death that takes place on Khan's side is Joachim. Anyway, it was a very good movie.

[The Big Dice]

To quote TVTropes:

I tend to ignore that site. Reducing everything to tropes just reduces everything.

[Fri]

I tend to ignore that site. Reducing everything to tropes just reduces everything.

Strangely, what he quoted doesn't involve tropes at all. It's a quote from a convention.