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Was Khan Noonien Singh the result of a genetically-enhanced embryo, or was he enhanced at a later point in his life?

From my recollection, this is not specifically addressed in the TOS episode "Space Seed", in The Wrath of Khan, or in the DS9 episode "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" (which makes a brief reference to Khan in light of Bashir's enhancement).

Information from the extended universe, including novels and comics, is welcome.

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Praxis
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4 Answers4

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To be the man in his mid-forties that we saw in "Space Seed" Khan would have had to have been born around 1950. While the idea of a genetic supermolecule had been around for decades, the Watson and Crick model of DNA didn't come around until 1953. So unless you also posit random experiments that only the likes of a Josef Mengele would perform, there were no genetic supermen before 1953 and none most probably decades after that.

However, those experiments apparently did take place. In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Cold Station 12", there is a battle between extant genetic supermen called "augments" and Enterprise over a medical facility containing a large number of "augment" embryos. These embryos were left over from the Eugenic Wars, and were first created in the 1950's by scientists trying to improve the human species. There is no definitive declaration that Khan was an augmented embryo, but every other augment mentioned on the series, including children, were spawned from such an embryo. Tweaking gene expression or doing gene resequencing after birth is never mentioned.

So based on this evidence my best guess is that Khan was born with his superhuman gifts.

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Kyle Jones
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    Thanks, I like this answer. There is an exception, however: Julian Bashir. He was augmented after birth, as explained in DS9. However, this took place hundreds of years later and the motivations were very different...so perhaps not so much of an exception. – Praxis May 28 '15 at 04:16
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    Well, Khan looked fourtyish but the effects of long term hibernation on sleeper ships were not know. He might have aged in looks while asleep for 200 years. –  May 28 '15 at 05:49
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    Keep in mind that the Star Trek version of Earth and our own version of Earth diverged at WWII. – Omegacron May 28 '15 at 17:45
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If you are interested in more (non-canon) background on Khan, check out Greg Cox's book series "The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh". It not only covers the circumstances of his birth and his reign on Earth, but the final book actually details the events between Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan.

According to the first book, The Eugenics Wars, Khan was the creation of an advanced science group using genetically-enhanced embryos.

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Originally, Khan was not genetically engineered at all. In "Space Seed," he was the product of controlled breeding:

SPOCK: No such vessel listed. Records of that period are fragmentary, however. The mid-1990s was the era of your last so-called World War.

McCOY: The Eugenics Wars.

SPOCK: Of course. Your attempt to improve the race through selective breeding.

McCOY: Now, wait a minute. Not our attempt, Mister Spock. A group of ambitious scientists. I'm sure you know the type. Devoted to logic, completely unemotional.

I'm not sure if Star Trek II made it clear whether that was still the case. As of DS9 it appears that it's been retconned to have been genetic engineering, but I don't think there's a canon source indicating whether it was done before or after his birth.

EDIT: As Praxis commented, in Star Trek II, Khan had been genetically engineered. Not the first time Star Trek slipped a continuity cog, of course.

Praxis
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Darth Wedgius
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  • In Wrath of Khan, Khan claims, "It was only the fact of my genetically-engineered intellect that allowed us to survive." – Praxis May 31 '15 at 01:47
  • It's both. Controlled breeding and engineering. Why waste time engineering from defective stock? –  May 31 '15 at 01:59
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    @cde Reasonable assumption, but in "Space Seed" there was no mention of genetic engineering (which makes sense given when the episode was written). – Darth Wedgius May 31 '15 at 03:08
  • No, but controlled genetics could mean selective breeding or active manipulation of genes. I mean even today, isn't gene therapy, selective breeding, and germ level gene editing all types of genetic engineering? I think we are hung up on terms. –  May 31 '15 at 03:31
  • @cde I haven't seen a definition of "genetic engineering" that would cover selective breeding. It's possible that terminology could have changed by the 23rd century, of course. – Darth Wedgius May 31 '15 at 03:47
  • The European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture, "Genetic engineering: The manipulation of an organism's genetic endowment by introducing or eliminating specific genes through modern molecular biology techniques. A broad definition of genetic engineering also includes selective breeding and other means of artificial selection." –  May 31 '15 at 03:54
  • @cde Good find! For a sufficiently broad definition of genetic engineering, then, Khanh might have "genetically engineered" even in "Space Seed." But if you tie that into what happened to Bashir and Enterprise's "augments," I think it's hard to avoid the idea that a retcon was involved. Bashir wasn't enhanced through controlled breeding. – Darth Wedgius May 31 '15 at 06:15
  • Well if tos and tng had a broad definition of genetic engineering, Khan and Bashir, as different as the method of their engineering was involved, the outcome was the same, controlled Expression of genes beyond human standard. It doesn't matter if the genes were modified before or after birth, it's that they were superhuman compared to a natural progression of talent. –  May 31 '15 at 06:24
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According to https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/91203/16696/, an official comic created by IDW based on Star Trek Into Darkness, Khan was born in 1970 and underwent augmentation over the decade after his mother died. He was not a embryonic augment.

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  • Interesting...different sources are conflicting one another. – Praxis May 31 '15 at 01:47
  • Of course, we can't expect Nero to be the only time altering event in the Nu trek universe. Someone in the new timeline has obviously time traveled and changed events after. I mean before, Nero did. where is that damn star fleet temporal agency when you need them @praxis –  May 31 '15 at 04:05
  • One minor correction: in the comic Khan is shown to be a teenager (14-ish) in 1971 so he was born in the late 1950s. –  May 31 '15 at 10:19