Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 5 - "Fly Me To The Moon"
The actions of Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 5 inadvertently makes Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) more sympathetic in hindsight. Soong is a 21st-century geneticist who lives in Los Angeles and he's the ancestor of Dr. Noonien Soong (no relation to Khan), the 24th-century cyberneticist who built the positronic android, Lt. Commander Data. Adam Soong's story, which centers on eugenics, also sheds light on the future plight of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig).
Khan is arguably Star Trek's greatest villain but his history may be recontextualized with the introduction of his descendant, La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Still, Khan was a 20th-century warlord who was the product of eugenics. The genetically-engineered Khan ruled a portion of the Earth in the late 1990s before he was overthrown and forced to leave the planet along with 84 of his followers. The Eugenics Wars are part of Star Trek's murky 20th and 21st-century history and many of the historical records were lost because of World War III, which was fought from 2026 to 2053. However, a permanent result of Khan and the Eugenics Wars is a permanent ban on the use of genetics to improve the human condition. This total stoppage on eugenics carried into the 24th century and affected DS9's Dr. Bashir, whose life was made better by genetic engineering as a child. Bashir kept the secret of his eugenics into adulthood until he was discovered in 2373.
In Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 5, "Fly Me To The Moon," Dr. Adam Soong finds his funding cut and research into eugenics banned, which leads him to turn to Q (John de Lancie). Soong's daughter, Kore (Isa Briones), suffers from a rare genetic disease where exposure to sunlight and open air is instantly lethal. Adam wants to cure his daughter but his work is considered illegal. In Soong's case, he's not interested in creating a "superman" like Khan, he simply wants Kore to be able to live a normal life, but the ban instituted after the Eugenics Wars makes it impossible. The desperate Dr. Soong is easy prey for Q, who recruits him to join his plot against Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell) in order to change the timeline into the dark future of the Confederation of Earth.
A cure for Kore and the betterment of Dr. Bashir in the 24th century show the potential benefits of eugenics. In a way, Khan's position becomes more understandable and relatable as well. There's no question Khan was a murderer and a tyrant but, even in Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) conceded that Khan was "the best of the tyrants." Compared to the other genetically engineered despots (known as Augments) of his era, Khan's reign was relatively peaceful because he ruled with "gentle authoritarianism." Khan controlled a quarter of Earth from Asia to the Middle East but his people were protected under his reign, and Khan avoided war until his region was attacked.
None of this is meant to champion Khan's great villainy or trumpet his authoritarianism but it's worth noting the profound benefits eugenics could have, with Kore Soong and Julian Bashir as prime examples. Applied properly, genetic engineering could save and improve lives but the scars of the Eugenics Wars held for centuries in Star Trek and the fear of creating another Khan led to untold innocent people suffering when genetic engineering could have saved them. Dr. Adam Soong in Star Trek: Picard brings a tricky subject to the forefront because eugenics utilized responsibly and compassionately wouldn't necessarily create another Khan but Soong is narrow-mindedly denied his chance to save his daughter, Kore.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.