Khan Noonian Singh  
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One of history's most notorious tyrants and dictators, he was a genetically-bred 'superman' of Earth's India in the mid-20th Century, that died amid another experiment gone wrong in the 23rd century. Rising to power among others of his kind, his drive helped foment a Eugenics War from 1992-96 that involved much of Earth's Third World. Finally facing defeat, he and dozens of followers escaped in the SS Botany Bay, a DY-100 vessel modified as a sleeper ship and discovered in 2266 by James Kirk in deep space. With the survivors, his attempt to seize that starship nearly succeeded but he and his people were sentenced by Kirk instead to tame the wild Class M world of Ceti Alpha V -- among them Lt. Marla McGivers, who fell in love with him but refused to betray Kirk and her shipmates in his abortive takeover. Left to survive in the Botany Bay's cargo pods, the planet's sixth sister planet exploded six months later and the shock wave wreaked havoc on planet V's ecosystem, making it a desert wasteland. Some 15 years later -- 20 on the solar calendar -- the embittered Khan took the crew of the USS Reliant hostage and tried to hijack its top-secret Genesis Project torpedo while destroying Kirk in vengeance. He failed to kill his old foe, but died in the blast aboard Reliant after detonating the cataclysm of the matter-reorganizing terraforming device.