Star Trek’s Greatest Augment Easily Tops Khan

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 18 – “Mindwalk”Dal R’El (Brett Gray) is the most evolved Augment Star Trek has ever seen, and Star Trek: Prodigy’s teenage Captain is far superior to Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). Dal discovered he was genetically engineered when the USS Protostar’s teenage crew visited the laboratory of Dr. Jago (Amy Hill) in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Dal and his friends were stunned to learn that the purple teen was a product of eugenics by followers of the 22nd-century genetic scientist Dr. Arik Soong (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: Enterprise.

Khan is Star Trek’s original Augment. Unfortunately, Khan is the standard by which all genetically engineered people are judged by the United Federation of Planets. In the 1990s, Khan was the most feared, powerful, and ruthless of the genetically engineered ‘supermen’ who ruled much of Earth. Khan fled the planet in 1996 after the Eugenics Wars and spent 300 years in cryo sleep before he was awakened by Captain James T. Kirk’s (William Shatner) USS Enterprise. In two different power grabs, Khan proved he was a threat to the entire galaxy before his demise. Over a century after Khan’s death, he still has a deleterious effect on the lives of Augments in Star Trek.

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Dal Is A Far More Evolved Augment Than Khan

As an Augment, however, Star Trek: Prodigy‘s Dal R’El leaves Khan in the dust. Using hybrid speciation, Dal’s creators cross-bred the Protostar’s Captain with a total of 26 different species. Dal’s genetic cocktail includes the physical traits of humans, Klingons, Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, and even proto-Organians. As such, Dal has abilities he is only just becoming aware of. A dermal implant from Dr. Jago that activated his dormant genes briefly gave Dal morphing abilities, increased agility, psychic powers, and the emission of a viscous substance. In Star Trek: Prodigy episode 18, Dal used his Vulcan telepathy to accidentally switch bodies with Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).

Compared to Dal, Khan is a caveman, albeit a super smart and physically powerful one. Khan was many times more intelligent, stronger, and more durable than a normal human. Khan was also a brilliant strategist, and he was a quick learner, as he was able to take over Kirk’s Starship Enterprise just by reading its technical manuals. What set Khan apart, however, was his savagery and ruthlessness, although there was also a streak of proud nobility within him. Yet Khan is a relatively one-dimensional human Augment who lacks Dal R’El’s myriad abilities.

Janeway Confirmed Dal Can’t Join Starfleet Because He’s An Augment

What Dal doesn’t yet know, however, is that Khan’s legacy of evil directly impacts his future. When Admiral Janeway’s mind was in Dal’s body, and she came to understand that he is an Augment, Janeway confirmed to Dal’s friends that he can never join Starfleet. Thanks to Khan, genetically engineered people remain banned by the Federation. Dal is an Augmented orphan from the Delta Quadrant who isn’t even a Federation citizen. As such, Dal’s chances of realizing his dream of becoming a Starfleet Officer seem tragically nonexistent.

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) was revealed to be an Augment, his father went to prison in his place in order to save Julian’s Starfleet career. A similar drama is playing out in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds where Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) was arrested by Starfleet for lying about the fact she is a genetically-engineered Illyrian. Dal’s prospects for a life as a Starfleet Officer appear bleak in Star Trek: Prodigy, and the reason why can be traced directly back to Khan, the bane of all Augments.

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Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.