Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine essentially predicted the franchise’s new obsession with Augments, with Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dealing with the moral and ethical issues of genetic engineering in two different Star Trek eras. Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) was the first Star Trek Augment, and he embodied the dangers of genetically engineered individuals. Essentially, power corrupts, and Khan was power mad. The United Federation of Planets feared Khan to the point that eugenics was banned, including the people who are augmented.
Star Trek: Prodigy recently revealed that Dal R’El (Brett Gray) is an Augment. The young Captain of the USS Protostar grew up not knowing what his species was, only to discover he’s the product of rogue genetic scientists who followed in the footsteps of Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Dr. Arik Soong (Brent Spiner). But 109 years before Dal was created, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds revealed the heretofore unknown backstory of Number One (Rebecca Romijn): Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley is an Illyrian, a civilization outside the Federation that practices genetic engineering. Una lied about being an Illyrian to join Starfleet, but she was discovered and taken into custody.
How DS9 Predicted Star Trek’s New Obsession With Augments
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5’s episode, “Dr. Bashir, I Presume?” dropped the bombshell that Dr. Julian Bashir is an Augment. Julian suffered from a developmental disability, and his parents resorted to illegal genetic augmentation to help their son. Bashir was enhanced to be far beyond normal humans, and he hid the truth about himself. Bashir nearly lost his Starfleet career, but his father went to prison in his stead. The revelation about Dr. Bashir reintroduced the thorny issue of eugenics to Star Trek, revealing that Khan’s legacy of evil continued to have a deleterious effect on the lives of Augments in the 24th century.
More Augments were introduced in DS9 season 6’s “Statistical Probabilities,” when Bashir took charge of four individuals who suffered from side effects from their augmentations that left them unable to function in society. Julian’s new friends applied their combined genius to winning the Dominion War, but they deduced that the Federation was destined to lose it. The Augments took steps to force the Federation to surrender before Bashir stopped them, and the episode was an inspired and skewed way to present a new kind of threat Augments could pose to the Federation.
Star Trek’s New Augments Are More Interesting Than Khan
Khan was an unforgettable villain thanks to Ricardo Montalbán’s scenery-chewing performances, but as an Augment, Khan was simply a human enhanced with heightened intelligence, strength, and stamina. Compared to Dal in Star Trek: Prodigy, Khan is like a brilliant caveman because the purple teen is a far more evolved Augment. Thanks to hybrid speciation, Dal is the combination of 26 different species, including human, Klingon, Vulcan, Tellarite, Andorian, and proto-Organian. Dal can inherently tap into each species’ special ability, including morphing and even telepathy. If Dal learns to master all of his abilities, he would possess several superpowers. But because he is an Augment, Dal can’t fulfill his dream of joining Starfleet.
Number One in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds appears to be an Augment like Khan, and she has displayed a similar super strength. But Una said that Illyrians use eugenics to blend into their environments, so there’s no telling yet what further enhancements Number One actually possesses. Before Number One was arrested, she lamented that even with the perfection she strives for as a Starfleet Officer, the Federation’s hostility against Augments would erase all of her accomplishments. Meanwhile, Lt. La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) is Khan’s descendant and may also be an Augment. Dal and Una are dealing with challenges that are the direct result of Khan’s villainy in fascinating new ways set up by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
