We get it -- making movies and TV is an exhausting job, moreso if the production involves Edward Norton. Filmmakers don't always have the time or mental energy to make sure everything makes total sense. This results in the sort of logical cock-ups and plot holes that certain people love to mock them for.
A lot of the time, however, those apparent mistakes do have logical explanations ... just not in the movies and shows themselves. To get the missing parts of the plot, you need to brace yourself and dig into far more obscure (read: nerdier) sources, like ...
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There's A Reason Khan Was Suddenly A White Dude In Star Trek Into Darkness
IDW Publishing
Star Trek Into Darkness, the 9/11 Truther-est entry in the beloved franchise, sure raised a lot of odd questions. Did Bones cure death? Does nobody give a shit about Prime Directive? Why does the Captain Kirk of this timeline have a thick head of natural hair instead his familiar Tribble-like toupee? However, the movie's most glaring misstep was the casting of Khan, the villainous Indian Sikh who was originally played by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban ... which probably wasn't cool to begin with, considering they'd already invented Indian people in 1967. But even more not-cool, in Into Darkness, the role was played by a guy whose name is only slightly less British than "Monocle McTeapot III."
Paramount Pictures
Honestly, we can't come up with a sillier joke name than "Benedict Cumberbatch."
Yup, despite the fact that his only possible connection to India would be some kind of colonial history in his family, the extremely white Cumberbatch played Khan. Naturally, a lot of people called the movie out for casting a white actor who also never once attempted to proudly display his glistening man-cleavage.
But rather than leave this kinda racist thread hanging in the middle of Star Trek's continuity, the comic book tie-in stepped up to the plate and addressed the pasty white elephant in the room. The series Star Trek: Khan takes place immediately after the events of Into Darkness, with Khan on trial for all of his evil dickishness. We then see flashbacks to Khan's past, when he looks like a combination of Montalban and, you know, an actual Indian person.
IDW Publishing
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