Star Trek Into Darkness Big Bad Gets A Name

Paramount Pictures has finally provided a name for Benedict Cumberbatch's big character in Star Trek Into Darkness. The name is John Harrison, who in the screenshot appears to be in the Enterprise brig while wearing a black shirt with the Starfleet logo. According to Memory Alpha, Harrison was a crew member that appeared in several episodes of The Original Series including being a near victim of Khan during his attempt to take over the ship in the classic episode "Space Seed." Really it was the same actor playing a variety of background crew characters depending on need of the scenes. This seems to be a third Khan related referenced already but in all cases without context so while tempting to read to much into it, just as likely Abrams and the writers are having a little fun with fans.

End result is while Cumberbatch's big bad has A name, it is not THE name of the character. I think its just an alias for his infiltration of Starfleet. The main reason think this is I don't see JJ Abrams going through all this trouble to hide the character's name only to have it intentionally leaked by Paramount. Also the bag guy is supposed to be familiar to long time Trek fans and Harrison does not fall under that. Finally, Harrison is a normal human in TOS. In the trailer Cumberbatch demonstrates superhuman strength which means he is either Khan or a surgically altered alien (Vulcan, Klingon, etc.). As usual time will tell but based on reports of the upcoming teaser trailer and 9 minute preview, it will not be anytime soon as neither provide any answers.