The origins of Khan's and Soong's names

[xvicente]

This story is no news:

Gene Roddenberry had a Chinese friend in the 1940s, named Noonien Wang, whom he'd lost touch with. He hoped that one day this episode would air in China, and Wang would see "Noonien" and Roddenberry's name, and get in touch. Roddenberry was still trying to reach his friend in the late 1980s, which is why Data's creator is Noonien Soong

ok, but COME ON Roddenberry?!! I know you didn't know google or facebook, but what a wierd way to try and make contact with someone.

 

[Kor]

It was a long (impossible) shot...

But what else was he supposed to do? It was the height of the Cold War, and the PRC was nowhere near as open to the outside world as it is today. Lots of people were being displaced and purged through government policies. It's not like Mr. Roddenberry could just get his hands on a phone book and look up his friend that way.

There is also another version of the story which says Roddenberry's pilot friend was named Kim Noonien Singh. And Singh is a Punjabi name often associated with Sikhs.

So maybe the whole thing is just a story. It wouldn't be the only one in Trek production lore.

Kor

 

[hux]

As I said on the last one of these Khan name threads

If you wanted someone to contact you, why give that persons name to a character who is......a massive dick

If I was watching, I'd think....oh look, that's my name and this show is made by that guy I knew years ago called Roddenberry.....hang on, he's given that character who is massive dick my name

Pftt, I guess he never liked me much....oh well, screw that guy

 

[T'Girl]

^ Or give a slightly altered version of a friend's name (from the LA police force) to your show's villain species.

Maybe he wasn't such a good friend

 

[Christopher]

There is also another version of the story which says Roddenberry's pilot friend was named Kim Noonien Singh. And Singh is a Punjabi name often associated with Sikhs.

Which doesn't make much sense, since Noonien is evidently a Chinese name, and Kim is usually a Korean name. The "Noonien Wang" story makes more sense.

Khan's name is an ethnic hodgepodge. Khan is generally a Muslim surname, derived from a Mongolian royal title. Noonien is Chinese, and Singh is Sikh, the only part of his name that actually fits the character's nominal origin. (Although, given that he was the product of a eugenics/genetic engineering program, it's possible he had multiethnic parentage -- which could explain the Mexican accent.) The thing is, '60s American TV producers tended to treat all of Asia as an interchangeable mass, so there were a number of ethnically confused characters like that (e.g. Jonny Quest's Hadji, a stereotypical Hindu whose name is a Muslim honorific). But a person in real life being named "Kim Noonien Singh" seems unlikely.

There's also the fact that Khan's name was going to be Sibahl Khan Noonien before it became Khan Noonien Singh.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

The thing about these kinds of stories is they often get blown out of proportion. It would not surprise me at all if someone asked Roddenberry where he got the unusual name "Noonien," and he related an anecdote about knowing someone with the name during his time in the service. Possibly saying he wished he could see him again. Then the story snowballed into an elaborate plan to send a secret message through television.

Just my speculation.

 

[Kor]

^ Yes. Just like Nichelle Nichols' story about meeting Martin Luther King, Jr.

^ Or give a slightly altered version of a friend's name (from the LA police force) to your show's villain species.

Maybe he wasn't such a good friend

Well it would certainly get their attention.

Maybe it takes a certain kind of wit. In high school I used to make lots of comic strips with very unflattering depictions of my circle of friends. I found it quite amusing... them, not so much.

Kor

 

[martok2112]

It was a long (impossible) shot...

But what else was he supposed to do? It was the height of the Cold War, and the PRC was nowhere near as open to the outside world as it is today. Lots of people were being displaced and purged through government policies. It's not like Mr. Roddenberry could just get his hands on a phone book and look up his friend that way.

Indeed, because there would have been so many Wings and Wangs he could Wing the Wong number.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I had the true story conveyed to me by an inside source.

Gene Roddenberry met up with an undercover shapeshifting alien from the Andromeda galaxy who had assumed the name of Gan Noonien Song. Sent by a mysterious faction in the Temporal Cold War, he was then fighting for the Allies. The alien had left his walking stick behind, and out of courtesy, Roddenberry tried to get in touch with him by inserting the name in Space Seed, requesting a line about the Chinese in TCotEoF and coming up with Data's father.