Khan Noonien Singh‘s pseudonym is John Harrison. Harrison is a rare science officer in the Section 31 crew. He’s a devastating officer and one you can (right now) only get through a special event just for him. He was so damaging that he was taken out of circulation for over a year.
But he’s back now, and I’ve got him. So here’s a rundown of John Harrison.
Captain’s Maneuver
Weapon Designer – When fighting Explorers, John Harrison increases the Weapon damage of the ship by 20%
It’s a nice captain’s maneuver, increasing the weapon’s damage against by 20%. Combining this with his first-round shield ignoring ability, and it’s an extremely effective maneuver. With synergy, you can get this bonus up to 60%.
Officer Ability of John Harrison
Sabotage – For the first round of combat, John Harrison ignores (60% 70% 80% 90%) of the opponent’s shield.
John Harrison’s captain’s maneuver is pretty great, but it’s the officer ability that’s why he’s so prized.
As opposed to Khan whose ability is designed for longer battles, Harrison’s ability is designed for quick victories.
Harrison on your bridge will work to make your enemy’s shields ineffective in the first round. Given that most explorers are dependent on shields for their defense, this makes him extremely effective in getting you a quick victory.
And it makes him an extremely valuable member of the Section 31 crew. You can combine him with Yuki Sulu as captain for her ability to strip your opponent’s shields, and Admiral Marcus for his shield penetrating ability for a lethal combination (depending on his level.)
Or, you can put Harrison as captain, to increase both the damage to Explorers, and the first-round damage.
To show you how it works, I did a quick experiment against a couple of level 37 Romulan hostiles, with my Intrepid. I used my Intrepid because it gives an easy comparison, having only one shot in the first round. I did one run without Harrison (level 15), and then one run with him.
| Crew | Total Damage | Mitigates | Shields | Hull |
| Yuki/Marcus | 105,977 | 42,915 | 50,450 | 12,612 |
| Yuki/Marcus/Harrison | 105,273 | 42,597 | 10,028 | 52,648 |
| Harrison/Marcus/Yuki | 120,412 | 48,723 | 11,470 | 60,219 |
As you can see, the total damage is pretty striking. The damage for the first two attacks was just about the same. But with Harrison, the damage goes right to the hull.
And with Harrison as captain, the hull damage is even greater, as his captain’s maneuver increases the total damage, which in turn increases the hull damage.
But keep in mind that this effect only works in the first round. After that, it’s useless. So if you think you’re going to be going into battles against something other than an explorer, or in a battle that might last more than a few rounds, Yuki might be your best bet as captain.
John Harrison Uses
This is a great PvP crew going against explorers. Good crew to run against that Enterprise or Centurion that’s been giving you trouble.
He’s a go-to in any of the PvP events, like Live Target Practice, or in any Discovery vs. Discovery event. He’s not going to get you bonus points as captain, but he’ll rack up a bunch of victories.
Plus, if you’ve got your PMC crew otherwise engaged, you can use him to grind out hostile explorers (as seen above.)
And it’s a good crew to run against explorer mission bosses (especially Romulans, as this uses Yuki’s officer ability.)
Unfortunately, he doesn’t work at all against armadas.
And while he’s great against explorers, that doesn’t mean he can’t still be useful against other ships. Every ship in the game has shields, and ignoring those shields will be very useful.
One more tip for using Harrison… it helps to use a ship that fires multiple shots in the first round. So pay attention to firing patterns. So he’s much better on a ship like the Augur, for example, which fires four shots in the first round, compared to the Intrepid, which fires only once.
Getting John Harrison
After having no chances to recruit him for over a year, Harrison is now acquired through a semi-regular domination-style event.
And while I’m in general, not a fan of domination events, if you’re ever going to go “all-in” to win an event, this may be the one to do it for. He’s that good.
John Harrison Trivia
The idea that Khan would use an alias to conceal his true identity goes much further back than Into Darkness. In fact, it goes all the way back to the early drafts of Space Seed.
The original alias for Khan was John Ericssen.
You cannot blame the writers of Space Seed for the idea of Khan having magic blood that can bring both Kirk and a tribble back from the dead. That’s all
Additionally, the role of Khan in Into Darkness was originally offered to Benecio Del Toro.
Benedict Cumberbatch Trivia
In taking on the role of Khan, Benedict Cumberbatch had to fill the shoes of portraying arguably the greatest villain in Star Trek history – those of Ricardo Montalban.
He was born in London in 1976, the son of British actors Timothy Carlton (Cumberbatch) and Wanda Ventham.
His father, Timothy, has been a working actor in the United Kingdom since the 1960s. Here’s his resume on IMDB. I’ll admit that most of these shows and movies I’ve never heard of, but he did appear as an extra on Rutland Weekend Television. So there’s a Rutles connection. And there’s that.
His mother, Wanda, is someone you might recognize from three appearances, each 10 years apart on the classic series of Doctor Who. In one of the commentaries, for Image of the Fendahl from 1977, she mentions her young son.
I recognize Wanda from her appearance as Susan’s mother on the BBC comedy, Coupling. If you haven’t seen the program, go do so now, and come back. The first three seasons are really, really funny.
Ironically enough, Coupling was created by Steven Moffat, and it was Moffat who would bring Benedict Cumberbatch to international attention, playing the lead in Sherlock in 2010. And Moffat would again cast Ventha as a mom in Sherlock, as she and her husband would play Sherlock’s parents.
Three years later, he was cast as John Harrison / Khan in Into Darkness. He’s also well-known for playing Doctor Strange.
But in my house, he’s the voice of the Grinch in the 2018 film, Dr. Suess’s: The Grinch. My kids love that movie. I, on the other hand, can’t stand it. Cumberbatch’s Grinch is too whiny. While it’s nice that he gets a backstory (and he’s better in the role than Jim Carrey was,) the problem for me is that he’s not foreboding. He’s not scary in any way. His voice lacks the sinister power of the great Boris Karloff in the original Chuck Jones cartoon. So when he finally makes the transformation near the end, it’s not as meaningful. Just my two cents.
Karloff was among the great monster actors of the 1930s and 40s, up there with Lon Cheney, Jr. and Bela Lugosi. He’s most famous for playing Frankenstein’s monster, (seen below in a charity baseball game.)
And my favorite Karloff story is that every Christmas, he’d dress up as Santa Claus and give presents to disabled children in Baltimore hospitals.