Dr. Noonian Soong and Khan Noonien Singh
Dr. Noonian Soong and Khan Noonien Singh
I don't think there is a relation to these two, but they do have some similar characteristics (wanting to create better/perfected beings, though in very different ways), on top of their similar names.
Any deep lore/canon that link this two?
I don’t even think their goals are as linked as you think,and neither were so altruistic— I believe you’re mistakingly correlating them retrospectively, whereas, in their own times and goals, their actions were notably different. And the first thing you need to understand is that neither of these guys wanted anything but to serve their own interests first. Bettering humanity - let alone anyone else - was hardly on either’s mind— ever.
They were only ever serving themselves and their own desire for power and conquest. When they failed and lost the Eugenics Wars, they fled to space in their cryoships.
We can only speculate what happened to the descendants of Arik Soong between the 22nd century and the 24th.
I didn't mean to imply that either was doing their work for the betterment of all. They both did things for their own benefit for sure.
After looking for a while I couldn't find anything significant. My guess is that it might just be a subtle throwback that the writers made in order to make us winder this very thing.
I did read this on Reddit (don't worry, I took a shower afterwards):
The real reason is the charming one- namely that Gene Roddenberry had a friend (a radioman, as I recall) during WWII named Kim Noonien Wanh. Gene lost contact with his friend and apparently had some hope that tossing the name in there would draw the ear to a television and maybe he'd find him again.
It was Korea, not WW2, but the rest is kind of sweet.