| Flint | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Akharin Methuselah Solomon Alexander Lazarus Merlin Leonardo da Vinci Johannes Brahms Abramson Brack | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Human (mutant) | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Date of birth | 3834 BC | ||
| Place of origin | Mesopotamia | ||
| Age | Over 6000 as of the 23rd century | ||
| Occupation | Soldier King Inventor Artist Scientist Architect Musician Financier | ||
| Current status | Alive but no longer immortal (as of 2269) | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Human | ||
| Height | 5' 11" (1,8 m) | ||
| Abilities | Instantaneous healing Twice the physical strength of normal humans | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | Star Trek | ||
| Created by | Jerome Bixby | ||
| Performed by | James Daly | ||
| “ | I have seen a hundred billion fall. I know death better than any man. I have tossed enemies into his grasp. And I know mercy. |
” |
— Flint, Requiem for Methuselah
| ||
Flint - as he's known in his 23rd century alias - is a man who lived for over six millennia under many different aliases. He was a soldier, a king, a polymath, an artist, a financier and later a recluse. Born as Akharin in ancient Mesopotamia, 3834 BC, he would come to be known as Methuselah, Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Merlin, da Vinci, Brahms and Abramson, among many other less well-known identities. He was married many times, but was frustrated at the thought of outliving all of his loved ones.
By the time of the 23rd century, Flint came to resent humanity and lived alone on the planet Holberg 917G, where he built intelligent robots to keep him company. It was eventually found that Flint's immortality was somehow related to the Earth's magnetic core, and living away from the planet was causing his body to slowly begin to die. Rather than return to Earth, Flint accepted this situation and decided to dedicate the rest of his days to the improvement of the human condition.
History[]
The man who would later be known as Flint was born as Akharin, a Mesopotamian soldier in the 39th century BC. The 23rd century Flint would later come to describe himself in that period as "a soldier, a bully and a fool". Eventually, he had his heart punctured in battle, but his injuries instantly healed and he miraculously survived. Now aware of his immortality, Flint lived many more centuries, and became known by many different identities throughout history, including:
- The biblical Methuselah, famous for his longevity, said to have lived for 969 years.
- The wise king Solomon from the 10th century BC.
- The Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great from the 4th century BC.
- The legendary Lazarus of Bethany, said to have been restored to life by Jesus Christ after death, in the 1st century.
- The medieval wizard Merlin, in the 5th century.
- The renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
- The composer Johannes Brahms in the 19th century.
- A man called Abramson, who would also be regarded as a famous historical figure in the 23rd century (presumably having lived at some point in the 21st and/or 22nd centuries).
Besides that, Flint also came to know some highly influential historical figures, including Moses, Socrates and Galileo.
After humanity achieved interstellar spaceflight, Flint was eventually tired of Earth, and became something of a misanthrope. He assumed yet another identity as space-traveling financier Mr. Brack and bought an uninhabited planet called Holberg 917G, located in the Omega system. On this planet he became a hermit, assuming his final identity of Flint. He lived in a comfortable mansion and had a respectable library containing, among other rare pieces, a Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible. He also continued to dedicate himself to the arts, producing paintings and composing waltzes, which Mr. Spock later recognized as genuine works of "da Vinci" and "Brahms" respectively.
Flint also used his technical and scientific abilities to build a robotic probe called M-4 - which he described as his "butler, housekeeper, gardener and guardian" - and a series of lifelike gynoids, each of which he named Rayna Kapec. Once he perfected the 17th version of Rayna, he proceeded to educate her, and had her believe herself to be human. His ultimate intention was to make her the perfect wife for him: one that would keep him company for eternity and never grow old and die. Unfortunately, Rayna suffered a power shutdown after being unable to cope with new emotions as she realized she loved both Flint and Captain Kirk, and couldn't bear to see them fight.
After Rayna's "death", Dr. McCoy also informed Flint of his latest discovery: that living away from Earth and "all of its complex fields within which he was formed" had caused Flint's immortality to fade away, and he was destined to "live the remainder of a normal life span, then die". Flint then decided to make good use of his last years and devote himself to the improvement of the human condition. Kirk also promised Flint that his secret was safe with them.
Appearances[]
- Star Trek - s03e19 - "Requiem for Methuselah" (1969)
Notes[]
- Flint is similar in some ways to the immortal character John Oldman - also created by Jerome Bixby - from the 2007 film The Man From Earth.