Episode Title: Space Seed
Air Date: 2/16/1967
Written by Carey
Wilber and Gene L. Coon
Directed by Marc
Daniels
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Madlyn
Rhue as Lieutenant Marla McGivers Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura John Winston as Lieutenant
Kyle Makee K. Blaisdell as Lieutenant
Spinelli Eddie Paskey as
Lieutenant Leslie Bill
Blackburn as Lieutenant Haley
Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent Ron Veto as Lieutenant
Harrison Jan Reddin as unnamed Crewwoman Joan Johnson as unnamed Female
Guard Joan Webster as unnamed Nurse Kathy Ahart as unnamed Crewwoman Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien
Singh Mark Tobin as Joaquin John Arndt as Ingenieur Fields
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701, SS Botany Bay
Planets: none
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The adventure begins with the Enterprise discovering a vessel out in
deep space. Spock refuses to believe it
could be an Earth ship given how far they are out in space but is quickly
proven wrong, to Kirk’s amusement, when sensor scans indicate it to be
such. Kirk’s first guess is that the
ship is an old DY-500 class, until Spock states that it is older a DY-100, from
the 1990s.
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| You don't find something like this everyday! |
Captain Kirk creates an away team
that consists of himself, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and the ship’s historian named
Maria McGivers. The away team beams over
to the unknown ship and when they get there they discover a bunch of impressive
looking humans asleep and status chambers. There are over 80 of them on board
but only 72 of the status chambers were still operational. McGivers is like a kid in a candy store so
amazed with everything around her that she is often lost in thought and needs
additional prompting to responded to Captain Kirk’s basic questions. One of the pods starts the awakening process
for its participant. McGivers concludes
that he must be their leader as he would wake up first to determine if it was
the time to wake the rest of them.
Unfortunately the pod starts to malfunction and the occupant starts to
die. Dr. McCoy begins treating him but to save his life they have to get him to the
sick bay.
 |
| Impressive humans |
Back on the Enterprise, Mr. Spock has identified the ship as the SS Botany Bay what is disturbing however
is that there is no record of the ship anywhere in the historical
database. Kirk points out that the ship
was named after a penal colony that perhaps he could be criminals a notion that
Mr. Spock finds absurd. He counters to
the Captain why a society so war weary what a bunch of criminals for Shirley
there are cheaper ways to dispose of them.
Spock’s position is logical and it’s also the second time is going to be
wrong this episode.
In sick bay, Dr. McCoy’s incredibly
impressed with his patient who seems to be making a rapid recovery. By his examination Dr. McCoy can tell that
this man is far beyond normal humans that he be stronger, faster, and far more
durable. He told the Captain that he bet
this man could live both of them with one arm.
They’d earlier discussed Earth’s history and the Eugenics Wars that involved
the creation of superior humans with selective breeding and how they nearly
took over the planet. Now it appears they
have one of those superior augmented humans.
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| Don't bite the hand that feeds you. |
Later the patient regains
consciousness he grabs an old scalpel on display. He uses it to threaten Dr. McCoy. McCoy not only doesn’t blink but earns the
respect of the newly awaken man. Captain
Kirk comes down to speak with their new guest. The man asks for some general information about how long he was out, modern
technical manuals, and he wants his people to be revived. Identifying himself as Khan but he
refuses to explain why he and his people were out here. When directly confronted Khan pretends to be
tired.
McGivers begins an unwise courtship with her source of fascination. Khan meets McGivers in her quarters and sees
her paintings of some of the great men of history. One of those paintings is of him, making it
clear that McGivers knows his identity.
Their mutual fascination becomes obvious and it bothers Captain Kirk to
the point he brings it up to Dr. McCoy.
McCoy responds to his concerns by just kindly points out to the Captain
that there are no rules about romance for him to make an issue of.
 |
| A bit unprofessional |
McGivers arranges with Captain Kirk to host a
ceremonial dinner in honor of Khan. The
senior officers of the ship all wear the dress uniforms, and McCoy makes a joke
that they look like they are eating with a fleet admiral. Khan arrives in a gold tunic looking rather
regal. During the dinner Spock begins to
aggressively question Khan about his origins, reasons for leaving Earth, his
true identity etc. Khan is taking back
but also amused. He congratulates
Captain Kirk as a stagiest for allowing his first officer to attack and attack
while he stands by and looks on for weakness.
Kirk tries to downplay it and just says that people are curious about
his life and time. During the conversation
Khan gets unnerved proclaiming that his people had offered the world
“order.” After that Khan dismisses
himself form the dinner.
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| Dinner with a dictator |
The senior officers of the Enterprise have figured out the identity
of the guest: he is Khan Noonian Singh.
From 1992-1996 he was the ruler of over one quarter of the Earth. Spock becomes horrified that many of his
fellow officers including his Captain seem to have an admiration for the man
and his rule. When Spock challenges Kirk
explains that humans all have a streak of barbarism in them. Despite Kirk’s explanation Spock is still
bothered by the behavior of his fellow officers who continue to be as obnoxious
as a bunch of obsessive Star Trek
fans on a cruise who just realized that William Shatner is on the same boat as
them. It’s at this point however Kirk orders Khan to
be put under guard.
Kirk decides to confront his new
adversary so he meets the former dictator in his quarters. Khan wants to know why he is locked in and a
guard placed outside. Kirk lets him know
that he knows his identity. He and Khan
go back and forth in a dialogue in which Khan lets the Captain know that
although he is impressed with his talents that he is inferior. Technology may have changed, the former
dictator insisted, but people were the same.
Khan finishes by telling the
Captain that his people were going to do well here.
 |
| Going to do well here |
Khan takes quick action. He escapes from his quarters and quickly
dispatches the guard assigned to him.
Without anyone on the Enterprise aware he goes back to the Botany Bay and frees his fellow
augments. With his superhuman army he
heads back to the Enterprise and
quickly takes control of the ship. Kirk
and the bridge crew try to hold out but Khan cuts their air and they are all
captured.
 |
| Back and better than ever! |
Khan has control of the Enterprise but his grip isn’t that
tight. He realizes that he doesn’t have
enough people to run the ship on a day to day basis. So he needs some of the crew to turn to his
side if he wants to go on a planet conquering adventure. Khan has a number of the crew in the
conference room where he offers them a place at his side. When no one takes him up on his offer, Khan
turns on the view screen to show the sick bay decompression chamber. Inside the chamber is Captain Kirk who is
being slowly tortured to death with pressure.
Once Kirk dies Khan will use Mr. Spock to lure the crew into
cooperating. McGivers, although still in
love with Khan, cannot stand by and allow for Captain Kirk to be killed. McGivers tricks one of Khan’s men in this
allows her to free the Captain. Once
he’s free Kirk leaps into action. The
two of them liberate Spock who is being brought to the decompression chamber to
replace Kirk as the intended victim.
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| Captain's job can be stressful |
Kirk and Spock flood the ship with gas. This takes care of most of Khan’s soldiers,
but Khan himself escapes. Scotty
informs the Captain that Khan headed to the engine room cut the room off of the ventilation so the gas couldn't enter there. Kirk then heads to the
engine room for the final showdown with his new nemesis.
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| Khan offering a deal |
Kirk arrives in the engine room and Khan immediately disarms him. Khan shows
off his strength by breaking the phaser with his bare hands. That was his first mistake he should just use
the phaser on Captain Kirk because now they were going to be engage in
hand-to-hand combat. Khan may be a
superior human but Kirk is one the greatest fighters in the galaxy. Earlier Khan
had said that he was impressed with Kirk’s talents even though he was
inferior. Kirk now has the opportunity
to show Khan his amazing fighting skills, perhaps fighting skills so advanced
that Khan never encountered anything like them when he lived in the 1990s. Every time the two of them engage Khan hits
the floor. Thanks to superior strength
he does occasionally get hit on Kirk which causes the Captain to be knocked
back a few paces. Khan thinks he is going
to win but Kirk pulls a tool from the engineering section and beats Khan with it bringing the fight to close.
Amazingly despite all that has
happened Kirk still has no ill will towards Khan. His old fan boy admiration that he and his fellow
officers were feeling earlier seems to have crept back to the surface. Kirk announces that he is going to drop all
charges against Khan and his soldiers.
In exchange he will also give them something else. The fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha system
that is habitable. Kirk offers Khan and
his soldiers the opportunity to colonize this new world. McGivers is given the same opportunity and
Khan forgives her for betraying him agreeing to take her with him. Spock wonders aloud what will come of the
seeds that they have planted.
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| Humble in victory |
Additional thoughts: When this episode is typically discussed
conversation immediately follows to what came after it in the films. However following the rules of my own personal
blog we are not going to do that and instead just focus on this episode by
itself, because when this episode was made what would come later wasn’t even
dreamed up yet. We will of course refer
to this episode when discussing that film in the future but that is because
when the movie is made it is made with this episode in mind.
So with that noted what do we say
about this episode. Khan himself is a
fascinating villain and one of the greatest individual challenges for Captain
Kirk personally. In the title I referred
of him as Kirk’s arch nemesis and he gets that title frankly because he is
Kirk’s most famous personal adversary.
Now the most famous Star Trek villain
aliens are the Klingons, and interesting enough when I first got into Star Trek
as a kid, and before I saw the film, I used to think that Khan was a
Klingon. I thought this because I had
heard Khan was Kirk's greatest enemy and I knew they often fought the Klingons. There are certainly others who Kirk will
encounter to match wits with and one he already had: the Romulan Commander from
“The Balance of Terror.” I certainly also found the Romulan villain very
charismatic and interesting but there’s something about Khan that leaves you
with an impression. Part of that of
course is the amazing per trail by Ricardo Montalban and the other half is his
biography. Khan is like actually having
an Alexander, a Napoleon, or a Genghis Khan for a villain. Someone who at one point was a mover in the
events that shaped the history of the Earth.
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| Augmented humans |
The only negative thing about the episode overall is that it’s too short.
It makes me wish Star Trek was
braver and more willing to do two-parters that were actually real two-parters
and not a partially made original episode stuffed with a pilot. This episode builds and builds but the
resolution is rather quick. Kirk
overcomes the feats Khan in the span of about 10 minutes where took Khan the
entire episode to get to that point. If
it were a two-part episode the first part could end with Khan taking over the
ship in the second part would be Captain Kirk attempting to regain it. That
would have been adventure more worthy of the two characters.
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| Best rival |
This episode holds a special place
in my heart for another reason it is one of the very first episodes I saw as a young kid. At the time I didn’t
understand much of what was going on in fact I didn’t even get that the villain was Khan until I watched it again as a teenager long after I saw the follow-up
film. I remember being instantly
attracted to the bright colorful uniforms that the crew was wearing. The only thing I didn’t like was the color
arrangement. Red was my favorite color I
thought the command option should be wearing that. At the time I did not realize what a fatal
color it was.
Its good Kirk is such a great captain
because as a mathematician he would starve.
Khan is in suspended animation for about 270 years and Kirk rounds this
to 200. Not 250, not 300, he rounds to
200. Someone get this man a calculator. I also like when they discuss the historian
Kirk says going on the away team will give her something to do. There must be all sorts of jobs that are on
the Enterprise because Starfleet thinks they are important but on a day to day
routine, have nothing to really do. Also McGivers promotion must have been recent as she hasn't even gotten her stripe yet.
Now let’s talk about the time
period. In the beginning Spock and McCoy
were discussing the Eugenics Wars that were the horror of the 1990s. Now I grew up in the 90s and I remember it
well. These were hard times after the
fall the Soviet Union 1991, see like every day there was a new power mad superman propping up as a dictator one of the country or another. Genetically engineered superior humans were
taking over the planet. It was at a great
cost that they were finally stopped. It
was good fortune for me that the whole thing was a resolved by the time I
entered high school 1996. I think
getting rid of Khan was one of the great unsung accomplishments of the Clinton
Administration. I remember when my
father went to vote 1996 saying how proud he was to vote for the reelection of
the man who got rid of Khan. He said to
me, “Jeremy, if Bill Clinton can rid this world of Khan Noonian Singh then that
is definitely a man who deserves to be reelected.” Two years later he was
impeached for affair with an intern.
It is amazing the priorities of some of the Congress. In the long run getting ready Khan may have
been a mistake however if he taken over the world then, the orange buffoon in
the White House right now would not be in charge. Maybe we should try to recall him? Hindsight
is always 20/20.
FINAL GRADE 5 of 5
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