WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this entry. Because this re-watch is in a slightly-subjective chronological order and not in production order, please refrain from talking about the content of other episodes or movies in this thread. If you do, please put that content inside spoiler tags. Some people here may be watching Star Trek for the first time.
#24: Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 22 “Space Seed”
Written by Gene L. Coon & Carey Wilber, directed by Marc Daniels.
Stardates 3141.9 through 3143.3 (October 2267)
“Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity. But improve man… and you gain a thousandfold. I am such a man.” - Khan Noonien Singh
The Enterprise discovers a derelict Earth ship from the 1990s that doesn’t match any such ship in Starfleet records. Onboard they find 72 men and women in cryogenic stasis. One of those men (Ricardo Montalban) is unintentionally awakened. When Doctor McCoy brings him aboard, not only does he survive being frozen for almost two centuries, he exhibits the physical and mental traits of someone who has been genetically engineered.
Originally released: 16 February 1967
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What did you think?
Great ep for any number of reasons.
I guess this ep also suggests that Starfleet’s war / exploration ships should be more cautious, and let research ships follow up as standard protocol.
I don’t know that much about Sikhism, but I thought Sikhs tend towards being very kind, selfless, and brave people. Khan certainly doesn’t seem to fit that mold in the usual sense.
This is the first mention of the Eugenics Wars and World War III. Previously, the show had mentioned that Earth was ravaged by war prior to exploring the stars and joining the Federation but didn’t go into specifics. But they treat the Eugenics Wars like WWIII, putting WWIII in the 1990s which causes all sorts of continuity problems.
Looking at the dialog, you can read it as Spock saying geneticly engineered humans were a product of a World War, and Bones simply specifying the Eugenics Wars was him correcting Spock, not denoting WWIII’s Human designation.
At this point in time, Roddenberry was just making this shit up as he went along, so it’s a wonder how few plot holes there are regarding Earth’s past.
I don’t know that much about Sikhism, but I thought Sikhs tend towards being very kind, selfless, and brave people. Khan certainly doesn’t seem to fit that mold in the usual sense.
He came from the Sikhs, or his parents did, but his engineering clearly gave him delusions of grandeur that wouldn’t have normally been there, as Spock pointed out.
Good points!
I think Roddenberry typically did so many final script rewrites because he was most-responsible for the series ‘bible,’ and was legitimately concerned that things were as consistent as possible, in-universe. I’m certainly not his biggest fan, but apart from him routinely stealing others’ contribution credits, I tend to think he did pretty well, there.
Btw, yesterday I discovered a ST fan convention program from 1975 next to my old AD&D books. It’s pretty cool, and contains an interesting, almost psychedelic short comic strip. I’ll have to see if someone scanned it already and has it online, otherwise…
khan was sihk. I guess makes sense given his last name.
What I remember most from this episode was Kirk’s open contempt for not just Marla, but Starfleet historians in general. It was arrogant, obnoxious, but totally in character.
captian. I find myself. growing fatigued.
Tap for spoiler
You don’t even have to specify why.
They “fridged” Marla for Wrath of Khan as an added knife in the back. You’d think the stranding on and deterioration of the planet would be motivation enough.
Discussion about Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Was there ever a version of the script that had Marla in it? Was she removed for simplicity or was she unavailable to reprise her role? Was Khan’s son there to make up for her not being there?
Can you imagine if Marla had been the voice of reason for Khan during the whole movie, then she dies and Khan goes insane?
That last bit would have strengthened his resolve and demise nicely.
Per Memory-Alpha:
It was the intent of the filmmakers, and a widely accepted fact in Star Trek apocrypha, that this wife was Marla McGivers from the original “Space Seed” episode; however, while this was in the original script, it was never confirmed on-screen.
