***LESLIE ALERT *** Thule (Eddie Paskey) is at the dinner table with Khan AND on the Bridge at the Engineering Station. (I wasn't very specific in the other "Leslie Alert" listed in the archives)

BTW, I know he's not Leslie in this episode.

As usual, the guard makes the mistake of standing by the wall, facing away from Kahn's door (this happens in many episodes). Wouldn't it make more sense to stand across the hall, facing the door? That might make it harder for a prisoner to, say, force the door and club you from behind.

Although it's perhaps in character for her (and thus not a nit), it wasn't too bright for McGivers to join Kahn on Ceti Alpha V. All through the episode Kahn is manipulating her for his own purposes. There's no evidence he is truly in love with her, he's contemptious of inferior genetic specimens, and she betrayed him by freeing Kirk. Now, what do you think will happen to her after she's left with Kahn?

Although it's perhaps in character for her (and thus not a nit), it wasn't too bright for McGivers to join Kahn on Ceti Alpha V.

True enough. But she's not in love with Khan per se; she's an historian in love with the whole notion of this strong warrior man from out of the past sweeping her into adventure. For a micro-version of this, spend a half-hour or so in any bookstore romance section.
In this state of mind, she's not only able to neglect her real-life duty to Kirk and the Enterprise, she'll be capable of following Khan regardless of how he may punish her. (Actually, judging by his reactions in ST:TWOK, he may have - or develop - a considerably higher opinion of her than it might first appear.)

My compliments to the stuntman that gets smashed outside of Khan's quarters. He flies up a good 4 to 5 feet off the ground and down hard. Just thinking how many times he might have had to do that makes me cringe and think that after each hit, he thought to himself, "If I just lie here maybe the director will keep THAT hit!"
Khan evades questioning from McGivers by changing her hair. You could almost picture her thinking to herself, "Oh, great! Here I thought Khan was some kind of interesting space traveller, or monarch or somebody important, but all he is is just a fussy hairstylist!"

My compliments to the stuntman that gets smashed outside of Khan's quarters.

That's Bobby Bass.

... Best Scenes You Will Never See in Star Trek ...

Khan: Please sit and entertain me.

At which, Marla McGivers walks over to the computer, accesses the database on British popular music, circa 1990s, and plays the Robbie Williams' smash hit

"Let meeeeeee-eee entertain you!!!!"

NOTE: Ricardo Montalban is partially paralyzed due to a spinal injury he received while horseback riding. There is a hospital named after him somewhere. (Can't remember where)

When did he become paralyzed? It wasn't when Kirk hit him in the base of the neck/back-spine in Space Seed, was it?

No, it was horseback riding...and he's only partially paralyzed. He can still walk but ascending stairs is a major problem.

I meant when did it occur, the kirk part was a joke

According to IMDB.COM, the spinal injury he received was while making "Across the Wide Missouri" in 1951. He has been in constant pain ever since and confined to a wheelchair since 1993.

I think a botched operation to relieve the pain exacerbated the injury and left him confined to the wheelchair.

He has always walked with that rolling gait where he is obviously lifting and slinging his (right, iirc) leg ahead of him into position. As he has gotten older it has become more pronounced. I noticed in retrospect that on "Fantasy Island," he stood still in most shots.

By the time he did the "Naked Gun" film, he seemed barely able to move.

Sir Rhosis

I thank thee, Sir Rhosis!

He seems pretty active in "Spy Kids 3-D", but of course his bottom half is CGI. Some good in-jokes in that one, too.

Now that you mentioned it, I don't think he did a lot of walking in Wrath Of Khan, either. Correct me if I'm wrong (please), but except for the scene where he taunts Terrell and Chekov, he is mostly seated.

He also stands when he talks to Kirk via the viewscreen after the Reliant's attack

And even the little bit of walking he did in TWOK if you notice, you will see him considerably favoring one leg and, for lack of a better word, bobbing as he does walk.

Sir Rhosis

Poor Mr. Kyle. He gets knocked out by Khan in the Transporter Room while serving on the Enterprise & he gets attacked by Khan again in STII while on the Reliant.

When Kirk, McGivers, McCoy & Scott beam over to the Botany Bay, Mr. Kyle is supposed to be operating the controls. However, the sleeves have two stripes on them. (Lt. Cmdr.) [I believe this is footage of Scotty operating the controls.]

Sort of. Its Scotty's hand-double, used to hide the fact that Doohan is missing a finger.

Scott's "It's a shame for a good Scotsman to admit it, but I'm not up on my Milton" seems to me now that I think about it to be kind of an odd statement to make. Why would a Scotsman feel a cultural pride about Milton, who as far as I know never had any direct ties with Scotland per se? It's kind of like having someone in America say "It's a shame for a good Texan to admit it, but I'm not up on my Mark Twain."

***LESLIE ALERT *** Thule (Eddie Paskey) is at the dinner table with Khan AND on the Bridge at the Engineering Station. (I wasn't very specific in the other "Leslie Alert" listed in the archives)

BTW, I know he's not Leslie in this episode.

Why can't he be Leslie? Maybe Thule was someone else...the guy who cooked the meal, or something...

1. When Khan reads the technical manuals and McGivers enters, he switches off the monitor, but on the (darkened) screen you can still see the plan he was watching (unless the screen uses a kind of energy saver, of course, and just darkens a bit).

2. Kirk reprimands McGivers for not being professional on the Botany Bay and for luring at Khan.
First: any historian would be 'attracted' when confronted with a living man of more than two centuries ago. Kirk's comment that her staring was from a romantic nature is quite sexist, as if women can only stare at men with procreation in mind. (Kirk lured at her as well when she entered transporter room, BTW)
Second: perhaps McGivers is not a fully trained 'military' member of Starfleet, but a civilian historian just working for Starfleet.
Third: these comment comes from a captain who
a: just smashed a glass wall with his hand,
b: who gives a stranger permission to read 'The Idiot's Guide How To Immobilise The USS Enterprise'.

3. Why was Bones never reprimanded? His behavior at the BB (when Khan is dying) isn't really live-saving isn't it? He doesn't put an (electronic) guard a the sickbed of Khan. He has knives hanging on the wall where a complete stranger is recovering. He gets nearly killed by the stranger but never reports this fact to Kirk...

4. Women are only good to be waitresses as well...

When rewatching this episode again recently, I noticed something interesting.
Unlike other visitors from the 20th Century, Khan seems to take Spock's unique appearance in stride.
I don't consider this a nit, just an interesting sidenote.

Perhaps Khan has seen more than a few physical abnormalities among his genetically modified brethren.

I would highly recommend the two Eugenics Wars books by Greg Cox, and the third in the trilogy, To Reign In Hell. They answer alot of questions and fill in Khan's life from age 4 onwards, and use Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln throughout as major characters, as well as many cameos from other well-known characters that were present in the 20th century that we saw in the series.
One thing that surprised me was Cox making Khan a mere 26 years old when he left Earth. That's just too young to be believable, since Ricardo Montalban was 46 wehn Space Seed was made.

Ricardo Montalbon is absolutely superb in his role as Khan in this episode,but if for some reason they were unable to get him for this show,I always felt that William Smith(Texas Ranger cowboy Joe Riley on the wonderful western Laredo,& Jack Wilson,the fighter who battles Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose,& Falconatti on the Rich Man/Poor Man miniseries)would have been quite impressive in the role.Though I don't think Kirk would have been able to beat him even with that rod in Engineering in the final scene.

This is one of my Top Ten fav episodes.The design of the Botany Bay's hull is excellent! Unfortunately the interior set of the BB looks far too futuristic.This is supposed to be a vessel which is at least 200 years older than the Enterprise but doesn't look like it.It simply appears to come off as a smaller ship than the E,but looks every bit like it could pass as a contemorary Federation ship from Kirk & Spock's era.When they can take a console from the BB & later place it into the Transporter Room & not have to modify it,you just know that doesn't make technological sense. Can you imagine NASA's space shuttle going forward in time two centuries,encountering our space ships from that era,& both crews commenting that their respective ships are nearly identical inside with regards to the technology? The BB's interior should have been similar to the Sartoga from Space:Above&Beyond. Cool episode otherwise.

Not a nit but an interesting bit of trivia.As Kirk is talking about Khan & the other genetically enhanced humans he says"They were supermen in a sense..." DeForest Kelly & his wife were very close friends with George Reeves,TV's Superman.

When they can take a console from the BB & later place it into the Transporter Room & not have to modify it,you just know that doesn't make technological sense.

Also, one of the bulkheads from the "Botany Bay" wound up in Dr. Mc Coy's lab, starting with "Operation - Annihilate."

If for some reason they were unable to get him for this show...

The role of Khan was originally written as Harold Ericsson, a Scandinavian. If TPTB had gone with the character as originally written, maybe Steve Ihnat could have been cast...

I don't know if Ihnat was physically imposing enough to play Khan. Of course, if he had been cast as Khan there might never have been a STII:TWOK because Ihnat had died long before that movie was made. Then again, they made "First Contact" featuring Zephtram Cochrane after the actor who had originally played Cochrane had died,

Ron Ely maybe would have made a good Khan.

Action Figures based on this ep, due June, 2007.

I remember they used to have an action figure from "Let that Be Your Last Battlefield", but I can't remember if it was supposed to be Bele or Lokai.

There was also an action figure of a robed alien who was supposed to be the keeper from "The Menagerie", but whose head looked more like Balok from "Corbomite Manuever".

I remember those. I only bought Kirk and Spock. The so-called Gorn was actually a differently-dressed version of Spider-Man's enemy, the Lizard. The Gorn didn't even have the compound eyes it had in the episode.

Here are some images:

http://members.aol.com/RDBousquet/Mego.html

Apparently, the Cheronian action figure was supposed to represent Bele, as that is the color configuration shown here (unless Mego also made a Lokai variation).

Curiously, Mr. Scott is referred to also as "Scottie", which I suppose could be the correct spelling although I've everywhere else seen it spelled "Scotty".

Also curiously, there is an alien called a "Neptunian" who doesn't seem ever to have appeared on the original series (unless I missed that episode).

Sure, I remember that episode. It was the one with the Zorgon monster from planet XJ770, ruled over by King Mongo and his scientist, Doctor Zero!
'Neptunian'! Oh, brother! Guess they were trying to make a buck by adding an alien of their own creation, even though there were Orions, Tellarites, Tholians, a Horta, Yarnak, Ruk, a Kalar, and lots more Trek creations to choose from.

Dangit! I must have missed it somehow in thirty years of watching TOS reruns. Are they gonna put it out on DVD?

Right along side the Stargate SG1 Penguin Goa'uld episode... :-)

I don't remember the latter series of aliens at all, and I don't know what the figure to the right of the Mugato was supposed to be. I can't make the name out.

There was also an Enterprise bridge set sold which included a transporter room which actually was able to simply create the illusion of the figure shimmering and vanishing as well. It seems from the ads on the back of the packages that one could also get a planetary set with Vaal from "The Apple" although I don't remember this either.

Looks to me like the Mugato is flanked by "The Romulans" on the left, and "Talos" on the right- thus I believe that is an extremely TANNED resident of Talos IV.

It seems to me like the Neptunian may have been from Animated Trek- something about the costume does indeed look familliar- but I've only seen about half the episodes thus far, so I can't confirm that.

According to this website I found:

http://www.newforcecomics.com/trekref/startrek.htm

---

quote:

The "Neptunian" figure was purely a Mego creation. There was an animated Star Trek episode that featured some aquatic aliens, but none of them looked much like Neptunian.

---

Good research John.

If you think that research was good, then I shamelessly hereby endorse my book "The Epic of Will Lang Jr." for your pleasure.

(Available at Xlibris)

When Khan bends the phaser pistol mount with his bare hands after he takes it away from Captain Kirk,the phaser case which fits onto the pistol mount is totally undamaged.Its casing must have been made of an alloy which even Khan's enhanced strength was unable to affect.I think it would have been a cooler idea if instead of Kirk using that rod device in the engineering console to beat Khan unconcious,he could have dived for the twisted phaser pistol mount,detatched the phaser from it & stunned Khan with it.

thats not a very good idea.

It's far superior than rods that slide out of the engineering console,that tech doesn't even make sense!

I assumed those rods were some-sort-of circuit breakers to keep explosions from going from one engineering console to the next totally destroying the entire engineering computer. I mean, how many times have you seen sparks fly in engineering compared to the bridge?

Those rods were a plot device for the writers & nothing more than that.And a poor plot device at that.

but mike, we don't deal in reality...

But that was one of the cool things about Gene Roddenberry & the scriptwriters of Star Trek Torque,they tried to infuse a logic to why & how things operated in the ST Universe & bring a reality to it for fans to care about.Irwin Allen had no interest in logic of any kind in his productions,& when writers attempted to put any in,Allen would veto it.He only cared about the visuals & action,characterization & plot did not matter to him.

well that describes Freiburger to a T! :p

Freiburger sure did not help Space:1999 with its second & final season,that's for sure.To be fair though,I never felt that Space:1999 was a good show to begin with,despite having superb production values that remain impressive to this day.

The remastered "Space Seed" reruns this weekend.

GREAT ENHANCED MOMENT

All new exterior of the Botany Bay footage

my remm
astered station still cut off the E's approach to Botony bay and Historian Mcgever's ( the I is in there somewhere, Kirk)) in her quarters shot in act 1.

While watching last night's remastered version of "Space Seed,"I noticed an odd moment.When the Enterprise crew first beam over to the Botany Bay,Scotty simply stands there staring off to the left.My guess is that Jimmy Doohan was directed to do so because there is dialogue going on between Kirk & McCoy & the director(or Shatner)didn't want Scotty to do anything that might be distracting to the speaking actors.But it doesn't look natural is the problem.Scotty should be examining this historic relic with his tricorder.I suppose the explantion could be he was amazed & enthralled at being able to explore such an ancient piece of equipment as the BB & simply was just taking it all in before doing anything.

The remastered "Space Seed" reruns this weekend.
Not in the New York City area it didn't. WWOR-TV did a backflip this past weekend, and started to run movies in the timeslot where enhanced Trek formerly ran (Sundays at 11 p.m.) This week's choice was the primo (not) Harrison Ford pic Hollywood Homicide. Enhanced Trek will continue to run on WWOR Sundays at 6. AFAIK, anyway. (Movies are so rarely run on local stations anymore; I thought basic cable channels like USA, AMC, FX and TNT displaced local stations as the place to watch older and semi-recent movies.)

When Kirk,Spock,McCoy,& Scotty are all in the ship's briefing room Kirk tells Spock that we(Kirk,McCoy,Scotty) can admire Kahn & still be against him at the same time.Spock says that this is illogical. Why? Wouldn't Vulcans be able to admire or respect an individual's talents but still be able to not support that person's intentions? They could appreciate the Nazi scientists technological skills on their V-2 rockets but not their working on behalf of Adolph Hitler & his sick goals.

Never met Fred the Frid a show Berger but see his track record! His shows all get cancelled when he's the top dog.

And what does that have to do with the episode "Space Seed"?

well, Mike mentioned him...

>Never met Fred the Frid a show Berger but see his track record! >His shows all get cancelled when he's the top dog.

False. Freiberger produced "Ben Casey" and "The Wild Wild West", both of which were still going strong when he stepped down from them.

So,Todd, how was he? Did you meet him face to face?

, see the smiley.

Never claimed to meet him. Just refuting the statement that "all his shows got canceled when he was the top dog."

This whole discussion should probably go on the Fred Freiberger: Victim of Circumstance or Evil Incarnate? board.

Yo.

Was Fred Freiberger even working on Star Trek at this point? I thought he didn't come on until the 3rd season.

He didn't come on until the 3rd season. He's really irrelevant to this episode and we need to just drop discussion of him here. Leave it for a more appropriate board.

Here's an analysis of the original script. Note that Barbara Baldavin had a role here (and not as Angela Martine Whatever) that was filmed but cut.

RUMINATIONS:

It's been mentioned before, but I need to reinforce how truly extraordinary Montalban's performance is. It is without question emmy-worthy. Watching this episode some 40-odd years after it's production, I can't think of other performances from the era that are equal to it. I just can't say enough about how moment-to-monent consistenly spot-on are every move he makes and every line he delivers.

I'm frankly astonished that there hasn't been any back-and-forth on this board about the portrayal of MacGyver. She chooses to "go with" Khan despite his physical abuse. Yes the scene in Khan's room is riveting, but she kneels before him, he throws her around a couple of times, viciously crushes her wrist to get her to accede. Can't you imagine the several righteous beatings she will receive from "her man" on the devil planet? Amazing.

- Odd that MacGyver steps into the transporter with no briefing whatsoever! Where are we going? What can I expect? Do I have the right tools? Am I dressed warmly enough?

-- That cryonics chamber of Khan's is bereft of any wires, sensors, hardware of any kind. What is it that's killing him anyway? (This is 20th century technology right?) And how is it that breaking the glass suddenly makes it possible to open the chamber? There are no visible latches that Kirk was able to reach as a result of getting inside. And does your hair grow when you're in stasis? Khan wouldn't have given MacGyver the vapors so bad if he had a 200 year beard and hair down to the floor!!

Funny line -- Scotty: "Seventy-two of the crew are still alive, Captain. Thirty of those are women." I don't know, it just made me laugh. Standing order number one-thiry-one: After discovering ANY new women, TELL THE CAPTAIN!!!

Funny bit of acting -- Uhura's response to "Your captain is dead!!" Oh, Nichelle, you're better than that.

-- After Kirk interviews Khan, back on the bridge he tells Spock to "Make course for StarBase 12." Spock must be thinking, "Sheesh do I have to do EVERYTHING?? I'm on every frigging away team and what in the heck is the navigator for if not to NAVIGATE us to StarBase 12?"

-- When Khan beamed over to revive his crew, shouldn't somebody on the bridge or SOMEWHERE have been alerted that a transport was in progress? He beams over, beams 60 people back, and nobody knows until he's taken over engineering.

-- After Uhura refuses to activate the viewscreen for Khan there's a bit of a scuffle, but then Khan says something like "Screen on!" and it just pops on. Nobody near the screen controls even moves. Did we miss a cutaway or something?

Sorry one more.

Right before the first big kiss between Khan and MacGyver, a big bright light comes on from (offscreen of course) above and behind Khan illiminating MacGyver's face. I thought, "What the....????" I rechecked and there it is. Must have been some kind of wash that got turned on late or winked out for awhile and came back on.

Or, well, maybe this perfect man has an artificial gene that bathes his intended in warmth before he kisses her. Cool.

It's actually Marla McGivers. I keep imagining Richard Dean Anderson when you say "MacGyver".... ew.

"It's actually Marla McGivers. I keep imagining Richard Dean Anderson when you say "MacGyver".... ew."

Heh.

Thank you.

My Blu-ray player can show an icon when an alternate "angle" is available. This is handy on the TOS:R Blu-ray discs because it highlights some more obscure remastering. The discs have the original and remastered effects as different angles so you can switch between them.

One in this episode that I missed was the viewer in sick bay. In the original, it's clearly just a piece of paper with a light behind it -- it's actually easier to read when it turned off. For the remastered version, the diagram is the same but much clearer when "on". When Kahn turns it off, the screen now goes black.

The only other real effect is the much more realistic Botany Bay. The design is the same, but there's much more detail, and a nice roll to it as it's discarded.

You can file this episode under "Who Knew?" No doubt when it was written (1967) the 1990's were a LONG ways off. So they could write stuff like the Eugenics Wars and stuff like that, because it was the far future to them. Who knew back then that Star Trek would endure and people could now say: "Wow, a major war happened in the 1990's and we all missed it!" No doubt we were all fixated on O.J, Nancy and Tonya, Lorena Bobbet and the Menendez boys

Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars novels do a good job of incorporating the EW into the 1990's we all lived through and remember.

Carey Wilbur was also a writer for Lost in Space, a show that predicted Earth would launch a mission to Alpha Centauri in the 1990's.

This episode shows how much better Kirk is than Archer, he beats an Augment in hand to hand combat. It's not like Khan could be stronger he was the ruler. It is possible the Augment embryos were earlier models, Khan and his followers seem far more stable than the Enterprise augments.

Also shouldn't Kirk have handed them over to civilian authorities, I know Starfleet is sort of like the police as well as the military but still.

Why should Kirk hand them over to civilian authorities?

1. Khan & company's crimes were against Starfleet personnel & property, not civilians.

2. Khan & company even seemed to agree with the punishment, perhaps even seeing it as a great challenge.

Not sure how things work at the moment but your on tricky ground doing civilians in military courts even if your crime is something like trespassing on a base. In the UK at least the whole thing has to be handled by civilian authorities I'm sure of it,

As they agreed with the punishment it didn't really matter but Kirk acted like he could have sent them to prison if he'd so chosen.

Well, Star Trek is based more on things like Horatio Hornblower, & the old West, where civilian courts are few & far away & Starship captains would naturally have a lot more leeway in these matters.

Had this story happened in Earth's solar system Khan's fate might be different, but in deep space... captain's privilege.

Also IIUC, taking over a ship would be deemed an act of piracy which usually falls under the domain of the military (at least when this story was written).

The only reason Kirk beat Khan in hand-to-hand combat was because he had a metal rod in his hand.If not for that fact Khan would have beat him.

Yeah but somehow you got the impression the later augement could have taken a metal rob. Besides Kirk wasn't doing terribly badly before whilst Archer was being thrown about the room.

So--Kirk won because he found and used a weapon. I'd say this means he both outsmarted and outfought Khan(who could have found and used the rod as well).

Also--What could Kirk do with Khan??
Both Enterprise and DS9 show massively bad reactions to augments--and these aren't just any augments, these are Khan and followers- the ones blamed for the Eugenics Wars(even Spock reacted badly). Once it was known who they were, if they were turned in--they would have been put on trial and executed(see again both Enterprise and DS9). Kirk tried to give them a chance-a new world, with a hope for the future(I'd guess Kirk sealed the records on what happened, and marked the Ceti Alpha system off-limits). This is the sad part-when Ceti Alpha VI exploded(6 months later) Starfleet thought Ceti Alpha V was gone(I'd guess a double planet), Kirk would have mourned-and never gone back to check. So, until Reliant found them by accident- no one even suspected that Khan was still alive(The Wrath of Khan).

Well-that's my take on it.

I'd say Kirk got lucky on his fight with Khan.

According to the "Worlds Of The Federation" book from the late 80's, which is non-canon, Ceta Alpha V and Ceti Alpha VI had an asteriod belt between them, and the asteroids had been violently raining down on VI because of it's close proximity to the planet and the strong gravitional forces. That caused Ceta Alpha VI to evenually explode from the constant bombardment from the asteriods, while Ceta Alpha V was unharmed. And that's where Khan and the other "Augments" were exiled.

I loved it when Khan screamed "*THIS* IS CETA ALPHA V!!!!"

As for Khan and his followers doing all that stuff on 20th Century Earth and taking over 1/4 of the world in the '90's, remember, it was written in the '60's. There was NO WAY they could have predicted that what they thought the '90's would be like was totally way off!

"You didn't expect to find me here. You thought this was Ceta Alpha VI!" - Khan to Chekov and Terrell as they realize that the crews of the Enterprise and Reliant are in danger

Whoops, I comepletely forgot to mention the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI caused Ceta Alpha V to totally shift violently on it's axis, turning all the vegetation to desert and killing all but one of the native lifeforms, the Ceti Eel.

I can't believe I forgot to mention that in my above post, and that I actually said that Ceti Alpha V was unharmed. I could not have been more wrong!

Khan's attempt to destroy the Enterprise and kill everyone onboard, including himself and his followers, somehow feels to me as out of character. I would have expected someone with the intelligence and cunning of Khan to accept defeat and bide his time waiting for an opportunity to escape or retaliate.

Somebody has put together a 6 minute & 45 second video of Khan's escape in the Botany Bay, based on the Khan novels.

https://youtu.be/sKtieXEBLcE

The guard that stands outside as Kirk enters and leaves Khan's quarters, and the one that Khan knocks out are two different guys. The one that's attacked has thinner hair on his head than the one that steps aside for Kirk.

And speaking of that poor guard, somehow, miraculously, nobody walks by the entire time he's laying on the deck unconscious, even after Khan beams over to the Botany Bay and revives his entire crew. You know this because by the time someone tells Kirk, via intercom on the bridge, that Khan has escaped, he's already been seen with his revived people and taken steps to stop Kirk from him capturing the Enterprise.

In the end, Khan refers to Marla as a 'superior women', after she decides to stay with him on Ceti Alpha V. This after all; he did was squash her hand and convince her to mutiny against her shipmates for love.

They wanted Marla for TOK. However, by then the actress was in a wheelchair (she had MS). So they killed her off in the years between Space Seed and TOK.

it made his vengeance and his, *ahem!*, WRATH, even more convincing, in the end.
The movie would have been quite different if she'd been a part of it.

Yeah, it would have.

Not quite the same, is it.

Hey, if she could survive that planet in a wheelchair-- that would prove her a truly superior woman!!!!!

Too bad a Ceti eel got her.

How did Khan escape the eel?

He plugged his ears with rich, Corinthian leather. ;-)

Canon is silent on just how it happened, but Greg Cox offers one explanation in his novel, To Reign In Hell: The Exile Of Khan Noonien Singh.

It's a pretty good look at what may have happened in the years between Space Seed and TROK.

While Khan is lying on the med bed in sickbay, the monitors aren't bleeping, indicating his heartbeat.

McGivers gives the year of 2018 for the date that was the beginning of being able to travel much faster, instead of using suspended animation. I guess that's something NASA is holding back on us!

And speaking of suspended animation, there must have been a lot of ships equipped with that function that made it to other planets or were found and had the crews revived years later. The Enterprise might even have some crewmembers whose ancestors were from the 20th century and woke up in 2050 or whenever.

Kirk and Khan don't offer either a hand to shake when they meet each other.

McGivers tells Kirk; "I've saved your life, Captain, now please don't kill him." This line always flew by me until I thought, "WHA???!!!" 'Kill him'? Kirk is part of Starfleet and the Federation, so why would she think Kirk would kill Khan? Capture him, subdue him, yes, but kill Khan?
She must be getting confused with Mirror-Kirk, who most certainly would kill Khan and all o his people.

As I said, those 1967 writers probably thought that, by the time the real 2018 rolled around, Star Trek would be long forgotten.

Never occurred to them that we would still be talking about this episodes, 51 years later.

2018 likely also seemed very far into the future back then. The idea that we would have not only access to such technology but that it would be common probably didn't seem that much farfetched.

Another similar example is Back the Future 2. The future Hill Valley may seem unrealistic now. However for a lot of people if not most, back then, 2015 seemed so far into the future that they might as well have said 2115.

Well cryogenics does exist. However, it is only used for dead people (those that can afford it, that is) to keep them preserved until they can be brought back to life.

Rumour had it that Walt Disney was one of those people, but I think that has been debunked.

I may be wrong, but I don't remember anyone ever shaking hands on TOS, except when Spock and McCoy met up in "City on the Edge of Forever" and Kirk/Garth at the end of "Whom Gods Destroy." Were there other times?

One has to wonder just what kind of civilization Khan and Co. would have built had the disaster not happened?

If Picard and his crew came by a century later, in this scenario, what kind of world would they have found?

Oh, probably a world very much like the 1990s. ;-)

Trek acknowledges the existence of parallel universes.

Maybe my scenario happened in one of them.

Nove, Kirk, Spock, and Mccoy shook Cochrane's hand when they met him in 'Metamorphosis'
But, you might be right-- shaking hands might be rare in the series.

And all the 1990's stuff was happening while we were watching the O.J. trial. No wonder the media missed it!

At the end of the episode, Spock muses that it would be interesting to return in 100 years to see what would happen to the colony Khan and Co. founded.

Oh, Spock, if you only knew...

I was at a small SF convention back in 1983, and they first showed this episode, then 'Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan", and when Spock comments about returning to the planet in a hundred years a couple people laughed.
One of them also called out, "Preppie on the bridge!" when David entered the bridge in ST II.

I was at a small SF convention back in 1983, and they first showed this episode, then 'Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan", and when Spock comments about returning to the planet in a hundred years a couple people laughed.

Yeah, Kirk and Spock had no idea that this decision, to put Khan on Ceti Alpha V, would come back and bite them on the butt.

Unless, of course, you go for the idea that Greg Cox presented, that the EW was a secret war that most of us didn't even know about.

We were too busy hearing about Tonya and Nancy, the Menendez Boys, and O.J.

Retcon. I doubt Spock would describe a "secret war" as 'the last of Earth's world wars'.

As I said, the 1990's were a long ways off when this episode was written in 1967.

They really had no idea that Trek would still be remembered when the real 1990's rolled around.

Kirk and Spock must have figured out who Khan was, prior to the briefing with McCoy and Scotty. Kirk meets Khan, who tells him his name is just 'Khan', then Kirk goes to the bridge and reads the names collected by Spock of the missing '80 or 90 supermen'. Surely, Khan's name would have been on the list, giving them a good reason to go further, recall a photo of him, then introduce these facts to McCoy and Scotty later in the briefing room.

Of all the crew in the briefing room when Uhura is smacked, only that sulking, sneering Lt. Spinelli, doesn't react. Everyone jerks forward from the shock-- even Leslie is pushed back down into his seat in the background. I guess that creep doesn't care about such abuse.

Unless the Botany Bay is near Earth, there should be no way for it to have traveled so deep into space. Maybe it went through a space warp, or somebody towed it light years away. Maybe they were even responsible for the 12 life support cannisters that 'malfunctioned' They tampered with the ship, tried to revivie somebody, and failed.

Kirk and Spock must have figured out who Khan was, prior to the briefing with McCoy and Scotty. Kirk meets Khan, who tells him his name is just 'Khan', then Kirk goes to the bridge and reads the names collected by Spock of the missing '80 or 90 supermen'. Surely, Khan's name would have been on the list, giving them a good reason to go further, recall a photo of him, then introduce these facts to McCoy and Scotty later in the briefing room.

No doubt that is what happened.


Unless the Botany Bay is near Earth, there should be no way for it to have traveled so deep into space. Maybe it went through a space warp, or somebody towed it light years away.

A wormhole is the most likely explanation.

The Botany Bay has artificial gravity, a remarkably advanced technology for a ship launched in the mid 1990's.

I always wondered how Khan would have reacted if his hibernation pod had worked correctly and fully revived him in the presence of the away team. He could have been smart enough to play it cool and bide his time, gathering information on his situation before trying anything. Or he may have subdued the away team, revived his crew and commandeered the Enterprise right from the start. Hard to say.

Khan's takeover of the Enterprise bares some scrutiny. At first I was baffled how 72 people could defeat a ship of 400, but the takeover of Engineering made that happen. Once their they could take control of the turbolifts, life support, etc., which they did.

However, there are problems.

Khan busts out of his quarters, goes to the Transporter room, where Marla McGivers beams him back over to the Botany Bay. He then wakes up Joaquin and his other mooks. Marla then beams them back to the Enterprise and the takeover begins.

However, at this time, there is no such thing as site-to-site transporting, where you could be beamed directly from Point A to Point B. This means that Khan and Co. had to be beamed back to the Enterprise Transporter Room, where they made their way to Engineering on foot.

So, Khan and his mooks were roaming the corridors or the Enterprise, and no one saw them and raised the alarm?

To get all 72 aboard the Enterprise would require multiple transports. No one detected several unauthorized transports and raised the alarm?

Now, I know that Khan had inside help, but Marla McGivers is a historian. Technical stuff would be outside her field. I find it highly unlikely that she had the ability to disable the internal sensors and the like.

In short, Kirk and Co. should have known what was going on long before they did.

However, that would have led to another case of SSS (Short Show Syndrome).

Something that might have gone unnoticed all this time (as it did for me) was that in 1996 humans had sophisticated suspended animation technology. So sophisticated, in fact, that it could still function almost perfectly 271 years later!
They probably didn't just use it for DY-100 class ships alone, but there it is right in front of us and kinda ignored-- Earth had highly efficient suspended animation technology.

In his book, which was written in the 1990's, Phil wondered when those ships would be ready to go. He wanted to take a trip to Mars

I have always hated Uhura's response to Khan saying Kirk was dead. It is too much like a female stereotype reaction, much like her scream when Kirk vanishes in "Arena." While it was great for an African American character to be seen regularly in a position of importance in 1960s televison, surely a Starfleet officer would be considerably less overly emotional.

On the show Superman & Lois, Morgan Edge is making his own Augments.

Guess he never saw this episode.

Check this out. Deleted (though unfinished) scene from this episode.

Somebody should pause the scene just after McCoy collapses and add text, "Khan's farts, silent, but deadly."

Nice that stuff can still turn up, more than half-a-century later.

Adam, you found this scene just a couple hours before I did! And the weird thing is that I found it when I was actually trying to find a deleted scene from Star Trek Insurrection that supposedly has Quark in it (which I didn't find).
Weirder still is that this was posted 2 years and 3 months ago, right under our noses!

Huh?

'Michael ST' posted the video to Youtube on March 6, 2020, and we didn't find out about it for 27 months.

Got it.

McGivers is in the wrong uniform. She's an Historian, which is more science than engineering or security, which is red. She should be in a blue uniform.
Just took me over 50 years of viewing for that little nugget to occur to me.

Spock says, "Superior ability breeds superior ambition.". That prompted my new theory, which goes against my idea from August 28, 2019, when I said maybe aliens accidentally killed the 12 unlucky Botany Bay Augments. My new theory is that some or maybe even all of the 12 were killed by Khan, himself, even as the ship left Earth. He could have welcomed all of the other 'supermen' and 'superwomen' aboard the Botany Bay, but as leader, they were all at his mercy and had to trust him before they entered suspended animation, with him being last. This would allow him to eliminate a rival, whom he never liked or trusted, maybe one from the Middle East, South America, wherever, and make sure they're not a problem for him in the future.

Thanks to Adam finding that missing scene in the briefing room where McCoy is stunned, there's an explanation for what we've always seen in the background, but never paid attention to as the scene begins. Just before she's roughly picked up and thrown into a chair to activate the viewscreen, Uhura is turned towards McCoy and has a hand of concern on him. He even leans over, as if ill (or recovering from a phaser stun). Now we know what's going on in the background.

Space Seed and Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan have three similar scenes in common, near the end both shows.
1. Scotty collapses-- from neural gas in the TV show, and radiation in the movie.
2. Kirk runs into engineering (to confront Khan) in the TV show, and Kirk runs into engineering (to help Spock) in the movie.
3. Khan is willing to kill everyone and himself by blowing up his own ship, first the Enterprise, then the Reliant.

Wonder why that scene was cut.

Syndication time limits?

McGivers is in the wrong uniform. She's an Historian, which is more science than engineering or security, which is red. She should be in a blue uniform.

Why is she there to begin with. What need to they have for an Earth Historian (Kirk himself seems to wonder about that).

I think we all know why

That's the out of universe reason (because we needed someone to go ga-ga over Khan).

What's the in universe one?

Enterprise was on a five year mission of exploration and contacting new civilizations. A historian would be useful in characterizing the various societies they encountered.

Yeah, that could be it.

Especially with all the worlds they come across that resemble ancient Earth civilizations. ;-)

"Wonder why that scene was cut."
"Syndication time limits?"

More like network time limits. IIRC, back in 1967, an hour network show ran about 52 minutes without the commercials. When the series was syndicated, local stations cut out more, as they aired more commercials; by that time, the episodes were probably whittled down to around 45 minutes. The FCC had limits on the amount of network commercial time back then, which the Reagan administration abolished. Now, an hour long network show, such as Law & Order or NCIS, runs 42-43 minutes without the commercials.

Marla knew who Khan was the whole time. Of course, she failed to tell Kirk this important information.

"Marla knew who Khan was the whole time. Of course, she failed to tell Kirk this important information."


True. At least justice was served in her case, unlike other people we know who were essentially traitors and got off with nothing more than a scolding.

Poor Marla would pay a terrible price.