Star Trek Flashback: Space Seed

Plenty of episodes of the original Star Trek would inspire writers in the franchise many years down the road. But no episode affected the future of Star Trek more than "Space Seed."

The Enterprise encounters a centuries-old "sleeper ship" from the Eugenics War on Earth. Its leader, Khan, is both enigmatic and charismatic -- revealing little of his own past, and sparking the adoration of Lieutenant Marla McGivers. When Khan revives his crew of genetically-enhanced followers and launches a takeover of the Enterprise, McGivers is torn between her attraction and her duty. Can Captain Kirk defeat an enemy who is superior, both physically and mentally?

When Gene L. Coon was polishing the final scene of this script (co-credited to the story author Carey Wilber), he had Kirk give the villainous Khan a punishment not really intended as a punishment. Khan wanted a world to conquer, so Kirk gives him one... and then muses with Spock about what might come of the "seed" planted that day. It was a rhetorical flourish to justify a rather obtuse episode title. It would have been impossible to imagine that Coon was really planting a seed that 15 years later would inspire Nicholas Meyer to write the Star Trek movie most revered by the fans. (And that would be re-packaged by J.J. Abrams' writing team another 31 years after that.)

Still, while there's a lot to like about the script of "Space Seed" (especially McCoy's defiant bravery when threatened by Khan, and the brinksmanship between Kirk and Khan) that isn't really where the magic happened. For one thing, the general admiration for the dictator Khan is strange -- though at least Spock points that out. Khan isn't truly Hitler, to be sure; we're told his rule had not even a fraction of the death toll. But all the ideas about a superior race, and what that entitles said race to do to their "inferiors," are just the same. On a scale of dictatorship, "not as bad as Hitler" is a woefully low bar to clear.

But more centrally, I find the character of Marla McGivers pretty hard to take. She's a 60s cliche of a fickle woman who swoons and un-swoons and swoons again according to the needs of the plot. Who knows why the Enterprise even has a resident historian of 20th-century Earth, but she of all people ought to know what a person like Khan really represents... if he weren't just so hot. At least Kirk gives her no points for bringing about the solution of a problem she largely causes.

No, the strength of "Space Seed" is in the casting of Ricardo Montalban as Khan. He really is magnetic in the way the script demands. He almost never delivers a line the way you'd expect, and the regular Star Trek actors actually change up their game in response. Kirk has to be as cool and calculating as Khan to beat him (even if the final victory is in a fist fight). And Khan is oddly magnanimous in defeat. There's just an alchemy here that works, which is why, of all the one-off villains the Enterprise vanquishes over three seasons, this is the one who would make a comeback for a feature film.

They may not have known at the time that "Space Seed" was a special episode, but the production values are pretty good. They build quite a large set for the Botany Bay, and add the "never seen again" decompression chamber to Sickbay. In the remastered version of the episode (where the production team did know of the importance of this episode), the effects get a bigger-than-usual boost.

Other observations:

• Uhura knows Morse code. Kirk acts like he knows it, but it kinda feels like he's making that up.

• This episode "predicts" a 1990s around 30 years in its future. We're now about that far after that point.

• Some fun goofs: When Khan first wakes up and everyone gathers around his hibernation chamber, DeForest Kelley drops something, and you see him look back on the floor for it for a split second. Later, when Khan smacks a guard so hard he somersaults, you can see the stuntman split the crotch of his pants.

• Much is always made of the fact that Chekov isn't in this episode, even though his "history" with Khan is key in the movie Star Trek II. Of course, his character hadn't been introduced to the show yet. But notably, Sulu also isn't in this episode.

• Ultimately, Star Trek lore would brand Khan and his people "Augments," and make them the product of genetic engineering. Because that wasn't really on the radar in 1967, this episode instead suggests they're more the product of selective breeding. 

"Space Seed" really is a great episode, though I also think that the writing of Marla McGivers punches a great hole in it. Overall, I give it a B.