On board the Enterprise, a vessel has been spotted drifting in space and giving out old morse code signals. It’s one of those old starships from the 1990s. Don’t laugh, this is serious stuff.
The Enterprise crew detect heartbeats on the ancient ship, the USS Botany Bay. Spock reminds everyone that in the mid 1990′s the last world war took place between genetically enhanced supermen and everyone else. I remember it more as the era of the sitcom ‘Friends’ and the Spice Girls, but then my memory isn’t what it used to be. Kirk orders McGivers, spacegirl historian, to join the away team. Why does the Enterprise need a historian and where was she during Yesterday is Tomorrow when they needed her?
The Botany Bay, it transpires, is a sleeper ship. All the crew are in suspended animation. They revive the leader, a handsome fellow in a He-man costume with gold net over-robe. Hang about, he looks familiar. Dare I say it? It’s… KHAAAN!!!
McGivers is fascinated by Khan, a genetically enhanced man, twice as powerful as the men of Kirk’s time period. On board the Enterprise, Khan recuperates from his slumber, grabs a scalpel and points it at Bones.
Kirk introduces himself. He tells him he will revive the crew when they reach starbase 12. Khan asks Kirk if he can study the technical specs of the Enterprise. Alarm bells, anyone? Kirk hands them over, unphased.
Later, Khan woos McGivers with his smooth words, lets down her hair, slightly. It’s a little creepy. He starts to hurt her, asking her to help him take over the ship. She says she’ll do whatever he asks. This is when Khan breaks out the bunny costume.
Kirk figures out Khan is actually a former dictator and ruler of 1/4 of the world in the nineties. Oh yeah, I didn’t recognise him without his Poncho of Power.
Khan escapes and revives his 70ish crew. Only the ladies wear the same outfit Khan did. Something you want to share, Mr Khan?
He takes over the Enterprise by starving the bridge of oxygen. Uhura takes a hit for the team and Kirk is put in an airlock, slowly being depressurised. Unless the crew join Khan’s crew, he will kill Kirk.
Luckily ol’ McGivers decides to switch sides and rescues Kirk, who then floods the ship with anaesthesia gas. Everyone is knocked out, except, somehow, Khan. Kirk tracks him down, leading to an action-packed showdown. Ultimately Kirk’s fightin’ moves defeat Khan and save the ship.
Rather than sending everyone to prison, Kirk decides to take the law into his own hands and drops Khan’s crew off at a deserted world to build a colony. And that should have been the end of it, but as anyone who has seen the second movie knows, it was actually just the beginning, the seed, the space seed.
Apart from the small detail that they got life in the nineties completely wrong, this is a beauty of an episode and Ricardo Montalbán’s performance is everything you would hope from a genetically engineered supervillain. This is Trek at it’s best.
Cast:
William Shatner as James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard H. McCoy
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Guest Cast:
Ricardo Montalban as Khan
Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers
Creative Staff:
Director: Marc Daniels
Teleplay By: Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber
Story By: Carey Wilber
