This week, I'm adding "Space Seed" to the roster. I'll post the review in this thread, since I'll be looking at "Space Seed" specifically from a Star Trek: Khan angle.
I'll probably be doing that on Thursday. I feel like I should have "Space Seed" as something that's fresh in my mind while watching Khan, rather than as a faded memory.
I'm glad I said "probably". It turned out to be today, Friday, not Thursday. Anyway, just finished re-watching...
"Space Seed" (TOS)
First of all, this is a great episode on its own. Ricardo Montalban is magnetic as Khan. A lot of philosophical debate about world order and improved man. Things there wouldn't have been time for in a movie like
The Wrath of Khan. When re-watching this episode, I looked to see how compatible it is with
Star Trek: Khan. Particularly Khan himself and Marla McGivers.
Kirk can't even get Marla's last name right, she finds men of the past more interesting,
and she's stronger willed than people would think. Her only vulnerable moment is during the scene when Khan says she must ask to stay with him. The rest of the time she's strong-willed. When she leaves while Kirk is almost killed, she's rescuing him, thinking she's acting in everyone's best interests. At the end of the episode, Khan is spared and exiled to Ceti Alpha V. Whereas if he'd overtaken the Enterprise and killed everyone, Starfleet would be after him and have a bounty on his head. He wouldn't have survived long, if not for Marla.
Khan is said to be one the best of the tyrants. There were no massacres, but order was strict. This is consistent with
Khan in that he hasn't killed civilians, but he does rule with an iron first. Khan believed that eventually one tyrant would've risen to the top. If he was the best, then it's natural he'd expect it to be him. With no massacres, I'm imagining Khan fancied himself a "benevolent" dictator. But still a dictator and still one who would retaliate.
When Khan was about to have Kirk killed, he threatened to kill everyone one-by-one until someone would cooperate with him. If only one did, everyone else would be spared. I think that on Earth, he might've used the same threatening tactics and one person always did cave, thus sparing everyone else. Leading others to conclude there were no massacres under his watch.
I don't think Kirk knew that Ceti Alpha VI was about to explode when he left Khan on Ceti Alpha V. If it was known that Ceti Alpha VI was about to explode, then Spock would've told Kirk because he would've found something on sensors. But Spock didn't know. Instead, he says that it would be interesting to see what happens on Ceti Alpha V in 100 years and what would've sprung from Khan's efforts to build a civilization there. So, there was something going on that was undetectable to Spock.
Of other interest is that the genetic supermen came from all around the globe, explaining how they can all be of different ethnicities. We don't see 72 people, even though 72 are mentioned. So, it
is possible that any children, including Jochiam, were in a section of the Botany Bay that we just happened to not see. Kind of like how Chekov was on the Enterprise, and we just happened to not see him either. There are ways to explain away these things.
Some key highlights of the episode are Khan's observations about how little Humanity has changed in the last few centuries, despite technological advancements. Also, his observations about how social gatherings are nothing more than warfare concealed.
The full identity of Khan is kept a mystery at first. When Khan sees a painting of him that Marla painted, he tells her, "I am honored." He knows she knows who he is, even though she doesn't verbalize it. Then she does verbalize it, and Khan is assured. Afterwards, Spock identifies Khan in a briefing as Khan Noonian Singh. Later on, Kirk meets with Khan in private, saying he knows who he is. Khan says he assumes they found out through the Enterprise computer. Kirk doesn't say, and I appreciate that the episode leaves it up to interpretation. Either Marla told Kirk and that's how he found out, or Spock pieced it together and then told Kirk. Nice to leave some things up to the viewer.
That's all I have to say about the episode that's immediately coming to mind. After all 10 episodes of
Star Trek: Khan have been released, I'll re-watch
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and give my thoughts about it taking
Star Trek: Khan into account. It'll be interesting to be able to watch TWOK from a fresh angle.
