Pretty different, as I recall it. (Of course, since the actual author is here, he's probably more an authority... :-) ). Each is certainly their own take; a very different fate for Marla, a very different survival situation. (Reflecting on it and the iconic phaser overload scene reminded me, there was nothing in this version to address Khan's single glove- I assume that in the podcast's universe, it's just a fashion choice!)
Spoilers ST: Khan by K. Beyer, D. Mack & N. Meyer Review Thread
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Well it does match the Starfleet medallion he bought on Etsy
The whole didn't exceed the sum of its parts. It had to begin where it did and end where it did. Not great for telling a fresh story.
I didn't like the alien angle being brought in. Ivan was a tired stereotype. Marla was done justice, though. Khan and Kirk, at least were kept as they were -- perhaps to the chagrin of Kirk haters and those who feel a villain always has to have been made that way by injustice, rather than just being evil.
Some of the questions/mysteries of TWOK were answered and others not. Seems like a lost opportunity that they won't get another chance to resolve.
Overall glad I listened to it and would like them to do others using some legacy cast members where their aging wouldn't be a factor in showing them at a earlier time period.
I didn't like the alien angle being brought in. Ivan was a tired stereotype. Marla was done justice, though. Khan and Kirk, at least were kept as they were -- perhaps to the chagrin of Kirk haters and those who feel a villain always has to have been made that way by injustice, rather than just being evil.
Some of the questions/mysteries of TWOK were answered and others not. Seems like a lost opportunity that they won't get another chance to resolve.
Overall glad I listened to it and would like them to do others using some legacy cast members where their aging wouldn't be a factor in showing them at a earlier time period.
While I was listening, I remembered the glove (which I hadn’t thought about at all for the past two months) while Khan was fighting with Ivan and was expecting him to be stabbed in the hand, or burn his hand on the ship, or something.
It's been so long since I've read them, that unfortunately I don't remember. But now that I've finished the podcast, I do want to go back and reread To Reign in Hell so that I can compare the similarities/differences.
Ring of Fire first, though.
Perhaps Mr. Cox will chime in, when he had the time to do so.
I just watched all the Khan scenes in The Wrath of Khan. Here's what I think either plays differently now, or has had some more depth added to it, thanks to the audio series:
- When Khan tells Chekov and Terrell about how the Ceti Eels killed his wife, I think back to exactly how Marla died.
- Onboard the Reliant, when Joachim tells Khan that he's defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk and that he doesn't need to defeat Kirk again, I thought to myself that's exactly what Delmonda would've told him.
- This one should've been obvious to me much sooner than now (better late than never), but after Khan has the Genesis Device, I now read it two ways: Khan can either use it as a weapon, or he can create a new world and finally have that third chance he'd been looking for to rule a new world.
- As Kirk was giving The "KHAN!!!!!" Scream, I now think Khan was reminded of Ivan, and some of Richardo Montalban's facial expressions can be reinterpreted to Khan thinking back to that.
- In my new head-canon, after Khan sets the detonation for the Genesis Device and after he tells Kirk, "For hate's sake a spit my last breath at thee," he spends his final moments thinking back to Marla, remembering her as his life flashes before his eyes. He focuses on Marla, thinks he'll be reunited with her again. Then the Reliant explodes. I don't think he's looking upwards at the view screen when the Enterprise escapes. He's checked out after he delivers his last line in the film.
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Reigning in Hell — Wrapping Up Star Trek: Khan’s First Season - Reactor
The Trek audio drama tells a complete story, but leaves the door open for more...
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I was just coming here to mention this review I did.Reigning in Hell — Wrapping Up Star Trek: Khan’s First Season - Reactor
The Trek audio drama tells a complete story, but leaves the door open for more...
Thanks, @Turtletrekker!Having now finished the Trekmovie podcast interview, it does reveal that they had an explanation for the Ceti Alpha V/VI misunderstanding in Wrath of Khan built in, but that they couldn't find any way to insert it in without feeling like it stopped the story (and was too visual a concept, so they dropped it). The explanation given was a valid one- my only suggestion in light of that is that perhaps the reference raising the question should also have been dropped from the script, because currently Dr. Lear calls it out but the story doesn't include the answer to her question, so it just draws more attention to the unanswered issue.
At the same time, someone (I think it was David Mack? But I couldn't tell on the quality of the speaker I was listening to) said that he assumed that Chekov was probably under an NDA, or that the whole thing was classified. So for those that have had an issue with or question about the whole issue of Kirk's classified records, there's another clue as to what the authors were going for there.
Putting the pieces together, it really does seem like the idea is that Kirk reported this incident to Starfleet, but Starfleet swore them all to secrecy over it, a la Discovery season 2? In which case of course it would be interesting why Starfleet never followed up on this or went and decided to extradite Khan or put any kind of surveillance in orbit or do any kind of follow-up themselves...
Kristen Beyer acknowledged that people seemed to want to know why the logs were classified, and she thought that idea was unimportant and was pretty dismissive of the fan sentiment. Her opinion was that somethings had been classified beforehand, and then afterward when Kirk died, everything from his logs just automatically became classified because that is what Star fleet does when captains die. (???)
Regardless, that seems to suggest that Dr. Lear simply started her research a bit too late, and before Generations, maybe less would have been classified from Kirk's logs than currently is. (Maybe the thinking is that because there are a lot of people that still have harsh feelings toward Khan Noonien-Singh and the Augments, at least that part of the record was classified so that no one would know where he ended up and try and go exact vengeance, or the like? Based on Strange New Worlds canon and the bigotry they've added against Augments into the Star Trek universe, that does seem like a rational fear.)
So maybe the concept is that following Space Seed, the records did reflect that Khan Noonien-Singh and his followers had been found, but the pertinent details as to what happened to them, which might allow anyone with an axe to grind to extrapolate where they had been dropped off (since again, that was an unprotected, unpatrolled area for no apparent reason, given all that canon has built up around the concept by this point) were kept secret to protect Khan and the Augments (again, rather than any kind of active observation of patrol that would also serve to keep tabs on them...) This would either assume that Starfleet has a very low opinion of its officers, or that they expect unclassified Starfleet logs to just be open to the general public. So there are still holes in the theory. But it, at least, makes a bit of sense with the reference to 'Chekov and an NDA' and all of that. Even if the automatic classification of logs for the dead part is still a head-scratcher, and the concept of Starfleet both classifying the logs because they are in some way concerned with the Augments, and ignoring Ceti Alpha V, seem mutually exclusive to one-another.
Anyhow, just some further hints as to author intentions gleaned from the podcast interview.
At the same time, someone (I think it was David Mack? But I couldn't tell on the quality of the speaker I was listening to) said that he assumed that Chekov was probably under an NDA, or that the whole thing was classified. So for those that have had an issue with or question about the whole issue of Kirk's classified records, there's another clue as to what the authors were going for there.
Putting the pieces together, it really does seem like the idea is that Kirk reported this incident to Starfleet, but Starfleet swore them all to secrecy over it, a la Discovery season 2? In which case of course it would be interesting why Starfleet never followed up on this or went and decided to extradite Khan or put any kind of surveillance in orbit or do any kind of follow-up themselves...
Kristen Beyer acknowledged that people seemed to want to know why the logs were classified, and she thought that idea was unimportant and was pretty dismissive of the fan sentiment. Her opinion was that somethings had been classified beforehand, and then afterward when Kirk died, everything from his logs just automatically became classified because that is what Star fleet does when captains die. (???)
Regardless, that seems to suggest that Dr. Lear simply started her research a bit too late, and before Generations, maybe less would have been classified from Kirk's logs than currently is. (Maybe the thinking is that because there are a lot of people that still have harsh feelings toward Khan Noonien-Singh and the Augments, at least that part of the record was classified so that no one would know where he ended up and try and go exact vengeance, or the like? Based on Strange New Worlds canon and the bigotry they've added against Augments into the Star Trek universe, that does seem like a rational fear.)
So maybe the concept is that following Space Seed, the records did reflect that Khan Noonien-Singh and his followers had been found, but the pertinent details as to what happened to them, which might allow anyone with an axe to grind to extrapolate where they had been dropped off (since again, that was an unprotected, unpatrolled area for no apparent reason, given all that canon has built up around the concept by this point) were kept secret to protect Khan and the Augments (again, rather than any kind of active observation of patrol that would also serve to keep tabs on them...) This would either assume that Starfleet has a very low opinion of its officers, or that they expect unclassified Starfleet logs to just be open to the general public. So there are still holes in the theory. But it, at least, makes a bit of sense with the reference to 'Chekov and an NDA' and all of that. Even if the automatic classification of logs for the dead part is still a head-scratcher, and the concept of Starfleet both classifying the logs because they are in some way concerned with the Augments, and ignoring Ceti Alpha V, seem mutually exclusive to one-another.
Anyhow, just some further hints as to author intentions gleaned from the podcast interview.
Did they mention what the explanation was, or only that they had one?
They did, I just didn't intend to steal Trekmovie's thunder. :-) Their explanation was that
Ceti Alpha V and VI had a gravitational relationship whereby they switch orbital paths at a certain juncture of their respective orbits; and that the destruction of VI happened at a critical juncture, while V was in VI's 'outer' orbit; with its demise and no more gravitational interaction to make the switch, V was now stuck in that outer orbit- essentially, shifted to VI's orbit.
Therefore, when the Reliant arrived, it wasn't that they miscounted the planets, but that they detected a destroyed planet in the inner (V's) orbit and an orbiting planet in the outer (VI's) orbit. Thus, they already knew that a planet had been destroyed- they simply believed that V was the one that had been destroyed, not VI.
Therefore, when the Reliant arrived, it wasn't that they miscounted the planets, but that they detected a destroyed planet in the inner (V's) orbit and an orbiting planet in the outer (VI's) orbit. Thus, they already knew that a planet had been destroyed- they simply believed that V was the one that had been destroyed, not VI.
This is awesome.
I see how it would have been really hard to include but I hope that concept can sneak into a novel somewhere
Are they implying Vi and V are in a mean motion resonance?
They did reference that they did the research so that real science underpined each of these concepts, though they weren't specific (that I can recall) in the terminology.
They were basically saying that it was the kind of concept that you really needed someone standing next to a screen with an animation to demonstrate to correctly. Which, along with the fact that it would just be straight exposition that would kill the pacing, was why they decided to cut it.
