Captain Video and Khan

[Nebusj]

I have a faint recollection from 80s Trek episode guides (Allan Asherman's book? Gerrold's World of Star Trek? Something like that) the mention that the basic plot of ``Space Seed'' --- a notorious criminal from centuries past turns up in the present day --- was derived from an episode of Captain Video.

Does anyone know which episode that might have been, and how the stories compare?

Captain Video, my understanding is, is a difficult one to study as nearly none of the episodes were preserved (it had the bad fortune to run on the Dumont network and what recordings were made were thrown out in the 70s). But it was incredibly popular and ran for a long while, and pretty much everybody who wrote science fiction professionally took a couple weeks at scriptwriting for it. Still, if (Asherman?) was able to say thirty years ago that one of the earlier shows' stories was this, then, obviously some information relevant to ``Space Seed'' was available.

And if I've completely invented this memory then I'll accept with reluctance evidence to that effect.

 

[Harvey]

According to this page, Carey Wilber said he derived the idea from an episode of Captain Video and His Video Rangers which he also wrote.

IMDB credits two episodes of that series to Wilbur, although given how few episodes survive, who knows if there are others.

 

[Melakon]

Internet Archive lists 4 episodes of Captain Video, but I don't know if any of them are Wilber's.

https://archive.org/search.php?query="captain video" AND collection:television


Though they might make an interesting "remastered effects" project for any animation amateurs.

 

[Metryq]

The general idea of "Space Seed," where a criminal is released from his imprisonment by unwitting benefactors, has been used many times. One of my childhood favorites was the LOST IN SPACE episode "Condemned of Space." A closer fit is the SPACE: 1999 episode "End of Eternity" with the Satanic Balor played by Peter Bowles.

 

[Melakon]

Another is The Twilight Zone classic episode, "The Howling Man", by Charles Beaumont. Only there it's someone much worse than a criminal, with a great reveal scene.