Spoilers Star Trek: Khan 1x08 - "Original Sin"

[Avro Arrow]

The penultimate episode of the series is out on Monday, October 27. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode description: Five years after disaster sweeps the planet, Khan’s people and the Elboreans prepare their joint, single venture toward salvation. Khan learns the truth behind their predicament.

Runtime: 40 mins

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm going to be sorry to see this end. My anticipation for each new episode has been equal to any new episode of live action Star Trek.

 

[JD]

Yeah, this has been really good so far. I just hope it's doing well enough we can get more podcasts.

 

[Turtletrekker]

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[Saul]

So let me get this straight. Khan was going to take the ship and leave everyone behind? He wasn't going to search for help?

The major revelation about the disaster was not unexpected given the coincidence of the ship crashing at the same time.

Can't wait for next week.

 

[Christopher]

Hmmm...

Spoiler

No surprise the Elborians' ship caused the planet's explosion, given the timing, and the fact that such a thing shouldn't be possible naturally. But if Khan knows now that Kirk didn't intentionally leave them on a doomed planet, why does he still end up so, well, wrathful toward Kirk? Hopefully the finale will explain that.

Obviously the Venture won't take off with Khan and Joachim aboard as planned, but if it's not on the surface (man, that was a quick scan), that leaves its fate a mystery. I guess we'll find out.

At least this week there was no risk of confusing Ursula's voice with Marla's.

 

[Zarm]

Not entirely sure how I feel about this one. It feels like the start of a second season- with the major time-jump, and so much has changed... this episode does a good job of catching up the new status quo (except maybe Ursula, I'm a little unclear on how she got from where we left her to here), but- a re-introduction as the penultimate episode throws me a little.

Some mysteries are herein revealed; the mystery of Dr. Learman and her self-imposed mission certainly reaches a crescendo. A lot is being set up for resolution in the finale. And that ending moment... is exactly as expected. Indeed, it was inevitable; I almost would've been more impressed if

Spoiler: Episode ending

Ivan had actually just died offscreen.

My only point of contention with Khan-the characterization was a little unclear, in that it seemed as if he did not actually intend to return with help, as if he was simply planning to abandon his people? (As several others have also picked up, it seems.) That doesn't seem consistent with what we've seen throughout the rest of the series. And one wonders what will happen to conceal that or make it irrelevant to the remaining Augments, who retain their loyalty to him...

The invoking of the

Spoiler: Minor spoilers for a line

Wrath of Khan line seemed a little forced. It is an interesting idea- in episode 2 or 3, I speculated that Khan's seeming self-sacrificial character toward his people was trying to form him into a dark mirror of Kirk, a Kirk gone wrong- that metaphor seems to return, slightly, setting up Khan and Delmanda as a Kirk-and-Spock friendship that could have been; which is an interesting idea- this logical, alien, thought-provoking presence that could have become his friend and advisor if Khan had been a different man. However, while that's an interesting concept on paper, I don't think it was nearly well-established or well-explored enough to have any resonance in the series. If that's what they were going for, the groundwork needed several more episodes (or at least scenes) to be laid.

Then again, I could also be reading too much into it and it was just a clumsy line re-use, a la Into Darkness.

Overall, this one leaves me... muddled. It advanced the story, it has left plenty of anticipation for the resolution next week- but structurally, it just felt like such an odd connecting link. I'm still not sure what I thought about it.

 

[Zarm]

Hmmm...

Spoiler

No surprise the Elborians' ship caused the planet's explosion, given the timing, and the fact that such a thing shouldn't be possible naturally. But if Khan knows now that Kirk didn't intentionally leave them on a doomed planet, why does he still end up so, well, wrathful toward Kirk? Hopefully the finale will explain that.

It seems like he's still mad at the lack of regular check-ins? Which, I mean... I get that his obsession isn't rational. But it does seem rather surprising, that Khan- the man who was a conqueror, who wanted to build an Empire, who was told this new world was savage and was still up to the job of taming it... kinda wanted to be babied with regular check-ins to make sure his little Empire was coming along nicely. :-)

Obviously, we have that from TWOK; but I always took that as obsession talking, making him resent the lack of something that he (theoretically) wouldn't have wanted to begin with. But now, it does rather seem that his obsession should have been transferred elsewhere, especially if

Spoiler: Speculation

Delmonda somehow survives to give Learman the info in the first place- though if Learman is an escaping Kali (which her talking about Kali in the third person does seem to make less likely, but she could've been doing that for show to conceal her own identity), she could have just invoked Delmonda's name from her own childhood memory.

However, it seems to me he'll have to die because if he were still out there, surely he's the one Khan would be obsessed with hunting down...

Spoiler

Obviously the Venture won't take off with Khan and Joachim aboard as planned, but if it's not on the surface (man, that was a quick scan), that leaves its fate a mystery. I guess we'll find out.

Yeah, I was wondering- I mean, I have to assume Ceti Alpha V is exceptionally tough to scan through the atmosphere of, or else there's no excuse for Reliant not to have detected the cargo containers, multiple life-forms, etc. (Speaking of which... there remains no explanation for why they didn't detect an entire planet was missing; some sensor interference in the entire system would make the most sense...). But there was no mention of such a thing here, so... these two sources don't match up very well, unless there is some further explanation forthcoming for how the life signs were shrouded during TWOK in the last episode.

 

[Christopher]

I'm also surprised by how calm and rational Khan was here. I always figured that it was losing Marla that made him bitter and vengeance-crazed, but that hasn't happened yet, since he still has Kali as a source of joy. Which makes me afraid that something will happen to Kali, at least to make Khan think she died or something -- except then you'd think he would've mentioned her in his litany of Kirk's supposed crimes in the movie.

Spoiler: Speculation

I wonder if Delmonda or the Pandem will do something to Khan's mind that drives him mad, and maybe makes him forget Kali. I hope it's not the latter, since I'm not a fan of that trope, retconning in a whole new backstory and then erasing the characters' memories to explain why it was never mentioned.