What did Khan see in McGivers?

[Dale Sams]

I mean *I* might flip over the first redhead I see after 100 years in a spacepod, but Khan is supposed to be the superior being.

Maybe her betraying him earned his respect or something. Because before then she was a simpering Hu-Mon who betrayed her crew over a guy with nice pecs.

 

[Green Shirt]

What did Khan see in her?

nice pecs.

There ya go.

 

[alpha_leonis]

I took it mostly like she was the initiator. She'd studied Khan (at least intellectually) as part of her career. I think that would appeal to Khan's vanity that here's a woman, born centuries after he left Earth, who knew everything about him and could respond to him as an intellectual equal on the topics he knew/cared about.

 

[Amaris]

He needed a starry-eyed lackey, who would do his bidding and love him for it.

 

[Trekker4747]

I mean *I* might flip over the first redhead I see after 100 years in a spacepod, but Khan is supposed to be the superior being.

Maybe her betraying him earned his respect or something. Because before then she was a simpering Hu-Mon who betrayed her crew over a guy with nice pecs.

He saw in her a weakness he could exploit to his advantage and the submission in her that'd stroke his ego.

 

[erastus25]

I mean *I* might flip over the first redhead I see after 100 years in a spacepod, but Khan is supposed to be the superior being.

Maybe her betraying him earned his respect or something. Because before then she was a simpering Hu-Mon who betrayed her crew over a guy with nice pecs.

He saw in her a weakness he could exploit to his advantage and the submission in her that'd stroke his ego.

And, specifically, her weakness was men that fit into a similar mold as Khan. He realized that immediately and used her. Of course, they eventually married (presumably) and he was devastated by her death, so he may have fallen in love. Or he just missed the hero worship.

 

[Lance]

He saw in her a weakness he could exploit to his advantage and the submission in her that'd stroke his ego.

And, specifically, her weakness was men that fit into a similar mold as Khan. He realized that immediately and used her.

Absolutely. I suspect (especially in light of what we were told in TWOK) that Khan did eventually come to love McGivers, fully and deeply. But the impression one gets from 'Space Seed' alone is that he uses her throughout. She falls head over heels in love with him, but it's not necessarily the other way around.

 

[Dale Sams]

He saw in her a weakness he could exploit to his advantage and the submission in her that'd stroke his ego.

And, specifically, her weakness was men that fit into a similar mold as Khan. He realized that immediately and used her.

Absolutely. I suspect (especially in light of what we were told in TWOK) that Khan did eventually come to love McGivers, fully and deeply. But the impression one gets from 'Space Seed' alone is that he uses her throughout. She falls head over heels in love with him, but it's not necessarily the other way around.

Even though the logical thing is to take every pair of hands he can use, including an inferior species...Khan seems genuine when he's telling her that it will be a struggle to survive.

 

[Lance]

McGivers is given the choice, to stay or to go. Admittedly, "staying" for her meant a full court martial. Khan's speech, as genuine as it is, does still seem to be giving her (for the first time?) the complete freedom to make the decision for herself..... but, seemingly, still imploring her to stay with him (or at least saying that he'd find it agreeable if she did). And when she does say yes, he talks of her admirably, but also possessively. She is "his". Perhaps he sees her as a spoil of defeat? He lost the Enterprise, but as a consolation prize he got the home version of the game and a complimentary busty redhead.

The script portrays McGivers as being generally weak in character. Submissive to the point where any ancient despot could've been unfrozen on the Botany Bay and convinced her to obey him, not necessarily Khan. But of course, we are shown that she'd already been studying Khan, had painted his portrait. It'd be like a rock star you've loved all your life offering you a quickie in their dressing room before the show. Chances are good that you'd be tempted, and McGivers succumbed to that temptation.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It definitely takes a lot of willing suspension of disbelief to imagine Marla being the reason for Khan's revenge rampage in Wrath of Khan.

 

[2takesfrakes]

((...snicker)) it surely does!

While still amongst her crew, Marla was just a sucker toy, but on Ceti Alpha V, where there was nothing but pure survival at stake, her STARFLEET training might've come in very useful. She probably earned a lot of respect that way, after Ceti Alpha VI just decided to up and blow itself up, one fateful day.

 

[Marsden]

, but as a consolation prize he got the home version of the game and a complimentary busty redhead.

If that's the consolation prize, sign me up for that one!

 

[RandyS]

Somebody to manipulate.

 

[Ssosmcin]

While he used her in the beginning and throughout, he grew to respect and admire her balls in the end. I believe love blossomed after the credits rolled. In the intervening 15 years (or however long it took for the eels to get around to killing her), love grew and took hold.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

[BriGuy]

He probably saw someone he could easily control and manipulate.

 

[Gassy Man]

I couldn't figure that out, either -- the problem, I believe, is that the actress was so completely bland and listless. A better actress would have brought charisma to the role, but Madelyn Rhue was like a wet noodle. Someone like Marianna Hill or even Grace Lee Whitney would have provided flair.

 

[Richard Baker]

In 'The Space Seed' Khan is a dominant male figure and McGivers has submissive tendencies which he initially exploits. When she chooses to join him in exile she then earns his respect- she may not be his genetic equal but he considers her worthy.

It is a classic D/s relationship in the Lifestyle...

 

[Forbin]

McGivers is given the choice, to stay or to go. Admittedly, "staying" for her meant a full court martial. Khan's speech, as genuine as it is, does still seem to be giving her (for the first time?) the complete freedom to make the decision for herself..... but, seemingly, still imploring her to stay with him (or at least saying that he'd find it agreeable if she did). And when she does say yes, he talks of her admirably, but also possessively. She is "his". Perhaps he sees her as a spoil of defeat? He lost the Enterprise, but as a consolation prize he got the home version of the game and a complimentary busty redhead.

The script portrays McGivers as being generally weak in character. Submissive to the point where any ancient despot could've been unfrozen on the Botany Bay and convinced her to obey him, not necessarily Khan. But of course, we are shown that she'd already been studying Khan, had painted his portrait. It'd be like a rock star you've loved all your life offering you a quickie in their dressing room before the show. Chances are good that you'd be tempted, and McGivers succumbed to that temptation.

Pretty sure she started painting that after he came aboard, and after they found out who he was.

 

[Timo]

It's quite possible she recognized Khan immediately - it would be extremely odd for her not to have done so, considering she was supposed to be both a professional expert and a connoisseur on the subject of past supermen. She could have started the painting at that point. But she could also have started it much earlier, as there would have been plenty of visual material on him (Spock had no problem finding some), and he would have been right down her alley; she would just have dusted off this particular unfinished picture and left the equally unfinished Marc Anthony, Adolf Hitler and Tamerlane in the closet pending the revival of those characters.

As for Khan's attitude towards McGivers, I don't see that really changing at any point. If McGivers needed Khan's respect in order to survive as his favorite concubine, she would have been dumped or killed many times over long before her betrayal of the masculine conqueror. Khan probably considered her a nice trophy through and through, while she considered him a pretty and easily led "master" from start to finish; open and rational relationships like that have good odds of lasting...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When she chooses to join him in exile she then earns his respect- she may not be his genetic equal but he considers her worthy.

That would be the only way I could ever see Khan actually believing that she was his "beloved wife" (as he called her in TWOK).

Augments like Khan, as we have seen many times, are incapable of genuine feelings like love or compassion - such things are literally bred right out of them. But if Khan recognized McGivers' strength of will, that'd be as close to actually loving her as he could ever be capable of.