Space Seed (Star Trek TOS - S1E23)

This week on Treks and Tangents, the Enterprise accidentally unthaws one of Earth’s greatest historical mistakes: Khan and his Golden Underwear Gang. Khan quickly proves that waking up ancient super-dictators might not have been Starfleet’s best idea.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Marla McGivers discovers she has a surprising weakness for strong jawlines and ambitious warlords.

Join us as we talk superhumans, questionable Starfleet decision-making, Marla's weakness for strong jawlines, and the episode that plants the very dramatic seeds of one of Star Trek’s greatest rivalries. 

Transcript

Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Alien frequencies open and welcome aboard Trecks and Tangents. I'm your co-host Brian.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And I'm your co-host Jeff. I'm your Captain who checks off on Tangents.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

And this week we watched Star Trek, the original series, season one, episode 22, Space Seed.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Welcome back to another episode. Real quick, because it's going to be a long episode, uh, we'll jump into our turbolift tease. That was at the end of last week's episode. I gave Jackie the title to this week's episode, and Jackie gave her elevator pitch, or turbolift tease, computer. What was Jackie's prediction last week?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Jackie's TurboLift tees last week was. You know, that pink flower we met a long time ago with Sulu and Janice in the little floral area, that would be super cute.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your prediction was?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

That would be a zero out of zero.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

You're really focused in on the word seed in the title, I think, with the Gertrude and the flower from the The first one. It wasn't the first one, it was the second episode. The salt vampire.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yes. With Sulu. And there's not even a Sulu. So no Sulu, no Janice, and no Gertrude.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

That's correct. Sulu and Chekoff, who we meet in season two, aren't in this episode, but they are in the motion picture. So that's confusing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Who's Chekhov?

SPEAKER_03 2:02

We'll we'll get to Chekoff, don't worry. Oh lordy. Did you know either before you started watching the episode or probably during the episode as we're introduced to the character Khan? In this moment, do you know that this is the con from the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

No.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

And that's kind of what I figured.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So we already know this guy?

SPEAKER_03 2:27

No, no, no. The movie comes after you've never seen The Wrath of Khan. Then why are you asking me this question? No, I'm asking, have you seen The Wrath of Khan?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

No.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

So I know a lot of cons. So I'm just asking because as we were prepping for the episode, you mentioned, oh, I can see why it was such a highly rated episode. And I was curious if that was because you knew that this was basically the character prequel and the setup to, I would argue, one of the top three ranking Star Trek original series movies. I'm an idiot. No, I just I just wanted to see if you had that connection drawn in your brain.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

No, I just liked the episode.

Initial Impressions

SPEAKER_03 3:13

And obviously, I don't think there was any this obviously wasn't filmed as kind of a predetermined way to set up for the movie. The movies are far into the future, unthought of at this point. Obviously, when they did Star Trek II and they wrote the script and they filmed that, they obviously just pulled from this episode. It wasn't set up ahead of time. But I think that's one of the primary reasons why this is gonna be one of the top-rated episodes of the original series, is because it is the prequel, the character setup for Khan, and everyone knows Khan, or at least every Star Trek fan knows the Wrath of Khan, the movie. Obviously, this is gonna be highly rated and highly beloved by Star Trek fans because of the simple fact that this character is the same as from the motion picture. Without any other thought from me, what was your initial impression of this episode?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

I really liked it. I mean, in general, but I still have a problem with the the uniforms for the ladies.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

I think you're gonna have that problem for most of at least the original series.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I mean, this time we totally see them, they're all their booty shorts.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

I don't think that changes. You certainly see it change after the original series. I'll say this, they get pants in the next generation.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

You also get the the skirt uniform for the gentleman that you see very infrequently in the original series or the next generation. But besides the uniform and costume design.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

No, I really liked the um overall creation, like the storyline itself. There's no like boring part. It keeps not that it's boring ever, but like it's keep going and going and going, and what's happening now? What is he doing? He thinks he's in charge. Where's Kirk? Like, this guy is definitely on his high horse, and Kirk doesn't like that. He only lets it fly for a moment.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Right. Obvious, and and uh absolute foundation for their their rivalry that comes through in later in the movie. Oh I'll start by saying this. I like the episode. I think it has some minor pacing problems in the beginning. I think they cram too much in at the very end, but overall it's a great episode. Hot take, I am not the biggest fanboy for Khan. I think he's a fantastic character, I think he's a fantastic villain, I think he's a wonderful addition to Star Trek. He doesn't crack the top five, I don't even know that he'd crack the top ten of villain characters for me. This will be my Rocky Horror reference for the episode. There's a moment where Frankenfurter is just finished revealing his creation Rocky Horror. They're all around the tank with Riffraf, Magenta, and Columbia, and he's asking them what they think of Rocky, and they're Riffraff and Magenta are praising him, that it's a credit to his genius, a triumph of his failures, and then Columbia says he's okay. And I think I fall under Columbia's camp. I think he's just okay. Everyone else seems to praise him and think he's this absolute fantastic character. I think he's just cool, he's good.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

No, I can understand that because literally he is so full of himself. He can rule a country of himself. Like there's no flamboyancy, there's no um whimsy, there's just cockiness and arrogance and him. Yeah. You know, like some leaders have that charisma that just says poof to everybody, and his charisma basically just went to Marla and to whoever else felt behind him.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

I think to an extent his charisma got him very far with Kirk and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise in the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yes, because he can hold the conversation.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Yes, and obviously his charisma is partially what got him to where he was on Earth in power, controlling I over 25% of the world population at his height in his little fiefdom and kingdom before all of that broke into chaos and war.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

I mean, they said he was a tyrant, so he already knows he must know how to turn it on and turn it off, you know. Tyrant equals killer in my book.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Yeah. And we see that with Marla, and certainly comes across in the motion picture later. But anyway, don't throw the episode out just because I don't think Khan is the greatest Star Trek villain of all time. I think he's perfectly entertaining. I enjoy the episode. Please stick around until the episode ranking at the end before you judge my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

No, you only know you only like that dude Q.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Q, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Whoever that guy is.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

We'll get to well, we we talked a little bit about Q for the Squire of Gothos.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah, yeah.

Treking Through the Episode

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Uh we'll meet Q when we get to the next generation. I don't know that Q's the top villain in my mind. I mean, we could do a whole we could do a whole side episode on top villains. We have Q, we have the Borg Queen, we have certainly some of the DS9 Cardassian characters, even some of the mirror universe villains are pretty good. But anyway, I think we've dug ourselves deep enough in. Let's trek through the episode, let's cover the episode, let's get there's a it's a huge episode, there's a lot to talk about, lots of tangents, I think. So let's see how far we've got. We already went on a few. Why don't you walk us through the episode?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

The Enterprise is approaching an unknown vessel. We have they don't know who it is, and they are not answering any of the censors and the requests for hellos from Uhora. And so they do see though, now they can see it, that it looks like it could be an Earth vessel, but they don't know for sure. Is it from Earth or aliens taking over it? It looks like it was built in the late 1990s, which is funny because that was just a few years ago for us. Yeah. So you hear though is receiving what sounds like Morse code, and she's just going, CQ, CQ, and Kirk's like, hush, we can read it.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Yeah, he's kind of dismissive, but another tie-in to stress that this is a Earth vessel. This is a vessel from Earth and it's from an older time.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So, in order to make sure that the Enterprise is ready in case this ship is bad, he makes sure all of the sections on the ship are ready. Like the weapons are ready, the re everyone has their phasers, the reflectors are ready if needed. You know, just be ready. And then he asks Dr. McCoy, Have you found out any information on the ship? And he's like, Well, there is some heartbeats, but I don't think they're human because it's only four per minute, okay?

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah, specifically multiple heartbeat signals, like 90 of them, but each individual signal is registering a heartbeat of four beats per minute. He's not picking up four individual hearts per minute.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Correct. And then Spock is trying to look through all of his records on his computer, and it shows nothing. He can't find anything there. But he does show that there is something working on the ship. Like he's receiving a censor saying that there's a big equipment working. So we have slow heart rate and a machine on the ship.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yeah, which we later, of course, are gonna find out is the systems that run whatever life support system is keeping everyone in the suspended animation.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

And then we have the opening credits. And then as we're coming back, Kirk is saying that they've been by the vessel for a whole hour, nothing's happened. So Kirk continues to make sure everyone is ready, and McCoy walks in on board.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Onto the bridge.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yes, and he's like, dude, I found upwards of 70 bodies, and their heartbeats are still slow, but nobody's breathing. Spock has also found the name of the ship. It's the SS Botany Bay.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Which I'll just inject, even though it's not covered at this point of the episode. Botany Bay is a location off the coast of Australia, and it has ties to when Australia served largely as a penal colony for the British Empire. We'll cover more of it as the episode comes on, but that's where the background of the name comes from.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

And Spock goes on to say that times were tough and record keeping wasn't at the forefront, which is how he's explaining how he found out the name of the ship because it's on the hole.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Right. And there's no record in the enterprise's computer database for a ship by that name from that time period of Earth.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Right, because we learned that this ship was during that time of the war of eugenics, where everyone was, you know, selective breathing and all. And McCoy wants to pop in that he wants to ensure that Spock knows that this war was started by logical thinking scientists, and nothing was about emotion. So, you know, pick the proper specimen going forward. Because you know, he wants to show logic with logic. They're always fighting.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah, and we're gonna cover later in the episode when we get to those details more of what we learn in this episode of what happened during that time period.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

So Kirk decides that he's gonna beam down there. So he gives the ship to Spock and tells McCoy, You're coming with us. You have no choice. Because he makes a joke about, oh, do I have to come? Kirk also wants to bring the ship's historian, and he has yet to even you know know her, but she is Marla McGyvers.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Yeah, the first time Kirk doesn't know a female member of his crew.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Weird. But we pop over to her quarters, and her quarters are amazing. It's beautiful, it's like she's an artist herself. She's painted all of the past leaders, uh, like Napoleon, Alexander, it's fantastic. But she's in the middle of getting ready to paint something, and she's called to go on this mission. So she's like, Oh, okay. So they all meet at the transporter room. And Scottie's like, hello everybody, it looks like the other ship has been expecting us because they even made the atmosphere and the temperature perfect for us. I think it was making a joke, but in reality it was true.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Yeah, I he he's reporting to the captain that the conditions on the other ship are favorable for them without the need for life support systems or special breathing equipment, but he is making a joke.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

So McCoy isn't excited, but we have Kirk, Scotty, MacGyvers, and of course McCoy all beaming over to the other ship. And they arrive, and as they're trickling in, we see to the right this beautiful woman pretending she's Princess Aurora from Disney, sleeping beauty, and everyone else, there's like two like bunk beds, and each with sleeping people.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Some people could refer to them as bunk beds, others could refer to them as Crypts. Oh, that's true. Like slabs in a crypt, open slabs. Anyone ever, any fans of Skyrim? It's pretty much every early level you ever play with the Crips. Skyrim Jackie is the video game where I kill the dragons. The dragons?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Oh, I love that game. Yeah. Yes. And you get the skin of bear.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

I yes, I think I do skin a bear in that game.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I love that game. I just forgot what its name was. But note Tate that all the ladies are wearing bikinis and have like gold netting over them, and the men have like a suit and gold netting on. So they're all special.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

I think they're wearing the men are wearing speedos. Oh, yeah, with like a little chest piece. Yeah, with like weird little shoulder straps that come down to the speedo. It imagine overalls, but there's no like front chest or abdomen. Your overall is in the front. Yeah, your overall straps just come over your shoulder and go all the way down to your underwear. And they got some weird like leg wrappings or whatever. Not normal clothing for sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

It's like actual fish netting, but gold, like when they go to the ocean. Right. So, of course, McCoy is checking on everybody, checking to make sure they are at least alive. And Scotty is looking at all of the mechanical pieces, and he's like, Yeah, I think I can work with this. I think it's called a transistor unit.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

So then McGyver's though informs Kirk that this ship is a sleeper ship, meaning they're just asleep while the ship is going to where it has to go.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Right, because at this point in Star Trek history, this is all pre-dating warp drives. This is all pre-dating faster than light travel. So to travel great distances, it took a lot of time. So they would put the crew members into this suspended animation or sleep mode. And then, depending on what sci-fi show or movie you're watching, most of the time the ship's computer would basically act as an alarm clock and wake them up after a predetermined time period, when something went wrong, when they arrived at their destination, etc.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

And then a light pops on, though, and this is when we see another person start to move. It's a man. And imagine like a chick hatching out of an egg. It's kind of like that. It's weird, but a weird analogy, but that's how he's acting. Yeah. Like a little baby chicken.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

We slowly see signs of his respiration increasing, small movements. I also just want to point out throughout all these scenes, there's several shots back to MacGyver's Marla, the ship historian, very much has an aura or a glow to her as she becomes very infatuated and almost has her breath taken away as she is looking upon this person who is slowly waking up out of suspended animation. Clearly gives the impression to the viewers us that she is not acting professionally as the vibe I got early on in this episode. Even knowing how the episode ends up ends up, they very much, the writers very early in the episode paint her as someone who is losing control of her mental faculties and is not thinking in her right mind.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

That's true. And because they have to keep asking her what's happening, and she that's why she has to say, Oh, well, the leader would be first to wake up, and then like she keeps chipping over her words. But also, I thought that this is her first time on a sleeper ship, so that could have also been why she was off kilter.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Yeah, okay, so there's also some period of commentary from McGyver's. Yes, this would be the first time that she has stepped onto a ship like this because they don't exist anymore. We have warp drive, we have that technology, sleeper ships are something that are no longer needed. So, sure, this is an example of her getting to experience something that she is maybe studied as a historian, but still she is definitely giving off the vibes that she is attracted to this leader character that is waking up.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Totally. So now that imagine that chick now had it has a problem getting out of its egg, so he's suffering in his cubicle. And they ask McCoy, can we get him out? Like, is it gonna hurt anything? Can we get him out like by breaking things? And McCoy's like, Yes, get him out, don't let him die. So they use the phasers and they break the there's one piece of glass, then that magically enables the glass to lay down and his cripped bed to slide out, and he weakly says, How long? And Kirk says, Well, you've been asleep for two centuries, dude.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Yeah, it's been almost closer to three centuries, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

And it's amazing now that the enterprise can put a beam just on McCoy and the man and pull just them out to the enterprise when they're all in a huddle. And like, how does the enterprise know, well, that's McCoy, so I'm gonna pull him out and not mistakenly grab Scotty?

SPEAKER_03 21:14

So the Enterprise is fixating and triangulating their coordinates on who they're beaming out first by locking in on McCoy's communicator. I'm assuming he has a communicator in his pocket or Kirk is handing them a communicator, so they're first doing that. And that's probably the most accurate. In future Star Trek episodes and series, they are going off of communicator badges on the uniform, first and foremost. We'll see that. The transporter also can lock onto signal. As an example, if they wanted to mean Spock off, but Spock didn't have a communicator on him, they could triangulate on his Vulcan life signs and transport that person with reasonable assurance that that is. Spock. So how do they know it's McCoy, his communicator? How do they know it's this leader person that is coming out of his suspended animation? They're locking onto his vital signs. He's in respiratory arrest. He's got other vital signs that are erratic and unhealthy. So they're able to pinpoint that and know that that's the person in distress, and that is who Kirk is ordering to be beamed onto the Enterprise for medical attention.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

That's amazing. And then, of course, as they're being beamed out, McGyver just goes magnificent.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Yeah, he's dying, but let's let's still talk about how hot he is.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Well, I mean, he is a nice looking actor, so okay. But now we have a break. And then we pop back, and while we are in the sick bay, the captain's log supplemental is talking over it, saying it's been 10 hours, and the crew is fighting to make sure this one man stays alive. And we see Dr. McCoy busily working on him, all these weird pen-like machines, and he has a crew of like three people.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

It's also important to note in the same captain's log that Kirk points out that none of the other members of that ship are waking up from their suspended animation. Also to imply that Kirk has no plans at this time to wake them up for whatever reason. I think he just wants to make sure that they can revitalize and save this guy's life so that they know it's safe to bring them out of suspended animation.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

And if he's the leader, that makes sense to make sure that it's okay for him before they the others arrive.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

So then we pop onto the bridge, and Kirk is reaching out to Scotty to see if there are any books or records that are on board that need to come back also, because Scotty's still back there looking at all the fun mechanical stuff.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Right. And to figure out where had where did this ship come from, confirm when it launched, how old it is, any records to indicate who these people are and what their mission was. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

But though, he does say that of all of the little beds, they have 72 people alive, and 12 though have passed, and 30 of those 72 are women. So interesting numbers, but sad that they already lost 12. So Kirk walks over to Spock because you know Spock is still doing all of his research and he's discussing everything that Scotty just told him. I noticed though that Spock with this computer, they all look into it like they're looking into like binoculars or something, but down. Why is that so weird? Just this one computer.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

I'm going to take a guess that it is. I don't know the answer to to this one. It's just weird. I I'm going to imagine that this computer is like the old school microfish readers that we've seen at the library that you and I grew up with.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

That's what I just thought as you said it.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So the other computer screens that we see them access are probably when they've prepared some kind of animation or some kind of uh presentation, slides, pictures, and so forth, or when they're getting a video feed from a camera somewhere else on the ship. But to actively look through all of these logs and records, it's probably supposed to be like a microfish machine where you can look into it, get it magnified, and very quickly leap through different topics and different tapes to get the information that you want. That's how I'm going to explain it in my head.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

No, that makes complete sense because what Spock finds out would be kind of like from the microfiche, because he learned that in the 1990s it was super violent on Earth, and countries were bombed out of existence. The aircraft that they're on now, not the Enterprise, but the others, shouldn't even be where it is right now. Like it shouldn't have been able to make it that far. So something's up.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

Right, because the specific style or model of ship was only designed for interplanetary travel. So this would be a ship that would have been designed to travel from Earth to Mars in the 90s and not outside of the solar system.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

And they cannot even find a record, again, of Botany Bay. Like all they know is that it is, just like we said earlier, an island in Australia.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Right. They refer to it as a penal colony. It wasn't, we'll cover it later in fun facts. But there's no record of the ship. So there's no clue as to who the people on the ship are or what their mission was. Spock does make a comment that the name of the ship tied into the history behind that name, tied into the records and history of Earth in the 90s. This was a method to deal with political prisoners, prisoners of war, criminals, and so forth, was to pack them up all on a ship and ship them off to, I guess, a penal colony somewhere, or just launch them into space, never to be heard from again. But in any case, they're still saying it doesn't make any sense. There would be a record, they would know what ship it was, they would know who was on it. Spock doesn't have a theory. We don't ever really get a full explanation as to what happens and how they get a hold of this ship and where they go in the episode.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

So I'm gonna say it was more like Conair. They took over.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

We'll cover it more in at the end of the episode when we wrap things up. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Okay, so Kirk even makes a a poke at Spock that he's being irritated, and Spock's like, I do not feel that emotion. And Kirk's like, Okay, but you're irritated, so feel it.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Then we go back to the sick bay, and Kirk has gone over to see what McCoy has learned. Uh, because we also learned that Marla McGyvers had said that this gentleman looked to be of Indian descent.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Specifically, she says Sikh. Don't know where she gets that idea from. He's clean-shaven, he's not wearing anything that would indicate his ethnicity, but okay, Marla, we'll go with it.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

They have changed him into some PJs that uh accentuate his body. Sure. And he's in fancy bed, like all those sheets are really pretty.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

But in any case, McGyvers has joined Kirk and McCoy in Sick Bay with this leader, as we'll continue to call him for the moment. McCoy does make a comment that he's stabilized, he's doing better, and all of his vitals are off the charts. He's got superhuman strength and all these other things. Kirk comments that if he's from the 1990s during the eugenics war, that's what the eugenics wars was kind of all about, giving context.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

And she does apologize for her actions because she does admit that she has been you know jeweling a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Yeah, they pull they. Kirk pulls McGivers into we'll call it Dr. McCoy's office. It's the other room in Sick Bay, and does kind of dress her down over her actions over on the other ship when they found everyone and talking about how her interest and fascination in this leader is unprofessional. McGyvers tries to push back and say, no, no, no, I'm only interested in him because of my professional background and my job as a historian. What other time am I ever going to get an opportunity to study and talk to and hopefully interview and question someone from the 1990s, this period of Earth's history where so much history was lost during this giant world war. But Kirk doesn't fully buy it and continues to press and at least gets her to admit in the moment that some of her interest and interaction with this person does fall to the personal level. But MacGyver leaves Sickbay after this interaction with Kirk. McCoy is a small joke that Kirk would have made a fair psychologist if his career as a captain didn't work out. Kinda would like to point out that it's a little odd that Kirk would give this kind of reprimand speech to McGyvers in front of McCoy. At least McCoy tries to pretend that he's not listening, but it came across as a little awkward that Kirk didn't do this in complete private.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

So he forgot that part in, you know, Ethics 101.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Yeah. This would be a problem for HR.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Kirk also leaves, and so McCoy is left in his office doing his paperwork. We jump back to our leader and he's starting to wake up. He's sitting up in bed and doing all these weird stretches that kind of resemble yoga in a way, but are weird. And as he's doing that, he notices on the wall a wall of medical instruments like scalpels and those little holders. So instead he just grabs the biggest scalpel he can and lays back in bed as he hears McCoy coming in to check on him. And instead of letting him check on him, the leader pops up and chokes McCoy with one hand and has a scalpel on the other side. McCoy's like, if you're gonna kill me, kill me. If not, let me take care of you. And so finally he laments and he wants to know where he is, what's happening, and McCoy does, you know, confirm you stuff for two centuries, and I can go get the captain so you can he can answer the rest of your questions.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Specifically, the leader demands to speak with the captain in a very arrogant tone, very much setting the viewer's expectation as to what kind of character this is gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, no appreciation for helping him at all. Jeez. Kirk comes back to Sick Bay and introduces himself, and the man refuses to give his identity. Instead, he asks, Where are we going? And Kirk answers, Starbase 12. And there is when we can let you off and do whatever you need to. The man asks about his people. He's told 72 are well, and no, we will not revive them until we get to our location. Kirk asks more questions, but Khan, we learned his name is Khan, refuses to answer them. And then he goes, Oh McCoy, uh I feel so fatigued, and he goes back to bed. But he also, while in bed, asks to be able to read some technical manuals because he was an engineer and he has to you know make up for lost time. And so Kirk like happily hands him a computer that has everything on it. And I thought that was very wrong.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

This is a kind of a stupid move.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Right?

SPEAKER_03 33:43

So stupid, you don't even know who he is. Like, you don't know who he is, he's obviously BSing you with his whole, oh, I'm tired. He's obviously evading questions, he's not giving answers. You had to drag out of him that his name is Khan. McCoy was just threatened. Battered by the guy. But yeah, sure. Let's give him some technical manuals that explain the intricate workings of this ship that he's on. This is gonna be a common theme throughout the rest of the episode. Khan gets way too much leeway and is trusted far too much by Kirk and the other crew members of the Enterprise long before he ends up betraying all of them.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

And Khan even says he's very cooperative and like a little jab.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Well, because he's arrogant, because he feels that everyone is inferior to him.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

So we're now back at the bridge, and Kirk tells Spock everything that just happened, and that although he doesn't seem like a man of the 1990s, and then that's when they have their chat, if that it could be a part of the result of selective breeding that happened, and Spock says, yes, that could be possible. We learned that in 1993, there were actually 80 to 90 men that were part of the Superman, specially bred human, that were unaccounted for when they finally took over and made Earth peaceful again.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Right. I'll interject here and I'll give the absolute most abbreviated explanation of the eugenic wars. Scientists decided to start mucking about with human genetics and started selective breeding to try to create a group of superhumans that through the selective breeding process would have super intelligence, superhuman strength, super human abilities as individuals. And they created this big group of them, so super charismatic. They then ended up rising through different ranks of power on Earth, and they ended up creating and forming these little dictatorships and these little kingdoms that they ruled amongst themselves, and they had their own superhuman followers as well as regular human followers, but little groups of tyrants. They ended up fighting amongst each other because absolute power corrupts absolutely. They didn't end up at any point controlling all of the earth, but they controlled a significant portion of the earth. Other countries that were not under the rule of these, we we're gonna later term them as augments, but superhumans, they banded together to kind of take advantage of the infighting, and at the end of the eugenics war, all of these superhumans were overthrown, many of them were put on trial, many of them were shipped off in penal colony ships, but what to tie it all back to this scene, Spock says that there were about 80 or 90 of these superhumans that were not accounted for because there were a lot of them, but there was a small enough population of these superhumans that you could ultimately account for all of them. So there's 80 and 90 of them in the history books that just got lost, which coincidentally seems to be about the number of them that are on Khan's ship.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

And now we pop back over to the sick bay where McGyvers has gone to visit Khan. She goes to introduce herself to him, and he interrupts her by saying her name is Marla McGyvers. And then he's all uh flirting with her, saying that these technical books he's reading doesn't say anything about a beautiful woman.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

Right. He has obviously learned about her by reading the ship's records. Again, Khan is super intelligent with his genetics, so he is able to read all the Enterprises library and quickly digest it much quicker than a normal human would. And by the way, if there's any lingering thoughts that Marla's interest in Khan is now professional versus personal, this scene throws it all away. She is very much infatuated with him. She very much is only motivated to talk and interact with him because she is attracted to him on a very primal level.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

I mean, he takes her to the mirror and says, Your hair is so tight. Let some of it down and wear it soft and beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Yes, wear it down for m for me.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yes, for me, as he takes out the pens.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

Yeah, and when they first meet, he's saying, Sit on the bed and entertain me. Yeah, this is very much fifty shades of con right here.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

And but you also see that she's trying to stay trying to want to talk about the past and keep it professional, but once he started petting her, she's just like melty, melty, melty.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Yeah, I don't think that she you you are right. She makes verbal statements and comments that she is trying to keep it professional and ask him about his personal history. Probably for her, you know, remind herself to say professional. I think she's trying to cover her own butt in this scene, and she is trying to make it appear that she is still trying to be professional. But I truly believe at this point she has fully committed to I just want to talk to him because I'm attracted to him.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

So we follow Marlett to her room, and suddenly the door opens, and Con is there. These doors always just slide open.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yeah. It's that's a weird thing for the original series that no one ever rings a doorbell to be admitted. Everyone just seems to kind of come in whenever they want.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

And he asks her, Would you be willing to go to the special dinner that's being prepared for me, as you know, attend it with me. And then he also notices that she's taken down her hair. So although it's a mullet.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Right. It's she's let her hair down for him. I don't really know how much time has passed between their last interaction in Sick Bay and now. It very well could be that she just hasn't done anything to her hair since he took it down in the sick bay, but whatever.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

And also as he's talking to her, he also sees all of these beautiful paintings and then notices that she started to paint him.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

And up until this point, McGyver's has not said anything. She's not uttered a word. She has not verbally accepted his invitation to the feast, the dinner. She has not made comment to her works of art, her paintings, any of the artifacts and sculptures that she has in the room for reference, and she certainly does not respond to any of his questions as to why she chose to paint him and his observations of her having this attraction to strong male leaders in Earth's history.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

And such powerful men take what they want, and he leans in to kiss her, and they have like this major kiss, and you can see her, you know, kiss back.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Yeah, she's not fighting it at all. Nope, she's liking it.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

And now we're going to dinner.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

So all of the bridge leadership is there, as well as Marla. I'm just gonna call her Marla now, and they're all seated. Kirk asks Khan why there isn't anything about his journey in the history books. And then Spock asks even a more pointed question about tyranny, and then Khan just responds like it was more of an attempt for unification. Yet there are many dictatorships, so one day, you know, one leader will happen eventually.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Right. There's this back and forth word game between Khan and Spock specifically. Kirk stays out of it for 99% of it, but Khan is very much trying to avoid revealing his identity as this superhuman previous dictator ruler on Earth. He's trying to keep his identity anonymous for obvious reasons. He does eventually slip that when he referred to, in a generic term, the superhumans and the eugenic sympathizers, he refers to them as we instead of they, which is very much like the scene from Inglorious Bastards in the basement when the British spy holds up three fingers in a very English way and not the German way when ordering a round of drinks. This absolutely clues off to everyone, at least to Spock and Kirk, that this is who he is.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

I mean, plus he answers every question as if it's a war term. Yeah. He's just back and forth. And then finally, Khan ends the dinner. He says, It's great, delicious. I'm gonna go back to bed because uh I'm so fatigued.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

I'm so tired.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Where do they get all these beautiful clothes though for all these strangers? He's dressed immaculate again.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Yeah. Well, so I have a point to bring up with his costume, uh, a couple points to bring up in his costumes in a bit, but yes, this is obviously they have extra clothing for people that come on board the Enterprise.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

I mean, this one is basically right on with his um identity. Yes. And now we are in Khan's quarters, you know, because he's tired and he wants to go to bed. Uh, but he has a doorbell. His room shuts and locks on the outside, and he has a doorbell.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

I think all the doors have the capability of locking. On the outside. But yeah, we see an instance of a doorbell in space. What a novel idea.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

And he lets in Marla, because she wants to apologize that she believes he was treated poorly. And, you know, he's pretending to pout, but he smirks about how mysterious he is. And but she's smart too. So she knows exactly what's happening. Like, and she also says, I know exactly who you are.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Yeah, it's an interesting exchange here because she says those exact words. She knows who he is. You very clearly see Khan have a brief moment of panic that he's about to be fully outed. And then Marla responds simply with vague terms of, I know who you are, you're this great leader, you're a man of power, you're an intelligent person, and never names him for Khan from the 90s, and Khan relaxes again. I think Marla absolutely knew in this moment who he was.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yes, she calls his name Leif Ericsson.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

She refers to him as Leif Ericsson as a way to compare him to past Earth leaders and just explain to him.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

So, but she never calls him out as Khan. Correct. And Khan relaxes. Whether Khan relaxes because he realizes I still am a little bit anonymous, she doesn't know exactly who I am, or he goes, Well, she knows who I am, but she clearly sympathizes with me. I haven't lost her over that ri revelation. So in either case, however that breaks down, I think Marla in that exact moment knew that this was the missing con from the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

And she continues to say that he would not like living in this world for what she knows, this would not be good for him. And he's like, I'll just remold it to the way I want it. And he tries to grab her, and finally she says no.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Well, she says no because I think she realizes the implications of who he is and what his ultimate goals are. She says no because when he says, I'll just remake this, he also is talking about capturing the enterprise. He shares that with her in this exchange. And there's a back and forth tussle where she wants to be with him and she wants to be around him because she's attracted to him, but she doesn't want to be part of this plan to overthrow and capture the enterprise and bring harm to the crew, but she doesn't want to leave him. He manipulates and gaslights her.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Also making her bow and be on her knees for him.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

Right. And she's upset about being in that position, but she doesn't really fight back. She's obviously conflicted. Ultimately, in the end, whether it's from the gaslighting, the desire to be with him, the physical pain that he's using to influence her, she ultimately the end result is that she says she will do anything that he wants. And at this point, she is broken. She is along for the ride.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

We have a nice break. So get your sip of water, and then we are back in the conference room.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

And in the conference room, we get more information about the eugenics war. We've covered some of this in our previous comments. Khan, but this is where we're revealing to the officers of the enterprise that this person, Khan on board, is in fact Khan from the 90s. He controlled about a quarter of the world's population. He was the very last of these tyrants to be overthrown. Supposedly the biggest, the baddest, the most powerful. Scotty liked him the most in his book. Yeah. And there's a little bit of a back and forth here where the human officers are all expressing some admiration for him. They talk about how he was a tyrant, he was a dictator, but he didn't start any wars under his rule. No massacres. He didn't massacre his own people, he didn't go out and conquered other territories using war. He only incited violence when he was attacked by outside influences. And Spock makes the comment about how illogical it is to idolize this dictator and this tyrant. He called it romanticism. And Kirk himself has to explain that they can be against Khan while still admire him.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Spock obviously doesn't get it, but well, he has to be told that humans have this streak in them that, you know, quote unquote barbaric, but nice humans, aka us, you know, keep that part under control. And those guys, they're like, yeah, let's use it.

SPEAKER_03 48:56

Yeah. But it also of note, this is the first moment where Kirk decides to call security and put Khan under confinement and under security in his quarters. This is the first time that Khan would not have had free reign to move about the ship. This also would implicate to me that they cut him off from access to the ship manuals. They finally have started to exercise some of that caution that they probably should have done from the beginning. So dumb. So dumb.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

So we're now at Khan's quarters, and Kirk goes in and he wants to have a chat. Khan also tells Kirk, why is my door locked? It's on the locked on the outside, and I have a guard. What's up?

SPEAKER_03 49:40

Yep, he realizes his illusion, his anonymity is slowly going away. Also would like to point out when Kirk enters, Khan's wearing a red Starfleet uniform.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

That was my question. Why is he wearing Starfleet now?

SPEAKER_03 49:57

There's no rank on the sleeves, but I question that decision.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

He has the most costume changes than like Reba McIntyre.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

We'll get to that. But again, is it just a choice of the costume department and this is what was available? It's a very glaring error at that point, then, because at this point, Khan has been outed to Kirk. Kirk knows who he is, and he's allowing him to wear a Starfleet uniform, which would feed into, I think, Khan's ego. Totally. And we've already proven that there's other clothing items available for him to wear. Where did he even get the uniform? Did he just find it? Why wasn't I think it would have been an absolute great opportunity and a little bit of dialogue for Kirk to walk in, see him in the red uniform, and call him out for it and say, you haven't earned that uniform. How dare you wear something that represents and stands for something that is completely opposite of what you did in your history on Earth. But anyway. But as I mentioned, Kirk does now verbally reveal to Khan that he's outed. I know exactly who you are. Khan then confesses that the reason for their spaceflight and their journey on this ship was to find a new world. Earth had obviously rejected their kind and their way of life as these leaders, and he wanted to establish his own empire, is a good way to put it. But he also specifically doesn't go into too many details. He says there's the reasons for the flight are for things you can't understand. You, Kirk, are inferior, as are the rest of humans. Even though 300 years have passed since my time, I am still the superior being. And Khan says, I think we're gonna do well in this century. That pretty much cuts off the rest of the conversation. I think in this moment, Kirk realizes Khan has not changed. He is still this villain. It confirms to Kirk that he is still a tyrant and left unchecked, history will repeat itself.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

So after Kirk leaves, Khan quietly starts to like do some weird yoga judo gaining his strength up, and then he busts through the door and he knocks the guard out, and he runs to the transport room where MacGyvers is already there waiting for him, and she even has the phaser that he she stole from the poor guy that works there. So the two of them transport over to Khan's ship.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

Interesting side note to point out at this point why did the bridge crew of the Enterprise not get any kind of notification that the transporter beam was being activated? Question.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

Well, he now we're back on Khan's ship, and we see that his people are waking up. So he must have pushed a button, said hello, something. Yes, people are up, they're on a line, they're doing their morning yoga, they're stretching. They have clothing. They were in nothing, and now the men are in jumpsuits and the women are still naked.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

So when we say naked, let's be clear.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Sorry, they're not naked, they're just in their bikinis with the netting on.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

They're still wearing the same clothing and that netting that they were wearing when they were in suspended animation, and all of the men have changed into these red jumpsuits, as well as con. They all match. Also pointing out, if you look at the line of people, it's all the it's a line starting from stage forward all the way through stage back, so they're all in a line, and it's all men in the front. You can tell that there's women in the back, but they're in the background. There is one who's in the front, but the camera has to pan over to see her, and we only get a side shot of her. It's still just one lady. And it's purposely framed in such a way to not show all of her. I'll point out why later. Just pointing it out now.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

The men also have shoes and the ladies are barefoot.

SPEAKER_03 54:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Now we jump back to the bridge. We are so happy because Khan's gone, or we don't know that Khan's gone, but No, they still think Khan is in his quarters. Yes. But they are all happy, so we're just gonna warp two and on we go. And then finally, security calls and tells them that Khan has escaped.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

There's this big chaotic commotion, everyone shouting out different things. Orhura tries to, I guess, sound out a ship alert. She says those lines of communication are down. Doesn't make any sense. They just got a call from security. The turbo lifts are jammed because Kirk tries to leave to go investigate, and they realize that the atmospheric controls are also cut off on the bridge, that they're locked specifically to engineering.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

They all run to the same board on the wall, and then like one at a time. It's like, dude, you guys were just there.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Yeah. So Kirk calls down to engineering, where the atmospheric controls are tied to, and we quickly learn as viewers that Khan and his crew, I will point out the male members of the crew or what who we see are all in engineering and they've taken over the ship. And Spock tries to implement a countermeasure maneuver where they flood the ship with neural gas to knock everyone out. I guess then you could go through and you could subdue the unconscious intruders, but that also has been cut off from the bridge. They can't activate that system. Duh, because you gave Khan access to the ship manuals, so he knows how to disable all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Spock even compliments that. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Stupid. Stupid, stupid Kirk. And Kirk refuses to surrender the bridge like Khan demands, which of course means with the atmospheric controls cut off from the bridge, they're they're going to suffocate. The CO2 is going to build up to a point where they suffocate. And then we get a commercial break.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

We return though with our captain's log, and Kirk is very breathing very heavy, and he's just giving uh accommodations to all of the officers, and you know, telling them telling the log, whoever's gonna hear the log that all these officers should be receiving great things in their beck in their records, because no, we're all dead now. And Kirk passes out like mid-sentence, and then we fade into the next scene where looks like Khan saved everyone because they're all sitting in the conference room at Phaser Point.

SPEAKER_03 57:07

Everyone but Kirk. True. There's all the bridge officers along with several other, I'm going to assume, officers of other stations, but point is Khan has control of the ship.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

And Khan needs help from the Enterprise officers to run it. Scotty demands a where is our where's Captain Kirk? I mean, everyone else is here. And then Khan tells Yehura to go to this other computer to operate the viewing screen since she's a communications officer. And she refuses to turn it on. She just sits there. And then the man hits her.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

Yeah, one of Khan's henchmen physically drags her over to the control panel, physically strikes her.

SPEAKER_00 57:54

He tries to hit her again, but thankfully Marla stops him. And he's like, I'm so sorry, that was a mistake.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

Well, Khan admits the mistake is that he should have anticipated that this shared experience of almost suffocating would have hardened their resolve in resisting him. But then for some reason Khan just says, Okay, now turn on the view screen, and it instantly turns on. But it doesn't look like Ohura did it. So I guess MacGyver's turned it on. I don't know. Problem.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

And then we see on the screen the decompression chamber, and Kirk is inside.

SPEAKER_03 58:33

Right, and he's slowly lowering the atmospheric pressure inside of that chamber to down to vacuum, and he's going to kill Kirk. Unless the officers and the crew of the Enterprise agree to help Khan operate and pilot the ship, find a habitable planet with a colony or group of people who would be willing to be ruled by Khan and his followers. And if they don't agree to join and operate the ship and play along, Kirk's gonna die, and he's going to execute one of them at a time in that decompression chamber until they break.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

And then Marla, she's terrible. She's like, Do I have to be here? Can I just go?

SPEAKER_03 59:21

When she caused all this.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

And he lets her leave, but says, I wish you were stronger.

SPEAKER_03 59:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Okay. And then suddenly the viewing screen is black.

SPEAKER_03 59:31

Yep. So who turned off the viewing screen? Was it Uhura?

SPEAKER_00 59:34

We don't know, but he tries to hit her.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

They get angry at her, but Khan uh says it doesn't matter. Kirk is dead, and I'm gonna follow through on my plan and kill one of you at a time. Next up is Spock.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

That's kind of a bad idea, right?

SPEAKER_03 59:49

He's killing off the people he needs to run the ship, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Cause now we're at the decompression chamber and Marla is there. She's telling the guard to watch him closely because Kirk just might cooperate. And if the guard peeks through the window to see, Marla likes pokes the guy with a syringe and gives him something and he passes out. So Marla opens the door and says, Come on, let's go to Kirk, you know. And then as Kirk is coming out, Spock is coming down the way to go into the chamber.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

Under escort of guard.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Yes. And Kirk is hiding behind a wall. So just as Spock walks by, Kirk attacks the guy, and Spock does his Vulcan pinch, and he passes out too.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

Yeah, I can understand Kirk hiding behind the wall. Marla's off camera, but Marla could be hiding behind a wall as well, out of sight from the doorframe. But they're walking into the room with the guard that they just sedated in the middle of the floor. They never look, they never notice this guy passed out in the middle of the floor. Spock, I would imagine, would not react because he doesn't react to Kirk. Spock plays it cool, but the guard doesn't see his passed-out comrade in the middle of the floor. Problem.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

But now they're free. So Kirk then orders that all the decks but the current one be gassed. But how can he get them gassed if everyone else is in the conference room under guard?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

Well, Spock specifically points out they couldn't do it from the bridge because Khan had taken away the controls from the bridge, but there's a bypass panel that's outside of Sick Bay. That's what they access to turn the gas on to flood everything. It's just it's bad tech. It's just to keep the plot moving.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

No, it's it's going because I was like, this is fun. So now we're back in the conference room and he's calling to everybody, hello, what's the status? You know, and all these people, and he has multiple people to call. And I love it. He has so many names, but no one's calling back.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Yeah, so I'm assuming between Spock and Kirk, as they've left Sick Bay, they're subduing these henchmen.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

And the gas is on, but Scotty sees the gas coming in, and that's when he pops up and starts to beat up Khan's men.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

Yeah, Scotty, first, first as soon as the as soon as the gas starts to pour into the conference room, Khan covers his mouth and runs out of the room immediately. Scotty jumps up, knocks out a guard, and runs into the hallway. Everyone else in the room just kind of has this chaotic struggle with the rest of the guards, trying to figure out what's going on, what's happening. They all pass out. Kirk runs into Scotty in the hallway. Scotty says that Khan ran away. Spock comes on over the comms to say that the gas deployment is successful, except to engineering, someone in engineering has shut off access to engineering again, so it must be Khan. We get Kirk running into the engineering department as we hear over the comms that they're taking over the rest of the ship and subduing the guards. As soon as Kirk enters engineering, Khan immediately disarms him and kind of crushes the phaser in his hands, demonstrating his human strength. Also explaining why neither one of them have a gun for the next fight scene. But Khan shares that he's initiated the self-destruct sequence on the Enterprise. Again, no clue as to an alert to the rest of the ship that the self-destruct has been activated. There's no alert that the engines are gonna overload. He pulled those wires. I guess. But anyway, there's a huge fight scene to kind of wrap up the action of the episode. Kirk is trying to fight off Khan while disarming the self-destruct sequence. Khan has the upper hand for most of it. Kirk ends up ripping out a piece of piping from a console. No idea what that does, what the feature is. We never see it again in engineering or get explanation as to what it is, but it's a weapon and it allows him to basically beat Khan into submission. Kirk turns off the self-destruct sequence. I will point out I like the little music chimes that are playing. It's one of my favorite little segue musical pieces that we hear in the original series. Go back and listen to it, it's like 10 seconds. But then we jump to the briefing room for the wrap-up of the episode where we start a hearing into the crimes of Khan, his crew, and McGyvers.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

So Kirk has decided to drop all charges.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:49

Which surprises the hell out of everyone there.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

And he continues by asking Spock about the next plate. Where are they going next? And Spock replies, SETI Alpha Star system and Planet Number Five seems habitable. It's even a bit savage, but no worse than you know Australia's Botany Bay at the time it was created.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

Yes, the episode is trying very hard to tie up loose ends at this point.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:18

And then they go on to Marla. They're actually gonna give her a choice. Do you want a court martial or do you want to go with Khan? And she actually decides to go with Khan. And then Khan even calls her a superior woman.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:32

Kirk at one point asks Khan if he thinks the punishment is fair, or what does he think? And Khan replies by asking Kirk if he's ever read any of Milton's work. Kirk says he does, and they don't elaborate, but Khan very much says, Well, we'll just kind of take this in stride. We get a planet to tame, I get to create a new empire.

unknown 1:05:59

So

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

So he's not unhappy with the decision.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

And then of course Scotty asks who's Milton? And Kirk says that it's from a book by John Milton, Paradise Lost. And it's a saying that Lucifer said it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. And they all kind of smile. But my favorite part is at the end, of course. And Spock says in a hundred years, it would be kind of neat to see what grows from the seed that they planted today.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_03 1:06:32

To tie back the title of the episode. I thought that was wonderful. Yeah. It's a nice little wrap-up. And roll credits. So, Jackie, what are your final thoughts? What did you think about season one, episode 22, Space Seed?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:53

I can honestly say that this episode is probably one of my favorites. Not any one particular part. I mean, the last line is wonderful, but I think I enjoyed it the most just because it gave something for all of us to think about in our own lives. It's not just something to watch.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:14

Alright. Uh my final impressions. Again, I think it's an entertaining episode. It's it's an absolutely fun episode. Overall, it has some plot points that are problematic. How does Khan and his crew end up first and foremost, how does Khan escape and they don't realize that the transporter room has been activated and they've left the ship? How do they not recognize and get an alert that the entire crew, 72 plus Marla, so 74 and Khan, beam back over? I mean, okay, maybe they leave the women behind and it's just the men, but 40 is a lot still. Still, you think you got 40 people beaming onto your ship and you'd figure that out because they don't realize anything's amiss until Khan is reported as gone. So it's got some plot points, it's got some problems, but overall, this is a very entertaining episode. I think you can look past those plot points, you can look past the pacing of it all. It's definitely takes a while to pick up to get to the action. I'm gonna say it's a good episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:21

I mean, how would 40 people fit on that telepad?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:25

I have no idea. But as a reminder, before we get to our final quotes, over on our Patreon, you can find our bonus episode Star Note for this week, where we take a deeper dive into a single or a couple topics from the episode. This week's topic for our Star Note is going to be Did Khan lose or did he get what he wanted? So be sure to check that out over on our Patreon. Free to all of our members at patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Jackie, round out the summary of this episode by giving us your favorite quote.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:02

So plainly the last line of of the show is my favorite quote. But I looked further, and I liked the one between Kirk and Spock. They're talking about Khan, and he said, We can be against him and admire him all at the same time. And then of course, Spock is illogical, and Kirk jabs back totally. That's when they were saying, you know, at the d at that table, how we can still admire even if he was bad. He had some good things. And I have it my favorite because it's true about humans in general. We have good and bad, and hopefully the good outweighs the bad.

Tribble Tidbits

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

So this is gonna be the first time since we've started doing Final Quotes. Jackie and I actually chose the same quote for the episode. It is also my favorite quote from the episode. I chose it because it kind of gives, I think, a little bit of insight to the problematic plot point to why does Kirk trust Khan so much? Um I think even before he fully recognized and realized Khan was Khan, that all of the characteristics, his superhuman abilities, his intellect, his charisma, I think in a small way Kirk himself was kind of falling into Khan's trap and admired him so much that lured him into trusting him. Obviously, not in the same way or quite as heavy as McGyver's was lured in by his charisma. But similarly, I think that gives some explanation to that motivation of Kirk's. So I do have a few triple tidbits or fun facts for the episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

My favorite.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:46

Yeah, sometimes they're fun, sometimes they're not so fun because tribles are both cute and a curse. First airing February 16, 1967, Botany Bay, we've mentioned it was it is a uh location off the coast of Australia, and it was not a penal colony in Australia. It was the site for a proposed British penal colony. But when the British arrived and they went to kind of look into the logistics of establishing that penal colony, the area was deemed too harsh. There was no fresh running water, it was very flat, kind of wet, coastal area. So they moved a short ways away. But it doesn't matter that it was never a penal colony, it just kind of became synonymous in describing that whole penal prison system of the time. So it makes a little bit of sense that this ship would have been named after that particular location and part of Earth's history because in the 90s, in the afterwards, after the eugenics wars, it just became a very common practice for criminals, war criminals, and all of these superhumans to be deported from Earth on these ships to penal colonies somewhere else in the solar system. Even though we don't cover the reason or the kind of background to the way that Khan ship the Botany Bay came under Khan's control or what their purpose was. One of the very early versions of the script had Khan not escaping Earth. He was actually captured with his followers, they all were put onto the botany bay. It took off like it was going to a penal colony, and they took over the ship. So that kind of ties it in. But that was an early part of the script. It's not canon.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:41

Definitely Conair.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

Definitely Conair. The creation of the original miniature that was used as the Botany Bay cost more than$12,000. Yikes. That put the cost of the episode over budget by more than$17,000. And up to this point in filming, the entire show was over budget by almost$80,000.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:07

That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:08

Not uncommon in shooting television shows, but just to point out at this point in Star Trek filming history that they are over budget.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:16

And it had such a rocky beginning.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:19

Yikes.

Episode Ranking

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

Also lost from translation uh from a version of the script to filming. It's never really covered what Khan's purpose was, what his mission was, except that he was going out to look for some place to colonize and take over and create a new empire, but his ship was just drifting in space. So it's pretty illogical that Khan would just put everyone in suspended animation and just fly off into space and hope they encounter something. So in the original script, it mentions that his destination was the Tau Seti system. So he did have some place in mind and they did set off for a specific point in space, but the navigation controls on the ship malfunctioned mid-flight, which is why they ended up kind of drifting aimlessly in space before they were discovered by the Enterprise. I mentioned several times in our summary that we don't see any of Khan's female crew members outside of the scene where they're all in suspended animation, and then the one scene where they wake up and they're in the background, and there's the one crew member where they don't fully frame her in camera, because there were several scenes shot on the Botany Bay, and I can't confirm if this is true for other scenes shot on The Enterprise that included more shots of the women, but they all still were wearing their suspended animation underwear with they never get a uniform. And the TV network executives felt that those clothing items, their outfits, their costumes were too revealing. So all of those scenes were cut from the final episode. Barbara Baldavin, who played Angela Martin. I know her. She did return and they did film scenes. The actress played a character named Baker, who was a friend of McGyver's. Those scenes would have included Baker trying to set McGyver's up with a friend of hers to go to a ship social outing, and MacGyver's refusing to be set up because she didn't think that the friend of Baker was masculine enough. And specifically the dialogue line from the script and what was read was MacGyver saying she is waiting for a man who will knock down my door and carry me to where he wants me. Oh. Definitely setting up part of her mindset why she becomes so infatuated with Khan later. I don't know for sure why the scenes were cut, but it could possibly do with the fact that they were starting to become a little conscious that they shouldn't have the same actors and actresses play multiple characters, even if they're just background tertiary members. So she's already played Angela Martin in one episode. She was going to play a separate character, and they renamed her to be Angela Martin in the new episode. Again, just a bad idea without any explanation to just have the same actress come on and play different roles. And Ricardo Montebalne, who of course was the actor who plays Khan, and Madeline Rue, who plays MacGyver's, both played a romantic couple earlier in the 1960s movie Day of Reckoning. Oh, that's so cute. I'm gonna Google that. And finally, this episode establishes Khan is having the personal record for most costume changes for a male character in an episode of the original series. He has five different costume changes in this episode. Why? And those are your triple tidbits. We'll round out the episode by giving our episode ranking where we pretend the episode is a member of our crew and assign a Starfleet rank to the episode. A higher rank means we not only found the episode more entertaining to watch, but we find the episode to be a more valuable member of our crew. A lower rank, of course, means the opposite. We weren't as entertained by the episode, and we find the episode to be a more disposable member of our crew. Our bottom of the rankings, our enlisted members would be ensign, lieutenant junior grade, and lieutenant. And our top of the rankings would be our officers, lieutenant commander, commander, captain, and admiral. So Jackie, this week for your starship, the USS Galactic Glitter Bee, that you've named for the season, what rank do you give this episode?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:56

Oh my, I have to do some housekeeping. I'm going to put Space Seed as a commander, but I already have five there. So sadly I have to demote someone. And tomorrow is yesterday. I'm sorry, you have to go to Lieutenant Commander, but I already have seven there. And to make room for that one, I'm going to demote where no man has gone before to lieutenant.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:24

It's a lot of moving around. I'm sorry. Why don't we just give a brief explanation as to why Space Seed is going to be in the commander role?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:33

I just really, as I said before, I I really enjoyed it. I was able to see see real life and our space interact together. It was just, I it spoke to me.

Turbolift Tease

SPEAKER_03 1:18:46

Alright. I'm going to have to do the same thing for my starship, the USS Cosmic Shark. I'm going to assign Space Seed as Captain. It's an iconic episode, you gotta do it. But that means I gotta bump the balance of terror out of the captain spot down to commander. My commander spot is also full, so then we're gonna bump the Corbomite maneuver from Commander to Lieutenant Commander. Again, it's a very entertaining episode. It is absolutely a pivotal episode in setting up one of the better Star Trek films that comes later. You have to give it the respect that it deserves, which I absolutely do. So it's gonna be the captain at this point for the season. If none of that made any sense to you, don't worry, we post a visual representation of our rankings up to this point over at our Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Free for anyone to view, and it's posted on Wednesday, the day after this episode comes out. To compare to IMDB, as of the time of this recording, Space Seed currently rates an 8.7 out of 10. I think it's the highest rated episode for the series on IMDb. I'm wrong. There's one more that ranks higher. Uh oh. We'll get to it. But that's still super high. Very high. We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, and this is where we give our turbolift tees or elevator pitch to the next episode's plot. I will give Jackie the title of the next episode, and Jackie, with no other information or context or any idea, will give a brief pitch to the plot. Jackie, next week's episode is entitled A Taste of Armageddon.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:37

I immediately just thought of the movie Armageddon, so that will be interesting. But perhaps our Enterprise crew is going through the galaxy delivering supplies to some some planet that has been attacked, but we don't know that because they haven't been able to talk to anybody to let them know. We go, we deliver our supplies, and now we need to help those new friends rebuild their city.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:10

And tune in next week to see how accurate Jackie's prediction is. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon at patreon.com slash treks and tangents. Again, as a reminder, we post a bonus episode free to all members of our Patreon where we dive a little deeper into a topic or two from this week's episode. Again, we'll discuss whether Khan really lost or if he got what he wanted. We're also slowly catching up on all past episodes because we didn't start the Star Notes until partway through the season. So we're catching up on those recordings. Again, free to every member. Also for our crew members on our Patreon, you can catch monthly on the fourth Friday of the month our deeper dive into the animated series for Star Trek, where we do a similar outline to this uh podcast script, but we go off on a little bit deeper of a dive or more tangents. Again, it's a cartoon. We take it about as seriously as you can take a cartoon seriously. You can also follow us on x.com at treks underscore tangents. We're on Instagram and Blue Sky at Treks and Tangents. But Jackie, where can people find you and what are you up to?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:23

I am on Instagram as Jaboom, J I B B O O M. I have pretty much everything in the kitchen sink on there. I have dog training, my musical extravaganzas, fashion, makeup, disability advocacy, and I also have a shop on Whatnot, and it's called Glitterbow Boutique. So I will see you there.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:51

And you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown. On YouTube, I post video games and other random content on my main channel, PiratePoundtown. Also on YouTube, I have a second hobby coin collecting and other random content channel under Pirate Treasure Hunting. I post socially on Blue Sky at Pirate Poundtown, and I can finally be found on Instagram under Pineapple Cannibal because sometimes Instagram and social media don't like pirates. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this week's episode. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week. Go plant those seeds.