Stardate 3141.9
The
U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a derelict vessel adrift in space: the S.S. Botany
Bay.
This
primitive Earth ship -- launched in a time of global turmoil, the 1990s – is a
sleeper ship carrying 72 men and women from that time period.
The
leader of the group -- Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) -- is awakened
from suspended animation, and almost immediately plots to take over the
Enterprise.
He
does this with the help of ship’s historian Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue), who possesses
a fascination -- even obsession -- with men of the past.
Even
as Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) identifies Khan as a brutal tyrant from the
Eugenic Wars, Khan makes his power play, awakening his fellow
genetically-engineered superman, and proceeding to hijack the Enterprise.
Now
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) must regain command of his ship, and find a
suitable punishment for the insurrectionists and their leader, a man who does
not belong in the 23rd century.
He settles on banishment, sending
Khan and his people to the harsh but tamable world, Ceti Alpha V.
In
response to his sentence, Khan quotes Paradise Lost.
There are no two ways about it. “Space Seed” is a virtually perfect episode of Star
Trek (1966-1969).
“Space
Seed” moves with purpose, energy, and suspense, and is grounded by the
charismatic central performance by Ricardo Montalban as Khan. The episode even
ends with a note of foreboding or anticipation, which is perfect considering
the franchise’s return to this story-line in 1982. The last moments of the episode find Spock
wondering what Khan’s planet, Ceti Alpha V, will give rise to in 100 years.
The
franchise would wait just fifteen years, series time, to reveal the answer. But the final episode of the moment is
chilling, and raises questions about Kirk’s decision. Will Khan build an Empire? A new kind of
human race? A city on a Hill, or will he “reign in Hell?”
Given
the prominent placement that Khan has been assigned in the modern Star
Trek mythos, it might be worthwhile to note here that before the Wrath
of Khan, “Space Seed” wasn’t judged by most Star Trek fans to be one
of the best or most memorable episodes of the series.
Many
modern fans and writers insist that Khan is to Captain Kirk as Joker is to
Batman, and that’s not quite true. Khan rose
to real prominence in the franchise in 1982, after Wrath of Khan proved such
a dramatic success at the box office.
Remember,
the original Star Trek is structured as a traditional TV series, meaning
that there are, essentially, 79 dramatic (or standalone) threats to Kirk and
Company, none necessarily graver than the others. Had Harve Bennett decided to
sequelize “Charlie X” or “Who Mourns for Adonais” or
“The Omega Glory,” we
would have had the Wrath of Charlie, The Wrath of Apollo or The Wrath of Ron
Tracey and those villains would have risen to “Joker’ status in the franchise
instead.
But
delightfully, Khan is a perfect selection to become the go-to “mythic” villain
in the Star Trek universe. This is so because Star Trek in shape and
form is a celebration of diversity,
of the Vulcan concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite
Combinations). The crew succeeds in its
space missions based on the qualities of the team, which includes people of
different backgrounds and experiences. We’ve got Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty,
Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, Chapel and even Kyle.
They don’t all look the same or act the same, and they boast different
experiences and different expertise too.
And
yet this coalition of diverse personalities works together as a flawless team
to confront mysteries and crises.
That
team is faced, in “Space Seed,” with a genetically-engineered superman, an
autocratic “trait” leader. Khan, a
tyrant, leads because of his artificially-augmented traits. He has been
engineered to possess the physical strength of ten men, and the intellect of a
genius. He does not command via
consensus or team-building. He does not
value the rights or freedoms of the individual, or different experiences.
And
yet, in the end, the superman -- “a prince…with power over millions…” -- is
defeated by “regular” people working together in that diverse team.
Thus
“Space Seed” is a statement that affirms humanity’s capabilities and potential.
Man need not be a superhero to explore the stars, or improve the species. Instead, he must incorporate all colors,
cultures and beliefs, and shepherd those diverse experiences to achieve
meaningful goals.
Khan
represents a threat to that approach. He represents the idea -- as Spock
suggests – of tyranny; of the individual subjugated under the ‘whip’ of one charismatic
strongman.
Just
as the Borg represent a significant attack on Star Trek values (the
idea of drones, not individuals tending to a society), Khan does so too. He symbolizes both out-of-control science
(creating avaricious supermen) and the idea of those scientific monstrosities
lording it over the masses, eliminating the diversity exemplified by McCoy,
Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov in favor of a fascist leader who
sees only followers, and worlds to conquer.
All the little people are under his thrall, under that proverbial
whip. Their experiences don’t matter.
They’re, well, merely cannon fodder.
By
Wrath
of Khan, Khan represents a slight variation on this theme. There, he is
a leader consumed with revenge, who refuses to listen to his crew. Kirk, by contrast, does listen to his crew,
and gleans the way to defeat Khan from his friendship with and trust in a
friend, Spock, who notes the villain’s “two-dimensional thinking.” Kirk’s
friendship is reciprocated to the degree that Spock sacrifices himself to
preserve his friends, the team. Khan may
be genetically superior, but he leads by dictate and fear. He bullies his team
members (like Judson Scott’s Joaquim) into submission. He sees no real value in
anything save his own perceived superiority
In
terms of Star Trek continuity, “Space Seed,” fills in some crucial
gaps. We learn from this episode that
mankind fought a third World War in the 1990s, one in which whole populations
were bombed out of existence. It was out of the rubble of this war that the “united”
future began to come about. In our
history, of course, none of this occurred in the 1990s, and later editions of Star
Trek, like Voyager (“Future’s End”) have backtracked some on the 1990s
being a time of devastating war and destruction.
“Space
Seed” also cements a rather unfortunate and now dated aspect to the classic
series: a female crew-member seduced by a charismatic man to take mutinous action
against her own crew. Here, Marla McGivers acquiesces to Khan, who -- let’s face it -- treats her abusively,
at least at first, and aids his efforts to take over the ship.
This
idea recurs in “Who Mourns for Adonais,” when Lt. Carolyn Palamis (Leslie
Parrish) becomes consort to Apollo, who wishes to subjugate the crew and crush
the Enterprise hull like an egg shell. To a lesser degree, we also saw this paradigm
with Dr. Dehner (Sally Kellerman) and Mitchell in “Where No Man Has Gone
Before.”
But
the bottom line is that we rarely, if ever, in Star Trek history
(original series) meet a male crew-member who gets seduced by a woman and takes
adopts her agenda, ignoring his duties, oath, and training for “love” (or lust,
anyway). Instead, it is only female
Starfleet officers, apparently, who do so.
I
suspect “Space Seed” gets away with this plot line to the degree it does for a
few reasons.
First,
Madlyn Rhue goes a long way towards suggesting that McGivers marches to the
beat of her own drummer.
The
character is depicted as an artist, and as a sensitive individual who is
genuinely overcome by her passion for history, for the storied past. When she
is taken with Khan, we can see her interest in him is a result of her character,
not merely a (stereotypical) weakness of the gender.
Similarly,
Montalban is extremely charismatic as Khan, not to mention forceful. Since
McGivers’ recovers her center in due time, and Khan comes to profess his love
for her, one can write off McGiver’s bad behavior as a temporary lapse. How often, after all, do we meet a man from “the
20th century coming alive?”
That could catch anyone off-guard, right?
Similarly,
the scenes in which Scotty and Kirk admit a “grudging” respect for Khan help us
realize that this genetically-engineered superman is quite magnetic, and casts
a spell on those around him.
Actually,
this aspect of the episode speaks to another human truth, about our species’
worship for strong-men, figures who lead -- not always fairly -- but by din of
personality, charisma, and promises of greatness, or returning to a time when
things were better.
Those
who offer the world “order” and link themselves to that order, represent, in
some way, a retreat to non-thinking safety and comfort. We trust in them, instead of facing the hard
questions ourselves.
But
still, we rarely see men in Star Trek experience such temporary
lapses over their proximity to a woman.
Kirk, for example, stays focused on his duties when encountering Mudd’s
Women, Odona, an even Elaan of Troyius.
Their charms are not enough to make him forget his responsibilities.
“Space
Seed” moves with such momentum and grace that it is easy to overlook these and
other little bumps in the road. For
instance, Kirk seems foolish to have let this “guest” have full access to the
ship’s library of technical manuals. But this reckoning only comes after
watching the episode multiple times.
In
terms of the genre, one might note how the premise of a person from the past
being revived from suspended animation in the future, became a trope after
“Space Seed.”
We
have seen it in episodes of The Starlost (“Lazarus from the Mist”),
Logan’s
Run (“Crypt”), Ark II (“The Cryogenic Man,”) and
even Star
Trek: The Next Generation (“The Neutral Zone.”) Yet, no man (or woman) from the past has
quite impacted the direction of a franchise the way Khan ultimately has in Star
Trek.
Sometimes
I lament the character’s influence. Since Wrath of Khan we have met too many
villains who are bent on revenge, or who get their hands on the latest weapon
of mass destruction (like Genesis). I
don’t blame Khan or Montablan.
Rather,
it’s a testament to the actor’s (and character’s) success that every filmmaker
wants to recreate the danger and charisma this villain offers.
But
for “Space Seed,” Khan gives Star Trek one of its most exciting
and thought-provoking hours.
It
asks: does humanity increase the species' influence in the universe by bringing
everyone along as part of the team? Or
by selecting a strong man to lead the way?
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