Space Seed
"Space Seed" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It is the 22nd episode of the first season and was first broadcast by NBC on February 16, 1967. "Space Seed" was written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber and directed by Marc Daniels. Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise. In this episode, the Enterprise crew encounter a sleeper ship holding genetically engineered superpeople from Earth's past. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh, attempts to take control of Enterprise. The episode also guest stars Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers, who becomes romantically involved with Khan.
Wilbur conceived the general plot for a different series, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, which featured humans from Ancient Greece who were preserved in cryogenic suspension and revived. The script changed numerous times during preproduction as producer Bob Justman felt that it would be too expensive to film. Eventually Gene L. Coon and series creator Gene Roddenberry also made alterations. These revisions include the marooning of the criminals at the end of the episode, and the change of the primary villain from a Nordic character to a Sikh. Roddenberry attempted to claim the primary writing credit for "Space Seed", a request turned down by the Writers Guild of America.
Montalbán was the casting director's first choice for Khan and described the role as "wonderful". Despite being planned as an inexpensive bottle episode, the special sets and shots using starship miniatures caused the episode to go over budget. On first broadcast, the episode held second place in the ratings for the first half-hour with 13.12 million viewers, but during the second half it was pushed into third place. "Space Seed" has been named one of the best episodes of the series by Cinefantastique, IGN, and other publications. The 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan serves as a sequel to this episode. Plot elements of the episode and The Wrath of Khan were also used in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness, and references to it appear in episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Plot
The USS Enterprise finds the SS Botany Bay adrift in space. A landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Doctor Leonard McCoy, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, and historian Lieutenant Marla McGivers beams over to the derelict. The landing party finds a cargo of dozens of humans still alive in suspended animation after nearly 200 years. McGivers identifies the group's leader, who begins to revive and is taken back to Enterprise for medical examination.Kirk has Botany Bay taken in tow by a tractor beam, and Enterprise sets course for Starbase 12. In sickbay, the group's leader awakens and introduces himself as "Khan". McGivers marvels over Khan, a living relic from the 20th century, her field of interest. First Officer Spock discovers that their guest is actually Khan Noonien Singh, who, along with his people, are products of selective breeding designed to create perfect humans. The genetic superhumans instead became tyrants and conquered more than a third of the planet during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s.
Khan is placed under guard in quarters. McGivers is sent to brief him on current events. Taking advantage of McGivers' attraction towards him, Khan tells her he means to rule mankind again and needs her help. Reluctantly, she agrees, and Khan revives the rest of his people and takes control of Enterprise. Khan throws Kirk into a decompression chamber, and threatens to slowly suffocate him unless Enterprises command crew agree to follow him. Having a change of heart, McGivers frees Kirk from the chamber. Kirk and Spock vent anesthetic gas throughout the entire ship to disable Khan and his people. Khan escapes the gas and goes to Engineering, where he attempts to destroy Enterprise, but Kirk confronts him and knocks Khan unconscious in the resulting fight.
Kirk holds a hearing to decide the fate of Khan and his people. Rather than sending them to a penal colony, Kirk offers Khan and his people exile to Ceti Alpha V, a harsh world that he believes would be a perfect place for Khan to "tame". Khan accepts, citing Milton's Paradise Lost that it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Kirk allows McGivers to go with Khan, rather than be court-martialed. Spock notes that it would be interesting to see what Khan makes of Ceti Alpha V in 100 years.
Production
Writing
was hired to write a script for an episode of Star Trek. His idea was based on an episode he wrote for the television series Captain Video and His Video Rangers. His work on that show featured Ancient Greek-era humans transported in suspended animation through space, with the people of the future finding that they have mythological powers. For "Space Seed", Wilber replaced these mythological powers with abilities that were enhanced due to genetic engineering. Wilber had briefly worked with Gene Roddenberry on the television series Harbourmaster. His science fiction extended beyond Star Trek: he also wrote scripts for Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel around the same time.In Wilber's first proposal for the story that became "Space Seed", dated August 29, 1966 the villain was Harold Erickson, an ordinary criminal exiled into space. He sought to free his gang from Botany Bay, seize Enterprise, and become a pirate. Parts of the story were inspired by the use of penal colonies in the 18th century, and characterizations were based on descriptions from the series' writer's bible. As a result, several elements of the draft differed from how the characters behaved in the series; for example, the draft includes a scene where Spock defeats Kirk at chess by cheating. Producer Gene L. Coon told Wilber that his work was the best outline he had seen during his time on Star Trek. Fellow producer Bob Justman was less enthusiastic; he compared it negatively to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and felt the concept would be too expensive to film. There were also concerns that an unsolicited script submitted by science fiction author Philip José Farmer resembled the proposed plot which, as Roddenberry had corresponded with Farmer, might lead to litigation.
NBC executives reviewed the plot for "Space Seed" and approved it, but Justman reassessed the outline, saying that it needed to be heavily revised. In September, Wilber was given a list of suggested changes including asking him to remove any mention of the setting, as the producers did not want to say how far in the future Star Trek was set, and to remove the chess scene. Wilber submitted a second draft, but Roddenberry still had problems with basic elements of the script. He did not believe common criminals would be fired into space as a solution and strongly disliked the notion of space pirates. The second draft introduced the idea that Kirk marooned Erickson and his crew on a new planet; this remained in the final version. Wilber was not asked for a third draft; Coon was tasked with the re-write; he submitted it on December 7 and updated it twice over the following five days. Wilber accepted Coon's re-writes, and left the staff after the submission of his second draft as his contractual obligations were complete.
Coon proposed that Erickson should be a rival to Kirk, a genetic superman who had once ruled part of Earth. Roddenberry and Justman were still unhappy with the script, and Roddenberry revised it once more a week before filming was due to begin, after Montalbán had been cast. In this draft the blond Nordic character of Erickson became closer to the version seen on screen. In Roddenberry and Coon's script, the character was renamed Sibahl Khan Noonien. The name Govin Bahadur Singh was suggested by the DeForest Research company, who checked scripts for potential errors on behalf of the production company; the Singh name was suggested in part because it was closer to actual Sikh names. Coon and Roddenberry settled on Khan Noonien Singh; Roddenberry had an old Chinese friend named Noonien Wang that he had lost touch with, and hoped that Wang would see the episode and contact him. In the final draft, Roddenberry listed himself as the primary writer, Coon as co-writer and Wilber was absent, but the Writers Guild of America turned down Roddenberry's request to be credited; Coon received the main credit; Wilber was given co-writer and "story-by" credits. Wilber did not often watch his own work, and nearly thirty years later had never seen "Space Seed". Coon was later credited as Lee Cronin for his part in production of the script.
Casting
Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán was cast as the genetic superman Khan Noonian Singh, having been the first choice for the role. He had been suggested by casting director Joseph D'Agosta, who was not looking to cast an actor of a particular ethnic background due to Roddenberry's vision for the series; Roddenberry wanted to show his perceived 23rd century values by not requiring any specific ethnicities when casting actors in guest roles. Montalbán had previously appeared in a television movie created by Roddenberry, The Secret Weapon of 117, which was the writer's first attempt to create science fiction on television and aired more than ten years before Star Trek. Montalbán called his role as Khan "wonderful", saying that "it was well-written, it had an interesting concept and I was delighted it was offered to me". The main cast were enthusiastic about working with Montalbán; DeForest Kelley later said "I enjoyed working with Ricardo the best. I was privileged. He is a marvelous actor."Madlyn Rhue, who portrayed Lt. Marla McGivers, had previously worked with Montalbán in an episode of Bonanza in 1960 as his on-screen wife; she later appeared with him in a 1982 episode of Fantasy Island. Montalbán and Rhue also appeared in separate episodes of Roddenberry's previous NBC television series, The Lieutenant. Main cast member George Takei did not appear in "Space Seed"; the character of Hikaru Sulu was replaced by Blaisdell Makee as Lt. Spinelli. It was the first of two appearances in Star Trek for Makee, who returned in the episode "The Changeling" as Lt. Singh. John Winston appeared for the second time as Lt. Kyle, and went on to make nine further episodic appearances in that role. Following positive feedback from the producers and the network regarding James Doohan, "Space Seed" was the first episode to feature a more prominent role for his character, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott.