Episode 22: "Space Seed"

Season 1

Written By Gene Coon and Carey Wilber

Directed by: Marc Daniels

Air date: February 16, 1967

stardate: 3141.9

Dialogue of the episode

Spock: It would be interesting Captain to return to that world in 100 years and learn what crop had sprung from the seed you planted today.

Kirk: Yes Mr. Spock, it would indeed.

So the Enterprise encounters, the SS Botany Bay, a DY-100 class ship launched in the early to mid-1990s. Captain Kirk leads a boarding party which includes Dr. McCoy, Engineer Scott and Lieutenant Marla McGivers. On board they discover the ship has 72 lives in cryogenic freeze, one of the units is activated... a man from the 1990s is coming back to life. However the life-support canister he is in is malfunctioning, the boarding party gets the occupant out of the chamber and bring him to the Enterprise.

Spock investigates the vessel, as Kirk is giving McGivers' evaluation of her landing party assignment. Khan awakes and holds a knife at McCoy's throat, then praises the Doctor for being a brave man and asks for the Captain. Kirk answers Khan's questions, and gives him access to the technical manuals (uh oh)... On the bridge, Kirk and Spock speculate that Khan is a product of Genetic Engineering and also believe that the survivors are the last of the bunch from that era as there was about 90 that were never found. McGivers is drawn to Khan and re-arranges her hair for him before she guides him to the reception in the briefing room. There Spock probes Khan for information ask Kirk watches... Khan notices this and commends Kirk for being an excellent tactician, Kirk replies "You have a tendency to express yourself in military terms, Mr. Khan... this is a social occasion." Marla follows Khan to his quarters where she pledges herself to Khan.

The senior staff finally identifies Khan as Khan Noonian Singh, the best of the tyrants and last to be over thrown. The Captain orders a security watch on Khan, afterwords he visits with Khan and Khan answers his questions... After Kirk leaves, Khan escapes and frees his companions on the Botany Bay. Security reports that Khan has escaped but it is too late, He locks down the bridge and sucks out the breathable air, until everyone is unconscious.

Khan has the senior staff and the bridge crew in the briefing room, trying to convince them to follow him in his cause... one of his methods is to kill the Captain in the Pressure chamber in sickbay if no one follows him. The situation was too much to bear for McGivers and she leaves to go save the Captain. As the screen which was activated to watch Kirk die "malfunctions" , Khan orders Mr. Spock to go next into the pressure chamber.

Kirk and Spock ambush the guard bringing him into the sickbay, and Kirk has Spock flood all decks with the Nuerozine gas to neuteralize the invaders. However, Khan escapes the briefing room and closes the line to the Engine Room. Kirk follows to stop Khan, before they get into their fight Khan crushes Kirk's phaser and tells him of his tampering of the ship's engines... They fight and Khan is winning until he boasts as Kirk un-hinges a "metal brace" (which is never seen again in the engine room in TOS). Kirk then avoids the Engine overload, after he has dis-patched with Khan.

In the end, there is a hearing where Kirk dismisses all the charges against Khan and his people... and decides to send them to the world of Ceti Alpha V....

Connection to the episode:

Well, it was one of the many reasons I got into the original Star Trek... It is also the set-up of my favorite Trek movie... and in My Humble opinion the best Star Trek movie: The Wrath of Khan.

Noteworthy:

I know that Sulu and Chekov are not apart of this episode.But contrary to popular belief Chekov was on-board the Enterprise during this episode, the fact we didn't see him means nothing. "Catspaw" which was in season 2 was stardate 3018.2 and this episode was 3141.9, so it is entirely possible that Chekov was seen by Khan in the corridor in a un-filmed scene.

Final Opinon:

One of the finer episodes of the original, that relied on the actor's ability to interact with each-other. It is also the only time that Kirk and Khan have a physical confrontation, even though people swear they had one in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. It also has a couple of re-dresses of the briefing room, something we do quite frequently on Phase 2...


until next time readers, Live Long and Prosper.