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 on NBC on February 16, 1967. "Space Seed" was written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber, based on a story by Wilber, and directed by Marc Daniels. In the plot, the crew of the starship USS Enterprise encounters a sleeper ship holding genetically-engineered supermen and women from Earth's war-torn past. The supermen's leader, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), attempts to take control of Enterprise to begin a new conquest. The episode also guest stars Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers.

During conception and writing of the episode numerous changes were made ;^{[citation needed]} the villain changed from a Nordic superman to a Sikh. Despite being planned as a bottle episode, the special sets and shots using starship miniatures caused the episode to go over budget.

"Space Seed" is commonly considered one of the best episodes of the series .^{[citation needed]} 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.

Plot

On stardate 3141.9, the Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), finds a derelict ship floating in space. Its hull identifies it as the SS Botany Bay, a ship launched from Earth in the 1990s, during Earth's last great world conflict—the Eugenics Wars. A landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), and historian Lieutenant Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue), is beamed over to the freighter. Kirk selects McGivers because she specializes in late 20th-century history and culture. The landing party finds a cargo of 84 humans, 72 of whom are still alive in suspended animation after nearly 200 years. McGivers finds the stasis tube that contains the body of the group's leader. The male occupant begins to revive, but his stasis cell begins to fail; he is taken back to Enterprise for a medical examination.

Kirk has Botany Bay taken in tow by a tractor beam, and Enterprise sets course for Starbase 12. The patient puts a scalpel to McCoy's throat, demanding to know where he is. McCoy responds by suggesting the optimal way to kill him if he wishes to do so. Impressed by McCoy's bravery, the man puts the scalpel down and introduces himself as "Khan" (Ricardo Montalbán). In sickbay, Lt. McGivers marvels over the man, who is a living relic from an era she has studied all her life. First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) discovers that their guest is Khan Noonien Singh who, along with his people, are products of 20th-century genetic engineering designed to be perfect humans. The genetic superhumans instead became warlords and conquered more than one third of the Earth, sparking global war. At end of the Eugenics Wars, between eighty and ninety of them were unaccounted for; Khan is recorded the most dangerous of these warriors.

Khan is given quarters, although his door is locked and an armed guard posted outside. 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 to take over Enterprise. Reluctantly, she agrees and beams Khan to Botany Bay, where he revives the rest of his supermen. They return to the Enterprise and assume control of the ship. Khan throws Kirk into a decompression tank, and threatens to slowly suffocate him unless Kirk's command crew agree to follow Khan. 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 cohorts. Khan escapes the gas and heads to Engineering, where he attempts to destroy the Enterprise, but Kirk confronts him and a brawl ensues. Though outmatched by Khan's superior strength, Kirk uses a tool as a club to knock the superman unconscious.

When Khan and the other superhumans are rounded up, Kirk holds a hearing to decide their fate. Kirk decides that Khan and his followers should be exiled, and picks Ceti Alpha V, a dangerous world that Kirk believes would be a perfect place for Khan to start his kingdom over again. Khan, impressed with the idea, claims he is up to the challenge and accepts Kirk's offer. Instead of a court-martial for Lt. McGivers, Kirk allows her to go into exile with Khan. Spock notes that it would be interesting to see what Khan makes of Ceti Alpha V in 100 years.

Production

Writing

The Writers Guild of America denied permission for Gene Roddenberry to get a writing credit on the script for "Space Seed".

Writer Carey Wilber was hired to write a single spec script for an episode of Star Trek, which he later explained had been based on the plot of an episode he had written for the television series Captain Video and His Video Rangers. His previous work on that show had included the idea of transporting people in suspended animation through space. However in Captain Video, the episode featured Greek era humans being resurrected and the people of the future finding that they have mythological powers. These powers were replaced with enhanced abilities due to genetic engineering in "Space Seed".^[1] Wilber had briefly worked with Gene Roddenberry on the television series Harbormaster was also involved in writing scripts for Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel around the same time as his work on Star Trek.^[2][3]

Wilber's first proposal for the story of what became "Space Seed" was dated August 29, 1966, shortly before the first episode was aired.^[4] In the proposal, the villain was Harold Erickson, an ordinary criminal exiled into space in suspended animation. He sought to free his gang from the Botany Bay, seize the Enterprise, and become pirates.^[3] Parts of the story were inspired by the use of penal colonys from the 18th century, and the characterisation was based on the descriptions from the writer's bible. This resulted in several plot elements included in the first draft which differed from how the characters behaved in the actual series - for example, the draft includes a scene where Spock defeats Kirk at chess by cheating.^[4] Producer Gene L. Coon wrote to Wilber saying that it was the best outline he had seen during the time he had worked on Star Trek - although he had only been in his post for two weeks. Fellow producer Bob Justman was less enthusiastic and compared it to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in a negative manner. He felt that it would be too expensive to film for Star Trek. Furthermore there were concerns that an unsolicited script submitted by science fiction author Philip José Farmer bore resemblance to the proposed plot, and this might lead to litigation as Roddenberry had been corresponding with Farmer.^[3]

However, NBC executives supported the plot for "Space Seed" and Justman made a reassessment saying that it needed to be heavily revised.^[5] Notes were given to Wilber at the start of September with several suggested changes including the removal of a reference to the series setting as the producers did not want to say how far in the future that Star Trek was set, and to remove the chess scene.^[4] Wilber submitted a second draft, but Roddenberry still had problems with the logic behind the basic element of the script. He didn't believe that common criminals would be fired into space as a solution and strongly disliked the notion of space pirates.^[5][6] However, one element which was introduced in the second draft remained in the final version, which was Kirk's forgiveness of Khan and marooning of him and his crew on a new planet.^[7] Wilber was not asked to produce a third draft, instead it was passed to Coon to re-write.^[8] Coon amended the second draft submitted by Wilber and submitted his re-write on December 7, and updated it twice further over the following five days.^[9] Wilber did not object to Coon's re-writes, and left the staff following the submission of the second draft as his contractual obligations were completed.^[2]

Coon proposed that Erickson should be a true rival to Kirk, a genetic superman who had once ruled part of Earth.^[10] Roddenberry and Justman still weren't completely happy with the script, and Roddenberry revised it once more only a week before filming was due to begin, after Montalbán had been cast.^[8][11] It was in this version that the blond Nordic character of Erickson became closer to the final name.^[8] In the Roddenberry/Coon script, the character was renamed to 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. Together Coon and Roddenberry settled on Khan Noonian Singh, with "Noonien" coming from Roddenberry, who had an old Chinese friend named Noonien Wang that he had lost touch with. Roddenberry hoped that perhaps Wang would see the episode and contact him.^[11] In the final draft, Roddenberry listed himself as the primary writer with Coon getting a co-writer credit with Wilber absent. However, the Writers Guild of America turned down the request by Roddenberry to be credited as the writer and instead Coon was credited as the main writer, Wilber was both the co-writer and received a "story-by" credit.^[8] Wilber later said that he did not often watch his own work, and has never seen "Space Seed".^[2] Coon was later credited as Lee Cronin for his part in writing the script.^[12]

Casting

Ricardo Montalbán was cast as the genetic superman Khan Noonian Singh, having been the first choice for the role.^[2][13] He had been suggested by casting director Joseph D’Agosta, who was not looking at a casting an actor of a particular ethnic background due to Roddenberry's vision for the series.^[7] Montalbán had previously appeared in a television movie created by Gene Roddenberry called The Secret Weapon of 117 (also referred to as The Secret Defence of 117).^[2][13] It was Roddenberry's first attempt at creating science fiction on television, and aired more than ten years before Star Trek.^[14] Montalbán called his role as Khan "wonderful",^[2] saying that "it was well-written, it had an interesting concept and I was delighted it was offered to me".^[2] The main cast were enthusiastic about working with Montalbán, with DeForest Kelley later saying that "I enjoyed working with Ricardo the best. I was privileged. He is a marvellous actor."^[15]

Madlyn Rhue portrayed Lt. Marla McGivers, and had previously worked with Montalbán in an episode of Bonanza in 1960 as his on-screen wife and would go on to appear with him for a third occasion in 1982 in an episode of Fantasy Island.^[7][13] Both Montalbán and Rhue had 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", and so his 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 would return in the episode "The Changeling" as Lt. Singh. John Winston appeared for the second time as Lt. Kyle, and would go on to make appearances in a further nine episodes in that role. "Space Seed" also saw a continued push and more prominent role for James Doohan in his role of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott following positive feedback both from the producers and the network.^[13]

Filming, costumes and post production

Such were the size of Montalbán's (pictured here with Fay Spain in 1963) measurements, that the costume team on Star Trek thought at first that there must have been a mistake.

Filming of Space Seed began Thursday, December 15, 1966, and concluded on December 22 after six shooting days.^[13] Roddenberry, Coon and Wilber's efforts resulted in nearly 60 pages of script, across 120 scenes.^[16] The first day's filming coincided with the airing of the episode "Balance of Terror" and director Marc Daniels allowed the cast and crew home early so that they could watch it.^[17] The other five days ran to schedule, to the extent that there was an early finish once again on the final day of filming, allowing cast and crew time to return home to watch a repeat of the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" which had replaced "Arena" on that evenings schedule.^[18]

The character of Khan required more costume changes than any other single guest star in the entire series with five costumes worn by Montalbán in the episode. This in turn meant that the staff working on costumes had less time to devote to any one costume as their production time had not increased proportionately. When Montalbán's measurements were passed to the staff to create the new costumes, they thought that there must have been some mistake as due to the actor's athletic physique the sizes were much larger than expected. William Ware Theiss was in charge of the costume department and found that the major limitations were in the time he had to make the outfits, the materials to make them seem suitably futuristic and his own preferences in design. Two of Khan's outfits are re-uses of previously created costumes, while three were specifically created for Montalbán.^[16]

A new set was created to appear as the decompression chamber in sickbay, as well as the set on board the Botany Bay. A scene was filmed but later cut featuring a discussion between McGivers and Angela Martine (Barbara Baldavin) which was aimed to get across that McGivers was looking for a forceful man.^[17] Further scenes was trimmed down after filming due to the response by NBC executives. These were all on board the Botany Bay as it was felt that the costumes were too skimpy that were worn by the newly-awakened crew.^[17][18]

Post production on "Space Seed" began on December 23, 1966 and ran through to February 5 the following year. The Westheimer Company produced the majority of effects in the episode, however the shows of the Enterprise and the Botany Bay in space were produced by Film Effects of Hollywood who were not credited on screen for the work. The Botany Bay utilised a design by Matt Jefferies prior to his creation of the USS Enterprise. It had been previously labelled "antique space freighter".^[18] The creation of the miniature of the ship caused the episode to go over budget by more than $12,000, having been set the target of $180,000, "Space Seed" actually cost a total of $197,262. By this point, the series was nearly $80,000 over budget in total.^[15]

The sound effects team were required to borrow effects and manipulate them in order to achieve the "painted sound" effect sought by Roddenberry.^[15][18] Although a number of sources were used, they attempted to avoid the majority of science fiction television series as they wanted to make it seem authentic. So instead, the sound archive of the United States Air Force was frequently used although the photon torpedo sound was created from the library of the 1953 film The War of the Worlds.^[15] The episode was awarded the Golden Reel for sound editing on television by the Motion Picture Sound Editors society.^[15]

Reception

Broadcast

"Space Seed" was first broadcast in the United States on February 16, 1967 on NBC. A 12-city overnight Trendex report compiled by Nielsen ratings showed that during the first half hour, it held second place in the ratings behind Bewitched on ABC with 14.44 million viewers compared to "Space Seed" with 13.12. It beat My Three Sons on CBS. During the second half hour it was pushed into third place in the ratings by the start of the Thursday Night Movie on CBS, the Western film One-Eyed Jacks starring Marlon Brando, which received 35.5 percent of the audience share compared to 28 percent for "Space Seed".^[15]

Critical reception

Several reviewers re-watched the episodes after the end of the series. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' rating, noting its strong characters and the interplay between Kirk and Spock that emphasizes their friendship.^[19]

Entertainment Weekly chose the episode as the second best of the series,^[20] while IGN ranked "Space Seed" as the fourth best episode of the series, praising the fist fight between Kirk and Khan.^[21] It appeared in the top ten episodes listed by Cinefantastique and was also included in a list of ten "must see" episodes on The A.V. Club.^[15][22] Reviewer Zack Handlen said that it "features a terrific performance from guest star Montalban, gives the franchise one of its greatest villains, and sets the stage for one of best science-fiction adventure movies ever made."^[22]

Home media release

Legacy

The events of "Space Seed" had a direct sequel in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The film set a new record at the time for the opening weekend gross with $14.3 million taken. The film went on to take $78.9 million domestically within the United States.^[11][23] Events of both "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan were also directly referenced in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness with Khan recast as Benedict Cumberbatch.^[24] It took $70.1 million on the opening weekend, and $467.3 million internationally throughout the cinematic release.^[25]

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Twilight" made reference to "Space Seed", as the survivors of the Xindi attack on Earth eventually resettle on Ceti Alpha V.^[26] A further reference is made to the Mutara Nebula, the location of the climatic battle between the USS Enterprise and USS Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.^[27]

See also

• Star Trek portal

Annotations

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: "Space Seed"

• "Space Seed" at StarTrek.com
• "Space Seed" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Space Seed" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• "Space Seed" Second revised final draft December 13, 1966; report & analysis by Dave Eversole
• "Space Seed" Video on CBS Classics (USA Only)

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