Star Trek TOS S01E22 – Space Seed
Dir. Marc Daniels, Wri. Gene L. Coon & Carey Wilber
The Summary: Kirk and crew encounter a group of superhumans adrift in space in suspended animation. They hail from a very different period in Earth’s history, and the groups’ philosophies clash.
The Good: Very cool setup—the ancient sleeper ship and the background about the wars is well delivered, without an over-reliance on straight exposition. Any sci-fi that features superhumans is always fun. Bones gets some great character moments being a cool operator. Khan (Ricardo Montalban) is a great character—well developed, well rounded, interesting, terrifying. He’s easily one of the most interesting non-core characters in the history of Trek. You can cut the tension in the state dinner scene with a knife. “We can be against him yet admire him at the same time” is a great moment. The ‘declaration of war’ between the two men is Shakespearean and filled with the gravitas that Trek always aspires to but rarely pulls off. When Khan is finally unleashed he is an unquestionable badass. The irony of Kirk’s generosity being his downfall is cool (if a bit underdeveloped). Kirk’s crew’s loyalty is amazing, and the show has been on the air just long enough that it feels earned as opposed to artificial. Kirk just whaling on Khan with a pole is comical, but also awesome. The ending of the episode is even more contemplative than usual, complete with Milton reference.
The Bad: Khan’s wardrobe and gear is…a weird choice. Once again, the production design dates the material more than anything else about it. It’s clear that they’re going for a tough, intimidating look, but it just looks like they went to a thrift store with about ten bucks. This detracts somewhat from the character’s gravitas. McGyvers’ (Madlyn Rhue) continued naivete is frustrating—not unbelievable, but frustrating—if they had characterized her better, she might have come across as pitiable (or even horrifying), instead of annoying. Her character isn’t given enough screen time for us to get a good idea of why she is so persuaded by Khan’s philosophy, and that’s a huge missed opportunity. She’s one of relatively few traitor’s/mutineers in the entire history of Trek, and I would have loved deeper insights into what made her the way she was.
The Review: Ah, the Eugenics Wars of the ’90s. Trek’s gift that keeps on giving. That piece of lore will never not be at least a little comical to me. In all seriousness, though, this episode is great (despite all of the secret history of Trek stuff going on). My only real issue with the entire proceeding is McGyver’s weird, borderline nonsensical character. I just don’t get her or why she does anything, and any explanation that I can come up with just plays unfortunately into 1960s gender stereotyping, which is not a great place to be driven to in order to find character motivation. Everything else works pretty much perfectly. The drama and tension are palpable pretty much throughout the entire episode, and once things finally come to their inevitable climax it’s as explosive and exciting as the viewer could have hoped. It really says something about this episode that by the time it’s over most viewers will have completely forgotten about the dated production design as they’re caught up in the human drama unfolding. As almost all Trek fans know, Kirk showing mercy here will eventually prove to be his downfall, but the decision definitely works within the context of the episode, and clearly expresses the ideals and mercy of Starfleet. Overall, this is definitely a great one, and worth a rewatch at any time. It needs very little context, and could be enjoyed by neophytes as well as die-hard fans. A true classic.
The Score: 
