Review of Space Seed

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Well, after looking at the poll results, I decided to go and take a look at the old original Star Trek episode Space Seed.

The Plot

The Enterprise comes across a ship adrift in space, far from any destination or normal travel route. When they transport over to the ship, they find it filled with cryogenic sleep chambers. The leader of the mysterious ship awakens, but he requires medical care to survive recovery. One of the Enterprise's historians falls in love with him, and after he is revealed to be Khan Noonien Singh, the most dangerous of the supermen who started the eugenics wars, she helps him take over the ship. It is up to Captain Kirk to escape and take back the ship with help from the repentent historian. Kirk then strands the supermen on a habitable world, and the historian goes with them.

Impressions

Ricardo Montalban is just as commanding a presence here as he will prove to be in the second Star Trek film. He is utterly believable as a ruler used to being obeyed and taking what he wants. He is definitely an amazing antagonist, to say the least.

The show has a lot of little historical bits that provide details on the history of the Star Trek universe. This episode comes out and states that World War III and the Eugenics Wars are the same thing. It happened in the 1990s in that universe. Obviously, the 90s were considered far in the future back when the show first aired.

The original Star Trek hasn't aged well in a few other ways. The special effects were perfectly passable for the time, and you can overlook the plethora of blinking lights, toggle switches, and other technical background details that seem odd in the 21st century. What is harder to ignore is the rampant sexism blatantly displayed. The female historian falls for Khan in about 32 nanoseconds, and falls at his feet when he commands. At a formal dinner, the two crew waiting the table are both women. Despite the ideal of equality, the reality on the screen seems almost prehistoric.

Finally, the resolution, while great in that it setup the movie The Wrath of Khan, doesn't really make a lot of sense. A group of 20th century dictators flees the Earth and is discovered in the future. Are you more likely to put them on trial or set them down on a planet where any passing spaceship might be captured for an escape? The only explanation is that Kirk sees some of himself in Khan's attitude...though one questions if Starfleet would share his opinion.

Still, compared in context with the other episodes from the 3 original seasons, Space Seed is clearly one of the superior episodes. If you ignore the hallmarks of 60s television, then you have a nice episode with a great antagonist played by a great actor. Rated within the context of TOS, I would give it five of five stars.

 

[Aaron L]

...though one questions if Starfleet would share his opinion.

I dont think Kirk even told Starfleet. Notice that in TWOK, Chekov knows about the Botany Bay and Khan, but his captain has no clue. It could be that he just didnt remember it or never read about it, but I tend to think that Kirk kept what he did to Khan as a secret. That would explain why no one ever checked up on Khan, as well.

Kirk never seemed too keen on follow-up and cleanup.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I dont think Kirk even told Starfleet. Notice that in TWOK, Chekov knows about the Botany Bay and Khan, but his captain has no clue. It could be that he just didnt remember it or never read about it, but I tend to think that Kirk kept what he did to Khan as a secret. That would explain why no one ever checked up on Khan, as well.

Kirk never seemed too keen on follow-up and cleanup.

I'm not really sure how that would work unless they edited all of the log entries. Throughout the whole show, you have Kirk logging about "we found this ship" and "the leader revived" and, "hey, they took over the Enterprise!" Maybe Kirk has friends in Starfleet that decided to classify the whole Botany Bay incident.

 

[Kesh]

You'll also note that sometimes on ST, they're doing a supplemental log that takes place during the crisis. I know if I were in the middle of combat, I wouldn't be stopping to blog about it.

In other words, it's more an "audience benefit" trick than any indication he really did enter it into the log.

 

[Starman]

I just watched this episode a few days ago, too. It's great. Definitely one of the top TOS episodes.

As for STII, remember, too, that the Reliant crew thought they were on Ceti Alpha VI. Maybe Terrel was feeling lazy and only read up on CA VI for the voyage and not anything about the rest of the system.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

It was explained somewhere, although it didn't make it into the movie, that Starfleet chose to cover the whole thing up rather than let Earth know that Khan was free, then didn't bother to check up on him. Not sure if it was an official explanation, or just something the fans came up with. The reason cited for the cover up was that if anyone knew about it, someone might try to get him off the CA world. So they swore everyone to secrecy and never quite got around to checking. Whether offical or not, it makes some kind of sense.

 

[Felon]

The original Star Trek hasn't aged well in a few other ways. The special effects were perfectly passable for the time, and you can overlook the plethora of blinking lights, toggle switches, and other technical background details that seem odd in the 21st century. What is harder to ignore is the rampant sexism blatantly displayed. The female historian falls for Khan in about 32 nanoseconds, and falls at his feet when he commands. At a formal dinner, the two crew waiting the table are both women. Despite the ideal of equality, the reality on the screen seems almost prehistoric.

Funny, we're supposed to have equality between the sexes in this day and age, but 90% of the married men I know are thoroughly emasculated. I have a campaign that can only meet 4 hours a month because the wives won't allow any more time for a night with the boys.

Star Trek is just making up for generations of testosterone deprivation to come.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If you enjoy this episode, you really need to read the parody titled "Space Weed". It's hilarious. IIRC, it's in one of the Star Trek short story compilations, though I don't remember which one.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Sexism in Star Trek? How could I possbily notice that when I have the dynamic escapades of James T. Kirk on screen. I think TOS has aged quite well, it holds up better than any of the later Star Trek series, except for maybe the last 2-3 seasons of DS9. God knows it has aged better than TNG...

 

[evildmguy]

I saw Walter Koenig at a convention years ago and he tells a great story. Here's one of them.

Q: Did you know that it wasn't Chekov in the original Space Seed?
A: That's a very good question. Yes, very early on, in reading the script actually, I realized that my character wasn't on at the time of Space Seed and therefore there is no way Chekov could know about Khan or Khan about Chekov. I knew that I should say something for the story. If I did, though, it would mean a lot of my lines would be cut and I would have less screen time. So, I thought about if I should tell them or not. *pause* Well, you know my answer!

Very funny!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg