1x22 Space Seed

4.4/10. Well then! I was looking forward to this one, given how big of a deal Khan is. He’s one of those things you just sort of know through pop cultural osmosis, even before I’d seen a second of The Original Series. But man, this was a disappointment. The concept is neat, but the episode just walks in place for two-thirds of the runtime, with the uncomfortableness of a modern day women being smitten with 1990s Hitler as a subplot. So little in the episode makes sense, which is something I can usually forgive, except so little of it is entertaining either.

Let’s start with the positives. First and foremost, it’s a cool premise. The notion of unfreezing a ship full of old ubermensch dictators floating around in space and trying to figure out what to do with them is an interesting one. It raises all sorts of ethical issues and clash of civilizations potential that mostly goes unrealized in anything but the most obvious and heavily underlined terms. I haven’t seen Star Trek II, but I can only hope that part of the reason it’s so well-regarded is that it makes good on the promise that Space Seed can’t deliver on.

Second, there’s a few good character moments. Bones standing up to Khan when he has a scalpel to his neck was a fistpump for me. The way he seems totally unfazed, basically egging Khan on to do it, is one of those badass moments that feel all the more impressive next to Kirk’s usual bravado. In the same terms, I was fairly aghast when one of Khan’s goons smacked Uhura. For as much violence as there is on television (and not in the form of cheesy hand-to-hand fights like the one between Kirk and Khan), violence against women is still pretty shocking. But the show, to its credit, leaves Uhura similarly unfazed, still resolved not to aid these monsters.

It’s part of the best sequence in the episode. Things pick up once Khan actually stages his coup, as the story becomes both a battle of wits and a test of wills. For as much as the episode talks up Khan’s ruthlessness, he’s only legitimately scary in the scene where he tells the crew that he will let Kirk die if they don’t join him. It’s an interesting moral experiment, one that feels pulled out of a Christopher Nolan movie, and the fact that nobody cracks is similarly heartening. For all Khan’s supposed superior intellect and ambition, it’s a sign that the 23rd century man (and Vulcan) are made of stronger stuff than he thinks.

But boy is there a lot to disdain here. Khan himself didn’t land with me. I’ll admit, I mostly know Ricardo Montalban via Billy Crystal’s impression, so there’s not quite the star factor that might have boosted his presence. His Khan has the vibe of the King of Siam from The King and I -- haughty and overconfident and oblivious to any order but his own – but he never really comes off as “greater than” despite the way his talents are talked up.

The worst element of the episode, though, is Crewman McGivers. The fact that she turns into a weak-kneed, googly-eyes puddle of affection the minute she turns her eyes to Khan is ridiculous. There’s the kernel of a decent idea there – that she’s a historian and admires the great and terrible men of history, so seeing one in the flesh is overwhelming – but it’s played as emotional shortcut melodrama. The way she begs him to stay and he manipulates her is uncomfortable to say the least.

To some degree, you have to cut a show from the 1960s slack for its gender politics, but that doesn’t make it any less unpleasant for a modern viewer to see that sort of manipulation depicted. Yes, Khan is the bad guy, but the show doesn't earn it – he just gives her a look and a come-on and she’s putty in his hands. It’s unsatisfying and more than a little gross and her being the one that saves the day does little to undo that.

The episode also offers an odd exploration of its premise. As with “Conscience of the King,” there’s the sense that the show is playing around with pseudo-Nazism. This is Kirk vs. another surrogate Hitler, a tyrant who claimed to be unifying the world and purifying humanity. And yet Kirk and the rest of the crew, save for a rightfully befuddled Spock, are somewhat in awe of him as well, arguing that savagery is a part of humanity and you can’t help but be impressed with the guy. It’s a really odd thing to throw into a Hitler allegory. There's the wisp of a theme of man improving himself through genetics vs. improving himself through technology, but it's undercooked at best.

By the same token, he’s supposed to be so smart and so strong, but we don’t really see that. His ability to take over the ship is a fairly impressive way to dramatize his intelligence, but that’s also supposed to be revealed in his ability to manipulate people, and his “oh I’m so tired” routine and his “persuasion” of McGivers seems cheesy rather than convincing. (Kirk in particular is an absolute sucker in the episode.) And what manages to fell this supposed physical and intellectual titan? Kirk hitting him with some kind of blunt instrument. Maybe that’s intended to be ironic, but it seemed like a pretty dumb way to be able to beat a eugenically enhanced man.

And then they just leave him on a planet to conquer! Maybe it seems dumber in hindsight when you know that he comes back to cause trouble, and most Star Trek episodes proceed without much real continuity, but still! Again, this is basically Hitler! I guess he’s intended to be more of a Napoleon, and this is meant to be his Elba, but it’s a strange resolution to this all.

Perhaps “Space Seed” suffers from high expectations from a late-coming viewer expecting tip-of-the-spear material with the introduction of a character as famous as Khan. Getting an episode where he putters around for most of the episode and everybody kind of marvels at him didn’t do it for me. When you’re talking about one of the most famous villains in Star Trek history, you expect better. Instead, I got a dull episode with strange plot developments and characters and reactions that didn’t make much sense. An inauspicious start, but hopefully one rectified by the time the franchise gets to its cinematic phase.

UPDATE: I rewatched this one about six months later, and while I'd probably upgrade it to a 5/10 at least, I think the vast majority of my criticisms still stand, and that the best thing to say about this episode is that it makes for an interesting prelude to The Wrath of Khan. The other side of the coin is that, having since watched the rest of TOS, this episode fits in with an unfortunate strain of Nazi apologia and excuse that the series indulges more often than I'd like.

That said, on the second go-round, I did find more that I appreciated. I've warmed to Montalban's performance a bit, as the bravado makes him an interesting foil for Kirk, though I may just be giving him retroactive credit after seeing TWoK. I'm also slightly more forgiving of his scene with McGivers as it has shades of battered spouse syndrome, however rudimentary, that maybe sorta kind of excuse at least a modicum of the sexism. And I like Spock's conversation with Khan at the "state dinner" teasing out his identity. It's still not my favorite episode, and there's a lot of issues I take with it, but there's more to appreciate than I initially gave it credit for.

I like the "time capsule" concept. A group of criminal outcasts sent off Earth in stasis are rediscovered and have a hard time to adapt in the future. Plus, they are genetically altered. Formidable enemies. In theory. I'm kind of disappointed how easily they can take over the ship though. Initially, the Enterprise crew didn't put up a good fight. That makes Khan look less menacing. He's still brutal though.

Most uncomfortable thing to watch is the story element centered around Marla. I mean this show isn't short of men exerting their strength over young female subordinates. Always with a sexual twist. More often than not, it's Kirk who is the prime perpetrator in this regard. But this episode takes it a step too far. Marla is fascinated by strong leaders. Not only leaders - evil, domineering men. And she immediately falls for Khan and he uses her like a tool. Like in an old Bond movie, you could still enjoy the rest of the movie, but the way women are treated is often very painful to watch.

PS: This 60's makeup is awful. They all look like 60 days summer vacation in Death Valley or like stereotype Native-Americans from contemporary western movies. That's especially true for Khan and his gang. After hundreds of years in stasis I expect people to be pale like ghosts.

Another episode where it takes 10 times too long to figure out, or even speculate at the obvious. The ship is from the 1990s, the time of the Eugenics Wars. Botany Bay was a penal colony in Australia. The person that is the leader has amazing recuperative powers. Hmm... seems like a peak human specimen, maybe even an enhanced human from the Eugenics Wars. Maybe a group commandeered a ship and renamed it since they were all criminals because they were enhanced? Come on, does the crew need hand holding in every episode. There is pacing and there is poor writing. This is definitely the latter.

That being said, this episode gets its props for setting up an absolutely amazing villain and some wonderful secondary villains that we revisit several times. The story, in general, is quite good, though some of the specifics are ludicrously bad, even by 1960s standards.

The timeframe can be excused, somewhat. However, even by pulp sci-fi standards they should have known that it took a decade to get to the moon (which at airing hadn't happened yet), so building an interplanetary vessel over the next 20 years was absolutely never going to happen. 50 years would have been more plausible suposing the US hadn't given up and abandoned the manned exploration of space after a dozen trips to the moon. Nuclear drives alone would need that long based the on understanding of radiation safety at the time (something very evident in the design of the ship) . The suspended animation concept wasn't anything but a trope at the time for the distant future, so expecting that to come to fruition in 20 years is just plain nonsense.

We get to see some good strategies from both Kirk and Khan, but we also get to see some real blunders. Kirk I understand, but Khan should make no blunders. Maybe we can attribute the slips of the tongue to residual reanimation issues, but that doesn't really fit with Khan assimilating the ship's schematics so easily during the same period.

Either way, a decent episode that could have been far better with fewer plot stalls and fewer corrections via plot contrivances. Doing away with the former would have allowed time to do away with the latter, but I guess then that would.put pressure on following episodes to actually deliver.