The Best of 'Star Trek' - 'Space Seed'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One element of storytelling I have always loved, is that for every great hero out there, there is a someone in that same universe who is their perfect foil. These are the men and women who are hell bent on domination, fear and terror and well...it's up the good guy to save us all.  

Holmes had Moriarty, Will Graham and Clarice Starling had Hannibal Lecter and well, James Tiberius Kirk had Khan Noonian Singh. It is their first meeting that made for incredible television and set up a story that would stay with many of us for the rest of our lives in The Original Series episode 'Space Seed'. 

In the midst of her five year mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a star ship adrift in space, and emitting an emergency beacon. As the crew responds to this distress call they discover that the mystery vessel is the S.S. Botany Bay, a ship launched in the mid 1990's, and her cargo is something of legend. For within the bowels of this ancient ship is an infamous warlord from earth's past, Khan Noonien Singh, and now that he has awakened, all are in danger.

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It's so rare when you see a villain of this caliber appear on television, but we were all privy to it and it all works because of the sublime performance by the talented Ricardo Montalban. His turn as Khan is what makes the villain so fascinating and terrifying all at once.  

Ricardo's Khan is a cool and collected individual, always working out his next five moves before unleashing his fury. To see he and Kirk on screen is just a thing of beauty, and William Shatner's performance in this episode is equally as awesome since while Kirk may not boast the IQ of Khan, he holds his own when it comes to the chess game that Khan plays. 

But this episode stands tall for many other reasons as well. It injects the harsher aspects of our world into the utopia of the 23rd Century and most importantly, it set up one of the most important storylines in the history of Star Trek with a villain so iconic he would return to the silver screen, on two occasions.  

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