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Khan Noonien Singh

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Khan Noonien Singh (or simply Khan ) was an extremely intelligent and dangerous superhuman. He was the most prominent of the genetically-engineered Human Augments of the Eugenics Wars period on Earth . Khan was considered, by the USS Enterprise command crew, over three centuries later, to have been "the best" of them. Reappearing with a cadre of Augment followers in the 23rd century , Khan became a notorious enemy of James T. Kirk .

Khan's existence as an Augment served, as well, as a warning to society of the danger in attempting to create "supermen" through technological means. Ambassador Spock stated that he was the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced. ( ENT : " The Augments "; TOS : " Space Seed "; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ; DS9 : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume "; Star Trek Into Darkness )

• 1.1 20th century origins
• 1.2 21st century temporal changes
• 1.3.1 Second exile
• 1.3.2 The beginning of vengeance
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Appearances
• 3.2 Background information
• 3.3 Apocrypha
• 3.4 External links

Biography [ ]

20th century origins [ ].

One of the few historic pictures of Khan from the 1990s

Records of the period, including Khan's origins, are vague. Khan was born, or created in 1959 . ( Star Trek Into Darkness ) He was the product of a selective breeding or genetic engineering program called Project Khan , based on the eugenic philosophy that held improving the capabilities of a man improved the entire Human race. Augments produced by the program possessed physical strength and analytical capabilities considerably superior to ordinary Humans, and were created from a variety of Earth's ethnic groups. Khan's background was suspected by McGivers to be Sikh , from the northern region of India . ( PIC : " Farewell "; TOS : " Space Seed ")

Khan lived up to the axiom coined by one of his creators, "superior ability breeds superior ambition". By 1993 , a wave of the genetic "supermen," including Khan, had simultaneously assumed control of more than forty of Earth's nations. From 1992 to 1996 , Khan was absolute ruler of more than one-quarter of Earth's population, including regions of Asia and the Middle East . Considered "the best of tyrants "; Khan's reign was considered the most benevolent. His regime was free of much of the problems that plagued Earth history of that era – as Khan was never known for engaging in massacres, genocide or wars of aggression. However, the citizens of his regime enjoyed little freedom. Khan had little, if any, respect for individual liberty, which was also a key issue for Earth history. As such, personal initiative and financial investment were low, and scientific progress suffered as a result.

Khan aboard the Botany Bay

In the mid- 1990s , the Augment tyrants began warring among themselves. Other nations joined in, to force them from power , in a series of struggles that became known as the Eugenics Wars . Eventually, most of the tyrants were defeated and their territory recaptured, but up to ninety "supermen" were never accounted for.

Khan escaped the wars and their consequences along with eighty-four followers, who swore to live and die at his command. He saw his best option in a risky, self-imposed exile. In 1996 , he took control of a DY-100-class interplanetary sleeper ship he christened SS Botany Bay , named for the site of the Australian penal colony . Set on a course outbound from the solar system but with no apparent destination in mind, Khan and his people remained in suspended animation for Botany Bay 's centuries-long sublight journey. ( TOS : " Space Seed "; Star Trek Into Darkness )

21st century temporal changes [ ]

Khan as a child in 2022

Due to the changes caused in the timeline as a result of various Temporal Wars , the original events concerning the rise of Singh were pushed back, and events reinserted themselves at a later date in the timeline. According to Romulan temporal agent Sera , in a revised 2022 timeline, " And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992, and I've been trapped here for 30 years trying to get my shot at [Khan]. "

The Khan of this era lived in Toronto , Ontario , Canada , at the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement .

As a child in the revised timeline, he witnessed La'an Noonien-Singh shoot and wound Sera, his would-be assassin . La'an entered Khan's room and found her infamous ancestor cowering behind his bed. When Khan asked if she was going to kill him, she looked at the gun and sat it on the desk next to the bed. La'an assured him that she would not hurt him, as she proceeded to wipe Romulan blood from his face. Curious, La'an asked if he was alone, or if there were others like him. Khan gestured to a photograph on the wall of himself and six other children. He then asked if she was going to take him away. La'an told him that it may not make sense to him, then or maybe ever, but he was where he needed to be. She walked to the entrance of the room, activated the temporal transporter device in front of Khan, and returned to her own time period.

Khan’s legacy in the altered timeline was a history of torture, genocide, and his descendants.

In an alternate timeline , which was created from the revised timeline, Sera successfully assassinated Khan by blowing up a nearby fusion reactor (also destroying Toronto ) after a Federation Department of Temporal Investigations agent was shot and failed to protect Khan. As a result, a dark future for Humanity emerged in which Earth was nearly uninhabitable, Starfleet and Federation never formed, and the Romulan Star Empire was the dominant force of the region.

This timeline was averted after Khan's descendant, La'an, encountered the temporal agent aboard the USS Enterprise who directed her to return to the past, and with the help of James Kirk , from the, now, alternate timeline. The two time traveled to the past and La'an stopped Khan's assassination and restored the timeline to as she knew it. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

23rd century return [ ]

Khan meeting James T. Kirk for the first time

The USS Enterprise discovered the Botany Bay in 2267 . The boarding party 's arrival and investigation of the Botany Bay activated Khan's stasis unit to revive him – but the ancient mechanism faltered. The decision of Captain James T. Kirk to remove him from the stasis chamber, and Dr. Leonard McCoy 's subsequent ministrations, saved Khan's life.

Twelve of the stasis units had failed during the voyage out from Earth. Kirk, and the Enterprise , taking the Botany Bay in tow, left the remaining 72 sleepers for disposition at Starbase 12 following their leader's successful recovery. The Botany Bay 's undocumented departure, and the fragmented records of the period, initially obscured the identity of the sleepers from the Enterprise crew – but the man with incredible recuperative powers in sickbay led Kirk to suspect their genetically-manipulated nature.

" Social occasions are only warfare concealed. "

Khan took advantage of Kirk's hospitality. He familiarized himself with his lost history by absorbing the ship's technical manuals. He discovered a weakness in the attraction he engendered from the pliant and submissive ship's historian , Lieutenant Marla McGivers . At a dinner given in Khan's honor, Khan regaled the captain's table with a romantic interpretation of the Eugenics Wars, until he was finally prodded by Kirk into declaring " We offered the world order !"

Khan sizes up Kirk at dinner aboard the Enterprise

Eventually, Kirk and Spock identified their guest as being the deposed tyrant from Earth's past. Khan was confined by Kirk to his quarters. Khan, however, soon began his takeover of the Enterprise , starting with his influence over McGivers. With her help, Khan escaped to the Botany Bay – and revived his followers, including Joachim , Joaquin , Kati , Ling , McPherson , Otto , and Rodriguez . Re-boarding the Enterprise , Khan took control of the Enterprise from engineering and cut life support to the bridge .

With the crew subdued and Kirk held hostage, Khan asked the officers to spare Kirk's life by joining him in his quest to take the Enterprise to a colony "willing to be led" by himself (more correctly, to be conquered by him, a task which the arsenal of the Enterprise would make most simple). The officers' recalcitrance led McGivers, unwilling to go so far as to participate in murder, to betray Khan and release Kirk. The Augments were disabled with anesthetic gas, but Khan was quick enough to avoid inhaling the gas by shutting himself in the Engineering section and isolating its atmospheric and life-support functions from the effects of the gas.

Khan attempted to destroy the Enterprise with a warp core overload as Kirk engaged the tyrant in physical combat. Although Kirk was a skilled opponent, Khan's superior strength enabled him to quickly outmatch the Starfleet officer. During the fight, Khan overconfidently boasted that he had five times the man's strength, ergo Kirk was no match for him. When it became clear that Kirk could not defeat Khan hand-to-hand, Kirk pulled loose a heavy flow-control rod and used it to subdue him.

Khan wearing a Starfleet uniform

Kirk retained some admiration for the determined, capable man of history. The prospect of imprisoning and rehabilitating the Augments seemed to Kirk to be unavailing to the Federation . Instead, Kirk granted an opportunity to Khan and his followers: colonize the dangerous but habitable nearby world of Ceti Alpha V . McGivers was given by Kirk the choice of facing court martial or joining the new colony. McGivers chose to go with Khan, and Khan took up Kirk's challenge to "tame a world", citing Milton 's Lucifer , " It is better to Rule in Hell, than Serve in Heaven. " ( TOS : " Space Seed ")

Second exile [ ]

Ceti Alpha V in 2285

With Starfleet -issue cargo containers for shelter, Khan and his people settled in to life on their new world. Only six months after their landing on Ceti Alpha V however, a cataclysm on Ceti Alpha VI shifted the system's orbits, causing massive ecological devastation on Ceti Alpha V.

Khan's ingenuity and the meager shelter of the cargo containers kept his people alive while most of the indigenous life perished. The rugged indigenous Ceti eels survived – and as the only hosts available for their young, Khan's people were beset by the creatures. Over time, Khan lost twenty of his people to the slow, maddening death caused by the eels, including his " beloved wife ."

Khan, after being discovered by Terrell and Chekov

Neither Kirk nor Starfleet followed up on the colony's progress, probably because Starfleet and Federation records never recorded the colony as official, and due Starfleet cover. The starship USS Reliant , attached to Project Genesis and tasked with finding a suitable proving ground for the device, finally arrived at the apparently lifeless world in 2285 .

Captain Clark Terrell and Commander Pavel Chekov , the latter of whom himself was a former Enterprise crewmember, beamed down to survey the planet they assumed to be Ceti Alpha VI , where they were captured by Khan. After using a pair of juvenile Ceti eels on his captives, Khan demanded to know the nature of their mission and the whereabouts of James Kirk.

The beginning of vengeance [ ]

Using his captives' vulnerability to suggestion, Khan and his followers hijacked the Reliant . Khan marooned the crew of the Reliant on Ceti Alpha V. With knowledge of the awesome potential of the Genesis project, he used Chekov to notify spacelab Regula I of Reliant 's pending arrival and their intention to retrieve all Genesis information, "as ordered by Admiral Kirk." Khan's lure proved successful. The Enterprise , engaged in a training cruise at the time, altered course to investigate the odd reports from Regula I.

Khan's lieutenant, Joachim , called out his superior on the beginnings of his obsessive behavior. Joachim suggested that he had already beaten Kirk by foiling Kirk's plans for him and the Augments. Khan's reply gave the first indication of the price that exile on Ceti Alpha V exacted on his ability to reason or – more accurately, to govern his overpowering passions:

Arriving at Regula I, Khan raged through the space station. He was seeking the now-missing Genesis data, and tortured those station crew members unable to escape the suspicious return of Reliant . When they proved uncooperative, Khan slaughtered them. He then left Terrell and Chekov behind, as they might prove a useful means to monitor Kirk's communications and follow his lead to Genesis, in the event that the Enterprise reached the station.

USS Reliant

Khan intercepted the Enterprise , which was en route to Regula I. Concealing her intent, Reliant approached, feigning communications trouble, and mounting a devastating surprise attack using the Reliant 's phasers to cripple the Enterprise . Khan hailed to gloat over his triumph and discuss terms of surrender. His only reward proved to be Kirk's initial open-mouthed stare of surprise.

The parley allowed the more experienced starship commander to override the Reliant 's tactical systems using the ship's prefix code to access them. With a few weak phaser shots from the Enterprise , the Reliant lost photon control and warp power (which would also disable the phasers), forcing Khan to retreat to Regula I.

After the Enterprise limped to the space station, a landing party led by Kirk rescued Terrell and Chekov from the storage locker in which Khan had imprisoned them. After Kirk discovered the Genesis device in the bowels of the Regula planetoid , Terrell contacted Khan, who beamed the device to the Reliant . However, Terrell, fighting the effects of the Ceti Eel, refused Khan's order to kill Kirk and instead committed suicide. Resisting the influence of his own Ceti Eel, Chekov collapsed unconscious and the eel crawled out of his ear to be immediately vaporized by a quick blast from Kirk's phaser.

Despite the turn of events, Khan felt some small satisfaction, since Kirk and his party were now marooned within Regula, and the Reliant was on its way to find and destroy the Enterprise . Khan calmly, but hatefully, sneered at Kirk that he had done far worse than simply kill Kirk, and that he would redirect Kirk defeating him last time by leaving him in the same situation that Kirk had left Khan all those years ago;

In an open communication with Kirk, Spock's simple coded message (beginning with the signal, " Hours would seem like days ") led Khan to believe Enterprise would need two days to effect basic repairs, unaware that Spock was actually telling Kirk that those repairs would be complete in two hours. After discovering his prey under way at full impulse power and bound for the obscuring clouds of the Mutara Nebula , Khan's pursuit faltered on the advice of Joachim, who knew that pursuing the Enterprise into the nebula would disrupt shield and sensor functions for both vessels. A surprise hail from Kirk, alive and taunting from the Enterprise bridge, threw Khan into a rage, and his passions overcame him. Ignoring the consequences of engaging his enemy on the level playing field of the nebula, Khan spurred the Reliant after Kirk.

" For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee… "

The Battle of the Mutara Nebula was the last action of Khan's life. The two starships, barely able to discern one another due to interference within the nebula, exchanged a series of near misses and solid blows, until the Enterprise caught Khan off-guard by descending and then rising to attack the Reliant from behind. Reliant was crippled and adrift with Khan's followers either dying or dead. Rather than surrender, Khan activated the Genesis device, hoping to take Kirk and the Enterprise along with him to oblivion. Unfortunately for him, Captain Spock managed to repair the damage to the Enterprise 's engines which allowed the starship to escape at warp seconds before the Genesis Device detonated, destroying the Reliant and Khan with it. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

Khan had children who would continue his line after he left Earth. One of his descendants was Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh , chief of security of the USS Enterprise . ( SNW : " Ghosts of Illyria ")

The geneticist Arik Soong believed Augments like Khan could be created without exhibiting his more vicious, psychopathic or megalomaniacal instincts. Soong's "children", created from Augment embryos stolen in 2134 , failed to live up to the hopes of their "father". Soong believed Khan and the Botany Bay to be nothing more than a myth, although his "children" believed differently.

After his imprisonment in 2154 , Soong, convinced by his creation's actions that his theory was dangerously wrong, redirected his efforts to the perfection of artificial Humanity . His descendant, Noonien Soong (possibly, given Arik's admiration for him, named after Khan Noonien Singh) continued the effort with the invention of Soong-type androids , including B-4 , Lore , and ultimately, Data . ( ENT : " Borderland ", " The Augments "; TNG : " Datalore "; Star Trek Nemesis )

Sera, a Romulan temporal agent from an unknown point in the future, told La'an that " Khan becomes a brutal tyrant. I mean, maybe humanity needs the dark age that he brings in to usher in their age of enlightenment. Or maybe it's just random. Doesn't really matter though, 'cause if I kill him, the Federation never forms, and the Romulans lose their greatest adversary. " ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

Khan's theft and premature detonation of the Genesis Device alarmed the Klingon Empire who mistakenly believed the device was the result of the Federation 's development of an "ultimate weapon", increasing tensions between the two powers until the détente of 2293 . Immediately, though, a group of renegade Klingons led by Kruge tried to steal the "Genesis torpedo" for themselves, but were unsuccessful. ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

In 2368 , Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise -D agreed with faux historian Berlinghoff Rasmussen that saving an endangered planet could allow "the next Adolf Hitler or Khan Singh" to come into being. According to the captain, first year philosophy students had been asked the question ever since the first wormholes had been discovered. ( TNG : " A Matter Of Time ")

Khan and his Augment brethren were considered so dangerous that by the late-24th century, genetic engineering was banned throughout the United Federation of Planets (except as treatment for serious medical conditions) in order to avoid creating another tyrant like Khan, although Doctor Kingsley and her colleagues continued genetic engineering research in the 24th century. A black market in the genetic manipulation of children with limited abilities continued, however, resulting in the enhancement of Humans like Dr. Julian Bashir . ( TNG : " Unnatural Selection "; DS9 : " Doctor Bashir, I Presume ")

In 2380 , Ensign Beckett Mariner argued that Khan was "the all-time biggest badass" because he was "a genetically engineered supervillain ! Dude was a space seed !" Ensign D'Vana Tendi was also eager to discuss what she called "Khan and that thicc, thicc chest," but needed to pee . ( LD : " Veritas ")

In 2259 of the alternate reality , the USS Enterprise of that reality came into conflict with the Khan of that world who had been found and revived by Admiral Alexander Marcus as part of the militarization conspiracy . The Spock of that universe, concerned about Khan, contacted his prime universe counterpart to ask if he had ever encountered Khan in his world. Spock Prime told his alternate self he'd vowed never to disclose anything of his world but was alarmed enough by Khan's presence to tell Spock that Khan was the most dangerous enemy ever faced by the Enterprise and her crew and it took a great cost to defeat him.

In the alternate reality, the alternate James T. Kirk died in similar circumstances to Spock Prime while attempting to save his own Enterprise from the alternate Khan. The Khan of the alternate reality was spared after Doctor Leonard McCoy discovered that his blood could be used to revive Kirk. The alternate Khan was ultimately placed back in stasis with his crew. ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Where am I? " " You're in … " (Khan squeezes McCoy's neck) " You're in bed, holding a knife at your doctor's throat. " " Answer my question. " " It would be most effective if you would cut the carotid artery just under the left ear. "

" Khan is my name. " " Khan, nothing else? " " Khan. "

" Such men dare take what they want. "

" Tyranny, sir? Or an attempt to unify Humanity? " " Unify, sir? Like a team of animals under one whip? "

" You have a tendency to express ideas in military terms, Mister Khan. This is a social occasion. " " It has been said that social occasions are only warfare concealed. Many prefer it more honest – more open. "

" You fled. Why? Were you afraid? " " I've never been afraid. " " But you left at the very time mankind needed courage. " " We offered the world order ! "

" Go or stay, but do it because it is what you wish to do. "

" He was the best of the tyrants and the most dangerous. "

" It appears we will do well in your century, captain. "

" The trip is over. The battle begins again. Only this time it's not a world we win. It's a universe. "

" Your air should be getting quite thin by now. Do you surrender the bridge? " " Negative. " " Academic, captain. Refuse and every person on the bridge will suffocate. "

" Nothing ever changes, except man. Your technical accomplishments? Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity but improve man and you gain a thousand fold. I am such a man. "

" My vessel was useless. I need you and yours to select a colony planet, one with a population willing to be led by us. " " To be conquered by you… a starship would make that most simple, wouldn't it? "

" Each of you in turn will go in there! Die while the others watch! "

" It does not matter, the captain is dead. Take Mr. Spock next. "

" If I understood your manuals, that's an overload in progress. Your ship flares up like an exploding sun within MINUTES! "

" I have five times your strength. You're no match for me! "

" I will take her . And I've gotten something else I wanted. A world to win, an empire to build. "

(to Captain Terrell) " I don't know you. " (to Commander Chekov) " But you… I never forget a face, Mister…Chekov, isn't it? I never thought to see your face again. " " Chekov, who is this man? " " A criminal, Captain! A product of late 20th century genetic engineering! "

" You lie! On Ceti Alpha V, there was life! A fair chance– " "THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!!! Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of this planet and everything was laid waste . Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress. It was only the fact of my genetically engineered intellect that allowed us to survive. On Earth… two hundred years ago… I was a prince… with power over millions. " " Captain Kirk was your host. You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him! "

" He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares maelstrom and round perdition's flames before I give him up! "

" Ah, Kirk… my 'old friend'. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold… in space. "

" All is well, sir. You have the coordinates to beam up Genesis. " " First things first, captain. Kill Admiral Kirk. "

" Khan, you bloodsucker! You're gonna have to do your own dirty work now! Do you hear me? DO YOU?! " " Kirk! Kirk, you're still alive, my old friend. " " Still – 'old friend'! You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target! "

" I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on… hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me… as you left her . Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet… buried alive. Buried alive. " "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

" Impulse power restored. " " Excellent. More than a match for poor Enterprise ."

" Full impulse power. " " No, sir! You have Genesis! You can have whatever you–! " (grabs Joachim by the vest) " FULL POWER! Damn you! "

" No… no, you can't get away. From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee. "

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• TOS : " Space Seed "
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• ST : " Ephraim and Dot "
• SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "

Background information [ ]

Khan was played by Ricardo Montalban , except in " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow " where young Khan was played by Desmond Sivan .

In Carey Wilber 's original draft of " Space Seed ", the character that ultimately became Khan was of Scandinavian ethnicity and named Harold Erickson, and the backstory was slightly different in that he was placed in stasis aboard the Botany Bay as a means of getting rid of prisoners during an overpopulated era of Earth's history. Gene L. Coon 's rewrites then transformed the character into Ragnar Thorwald, the genetically-enhanced leader of the "First World Tyranny", who hides behind the pseudonym John Erickson.

The casting of Ricardo Montalban as Khan prompted the writers to change the character's name to Sabahl Khan Noonien, after Kim Noonien Wang, a friend of Gene Roddenberry during the Second World War. Roddenberry had lost touch with him and hoped that his friend would see his name on television and contact him. (This was also the origin of the name of Noonien Soong .) NBC suggested changing the character's name to Govin Bahadur Singh, due to the racial implications of the name "Khan", but Roddenberry insisted on keeping Khan and Noonien. [1] [2]

In the final draft script of Space Seed , Khan's name was noted to be pronounced, "KAWN". He was described as " an extremely handsome, well-built man. His face reflects the sun-darkened Aryian blood of the Northern India Sikh people, suggesting just a trace of the Oriental blood often found too. The features are intelligent, extremely strong, almost arrogantly so. "

The Space Seed script uses the spelling "Khan Noonien Singh", while the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan script uses the spelling "Khan Noonien Singh".

After the release of The Wrath of Khan , Roddenberry (who disliked almost all of the film's many aspects) commented, " Khan was not written as that exciting a character, he was rather flimsy. The Khan in the TV episode was a much deeper and better character than the movie Khan, except that Montalban pulled it off. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages )

Khan's periodic quotations in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan were paraphrases, or direct lifts, from Herman Melville 's Moby Dick .

Khan recognizes Pavel Chekov in The Wrath of Khan, even though Chekov's first appearance on TOS was not until the show's second season. To resolve this discrepancy, a long-standing joke (as told by Chekov actor Walter Koenig ) postulates that, because Chekov left Khan waiting too long to use the bathroom, Khan vowed never to forget his face. ( citation needed • edit )

In "Space Seed", Khan is one of four Enterprise guests to be given a Starfleet uniform to wear during the course of TOS. (The others were Captain John Christopher in " Tomorrow is Yesterday ", Charles Evans in " Charlie X ", and Craig Hundley (a child's version) in a scene that was cut from " Operation -- Annihilate! "). In accordance with Khan's assertion that he was once "an engineer, of sorts," his uniform shirt is red.

A concept sketch of Khan's Star Trek II costume

The Starfleet insignia around Khan's neck in Wrath of Khan is a broken, movie-era Starfleet uniform buckle, although the necklace appears on Khan before he actually gets aboard the Reliant . It is known as the "Buckle Necklace", according to Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The surname "Singh" suggests northern Indian ancestry (from the Sanskrit simha , "lion") and possibly roots in Sikhism (male Sikhs are obliged to assume the surname "Singh", regardless of their geographical or familial origins); while "Khan" ("ruler") is originally a title of central Asian origin and also a common name for Muslim men in South Asia.

Along with Harry Mudd , Khan is one of only two opponents to face Kirk more than once in live-action Star Trek productions.

At one point during the production of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , "a couple of years" before 1997, a cameo appearance of Khan was considered. However, the writers were told that Ricardo Montalban's health would not permit him to appear, and any plans to feature Khan were abandoned. ( AOL chat , 1997 )

Khan was again considered for return, teaming up with a collection of antagonists that also would have included Shinzon , in an ultimately never-produced fifth and final TNG film , which was conceived, during production on Star Trek Nemesis , by Nemesis co-writers John Logan and Brent Spiner . Khan and his villainous cohorts would have faced a heroic team-up involving Picard , Data , Kirk, Spock and Archer . [3]

Assessing the portrayal of Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Nemesis Director Stuart Baird remarked, " Montalban played a pretty good bad guy. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 142 , p. 35)

The portrayal of Khan in The Wrath of Khan also immediately appealed to Alex Kurtzman . He later remarked about Khan, " Not only is he scary, but he has an extremely personal and specific agenda that was understandable despite being psychotic. I think anyone who loves Trek would immediately vault Khan to the top of the villain list. " [4]

When asked about the prime Khan being mentioned in Star Trek Into Darkness , Damon Lindelof said, " It would have been hubris for us to represent to the uninitiated that Khan was our idea and there was no one better [than Spock] to pop in briefly and say – 'Hey, these guys are just doing their own spin on a bad guy that was around a long time before they came along.' The minute we stop honoring, acknowledging and representing the original Trek , we are bound to lose sight of the enormous gift we have been given in sustaining it. " [5]

While filming that scene, Leonard Nimoy responded to Spock's line, inquiring how the prime reality Enterprise crew originally defeated Khan, by quipping, " We picked up a hammer… ", referencing how Kirk originally beat Khan into submission. ("Mr. Spock and Mr. Spock" featurette, Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray )

Nicholas Meyer wrote a script for a new, currently unproduced podcast Star Trek: Khan: Ceti Alpha V .

Apocrypha [ ]

A trilogy by author Greg Cox describes the other events of Khan's life. The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume One chronicles the genetic enhancement project that led to his birth, and shows some of his early childhood from the point of view of agents Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln in the 1970s . The sequel, The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume Two shows his rise to power and capturing Seven's technology, as well as how he was able to secretly control so much of the world without the average citizen ever knowing. The final part of the trilogy is To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh , which explains his life on Ceti Alpha V after being left there to fend for himself, his followers, and his wife, to the point where Chekov and Captain Terrell encounter him years later.

James Swallow wrote an alternate history novella entitled "Seeds of Dissent" for the Myriad Universes : Infinity's Prism anthology. In it, Khan won the Eugenics Wars and went on to establish an interstellar empire, eventually dying at the age of 213. The Botany Bay is then said to have been launched in 2010 by Wilson Evergreen and carrying Shaun Geoffrey Christopher , Shannon O'Donnel , and Rain Robinson to escape Khan's despotism.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Dark Mirror , it is also mentioned that the mirror universe Khan won the Eugenics Wars instead of being forced to leave the planet. In the Star Trek: Mirror Universe novel The Sorrows of Empire , the mirror universe counterpart of Colonel West mentions Ranjit Singh as a descendant of counterpart ( β ) and a potential prospect to replace Spock as Emperor of the Terran Empire , implying that Khan or someone of his bloodline ruled the Empire in the past.

Khan is the protagonist of the comic book Star Trek: Khan - Ruling in Hell , covering the same timeframe as To Reign in Hell .

The comic book series Star Trek: Khan portrays the Khan of the alternate reality following the events of Star Trek Into Darkness describing the history of the 20th century that lead him to his rise to power and the Eugenics Wars before ultimately escaping Earth aboard the Botany Bay.

In Star Trek Online , one of the Federation players' earliest foes is a descendant of Khan, Dr. Amar Singh, a scientist who leads a group known as the "Children of Khan" and conducts experiments in Augment enhancement for the Klingon Empire , combining Klingon , Gorn , and Augment genetics to create the ultimate superbeing. He is defeated and captured by Federation players, later appearing at the prison colony known as Facility 4028, where the Female Changeling is held.

Khan is portrayed as a cat in Jenny Parks ' book Star Trek Cats .

External links [ ]

• Khan Noonien Singh at StarTrek.com
• Khan Noonien Singh at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Khan Noonien Singh at Wikipedia
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Who is Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek?

Star Trek is a 60-year saga known for its gorgeous starships and equally gorgeous heroes but Khan Noonien Singh is the series' most important villain.

The galaxy far, far away has Darth Vader, the Emperor, Grand Admiral Thrawn and a host of other iconic baddies. Yet, Star Trek and the galaxy right, right here isn't as focused on individual villains that way. However, if the universe created by Gene Roddenberry has a single, identifiable villain it's a 20th Century human who found himself in the future. Khan Noonien Singh is an important villain in Star Trek , and those who don't already know his story are in for an incredible adventure. The character has a long history in the nearly 60-year-old saga, and he remains important to its past and future.

Originally appearing in the Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 episode, "Space Seed," the character was conceived as a Viking-style character. Roddenberry, however, wanted to subvert the audience expectations of the 1960s by changing that background. The character was named Khan Noonien Singh, in part because Roddenberry hoped a similarly-named acquaintance from World War II would see it and seek him out. (Alas, he never did.) The character was conceived as an actor of West Asian heritage, but the only actor they could convincingly cast to play the futuristic super man was Ricardo Montalban. In 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, Benedict Cumberbatch was cast to play Khan Noonien Singh, despite him looking more "Viking" than West Asian. While "Space Seed" is an iconic Star Trek: TOS episode, it wasn't until his return in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. Not only did this revitalize the character, but the film reenergized the entire Star Trek franchise after The Motion Picture failed to spark joy in the hearts of Trekkers.

RELATED: This Star Trek: TOS Character Would Fit Perfectly In Strange New Worlds

Who Is Khan Noonien Singh In the Star Trek Canon?

The "Space Seed" episode revealed two things about the Star Trek universe. It revealed the "Eugenics Wars," which involved Khan Noonien Singh. Khan, among others, were genetically engineered to be "perfect" humans. The episode also revealed that as a result of these wars the "records" of that time were mostly lost to Starfleet. Still, Spock told Captain Kirk Kahn ascended into power in 1992 and was defeated in 1996 (30 years from the show's real-world present-day). Khan and 96 of his fellow genetic augments were put into a kind of stasis and sent off into space, where they drifted until the USS Enterprise found the vessel and awakened them. A historian on the Enterprise, Marla McGivers, was charmed by Khan and, almost, helped him take over the ship. Once Kirk and company retook the vessel, he allowed Khan, McGivers and his people to settle on Ceti Alpha V to build a new life for themselves.

In the beginning of The Wrath of Khan , Pavel Chekov (a character not added to The Original Series until Season 2) landed on what they believed was Ceti Alpha VI. They soon found Khan and what remained of his people, because the planet had "shifted" its orbit after a cataclysm. Kahn captured Chekov's ship, the USS Reliant, and used it to take possession of the Genesis Device. Created by Kirk's former partner Carol Marcus and Kirk's son David, it could take a lifeless world and make it teeming with life in hours. Khan wanted to use it as a weapon, but he also wanted to visit vengeance on Kirk. At the end of the film, he's defeated and famously quotes Moby Dick before he uses the Genesis Device to destroy his own ship. "From Hell's heart I stab at thee," he says, "for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

In Strange New Worlds Season 2, Khan's descendant, La'an Noonien Singh , was sent back in time to the early 21st Century to stop a cataclysm. In Star Trek: Voyager , the crew was sent back to 1996, but instead of a Eugenics War-ravaged landscape, they found the dawn of the internet age. This was established as the "fault" of another time-travel accident. When La'an arrived in her past, she encountered Sera, a Romulan agent from the "Temporal Wars." She was sent back to 1992 to kill Khan in order to prevent the Federation and Starfleet from ever existing. Yet, because of the other time-shenanigans, Khan wasn't born until the 21st Century. "Time pushes back," she told La'an, implying that "canon events" aren't just limited to the Spider-Verse.

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Why Khan Noonien Singh Is So Important to Star Trek Fans and Storytellers

Khan Noonien Singh remains important to the larger Star Trek story because of what he represents about the universe's past. The Eugenics Wars, now set in the mid-21st Century also coincided with "World War III," the cataclysm from which Star Trek 's ideal future emerged. In Star Trek: First Contact , the crew of the USS Enterprise-E are sent back to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes the first warp-drive flight, causing the Vulcans to visit Earth. Khan represents the personification of the worst of humanity. Notions of superiority, violence and authoritarianism are the main impediments, Roddenberry believed, to the idyllic future humanity was capable of achieving.

His many returns, from "Space Seed" in Star Trek: The Original Series to The Wrath of Khan are a warning that these human foibles, like Star Wars ' Palpatine , will somehow return if people aren't careful. Yet, Khan didn't just help create the universe in the narrative. After The Motion Picture , fans hoped for a return to the type of storytelling Star Trek: TOS was known for. Nicholas Meyer delivered a film that felt a bit like an episode of the show on a grander scale. Yet, it also kicked off a run of four more movies that helped cement Star Trek as an enduring franchise. Fans were enamored by the film and its sequels. Even when he's not present, he influences the story. Star Trek: Picard Season 3 thematically echoed the "trilogy" that started with The Wrath of Khan through Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home .

Khan is a genetically altered super man who was so cruel, violent and despotic he almost destroyed the planet. Yet, like most real-world villains, the actual Khan was charming, seemingly measured. Ricardo Montalban infused the character with gravitas and even humor, along with his impressive bare chest (which was not a prosthetic in the movie). If the heroes of Star Trek represent the best of humanity, Khan represents the worst of it. Heroes are defined by their villains, and any hero that can take out a guy like Khan Noonien Singh is an impressive one indeed.

Why Khan Noonien Singh Casts A Shadow Over The Entire Star Trek Universe

According to its own mythology, the utopia of "Star Trek" had to be earned. Sometime between the present day and the franchise's idyllic future, several destructive wars will break out, causing humankind to experience a reckoning. Recall that Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was born in 1921, so he had very sharp memories of World War II and all of the horrors it produced. Roddenberry came to feel that humanity ought to learn from such horrors, and began to depict war — at least in "Star Trek" — as humanity's "low point." Once faced with self-destruction, Roddenberry felt, humans would eventually set themselves on the path to healing and recovery. 

It was antithetical, then, for Roddenberry to depict the character of Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalbán ) the way he did. In the "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" (February 16, 1967), the Enterprise rescues Khan from a cargo ship called the Botany Bay. Khan and several of his compatriots were in cryogenic sleep, having fled Earth about 200 years previous, fleeing extradition. Khan, you see, was one of Earth's most famous dictators during the Eugenics Wars. He had conquered most of the planet with the aid of his genetically enhanced retinue. Khan was confident, forthright, and convinced of his innate superiority, qualities that — bafflingly — Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the ship's historian Lieutenant McGivers (Madlyn Rhue) greatly admired. 

"Star Trek" may have been a pacifist show at its heart, but too often the characters stood in unironic awe of violent military commanders. McGivers especially folded to his charms. It was a little gross.

Although Khan left the show after "Space Seed," he would return in cinematic form. From 1982 onward, Khan would alter "Star Trek" forever, both for better and for worse.

The impact of Khan

In "Space Seed," Khan, seeing an opportunity to begin his old nation-conquering habits again, tried to take over the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock outwit him, knock out his genetically enhanced retinue, and wrest back control of the ship. Rather than punish Khan for his malfeasance, however, Kirk gives the villain an ultimatum: can he create the ideal society he's always dreamed of on an uninhabited planet somewhere? Khan accepts the challenge, and he is left on a planet called Ceti Alpha V to build his masterpiece society. Khan was out of sight and out of mind. 

Until the release of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in 1982. In the film, it was revealed that shortly after Khan arrived, Ceti Alpha V experienced a massive natural cataclysm that transformed it into an inhospitable desert world. For decades, Khan and his retinue lived huddled in a ship, barely surviving, growing increasingly preoccupied with getting revenge on Kirk. Over the course of "Star Trek II," Khan commandeers a Starfleet vessel called the U.S.S. Reliant and goes hunting for Kirk, now an admiral. Kirk, meanwhile, is going through a midlife crisis wherein he finally faces the consequences of several forgotten transgressions. Khan is the personification of Kirk's absent-mindedness; he never bothered to check in on Khan. 

Popular opinion typically dictates that "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is the best of the 13 extant "Star Trek" movies. Montalbán brings a glorious, melodramatic oomph to his performance that thrills audiences and handily balances Shatner's occasional tendency to play Kirk as larger-than-life. He is a great "Star Trek" villain. 

But then, that's a problem. Since when was "Star Trek" about "heroes" and "villains"? Since 1982, it seems. Ordinarily, Trek is more morally nuanced than that.

Moral absolutism

Throughout its history — and throughout the 1990s in particular — "Star Trek" writers have often bent over backward to present dramas with a palpable element of moral ambiguity. It's rare that a character will be presented as wholly heroic or villainous, as that's not true to life; heroes and villains don't exist. Only people. People of all walks may commit acts of heroism, or even acts of villainy, all the while convinced that what they're doing is right and correct. "Star Trek" analyzes human values and philosophies, and attempts to find a careful middle ground within a matrix of diplomacy and pragmatism. Justice and morality are more nuanced than "good" vs. "evil." In Trek, conflicts are rarely solved by a hero besting a villain in violent combat. That's "Star Wars" stuff. 

But, it cannot be denied that such conflicts are exciting, easy to consume, and imminently cinematic. On TV, Trek could afford a slower pace and episodes that centered on conversation and philosophy. On the big screen, however, everything needs to wrap up more dramatically and tidily. As such, most of the "Star Trek" movies are a lot more action-forward than anything on TV. And when the franchise discovered the effectiveness of Khan as a "Star Trek" supervillain, they hit a groove. A charismatic villain who wants personal revenge on a Starfleet captain? Bully! Let's do that as often as we can get away with. Also, more shooting and yelling and space battles and explosions.

By the early 1990s, a fan consensus began to form around the first six Trek movies, and many agreed that "Wrath of Khan" was the best. The franchise soon began to imitate it, looking for their next Khan.

The revenge quartet

It's telling that four Trek films in a row — "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 2009 film, "Star Trek Into Darkness," and "Star Trek Beyond" — all centered on vengeance-obsessed villains. The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" also retreaded the concept. In "Nemesis," Shinzon (Tom Hardy) wanted to kill Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) because he was cloned from Picard's DNA. Shinzon's ship and the Enterprise-E ended the film facing off in a nebula, just like in "Wrath of Khan." In the 2009 film, a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) sought revenge on Spock. In "Darkness," Khan was resurrected in a parallel universe form, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He still wanted revenge. "Beyond" was about Kroll (Idris Elba) a man who came to hate being abandoned by the Federation — just like in "Wrath of Khan." 

And "Picard," made 41 years after "Wrath of Khan," still followed a lot of the same beats. Vadic (Amanda Plummer) was a dark, vengeful villain with an overpowered ship. "Picard" even went so far as to borrow music cues directly from "Khan" to invite comparison. 

Again: a supervillain is a dramatically satisfying archetype, especially in your typical Hollywood melodrama. Their villainy is easy to understand, and the means to stop them clear (usually violence). Seeing a bad guy get murdered is cathartic. But seeing Khan as a "villain" was the wrong lesson to have taken from "Star Trek II." In a more sane Trek plot, Kirk would find a way to give Khan what he wanted and talk his way out of the problem. The villains in all the above movies have legitimate grievances, and TV "Star Trek" would spend more time addressing and repairing said issues. 

Khan's shadow is long, and his legacy is simultaneously fun and very, very unfortunate. 

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Great Khanate

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Khan's flag.

The Great Khanate was a totalitarian dictatorship on the planet Earth and was led by the Augments during the Eugenics Wars of the 20th century .

History and specifics [ ]

The Battle of the Sea of Japan was a turning point in the Eugenics Wars, which broke the power of Khan Noonien Singh in the Great Khanate. This led to a shattering of the Khanate, which splintered into dozens of factions that began fighting one another, allowing the other governments to hunt down their leaders, thus ending the conflict. The destruction of the Great Khanate started the process of Earth's unification as well as the abolition of war. ( TNG novel : Debtors' Planet )

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ].

• 1 The Chase
• 2 Preserver (race)
• 3 Tzenkethi

Star Trek: The Legacy of Khan, Explained

Khan's legacy of genetic engineering lingers in the fearful minds of Starfleet higher-ups, but why is it still such a pervasive part of Star Trek?

Star Trek used Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban) to introduce genetic engineering into the franchise, much to the detriment of those who’ve come after him. They are seen as dangerous because Khan’s ambitions of world domination made him a threat to Starfleet officers. They are seen as untrustworthy because Khan tried to use the kindness of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to make submissive followers out of the Enterprise crew. They are banned from Starfleet because officers fear someone like Khan having access to Federation resources or secrets .

In Deep Space Nine , this judgment doesn’t take into account that genetic alterations sometimes happen to a child too young to refuse them. In Strange New Worlds , it didn’t consider genetic enhancements as a part of cultural practices. In Prodigy , no one imagines how such negative stereotypes could harm a genetically engineered teenager. All anyone seems to focus on is that making genetic alterations is bad, regardless of the circumstances. In some ways, it’s unfair to those whose genetically-altering experiences might have been out of their hands. In other ways, though, the fear is well-founded for anyone who remembers the Eugenics Wars and Khan’s part in them.

RELATED: Star Trek: Untangling The Problematic Morality Surrounding Holographic Lifeforms

Who Was Khan Noonien-Singh?

Self-improvement is never a bad thing, and Star Trek has always emphasized its importance as part of the pursuit to leave old human atrocities behind. However, there’s a big difference between being the best version of one’s self and using science to be better than others. During the late 20th century, scientists implemented Project Khan to create and study genetically enhanced humans. It resulted in individuals known as Augments who possessed senses, strength, and intellect far beyond that of most of their non-enhanced peers. The Original Series showed fans the tip of this terrifying iceberg when Khan tried to take over the Enterprise in season 1, episode 24, “Space Seed.”

He proved to be cunning and highly intelligent, but he was also manipulative and controlling with a nasty temper. When the Enterprise found Khan’s ship floating in space, they had no idea who they’d stumbled across until it was much too late. They later discovered Khan to be the same genetically-enhanced tyrant who ruled over the lands from Asia to the Middle East during the Eugenics War. He took Lt. Marla McGivers’ (Madlyn Rhue) obsession with powerful warmongerers of the past, and used it to bully her into helping him gain control of the ship. Khan’s deceptive, honey-like charm eventually turned into arrogant cruelty when he threatened to kill the Enterprise crew if they didn’t cooperate with him and his fellow Augments.

Why Is Starfleet Still So Afraid?

Luckily, Captain Kirk and crew lived up to their reputation as creative thinkers in tricky situations. When Khan stood by while an Augment named Joaquin (Mark Tobin) repeatedly struck Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) in the face, it was just further motivation for the crew. They managed to wrestle control of the ship back from Khan and his followers, who were later sentenced to isolation on the uninhabited Ceti Alpha V. This seed they planted would later sprout the crop of catastrophe that reared its devastating head in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Augments came too close to regaining power for Starfleet’s comfort, and it left them even more paranoid about genetically enhanced individuals.

During the Eugenics War from January 2, 1992, to June 7, 1996, Augments became obsessed with their individual power and began fighting each other. It was the only thing stopping them from collectively obtaining galactic control. This war, as well as Khan's incident, are what spring to the minds of most Starfleet officers when they hear about genetic alterations. They’re afraid that Augments will one day come back for domination in a way that can’t be stopped. More than that, though, they fear the tendency of scientists to unthinkingly apply their skills toward creating monsters while trying to improve people.

Genetically Modified Star Trek characters

This fear led to a Federation ban on any genetically enhanced individuals working in Starfleet. However, this only stopped genetically enhanced applicants from being honest. In Deep Space Nine , Dr. Julian Bashir revealed that his parents had him genetically enhanced as a child in season 5, episode 16, “Doctor Bashir, I Presume.” Amsha (Fadwa El Guindi) and Richard (Brian George) Bashir thought they were giving him a fair chance to make up for the ways he’d been struggling in school. Instead, they left him with a dark secret that almost got him thrown in prison once Starfleet found out.

Una Chin-Riley/Number One (Rebecca Romijn) had a similar experience on Strange New Worlds when Starfleet discovered her Illyrian heritage . This race of beings was known for using genetic engineering to make themselves adapt to their planets, rather than the other way around. Season 1, episode 3, “Ghosts of Illyria” revealed Una’s species, and she was later arrested for it in season 1, episode 10, “A Quality of Mercy.” She’s currently on trial in season 2, and fans are on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what will happen to her next. It’s ironic, since fellow crewmember La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) is a direct descendant of Khan and even carries his last name. But she’s had an easier career than someone whose only connection to the Augment is their experience with genetic alterations.

Dal R’El (Brett Gray) probably has the saddest history when it comes to being genetically enhanced. He’s a human hybrid with 26 different alien variants making up his genetic coding. Like Una and Bashir, he didn’t choose that for himself. Unlike them, though, he was still very young when his secret came out, and it left him vulnerable to the manipulations of an overzealous geneticist in Star Trek: Prodigy . Dr. Jago (Amy Hill) played on Dal’s insecurities in season 1, episode 15, “Masquerade” to implant a chip that would activate his enhanced genes. Only the swift actions of his crew and friends saved Dal from becoming the worst version of himself.

A common theme with many genetically enhanced individuals is their lack of choice. Another one is that Starfleet is more interested in using them to set an example than they are in understanding their stories.

Khan left a strong impression on Star Trek fans. They’ve spent years gushing over everything from his personality to his handsome appearance. Starfleet remembers him and other Augments with much less love, and for good reason. Khan represents aspects of humanity that the Federation has spent a long time desperately trying to hide. They want to forget about the Eugenics War and the Augments who started it. They want time to be the pillow between their hopeful present and their dark past

However, history is repeated when it is not understood, and when the lessons it can teach are swept under the rug. One day, Starfleet will have no choice but to let go of the past and stop allowing it to punish good people. When that day comes, Star Trek will enter a whole new phase of how it treats genetically enhanced individuals – hopefully for the better.

MORE: Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars, Explained

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon. With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon. With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.

• Nicholas Meyer
• Gene Roddenberry
• Jack B. Sowards
• Harve Bennett
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 463 User reviews
• 138 Critic reviews
• 68 Metascore
• 3 wins & 9 nominations

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• Trivia In the Blu-ray special feature "The Captain's Log", Ricardo Montalban says that once he committed to this film, he realized that he had trouble getting back into the character Khan. After years of playing Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island (1977) , he found that he was "stuck" in that character. He requested a tape of Space Seed (1967) from Paramount Studios, and proceeded to watch it repeatedly. By the third or fourth watching, he had recaptured the essence of Khan's character.
• Goofs Chekov and Khan recall having met each other. Although Chekov was not a bridge officer when Khan came on the Enterprise in Space Seed (1967) , it should be remembered that when Khan first took over Enterprise, he started with the engineering deck. Chekov was engineering ensign at the time, and mounted resistance against Khan, according to the movie's novelization. Surprisingly, Sulu was also absent from Space Seed, a point which no one ever brings up.

Kirk : We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.

• Crazy credits After the opening credits: "In the 23rd century..."
• Expanded conversation between Kirk and McCoy in Kirk's apartment about his birthday gift, the glasses. Also, McCoy now says "For most patients your age, I'd usually administer Retinax Five." This is an alternate take, since in the theatrical version, he says "recommend" instead of "administer" (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• Conversation between Kirk and Midshipman Preston in the Enterprise's engine room, with Scotty revealing that Preston is his nephew. Also, the take at the scene's ending with Kirk addressing Scotty and McCoy asking "Admiral, what about the rest of the inspection?" is different from the one seen in the theatrical version. Kirk's dialogue is also slightly different (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• The scene where Chekov informs Dr. Marcus and her team about their new orders via compic has been expanded. Carol Marcus now asks "Who gave the order", and the mind controlled Chekov dances around the answer a little before David says, "Pin him down, mother." (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• The scene where the scientists at Regula One argue about Starfleet Command's order is a different take, and has been expanded in the ending to show Carol Marcus ordering everyone to pack their things up so they can depart before the Reliant arrives (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• McCoy and Spock's argument about Genesis in Kirk's cabin has been slightly expanded. They discuss what might happen if Genesis fell into the wrong hands, and whose hands are the right ones. Kirk attempts to break the two up, but Spock cuts him off with a comeback to McCoy (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• Preston's death in Sickbay has been expanded. Preston now says "Aye" and dies in close-up (instead of in the medium shot with Preston's back to the camera and the others visible around the table seen in the theatrical version) Scotty asks why Khan wants revenge. McCoy's line, "I'm sorry, Scotty" now comes in the middle of the scene, instead of in the ending. After Spock informs Kirk via intercom that impulse power is restored, McCoy and Kirk speak a little longer, and Kirk says they only survived because he knew something Khan didn't about starships (Seen in ABC-TV version).
• An added shot of Kirk, Spock and Saavik climbing a ladder between decks has been added, in which Kirk says "That young man, he's my son," and Spock replies, "Fascinating." Also, the music in the scene has been looped to account for this added shot, but it loops at an earlier point than in the ABC-TV version. This makes the music flow better, instead of repeating the same bit of music twice in succession. For the 2016 Director's Cut Blu-Ray edition, the shot is included but the dialogue is omitted.
• An extension occurs as the Enterprise approaches the Mutara Nebula. Saavik wonders if the Reliant will follow them in, and Spock states that he must remember to teach her about the human ego. The music is looped at a different point than in the ABC-TV version to accommodate this extension, and it is thus much less distracting.
• Connections Edited from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Soundtracks Theme From Star Trek (TV Series) Music by Alexander Courage

User reviews 463

• Nov 25, 1999

Reboots & Remakes

• When Spock and Saavik converse early in the film, what (modern earth) language do they actually speak?
• Why is the actor Judson Scott, who played a substantial role as Joachim in this film, not listed in the closing credits?
• How did Khan and crew actually take over the Reliant? One minute they're shoving eels down Chekov and Terrell's ears - the next they're on the bridge of the Reliant sporting trophy uniforms and in command of the ship.
• June 4, 1982 (United States)
• United States
• Star Trek II
• Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USA
• Paramount Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $11,200,000 (estimated)
• $79,707,906
• $14,347,221
• Jun 6, 1982
• $79,821,685

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• Runtime 1 hour 53 minutes
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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40 years later, Star Trek will finally solve a classic Khan mystery

What happened on Ceti Alpha V after the Enterprise left?

Khan is back! After several years of speculation and rumor , a prequel series all about the Star Trek villain's exile on Ceti Alpha V is finally happening. But the format might not be what fans expected. Here’s what to know about what to expect from the Wrath of Khan prequel series, and how it's poised to answer a burning Trekkie question four decades in the making.

On Star Trek Day 2022, Nicholas Meyer — director of The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country , and consulting producer on Discovery Season 1 — made a surprise announcement: The infamous Star Trek supervillain Khan Noonien Singh will finally get his own series. But it will happen in the form of a limited-run scripted podcast.

According to Paramount:

“The scripted podcast will examine what happened in the years after Captain Kirk left Khan on the untamed world of Ceti Alpha V and tells the story of Khan and his followers prior to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. ”

What does this all mean? Let’s dive in.

Khan: Ceti Alpha V timeline, explained

In between the Star Trek episode “Space Seed,” and the return of Khan in The Wrath of Khan , 18 years pass. So in theory, the new Khan series will explore the time between 2267 and 2285. The large question the series will answer is: what exactly happened during that time ?

But that question also leads to several other smaller questions fans have had for years. Such as:

• When did Khan’s wife pass away?
• Where did his younger followers come from?
• Why didn’t Starfleet send another ship to check on Khan?
• How could the Reliant have confused Ceti Alpha VI for Ceti Alpha V?
• How did Khan get that sweet necklace? (Okay maybe this question doesn’t need to be answered.)

Nicholas Meyer onstage for “Star Trek Day,” announcing Star Trek: Khan.

Star Trek: Khan , explained

According to Paramount, the series will be produced by Alex Kurtzman, Aaron Baiers, Trevor Roth, and Rod Roddenberry . However, sole writing credit seems to be going to Nicholas Meyer, the visionary behind The Wrath of Khan . Back when rumors of a Khan miniseries first started circulating in 2017, Meyer wrote to Inverse jokingly saying “I khannot possibly comment” on the existence of the concept, which pretty much confirmed it was in development. But now, what’s great is that it seems that Meyer will get to write what is basically a radio play entirely on his own.

As Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman put it:

“Nick made the definitive ‘Trek’ movie when he made ‘Wrath,’ and we’ve all been standing in its shadow since. Forty years have offered him a lot of perspective on these extraordinary characters and the way they’ve impacted generations of fans. Now he’s come up with something as surprising, gripping and emotional as the original, and it’s a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to.”

Star Trek has never done this before. An in-canon scripted podcast is officially a new venture for the franchise. Although the official Trek podcast, The Pod Directive — hosted by Tawny Newsome and Paul F. Tompkins — has been around since 2020, a scripted fictional podcast is bold new territory for the final frontier.

Do we know the Star Trek: Khan release date and cast?

Khan in “Space Seed.”

So, when do we get to hear Khaaaaaan? Well, right now, there’s no release date. The Pod Directive will return in early 2023, but we’re just going to have to wait a little longer for Khan . There’s also no voice cast, yet. Ricardo Montalbán, who played Khan in “Space Seed” and The Wrath , passed away in 2009. Benedict Cumberbatch played the alternate Khan in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness , but it feels unlikely he’d voice the character for this project.

At this point, we don’t know. But when it comes to Khan, Trek fans can wait. It’s already been 40 years. What’s a few more months?

This article was originally published on Sep. 8, 2022

• Science Fiction

William Shatner Shares Some Great Behind-the-Scenes Stories About Making 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'

The original ‘Star Trek’ Captain reveals how he learned about Spock’s death, how they thought Khan could be their last movie, and so much more.

We live in a day and age where no one can agree on anything. People are divided on almost every subject imaginable and it’s incredibly rare when a group of people can come together on anything. But if you get a group of  Star Trek fans together, no matter their political background, no matter what they think is the best Star Trek show, I’d wager every person in the room would agree with this one statement: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the best Star Trek movie.

Released in the summer of 1982, The Wrath of Khan was made on a fraction of the budget compared to the first Trek movie ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture ) by using tons of cost-cutting techniques to keep the budget down including reusing models, sets, effects footage, and costumes from the first film.

But while the film might have done things on a tight budget, what sets it apart from the slow-moving first installment is director Nicholas Meyer's focus on action and a great villain. In addition, while Khan (played brilliantly by Ricardo Montalban ) is a fantastic antagonist, I think what many people overlook is the decision by Meyer and the creative team to not have a stereotypical fight scene in the third act. In most movies, you’d have the two main characters on a collision course towards the eventual fight scene, but that’s not The Wrath of Khan . While you might not realize it, all the stuff between Captain Kirk and Khan Noonien Singh is done on view-screens and communicators. It’s what a futuristic fight scene would actually be and it’s one of the many reasons I love The Wrath of Khan.

With the film celebrating its 35 th Anniversary, Fathom Events and Paramount Pictures are going to bring back the classic film to more than 600 theaters throughout the U.S. on Sunday, September 10th, and Wednesday, September 13th, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (local time) each day.

To help celebrate its Anniversary and also to promote its return to theaters, I recently landed an exclusive interview with William Shatner . During the wide-ranging conversation, he shared some great behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the film, how the film had the highest opening weekend of all time when it first opened, how they all thought it could be the last time making a Star Trek film while shooting, his friendship with Ricardo Montalbån, how he was first told about Spock’s death, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.

Finally, if you’ve never seen The Wrath of Khan on a movie screen, I’d definitely recommend checking it out. You can buy tickets to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan here: www.FathomEvents.com .

Collider: How are you doing today, sir?

WILLIAM SHATNER: So well. What about you?

Anytime I can talk to you about Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is a great day.

SHATNER: Oh my gosh, that's great Steven.

I've been a fan of yours a very long time so I want to thank you for talking about the film with me.

SHATNER: Thank you.

A lot of people won't remember because it was 35 years ago, but when Wrath of Khan came out it had the biggest opening weekend of all time up to that point. Did you have any inkling that it was going to do that kind of business?

SHATNER: Nobody had any idea. We were holding our breath. It came on the heels of Star Trek: The Movie which today has made money and is looked on a little more fondly than it was when it was received. But because it was so rushed, I can remember we had the opening in Washington D.C., and the film, because they were carrying film around those days, the film hadn't arrived to be played in the theater in Washington til late that afternoon. It came handheld on a commercial airplane accompanied by the studio person.

That's crazy.

SHATNER: Yeah. So Star Trek: The Motion Picture was not well received because it was so rushed and didn't have the final editing time. So to all intents and purposes, that was it. The reviews weren't that great, business wasn't that great, that was going to be the end of it.

The owner of Paramount Studios at that time whose name I can't remember... his wife, so everybody said, "Okay, that's it, we've done it. We've made a movie of Star Trek ." That guy's wife said to her husband, "You've got to try again. It's such a great series," and she convinced him to bring in Harve Bennett who said, "I could make it for less," and then he hired Nicholas Meyer, who had written a really great segment, and it was done much more efficiently, much more like a TV show. Smaller, contained, and when it opened, we were thinking, hoping, that it wouldn't follow the same fate as the prior movie.

Well one of the things that I love about the film, and I think people won't realize, is that you and Khan never do the stereotypical fight scene. It's all done via view screen or a communicator. Did you ever want to do one of those fight scenes, or were you sort of like, "This is really cool that we're not going to just do what normally happens in a movie."

SHATNER: To the best of my recollection, I don't even remember being conscious of it. There was so much dialogue between us, it never occurred to me until after we had done it that I never set foot on the same set. I had known Ricardo [Montalbån] prior to working with him on the movie, but only slightly. In fact, the story is that as a teenager, I was from Montreal, and I'd come down with my parents every so often to New York City just to see New York City. And now I was in my late teens, and I was down in New York for the first time by myself and I went to see a musical. And I saw this dancer who really was good, a handsome man, dancing, and I thought, "Well, what a remarkable dancer, and you don't see good looking men dancing." And then I went to a movie and I saw the same guy and he was a good actor, a Latin lover, thought, "Wow, this guy is really terrific." So I noticed Ricardo Montalbån before I met him. I was aware of this guy who looked really good on film.

Then I met him, and then we worked together, and he had ridden horses and I was so interested in horses, and he was quite an athlete, and he had a sore hip. And then it just degenerated into, he totally became totally incapacitated. And the fact that I didn't do a scene with him together has only latter day been aware and sad about.

I think it's one of the reasons why the film is so good. Because normally, a film would build towards you guys having some sort of scene where you're fighting. That's what every movie does. And I think it's stronger that it's this futuristic kind of fight scene, where it's just via communicator and view screen.

SHATNER: I agree, there's a tension there that remains throughout the movie.

One of the things that I found fascinating when I was researching to talk to you is that the death of Spock actually leaked when you guys were making the movie. Which in that day and age, before the internet, is kind of shocking. So do you remember when you first heard that that sort of information had leaked, and what was the reaction from everyone?

SHATNER: Here's my memory of it. I'm sitting in a Harve Bennett's office, and he's describing the death of Spock and I'm shocked. "You mean we're going to kill Spock?" And "Yeah, and he goes into this room and this plastic door and he puts up his hand." And I said well, "Kirk would put up his hand to the door and they would touch and slide down." I acted out what the way I thought the scene would go, which they ultimately did the way I thought of it, so I was not only privy to the way it was going to go, I helped plot the outline of the way it would look.

That scene is obviously one of the most iconic in Star Trek history, but speaking of another iconic scene is, when you scream "Khan," it is one of these scenes that everyone knows that it's probably the most iconic Star Trek scene that's ever been done. At the time when you were making it, did you have any inkling that this was going to be such a memorable scene?

SHATNER: No. I was, nobody told me that there was some thought about bringing him back and that Leonard [Nimoy] leaned over, McCoy [DeForest Kelley], and whispered "remember." I said, "What's that all about? Why are we killing Spock? Why are we killing Spock?" And they said, "Well, Leonard doesn't want to do it anymore. I was thinking god, if Leonard doesn't want to do it anymore, what's going to happen to Star Trek ? If we were to make another film? Well, that's the way that went. They never told me.

At the time when you guys were making Khan , a lot of people felt that that should've been the first movie because the critical reaction to the first one wasn't there. Do you think that Khan should've been the first Star Trek movie, or do you think Khan's success is directly as a result of the first film you guys made?

SHATNER: Well I think you could that way. Who knew? The people heading up Paramount said, "Let's get Robert Wise, the great director, the great editor," he'd done so many movies for them. All those big musicals and ... So then Robert Wise says, "Yes, well my goodness what a coup that is, we're going to make a great motion picture." Well it didn't turn out to be a great motion picture because it lacked a humanity. It was special effects. Doug Trumbull wasn't edited because there wasn't time to edit the special effects. So the special effects went on too long and dragged a little here and there.

But the basic story lacked a humanity, because it was dealing with technology. Everybody fell in love with technology, which is a temptation in science fiction. You forget the human story, which is the most important thing.

No absolutely, and also the sequel, Wrath of Khan , has more of a swashbuckling type feel you know, and it's...

SHATNER: And a humanity. So the lesson that was learned, and we were given the opportunity to apply that lesson, was don't forget what Star Trek was originally, which was a good story.

Well speaking of technology, one of the things that Wrath of Khan did, which again I don't think a lot of people might realize, it was the first film to use an entirely computer generated sequence. But you guys used it effectively, because it used technology around the human story. Which you know the first film did, Douglas Trumbull as you said, do you remember your reaction when you first saw what computers could when you first saw the visual effects on Khan ?

SHATNER: Well, the evolution of special effects, I've got to imagine people have written books and articles. I don't believe I've read any, but from those beginning primitive, you know, filming the Enterprise was done in a little studio closet and they would move, sometimes by hand, the Enterprise and the camera would pick it up and somebody would be flicking the lights, and it was so primitive. And I've got to imagine that unless there was some geniuses who could look into the future and say, "This is primitive and we've got good stuff coming down the pipe," I thought, well that's the way it is, that's the way we'll do things.

Nobody that I spoke to over the many years had any inkling of what computer graphics could do, and that goes for everybody up til recently, until Avatar , there were ... “It's nice, these are great explosions and little animals,” but until Avatar which is a milestone of what you could do with interaction of humans and the computer graphics, nobody knew. All this is new. We're just, all of us humans on earth are just beginning to, it's just beginning to dawn on us what this technology can do for us and against us. We're just, we're all staggered by learning this. And that was the same way it was with the computer graphics in films. Oh my god, you mean you don't need a green screen?

I'm always curious about how involved have you ever been with the editing room. For example on Khan , did you ever go to the editing room and see how Nicholas was working and see what takes he was using, or are you sort of the type of person that like, "Show me the finished film."

SHATNER: Well, to answer that, I would have no authority to say "use that." That would be awful. That just isn't done. I mean, as I said, you have no authority to do it, so it would be senseless. Not only that, I was in the editing room on Star Trek five, but it's an anathema to me to look at myself, so I chose the easy way out which is not to pay any attention, hope that these really good, that these fine talents would come up with the right combination. Which of course they did.

Yeah, I read a thing with Nicholas Meyer and he said that as an actor, you seemed to get better after doing a few takes. Do you agree with that assessment, and typically speaking, how many takes do you like to do?

SHATNER: You can't put a number on it. I'm sure that he wouldn't have said, those words don't sound like Nick, but of course if you rehearse something and "oh, that’s how it workd, but I'm going to do this," and you rehears a few times on camera because you never know what's going to happen, after a number of takes it gets better because you know what's working, what's not working.

By the same token, you might be able to do something simple in one take, do something complicated in 12.

When you guys were making the sequel, do you remember an atmosphere on set thinking you know, "If this doesn't work this might be our last adventure."

SHATNER: Everybody thought that each movie was the last time. They burned the sets. Every movie, they burned the sets because that was the last movie. There was no point in storing it because nothing else was going to happen.

It's so crazy.

SHATNER: It was crazy. It was expensive.

I'm still amazed as a film fan that more of these sets actually don't get saved or put somewhere. Even though I guess they're not really made to last.

SHATNER: They aren't made to last, so they couldn't ... You know, there was talk about making a ride using the original sets, but they were made to, they were plywood. They were backed up, something was holding a piece of plywood up.

My last thing for you because I'm running out of time, when you think back on the making of Khan , is there a day or two that you will always remember?

SHATNER: Well, long time ago, my acquaintanceship, burgeoning friendship, with Ricardo Montalbån, although we never were in the same scene, I saw him frequently at his home or we'd eat someplace together. He was a lovely man, I cherish my memory of him.

I guess I have time for one last question, which is do you remember with Nicholas Meyer, were there a lot of changes onset with the script, or do you remember if it was one of those productions that kind of stuck closely to it? Because I know he did a rewrite in a very limited time frame to get this film green lit.

SHATNER: Right. No, he wrote extremely well and best of my recollection, there was very little adjustment.

Cool. Sir, I have to tell you sincerely, it is an absolute pleasure to talk to you about this and have a fantastic day.

SHATNER: You too, the pleasure is mine.

SHATNER: Bye bye.

'Wrath of Khan': Ricardo Montalbán on 'Star Trek's Iconic Villain and His Workout Transformation (Flashback)

The actor explained to ET in 1982 how he got into shape to face off against Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew.

Among Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ’s enduring legacy, which already boasts the introduction of the Kobayashi Maru, as well as Captain Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Mr. Spock’s ( Leonard Nimoy ) powerful goodbye scene, is Ricardo Montalbán’s iconic performance as Khan Noonien Singh. 

To celebrate the movie’s 40th anniversary, ET is looking back at Montalbán’s in-depth interview leading up to The Wrath of Khan ’s premiere on June 4, 1982. 

One question on everyone’s mind at the time was a bit superficial, but nevertheless imperative following Montalbán's appearance in the movie’s trailer and posters. Are those your real muscles? And if so: how did you get in shape?

“Before I did Khan , I started to do a lot of push ups,” Montalbán said with a laugh, confirming those pectorals on the big screen were the real deal. “Because, after all, [Khan] was supposed to be a physically strong man.”

Montalbán had the unique distinction of reprising the character over 15 years after he guest starred on the original series. In the season one episode, “Space Seed,” Kirk and crew encounter Khan, a genetically engineered human who’s been in suspended animation following a world war on Earth nearly 200 years ago. With enhanced strength and intellect, Khan seeks to take over the Enterprise and revive more of his superhuman peers. But his attempt is foiled. Instead, Kirk sends Khan and company to an uninhabited planet where they could fulfill their destructive ambitions, without bringing harm and chaos to the Federation in the process. 

“I venture to say I received more fan mail from that episode than anything I've ever done in my life,” Montalbán shared. 

By the time producer Harve Bennett came calling about literally reviving Khan for Star Trek ’s second film, Montalbán had become a household name from his role as Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island . Already many seasons into the hit TV series, Montalbán felt confident and comfortable as the show’s lead character. And when the moment came to step back into Gene Roddenberry’s universe, he discovered maybe he had become a little too comfortable. 

“When you play the same character for so many years, I get to know him so well that it becomes a little bit of a part of you, as you become a part of it,” Montalbán explained. “And when I first started to articulate the dialogue of Khan, and I was alone at home in my room and study, and the first time I say the words out loud I heard Mr. Rourke. And I couldn't get away from him and I didn't know what to do.”

“I asked Bennett, the producer of [ The Wrath of Khan ], to send me a tape of the original show I had done… He may be older and more bitter, but nevertheless, I have to discover his fingerprints,” he continued. “And so I saw the show. I ran it several times. And about the fourth or fifth time I began to remember what I did then. The thoughts came back to me. And it was really quite remarkable… Then, I picked up the script and all of a sudden there was Khan. And I think I eradicated Mr. Rourke.”

Following the mixed reception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, producers went back to basics for the next installment in terms of story, tone and antagonist. As Kirk endures the woes of a midlife crisis, Khan reenters the fold and is dead set on revenge. In Star Trek Into Darkness , Spock later warns his Kelvin timeline counterpart ( Zachary Quinto ) that "Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced." 

“A saint doesn't know that he's a saint. He does saintly things. And people around him say he's a saint,” Montalbán said, adding that likewise, “An evil man or a villain, I don't think he thinks of himself as being evil.”

Khan’s multifaceted nature and rich backstory is still paying off dividends. On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , the character's DNA literally runs high. The Enterprise's chief of security, La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), is a descendent of Khan. Over on Star Trek: Picard , the season 2 finale hinted Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) aided Khan's creation as a young scientist.

Alongside the Borg Queen and Gul Dukat, Khan continues to be heralded as one of Star Trek 's best villains, which is a legacy that can be attributed to Montalbán's thoughtful approach to creating a three-dimensional antagonist.

“When I played Khan… I had to give him some human qualities. Something of goodness,” Montalbán explained. “And I imbued Khan with a very sincere and a very beautiful love of his wife, who died. And that great love now turned into great hate for Admiral Kirk, who he blames for the death of his wife… Because if you play everything good-good, and everything bad-bad, then it's a caricature. There's no such thing. We all have a balance.”

Still, there was the age-old acting dilemma of finding the right tone. Even for an established film actor, having previously starred alongside movie icons like Clark Gable ( Across the Wide Missouri ) and Lana Turner ( Madame X ), Montalbán felt challenged by translating Khan for the cinema.

“Playing this character presented great difficulty. If I played him safely… I'm afraid the character would have been not a worthy antagonist to Admiral Kirk,” Montalbán said. “The only way I could do it then was to play it not safely but daringly. And really play it as fully as I could, because after all, [ Star Trek ] is a fantasy thing.”

Maximum warp to 2021, Jerry O'Connell told ET at Paramount+'s 2nd Annual "Star Trek Day" Celebration that he wants to follow in Benedict Cumberbatch 's footsteps by playing the infamous tyrant one day (even though he's already in the family as the voice of Ransom on Lower Decks ). 

The actor revealed, "Huge props to Ricardo Montalbán, who did amazing work not only in the original series but in [ Star Trek II ] as well, [but] I want a shot to play Khan at some point."

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan streams on Paramount+. 

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan review – Spock and Kirk shine in charming Enterprise revisit

The 1982 sequel to the original Star Trek film, featuring a film debut for Kirstie Alley, returns to cinemas with its crowdpleasing zap and raw emotion intact

T he 1982 sequel to the original Star Trek feature film is now re-released: a brisker, brasher work directed by Nicholas Meyer which moved away from the more lugubrious, Kubrickian ambitions of the first film and back to the crowdpleasing zap of the TV show, importantly starting with the irresistible theme tune. However, 60s TV Star Trek would surely never have given us anything like the rather extraordinary moment included in this movie: chief engineer Mr Scott is discreetly treated for a certain ailment by Dr McCoy, because of his recent “shore leave”. Too much information there about Mr Scott’s private life.

Wrath of Khan is the film that sensationally gave us the heroic and tragic sacrifice of Mr Spock, a wonderful performance of sonorous gravitas from Leonard Nimoy. That calamity traumatised its audiences and taught future generations of franchise-creators from Star Wars to Harry Potter that nothing grabs the fanbase like a big death. The Spock demise was further elevated in pop culture a decade later on the Seinfeld TV show when it was revealed that Jerry’s friend George Constanza was, in adult life, more moved by the memory of Spock’s fate than by the death of his own fiancee.

The situation aboard the USS Enterprise is that Spock is now captain, mentoring a commander-in-training, Saavik, played by Kirstie Alley in her debut film role. There has been another uniform redesign: tunics are now a deep cherry red, thus confounding the “red jersey” stigma, traditionally the colour of other ranks’ uniforms, those most likely to die when beamed down to other planets with more important cast-members.

Admiral James T Kirk (William Shatner) is yearning to get away from desk responsibility and see action once again. He is grimly aware of the passing years, made more piquant by a birthday present from his plain-speaking pal, Dr McCoy (DeForest Kelley): a pair of reading glasses. But Admiral Kirk’s inspection of the Enterprise coincides with a threat from his old nemesis Khan (an enjoyably hammy Ricardo Montalbán) who tries to steal a terrifyingly powerful new invention: the Genesis, which has the power to create biological lifeforms on desolate planets, but also to destroy lifeforms that are already there.

The unspeakable Khan gains an insidious access to the Enterprise by capturing Chekov (Walter Koenig) and getting a little reptile’s offspring to slither into his ear, thus putting him under a hypnotic influence: a truly creepy moment. And so the duel between Kirk and his old adversary begins, with the Admiral periodically shouting “Khaaaaan!” in pedantic moments of defiance. It’s still entertaining and charming in its innocent idealism.

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• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• US television

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Paramount Pictures Officially Confirms Star Trek Origin Movie For Its Upcoming Film Slate

| April 11, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 238 comments so far

Today, the road to the next Star Trek feature film took a small but significant step towards becoming reality.

Paramount makes it official

Earlier this year, it was reported that Paramount Pictures was developing a new Star Trek feature film in parallel development to the “Star Trek 4” sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond . Today the studio made the reports official as they announced their slate of films for 2025 and 2026, an official list which includes what Paramount is now calling “Untitled Star Trek Origin Story.” The studio also confirms the previously reported details: The film is “set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film.” Toby Haynes ( Andor , Black Mirror “USS Callister”) is directing based on a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith ( The Lego Batman Movie ), with J.J. Abrams returning as producer.

The Star Trek movie was just one of many the studio confirmed as part of their 2025/2026 slate at their CinemaCon presentation today. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins led the studio’s presentation at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This is the first time Star Trek has been part of the studio’s annual CinemaCon event since Robbins took over in 2021.

The “Star Trek 4” sequel to Beyond was not part of today’s CinemaCon presentation, presumably because with the recent hiring of a new screenwriter , that film would not be ready for theaters by 2026. It has also been reported that the origin story movie is set to start filming by the end of the year. There are no details yet on the plot, specific time setting, or cast. If Paramount can move fast enough they could get the origin movie into theaters by 2026—in time for Star Trek’s 60th anniversary.

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Fool me once … ( also I want a movie but until someone gets a set built I’m not holding my breath )

I’m not pre-ordering my tickets…..

You would need a title and a premiere date to order tickets. This film has neither.

I’d wait to believe it until you actually see a movie trailer for it. Noah Hawley was in the casting stage when they cancelled his Trek movie. They might have even started on the sets.

The film is on Noah’s IMDB Credits list…

Yep. I heard ferries exist too!

Car ferries?

Even now, it potentially doesn’t matter. They could pull a Zaslav and shelve the film after it was all but released.

I won’t believe it until my butt is in the theater seat and the film starts playing.

We don’t need the origin story. We have it already. It was called “Enterprise”.

I didn’t realize there was such a large interest in a Star Trek origin movie. It’s their money to burn.

I still believe this is their way of rebooting the “prime” universe from the beginning and remaking it in a new image. I see no other point of doing an origin movie. First Contact and Star trek: Enterprise were origin enough IMO.

I don’t quite get it either. We already got that with First Contact and Enterprise. What else is there that could interest the general public.

Yeah, and for me, the period between First Contact and Enterprise just doesn’t seem that exciting. The period between Enterprise and the Nero incursion would be more interesting, I guess.

They wrote that the origin film would be “set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film”. That film (in-universe) is set in 2233 (Nero incursion) and 2258 (main plot) respectively. So “decades before” would be after Enterprise, probably after the formation of the Federation, most probably before the Nero incursion, maybe around the turn of the century.

It’s just odd they are calling it an “origin” movie if it happens after Enterprise.

I’m curious what they mean by “origin”. The origin of Starfleet would be before Enterprise and the origin of the Federation would be after.

Also, the origin of Star Trek would have to be before the events of First Contact.

…assuming there is a concern about canon whatsoever, of course.

Many assumptions to be made at this point for sure.

Assuming this announcement doesn’t get added to the pile of previous unmade-movie announcements.

They’re calling it an origin movie to appeal to newcomers and casual fans.

Maybe we’ll see the founding of the Federation?

We already saw that in the infamous final episode of Enterprise. If they revisit that, they’d have to include the NX-01 crew and do a *lot* of deaging. 😉

They could show the first year of the Federation or something.

The obvious way to go is just do the Romulan war which leads into the founding of the Federation and what Enterprise was supposed to do.

That’s really the only thing fans actually want to see in terms of a prequel story.

Which was already scripted for Berman nearly 20 years ago by the band of brothers screenwriter.

Yep. I heard that’s what they were considering doing until the Kelvin movie got greenlit instead.

Overall the Kelvin movie was probably the better choice in terms of box office but I probably would’ve preferred the Romulan war idea because it did sound more original and different.

Couldn’t they just carry on from the end instead of squeezing more new shows in between what we already have?

For how little Trek lore has fleshed out that imaginary bit of history, do we really need to be putting some detail to how we went from post-apocalyptic hellhole to utopian paradise in fifty years? Maybe some enterprising human stole a replicator off a Vulcan ship and reverse engineered it? Seeing the sausage being made may not be a great on screen adventure…

Eastern Europe isn’t the best example – while they’ve done okay extricating themselves from the communist wasteland, it was (and is) without its setbacks.

that’s what makes me so crazy. Discovery was the chance to reboot the “prime” universe but they have stubbornly stuck to this quisling versio

Not only that, they already did a Star Trek origin movie. Star TRek 2009. But sure lets put more money in it, have it fail, and then blame the box office on why we will never get more trek. Thats a great idea!

That was really a Kirk and Spock origin story. There’s a century of Federation/Starfleet before them that we know almost nothing about. Plenty of room for a good one-off story. Maybe a story 20-ish years before Discovery , with Captain April and Lt. Commander Pike? Could have a young Sarek, too.

First off do we even know what they mean by “origin”?

Could be about the founding of the federation, the Romulan War, or the early days of starfleet pre-Enterprise.

It may have nothing to do with Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise, might not be any kind of reboot or reset.

My gut says it’s set in the Kelvin timeline and it takes place post USS Kelvin but pre-2009 Trek. And I’m fine with that.

They already said it will be based in the prime universe, not the Kelvin. I don’t know why they framed that press release that way but I guess since the Kelvin movies are the current movies they wanted to make clear to people this movie is before all of that I guess.

And obviously will have nothing to do with Kirk and Spock because it will be before they were even born.

These announcements feel like Groundhog Day, don’t they? Maybe that’s the story they should tell.

A feature length version of Cause and Effect…

I’m guessing Romulan Star Empire Wars era setting.

Yeah, maybe it’s the concept Rick Berman pitched: a Romulan War film where the NX-01 is off vacationing at Risa.

How about Star Trek: Federation . Founding of the Federation, which is immediately followed by a crisis requiring the urgent launch of USS Federation (NCC-01). Scott Bakula has a cameo appearance as President Archer.

Here we go! :D

Star Trek Origins: The Future Begins

Yeah but it’s not as exciting when we literally have a thousand years of that future now.

This is why prequels bore so many people when we already know so much about the future it’s setting up.

At least with the Kelvin movies they were smart to not make it a traditional prequel and people still hated those too.

I will never understand the obsession of going backwards when you have a fanbase that is constantly begging to go forward and prequels don’t attract new fans at all because they are made for oddly old fans in mind. You only cared about how Anakin became Vader in the prequels if you watched the OT.

We really know almost nothing (in canon) about the entire century that elapses between Enterprise and Discovery , though. I would have preferred Kelvin Movie 4 or even a post-TNG original movie (maybe with Patrick Stewart making a cameo) but I could get behind a canon treatment about the first years of the Federation.

If it’s really something good or interesting fine. If it’s just ‘this is how the Federation was formed” we already got that already.

Now if it’s the Romulan war or something then that’s at least something people can get excited about. But yeah we already know how it ends so maybe that won’t be it either.

I just can’t really get to excited about a prequel movie.

Yeah, I think the Romulan war would be a great premise for a movie, BUT according to TOS the battles were fought with “primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives, nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication; therefore, no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other.”

In other words canon would have to be completely ignored – we all know Enterprise completely disregarded the TOS take of the war as the NX-01 had visual comms, phase cannons and photonic torpedoes. If the story is a good one, I am totally good with ignoring canon, but of course others are not.

Yeah that’s always the issue with the Romulan War thing, it’s really hard to make a compelling story about it when you are fighting it without directly engaging the enemy.

That said I’m 100% convinced they will just ignore that and do what they want or just find an excuse to change ot. Look at SNW, this the show that has shown the Gorn years before they were supposed to be seen and completely changed Khan’s original timeline using TCW as the reason..

Discovery had an entire Klingon War when that didn’t remotely exist in canon.

So yeah it probably won’t matter that much end of the day. They will just make what they want and then will use some excuse to do it. That’s been the case since Enterprise as you said.

Exactly! Very well put!! I just wish someone from TPTB would listen already!

Think about it prequels are easy to make because most of the writing is done for you. You don’t have to come up with where these characters will go.

Only if they are old characters though. But this sounds like Enterprise and not SNW and it will be all new characters.

So, it would be set after Enterprise and before the Kelvin fiasco. Awesome.

Probably the Romulan Wars. And with no Enterprise. Not excited

If only I could insert the Will Farrel “I don’t believe you!” GIF.

Whatever this turns out to be, hopefully it will be interesting. More likely it will turn out to be just another dead Trek movie project.

So many of these stories do seem to go absolutely nowhere! However, I am not as negative about an origin story as some fans are. At this point, I am more neutral on the movie. I can see that under the right circumstances it could be quite interesting. Although prequels can be a tough sell to Star Trek fans. Ultimately the fact that’s a movie could work in its favor though. Less storylines to produce over the years might help keep the story focused! Though I am not sure it would be a box office draw.

I’ll believe it when I’ve seen it in theaters, listened to TrekMovie’s review, and have the blu-ray on my shelf 4 months later.

Where to place the Blu-ray tho?

Before ST09 or after Beyond? …or.. Before TOS?

They go in order of release, for me. But could this be the first Trek film I don’t purchase on disc? Time may tell…

It’s an origin story taking place in the prime universe so it will go either before or after Enterprise basically.

I’ll believe it when it actually happens. Also, Seth Grahame-Smith is not a good writer, so that doesn’t bode well.

My thoughts exactly.

I liked the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but not the movie.

I absolutely loved the Lego Batman movie, though. If he is able to incorporate Trek lore with as much care as he did for Batman, it could turn out to be a very good movie after all.

I’ll believe it when I’m sat i theatre turning off my phone with my Star Trek Origins screensaver and eating popcorn out my STO popcorn bucket (the lid in shape of the Starfleet A insignia )

He co wrote The Flash right? I really liked that , I could imagine something similar happening with Nero as happened with Zod in that (going back to 1st film via timetravel)

This is what’s over at Box Office Mojo: Untitled Star Trek: Beyond Sequel (????)

Grain of salt, anyone?

There are apparently two movies planned. Origin and Trek 4…

Actually there are three now including one that we all thought was DOA two minutes after it was announced.

Three movies in development from a studio who has cancelled four of them for 8 years now. And this will be the fourth new script for the next Kelvin movie.

That’s why everyone is very very confident this one is happening for sure. 🙄

The only thing we can take to the bank is we will see Section 31, starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh!!

Pretty much.

And a studio that is broke and in debt with junk status. None of these will likely be made or just the super cheapy origin movie if they can keep the budget low.

My thoughts exactly as well.

I’m pretty sure you got your facts wrong.

Sigh. Why do the powers that be always want to go backward in the ST timeline and do origin stories and such?

Lack of confidence in new ideas and to make it as cheaply as possible, are two things that come to mind right away.

It’s simple. They don’t want all that trek nerd baggage. They want a movie anyone would go to see and understand.

How’s that working for them?

You don’t get it.

I don’t get it either? It’s not like the prequel stuff has been huge home runs or big money makers.

The Star Wars prequels made a lot of money. That’s what Paramount still looks at, even though they have yet to duplicate that financial success.

Yes but that’s STAR WARS! It’s going to make a lot of money period. And those prequels came out when it was just the OT and nothing else for literally decades. There was a lot of hype just returning to those stories.

This is not the same thing, especially when we already had so many prequels in Trek now and with mixed results. That said I’m not saying it can’t be successful but I don’t see any huge hype around it either because most fans just seem to want to go forward and not backwards.

All the negativity over this ‘announcement’ is well deserved. Just make a fcking movie already Paramount, Jesus.

But I suspect IF this one is real it’s probably a much cheaper movie being new actors and maybe something with a lot less explosions and FX. I suspect it will probably be around $100 million.

It’s certainly doesn’t sound like something they are pushing to make a billion dollars or anything. Only people who cares about a prequel will be mostly old fans and even they aren’t exactly excited about yet another prequel judging by all the reactions so far. Maybe they will attract an A list star or a well respected one to bring more hype to it.

But same time I been pushing to just do something NEW with new characters and setting forever now. Stop trouting out Kirk and Picard, take a real chance with the franchise for a change. I was hoping it would be Post Nemesis but I should be happy I finally got half of what I wanted lol.

But I’ll believe it when I see it. I have literally been saying this line for six years now and I’m really tired of saying it. 🙄

Yup, exactly. Assuming it even happens, the premise sounds weak. Not surprised.

Yep. Unless it’s something truly mind blowing it’s not going to elicit a lot of excitement. Sure we’ll all go lol but I don’t see this thing having any real pull beyond the true believers.

It probably got the greenlight because its really cheap and it’s becoming embarrassing how long this franchise has languished.

I really only go to movie theaters to see Trek films (much prefer the comforts of home to see movies), so yup I’ll be going, good or bad. And yes, it is really pathetic the way this franchise has been treated on the big screen for the past 20 years. Disgraceful.

Ummm… what premise?? The only thing we know is that it is an origin movie. Nothing else. There IS no premise yet…

I think he means just another origin story itself feels a bit tired. But yes we don’t specifically know what that means yet but anything before TOS at this point just doesn’t really get a lot of fans all that hot and bother.

Whatever it ends up being it’s just filling in to more history we already know.

I get it. But no matter what era they make a movie in, there will be complaints. We have done prequels – some fans hate that. We have done same era as TNGish – fans complained. Likewise, we have had a show set in the future (soon to be another) – fans complained. There aren’t many options left.

Before TOS: Enterprise, JJ movies, Discovery, SNW just after TNG era: Picard, Prodigy, Lower Decks Future: Discovery, Starfleet Academy

Do they just make things in the era of TNG, DS9 and Voyager? No matter what is produced, there will always be a fan base that is unhappy.

Most people seem to really want the Legacy show though. I think for the majority of fans they may not agree with everything but there is definitely a sense they rather go forwards than backwards and why 4 of the 5 shows are post Nemesis shows.

And if you gave the option between a Legacy movie or this prequel idea, it wouldn’t be close.

I just don’t think making a prequel movie is the best idea out there. And I don’t think new audiences will remotely care one way or the other.

I’m going to start reporting you now. One guy got the boot for being an obsessive troll and like you was already banned before anyway.

Leave me alone from this point on. I mean it.

What a total disappointment. I wanted to see the Kelvin crew return. It’s going to be 10 years between films.

Please be Kirk and Spock at least.

Check the first paragraph of the article out again. This one is presumably being developed ‘in parallel’ to the Kelvin crew sequel.

Recast Kirk and Spock, I presume?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the main character is Kirk’s great grandfather, Tiberius something or other.

And not surprised there was no announcement of the next JJ verse movie. I predicted a few weeks ago that one wouldn’t get made by 2026 or the 60th anniversary. Frankly I don’t even know why they are even bothering with it anymore? Whenever it’s supposed to come out it’s already going to be the last one and over 10 years since the last one came out.

What’s even the point? They are clearly moving on from it.

As far as the origin movie why not just make it for the 60th anniversary? Why rush it? It’s already been nearly a decade, what’s one more year at this point and you can Marley it better in an anniversary year.

Its the reverse of ST 6, here we getting the prequel movie instead of the final cast film (for the anniversary)

Someone on another board said we are probably getting the sequel to First Contact so it would make sense to have it for the 6Oth anniversary 30 years apart lol.

“[S]et decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film?”

Gimme Archer & T’Pol, or else…

Neither actor has any interest in returning to Star Trek, so that won’t happen.

I’ve only heard Bakula say that about Quantum Leap , not Enterprise . And this is a feature film, a lot harder for an actor to turn down. I agree with his decision to ignore the QL reboot (that series didn’t capture the heart and soul of the original at all) but if Paramount approached him with “we want you to play President Archer for a few scenes in this movie” I doubt he’d say no.

No, no no. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s a story about a little design firm vying for the chance to design the Enterprise. It’s a story about a plucky band of mechanical engineers and physicists who come together to do the best pitch of their lives in a bidding war with three other firms. So, an origin story…from a certain point of view. ;)

I would watch,THAT!

I would write that!

I would direct that! (If I was Christopher Nolan)

No, I want Nolan doing ThePrisoner! He’s already got a script from the guy who wrote 12 Monkeys and the best stuff in Blade Runner, from over a decade back.

You probably meant it as a joke, but I’m also intrigued by this idea :D

Charlie Kaufmann does star trek.

Sure, you can store anti-matter in a glass jar. What could possibly go wrong?

Y’know, I know this is said partly in jest, but I wouldn’t mind that kind of movie if it was sort of a space race / WWII / Cold War drama, kind of a mix of Oppenheimer and The Right Stuff.

There’s a geo (spatio?) political angle (firm up the borders of the Federation, mitigate threats, and establish new allies while keeping up the exploration / first contact initiatives), the pressure on the engineering team to deliver groundbreaking new tech (and probably the cost of failed experiments, accidents, etc.), and then recruiting and training a new kind of crew – a starship crew (as Captain Merrick described them in ‘Bread and Circuses’.)

In essence, the origin of Starfleet as we know it – the first long-duration missions, the best of the best crewmembers, cross-trained, multidisciplinary, and for the first time, widely multi-species, etc.

Glad you all like. Paramount, you can send the check to: bmar, care of….

I’m thinking there’s going to be peace in the Middle East and nuclear fusion power is going to be a reality before they ever get back to the theaters.

Once upon a time I enjoyed Star Trek. Since the Nu Trek era began. I havent enjoyed any of the story arcs. They are just too aweful. There is a multitude of reasons why throught the web. Strange New Worlds S1 corrected course, however S2 not so. There are forces at work at Paramount. They are hell bent to destroy Star Trek. If Kurtzman and crew are in charge of the new movie. Get ready for more fantasy drama nonsense, and less plausable sci-fi.

Same here. I can’t get into NuTrek much at all. It feels like a shell of the golden era. For me that will always be 1966-2005.

But if others like it and getting new fans I’m very happy for them.

Same here. I’ve found a few gems in SNW S1, PIC S3, and S1 of Prodigy, but otherwise have been very disappointed in “NuTrek.” Of course I wish the franchise the best, but so far it’s been more misses than hits for me.

Yes I truly love Picard season 3! The best thing to come out of NuTrek so far. I don’t hate SNW but it railroads canon too much for my taste but it does feel like Star Trek again.

I haven’t seen Prodigy yet but I plan to watch it when season 2 begins and will watch season 1 before that one. Everyone kept saying it’s for kids and I’m far from a kid these days lol. But others here convinced me it’s a show for adults too so will give it a go

Wow, hell-bent on destroying Trek. Hell-bent, you say!! Just a tough melodramatic, are you?

Really don’t care about prequels and just want to keep going forward. Why not a movie in the 25th or 26th century with new crew and characters?

I may care more if Archer is involved or something. But I suspect this movie will bomb like the last one did. Only fans cares about prequels. New fans won’t care at all.

At least it’s in the prime universe again I guess.

But 25th or 26th century would still be a prequel to Discovery’s 32nd century :D

That doesn’t bother me because we don’t know anything about those time periods. We already know plenty about everything before TOS because it’s all been said or told now

Yeah I said this to another member the other day discussing any post Picard stories and that it will be completely new stories in a period we don’t know so it’s not the same thing. When you’re doing something like a TOS prequel you only have so much room and while it can certainly be interesting and creative it basically just like filling in to more stuff we already know.

That said the Section 31 movie time period is at least more interesting because it covers a much wider time period and they can be a lot more freer with the technology, etc so looking forward to that at least.

Yes I will admit although I’m not a big fan of the Space Nazi the time period of the movie intrigues me more. I always been curious of this period and the lead up to TNG, mostly because we know very little about it.

Discovery (in my view) kind of ruined everything in the Trek timelime. Just my opinion. Anyone who wants to just forget it happened, I’m in. Kidding, not kidding.

Agreed! I also don’t think it will be allegorical science fiction or be anything thought provoking. It will be a fast paced action adventure story that’s empty of depth and soul. Modern Star Trek is more interested in spectacle than compelling stories.

I’d guess that it means “origin of the TOS crew,” but that’s kind of weird, because we saw that in 2009.

Maybe this time they’ll start when they’re toddlers. (I kid, but not really). :)

They are going to re-do ‘A night in Sickbay’ like they did with Wrath of Khan/Into Darkness. It’ll be the same but different…..

Could this be their way of doing a George Kirk movie?

I would want to watch that, colour me intrigued…

“set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film.”

Original 2009 Sta Trek film Sounds so wrong.

there is only two star trek origin stories i want to see the formation of the federation and it’s first few years if they have to adapt the rise of the federation novels for the movie and the origins of the borg they could adapt the plot ffor thet from the star trek destiny novels for a movie

Spot on, on both points!

2025? I hope it works out…

First we hear we are getting a Star Fleet Space Academy series that no one wants. The idea was mentioned in the 1980’s and shot down by fans. Now a retake on a Star Trek Origins films. Is any one currently running the Star Trek franchise in TV/streaming or film even listening to what the fans both old and new are saying?

It would seem not, sadly. How about establishing the time period between TUC and TNG, there’s a literal ton of stories to tell there? How the possibilities for storytelling within the franchise have been squandered over the years makes me frustrated, and frankly confused. SO many missed opportunities.

The upcoming section 31 movie will be set during that time frame as we know a young Rachel Garrett who later in life will be the captain of the enterprise c and defend the Klingon colony of narendra 3 will be in the movie maybe we will get to see the ent-b also again

Pointless movie as no audience will come see it at best it will make half its budget back. I mean they spent $250M on the 2009 movie and it showed on screen….you already know they are not spending that level otherwise it would be a Kelvin cast sequel!

I believe they spent just under 160 mil on the 09 (not counting the interest payments for holding the finished film for six months to get a summer release, or prints/advertising.) You’re probably thinking of BEYOND with the 250 number.

I still can’t see the money on screen in the 09, shooting in the damn brewery was Corman-level cheap.

The Numbers have the 09 costs 140 and BO Mojo sez 150, so yeah, way under the 250m you mention.

Can the ethos of Trek be distilled by JJ? Bob orci was bad for trek.

Kurtzman seemed to fall into trap w/discovery season 1.

Season 2, Picard, Lower Decks and SNW definitely sealed my thinking that Trek was in right hands.

Is section 31 and Rachel Garrett the right pivot for Trek? I thought 24th/25th century had plenty of stories to still tell.

Enterprise C, and possibly Tasha Yar/Sela after the events of Yesterday’s Enterprise! This should reboot TNG/Picard if ST: Legacy doesn’t happen.

Lower Decks makes me laugh Picard made me cry (good) SNW made me feel like Kurtzman should be trusted 💯

Great. Abrams ruined Star Wars and he’s finishing of Star Trek.

JJ had a planed out story plot for what he wanted to happen in the sequels but rian johnson chose to deviate from what jj had payed out so when jj returned for episode 9 he had to try and make the best of it and make his original story plot work but with the changes Johnson had made altering it so he had to come up with another evil sith mastermind and chose palpatine and he did course correct Rey’s lineage though it was different from who he had initially planned it to be and with Carrie fishers untimely passing he had to rewrite more and he had Luke show up as a force ghost to help rey when she returned to ach-to as apparently he was never going to have Luke die until the the final battle

I hope it has nudity

….and “Invincible” level action. It’ll be a hard R Quinton Tarentino could love.

Yes, we are on the same page.

CinemaCon basically works like a network upfront. You see clips and hear a lot of announcements. When there’s no cast or start date for announced projects, there’s maybe a 50/50 chance that the project will actually move forward (I was with a former employer for over 8 years and we announced a lot of stuff that generated a lot of buzz but then never materialized).

I think Brian Robbins will be gone within the next 12 months and if Robbins is pushed out this film is dead in the water.

This is probably the right answer.

I have next to no faith this will actually happen but they only have themselves to blame lol.

I remember a former poster kept saying ‘well this a new regime ‘ they aren’t the old guys’. Uh huh. It just shows end of the day they might be different but they still answer to the same shareholders and they know another Trek film is risky. Maybe this will finally get beyond a script this time but no one will be convinced until they start shooting the thing.

Rehashing old fandom letter campaign complaints from 40 years ago, don’t equate to the modern sci-fi fan, let alone the majority of Star Trek fans of 2024. The majority of complaints in the article comments are that there isn’t enough new future timeline Star Trek, so why would people NOT want a Star Fleet Academy series – new stories, new characters, new ships, new alien species/planets etc? An Origin movie is a vague enough description that it’s probably likely that the fandom can’t come anywhere close to a correct theory on when in the Trek timeline, this movie could be set.

I agreed with a commenter earlier, a George Kirk prequel movie would satisfy a lot of the fans, and hopefully generate enough interest for new and casual Star Trek moviegoers to warrant their going to a cinema complex. As to want the hardcore Star Trek fandom really want? There is too much dissent and bitter recriminations gone by, for any serious agreement by the fandom of their requirements, to stick for any longer than the next Trek major media article to be issued. And even if a majority agreement could be achieved – then we have the Mount Everest of EP Alex Kurtzman / Secret Hideout control of Trek production, to climb. A movie or series could have a billion-dollar budget, stellar A-list cast and crew, critical media acclaim for the story / screenplay. A favourable release timing and viral marketing, but fall at the last hurdle – the box office, due to the mountain of hate piled up against Paramount, Kurzman and his associates.

Now, as to the overall custodianship of the Trek franchise and its operation as a business, in general by Paramount, and its contracted creatives? Well, that’s a whole Hollywood chapter in itself. And is any of that even relevant in the long term, with the behind-the-scenes Harry Potter Wizard chess moves that are going on at the studio ownership, and network controlling interest levels? Apologies for the extended and extensive reply.

The first thing to do in order make a successful Star Trek movie is to ignore Star Trek fans.

God, please, no origin stories.

Star Trek: The Beginning, Part 1 — A Final Frontier Origin Story

Star Trek has always been a production dealing with many human issues pushing open the veils of awkwardness, embarrassment, and unaddressed behaviors that represent our culture planet wide. Thank You Star Trek. The one thing Paramount+ did that was just totally in bad taste was cancel Prodigy, bunch of morons.

Every fan’s preferences are different, but over the years I’ve ended up streamlining various ‘franchises’ I enjoy to my own liking when it comes to a re-watch – and these days my own limited Star Trek ‘canon’ purely consists of kicking things off with ‘The Cage’ pilot storyline….followed by my specific favourite TOS episodes in ‘production order’ (starting with ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’, and skipping ‘The Menagerie’ two-part storyline)….followed by all the TOS movie storylines….and ending the Kirk crew’s adventures with ‘The Undiscovered Country’ as my preferred send-off for them all….then skip the antics of the ‘Generations’ movie, and instead continue on with my specific favourite TNG episodes (starting with the ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ introduction to Picard and his crew)….and then conclude the entire thing with the ‘First Contact’ movie’s storyline – which covers the development of ‘warp drive’, bringing everything full circle, and giving me all the ‘origin’ specifics I need..

All other ‘Trek-related shows and movies since then remain firmly on my ‘one-watch-only’ list, but I’m more than content with what I’ve outlined above.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get a ‘Star Trek’ movie which goes much deeper than glossy ‘pew-pew’ action and explosions in the future, but I remain hopeful.there might be a storyline that I really like again.

In the meantime, for my latest ‘alien contact’ fix, I’ve just finished up enjoying the excellent ‘Three-Body’ show’s inventive storyline and characters – the subtitled, 30-episode one produced by Tencent, which is currently available on YouTube and Amazon Prime (not the muddled 8-episode ‘3 Body Problem’ version by Netflix) – So much so, that I’m intending to buy the actual trilogy of books by the Chinese author, as I can’t wait for the next season to be made to find out what happens next. Some big ideas to come by all accounts, and I’m there for a bit more of that. .

The Netflix series is Superior

You’re welcome to your own preference of course.

But I far preferred the slow burn of the mystery and character build-ups in the Tencent version compared to the condensed and altered Netflix adaption. I just happen to find it a more satisfying and riveting version overall – and I will always prefer the way the ‘Judgment Day’ tanker got ‘nano-spliced’ in the Tencent version. Such an awesome sequence from start to finish!

Anyway, if the Netflix version actually gets a second season, I’ll certainly check it out too….but I am definitely looking forward to the next season of the Tencent show, which has been greenlit already.

The Tencent version is just boring to me and you can feel the Party’s hands all over it. Glad you liked it though.

I did indeed like it. A lot. I hadn’t read the books as I said, so didn’t know what to expect. Having read up on a few things since watching both shows, it seems that that there’s plenty of others that much prefer the slower build-up of the Tencent version too.

While it doesn’t include the likes of the brutal Netflix show’s opening, the hardship that the main female character endured was covered sufficiently for me throughout the show, and I’m just glad that I got to know her story by watching this version first.

And I sure didn’t miss the amount of unnecessary swearing that the Netflix version included either, which gave the Tencent version additional points. I don’t appreciate it my ‘Star Trek’ viewing, and I didn’t need it in the telling of this memorable sci-fi tale either.

And just to add, that even better for me is the fact that there’s now been a 26-episode ‘Anniversary Edition’ version of the Tencent show released, which has been re-edited by the director.

It seemingly cuts down on some ‘filler’ run-time that was added for the sake of the show’s producers initially, so that things will follow the original book’s contents even more closely now, and improve on the pacing of the show overall. I’m very pleased about that.

Whats so bad about swearing? The human race has been swearing since language was invented and we’ll be swearing 10,000 years from now.

Again, it’s just a personal preference thing.

There’s plenty of hard-edged movies and shows that contain wall-to-wall swearing which I can watch if I’m in the mood for them. But other times I’m equally inclined to watch something with less harsh language throughout.

I really disliked the F-bombs which the ‘Picard’ show included for instance, and didn’t think the ‘Star Trek’ franchise was the better for it. And I doubt that I would have enjoyed the Tencent ‘Three-Body’ adaption any better if it had contained bad language too.

Anyway, back to this supposed ‘Star Trek origin movie. I’d like to think it won’t be littered with F-bombs either.

PG13 are allowed 1 f bomb (like Guardians 3 I finally saw other night). And Trek is very comfortable to f bombs in Picard etc so safe to say we’ll be getting Treks first movie f bomb next film :)

Data said “Oh $hit” in Generations.

Which was very mild compared to what we heard in ‘Picard” Not that I would wish to show my younger family members the ‘Picard’ show anyway, considering it turned out to be so dire overall.

However, Data’s reaction was hilarious in that scene’s context I recall. Just a pity the rest of the movie was such a dud, and not part of my own ‘Star Trek’ canon anymore.

I’ll always wonder what the Tarantino script would have given us….

we don’t need origin stories for everything! in media res is the way to go – almost always – TOS just dumps you right in the middle of events without even the clunky intros of TNG Encounter at Farpoint.

If this movie does well will IT get an origin story? We’re going to end up at the pool of goo at the dawn of humankind waiting for Picard and Q to show up…

im happy with any good trek news… even if they made a direct sequel to the final frontier… but how many origin stories do we need? i’d be happy if someone forged a path forward and created new things…

So this one is set in the five-minute period between Enterprise and Discovery? Or the as-yet unexplored time between April 5th 2063 and Enterprise where it’s “stone knives and bear skins” and no Trek tech to speak of? Enterprise was the prequel! How’d that one work out?

If the movie is made ,I will judge it then.

I wanted the 4th Kelvin, do they know who their audience is? Nobody i know, Star Trek fan or general audience bothered to go see Beyond. It was like Nemesis all over again. The trailer was terrible, the movie was kind of meh to be honest. So in the intervening years since the 2009 somewhere they lost the audience. Star Trek 2009 was an event movie, and 2015 Force Awakens was as well. Good job letting JJ go to Disney so Star Trek died as a film series.

I’m guessing the fourth movie is still too costly to risk making another one at least right now.

Someone threw out an an interesting theory on the last thread discussing this for the 47th time that they suggested Paramount have no plans to actually make another Kelvin movie but just as a rouse for the next company that buys the studio.

It really makes sense at this point, they can dangle the idea the movie is in ‘development’ and then when someone actually buys it they can just decide to make it or cancel it.

I mean it doesn’t sound crazy considering where we are. It’s a movie that is working with their fourth new writer but there is still no director or even a starting date of any kind within the the next two years.

Them you have this origin movie that was just announced a few months ago and that’s already scheduled to come out next year. My guess is it will probably cost half of what another Kelvin movie would be. But yeah who knows if that will get made either, but it has a better chance than a Kelvin movie.

Ikr, Beyond totally killed interest the series , the Fast Furious teaser trailer was bad, the second trailer gave away the twist, the audience (who cared about that stuff) knew JJ had crossed over to SW (which gave the behemoth of SW7 even more publicity, making ST feel less an event), there was no hook for fans or even general moviegoers like there was for ST09/ID (like if Shatner had returned or the Borg being the villain again) and nothing ‘big’ happening in the canon like the previous ones (Orcis ST3 had the timeline under threat of being wiped out, which would’ve been a huge deal) the eventual movie was kind of meh as you say and was just abit nerdy and Insurrection looking (like it was for hard core fans only).

At the time i had some friends (some who were casual Trek fans, and some even disliked Trek) who thought 09/ID were awesome and they didn’t even bother to see Beyond bc of the trailers and the general vibe (its like it felt like abit of a turkey, like other big sequels/remakes that summer, Ghostbusters, Independence Day 2 etc, )

I actually agree with all of this and I personally think Beyond was the best of the three.

But you’re right, there was really no hook for the movie and that first trailer was just awful. It almost kept me away from watching it.

But the biggest problem is the new fans just lost interest by then. I always bring up the fact I had three friends who had never seen Star Trek before went to go see the first film and generally loved it. I thought it was truly bad but fine for a brainless action movie.

But by the time Beyond showed up all three had zero interest in the franchise by that point. They just stopped caring. I remember asking one of them that saw the first two movies in the theater if he planned to watch Beyond and his response was no because now Star Wars was back and he rather just watch that. And he thought it looked boring.

That’s the entire problem trying to get new fans onboard and a lot of them were like my friends who just saw these movies as another summer action movie but nothing beyond that. They never cared about the franchise itself and so it was very easy to move on when the next shiny toy showed up.

That’s exactly why I don’t see another one doing all that well because to newbies it’s still Star Trek and it’s not cool enough to fully get into and will probably bomb again unless the budget is just super low.

I watched Guardians Vol 3 the other night on dvd and it (and previous 2) kind of felt the same as Beyond abit , the look, the vibe, the action, set pieces, the humour, the rock songs etc . so really with Guardians (that Beyond tried to ape), along with the return of SW, Trek 3 had no chance with casual movie goers who would just consider it Guardians/SW lite , (between the generational event of SW7 and the next GOTG vol 2) .. Even more reason to have gone with Orci’s more ‘star trek’ version of ST3 featuring Shatner

I can’t name anyone who actually wants an origin movie. By the way, didn’t we get that one with First Contact already anyway?

It’s not up to you or anyone you pretend to know.

Another prequel? This is getting ridiculous now. Remember when Star Trek used to go forwards? Enough already!

Kurtzman said he didn’t have the authority to greenlight legacy. I wonder if that will be like Bennet’s academy years and never happen.

18 months is not enough time for a movie of this size unless this is ready to shoot in july.

The JJ-verse is an aberration no one is particularly a fan of. There is no one who wants to how that mess started. It’s done nothing but foul everything that went before, leaving ST-ENT, of all things, as the only remaining official classic canon. Bugger that.

I need Star Trek that is hopeful, aspirational, and inspirational. 15 yrs later neither Bad Robot or Secret Hideout has done anything close to that. Sec 31 and Starfleet Academy aren’t anything viewers want. I wish they’d just stop.

lol,if you say so…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Anonymous writer of Trek 4 shares his experience

Interviewer: Hello, we are here today to talk to a former writer for the very very very (like really very) long delayed fourth Kelvin movie. With the announcement of a prequel movie being released instead and yet ANOTHER new set of writers for the next Kelvin movie, we reached out to the only person who returned our calls; a former writer from the 2023 project.

To give us an honest insight into his experience he wishes to remain anonymous. For the sake of this interview he will be simply referred to as ‘GotohellParamount’. Thank you for meeting with me today.”

GotohellParamount’: “You’re welcome.”

Interviewer: “It sounds like your experience working on the last movie didn’t end too well. How is your relationship with the studio today?”

GotohellParamount: “Bleep them in their bleeping bleepholes. I hope they all die from bleeping Ebola.”

Interviewer: ‘That’s some pretty colorful metaphors. Can I ask what happened?”

GotohellParamount: “Their bleeps that’s what. We spent a year working on that movie. We lost the director to go work for Marvel because these bleepholes kept bleeping us around. I got so frustrated I finally texted the Head Studio Guy and said ‘will you people stop bleeping around!? Get off your bleeps and let’s make a movie already!!’

Three weeks went by and I finally got a response from them. It simply read ‘K’. Bleepholes!!! By the way you’re not going to ‘bleep’ any of these words out are you?”

Interviewer: “Um…of course not. Can you tell us a little about what the movie was about?”

GotohellParamount: “The gist was a huge black ship comes from the 25th century to the 23rd century wiping out solar systems in the Federation. It was a new villain who wanted…wait for it…vengeance. That bleep was going to be bleeping awesome!!”

Interviewer: “So who was going to be the villain?”

GotohellParamount: “That’s the greatest part of it all. He was going to call himself…you ready: Kaos. JJ Abrams himself came up with that name. But then the true reveal was that he was indeed Kirk’s great great great great great great great great great great grandson from the future and came to stop Kirk from destroying his planet so he had to destroy the Federation first. We were even thinking Chris Pine can play both parts but Paramount was worried he would demand twice the salary.”

Interviewer: “I interviewed Chris Pine a few months ago and he was hoping there would be more scenes of him riding another motorcycle. Did you include that in the script?”

GotohellParamount: “Do you remember the ending of Mission Impossible 2 with the motorcycle duel? Pretty much the same ending with our movie with Kirk versus his evil grandson; except it was going to take place either on Romulus or in San Francisco. We were still figuring it out. There was even talk of it happening on a lava planet… but that would’ve ballooned the budget.

Interviewer: “Sounds very exciting. How was he going to wipe out the solar systems?”

GotohellParamount: “The ship he was on had the power to destroy stars by breaking down their fusion reactions. The FX was going to be bleeping sick.”

Interviewer: “Wait so the ship was a…Star destroyer?”

GotohellParamount: “Yep but to get around copyright issues JJ wanted to call it a Destroyer of Stars. The man is a bleeping genius I tell you.”

Interviewer: “It’s definitely a name.”

GotohellParamount: “We were so proud of the script. We gave it to JJ to read it. After he put it down, he took off his glasses put his hand on my shoulders and said ‘this is the most original Star Trek story I’ve ever read and I’ve read three of them.’ You have no idea how much that meant coming from such a visionary like him.”

Interviewer: “I’m sure you were. Was there any casting possibilities before it was shut down?”

GotohellParamount: “Was there?? We reached out to some incredible actors! Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon. We wanted him to actually play Kirk’s evil grandson.

Interviewer: “Wait… weren’t all of them in Oppenheimer?’

GotohellParamount: “(Hard shrug)! I don’t know I haven’t seen it yet. Unfortunately Matt Damon’s agent was the only one who bothered to call us back. Apparently he always wanted to work with John Cho. Go figure? Too late now unfortunately.”

Interviewer: “Well that’s all the time we have. Thank you for your incredible and honest insight. Any thoughts on the new movie announcement or the chances either one will actually get made?”

GotohellParamount: (Laughs for three minutes). That’s it.”

Interviewer: “Thank you.’

I laugh every.single.time! 😂

Well done per usual.

Nice. Don’t forget to throw the Beastie Boys in there someplace…wouldn’t be a Kelvin film without them…

Haha correct. How I let that one slide you got me. Having an off day I guess!

This was indeed hilarious! 😂

I love how you parody JJ Abrams. He doesn’t seem to have an original bone in his body looking at both his Star Trek and Star Wars movies.

Lol nope! I still remember watching Honest Trailer for Star Trek Into Dumbness and they even showed how much that movie copied the first one lol.

The fact both movies ended back at San Francisco when your series takes place in the freaking galaxy should tell you everything wrong with these movies.

that actually sounds like a legit potential Kelvin ST4 – Kirks evil great great grandson Kaos (Matt Damon) comes back to 23rd century to kill Kirk in his big star destroyer (sorry ‘destroyer of stars’) ship! Brilliant!!

That’s the insane part, this idea could actually pass for a Kelvin movie lol.

Thank you! 😁

Coming out of my lurker mode to say this is brilliant. I laughed my bleep off!

So glad you enjoyed it my friend! 😄

I bleeping love making them lol.

Another prequel? Why can’t they come up with new material?

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Published Aug 1, 2022

EXCERPT: Nicholas Meyer's Wrath of Khan Interview in Star Trek: Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special

Read the full interview with the famed writer and director, and more in the Anniversary Special, on sale tomorrow!

StarTrek.com

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the release of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan , Titan Magazines is releasing a special edition hardcover, Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special . The special in-depth book celebrates the classic trilogy of Star Trek II - IV films, The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , and The Voyage Home . With classic interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and rare imagery, relive the thrills and excitement of these unforgettable movies.

The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , and The Voyage Home – the Genesis Trilogy of Star Trek movies has a firm place in the hearts of Trek fans of all ages. Taking us from a deadly villain, a tragedy on the Enterprise, and to a heart-warming reunion, this special book explores the making of the classic saga. Featuring classic interviews, in-depth features and amazing imagery.

Titan Magazines

Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special is on-sale on August 2 . You can grab a copy from Amazon or Forbidden Planet .

Thanks to our friends at Titan Magazines, we have an exclusive excerpt with Nicholas Meyer below!

Nicholas Meyer enjoys telling stories, as anyone who’s read his autobiography A View From The Bridge will know. The famed writer and director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country ; and co-writer of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , cut his directorial teeth on the H.G. Wells vs. Jack the Ripper tale Time After Time , before being brought on board by Harve Bennett for The Wrath of Khan . His TV movie The Day After was the most watched in American TV history, and he continues to write and direct. Over a long lunch in Los Angeles, he reminisced about his time in the 23rd Century…

TM & © 2022 CBS. © 2022 PPC. ARR

Star Trek Magazine : When you were presented with the five different script versions of Star Trek II , was there any stage where you thought, “This could work with a few changes,” or were you always cherry-picking sections?

Nicholas Meyer: You are talking about events that happened many years ago and one has to resist the temptation, even an unconscious temptation, to engage in mythopoesis. To the best of my recollection, I was not taken with any of these drafts. I do not think I would have gone to the place I went if I had seen possibilities. Nobody said anything to me – they had all basically thrown in the towel. And that is not illusory. It was done.

Star Trek Magazine : Why did you reuse Khan, rather than create someone fresh?

Nicholas Meyer: You have to understand something about me temperamentally, and also in a way about Harve Bennett. I love recycling. I’m very big on older buildings that get redecorated: Ghirardelli Square and The Cannery in San Francisco won big architectural awards when they were refurbished. Also, you have to couple this with my abysmal ignorance of the world of Star Trek …

Star Trek Magazine : Which was an advantage coming in at that stage?

Nicholas Meyer: It may have been, but whether it was an advantage or a disadvantage, it was a reality. And the reality was I didn’t even begin to know what the possibilities for villains was in this show. The kind of artist I am, I’m better at being a rag picker and a pillager of other people’s notions and ideas and saying, “This is awfully good but…” Handel was once accused of stealing someone’s tune and he said, “Yes, I stole it – that idiot didn’t know what to do with it and I showed him.” I’m not about to call anybody an idiot, but I think that Khan was ready-made.

Also, Harve Bennett, who I think in the book I credit with a very analytical temperament, a very analytical cast of mind which I do not possess, said, “This is a very good idea for a villain. He’s one dropped shoe – they left him some place. What’s going on? The actor’s still alive.”

Star Trek Magazine : Had they approached Montalban at that stage?

Nicholas Meyer: They hadn’t approached anybody because we didn’t know what we were doing! They had nothing. The first time I ever met Bennett, he said, “Draft five is coming in,” so I went home and thought, “Great, they’ll send me draft five.” Then I woke up and it was something like three weeks later and I never heard from him. I called up and said, “What happened?” At which point he gave me his famous “My tit’s in a wringer” line. With the moribund arrival of draft five, the project was essentially dead. I speculate in the book that it was entirely possible, given how studios then worked – I don’t know if that’s how they work now, because all bets seem to be off – that they would have regrouped, gone on to another draft with another writer and tried again. It would have taken them another year, or whatever…

Star Trek Magazine : Was the world screaming for a second Star Trek movie at that point?

Nicholas Meyer: The funny thing is that the studio thought it was. They weren’t wrong. I don’t know what they would have done, or when they would have done it. But the fact that the first movie was a runaway production but nonetheless had made a substantial amount money, convinced them that even if they did it in a way that was then considered wrong, people would come out. They were very intent on trying to make another one, because they did believe there was a market; they just didn’t want to spend $45 million!

Star Trek Magazine : Ricardo Montalban dominates the screen as Khan – did you ever regret that there wasn’t a physical confrontation between Khan and Kirk in the movie?

Nicholas Meyer: No. I never gave it a thought. I know that Bill Shatner did. I thought it was cheesy. I can point to a number of films, and a number of real-life events, in which the protagonist and the antagonist never meet. It did not concern me over much. I guess I thought that that kind of confrontation with these two people, being gladiators, would be cheesy, stereotyped and familiar.

If there’s a regret I have – which I didn’t have for the first 20 years and then somebody pointed it out to me, and I thought, “There’s an interesting missed moment” – it’s that Khan never sees Kirk get away. He goes to his death believing that he succeeded. I wonder, if I’d thought of it, would I have?

I have some ambivalence about taking it away from him, but it’s very interesting that we didn’t even think of it. You play that moment earlier when he realizes that there is no override, and they can’t do anything about raising the shields. That look of consternation – how different would that have been from his look at the end? Other than the man who goes to his death believing that he’s avenged his wife.

Star Trek Magazine: When you were prepping The Wrath of Khan did you watch submarine movies?

Nicholas Meyer: You bet! I looked at The Enemy Below a lot. Robert Mitchum vs. Curt Jurgens – that’s a great flick. I looked at Run Silent, Run Deep .

Star Trek Magazine : For things to do, or things to avoid?

Nicholas Meyer: Things to do. These were movies that I loved and I wanted to see how they did it.

Star Trek Magazine : What about Khan’s original appearance in “Space Seed”?

Nicholas Meyer: Yes. That was also part of what had intrigued Harve and then he showed it to me. That was the first time that I went, “He’s a cool character,” so mysterious. For so much of it you didn’t know what the hell was going on with that guy, but you knew it wasn’t good.

Star Trek Magazine : Khan has become the gold standard for Star Trek movie villains. Did you have any idea that he would resonate for so long.

Nicholas Meyer: Truthfully, I can’t say that I predicted anything like his preeminence, or anything like the stature which has been accorded this movie as a total construct. Never. I did know as I was watching Montalban in his first scenes in the cargo bays that I was watching a very great actor, and I had had no idea. I remember thinking, as I watched him and he was breaking my heart, that he should play Lear. He made some self-deprecating comment about his accent, which I remember thinking was completely irrelevant. Notwithstanding any Hispanic inflection, his enunciation, his articulation was perfect. That’s as close as I came to realizing that Khan had a kind of Lear-like grandeur when played by this guy. The arrogance and the pain walked hand in hand.

Montalban was not typically an angry guy, not, as some actors, a “squawky bird.” He was a gentleman of a rather old-school cut. Humorous, generous, very smart in a kind of intuitive way.”

Read the full interview in Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special , on sale August 2, 2022, to read about Meyer’s experiences on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, meeting Gene Roddenberry, and working with Christopher Plummer.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Star Trek: Best Book-Only Characters

• The Star Trek novels introduce unique characters like Akaar and Treir, adding depth to the expansive Starfleet universe.
• Characters like Nick Keller and Elias Vaughn bring new perspectives to the post- DS9 era, facing challenging galactic events.
• Mackenzie Calhoun leads the USS Excalibur in a new hero ship series, showcasing tactical genius in the New Frontier books.

Just like the universe itself, the Star Trek franchise is huge and far-reaching, encompassing several television shows, and numerous video games, movies, and books. While many of Star Trek 's most iconic characters appear in various series and films, there are many other great characters who only feature in alternative media sources. For instance, the final frontier has spawned some memorable video game-based characters .

Star Trek: 8 Most Powerful Federation Starships, Ranked

Yet perhaps the richest source of characters is the now questionably canon series of books that take place following The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine . From fresh takes on classic species like the Andorians and Orions, to some of Starfleet's finest officers, the Star Trek novels are a treasure trove of notable figures.

Leonard James Akaar

First appearence: star trek mission gamma book one: twilight.

• Author: David R. George III
• Publication Date: September 2002

Leonard James Akaar is unique among novel-only characters in that he does, in fact, make a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance on televised Trek . "Friday's Child," an episode of The Original Series , ends with his birth; however, the Capellan royal would not be seriously fleshed out until 2002's Mission Gamma: Twilight . By the time of the Deep Space 9 novels, Akaar had risen through the ranks of Starfleet to become an influential admiral with the ear of the Federation president.

Akaar's strategic mindset and steely resolve proved essential in preserving the Federation through some of its darkest periods, including the Borg invasion depicted in the Star Trek: Destiny series. The Starfleet legend may have been born in The Original Series , but the Star Trek novels were where he made his name.

First Appearence: Star Trek: Demons of Air and Darkness

• Author: Keith R. A. DeCandido
• Publication Date: September 2001

Star Trek features many inspirational female characters, from Kira Nerys to Katherine Janeway. However, few are as resourceful or as motivated as Treir , an Orion Dabo girl who transformed Quark's Bar into a highly successful business during the post- DS9 novels. Following her escape from Orion servitude, Treir earned her place as Quark's right-hand woman by implementing a series of radical reforms, including hiring a Dabo boy to attract more customers.

Star Trek: The Fates Of Every Live-Action TV Show's Main Character

Treir may not play a significant role in the canon-shattering events depicted in the Deep Space 9 novels, but this ruthless businesswoman helped to make Star Trek 's prose universe feel like a living, breathing place. If anyone is capable of giving Quark a run for his latinum, it's her.

Nick Keller

First appearence: star trek new earth: challenger.

• Author: Diane Carey
• Publication Date: August 2000

New Earth , a series of six novels that take place between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan , was intended to act as a backdoor pilot for a new narrative focusing on Commander Nick Keller . In the final novel, Keller takes command of a makeshift starship in order to defend the human colony of Belle Terre from alien attack. Keller was conflicted between overthrowing his inept captain and preserving the lives of his comrades, and it's a great shame that a full series based on the space cowboy's adventures never emerged.

Interestingly, author Diane Carey based Keller's appearance on Scott Bakula, who would go on to play Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise . Keller, however, would make only two more appearances in the Star Trek universe, with both being part of the multi-series Gateways crossover event.

Elias Vaughn

First appearence: star trek: avatar (book one).

• Author: S. D. Perry
• Publication Date: July 2001

Elias Vaughn was a Starfleet officer and intelligence operative who joined Deep Space 9's command staff following the end of the Dominion War . Despite only holding the rank of commander, Vaughn's expertise proved a boon to the Federation outpost, and he played a role in several key events, including the USS Defiant 's post-war exploration of the Gamma Quadrant (depicted in the Mission Gamma sub-series).

Star Trek: 8 Impressive Things Kirk Did Before Joining The USS Enterprise

Vaughn was haunted by the death of his wife, Ruriko, and his troubled relationship with his estranged daughter, Prynn. This relationship was complicated by the fact that Prynn was also assigned to Deep Space 9. However, father and daughter were eventually able to reconcile–but not without some bumps along the way.

Christine Vale

First appearence: star trek: the belly of the beast.

• Author: Dean Wesley Smith

While William Riker's USS Titan has made notable appearances in Star Trek: Lower Decks , the starship's adventures were originally chronicled in a series of spin-off novels. These books featured Christine Vale , a former detective turned Starfleet officer, as Riker's second-in-command. Vale was initially unwilling to take the post, as she disliked the idea of Riker working so closely with his wife, Deanna Troi.

Luckily, Vale took the post, which allowed her to act as a counterweight to any of Riker's Troi-related biases. During her time aboard the USS Titan , she helped to explore the Beta Quadrant and fend off a Borg invasion. Indeed, her record was so good that, following Riker's promotion to admiral, she took command of the Luna -class starship.

Thirishar ch'Thane

From their initial appearance in 1967's "Journey to Babel" and 2001's "The Andorian Incident," references to Star Trek 's Andorians were true and far between. One important detail was disclosed in The Next Generation , however: Andorians have four sexes , with all four required for successful reproduction.

The character of Thirishar ch'Thane (or "Shar") was a response to this premise. Shar served as Deep Space Nine's science officer following the end of the Dominion War, but was torn between his commitments to Starfleet and to his mating group, who wished him to return to Andor. This dilemma was further complicated by a dangerous decline in Andorian fertility, which threatened to cause the Andorians' extinction in the long term. Shar was eventually able to use his scientific knowledge to help solve the Andorian fertility crisis.

The Jem'Hadar are one of Star Trek 's most iconic creations , a powerful race of warriors motivated by their addiction to the chemical ketracel-white. During the Dominion War of 2373–2375, the Jem'Hadar were central to the Dominion assaults which nearly overwhelmed the Federation Alliance.

8 Best Starfleet Ships During The Dominion War

After the war's conclusion, Taran'atar , a Jem'Hadar without a ketracel-white dependency, was sent to Deep Space Nine as a cultural observer. Taran'atar's struggle to adjust to the Alpha Quadrant during peacetime makes for fascinating reading, as does seeing the fearsome warrior growing closer to his former enemies. Taran'atar's story takes some strange twists and turns, but he remains a fascinating character.

Mackenzie Calhoun

First appearence: star trek new frontier: house of cards.

• Author: Peter David
• Publication Date: July 1997

In 1997, Pocket Books published the first of Peter David's New Frontier books. While these novels included several characters from TV Trek (mostly notably Commander Shelby from "The Best of Both Worlds" ), they focused on a new hero ship, the USS Excalibur , and a new captain: Mackenzie Calhoun . Calhoun, an alien warrior modeled after Mel Gibson, was depicted as a tactical genius capable of beating Starfleet's toughest challenges–including the infamous Kobayashi Maru test.

Calhoun soon became a fan-favorite, with his New Frontier series including over 20 volumes. The Xenanian captain was even popular enough to be made into an action figure, the only example of this honor being bestowed on a character originating from any of Star Trek 's novels.

Created by Gene Roddenberry

First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Latest Film Star Trek Beyond

First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series

Latest TV Show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Creation Year 1966

Den of Geek

What Modern Star Wars Needs to Learn From Star Trek

It doesn't take the wisdom of a Jedi to see that Disney needs to take a page out of Star Trek's book to put Star Wars back on top.

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Way back in 2002, the excitement for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones diminished somewhat. Late Night with Conan O’Brien sent Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to mock the fans lined up for the premiere, resulting in a segment in which comedian/puppeteer Robert Smigel launched nerd jokes at the assembly.

Most of the jokes were pretty obvious, including the last bit, in which a man cosplaying as Mr. Spock gained the knack for cursing and walked up and down the line with his middle finger extended. But while the perceived Star Wars vs. Star Trek rivalry has become an old toxic cliché at this point, the fact is that the two franchises don’t actually overlap very much in terms of their core missions. Trek favors optimistic philosophical inquiry and Wars emphasizes fantasy and adventure.

In fact, in their decades-long history, Star Wars and Star Trek haven’t actually directly clashed all that often (although the early ’80s of Wrath of Khan followed by The Empire Strikes Back was undoubtedly a golden age for sci-fi movie nerds), and the two franchises rarely enjoy success at the same time, with the Star Wars movies usually debuting during a dry point for Star Trek , and Trek dominating television while Wars flounders.

Except for now. In the past few years, both Star Wars and Star Trek entries have hit theaters and televisions on a regular basis. And while the two franchises have had their respective highs and lows, Trek has hit a stride with Strange New Worlds , Lower Decks , and Picard ‘s third season while Wars has mostly been on a downward spiral in popularity and quality (except for Andor , of course) following the first two seasons of The Mandalorian .

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Of course, history shows the scales could tip the other way at any moment, but for those of us who want both franchises to do well (full disclosure: this author is far more of a Trekkie than a Wars fan), there are a few lessons that Wars could take from Trek ‘s recent success to bring the galaxy far, far away back to its former glory.

Serve More Than One Kind of Audience

Okay, before getting angry and going straight to the comments, there are absolutely examples of recent Star Wars entries that aren’t entirely focused on one kind of fan. Andor eschews much of the core fantasy element of the franchise for a more adult spy drama, while Young Jedi Adventures is aimed squarely at a new generation of fans. Meanwhile, the anthology series Visions lives up to its name by presenting radically different takes on the universe from fresh perspectives.

However, it’s also true that the majority of recent Star Wars output – Mando season 3, Ahsoka , Obi-Wan Kenobi , parts of Boba Fett , both Tales animated series, The Bad Batch , etc. – is pitched directly at a specific kind of fan with love for and extensive knowledge of the Prequels and The Clone Wars animated series. Those fans tend to be millennials of a certain age who grew up with those films and, unfortunately, almost nobody else. So while some viewers cheer when Bo-Katan becomes the lead of The Mandalorian because they know her history with the Darksaber and Mandalore, others despair that the Western/ronin motifs faded away for The Clone Wars lore. It’s not just that the latter fans have no attachment to these characters. It’s that The Mandalorian and its spinoffs don’t really work to ingratiate The Clone Wars characters to those unfamiliar with them, instead aiming the storytelling directly at those nostalgic for The Clone Wars days.

To be sure, Star Trek has its own arcane references, as the opening shot of Picard ‘s premiere shows or the name “ Sybok ” coming up on Strange New Worlds . However, the most recent crop of Star Trek shows work because they aim for a wide range of audiences.

Prodigy is a kid’s show that picks up on plot threads from Voyager but primarily deals with a group of young aliens from different cultures learning to work together. Discovery is all big adventure and operatic emotion for fans whose introduction to the franchise was the J.J. Abrams movies. Strange New Worlds features classic characters from The Original Series and a return to philosophical conundrums, while Lower Decks makes in-jokes for long-time fans.

With the announcement of a Rey movie , Star Wars is taking steps in the right direction by making something for younger fans who grew up with the Sequel Trilogy , while The Mandalorian & Grogu is positioned to bring back to the big screen the Western aesthetic Original Trilogy fans loved so much from the first two seasons of the show. However those movies turn out (if they come out at all), the franchise would do well to remember its audience doesn’t consist of just one type of fan.

Star Trek TV creative head Alex Kurtzman said it best when talking about that universe’s approach to catering to different types of fans: “Our biggest thing has honestly been we don’t ever want our  Star Trek  shows to feel repetitive. We don’t want you to think that by watching  Discovery , you shouldn’t watch any of the other shows because you’re getting everything from that one show. Each show is different,” Kurtzman continues. “So for us, it’s not about doing one show that pleases everybody because that’s the surefire way to please nobody. It’s more about doing a bunch of different shows that speak to specific sections of the demographic.”

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Be Careful With Nostalgia

However, while Star Wars would do well to build on the worlds of all three trilogies, it should not simply focus on nostalgia. Yes, that does sound like a laughable suggestion from a Trek perspective, given the third season of Picard . However, Picard worked because it used nostalgia in exactly the same way that Star Wars fans rejected. When Luke Skywalker tosses the lightsaber at the start of The Last Jedi , he appalled many older fans of the Original Trilogy.

And yet, that’s very similar to how Star Trek treated Jean-Luc Picard in the widely-acclaimed final year of his solo series. While the first two seasons leaned too hard into tearing down the one-time paragon, the third season found the perfect balance. On the USS Titan, Picard showed signs of the leadership and wisdom that made him great on The Next Generation , but he also showed maturity and a willingness to learn. Throughout the third season, characters such as Geordi and Ro Laren aired reasonable grievances with Picard. And by hearing them and admitting his faults, faults that once made TNG audiences cheer, Picard grows into a more interesting character.

It was a pitch-perfect send-off that also gave way to the potential future of the franchise, with a new Enterprise christened and ready to set off on a new voyage. And it did what the Sequel Trilogy hoped to do: effectively passed on the torch to a new generation of Starfleet officers.

Contrast that treatment of Picard to one of the least controversial callbacks in recent Star Wars history. When Rey and Finn board the Millennium Falcon in The Force Awakens , they’re greeted by Han and Chewie, back to being the scoundrel smugglers they were in Episode IV , zero growth or change on display besides their age. Sure, Han will later briefly apologize to Kylo Ren for his failures as a father, but that’s never expressed visually on screen. And as nice as it is to see Harrison Ford call up the charisma that makes him great, his older Han is a cypher, just one more callback to the original Star Wars in a movie that plays like a cover song.

If Star Wars intends to build out its universe on the bones of the Skywalker Saga, then it needs to acknowledge that its popular characters have to grow and change over time. Rian Johnson had the right approach with Luke in The Last Jedi , whether certain fans warmed to the character’s new status quo or not. Of course Luke had to change, grow, and embrace new lessons, that’s how characters work, especially when the mission was clearly to pass the torch to the next trio of heroes. It’s too bad The Rise of Skywalker went back to playing the hits and embedding its next generation of heroes in a Star Wars story that had already been told countless times before.

Don’t Be Precious

For as much as it’s important to respect the growth of legacy characters over time, it’s also important to remember that these franchise are fundamentally fun and silly. Sure, we all have deep feelings about the interior lives of Morn from Deep Space Nine and Dexter Jettster from Attack of the Clones , but, you know, one is a Cheers nod and the other is a classic hash-slinger. So lighten up a bit.

Star Wars has certainly poked fun at itself with the Family Guy Blue Harvest episodes and Lego Star Wars specials. But the unaired Star Wars Detours still stands as a missed opportunity to indulge in the nerdy stuff while showing the funnier side of all that lore. If that’s a name you haven’t heard for a long time, Detours was a collaboration between Lucasfilm and the Robot Chicken team, resulting in the same irreverent but knowing humor of the latter show. Although the team completed 39 episodes, the series was “paused” in 2013 with none making it to air.

Many Star Wars fans consider Detours a lost grail, a feeling only increased by the success of Star Trek: Lower Decks , which makes fun of every single part of Trek lore, from the franchise’s tendency to set episodes in nondescript caves to the strange relationship between the reboot movies and the rest of the show. Absurd things that Star Trek would rather forget, including dumb merchandise and reusing actors for major roles, appear in Lower Decks .

Lower Decks has a great voice cast and strong storytelling beyond its gags, but it also works because the humor rewards people obsessed with Star Trek . There’s a communal aspect to getting a joke about Kzinti posture or cheering whenever Kurtwood Smith or J.G. Hertzler make a vocal appearance. It turns what could be one of the most toxic parts of fandom into something celebratory.

It could definitely be argued that certain Star Wars fans are perhaps a little too hung up on taking “the canon” seriously. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could also have a laugh about it every once in a while? Lower Decks shows that making fun of its universe is just another form of love.

Do a Musical

Quick, what’s the best Star Wars song? It’s probably “Yoda” by Weird Al Yankovic , maybe “The Saga Begins,” right? Something by Nerf Herder? The Yoda “Seagulls” song?

Now, what’s the best official Star Wars song? If we’re not counting the legendary John Williams scores, the possibilities get slim right away. I’m sure there are some real “jizz” music fans out there, but it doesn’t have the wider appeal of, say, a musical.

Look at the critical acclaim Star Trek received with its musical episode “ Subspace Rhapsody ” from the second season of Strange New Worlds . In that episode, an alien transmission forces the crew to sing out all of their thoughts, resulting in unlikely musical numbers, including Klingons doing their best BTS impression.

Even those who didn’t love “Subspace Rhapsody” (this writer, for example) have to admit that the episode did a lot to push the franchise into new territory with a completely different flavor of storytelling, all while highlighting a cast that includes Tony-nominated and Grammy-winner Celia Rose Gooding. “Subspace Rhapsody” further proves that Trek can handle a wide range of genres.

As a space opera, Star Wars lends itself to the over-the-top emoting that makes for a great musical. And while horrid entries, such as “Jedi Rocks” from the special edition of Return of the Jedi and “I’m Han Solo” from Kinect Star Wars Dancing , still haunt the nightmares of fans, it’d be nice to see the galaxy far, far away pull off something this bold in the future.

Return of the Good Sci-Fi

While it’s true we’ve largely favored Trek over Wars here, the fact of the matter is that the success of and shortcomings of the other are only temporary. Wars seems poised to right the ship by putting a Mandalorian movie in theaters, hopefully returning the focuse on breakouts Din Djarin and Baby Yoda. Moreover, Paramount seems to have nothing but terrible ideas in store for the future of Star Trek , including canceling Lower Decks , learning too heavily on the Section 31 corner of the universe, and making a wrongheaded origin film .

To be clear: neither franchise is inherently better than the other, and both have to deal with boardrooms whose pursuit of money can lead to terrible storytelling decisions. But some of the best entries in either franchise have come when one universe learns from the other, as demonstrated by the adventure-heavy Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the philosophically-rich Andor .

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So as the fortunes of each franchise continue to change, we can only hope that the creatives behind our favorite stories will learn from each other. That’s the only way we’ll get more great art, whether we have to boldly go to find it or search a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

"Star Trek: Discovery" makes a case for Michael Burnham as the last great Starfleet captain

Our "discovery" protagonist was never going to have it easy. the start of her last run solidifies her greatness, by melanie mcfarland.

Michael Burnham's " Star Trek " journey was destined to be among the franchise's toughest and most complex. Some of us knew this from the moment Sonequa Martin-Green was cast to play her, especially Black women who are sci-fi geeks. We have never been few, but until recently, we were far less visible than we are now.

To some, this visibility symbolizes everything that has supposedly gone wrong with this franchise and others. The reach of " Star Trek: Discovery " goes even further by assembling a truly inclusive cast that blew apart the original series' longstanding heteronormativity.

All this further angered culture war trolls and self-appointed arbiters of what is so-called "real" "Star Trek." These people have a vested interest in downvoting any such divergences from what has gone before.

Mainly it was — as it continues to be — the purists who wrote off "Discovery" as "not Trek" during  its first season in 2017 . Looking back from its final season — and from the perspective of Burnham's 900-year journey — we can say that despite how its thematic shading looked to us then , "Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism . It has simply evolved its interpretation.

In the first season, not even Burnham would believe this to hold true. A human raised on Vulcan by Spock's  father, Sarek, and as his sister, Burnham earns her first officer role through superior conduct and logic, divorcing herself from sentiment.

Burnham's smug sense of rectitude gets her superior officer killed. She is charged with mutiny, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison.

From there, she stops a rogue galactic A.I. from annihilating the Federation and leaps nine centuries into the future (thereby largely freeing herself and the show from restrictive canon) to find a universe where Starfleet as it used to be is a dream, and the Federation and its ideals are broken.

"Discovery's" swansong season finds Burnham in the year 3191, with enough of the Federation's trust to take on a highly classified mission alongside Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), who has already earned the same commendations as Kirk and Picard. His reputation precedes him, in other words. Their quest relates to a Picard-era discovery that Starfleet fears can be used to eradicate all humanoid life in the universe.

"Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism. It has simply evolved its interpretation. 

Their success should place her on par with the greats, an honor that showrunner Michelle Paradise and the show's co-creator Alex Kurtzman have been driving toward all this time.

Some indicators of that goal aren't as obvious as others, like the sequence in which Rayner defies Burnham during an away mission, trusting in his overconfidence instead of her strategic acumen. His snap judgment endangers a planet's civilian population, leaving her to fix the crisis he has created.

Women watching this — especially Black women, I would wager — might have experienced a slight rage triggering in their soul that was mollified by Burnham pulling the very Obama-esque move of asking Rayner to replace her trusted friend Saru (Doug Jones) as her first officer. (The job was coming open, anyway; Saru is shifting into diplomacy mode and getting married.)

This is the move of a great leader. Then again, like Kate Mulgrew's long underappreciated Captain Janeway, it may not be appreciated by the fandom for many, many years.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male, though if that were the extent of what differentiates her from the rest, it would barely be worth mentioning.

Records of their histories come to us as snippets of dialogue from secondary characters or contextualizing conversations from what the official logs have to say about past missions. We hear about who served under whom, granting legitimacy to the likes of, say, Christopher Pike to claim the captain's chair long before Anson Mount made us ecstatic to see that happen.

Burnham's path to the helm's command begins with what should be a life- and career-ending mistake. It's constantly defined by humility and doubt. No one is harder on Burnham than she is on herself — and nobody takes as many risks with their career or reputation to keep their crew alive. Her optimism is one guided by the hope that all obstacles can be overcome and all outcomes are possible, including for herself.

Despite all of this, it will take a lot of convincing for some people to consider Burnham among the top ranks of Starfleet captains in those occasional fan polls that tend to place Jean-Luc Picard or James T. Kirk in the top positions, though Captain Pike has offered stiff competition since "Strange New Worlds" first aired.

But our relatively newfound love of Pike and that show wouldn't be possible without "Discovery" venturing into the unmapped asteroid field that is the public's willingness to boldly go back to a dormant franchise in a wildly disunified era.

This doesn't merely refer to the role of "Discovery" introducing Mount's Pike, in addition to launching every other new "Trek" spinoff along with the streaming service currently known as Paramount+ . It did all this along with shouldering the more precarious mission of serving as the franchise's vanguard in a cynical age.

If you love "Lower Decks" and "Strange New Worlds," this is in part due to the producers' listening to the fandom's programming desires accordingly. Notice, for example, how unlike the first season of "Picard"  is from the third . Initially, "Picard" tried to do something different with the beloved character. It ended his adventures by reassembling the band for the spectacular last ride their films denied them. The new "Star Trek" series have a goal of delivering something for everyone, including kids. "Discovery" helped its custodians figure that out.

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And if you love "Discovery," its devotion to showcasing those who long felt unseen in this franchise may kindle that affection. "Discovery" gave us an Asian woman as a Starship captain in Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou and a happily married duo to root for in Wilson Cruz's Dr. Hugh Culber in Anthony Rapp's Paul Stamets.

It introduced Tig Notaro in its second season as Jett Reno, a decision for which everyone should be grateful. The third gave us the franchise's first transgender and non-binary characters in Ian Alexander's Trill Gray and Blu del Barrio's Adira Tal.

Through it all, we have also entirely fallen for Mary Wiseman's Sylvia Tilly, a woman who also knew a few things about self-doubt and, therefore, values being understood.

What some would cite as humanizing traits, others might write off as maudlin, along with the fact that Burnham was able to experience a fully realized love affair that began with a partnership of equals with a courier named Booker (David Ajala).

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

It's only one of the many ways that "Discovery" is consciously disparate from "Star Trek" as we have long known it, daring to change everything from the look of the Klingons to its star character's role in igniting a war between them and the United Federation of Planets.

That was then. Hundreds of years after that moment, Captain Burnham has figured herself out, proving to the many who doubted her that she deserves to be there.

She has traveled the longest road through imposter syndrome of any Starfleet captain — most of a millennium, actually — and we have witnessed every major moment that forged her. Burnham may never win the major "Star Trek" popularity contests for favorite captains, but without a doubt, she's the last great one we may ride with in this universe.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream Thursdays on Paramount +.

stories about "Star Trek"

• "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" considers the weight of Khan's wrathful legacy
• How "Strange New Worlds" uses Rebecca Romijn's Number One to place prejudice on trial
• "Pike made jambalaya": How "Strange New Worlds" Captain Pike expresses care and diplomacy with food

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

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Can Any Modern Star Trek Series Reach 100 Episodes? Alex Kurtzman Shares His Thoughts

The head of Star Trek spoke at length about it.

Star Trek: Discovery is taking its final bow after five seasons, ending the longest-running series of the modern era. Thankfully, we know we can expect more upcoming Trek shows as well as a few surprises in the future , but even so, Voyager will hold onto the accolade of being the last show in the franchise to exceed 100 episodes. So, now the question becomes: Will a Star Trek series ever hit that milestone again? CinemaBlend talked about it with top brass Alex Kurtzman to get some answers. 

I had a chance to speak to Kurtzman ahead of the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery on the 2024 TV schedule , and I asked if a day would ever come when a modern entry in the franchise could hit 100 episodes. It feels like a tall order, considering current seasons of current shows are only about ten episodes in length, but Kurtzman talked about another obstacle while giving his thoughts on the matter:  

I don't know, it's very hard. I mean, the fact that [Discovery went to] go on five seasons is sort of a miracle. I think most people watch two seasons of a streaming show, and they check out, you know, and that's not specific to Trek. I just think that's the watch pattern for television in the streaming world. It's hard to know.

Streaming has permanently changed the television landscape. There are more options to watch shows both new and old than there ever were before. As such, it's hard to keep audiences glued to their Paramount+ subscription when competitors are churning out other exciting new shows. As he said, the fact that Star Trek: Discovery received five seasons before the cancellation was a big feat, especially when considering the fact that some of streaming's most popular shows, like Stranger Things , will end with Season 5 . 

While Alex Kurtzman likely has the details of what is in store for Star Trek 's future, including the news on that rumored Jean-Luc Picard movie , he doesn't know what the future holds. He did offer his best guess at what the chances are of any current or upcoming Trek show hitting a hundred episodes and why he's happy with the way things currently are: 

My guess would be that it would be unlikely. But in some ways, I think what's lovely about that is– it's funny you can talk to old writers of old Trek series, and they're like, ‘Man, there's a bunch of filler episodes in there. We are just trying to get to 22 a season,’ you know, and, and we all know which of those episodes were [filler], we know the ones that were truly stellar from the ones that felt like they were kind of spinning their wheels. And so I think what ten episodes a season forces you to do is really make sure that every story counts as much as it possibly can. And I like that, you know, I like that. I like what that affords us now.

I certainly can understand Alex Kurtzman's perspective, and I agree that some Star Trek filler episodes from the past were absolute stinkers. Then again, one has to wonder if The Next Generation had only ten episodes if we would have seen some of its more WTF moments unfold , or Tim Russ talking about   Voyager 's "Tuvix" episode . There's a trade-off for the big-budget adventures, and a large part of it is the show needing to stay on task with the main story with the limited episodes it has. 

Of course, Star Trek has still found ways to include side stories in this new era, with Strange New Worlds focusing on character-driven serialization amongst daily adventures the crew faces. It's working well enough that Discovery reportedly mimicked the style in its final season , and it may just be the new normal for the franchise going forward. Who knows, it may even get the series, which is currently in production for Season 3, to a hundred episodes, which would be fantastic. Then again, in an age where there's no sign of Trek slowing down, do we need that? 

Fans may ponder this question as they tune in for new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery on Thursdays over on Paramount+. Those who aren't caught up need to do so, because this final season has been amazing thus far. 

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Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Star trek: discovery’s progenitor technology is far more powerful than wrath of khan’s genesis device.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is hunting for the Progenitors' life-giving technology, which has more power than Wrath of Khan's Genesis Device.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 features a treasure hunt for the powerful Progenitors' technology.
• The Progenitors' technology can create life, modify ecosystems, and possibly reanimate dead organisms.
• The Progenitors' technology is more dangerous and diverse than the Genesis Device from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 centers on a treasure hunt for the Progenitors' technology, which sounds even more powerful and dangerous than the Genesis Device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Project Genesis was the 23rd-century brainchild of Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) and David Marcus (Merritt Butrick), her son with Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Genesis was intended to address overpopulation and food shortage in the galaxy, but it was turned into a dreadful weapon by Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban).

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a sequel to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Chase," which explained why so many species in Star Trek 's galaxy are humanoid. The answer: Ancient humanoids seeded countless worlds billions of years ago, creating numerous species in their image. In Star Trek: Discovery season 5's 32nd century, the ancient humanoids are called the Progenitors, and their technology, hidden since the 24th century, must now be found by the USS Discovery before it falls into the hands of Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), who will sell the Progenitors power to create life to the highest bidder.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Star trek: discovery’s progenitor technology powers & dangers explained, the progenitors' treasure can do more than create life.

What the Progenitors' treasure actually looks like and where it is hidden are yet to be discovered, but Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) gave a breakdown of what the ancient technology can do in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3 , "Jinaal." The implications of the Progenitors' technology are vast . As Stamets explained to Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie):

The technology… It could have incredible applications. One could use it to design new lifeforms, accelerate evolution, modify ecosystems. And if it can create life, then, in theory, it might even be possible to reanimate dead organisms… It could make even the spore drive discovery inconsequential by comparison.

The Progenitors couldn't just seed the oceans of planets to create humanoids in their image, but they could also redesign entire worlds. It's remarkable, then, that the ancient humanoids died out because the Progenitors were essentially like gods. Perhaps they warred upon and used their own technology on themselves, annihilating their species. In turn, this would explain why they left behind the message seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Chase" and access to their technology, so that they could live on through the many species they created.

Why Star Trek: Discovery’s Progenitor Tech Is More Dangerous Than Wrath Of Khan’s Genesis Device

It's much more than Genesis.

The Progenitors' technology sounds very similar to the Genesis Device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in its implications. Star Trek II' s Genesis Device could bring a dead world to life, creating entire ecosystems and flora. The energies of the Genesis Planet also resurrected Spock (Leonard Nimoy), accelerating his rebirth to adulthood. Genesis' danger was that its matrix would replace existing life with its own , which made it a potential weapon of genocide.

The Genesis Device was seen again in Star Trek: Picard season 3, and a black market Ferengi Genesis Device was stolen and detonated in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4.

However, the Progenitors' technology sounds more precise and more diverse than the Genesis Device. Genesis was meant to bring dead planets back to life with its set matrix but not necessarily create humanoid or other species. Project Genesis was primarily designed to create Class M planets for humanoid habitation . In contrast, it sounds like the Progenitors could create - and destroy - anything they desired with their technology, which is why it can't fall into the wrong hands in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+

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Season 29 E 33 • 04/15/2024

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