Star Trek has put out an audio drama podcast recently, and since I listen to a lot of Podcasts, it seemed like an easy thing to just add it to my line up. Just a note, for this, I’ve been jotting down some thoughts as each episode releases, so some earlier speculation may end up being wrong, and it may be right, and potentially a spoiler, except it was just that, speculation.
Just a quick bit of background on Khan in the Star Trek universe. Khan appeared in the Original Series episode “Space Seed”. The Enterprise crew finds a derelict ship containing a bunch of super soldiers from Earth’s past, existing in stasis. They awaken their leader, Khan, not sure who he is at first. He tries to take over the enterprise but it thwarted by Kirk and convinced to take up settlement on a planet with his people. He shows up again, in a much more memorable fashion, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. His planet has failed, not because of anything he did, and e blames Kirk. He hijacks the USS Reliant and steals a super weapon called Genesis. He dies detonating the Genesis Device in the Mutara Nebula.
Khan and his crew are also super soldiers from the “Eugenics Wars” which happened in Earth’s past, though the exact date keeps shifting, originally in 1996, now just a generic “Early 21st century”. Khan is such a popular character, he has spawned a bunch of additional lore and characters that I’m not really going to cover here.
Episode 1
The set up episode. I didn’t really read much about this podcast before starting, beyond simply knowing it existed. I also don’t usually listen to audio drama podcasts. It’s not quite the same as say, an audio-book, since there is no narrator, just sound effects and people talking. It’s more like a radio show. that way. This first episode sort of sets up what I assume is how this show is going to run for most of it’s story.
The core story follows Khan and his crew, along with Lieutenant McIvers from the Enterprise, during their time on Ceti Alpha V, where Kirk left them after Khan’s attempt to take over the Enterprise. Lieutenant McIvers was a key character of that episode, a historian who became enamored with Khan. She left with Khan when he was exiled to the planet Ceti Alpha V. The only thing that we really know (I believe) is that some time later, Chekov and the USS Reliant later found Khan and his crew in a hellish wasteland, after Ceti Alpha V was decimated, by it’s neighbor Ceti Alpha VI exploding.
This part of the story is told through the framing of another historian, Dr. Rosalind Lear, from the USS Excelsior, trying to recover the data logs of McIvers. Though they are not really major characters (yet), the presence of Excelsior brings in two well known voices as guest stars, Tim Russ, as Ensign Tuvok, and George Takei as Captain Sulu. Sulu is known to have been captain of Excelsior, he shows up in this roll in Star Trek VI. I’m not sure if Tuvok was known to be part of the Excelsior crew before Voyager. The impression I have gotten is that Tim Russ will probably be a regular occurrence, communicating with the away team, but Takei probably won’t really show up again.
(Side Note, I checked, Tuvok was already shown to be part of Excelsior’s crew, which feels really funny because Tim Russ played an unnamed human lieutenant in Star Trek Generations, aboard the Enterprise B, which was also an Excelsior class ship. )
See, totally different dudes, note the ears.
Anyway, there isn’t much to the plot so far for the “present day” bits, other than Tuvok giving Dr. Lear a 5 day deadline, despite her protests. It kind of felt like a funny jab as AI in that bit, where she claims that feeding the logs to the ship’s computer for summary will not be anywhere good enough.
For the Khan part, there are some short bits about Khan coordinating setting up the settlement, and one of his people trying to usurp power, and failing. Khan is shown to be merciful to the betrayer, which is not a sentiment shared by another of the colonists.
There is also a subplot about the need to create babies, but the women augmented soldiers that make up Khan’s crew are sterile. Or at least, they had their eggs removed. There is a collection of embryos they could implant, but they are not sure it will work. This leads to McIvers feeling tricked by Khan into coming along to be a baby maker, since her normal human womb would still work properly. The idea being that a bunch of “half breed super soldiers” are better than none.
Episode 2
Episode 2 dives a bit more into Khan’s crew. Though it seems, not deep enough for me to easily remeber most of their names. There is an artist who keeps records (Richter), a tough older dude who seems to be a sort of 2nd lieutenant (Ivan), an animal specialist…. you get the idea. I could probably look these people up I suppose, but where is the fun in that?
These are essentially, the younger members of Khan’s crew it seems, and make up the bulk of the main characters. I say younger, but I mean like, maybe early 20s. They are all likable enough as characters who never were, but a bit one dimensional it feels. I also have a bit of an issue just how… I think maybe insecure is the word I want. And I don’t say this to knock the idea of insecurity in people, god knows I am riddled with it, but more that, these are all supposed to be sort of, genetic super humans, they were exiled off of Earth FOR A REASON, and I really feel like sounding like a bunch of, modern day insecure young adults, doesn’t quite fit that framing.
I guess that’s also a bit part of the point of the over arching, Excelsior Researcher framing plot, to prove that Khan and his crew were not actually the monsters everyone thought they were. Speaking of that plot, it barely shows up in this episode. I think Dr. Lear reads a log entry title at the start of the episode and that’s it. No Sulu or Tuvok at all.
Anyway, it’s mostly a bit of, colony life as they hunt for food and Khan encourages everyone to embrace that they get to explore this planet and make it their own. It felt mostly like an excuse to flesh out these secondary characters a bit.
Episode 3
Can I just say, Khan gives the Zoologist lady the job of naming the new life they find, and she seems to just name everything Ceti-Animal. Like, come on, you can’t think of something more?
Anyway, there is an amusing bit at the opening where Dr. Leer complaints to Tuvok about the noise on the ship, and Tuvok explains that Sulu likes to keep the shields low during meteor showers because it sounds like rain and its soothing. Its all an excuse to do a little transition to Khan narrating on the tape, to Khan narrating “live” in the rain.
This episode basically follows up from the last, Ivan returns with the hunting party minus Khan who went out to rescue Richter. Richter has been inured and is kind of losing himself but the episode was also framed with the idea that Richter is going to die, so…
After some events, Khan a d Richter make it back to base, but they can’t figure out what has driven Richter mad. Ultimately, as telegraphed, they have to put Richter out of his misery.
Something occurred to me near the end of the third episode. We probably know what the “mystery illness” was caused by, we saw them.used again in Wrath of Khan. Those ear bug things.
Ahead
Anyway, wrapping up the first three episodes here, what are we likely to see next. I am thinking they will discover the parasite bug next episode. That covers Episode 4.
As for down the line. We have a bit of an idea of two major story beats likely to come. At some point, McIvers dies. She is not present in Wrath of Khan and they mention her dying I think, that will likely cover an episode. Her death will have more impact if she earns the trust of Khan’s crew finally, so thats maybe en episode.
We also k ow at some point Ceti Alpha VI explodes, wrecking havoc on Ceti Alpha V, which probably happens in an episode, with a follow up on survival.
I also feel like the framing with Excelsior will get some sort of conflict and episode. So that makes 9 total. But that’s just my speculation.
