Int he first three episodes we saw Khan and his crew’s early steps to setting up their colony on Ceti Alpha V, after being stranded there by Captain Kirk during the events of Space Seed. Quite a few of the characters got killed off during these adventures. We still have not seen the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI or the death of Marla McGivers, the Starfleet crew member who stayed behind along side Khan. Three episodes of nine down, three more this week.
Just a reminder, there will be spoilers
Episode 4
Ceti Eels is the most boring damn name for those parasite mind control bugs. Who put this boring person in charge of naming things??? Oh right, it was Khan.
Some of our sub plots are coming together. Our heroes set out to find more of the Ceti Eals but the scanner is so short range. Thankfully, they had a short bit last chapter about a dude who figured out how to expand the range.
McGivers has a secret phaser. Sneaky sneaky. Maybe it belonged to Chekov. Chekov’s Phaser if you will.
Khan isn’t too happy about McGivers going out and risking herself, or that she wants to be independent of his control. He isn’t happy about her desire to better acknowledge the fallen so far (4 total). Khan gives in but also decides to use the deaths to pivot to a new more robust lifestyle in the camp, centered around defense and vigilance.
McGivers gets more accepted with the tribe, and we get pulled back to more time in the “Present Day” with Tuvok and…. whats her name. The other Historian. Its just a reminder that the core plot is trying to find if Kirk knew Ceti Alpha VI was going to explode.
Back in Khan’s world a few weeks later. It seems that McGivers is pregnant and they have spent a lot of time collecting up Ceti Eels. And set out to kill the Queen of the colony. And McGivers gets to use her Chekov’s Phaser.
Episode 5
Behold, the return of George Takei as Captain Sulu. And a brief moment again of Tim Russ, summoning Dr. Lear to the captain’s quarters. It feels like a bit of an odd inconsistency. Early on, it felt like Lear was insisting she stay on the planet to review the logs, but now, she is clearly on the ship. But they are still in the Ceti system. Anyway, not much new is added to the modern day plot other than Lear is more convinced Khan was not just a crazy psycho. Sulu seems skeptical yet interested in her findings.
Back to the real story, we get to the big meat of things, as Ceti Alpha VI has exploded. It doesn’t immediately devastate Ceti Alpha V of course, but they know its coming. They also end up seeing a starship crash land nearby, shortly after the explosion. Could this be why the planet exploded?
Khan is quite insistent on leading an attack on the aliens, despite the protests of MacIvers, who is pushing for more peaceful Starfleet style solution, and that the aliens may be a larger threat than expected. And sure enough, she is right, as they use their telepathic ability to cripple Khan’s people. They do a sort of telepathic talk with Khan, who orders them to leave his doomed planet, without him and his people, which confuses them, but they still show him where to find a great water reservoir under the surface.
By the episode end, its not clear if or how the aliens left.
Episode 6
It seems they didn’t leave, they have been hanging around helping Khan and his people get prepared with their cave shelter. It almost feels like a non spoiler to say this cave isn’t going to work out. We learn in Star Trek 2 that barely anyone survives that long and they end up in the remains of the USS Botany Bay, where Chekov and the Reliant find them. I did a check on IMDB, none of the crew from Khan’s folks match any of the names of the characters in this podcast.
There is a brief bit at the start where Khan is having a discussion with the alien Captain/Leader. It seems that the aliens are essentially exiles as well. I’ll also add I am still not sure what they are called, Alboreans, maybe. I did some searching, but its tricky because everything wants to return Illyrians, who are not at all as these aliens are described. (Mute, telepathic, kind of glowy and lanky. Their leader is someone named Delmonda.
The increasing instability causes one of the crew members of Khan’s people to lose her baby. I still can hardly keep the names of these people straight.
They capture Ivan who had murdered one of the aliens while scouting, Khan demands answers for this. The aliens didn’t care for Ivan snooping and it turns out they are building a ship, for Khan’s people.
Meanwhile, back in “present day,” we learn that our good Dr Leer has been motivated to do her research by some communications from Delmonda, which implies the aliens left the planet, and not Khan’s crew. Or, well, they are telepathic, maybe they are still there, or maybe they left some sort of delayed signal.
Ahead
Well, Ceti Alpha VI blew up, that’s now. McGivers is still alive, so that is still to come. The planet depicted in Star Trek II was pretty much a hellscape of desert storms, so the weather will certainly become much worse at some point. The aliens aren’t present in the future, so we know they escape, or die off. There seems to be more to their plan that we really know. At some point Khan and his crew end up in the USS Botany Bay again. Presumably.
I suppose it’s possible that this will ultimately lead to more of Khan’s people survived than expected. Maybe they did make it to the caves and set up nice space down there. Maybe Khan and his smaller cohort of folks found Chekov and took over Reliant and left the others behind. That feels a bit unlikely, but, maybe. I suppose there could have been some sort of, self justification on Khan’s part to find a new planet before giving his people false hope. Probably not. But my next round in a few weeks should cover through the finale of the podcst.
