"Space Seed" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It is the 22nd episode of the first season and was first broadcast by NBC on February 16, 1967. "Space Seed" was written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber and directed by Marc Daniels. Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew aboard the Starfleet starship USS Enterprise. In this episode, the Enterprise crew encounter a sleeper ship holding genetically engineered superpeople from Earth's past. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), attempts to take control of Enterprise. The episode also guest stars Madlyn Rhue as Lt. Marla McGivers, who becomes romantically involved with Khan.
Wilbur conceived the general plot for a different series, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, which featured humans from Ancient Greece who were preserved in cryogenic suspension and revived. The script changed numerous times during preproduction as producer Bob Justman felt that it would be too expensive to film. Eventually Gene L. Coon and series creator Gene Roddenberry also made alterations. These revisions include the marooning of the criminals at the end of the episode, and the change of the main villain from a Nordic character to a Sikh. Roddenberry attempted to claim the primary writing credit for "Space Seed", a request turned down by the Writers Guild of America.
Montalbán was the casting director's first choice for Khan and described the role as "wonderful". Wilber had briefly worked with Gene Roddenberry on the television series Harbourmaster. His science fiction extended beyond Star Trek: he also wrote scripts for Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel around the same time.
In Wilber's first proposal for the story that became "Space Seed", dated August 29, 1966 (shortly before the first episode of Star Trek aired) In September, Wilber was given a list of suggested changes including asking him to remove any mention of the setting, as the producers did not want to say how far in the future Star Trek was set, and to remove the chess scene. Wilber submitted a second draft, but Roddenberry still had problems with basic elements of the script. He did not believe common criminals would be fired into space as a solution and strongly disliked the notion of space pirates. The second draft introduced the idea that Kirk marooned Erickson and his crew on a new planet; this remained in the final version. Wilber was not asked for a third draft; Coon was tasked with the re-write; he submitted it on December 7 and updated it twice over the following five days. Wilber accepted Coon's re-writes, and left the staff after the submission of his second draft as his contractual obligations were complete.
Coon proposed that Erickson should be a rival to Kirk, a genetic superman who had once ruled part of Earth. Roddenberry and Justman were still unhappy with the script, and Roddenberry revised it once more a week before filming was due to begin, after Montalbán had been cast. In this draft the blond Nordic character of Erickson became closer to the version seen on screen.
Casting
Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán was cast as the genetic superman Khan Noonian Singh, having been the first choice for the role. which was the writer's first attempt to create science fiction on television and aired more than ten years before Star Trek. Montalbán called his role as Khan "wonderful", Marc Daniels was hired to direct the episode; he had previously worked on The Lieutenant. The other five days ran to schedule, to the extent that there was an early finish on the final day of filming, allowing cast and crew time to return home to watch a repeat of the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" which had replaced "Arena" on that evening's schedule. A scene filmed but later cut from the episode depicted a discussion between McGivers and Angela Martine (Barbara Baldavin), intended to show that McGivers was looking for a forceful man.
The sound effects team borrowed effects and manipulated them in order to achieve the "painted sound" effect sought by Roddenberry.
Reception
Broadcast
"Space Seed" was first broadcast in the United States on February 16, 1967, on NBC. A 12-city overnight Trendex report compiled by Nielsen ratings showed that during the first half-hour, it held second place in the ratings behind Bewitched on ABC with 13.12 million viewers compared to Bewitcheds 14.44 million. The episode beat My Three Sons on CBS. During the second half-hour it was pushed into third place in the ratings by the start of the Thursday Night Movie on CBS, the Western film One-Eyed Jacks starring Marlon Brando, which received 35.5 percent of the audience share compared to 28 percent for "Space Seed". This meant that the episode was made available to over 200 local stations across the United States with the rights to broadcast Star Trek, and depending on the station it was broadcast either on November 18 or 19.
Critical reception
thumb|Michelle Erica Green called Khan a perfect foil for Spock, Kirk, and McCoy (pictured left to right).
In 1967, The Indiana Gazette described "Space Seed" as "a good piece of science fiction". The Kokomo Tribune called it "imaginative", and also said that the episode was "particularly interesting" for "its commentary on the scientific know-how of the late 1990s".
Later reviewers watched the episodes several decades after broadcast. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' rating, noting its strong characters and the interplay between Kirk and Spock that emphasizes their friendship. Michelle Erica Green called the episode "legendary" in her review for TrekNation. She thought that Khan made the "perfect foil" for the trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy and said that the episode was not dulled by later episodes and films based on "Space Seed". In Mark Pickavance's review at Den of Geek, he said that it remained an "obvious choice of great source material" to be followed up in a film.
The review by Eugene Myers and Torrie Atkinson on Tor.com criticized the attraction between McGivers and Khan, saying that it was "really uncomfortable to watch her immediate attraction to him and her easy acceptance of his abusive and controlling behavior". Both praised the episode, Myers giving it a five out of six, and Atkinson a six out of six rating.
The episode appears in numerous publications’ lists of top Original Series episodes, including Newsweek, Forbes, Collider, TV Guide, Vulture, and Entertainment Weekly; IGN ranked "Space Seed" as the fourth best, praising the fist fight between Kirk and Khan. It appeared in the top ten episodes listed by Cinefantastique and was also included in a list of ten "must see" Star Trek episodes on The A.V. Club.
Home media release and other adaptations
The first adaptation of "Space Seed" was as a re-working into a short story by author James Blish as part of the novelization Star Trek 2. This book contained seven short stories, each based on an episode of The Original Series and was published in 1968. The adaptation of "Space Seed" appeared as the final story in the book.
"Space Seed" was the first Star Trek episode to go on public sale, sold as a single-episode VHS cassette in June 1982 by Paramount Home Video. It was one of the episodes of The Original Series published on Capacitance Electronic Disc, alongside "The Changeling", released on November 1, 1982. A LaserDisc of the episode, alongside "The Return of the Archons" was released in 1985. Further releases of all episodes of the series were made on VHS and Betamax. These releases reverted to a single episode tape as in the original 1982 version.
The episode was released on DVD paired with "A Taste of Armageddon" as part of the general release of the series in 2000. There were no additional extras added to that entire series of releases, except the DVD containing "Turnabout Intruder".