Today we’re celebrating the premiere broadcast anniversary of "Space Seed".  This episode originally aired during Season 1 on
Thursday, February 16, 1967.

"Space Seed" introduces one of the franchise’s most beloved characters – KHAN – played by the inimitable Ricardo Montalban.
Picture
Montalban with Madlyn Rhue during Day 4 of the production (Unaired film trim, courtesy of Gerald Gurian)

THE STORY:

Kirk and his crew are forced to deal with a powerful adversary seeking world domination.  Found aboard an ancient and foundering cargo vessel with his body in a state of suspended animation, Khan is allowed to convalesce on the Enterprise.  Suspicious of Kahn’s true identity, Kirk and Spock soon determine that their “patient” is one of a group of scientifically-bred super-beings bent on world domination.  Khan’s mission is aided by the help of crew member Maria who has fallen in love with this domineering man.
Interesting factoids about this episode:
  • The episode’s first writer, Carey Wilbur, also wrote on Lost in Space.  The story resemblances are apparent, In Lost in Space, the space family Robinson is frozen, their breathing and heart races slowed, thereby reducing aging while their space ship makes the long journey to Alpha Centauri.  Likewise, the Space Seed also involves space travelers put into suspended animation.  Something goes wrong with this ship and it too is lost in space – only to be found by the Enterprise two centuries later.
  • In early script drafts, Khan was named Harold Ericsson.  Doesn’t quite have the same punch, does it.  Can you imagine that the second Star Trek feature film would have been called Star Trek II: The Wrath of Ericsson?
  • Ricardo Montalban, everyone’s first choice to play Khan, was already a star by the time he turned Khan.  He had been acting in films for more than 20 years, usually cast (some might say stereotyped) as the Latin lover.  Nonetheless, everyone in Hollywood knew and liked him – and he was one of the Hollywood stars just transitioning from film to television at this time.
In honor of the broadcast anniversary, watch the original episode (try amazon.com, Netflix or hulu plus) in a whole new way by reading all of the great behind-the-scenes details in Marc Cushman’s These are the Voyages: TOS, Season One.  Get your copy today!