Based on a story by Nicholas Meyer.
Written by Kirsten Beyer and David Mack
Additional writing by Mac Rogers
Directed by Fred Greenhalgh
A couple of people wanted a central place to discuss these episodes, so here it is!
Future threads will go up on the day of the release.
If you’re not normally a podcast person, the series is available on YouTube.
I liked it. It was the perfect length to listen to and the voices are well cast and distinctive enough. The only thing I didn’t like was the intrusive (for a lack of a better word) music in some parts. As if they needed to further emphasize “this is the part where romance is supposed to happen”.
I thought it was pretty interesting. Of course first episodes are usually weighed down a little by setting everything up, but it seemed they did a pretty good job of it anyway.
Even though I don’t know any of the actors other than the former Trek actors and Wrenn Schmidt, the accents and voices are fortunately different enough that it’s not hard to keep up with so far. I do hope they don’t expand the cast too much farther though, or they could risk more casual listeners being unable to keep track of the various characters.
Khan is definitely not on my list of things I would like Star Trek to focus on, but I hope this series does well enough that they consider doing some more varied stories within the format in the future. And of course I plan on continuing to listen to this one too, and I hope they tell some interesting stories.
This episode confirmed my biggest fear: I’m bad at focusing on audio stories, and will have to choose when to listen carefully.
As far as the story goes, I’m happiest to see that they’re doing some character rehab for Marla McGivers.
They don’t seem to be doing similar rehab for Khan himself, which is fine by me, but they are highlighting his ability to turn on a dime and go full tyrant at the drop of a hat.
I find that I need to do some other activity while listening to podcasts. Often it’s a puzzle game or other phone activity that doesn’t require unbroken concentration.
But the quality of the sound and voiceovers or voice acting is really crucial to holding my attention.
In this case, it’s really unfortunate that Sonja Cassidy was cast as Dr. Lear. Or, perhaps it’s just unfortunate that she was asked to use an American accent. While some actors can maintain the quality of their performances in another accent, there are British actors who end up with muddy enunciation or less credible performances even if the accent is fine.
Cassidy’s performance as Dr. Lear sounds more like reading than acting for much of the opening minutes. Alternately, her expression, when it does happen, seems artificial. The unpolished performance is all the more noticeable in contrast to the excellent performances by George Takei as Sulu, Tim Russ as Tuvok and Wrenn Schmidt as Marla McGiver, and even the brief interjections of chair of the review committee are more compelling.
Given how many lines she’s given in the opening minutes as the framing story sets the stage, it’s truly unfortunate.
I’ll add my comment from the other post here too.
Naveen Andrews is doing a great job with Khan sounding very charismatic.
Not to throw shade at Andrews, but I do kind of wish maybe they got Earl Boen who can do a very good sound alike to Ricardo Montalban. Boen filled in for Montalban as Señor Senior Sr. in Kim Possible, and sounded really spot on.
But if we ever see Khan on screen again, I think Andrews would be great casting.
I also did the unthinkable, I’m listening to this podcast at 1x speed. Because I wanted to really be immersed in the story telling. I usually listen to podcasts at 1.5x or 2x, whichever allows me to consume the content quicker while understanding it.
It’ll be intersting to see what hell comes from this that will inform Khan’s revenge for Kirk in Wrath of Khan.
I did not know this, but apparently Earl Boen passed away in 2023, which would make casting…difficult.
I’ve liked Naveen Andrews ever since he was an underutilized breakout star on “Lost”, and he has the advantage of actually being of Indian descent. I’ll be very curious to see how much range he gets to show as this series winds on.
Gasp! I should have looked up if Earl Boen was still with us.
I’m refreshing myself on Khan story and am watching Space Seed. And I see Lt. McGivers identifies Khan as a Sikh. I knew that Khan and company rules over India during the Eugenics Wars, but for some reason I always thought since the augments were multiracial, I just assumed they got Ricardo Montalban, a Mexican actor, because when they’re combining genes to make the perfect human they just kind of go with whatever’s on hand.
It not makes me think that Andrews is even better casting choice now.
Not to throw shade at Montalban, because I love Ricardo Montalban. He’s got so much charisma. But I do think it makes sense to have a Sikh character played by an Indian actor.
In contrast, Benedict Cumberbatch is another fantastic actor, but literally made no sense why they casted him as Khan.
That was a fun listen. We’ll see where this goes.
Annotations for 1x01 up at: https://startrek.website/post/28791347
Maybe a bit premature to say this after only one episode, but I feel like so far this show is accomplishing what the documentary episode of SNW tried to do. It’s effectively making us think about the “established Starfleet narrative” of most Star Trek, and has a frame device that advances the story without being too intrusive.
I’m glad they are officially dipping their toes into audio dramas after killing off all the fan dramas.
But why does it have to be another damn prequel.
