All nine episodes of the new audio drama Star Trek: Khan are now available to listen to wherever you get your podcasts. The series — which was based on a story by Nicolas Meyer, written by Kirsten Beyer and David Mack and directed by Fred Greenhalgh — stars Naveen Andrews (LOST) in the titular role.
To celebrate the conclusion of the series, The Beat’s Star Trek Team assembled in Stately Beat Manor’s Observation Lounge to share our thoughts. Be sure and let us know what you thought, either here in the comment section or over on social media.
What did you think of Khan overall?
AVERY KAPLAN: I thought Khan was a fascinating project and enjoyed its weekly release schedule. Especially in the absence of a currently running TV series, it was nice to have something Star Trek to look forward to each week during my husband Ollie Kaplan’s and my commute. The production values were outstanding, and despite essentially knowing how the story would turn out (and guessing the major twist), I enjoyed looking forward to and listening to each episode.
I did hear a rumor that the show’s “cover image” was generated by AI, which, if true, is hugely disappointing, and is unfair to the hard work that actual humans put into the podcast itself. If this is untrue, I’d love to be disabused of the incorrect notion…
DERRICK CROW: I also really, really enjoyed this series. It was a great palate cleanser after SNW season three. For having a short episode length it handled it’s surprisingly large cast rather well and I was impressed with just how emotional it was. And yeah the weekly format worked for me, it gave me something to look forward to each week and I was always excited for the next episode. I hope we get more Star Trek original audio adventures soon.
As for the possibility that the main image was AI generated, yeah I’ve wondered about that since I first saw it and I feel like the shoulders are the give-away as well when you zoom in to look at the fingers they’re just bulbous nothings. It’s a sour grape in this otherwise incredible fruit bowl.
GEORGE CARMONA 3RD: Star Trek is primarily consumed visually, and to have an audio drama expanding on one of Trek’s top 5 villains and continuing Khan’s story after “Space Seed” was a brilliant idea. Andrews’ voice work made for a stellar Khan. Besides being a great story, this is an excellent example or testbed for new ways to explore other corners of Trek history, looking at you Section 31.
OLLIE KAPLAN: I also enjoyed the series, especially because the story took advantage of the audio-only format to introduce an alien species that I assume would be too expensive to design and create for one of the Franchise’s live-action entries, or at the very least, would be impossible with today’s technology to depict them realistically enough to satisfy the demands of today’s audiences—hey, some of us, like me, can totally get down with the cheese of low budget science fiction and would be happy to see more of it on screen. Additionally, the Khan podcast’s audio-only format allowed the creative team to explore telepathic communication in ways we don’t often get to see on screen—e.g, seeing the mindscapes.
Based on the positive experience I had listening to Khan, I hope that they will produce more Star Trek audio dramas in the near future. But while we await news of more audio dramas, I will convince Avery Kaplan that we need to listen to 2022’s audio drama about Raffi and Seven of Nine’s escapades, Star Trek: Picard — No Man’s Land, written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson and narrated by Michelle Hurd (Raffi) and Jeri Ryan (Seven) alongside several prolific VOAs such as Star Trek: Lower Deck’s Fred Tatasciore, who plays the trauma-addled Lt. Shax on the fan-favorite animated series.
AVERY KAPLAN: Very little convincing required, here.
Did you have a favorite episode, character or other element from the series?
AVERY KAPLAN: I don’t think I will be alone in this, but I sincerely enjoyed Andrews’ performance as Khan. Obviously, stepping into the shoes of the best-known villain in the Franchise is a daunting task, but Andrews proved he was up to the task, channeling all the scene-chewing Shakespearian energy that the role demands in each and every episode. Was he shirtless while recording? I wouldn’t be surprised.
I also adored the inclusion of Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). These two characters possess some of Star Trek’s most distinctive voices, and so fitting them both into this audio drama was a stroke of genius. Plus, given that Star Trek: Voyager was the first Franchise series I fell for, I could personally listen to Tuvok talk (and/or abuse Neelix) all day. And I especially appreciated that in the final episode, Tuvok vowed to become an activist for the marginalized Augment community.
Finally, I enjoyed Sonya Cassidy’s performance as Historian Rosalind Lear. This was an interesting character who was a bit outside of the typical Star Trek protagonist role, and I especially enjoyed the eventual revelations that revealed why she named herself after a pair of characters from the works of William Shakespeare. More Franchise stories from the perspective of civilian historians and other Starfleet outsiders, please!
DERRICK CROW: I agree with everything Avery said, with the addendum that I haven’t watched Voyager yet so this was actually my first Tuvok experience and I really liked him. I think it’s fun when characters from different series in a shared universe are sharing screen time (sound time?) together. So having Sulu and Tuvok together was, I agree, a stroke of genius. I really liked Marla McGivers (Wrenn Schmidt) and Delmonda (Olli Haaskivi). They were really interesting characters.
I don’t know if I have a favorite episode, but my favorite element was the usage of historical records as the framing device for the story. Again, like Avery said, it provided a really fresh perspective on how to approach the world of Star Trek and it’s the type of thing I’d like to see more of. Audio would be the perfect arena to explore the non-crew drive stories of Starfleet. Give me a Klingon audio drama or Section 31!
GEORGE CARMONA 3RD: I agree with you about Captain Sulu and the Excelsior as the framing technique.
OLLIE KAPLAN: Ever since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds introduced Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh (played by triple threat Christina Chong), an augment who’s a direct descendant of Khan, I have had questions about the birds and the bees of it all. The last time the Franchise had a storyline that explored augments was in Star Trek: Enterprise, and that didn’t turn out well for the augments, all of whom struggled with emotional regulation (and various other health issues) due to their genetic history.
In the Khan audio drama, we learn more about the challenges faced by augments when they try to reproduce—namely, no augment woman has been able to bring a pregnancy to term. However, for Marla, a human woman whose baby has both human and augment DNA, the pregnancy is a success, even if Marla doesn’t live to see it. To me, what makes Khan’s reproductive storyline so clever is how it weaves together diverse, untethered lore on how genetic manipulation impacts not only the individual who went through it, but also the entire community and its future generations.
But beyond the lore, this storyline also resonated with me since I am also infertile, like the augments.
How do you feel Khan affects Star Trek canon (if it does)?
AVERY KAPLAN: While I am glad that they ensured Wrath of Khan writer and director Meyer was involved in the creation of this prequel (midquel?), I don’t think Khan greatly affects my perception of Franchise canon.
If anything, getting to see the U.S.S. Excelsior’s mission under the command of Sulu was just as revelatory as any element of the story on Ceti Alpha V. Nevertheless, I enjoyed listening each week, and I do think it affects my perception of Khan as a character to some degree… or, I at least found him more sympathetic than I ever thought I would.
GEORGE CARMONA 3RD: This was a missed opportunity to lay the seeds of Second Contact missions. But to answer your question, I have this thing about tie-ins and if they are canon, but that is for another rant, for now I need this to be canon, and not get wiped away with a new owner or influenced by outside forces. Does it create more questions about Khan and his legacy, yes, but that could be a Space Seed for a new generation of fans.
AVERY KAPLAN: You are so right, George! Even just a line mentioning that Starfleet needs to start considering post-First Contact check-ins would have been perfect.
DERRICK CROW: Considering I came into Star Trek so late as a fan means I’m caught up on modern Trek, but all the older series I’m still working through. Thus I don’t really have a connection to Khan like most do, which was part of why I was originally hesitant to check this out, but I’m really glad I did as it made me very interested in the character. I recently started reading the Khan focused books The Eugenics Wars which goes into great detail of his history from his creation, to his time warlording around on Earth, to his eventual exile which I imagine when I get to that entry I’ll find this series greatly contradicts. Books, as they have been since time immemorial, have always been treated as disposable canon.
If I were more ingrained in Trek-lore and a long time fan I could see myself being somewhat annoyed at yet another canon shift from a story that’s already been told, but as it were I’m more than used to it from other big franchises I enjoy and I have the luxury of not being a long time fan so I’m choosing to embrace Khan because it was a good story. Ultimately, if a change is to be made, let it be worthwhile. This was worthwhile.
OLLIE KAPLAN: I believe it’s been intimated that this is canon, at least currently, but is subject to change as the Franchise head honchos see fit. You can learn more about the canon of it all in this article by Mick Joest, CinemaBlend’s resident Trekkie.
All nine episodes of Star Trek: Khan are now available wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Keep up with all of The Beat’s Star Trek coverage here.
