This is the TOS episode I have seen the most recently, but even knowing how it goes down it is still a great viewing experience. Khan is by far the most interesting and best portrayed of any of the various villains and gods they have faced so far. Even without the powers of a deity Khan manages to be the most serious threat the Enterprise so far. No offense to Mr. Cumberbatch, but his Khan lacked the utter confidence of the original.
The episode begins with the Enterprise encountering an ancient earth vessel unknown to their historical databases. They detect that it is operational and has life signs so they beam above (I believe this is the first time McCoy is shown objecting to being transported) and find it is an sleeper ship from the 1990's. Turning on the lights awakens one of the sleepers who despite at least 200 years in stasis makes an amazing recovery. Upon awakening he holds a knife to McCoy's throat, but that is soon forgotten for some reason. Right after this happens Kirk agrees to give him access to the ships technical manuals which seems odd after the last scene, but whatever. Also the ships historian, Lt. McGivers falls head over heals in love with Khan from the moment she sees him.
Khan proceeds to seduce McGivers and forces her to help him take control of the Enterprise. They beam over to the SS. Botany Bay (Khan's ship) and revive the remaining sleeper. They then beam back and take control of the Enterprise from engineering. Khan tries to get some of the command staff to help him run the ship by putting Kirk in a decompression chamber, but McGivers does the right thing at the last possible moment and save the captain. Kirk and Spock flood the ship with anesthesia gas and only Khan escapes to engineering. Kirk has another fist fight to save the ship from destruction and manages to stop the light from flashing just in time!
The episode concludes with Kirk holding a hearing to decide their fate. Apparently if you turn on a recorder and ring a bell a ships captain has the authority do pretty much whatever he wants. In this case he opts to maroon Khan and his band of supermen along with McGivers on a habitable, but otherwise hostile planet. Khan doesn't object, but it also doesn't seem like he has any choice in the matter. We all know how this turns out, but it really does feel like the writers were setting this up for a second part, presumably in television episode format.
R3v13w: Even without Wrath of Khan this would have been a memorable episode. Great acting by Ricardo Montalban takes an interesting tale of history and adventure and makes it into a classic. This episode not only sets up a great story down the line, it expands the universe into the past and tells a lot about how humanity made it into the stars.
10 out of 10
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