Do you miss classic Star Trek? I’m referring to the Star Trek that most of us grew up with—whether it be TOS or the 24th century Star Trek sequels…pretty much anything produced by Paramount and not CBS Studios. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy LOWER DECKS, PRODIGY, or most of PICARD season three. But there was just this certain “feel” to the Treks from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that simply hasn’t carried over properly to the new stuff.
Then came STAR TREK: KHAN, the new audio drama available as free downloadable a 9-part podcast. The series tells the story of Khan Noonien Singh (the genetically-engineered villain from the TOS episode “Space Seed” who later tried to exact revenge on James Kirk in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) after he andhis followers were marooned on the planet Ceti Alpha V. As I listened, I felt as though I were back in familiar Star Trek territory. Granted Starfleet and the Federation play a limited role in the story, there are no Klingons or Romulans to speak of, and life on Ceti Alpha V is generally quite un-futuristic. Nevertheless, the audio drama does an excellent job of transporting the listener back into a much more familiar and comfortable Star Trek experience.
HOW STAR TREK: KHAN CAME TO BE
This audio drama podcast project got its start sometime back around 2017 when Star Trek II and VI director NICHOLAS MEYER revealed that he was working on a new Star Trek project unrelated to STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, which he was working on as a a consulting producer and writer. The following year, when ALEX KURTZMAN signed a five-year deal with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery, it was announced that a new “prequel” to Star Trek II titled CETI ALPHA V would be produced as a 3-episode TV miniseries, focusing on Khan and his people’s fight for survival on that doomed alien world. Meyer wrote a storyline for the project.
Continue reading “The review of KHAN!”