Star date: 3141.9
Summary: The crew of the Enterprise are surprised to discover a spacecraft from late 20th-century Earth. Kirk, Scotty, Bones and a historian named Marla McGivers board it to discover 73 people in a state of hypersleep; their presence automatically awakens the ship's captain, a man who identifies himself only as "Khan". From the beginning, McGivers finds herself irresistibly drawn to Khan.
After returning with Khan to the Enterprise, Kirk finds Khan reluctant to provide much information about himself, his ship, or his crew, but provides Khan with access to the Enterprise technical manuals to allow him to catch up on 200 years worth of advances in technology. Eventually Spock is able to determine that Khan is in fact Khan Noonien Singh, leader of a race of genetically-bred "superhumans", who once ruled one-quarter of the Earth's surface. It is clear that Khan and his still-sleeping crew are the last of the superhumans, who were unaccounted for at the end of the 20th century.
Kirk orders that Khan be put under guard, but this does him no good as Khan is able to recruit McGivers to his side and assist him in returning to his ship to awaken the rest of his crew. As a result of reading the Enterprise technical manuals, Khan and his crew are able to take control of the Enterprise, and threaten to kill the bridge crew one by one unless they agree to join with him and help him use the Enterprise to find a new planet he can colonize to start a new empire. McGivers, clearly having second thoughts about aiding Khan, rescues Kirk from death in a decompression chamber. Kirk and Spock are then able to flood most of the Enterprise with knockout gas, disarming all of Khan's crew other than Khan himself. While Spock and Scotty work to regain control of the Enterprise, Kirk and Khan go mano-a-mano in the Engineering room, with Kirk ultimately prevailing.
With his control firmly re-established, Kirk holds judicial proceedings to deal with Khan and McGivers. Rather than imprisoning Khan, he decides to leave Khan and his followers on a tough-to-tame planet where they can start a new life, comparing it to British criminals colonizing Australia. He also gives McGivers the option to go with Khan, or remain on the Enterprise and face a court martial. McGivers chooses to go with Khan.
Honestly, I'm not sure what this episode was about. It is established fairly early on that the late 20th century was the start of a "dark age" on Earth, where wars were fought between genetically-bred "supermen" (and women) and the rest of us. And the rest of us won. It takes a bit of time, but we eventually discover that Khan and his crew are the last of these supermen. And then they try to take over the Enterprise. And at the end, Kirk gives them exactly what they want: a new planet to conquer, to be the starting point of a new empire.
Is the message that eugenics is bad? Not really, that's assumed. Is it that war is bad? Again, that's assumed. Is it that, if you are sufficiently charismatic, you can get away with anything, and get exactly what you want? That's what the message seems to be.
Here is a key conversation between Kirk and Spock, fairly early in the episode:
Kirk: Well, they were hardly supermen. They were aggressive, arrogant, they began to battle among themselves . . .So Kirk sees them as "Alexanders, Napoleons", an assessment which would seem to be reinforced by Khan's brief takeover of the Enterprise. So Kirk gives them a planet of their own --- unbelievable. And although as ship captain, Kirk has the authority to deal with Khan's attempted piracy in any way he sees fit, I'm guessing there are folks in Starfleet who would love to prosecute Khan for things he did on Earth in the 1990's --- and it's really not Kirk's place to deprive them of that opportunity.
Spock: Because the scientists overlooked one fact: Superior ability breeds superior ambition.
Kirk: Interesting, if true. They created a group of Alexanders, Napoleons.
One would also think that, after this conversation, Kirk would take away Khan's access to the Enterprise technical manuals.
In fact, we see Kirk make the same mistake of generosity twice in the show. Kirk gives Khan the Enterprise technical manuals in a generous attempt to let Khan "catch up" on 200 years of technology, and Khan uses that generosity to seize Kirk's ship. Kirk is generous with Khan a second time by giving him a planet to rule --- and it seems just as likely that decision will also blow up in Kirk's face (and I would say that even if I didn't know that they made a movie about just that --- albeit one I haven't seen).
The whole McGivers subplot is somewhat interesting, but the way it ends is a bit unbelievable. Sure, I can believe that McGivers might be overwhelmed by Khan's charisma (why do all the cute chicks want to date the macho bullies?), and I can even believe that she betrays Khan when she realizes his brutality has gone too far.
What I can't believe is that a) McGivers would choose to go with Khan at the end, both because she's seen how brutal he can be (forcing the Enterprise crew to watch Kirk slowly die), and because life on this new planet will be quite difficult; and b) That Khan would want McGivers to go with him. Everything on the show to that point indicates that Khan is simply using McGivers so he can take over the Enterprise; why would he want her --- an "ordinary" woman, and not a superwoman? Especially after she betrayed him?
Other observations about this episode:
Kirk has difficulty remembering McGivers' name. Gosh, you mean we finally found a woman with whom Kirk doesn't have instant romantic chemistry?
Kirk certainly takes his sweet time putting a security guard on Khan once he finds out who Khan really is, sitting around with Scotty and McCoy gushing in admiration of him before finally putting in a call to security.
And security is, as usual, useless, putting up essentially no resistance in letting Khan escape back to his ship. It's really hard to believe that, at the end of the show, the 430-odd Enterprise crew can successfully keep Khan and all 72 of his followers safely under guard on the Enterprise.
When Khan is first revived, it takes McCoy and several others "hours" to revive him, so it's highly unlikely that Khan would be able to return to his ship and revive his entire crew before Kirk & Co. even realize he's gone.
It's also very convenient how Khan and his lieutenants lose the video feed of Kirk in the decompression chamber just as McGivers is going to rescue Kirk.
The fight scene between Kirk and Khan is, as usual, just awful. It would be much easier to believe Kirk defeating the "superman" Khan if there happened to be a good, old-fashioned metal wrench lying around on a stool this time, like there was when Kirk fought Finney in the Engineering room in "Court Martial". And why do these fights always happen in Engineering?
At least no one crumpled to the ground unconscious after being tapped lightly on the back this time.
The Moral of the Story: If you are sufficiently charismatic, you can get away with anything, and get exactly what you want. Also, Kirk is an idiot.
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