khan star trek backstory

'Wrath of Khan': Ricardo Montalbán on 'Star Trek's Iconic Villain and His Workout Transformation (Flashback)

The actor explained to ET in 1982 how he got into shape to face off against Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew.

Among Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ’s enduring legacy, which already boasts the introduction of the Kobayashi Maru, as well as Captain Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Mr. Spock’s ( Leonard Nimoy ) powerful goodbye scene, is Ricardo Montalbán’s iconic performance as Khan Noonien Singh. 

To celebrate the movie’s 40th anniversary, ET is looking back at Montalbán’s in-depth interview leading up to The Wrath of Khan ’s premiere on June 4, 1982. 

One question on everyone’s mind at the time was a bit superficial, but nevertheless imperative following Montalbán's appearance in the movie’s trailer and posters. Are those your real muscles? And if so: how did you get in shape?

“Before I did Khan , I started to do a lot of push ups,” Montalbán said with a laugh, confirming those pectorals on the big screen were the real deal. “Because, after all, [Khan] was supposed to be a physically strong man.”

Montalbán had the unique distinction of reprising the character over 15 years after he guest starred on the original series. In the season one episode, “Space Seed,” Kirk and crew encounter Khan, a genetically engineered human who’s been in suspended animation following a world war on Earth nearly 200 years ago. With enhanced strength and intellect, Khan seeks to take over the Enterprise and revive more of his superhuman peers. But his attempt is foiled. Instead, Kirk sends Khan and company to an uninhabited planet where they could fulfill their destructive ambitions, without bringing harm and chaos to the Federation in the process. 

“I venture to say I received more fan mail from that episode than anything I've ever done in my life,” Montalbán shared. 

By the time producer Harve Bennett came calling about literally reviving Khan for Star Trek ’s second film, Montalbán had become a household name from his role as Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island . Already many seasons into the hit TV series, Montalbán felt confident and comfortable as the show’s lead character. And when the moment came to step back into Gene Roddenberry’s universe, he discovered maybe he had become a little too comfortable. 

“When you play the same character for so many years, I get to know him so well that it becomes a little bit of a part of you, as you become a part of it,” Montalbán explained. “And when I first started to articulate the dialogue of Khan, and I was alone at home in my room and study, and the first time I say the words out loud I heard Mr. Rourke. And I couldn't get away from him and I didn't know what to do.”

“I asked Bennett, the producer of [ The Wrath of Khan ], to send me a tape of the original show I had done… He may be older and more bitter, but nevertheless, I have to discover his fingerprints,” he continued. “And so I saw the show. I ran it several times. And about the fourth or fifth time I began to remember what I did then. The thoughts came back to me. And it was really quite remarkable… Then, I picked up the script and all of a sudden there was Khan. And I think I eradicated Mr. Rourke.”

Following the mixed reception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, producers went back to basics for the next installment in terms of story, tone and antagonist. As Kirk endures the woes of a midlife crisis, Khan reenters the fold and is dead set on revenge. In Star Trek Into Darkness , Spock later warns his Kelvin timeline counterpart ( Zachary Quinto ) that "Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced." 

“A saint doesn't know that he's a saint. He does saintly things. And people around him say he's a saint,” Montalbán said, adding that likewise, “An evil man or a villain, I don't think he thinks of himself as being evil.”

Khan’s multifaceted nature and rich backstory is still paying off dividends. On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , the character's DNA literally runs high. The Enterprise's chief of security, La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), is a descendent of Khan. Over on Star Trek: Picard , the season 2 finale hinted Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) aided Khan's creation as a young scientist.

Alongside the Borg Queen and Gul Dukat, Khan continues to be heralded as one of Star Trek 's best villains, which is a legacy that can be attributed to Montalbán's thoughtful approach to creating a three-dimensional antagonist.

“When I played Khan… I had to give him some human qualities. Something of goodness,” Montalbán explained. “And I imbued Khan with a very sincere and a very beautiful love of his wife, who died. And that great love now turned into great hate for Admiral Kirk, who he blames for the death of his wife… Because if you play everything good-good, and everything bad-bad, then it's a caricature. There's no such thing. We all have a balance.”

Still, there was the age-old acting dilemma of finding the right tone. Even for an established film actor, having previously starred alongside movie icons like Clark Gable ( Across the Wide Missouri ) and Lana Turner ( Madame X ), Montalbán felt challenged by translating Khan for the cinema.

“Playing this character presented great difficulty. If I played him safely… I'm afraid the character would have been not a worthy antagonist to Admiral Kirk,” Montalbán said. “The only way I could do it then was to play it not safely but daringly. And really play it as fully as I could, because after all, [ Star Trek ] is a fantasy thing.”

Maximum warp to 2021, Jerry O'Connell told ET at Paramount+'s 2nd Annual "Star Trek Day" Celebration that he wants to follow in Benedict Cumberbatch 's footsteps by playing the infamous tyrant one day (even though he's already in the family as the voice of Ransom on Lower Decks ). 

The actor revealed, "Huge props to Ricardo Montalbán, who did amazing work not only in the original series but in [ Star Trek II ] as well, [but] I want a shot to play Khan at some point."

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan streams on Paramount+. 

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To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh

• View history
• 2 Background information
• 3 Characters
• 4 References
• 5 External link

Summary [ ]

Background information [ ].

• The novel spans the gap between Khan's marooning in " Space Seed " and his rediscovery in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Author Greg Cox knew that this novel would be the obvious follow-up after filling in Khan's backstory in the Rise and Fall duology, but had only a few lines of dialogue in the movie to go on, considering it " [the] big challenge: Could I get an entire book out of a few dozen people stuck on a barren rock for fifteen or so years? " ( Voyages of Imagination , p. 145)
• Cox noted that this third novel in the series strikes a very different tone: " grimmer, more tragic, and less rife with opportunities for cute fannish in-jokes and cameos. " Early on, he determined that there was no place for the involvement of Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln (who had been central to the previous duology), and appearances by known Trek races would go against the idea that Khan and his followers had been alone for the fifteen years set out. ( Voyages of Imagination , p. 145)
• He also felt it was important to give McGivers a central role in the novel: " In my head, I always thought of her storyline as 'The Rehabilitation of Marla McGivers'. […] My goal was to toughen Marla up some, and give her more of a spine, while still remaining consistent with the character we met in the original episode. " ( Voyages of Imagination , p. 145)
• The original title of the novel was A World to Win , based on the final line of dialogue by Khan in " Space Seed "; however, Pocket editor Marco Palmieri suggested using the John Milton line spoken by Kirk at the end of the episode instead. ( Voyages of Imagination , p. 145)
• Marla McGivers refers to the events of TOS : " The Conscience of the King ", " Shore Leave ", " Arena ", and " Tomorrow is Yesterday " whereas Sulu recalls those of TOS : " The Galileo Seven ".

Characters [ ]

References [ ], external link [ ].

• To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

• The Inventory

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Wants to Bring Some Classic Connections to the Screen

Faces familiar and new in the latest trek series are ready to flesh out the original series' past.

We’ve known practically since it was announced that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would bridge the gap between the original Discovery era—before that show jetted off to the 31st century—and the road to the original Star Trek . But new details about a few of the familiar faces joining the Enterprise give us more of an idea as to how Strange New Worlds wants to enmesh itself with Trek ’s earliest canon.

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At a panel for Paramount+ last night during the Television Critics Association press tour, the first footage from Strange New Worlds was screened to attending press. As Den of Geek reports, the clip focused on Celia Rose Gooding’s take on an iconic Star Trek hero : the young Nyota Uhura, the future legendary comms officer of the Enterprise , and in Strange New Worlds , a fresh-faced cadet right out of Starfleet Academy and thrust onto the Federation’s flagship.

The footage showed Uhura being formally introduced to the crew at a dinner hosted by Captain Pike —one where the young woman shows up wildly over- prepared to impress, thanks to a prank by fellow officer Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), in her Starfleet dress uniform. At the dinner, Uhura introduces herself and reveals her background, fleshing out details of her past that we’ve never seen play out on-screen before, covering her passion for xenolinguistics, her childhood in Nairobi as the daughter of two university professors, and the tragic loss of her family in an accident— l eaving her to be raised by her grandmother, a retired Starfleet officer who ultimately inspired the young woman to follow in her footsteps.

But Uhura—beyond of course the likes of Rebecca Romijin’s Number One (now finally given a full name after all these years, Una Chin-Riley), Ethan Peck’s Spock, Anson Mount’s Captain Pike, and even deeper cuts like Jess Bush and Babs Olusanmokun as Nurse Chapel and Dr. M’Benga—isn’t the only familiar cut in Strange New World ’s cast. The most intriguing of all original Trek connections was properly confirmed at the panel too, even if it was perhaps an obvious one from the moment it was announced: Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien-Singh is indeed a relative of one of classic Trek ’s most iconic villains, Khan.

“She’s related to Khan, for sure, and the deal [with that connection] will unfold.” Goldsman said at the panel (via THR ). “We don’t want to bring folks into the show to be splashy. We want to dig deeply into characters that are part of our ensemble and then, obviously, we’re open to getting our arms … but right now, what you see is what you get.”

Obviously, you don’t put a Noonien-Singh aboard the Enterprise just a few years before the events of Khan’s debut in “Space Seed” and not explore what’s up with that. B ut if Gooding’s take on Uhura is one way to explore classic Trek backstories left untouched by the original show, then perhaps Chong’s presence as a connection to such an iconic villain—and a chance to explore the Starfleet of the mid-23rd-century’s approach to genetic engineering in ways Discovery itself briefly touched on—is another foil to that, as well as an opportunity to put some interesting connections in place as the show goes ahead.

No doubt we’ll find out about even more links to classic Trek soon— Strange New Worlds is set to begin on Paramount+ from May 5.

Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new up one here .

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Strange New Worlds Finally Corrects One of Star Trek’s Biggest Mistakes

For all its talk about overcoming racism and embracing diversity, Star Trek has sometimes fallen into harmful tropes, including when it comes to the character of Khan.

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This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds article contains spoilers.

At the end of the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , La’an Noonien-Singh makes a shocking discovery. Hurled back to 21st-century Toronto, alongside James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), to stop a history-changing attack by Romulans, La’an finds the holding area of her infamous ancestor, the genocidal warlord Khan Noonien Singh.

Tempted by the opportunity to not only destroy a vicious warlord but to also shake off the hatred for her name that still exists in her reality, La’an enters the room, gun drawn. However, she finds not the glowering madman played by Ricardo Montalbán in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan nor the simmering terror played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Instead, she finds a small child, whom she immediately comforts.

As sweet as this moment is, even more notable is who is playing Khan in the scene. It’s talented young actor Desmond Sivan ( FUBAR ), who is of both Latino and South Asian descent, meaning Star Trek has finally cast a performer of South Asian heritage to play Khan, who is Indian in canon. This is a big deal, especially when you consider the franchise’s blunder when it cast Cumberbatch, a white actor, to play the villain in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness , leading some fans to accuse the movie of whitewashing Khan.

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It boggles the mind that it’s taken this long to see such an iconic Star Trek character correctly represented by an actor of similar background. After all, Khan was identified as “a Sikh from the northern region of India” in his very first appearance in The Original Series episode “Space Seed” in 1967.

There’s no question that it was the great Montalbán who immortalized Khan as an all-timer of a villain both on the big and small screen, but it’s also true that he was born in Mexico from white European parents. When viewed from a modern lens, this casting is problematic, but it’s important to note that Montalbán was in his own time a revolutionary actor, breaking into Hollywood at a time when there were very few Hispanic performers dominating American screens. His casting in Star Trek as a character of color on a popular TV series would have still felt progressive at the time.

But then Star Trek Into Darkness doubled down on casting a European actor to play the character when Cumberbatch’s terrorist John Harrison reveals that he is actually Khan. To be fair, the Khan twist in the divisive movie, which takes place in an alternate Trek timeline, has more to do with winking at the audience than anything that made sense within the film’s reality. It’s also true that director J.J. Abrams originally cast Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro , but given its opportunity to bring in a performer that could better reflect the character’s background, why didn’t Into Darkness consider a South Asian actor for the role from the start? Perhaps Abrams wanted to wink at an earlier version of the character that didn’t make it into “Space Seed.”

Behind the scenes, Khan wasn’t always Khan. In earlier versions of the “Space Seed” script, writer Carey Wilber imagined the character as a Nordic man called “Harald Ericsson.” Later versions had the character operating under the pseudonym “John Erickson” before revealing himself to be the tyrant Ragnar Thorwald , a conceit that eventually returned in Star Trek Into Darkness . At some point, the character was renamed Khan Noonien Singh, perhaps during the rewrite by the episode’s other credited writer Gene L. Coon, but more likely at the behest of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry served in World War II alongside a man named Kim Noonien Singh, and hoped that the episode would get his attention, leading to a reunion between the old friends.

Interestingly, the Khan we meet in Strange New Worlds exists in an alternate timeline too, one where he’s still a child during the 2020s, not a conqueror during the 1990s. It’s unclear how much the show will use Khan going forward beyond this cameo, despite the season’s clear interest in the Eugenics Wars. But even if this is all just meant to be another wink at fans, the character’s return in this way is Star Trek setting a new, better course, stepping away from Into Darkness ‘ mistake and getting that much closer to creating the future it has always imagined.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

Star Trek's Khan Is Returning To The Franchise In A New Story Set Before Star Trek II

Despite the sheer number of villains who have appeared throughout the many installations of the "Star Trek" franchise, there's no doubt that the greatest antagonist the series has ever seen is Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) — the malevolent superhuman who made his debut in the classic "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed." After suffering defeat at the hands of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise, Khan would later return to enact his vengeance in the film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," which would infamously lead to the death of series staple Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

The immense devastation that Khan wreaked throughout "The Wrath of Khan" catapulted the character to the very top of the "Star Trek" rogues' gallery, and more than 40 years later, he remains the most well-known villain in the entire franchise – and one of the most iconic antagonists in science fiction history. Indeed, Khan is so popular that he was even brought back to the franchise through 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness," where he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch and given a completely new backstory.

Now, it seems like Khan will be returning to the franchise once again through "Star Trek's" first ever scripted podcast; in a brand new story that will explore his 15 years of exile on the Ceti Alpha V.

The original Khan is returning in a new scripted podcast

Longtime fans of "Star Trek" will remember that, following Khan's defeat in "Space Seed," Captain Kirk exiled the villain to Ceti Alpha V with the majority of his followers – where he would spend the next 15 years biding his time before the events of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." Now, a new scripted podcast from "Wrath of Khan" director Nicholas Meyer will explore exactly what happened during those years of exile.

"Nick made the definitive 'Trek' movie when he made 'Wrath,' and we've all been standing in its shadow since," said producer Alex Kurtzman in a September 2022 press release. "Now he's come up with something as surprising, gripping and emotional as the original, and it's a real honor to be able to let him tell the next chapter in this story exactly the way he wants to" (via Gizmodo ).

The podcast, titled "Star Trek: Khan – Ceti Alpha V," is set to arrive sometime in early 2023, though as of right now we still don't have a concrete release date for this exciting new project; nor do we know who will be voicing the titular villain (via IGN ). We do know that the podcast will tell the story of exactly what Khan and his followers were up to during their lengthy exile on Ceti Alpha, and Kurtzman's comments make it clear that this prequel story will be well worth the time of anybody who tunes in. In any case, the return of Khan to the franchise should be something that every longtime "Star Trek" fan ought to be excited for.

What Star Trek Canon Could Mean for This Important Character's Future

With Star Trek's complex lore, there's little place for new characters to have a long future, especially when they're introduced in a prequel series.

This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , now available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek has been gracing the screens and lives of its fans for over 50 years and, in that time, has built up a strong, long-lasting canon of content spanning in-world centuries. With this plethora of lore comes the challenge of introducing new figures, especially in prequel series, of which there are many. One such example is a key member of the hit new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds' La'an Noonien-Singh. In fact, La'an's involvement in the greater canon goes beyond just that of a new character -- she has ties to its most iconic villain, Khan Noonien-Singh.

La'an has become an incredibly important part of the series and franchise at large, not least of all because of these connections. With the Gorn becoming one of the central villains of Strange New Worlds, La'an's first-hand knowledge is invaluable to the success of her crew and Starfleet. Moreover, her ongoing 'situationship' with Kirk ingrains her into the backstory of one of the series' most iconic characters. Her time-travel romance featured both a long-term intimacy with the franchise's flagship captain and a definitive tie to her ancestor Khan and his future. La'an's future is up in the air, with her volatile, self-destructive personality offering a few possible outs to align with her lack of involvement in the existing canon. Still, her story intertwines her in a way that would make ignoring her impact a risky move.

RELATED: How Strange New Worlds Centers Spock's Development in His Romantic Conflicts

How Strange New Worlds Ties La'an, Kirk and Khan

Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," cemented La'an's impact on Star Trek's lore in an irreversible way. In this one episode, where La'an chose to save the life of a future genocidal maniac and her ancestor Khan, the writers corrected the prime timeline, and La'an kept in motion the events that would follow her around for her whole life. The emotional episode saw La'an choose the life of an innocent child over freedom from a burden that weighs on her daily, thus allowing the Eugenics Wars to occur as they did in Star Trek canon. In choosing La'an, a new addition to the franchise, to correct the timeline, the minds behind Strange New Worlds created an irreversible moment in the primary timeline in which La'an was not only involved but directly impactful. This episode also saw her become intrinsically linked to Captain James Kirk, an Original Series icon with a complicated history with Khan himself.

Although the Kirk from "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is not the same as the Kirk in the primary timeline, the Season 2, Episode 9 musical special, "Subspace Rhapsody," saw him confess that he feels as if he knows La'an, despite having no memories of his alternate self. Kirk then revealed that, though he feels a connection to La'an, he cannot act on it because of his pregnant girlfriend, Carol Marcus . Carol would go on to work on creating the Genesis Planet as a direct result of Khan's work during the war. Kirk and Carol's son David would later be killed on the Genesis planet, so when following the threads, it can be said that La'an's choice to save Khan led to the death of Kirk's son. Kirk's relationship with La'an is strong and complicated, so it would be strange if she didn't come to mind during his future interactions with Khan. Additionally, part of their connection centers on the fact that Kirk doesn't see her as connected to the actions of her ancestor, so following that notion could mean that he simply doesn't think of her in the same vein as he does of the villainous Noonien-Singh.

RELATED: Strange New Worlds Reminds Fans People Are Still Flawed in the Future

La'an Noonien-Singh Is a Warrior

With the Gorn forming such a major and repeated threat to Strange New World's Enterprise, La'an's other defining backstory moment has been vital to the crew's survival. As the ship's security officer, La'an is one of the most skilled warriors because of her status as the sole survivor of a Gorn breeding planet. Her difficult life and traumatic childhood have led to an understandably standoffish personality that often leads her to put herself in harm's way. Although La'an has undergone an arc that seems to be opening her up to vulnerability and the need for teamwork, it wouldn't be out of character if her demise came during a big battle or in the throes of conflict. In fact, it would be the easiest way to write out her character.

This path, while simple, would do a massive disservice to her character. La'an's primary objective throughout the series so far has been the safety and happiness of her crew, who serve as her chosen family. She has often put their lives above her own, and a big part of her character development has been her self-belief and the hope for a future she has gained. If killed off, her impact on Star Trek canon would be diminished, as the franchise would have no reason to add her to future events if revisited. Further, her arc as a character would come to a dissatisfying close, punctuated by the fact that those in lasting canon she is closest to, i.e. Spock, Uhura, Kirk and now potentially also Scotty , go on without acknowledging her.

RELATED: Everything We Know About Dr. Joseph M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A Time Travel Alternative Can Work - La'an's Already Been Through It

One way the series could avoid killing off La'an would be to lean into themes the franchise frequently explores, namely time travel. Star Trek has long explored time travel as a trope ; from episodes in The Original Series or in Discovery -- the series has done almost every iteration of the narrative possible. In addition to traveling in the main timeline, there have also been multiple instances of alternate timelines and dimensions, especially in Strange New Worlds. La'an is involved in both instances in her show, first in the Season 1 finale, where she serves as Kirk's Number One on the Farragut, and the other in the aforementioned episode, where she saves Khan.

La'an's exposure to the Department of Temporal Investigations, as well as alternate timelines , sets her character up for a time-related event in which she disappears, and the members of Starfleet are bound not to speak of her, similar to what happens with Discovery . If the writers were to take a similar route, it would easily transition La'an out of the narrative in a way that didn't cut her off entirely, as killing her would. The major downside to this route is that similar to a warrior's end, it would likely result from a sacrificial moment, diminishing her character development. What the team behind Strange New Worlds choose to do with La'an remains to be seen.

Still, hopefully, they lean into the same idea that saw her exit during the Season 1 finale, choosing to pursue humanitarian work that would see her take a step away from Starfleet without losing her conscious contributions to the story. Whatever her end may be, here's hoping it's a long way off, and fans get to continue to enjoy all that her character, and Strange New Worlds , offer to the world of Star Trek.

Strange New Worlds Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock Cost The World A Full-Blown Khan Spinoff

Khan Noonien Singh's trajectory as a fictional character is the opposite of his in-universe life story. He was once a superhuman tyrant who ruled much of the Earth — after being overthrown, he fled to space aboard the SS Botany Bay. Upon reawakening, he was bested twice by James T. Kirk and died failing to avenge himself. For audiences though, Khan went from a villain of the week ( in the "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" ) to the greatest of all "Trek" villains thanks to his reappearance in the film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

Before "The Wrath of Khan," however, "Star Trek" was in trouble. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" underwhelmed, Paramount was hesitant about a sequel, and Leonard Nimoy had to be convinced to return as Spock. That's why the film famously ends with his character dying — except, during shooting, Nimoy changed his mind about exiting. Thus, when "The Wrath of Khan" ended up being a success, the sequel — "The Search for Spock" — was all about bringing back the late Vulcan. Nimoy even directed the movie and the subsequent fourth film, "The Voyage Home."

This wasn't the only plan Paramount had, though. According to the "Star Trek" oral history book "The Fifty-Year Mission" by Edward Gross and Mark Altman , there were plans to take the franchise in a different direction — one that looked backward in a more literal way.

"Search for Spock" Unit Publicist Eddie Egan told Gross and Altman that Harve Bennett, who co-wrote both "Wrath of Khan" and "Search for Spock," wanted to do a prequel spin-off chronicling Khan's life between his debut in "Space Seed" and his return in "The Wrath of Khan."

Star Trek: Prison Planet

In "Space Seed," Khan and his "augmented" followers choose to be exiled to planet Ceti Alpha V, a lush but untamed world. In the words of John Milton, it's better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Then a planetary cataclysm disrupts the environment of Khan's new world, truly turning it into the Hell he'd described. The terrible desert Ceti Alpha V has become is only glimpsed in "Wrath of Khan" before Khan's people leave it by hijacking the Starfleet vessel the USS Reliant. So, we're left to imagine how torturous 15 years there must have been.

Bennett crafted a treatment titled "Star Trek: Prison Planet" to show audiences firsthand. Ricardo Montalbán would have returned as Khan and the film would be a "vehicle" for him, per Egan. However, "Prison Planet" fell by the wayside when Paramount decided to prioritize "Star Trek III." This story illustrates how Hollywood has changed in the intervening decades. Nowadays in the age of unkillable franchises, Paramount executives would be thrilled to have both a sequel and a spin-off to a hit film. Rather than choosing one film over the other, they would likely turn "Prison Planet" into a Paramount+ mini-series.

As fate would have it, Nicholas Meyer, director of "Wrath of Khan," proposed doing a Khan mini-series, "Ceti Alpha V,"  in 2021 . The project has since evolved into an audio drama (which saves them the trouble of finding an actor who can completely imitate Montalbán — Benedict Cumberbatch ain't it ).

Star Trek spin-offs about Khan

Before the 2010s when franchise recycling hit its max (driven by the streaming service glut), interquel stories would be saved for tie-in media catered to the niche of dedicated fans. The story of Khan's exile is one that "Star Trek" authors did not ignore.

For previous tellings of Khan's time on Ceti Alpha V, there is "To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh." This 2006 novel by Greg Cox is a sequel to his earlier two-volume work, "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh," which chronicled Khan's backstory on 20th century Earth . There is also "Star Trek: Khan — Ruling In Hell," a 2010 comic mini-series by Scott & David Tipton and Fabio Mantovani. Both works' titles call back to Khan quoting Milton in "Space Seed," but beyond that and fitting into the confines of "Wrath of Khan," they're mutually exclusive.

I've admitted only read the comic; issue #1 opens with the Enterprise leaving the Botany Bay and her crew on Ceti Alpha V. The issue then ends with Ceti Alpha VI exploding; as detailed in "Wrath of Khan," the shockwave is what ruined its sister planet. Over the mini-series, Khan's initial gratitude to Kirk for a second chance turns to hatred as Khan loses more and more, including his "beloved wife," while the Captain never comes to his rescue.

You don't need more than "Wrath of Khan" itself to understand the villain, but seeing Montalbán play the character again in "Prison Planet" would have been a treat. His presence is obviously lacking in this comic and novel, and now Meyer's forthcoming mini-series too.

A Complete Timeline of Star Trek

Star Trek stands as one of the most enduring and influential pop-culture franchises on the planet. From a comparatively humble cult TV series, it has expanded into an entire universe of speculative future history encompassing dozens of movies and TV shows. With more projects on the way, it doesn't look to slow down anytime soon. That can lead to a convoluted timeline, particularly in the early days when no one expected it to last as long as it has.

Star Trek: The Original Series producers didn't worry about what came before or after their show, and series creator Gene Roddenberry had a way of simply ignoring episodes he considered sub-par. Writers Michael and Denise Okuda are largely credited with firmly establishing a canonical Star Trek timeline during the expansion of the franchise following Star Trek: The Next Generation . That's resulted in a definable, if complicated, fictional history to chart the rise of the United Federation of Planets and its development through centuries of galactic history. Here's a breakdown of the Star Trek in-universe timeline, divided roughly by era.

The Early Years of Star Trek's Timeline Are Vague

Wrath of khan creates star trek's biggest plot hole, and the real-life explanation is hilarious.

The early years of Star Trek 's timeline run into a number of real-world continuity issues. This was most notable with the Eugenics Wars , which originally took place in the 1990s, but has since been retconned to an indeterminate point in the future. They're linked to the rise of genetically augmented humans who conquer and rule much of the planet, led by the notorious Khan Noonien Singh. The Eugenics Wars culminate in a Third World War, and the ensuing nuclear apocalypse all but destroys civilization. Khan and his followers escape the planet in a stasis ship, and await their rendezvous with Captain Kirk in The Original Series episode, "Space Seed."

The most important event after that arrives on April 5, 2063, subsequently known as First Contact Day. As depicted in Star Trek: First Contact , scientist Zefram Cochrane develops a faster-than-light engine and tests it in his vessel, the Phoenix . A Vulcan survey vessel notices the feat and makes first contact with Cochrane in Bozeman, Montana that evening. With the Vulcans' help, humanity quickly gets back on its feet. Hunger and poverty are eliminated by the early 22nd century, and even war itself has ended on the planet by 2113. A world government is established in 2150, uniting the globe under a single unifying body for the first time in human history.

Enterprise Reveals The Founding of the Federation

Why star trek: enterprise used shuttles instead of transporters.

The events of Star Trek: Enterprise begin just one year later, in 2151, as humanity launches its first earnest efforts to explore the galaxy. Captain Archer and the crew of the Enterprise spearhead the effort, resulting in key first contact with such important species as the Andorians and the Tellarites. It also comes with new conflicts, notably the Xindi crisis of 2153 which lasts for nearly a year. That is followed in 2156 by the Earth-Romulan War , which stretches out over four years. Humanity, Andorians, Vulcans, and Tellarites all join forces against the common threat, resulting in the defeat of the Romulans and the establishment of the Neutral Zone.

The victory leads immediately to the founding of the United Federation of Planets in San Francisco in the year 2161, organized by the four victorious species. Several decades of peaceful exploration and expansion follow, led by Starfleet vessels who set out to explore in the name of peace, coexistence, and scientific understanding. That marks the end of the events of Star Trek: Enterprise and a relative blank spot in the timeline for a little less than a century.

The 23rd Century Brings War, Peace, and The Original Series

The complete history of vulcans in the federation era of star trek.

With the exception of a few peripheral events, the next few decades are quiet as far as canon events go. The timeline picks up again properly with the beginning of Star Trek: Discovery as open war breaks out between the Federation and the Klingon Empire in the year 2256 . The war lasts for a year and proves costly to both sides, ending thanks to efforts of the USS Discovery to stabilize the political situation in the Empire. The Discovery vanishes approximately one year later during the battle with the rogue AI Control , jumping ahead in time to the 32nd century in the process.

With the end of the war comes another era of peaceful expansion and exploration. That encompasses the events of both Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: The Original Series , as Starfleet "boldly goes where no one has gone before." As the 23rd century continues, the franchise shifts to the first six big-screen Star Trek movies. That culminates in the events of Star Trek VI in 2293, resulting in the Khitomer Accords and long-term peace with the Klingon Empire . Captain Kirk is presumed dead a short time later as depicted in the movie Star Trek: Insurrection , officially bringing The Original Series era to a close.

The Next Generation Kicks off The 24th Century

10 best star trek: the next generation characters.

The early decades of the 24th century are another blank spot in the Star Trek calendar, marked by a few notable events but otherwise leaving a good deal open for speculation. The most important development during that time is the Battle of Narendra III in 2344 , where the Federation vessel USS Enterprise-C sacrifices itself to defend a Klingon colony from Romulan attackers. This results in a formal alliance between the Federation and the Klingons.

Star Trek: The Next Generation officially begins in the year 2364, with the Federation enjoying a golden age of peace and prosperity. The Enterprise-D under Captain Picard serves as Starfleet's flagship, conducting missions of diplomacy and peaceful exploration. The Enterprise first encounters the Borg in 2366 , during The Next Generation's Season 2 episode "Q Who." The Borg invade the Federation a year later, and come within a hair's breadth of destroying the Earth before the Enterprise crew saves the day during the Season 4 premiere, "The Best of Both Worlds Part II."

The Dominion War and the Delta Quadrant Mark DS9 and Voyager

How star trek: the next generation disserviced this fan-favorite character.

In 2369, a stable wormhole to the unexplored Gamma Quadrant opens near the planet of Bajor, kicking off the events of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . What at first seems a conduit to a whole new sector of space soon becomes an existential threat. The Dominion is a powerful totalitarian government in the Gamma Quadrant ruled by a species of shape-shifting Changelings. The Dominion sets its sites on the Alpha Quadrant , and launches an invasion in 2373. The Federation is forced to rally its long-time foes in the Romulan Empire to its side, who join with Starfleet and the Klingons to finally defeat the Dominion in 2375.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Borg launch another attack on Earth in 2373, and again come perilously close to assimilating the entire Federation before Jean-Luc Picard and his crew put a stop to them during the events of Star Trek: First Contact. Amid it all, the USS Voyager vanishes in the year 2371, having been flung into the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant and launching a seven-year journey to return to Federation space.

The 24th Century Ends with Peace and Old Enemies

Star trek: lower decks paid off a deep space nine character arc.

The end of the Dominion War marks the beginning of another extended period of Federation-led peace. Voyager returns from its long journey in 2378 , and the Enterprise averts a surprise attack from the Romulan Empire in 2379 during the events of Star Trek: Insurrection . Beyond that, peace prevails, which leads the way to lighter Star Trek series such as Star Trek: Lower Decks (which begins in 2381) and Star Trek: Prodigy (which begins in 2383).

That comes to an end with the implosion of the Romulan Empire, whose sun is doomed and whose most militant factions sabotage any chance at Federation aid by orchestrating the destruction of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on April 5, 2385. Two years later, the Romulan sun goes nova, seemingly killing Mr. Spock, who was attempting to halt the explosion and creating the Kelvinverse timeline of the 2010s big-screen Star Trek movies. It renders the Romluans a scattered and defeated people. Jean-Luc Picard is able to repair some of the damage done to the two powers in Star Trek: Picard, Season 1, then rejoin with his crewmates in Season 3 to defeat a unified Dominion/Borg attack on the Federation in the year 2402.

The Far Future Beckons

'we broke barriers': star trek: discovery star celebrates show's diversity.

Star Trek canon comes to a halt at the beginning of the 25th century after the events of Picard Season 3. That leaves a vast stretch of centuries that have not yet been defined in Star Trek canon, and will presumably be filled in by series to come. In that time, the Federation continues to expand until it is more than double the size it was in the 24th century. Then disaster strikes in the form of an event called The Burn, which instantly renders all dilithium in the galaxy inert in the year 3069. Every active warp engine detonates, causing widespread disaster and rendering interstellar travel exponentially more difficult.

The arrival of the Discovery in the year 3188 -- beginning with the premiere in Season 3 -- changes all of that. After destroying the tyrannical Emerald Chain, Captain Michael Burnham and her crew set about restoring the shattered Federation, which leads to the events of Discovery's final three seasons. With the series bowing out at the end of Season 5, subsequent Star Trek projects will have a new final frontier in the 32nd century -- uncluttered by earlier shows -- thanks to the leap forward in time.

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Star Trek: Discovery Actor Names One Character Whose Backstory Would Be Explored In Season 5

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 will unravel the backstory of a prominent character, making fans realize why he has animosity with certain characters.

• Captain Rayner's backstory will be explored in depth in Season 5, shedding light on his past and motivations.
• Alex Kurtzman hints that an Easter egg from the first episode will play a significant role in the season finale.
• Rayner's encounters with Moll and L'ak will add layers to his character, offering fans a new dimension to explore.

One Star Trek actor has revealed that the ongoing season of Star Trek: Discovery will explore the backstory of his character, giving fans a deeper look at the character’s journey in the above-mentioned universe.

Callum Keith Rennie is a new addition to the world of Star Trek and was introduced as Captain Rayner in the premiere of Season 5. Although it would be interesting to see how his character develops with each passing episode, Rennie has already made it clear that the upcoming episodes of Season 5 will give viewers a chance to know his story in detail. On the other hand, he also shared that two more characters would play a significant role in his storyline.

Star Trek: Discovery's Finale Apparently Depends on an Easter Egg From Episode 1

Speaking in an interview with Screen Rant about Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 and his character, Rennie subtly suggested that Rayner's past is intricately linked to his previous run-ins with both Moll and L'ak . The actor also noted that Rayner’s backstory would let viewers know why he is the way he is. Rennie said, “There's a backstory that kind of lets you know why he's wired the way he's wired, and why the Moll and L’ak thing is getting him in a way that's wound him up, maybe.”

In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, episode 2, Under the Twin Moons , Captain Rayner faced potential expulsion from Starfleet due to insubordination, partly stemming from his fixation on Moll and L'ak. Rayner belongs to a species that made its debut in the lesser-known realm of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Rayner, characterized by his rugged demeanor, resilience, and sharp intellect, is known as a war hero grappling with the challenges of transitioning to a peaceful existence post-Burn. Despite the hurdles, he remains steadfastly committed to upholding the principles of serving the common good. Although not much is known about his character, one of the scenes mentioned that Captain Rayner has received “citations” for his services.

It has already been established that Captain Rayner is an intense man, looking forward to completing his missions. However, the comments made by Rennie make things very interesting. His story would give fans a chance to explore a new dimension of Star Trek , a dimension that has never been seen before. Of course, fans might get to see some familiar faces in Rayner’s backstory, but his encounters with Moll and L’ak in the past promise to enrich his narrative with deeper significance. The third episode of Season 5 is set to premiere on Thursday, April 11, on Paramount Plus and will focus on Michael Burnham and his team trying to pass a dangerous test in order to find their next clue. Fans are already excited about what’s next for the team and can’t wait to see how Captain Rayner plays a significant role in their stories as well.

Star Trek: Discovery is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery - What Happened To Prime Gabriel Lorca?

Source: Screen Rant

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It’s not that Cruz doesn’t seem happy as Culber, not at all, but there is a distinct looseness in his portrayal of Jinaal that is miles away from how he plays the calm, contemplative Culber. Jinaal’s no Curzon, but he certainly enjoys having a body again (“This guy really works out!”) and is very enthusiastic about the long hike to the next clue he gets to lead Burnham and Book on.

A consistent criticism I’ve had of Discovery is that the dialogue often feels unreal to me, like something someone wrote and not something someone would really say in the moment. Dialogue in Star Trek has always been highly stylized – even disregarding the technobabble there’s something specific and staid about the way most people in the future speak (and which makes the occasional Jett Renos of the world so immediately refreshing).

But I have to say, the dialogue in “Jinaal” is uniformly great , and Culber’s Jinaal is just the start. It’s full of different textures for different characters, it’s funny, it’s thoughtful without seeming overthought, it’s quick without being quippy. And more than anything, it feels real. One of this episode’s writers — Lauren Wilkinson — joined Discovery this season, with this episode being her first writing credit on the show. Kyle Jarrow, her co-writer, wrote two episodes last season, including one where I spent a decent chunk of my review criticizing its stiff writing, especially for secondary characters.

Discovery has a chronic problem with flattening its secondary characters to silent nods on the bridge and factoids blurted out to superior officers only when the plot demands it. “Jinaal” does this too (a lot!), but it’s with a deliberate self-awareness that turns one of my biggest complaints into one of the episode’s best gags.

Back aboard Discovery , demoted Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) is far too impatient and brusque to actually do the ship tour and crew meet-and-greets Burnham has tasked him with; instead, he orders each crewmember to come to his office and tell him something about themselves in 20 words or less.

Thanks to some nimble editing and an understanding that the gag only gets funnier the longer it goes, we get a fast flip through character after character — several of whom we’ve never met before this episode, and several of whom have been around since Day One but who I now, finally actually feel like I know.

Dr. Pollard (Raven Dauda), for example, who’s been on the show since the first season, finally has a personality thanks to the deadpan no-bullshit way she delivered her 20 words. Not only is Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) a father three times over (or, three clutches over), it’s clearly something he’s very proud of. Who knew?

And when the crewmembers we don’t know get the “standard Discovery factoid treatment”, it doesn’t feel clunky so much as illuminating. That Bajoran gal who is unbeatable at tongo — Lt. Commander Asha (Christina Dixon) — I believe it and I really want to see it. The new helmsman who had to “save her drag racing story for next time” — Lt. Gallo (Natalie Linconti) — I hope we get to hear it, and I hope it’s not told immediately before a drag race just happens to become a major plot element to save the day.

Tilly (Mary Wiseman) is present throughout all of this, and her writing gets a huge boost this episode as well. Tilly is a character I often find myself wanting to like more than I actually do, and who I think has so much potential that’s undermined by writing that doesn’t go any deeper than portraying her as quirky and flustered.

Here though, we get a confident, assertive Tilly, one who still feels true to character, but is a more adult version of that character. Her core motivations are there — her focus on a supportive crew, her concern for treating people with respect — she just has more grown-up way of expressing them. She is, after all, an instructor at the Academy now and can’t be fumbling through every interaction, especially when confronting something that she feels is, in a sense, bullying.

It’s clear from the way the two characters leave their working relationship at the end of the episode that Tilly has gained Rayner’s respect, and that he takes her criticisms of his attitude to heart. He’s still Rayner, he’s still a grouch, but he’s not unreasonable — and he’s not an actual bully. He just finds it easier to pretend to be one.

Back on Trill, the hike gives Jinaal a chance to unload some exposition about why this puzzle exists in the first place. Long story short, the group of scientists which included Jinaal and Vellek found the Progenitors’ technology and immediately recognized its incredible power. But with the Dominion War raging they worried about its use and decided to scrub their research and identities from history, and hide the location of the technology away until the galaxy was a more peaceful place.

What isn’t a peaceful place is the canyon Jinaal has lead Book and Burnham to as the supposed location of Trill’s clue. Why? Because gigantic semi-invisible bee moths who shoot red bolts of electricity live in this canyon! I didn’t know it until I watched this episode, but it turns out I’m a very big fan of gigantic semi-invisible bee moths who shoot red bolts of electricity, just FYI. I enjoyed these guys a lot and I’m glad they and their clutch of eggs made it out unscathed. It’s not that I was rooting against Burnham and Book, but more that I was just firmly on Team Bee Moth.

The bee moths themselves were also a test: a way for Jinaal to observe how Burnham and Book behaved when faced with an innocent aggressor (they were wild animals simply protecting their young, after all) before deciding to give them the clue. In choosing to prioritize the bee moths, they pass and Jinaal hands them another map piece… which was never where he said it was in the first place.

Mission over, Jinaal is returned to Bix and — if I understood the episode’s closing montage correctly — Bix is pretty immediately returned to the milk pools. I’m sure the moment was supposed to be one of happiness and contentment, watching a symbiont finally get to take a nap after fulfilling a lifelong mission, but all I could think about was Bix’s current host.

That old lady may have been tired but she certainly didn’t look to be on death’s door so, uh, is she okay? I’m thinking she might not be okay.

Meanwhile throughout all of this, Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) have their first fight… one that’s very polished and diplomatic, but no less serious than if it had involved bigger displays of emotion. It’s time for an engagement announcement to be sent out, and what first seems like a minor quibble over some language thanks to Saru’s modesty — does T’Rina have to refer to him as “the handsome and erudite Captain Saru”? – quickly becomes a matter with much larger consequences.

T’Rina’s assistant Duvin (Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon) who carries on the long and proud tradition of snooty Vulcans you kind of want to punch, is concerned with the optics of her union with an “outsider” — particularly with respect to what the Vulcan Purist movement is going to think about it. Saru decides to cancel the announcement “for” T’Rina, T’Rina feels that Saru has overstepped, and it’s icy for about five minutes until they make up and Saru admits that he doesn’t have a whole lot of experience being in this type of love.

It’s refreshing to see mature adult characters talking about their lack of experience with relationships, as it’s really not something you see often. Usually storylines about learning how to navigate love are contained to younger characters, and understandably so, but not everyone figures these things out at the same pace.

Another well-handled relationship moment occurs between Adira and Gray, both of whom are genuinely happy to see each other, but who also recognize that things have changed between them. As with Book and Burnham, I don’t know that Adira and Gray will remain broken up through the rest of the series, but for now anyway they’ve decided to move on from being a couple.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• We have another mention of the Breen. Between these references, L’ak’s (Elias Toufexis) mysterious identity and quips about helmets, I’m officially joining in on the speculation that he’s Breen.
• I’m a big fan of Rayner’s personality quirk of using slightly old-fashioned human expressions with a deadpan scowl on his face. Never has “I can walk and chew gum at the same time” sounded so irritable. Keep it up.
• “To rush a sehlat is to risk a goring.” Between this and “It is difficult to ride two valebeasts with only one set of buttocks” from “Choose to Live,” Saru is a veritable font of folksy aphorisms.
• Was that a Selay , the cobra-headed aliens first seen in TNG ’s “Lonely Among Us”, at the negotiating table? Why I do believe it was.

• According to Tilly’s data regarding Trill, the planet has a 26.5-hour day and a 483-day year.
• Like human fingerprints, Trill spots are unique to each individual — and it seems the Trill government keeps records of all spot patterns, even after 800 years.
• While Gray permanently inhabits his clone body through the Trill zhian’tara ritual, Culber’s z hian’tara experience parallels the Deep Space 9 crew; they took on the personalities and knowledge of Dax’s previous hosts in “Facets.”
• Saru’s office at Starfleet Headquarters is filled with many alien plants, like his quarters aboard Discovery .
• Jinaal notes that the discovery of Progenitor tech occurred during the Dominion War, meaning that his group of scientists hid the bounty no later than 2375 (when the war concluded). “The Chase” took place in 2369, just six years earlier.
• Lt. Commander Nillson has transferred to the Voyager -J, meaning it’s unlikely we’ll see actor Sara Mitich this season.

• The bartender in Red’s serves Tilly a glass of green Ferengi Slug-O Cola, introduced on Deep Space Nine and last seen in Picard Season 3.
• Reno’s complaint about chips refers to her Starfleet interrogation in Season 3’s “Die Trying.”
• The “day for night” filter used during the Trill canyon night scenes isn’t very effective when the actors have visible shadows.
• The latest Progentitor clue leads to coordinates located in Tzenkethi space, a dangerous species mentioned twice in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• As foreshadowed at the beginning of the episode, we see Burnham kneeling in a Vulcan meditative pose, exactly like Spock in Star Trek II. (Someone please get her some of those little knee pillows Sarek had in “Light and Shadows,” the floor of her quarters has to be pretty hard to kneel on!)

Adira says their goodbyes to the guardians before beaming up to the ship, and as they do so… oh no, one of the guardians is Mol (Eve Harlow) — and she’s slipped a tracking chip onto Adira before slinking away into the shadows!

Was Mol there the whole time, and if so, was she worried that any of the Trill present were going to realize she had no idea how to do any of the ceremonial stuff that she was presumably fumbling her way through? Probably not, as a seasoned galactic mercenary she’s way too cool for that. But I would have been.

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Star Trek Just Doubled Down on Its Wildest Body-Switching Concept

Welcome back to Trill.

Body switching is a classic sci-fi trope. From Freaky Friday to Farscape , and of course, most of Quantum Leap, the idea of the consciousness from one person inhabiting the body of a different person will never stop being the fuel for speculative stories that are both hilarious and profound. But, when Star Trek invented the “joined” species of the Trill in 1991, it took the body-switching/body-surfing trope to a new level. While a specific Trill symbiont might live for several hundreds of years, this slug-like creature generally inhabited a humanoid host. This “joining” often created a new hybrid personality each time, sort of like Time Lord regeneration from Doctor Who mashed up with internal alien parasites from Alien; a chest-burster that never burst, but just stayed in you forever.

And if all of that wasn’t wild enough, on June 12, in the episode “Facets,” 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine added a new wrinkle to Trill canon. Not only were the memories of all the previous hosts alive and well in the current symbiont, but, through a process called “zhian’tara,” a specific host’s personality could leave the symbiont and enter into the body of... anyone! Basically, this was Trill joining via spacey magic, and now, 29 years after “Facets,” Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down (tripling down?) on this very specific form of consciousness transfer in the Season 5 episode “Jinaal.” Spoilers ahead.

The Trill host trick

Dax and Odo discuss sharing memories in “Facets.”

Although the Trill were established in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” the vast majority of Trill canon comes from Deep Space Nine , thanks to the presence of Jadzia Dax, who later, in Season 7, switched hosts and became Ezri Dax. But, in the memorable Season 3 episode “Facets,” Jadzia’s previous host, Curzon, left her body through the zhian’tara process and settled in the body of the station’s resident shapeshifter, Odo. From that point, Odo’s entire personality was merged with Curzon’s, which put everyone on the station in a deeply uncomfortable position.

As a stand-alone episode of DS9 , “Facets” remains a fantastic story about memory, regret, and what one generation owes the next. But, the legacy of “Facets” is easily the concept of zhian’tara, which was used to save Gray Tal’s consciousness in Discovery Season 4, and now, in Season 5, is being employed again to unravel an 800-year-old mystery.

Discovery’s return to Trill

Cubler (Wilson Cruz) takes on an ancient Trill tradition in Discovery Season 5.

The planet Trill was first seen in DS9 in the episode “Equilibrium,” but Discovery has actually visited the planet more times, starting in the Season 3 episode “Forget Me Not,” and now again, in “Jinaal.” This time the need to transfer the memories of one previous Trill host into someone else is all connected to the secrets Jinaal Bix has about researcher of the Progenitors in the 24th century.

After transferring Jinaal’s consciousness into Culber, the entire personality of our stalwart Starfleet doctor changes, and, just like “Facets,” he suddenly becomes cockier, and more evasive. If you watch “Facets” right after watching “Jinaal,” the parallels are clear. While Curzon’s secret was connected to something personal, Jinaal’s secret has broader implications. Turns out, Federation scientists were working on cracking the Progenitor tech during the era of the Dominion War, and so they decided to bury any knowledge of the technology to prevent any planet or government from weaponizing their research.

Interestingly, this detail dovetails with Picard Season 3 a bit, in which we learned that Section 31 was pushing different Federation scientists to weaponize the organic nature of Changelings. Basically, the Dominion War created a lot of corrupt scientific research within the Federation, making the top-secret Daystrom labs that Riker, Raffi, and Worf raided perhaps just a small sample of the horrible top-secret weapons the Federation has developed.

What Discovery does is make it clear that Jinaal did the right thing at the time by hiding the research — even if that doesn’t help our heroes at the moment.

A classic Original Series nod

Sargon enters Kirk’s body in “Return to Tomorrow.”

Of course, within the canon of Trek, the Trill weren’t the first time the franchise explored the concept of sharing consciousness. Spock transferred his katra to Bones in The Wrath of Khan , and Kirk switched bodies with Janice Lester in the controversial final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

But, one wonderful 1968 episode from TOS Season 2 — “Return to Tomorrow” — featured ancient beings borrowing the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall in order to build more permanent, android bodies. When the ancient being of Sargon enters Kirk’s body, one of the first things he says is: “Your captain has an excellent body.”

Now, 56 years later, when Jinaal finds himself in Culber’s body, he says something similar: “Wow, this guy really works out!”

Across decades of internal canon, Star Trek can make the same body-switching joke, and make it work, in any century.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 drops new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+.

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"Star Trek: Discovery" makes a case for Michael Burnham as the last great Starfleet captain

Our "discovery" protagonist was never going to have it easy. the start of her last run solidifies her greatness, by melanie mcfarland.

Michael Burnham's " Star Trek " journey was destined to be among the franchise's toughest and most complex. Some of us knew this from the moment Sonequa Martin-Green was cast to play her, especially Black women who are sci-fi geeks. We have never been few, but until recently, we were far less visible than we are now.

To some, this visibility symbolizes everything that has supposedly gone wrong with this franchise and others. The reach of " Star Trek: Discovery " goes even further by assembling a truly inclusive cast that blew apart the original series' longstanding heteronormativity.

All this further angered culture war trolls and self-appointed arbiters of what is so-called "real" "Star Trek." These people have a vested interest in downvoting any such divergences from what has gone before.

Mainly it was — as it continues to be — the purists who wrote off "Discovery" as "not Trek" during  its first season in 2017 . Looking back from its final season — and from the perspective of Burnham's 900-year journey — we can say that despite how its thematic shading looked to us then , "Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism . It has simply evolved its interpretation.

In the first season, not even Burnham would believe this to hold true. A human raised on Vulcan by Spock's  father, Sarek, and as his sister, Burnham earns her first officer role through superior conduct and logic, divorcing herself from sentiment.

Burnham's smug sense of rectitude gets her superior officer killed. She is charged with mutiny, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison.

From there, she stops a rogue galactic A.I. from annihilating the Federation and leaps nine centuries into the future (thereby largely freeing herself and the show from restrictive canon) to find a universe where Starfleet as it used to be is a dream, and the Federation and its ideals are broken.

"Discovery's" swansong season finds Burnham in the year 3191, with enough of the Federation's trust to take on a highly classified mission alongside Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), who has already earned the same commendations as Kirk and Picard. His reputation precedes him, in other words. Their quest relates to a Picard-era discovery that Starfleet fears can be used to eradicate all humanoid life in the universe.

"Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism. It has simply evolved its interpretation. 

Their success should place her on par with the greats, an honor that showrunner Michelle Paradise and the show's co-creator Alex Kurtzman have been driving toward all this time.

Some indicators of that goal aren't as obvious as others, like the sequence in which Rayner defies Burnham during an away mission, trusting in his overconfidence instead of her strategic acumen. His snap judgment endangers a planet's civilian population, leaving her to fix the crisis he has created.

Women watching this — especially Black women, I would wager — might have experienced a slight rage triggering in their soul that was mollified by Burnham pulling the very Obama-esque move of asking Rayner to replace her trusted friend Saru (Doug Jones) as her first officer. (The job was coming open, anyway; Saru is shifting into diplomacy mode and getting married.)

This is the move of a great leader. Then again, like Kate Mulgrew's long underappreciated Captain Janeway, it may not be appreciated by the fandom for many, many years.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male, though if that were the extent of what differentiates her from the rest, it would barely be worth mentioning.

Records of their histories come to us as snippets of dialogue from secondary characters or contextualizing conversations from what the official logs have to say about past missions. We hear about who served under whom, granting legitimacy to the likes of, say, Christopher Pike to claim the captain's chair long before Anson Mount made us ecstatic to see that happen.

Burnham's path to the helm's command begins with what should be a life- and career-ending mistake. It's constantly defined by humility and doubt. No one is harder on Burnham than she is on herself — and nobody takes as many risks with their career or reputation to keep their crew alive. Her optimism is one guided by the hope that all obstacles can be overcome and all outcomes are possible, including for herself.

Despite all of this, it will take a lot of convincing for some people to consider Burnham among the top ranks of Starfleet captains in those occasional fan polls that tend to place Jean-Luc Picard or James T. Kirk in the top positions, though Captain Pike has offered stiff competition since "Strange New Worlds" first aired.

But our relatively newfound love of Pike and that show wouldn't be possible without "Discovery" venturing into the unmapped asteroid field that is the public's willingness to boldly go back to a dormant franchise in a wildly disunified era.

This doesn't merely refer to the role of "Discovery" introducing Mount's Pike, in addition to launching every other new "Trek" spinoff along with the streaming service currently known as Paramount+ . It did all this along with shouldering the more precarious mission of serving as the franchise's vanguard in a cynical age.

If you love "Lower Decks" and "Strange New Worlds," this is in part due to the producers' listening to the fandom's programming desires accordingly. Notice, for example, how unlike the first season of "Picard"  is from the third . Initially, "Picard" tried to do something different with the beloved character. It ended his adventures by reassembling the band for the spectacular last ride their films denied them. The new "Star Trek" series have a goal of delivering something for everyone, including kids. "Discovery" helped its custodians figure that out.

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And if you love "Discovery," its devotion to showcasing those who long felt unseen in this franchise may kindle that affection. "Discovery" gave us an Asian woman as a Starship captain in Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou and a happily married duo to root for in Wilson Cruz's Dr. Hugh Culber in Anthony Rapp's Paul Stamets.

It introduced Tig Notaro in its second season as Jett Reno, a decision for which everyone should be grateful. The third gave us the franchise's first transgender and non-binary characters in Ian Alexander's Trill Gray and Blu del Barrio's Adira Tal.

Through it all, we have also entirely fallen for Mary Wiseman's Sylvia Tilly, a woman who also knew a few things about self-doubt and, therefore, values being understood.

What some would cite as humanizing traits, others might write off as maudlin, along with the fact that Burnham was able to experience a fully realized love affair that began with a partnership of equals with a courier named Booker (David Ajala).

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

It's only one of the many ways that "Discovery" is consciously disparate from "Star Trek" as we have long known it, daring to change everything from the look of the Klingons to its star character's role in igniting a war between them and the United Federation of Planets.

That was then. Hundreds of years after that moment, Captain Burnham has figured herself out, proving to the many who doubted her that she deserves to be there.

She has traveled the longest road through imposter syndrome of any Starfleet captain — most of a millennium, actually — and we have witnessed every major moment that forged her. Burnham may never win the major "Star Trek" popularity contests for favorite captains, but without a doubt, she's the last great one we may ride with in this universe.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream Thursdays on Paramount +.

stories about "Star Trek"

• "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" considers the weight of Khan's wrathful legacy
• How "Strange New Worlds" uses Rebecca Romijn's Number One to place prejudice on trial
• "Pike made jambalaya": How "Strange New Worlds" Captain Pike expresses care and diplomacy with food

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

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‘Star Trek’ Fan Leaves Behind a Collection Like No One Has Done Before

When Troy Nelson died, his shelves were filled to the rafters with memorabilia from the popular franchise. Soon, the massive collection will be boldly going, going, gone.

Evan Browne said her brother Troy’s love of “Star Trek” began with the original series, which he and his siblings watched at dinnertime. Credit... Connie Aramaki for The New York Times

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By Sopan Deb

• Published April 1, 2024 Updated April 3, 2024

Editors’ Note, April 2, 2024: After publication, The Times learned that Troy and Andrew Nelson were named in a civil lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court in 1998, in which they were accused of molesting three disabled adults in a state-licensed facility that they operated. After a six-week jury trial, Washington State was ordered to pay $17.8 million to the plaintiffs. The state said it intended to appeal but missed the deadline and paid the victims. The Nelson brothers denied the allegations and were never criminally charged.

Troy Nelson and his younger brother Andrew were almost inseparable.

The two youngest of six, they were born two years apart. They lived together in their childhood home in Bremerton, Wash., for more than half a century. Near their home, there is a park bench on which they carved their initials as young boys.

The Nelson brothers never married or had children. They worked together at the same senior home. They even once, as teenagers, dated the same girl at the same time while working different shifts at the same pizza shop. This lasted a week until they realized it.

“Two parts of one body,” Evan Browne, their older sister, said of their relationship in an interview.

On Feb. 28, Andrew Nelson, who had been treated for cancer for years, went to feed the chickens and ducks that were gifts from Ms. Browne to her brothers. He had a heart attack and died. He was 55. Just hours later, Troy Nelson, who was stricken with grief, took his own life. He was 57.

“He had talked about it before,” Browne, 66, said, tearfully. “He said, ‘Hey, if Andrew goes, I’m out of here. I’m checking out.’ Andrew would say the same thing, and then it really happened .”

What Troy Nelson left behind has become a sensation. After his death, family members posted pictures on social media of his massive — and, really, the keyword is massive — collection of “Star Trek” memorabilia, which have now been shared thousands of times.

The items took up two living rooms and a bedroom, all lined with bookshelves, according to Elena Hamel, one of the brothers’ nieces. The centers of the rooms were lined with additional bookshelves — all packed to the brim — to create aisles. There were jewelry cabinets serving as display cases.

The shelves contained action figures. Dolls. Models of ships. Posters. Ornaments. Lunchboxes. Legos. Several toy phasers and tricorders. (For non-Trek fans, the phaser is a weapon, and a tricorder is, essentially, a fancy smartphone.) Multiple “Star Trek” lamps. (Yes, there are “Star Trek” lamps.) Trading cards. Comic books. Trek-themed Geeki Tikis (stylized tiki mugs). Life-size cutouts of famous characters. A life-size captain’s chair.

While it’s impossible to account for every private collector in the world, Troy Nelson’s collection is almost assuredly among the largest — if not the largest.

The last additions to the collection came in the final weeks of his life: Stuffed rabbits in “Star Trek” uniforms. “I’ve never seen a collection that size,” said Russ Haslage, the president of the International Federation of Trekkers , a “Star Trek”-themed nonprofit that Haslage founded with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise.

Haslage’s organization opened in 2020 a “Star Trek” museum in Sandusky, Ohio, that has received donations of memorabilia from estates. Those collections “pale in comparison” to Mr. Nelson’s, he said. (Haslage has reached out to the family to ask about donations from the collection.)

The older brother’s love of “Star Trek” began with the original series, which he’d watch with his siblings.

“It was our dinner meal,” Ms. Browne said. “When we had dinner, we were sitting in front of ‘Star Trek.’”

Troy Nelson began collecting in the late-1970s. His first acquisition was a model version of the Starship Enterprise. Then came Star Trek conventions. Why the franchise was such a draw to him remains a mystery to his family.

“I really can’t say. I mean, other than the fact that he was brainwashed with it at dinner time,” Browne said, laughing. “That sounds ridiculous. When we grew up, it’s like, ‘Dinner is at this time. And if you don’t get here at this time, you don’t get dinner.’ So it might’ve been a comfort for him .”

Troy Nelson would often monitor sites like eBay for items he didn’t have. On several occasions, he would express frustration on losing out on an item before being able to bid on it. Until he found out the reason.

“Andrew already got it for him,” Ms. Browne recalled.

Obsessive “Star Trek” fandom has long become an indelible part of pop culture, especially as the franchise — which has spawned several television series, movies, novels and comics — has been a long-running institution. There have been documentaries that have studied the subject, such as “Trekkies” in 1997. It’s been lampooned on “The Simpsons,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Family Guy,” and become a story line in an episode of “The West Wing,” among many others. For dedicated fans, accruing collectibles isn’t uncommon.

“When you collect these things, you’re closer to that genre that you enjoy so much,” Haslage said. “When I first started in 1979, I was grabbing everything I could get my hands on because it was cool, and it was a piece of the whole ‘Star Trek’ mythos. If you have these pieces, you’re a part of that universe in some way.”

It turns out that collecting is a pursuit that runs in the family.

Andrew Nelson collected mall swords, Ryobi-branded tools and statues of warrior women, like Xena, the warrior princess .

Browne’s house has a wall with thousands of smashed pennies and her living room windows are full of glass sugar and creamer bowls.

Browne’s father, Bud Peers, collected salt and pepper shakers, guns and knives. Troy and Andrew’s father, Norman Nelson, collected scrap metal and wood.

Hamel has 17 Christmas trees, all fully decorated with separate themes.

Browne’s son, Michael, who is 36, collects anything and everything related to black bears.

“ When you have a large collection like that and it’s displayed like that,” Hamel said, “and it’s something that is important to you, it’s often really calming to be in a space like that. It’s just all the things that you love. It’s soothing.”

As far as Browne knew, Troy had no history of mental illness or any previous suicide attempts. After Andrew died, she received a distraught and frantic call from Troy with the news. She told him that she was on her way.

Ms. Browne said she called him when she got to the Tacoma Bridge. No answer. And then again, at the Manette Bridge. No answer. When she reached their home, the back door was open. And then she found him. The phone call was the last time they spoke.

Troy Nelson did not leave a note, but did leave some things meticulously arranged by his computer, including a key to the house, burial plans for the two brothers, and bills.

“ I don’t know really what I thought,” Ms. Browne said. “All I could do was just scream.”

The Nelson family is boxing up Troy’s “Star Trek” collection to prepare it for auction. Andrew’s ashes will be placed in an urn carved in the likeness of the supermodel Bettie Page . (He was a fan.) Troy’s ashes will be placed in a “Star Trek” lunchbox.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture. More about Sopan Deb

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'star trek into darkness' prequel comic reveals villain backstory.

IDW Publishing is set to release a six-part comic book prequel series tracing the backstory of controversial 'Star Trek Into Darkness' villain John Harrison.

It goes without saying that the following post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Star Trek Into Darkness . If you have not yet seen the film and do not want to know the identity of the main villain, you have been warned!

For over a year, moviegoers picked-over every single piece of Star Trek Into Darkness marketing, in order to figure out the role that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing in the film . Most fans assumed that Cumberbatch would play a new version of iconic Star Trek villain , Khan Noonien Singh (previously portrayed by Ricardo Montalban); however, other rumors suggested that the Sherlock actor was set for classic Starfleet member Gary Mitchell or possibly an entirely new character.

To help keep the identity a mystery, J.J. Abrams along with writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, provided the mysterious antagonist with a less suspect name, John Harrison . Still, halfway through the film, it was revealed that Harrison was nothing more than a fake identity created by Fleet Admiral Alexander Marcus to hide the character's true nature - as genetically engineered super-human, Khan.

Since Khan shares the same origins as his classic series counterpart, splitting from the prior storyline only at the point Admiral Marcus (instead of Kirk and the Enterprise crew) finds Khan adrift in space, Abrams didn't spend very much time detailing the character's backstory for Star Trek Into Darkness . While that approach worked for some fans that were already familiar with Khan, other viewers (and many critics) considered the hasty explanation of Khan's motives and backstory to be a significant missed opportunity (or downright confusing). For all the pre-release speculation, and a strong performance from Cumberbatch, the brief time spent developing and/or exploring the character left some viewers feeling Into Darkness actually underserved the Khan's legacy and failed to provide a good reason for bringing the villain back in the first place .

Now, in order to fill-in some of the missing information for newer fans (or anyone who wants to see the differences between the "classic" and "new" Khan timeline), IDW Publishing is set to release a six-installment prequel series that follows the creation, escape, and resurrection of Cumberbatch's Khan. We first got word of the prequel series around the time of the original Star Trek Into Darkness release but IDW has now offered-up actual details about what fans can expect from the books.

The press release does not give a specific release date but claims the first issue will make its way to stands in October. In order to bridge the gap between movie and print, Kurtzman supervised production of the miniseries - with "veteran" Star Trek comic book alums Mike Johnson and Claudia Balboni handling story and art.

Check out the full cover for Star Trek: Khan issue #1 below (click to enlarge):

As mentioned, the series will trace the origins of the character, clarify how the alternate timeline impacted Khan's original timeline and, according to Johnson, show on the "Eugenics Wars" - a key moment in Star Trek canon that was only briefly mentioned in passing during Star Trek Into Darkness :

"We're traveling back in time to show Khan's rise to power and give fans their first look at the legendary Eugenics Wars. As the series unfolds we will see the events that led to Khan leaving Earth aboard the Botany Bay, and then jump forward to witness his awakening in the future by Admiral Marcus." "Now that Into Darkness is in theaters, fans reading the ongoing series from issue #1 will pick up on details, both specific and thematic, that set up the movie and the stories that follow it."

IDW's Chief Creative Officer, Chris Ryall, promises that the series will help flesh-out the character and add layers that may have been missing in the recent film:

"Much like the way the Star Trek: Countdown comic book and our follow-up Nero miniseries helped flesh out that character after the first Star Trek movie. Khan will add dimension and depth to this new iteration one of the most classic villains in all of Star Trek lore."

Countdown and Nero were both used in a similar fashion, to help provide backstory for Star Trek antagonist Nero (Eric Bana), and it's likely that IDW will find similar success with Khan . Casual audiences will probably not need to read the upcoming comic series, as the film includes enough information to set the stakes for Into Darkness , but for filmgoers or Star Trek fans who want to explore the character's implied backstory in greater detail, Khan should be quality non-required reading. Still, IDW promises that readers who do choose to consume the upcoming Khan comic will also find plenty of fun "Easter Eggs" that link to the larger movie and TV universe.

It's unfortunate the series wasn't available at the time of the film's original release - waiting six months to debut book #1 - as buzz around the character and the larger movie has certainly died-down. That said, with a Blu-ray/DVD home release scheduled for September 10th (and digital downloads available as early as August 20th), there's bound to be plenty of new (and returning) viewers who'll be interested to delve a bit deeper into the twisted (revised) history of Khan Noonien Singh.

In the meantime, check out our Star Trek Into Darkness episode of the SR Underground podcast (featuring a spoiler-filled interview with the film’s writer Roberto Orci).

Star Trek: Khan debuts in October 2013.

Follow me on Twitter @ benkendrick for further updates on Star Trek as well as future movie, TV, and gaming news.

Source: IDW