Star Trek episode review — 1.22 — Space Seed

Original air date: February 16, 1967
Director: Marc Daniels
Writers: Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber (Story by Carey Wilber)

Rating: 10/10

If “Space Seed” isn’t the best episode of the original series, it’s definitely up there. This is the Khan episode, and while Khan would only appear in one episode and one movie in the original series, he’s one of the best remembered things about the franchise, and that’s in no small part because of Ricardo Montalban’s charismatic performance.

This episode really isn’t too heady; it doesn’t have too many great science fiction ideas like a lot of the best episodes do. But unlike a lot of the series, it’s pure entertainment.

Though it does have that thing that I complain about in the series where it just resolves with a dumb fight scene.

And another one in which it’s painfully obvious that Shatner apparently isn’t capable of doing even the slightest stunts.

I do like the bit of background history this episode provides us about Earth. That kind of stuff is really imaginative and creative. It’s cynical, but also optimistic in the vision that we eventually move beyond that kind of thing.

Anyways, it’s a really great episode, definitely one of my favourites if not my absolute favourite.