Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Khan Episode 3 – “Do Your Worst”Star Trek: Khan reveals a harsh and surprising truth about when Khan Noonien Singh (Naveen Andrews) started to go insane after Star Trek: The Original Series, and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) isn’t directly at fault.

Of course, Captain Kirk sent Khan and his 70 genetically engineered followers, as well as Lt. Marla McGivers (Wrenn Schmidt), to settle the planet Ceti Alpha V. Star Trek: Khan shows that, at first, Khan embraced the challenge of conquering and building a new world in his image.

A fateful hunting trip in Star Trek: Khan episode 2, “Scheherazade,” however, touched Khan and his people with tragedy and death. The indigenous animals of Ceti Alpha V, like Ceti-dactyls and wild boars, prove to be hostile and overwhelm even the superhuman augments who count Khan as their leader.

Khan Already Hated Ceti Alpha V Before He Blamed Kirk

At the end of Star Trek: Khan episode 3, “Do Your Worst,” Khan takes his first steps towards madness when he kills Richter, his young protégé, who was one of his favorites. Richter was infected by the dreaded Ceti eels.

Khan brought Richter home to his camp’s medical lab, which was provided by Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise. However, as seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Ceti eel burrowed into the boy’s brain, and Richter committed murder while gripped by insanity.

Executing Richter, after others among his people also died on Ceti Alpha V, pushed Khan to the brink only two months after arriving on the planet. Unbeknownst to Khan, he is still four months away from Ceti Alpha VI exploding, which turns V into a barren wasteland.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan saw Khan (Ricardo Montalban) placing the blame firmly on Admiral James T. Kirk for his 18 years of torment. In Star Trek: Khan, however, Khan’s ire is directed towards Ceti Alpha V itself, and not yet at Kirk for marooning him there.

Khan Was The Only Augment Who Was Truly irreplaceable

When Khan and Richter were still unaccounted for in the wilderness, Star Trek: Khan makes another inconvenient truth crystal clear: Khan was the only one who was irreplaceable because only he could lead his augmented followers.

Khan placed another augment, Ivan (Maury Sterling), in charge of their camp until he returned, but Ivan is no leader and couldn’t replace Khan if Noonien Singh didn’t return.

Khan’s genetically modified followers all have particular gifts, like greater strength or intelligence, but only Khan possessed both traits in abundance. Losing Khan would have meant the eventual deaths of everyone on Ceti Alpha V.

Star Trek: Khan sets the stage for Khan to go to war with the planet he originally believed was a paradise, and only later will Khan shift the blame for the tragedies he endures to Admiral Kirk years after Star Trek: The Original Series.

Release Date

1966 – 1969-00-00

Showrunner

Gene Roddenberry

Directors

Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden

Writers

D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison