Late last week we got the surprise announcement that the Star Trek: Khan (formerly titled Khan: Ceti Alpha V) audio series had not only been cast (with Lost actor Naveen Andrews in the title role), but production had already wrapped, with a release coming later this year. We also got a brief synopsis, but there are still many questions about this project, and thankfully one of the co-writers has been kind enough to provide a few answers.
9 episodes with full cast, sound effectsm and new music
Star Trek: Khan is based on a story by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan writer/director Nicholas Meyer, with Star Trek authors Kirsten Beyer and David Mack serving as writers on the audio series. Mack has been answering fan questions on Facebook and Bluesky, so now we have more details about the scripted drama audio series.
We got some useful logistical details, including the confirmation that there are 9 episodes of “roughly 30 minutes each,” with run times that “will vary” episode by episode. Mack also confirmed each episode features sound effects and music. Regarding the latter, he believes the series will feature an original musical score. Last week we learned Naveen Andrews will play Khan and Wrenn Schmidt (For All Mankind) is voicing Marla McGivers, and Mack confirmed the series has a “full cast,” adding:
“The two leads are the only ones announced so far, but all the roles have already been cast and recorded. More announcements about the cast will come in the next few months.”
The writer also confirmed that Star Trek: Khan will be “available on a wide range of streaming podcast platforms.” CBS Studios has partnered with leading podcast distributor Realm, who also distributes official podcasts tied to other franchises and shows like DC’s Harley Quinn and the Joker, Peacock’s Those About to Die: Rise or Die, and Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. Mack was not sure if the series will be released all at once or on a serial basis.
The writer revealed that he and co-writer Kirsten Beyer penned the scripts for the series “around this time last year.” He also talked about how writing an audio drama was a new experience:
“We did our best. It was a fascinating challenge learning to tell a story with only sound and dialogue, and not having visuals to help carry major moments. I had to do a crash-course in the art of writing radio plays.”
Responding to another question, Mack talked more about the process:
“It was an exciting challenge to learn to tell stories in dialogue and sound alone, to not have the luxury of narration or visuals to carry a narrative or sell a dramatic moment.”
Author David Mack at Star Trek: The Original Series Set Tour in 2017 (Photo: Lisa Sullivan/Facebook)
Direct follow-up to “Space Seed”
The Star Trek: Khan series fills in a gap between when the character was first introduced in the TOS episode “Space Seed” (set in the year 2267) and his return in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, set 18 years later in 2285. During this time, Khan had been exiled by Captain James T. Kirk to the remote world of Ceti Alpha V along with his fellow exiles from the Eugenics Wars and joined by the USS Enterprise’s historian (and Khan’s new love interest), Marla McGivers.
Many fans were curious about the wrinkle when it comes to Khan’s backstory with the Eugenics Wars. They were said to have taken place in the 1990s in “Space Seed,” but the Strange New Worlds season 2 episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” did a bit of a retcon on the timeline, moving it into the early 21st century via some time travel shenanigans.
This was brought up by several fans curious as to how the audio series will deal with the discrepancy, such as this query: “Question: 1990s Eugenics War, or SNW Alternate/Shifted Timeline?” Mack’s reply to that was “It’s a direct sequel to the 1967 TOS episode ‘Space Seed.’” The question kept coming up, so Mack added a more detailed reply:
“All I can tell you for certain is that we pick up right from the end of the 1967 episode ‘Space Seed.’ There are references to some of the events of the Eugenics Wars, but I don’t think we pinned them to specific dates.”
It seems clear the audio series will pick up on the early days of Khan’s exile on Ceti Alpha V and follow the story as laid out in “Space Seed.”
Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh and Paul Wesley as Kirk in episode 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”
No tie to Eugenics Wars books
The incongruity of no apparent Eugenics Wars during the 1990s was addressed in the “Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars” trilogy of books by Greg Cox released in the early 2000s. When asked if the audio series would look to that trilogy for inspiration or adaptation, Mack was clear:
“No, it is not based on Greg’s novels. Nicholas Meyer had a completely different take on the story of Khan’s exile, and Kirsten and I were tasked with developing the series from the core elements of Nick’s story.”
Mack also hinted that the Khan series has some surprises in store:
“We did our best, and I think this story will not play out the way many fans might expect it to.”
“Kirsten and I are hoping that fans will be genuinely surprised at some of the twists and turns; the story doesn’t always go the way one might expect it to….”
For his part, “The Eugenics Wars” trilogy author Greg Cox jumped into Mack’s Facebook thread on the announcement, saying “Wow! Congratulations! And great casting for Khan, btw.” Cox added “FYI: I admire your restraint when it comes to keeping mum about this for so long!” to which Mack replied “Only about 18 months….”
First “Eugenics Wars” book by Greg Cox
New look to come
And one last thing. This is an audio production but the announcement last week did come with an image with the series title. Responding to one fan who said he was “not a fan of that logo,” Mack offered some comfort, saying “Relax, it’s temporary art for the press release.”
Artwork from the press release
There are still many more details to be revealed, including when the show will be released, but hopefully Mack has tied fans over for now with his generous sharing of details.
For more Star Trek from David Mack, pick up his most recent Star Trek novel Star Trek: Picard: Firewall. You can also pre-order his next Star Trek novel, Strange New Worlds: Ring of Fire, which comes out in August.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
This could’ve been the P+ steam movie instead of S31 (directed by Nicolas Meyer)
Considering S31 has Ben doing quite well numbers-wise, it could still be.
What would even be the point now since the entire story would already be told? No I say move on. If it was done in a movie form first, fine, but since it’s this, save the rare live action projects for original or new stories.
A big reason this didn’t become a show in the first place because they knew fans weren’t that taken with the idea.
This feels like revisionist history. ~1.9 million viewers? (170 million minutes divided by 90 min runtime).
Right? Could’ve been great.
Glad it’s ignoring that SNW Toronto episode. One of the worst of the series.
As I suspected they would do. I honestly don’t care eitherway but this is the version everyone knows and not everyone watches SNW, so it could confuse a lot of people.
100% Agreed
It’s not ignoring it, they just purposely left the dates vague.
“Responding to one fan who said he was “not a fan of that logo””
The logo seems fine?
Seriously! The font they used is a perfect callback to ST:II.
This sounds more ambitious than I thought it would be, especially with adding music, etc.
And I’m happy it’s David Mack and Kirsten Beyer who wrote this, two well respected novelists and creators for the modern shows. It’s crazy they and Meyer all started with Discovery around the same time.
And A-List Tv actors for a podcast is impressive as well.
really looking forward to this. i love audio dramas / podcasts, i hope we get more audio dramas / podcasts after this one. fun way to explore unexplored eras of ST. i would love a multi season Riker / Titan audio drama or cgi animated show (the latter being a pipe dream)
Perfect for train rides and such where video format is not ideal.
this needs to get a triple the amount of hits as Section 31 did. Reward the largely great work that Mack has done in Trek story telling over the years and get his butt in the TV / film side of things for goodness sake
Bit of nit pick but not exactly promising when the cowriter doesn’t seem to understand what is meant when queried about the timline for the Eugenics Wars . Even if they state he ruled during the “20th Century ” it would indicate orginal timeline.. But by the sounds of it, they will leave it pretty vague, Leaving the audience to chose their own head cannon. That would be my choice. Also, In case the “preffered canon” timline does gets more cemented later on, the timline that is “followed” in the audio drama can then fit in either version.
They said there aren’t any specific dates mentioned in the story but said it’s a direct sequel to Space Seed and that episode made it very clear when that event happened.
So you can tell yourself maybe it happened later as SNW suggest but since it’s made clear it’s set uo from the events of the episode than that automatically implies it’s the original Khan that came from 1996 and not the alternate timeline version.
Mack is just trying to be neutral as possible and keep it from the timey whimey confusion it’s now become. He just wants to focus on the original story of the last 56 years as I imagine Meyer wanted it too.
And that’s what the overwhelming majority of the fanbase knows it as.
I think his point was it doesn’t matter.. the story isn’t covering that.
Huh? The answer was very clear: this takes place directly after “Space Seed.” That’s not difficult to understand, nor is it vague.
Head-cannon? Isn’t that the weapon that Doctor Evil wanted strapped to sharks?
The question posed to the writer was not when it takes place but rather whether they will follow Space Seeds backstory timeline for him ruling and escaping in the 1992-1996 timeframe . SNW changed that backstory and pushed it forward 30 plus years. . But the writer seemed to misunderstood the question as to meaning when the audio drama takes place at ( which is not in question) .
Regardless, if no dates or even the century are mentioned for his backstory ( unlike Space Seed which pinned it down to the 90s) , then it’s up to the viewer to chose which timeline backstory this would follow. Original or post temporal war “adjustment ” timline
But again if it’s the direct sequel to Space Seed then it’s 1992-1996. That’s the version of the character this story is based from. If they said it wasn’t a sequel to that then yes you can say it’s more ambiguous and it could be the alternate timeline character from SNW. But in reality it’s really not, at least not in terms of canon because that version of the character literally did come from the 90s and operating as so.
I covered this above, but IMHO Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow kind of undoes itself by even mentioning Khan’s origins were altered due to the Temporal Cold War. Archer and Daniels erased those events. So I percieve that entire ep to take place within the time bubble that is the TCW.
Nice explanation! :-)
Exactly. That’s the entire problem. TCW should’ve just completely overwritten Space Seed and TWOK. No one should even remember the Eugenics war happened in the 90s and yet they do. And you’re also right, I completely forgot Daniels said TCW was undone in the fourth season by Archer but as we have now, apparently not completely. But the SNW version is simply an alternate timeline to the original version if the Romulans knew there was always the original version. Welcome to confusing your audience as much as possible over something that never needed to be changed in the first place.
I’m excited to hear this.. hope it’s sooner rather than later.
I always thought it was interesting to tie in Khan to Gary Seven and those novels were quite entertaining, But whether the Gary tie in had happened or not I don’t see why it would have anything to do with Khan’s exile or his adulthood as dictator in the 1990’s.
Also RE: Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, IIRC the events of that ep directly referenced the Temporal Cold Wars. So my head canon says that any alterations of Khan’s backstory were restored when Archer and Daniels reversed the Cold Wars in Stormfront.
I am finally looking forward to this after so many years of it appearing to be vaporware.
My only question is will this be considered canon like all the other live action and animated Trek or not, like all the other books, comics, and sundries?
I wish the powers that be would just come out and say that Discover, SNW and all this new Trek was another universe. It just makes more sense.
Nothing looks like it’s from Legacy Trek. Story lines don’t jive with established events. How is there a war with the Gorn when TOS never heard of the Gorn until Cestis 3?
It would be so easy for a lot of us to wrap our heads around it and accept it.
*Discovery
Just don’t take it seriously, it’s a TV show.
Or just have your own personal head canon.
Agreed, at least SNW and Discovery.
And including the Gorn was a major mistake and sadly they will continue next season.
They could have just created a new alien.