Whereas Khan Noonien Singh and Marla McGivers are the celebs of the brand new scripted podcast Star Trek: Khan, their essential narrative is accompanied by a framing story that takes place years later. That story is anchored by new character Rosalind Lear, performed by Sonya Cassidy, and alongside for the trip are George Takei’s Hikaru Sulu and Tim Russ’ Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager. Kirsten Beyer, who labored with fellow author David Mack to show Star Trek: Khan from a TV miniseries right into a podcast, went over CinemaBlend why it was the “most evident” to loop in these two widespread characters quite than go in a unique route.
Star Trek: Khan’s framing story takes place a number of years after the occasions of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when Hikaru Sulu is captaining the USS Excelsior and Tuvok is an ensign aboard the ship. It’s additionally three months after the start of Star Trek: Generations, when James T. Kirk is believed to have died throughout the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. Beyer defined to me why it made extra sense to go along with Sulu quite than choose Kirk and place the podcast earlier within the timeline as follows:
What you wanted was proximity to the occasions of Wrath of Khan. And albeit, Excelsior and Sulu had been the obvious for that except you had been going to make use of Kirk… There have been simply quite a lot of the reason why story-wise, having Sulu be motivated to be protecting of Kirk and his legacy. As a result of at that second, coincidentally, from Sulu’s standpoint, Kirk has simply died. Everyone knows the reality, however he doesn’t.
The viewers does certainly know the reality, as Kirk was really trapped within the Nexus for practically 80 years, after which died for actual serving to Jean-Luc Picard cease Soren (though a brand new comedian e-book sequence has introduced him again to life). So with Kirk gone, Sulu, who met Khan in The Authentic Collection episode “House Seed,” is among the many people who find themselves decided to maintain his spirit alive. That features agreeing to take Rosalind Lear, a Starfleet physician, to Ceti Alpha V and analyze the recently-discovered logs masking Khan and Marla’s practically 20 years spent on that planet.
As for Tuvok, Star Trek followers discovered about his previous with Sulu within the Voyager Season 3 episode “Flashback,” with that chapter of his previous happening concurrently with the occasions of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Nation. So from there, it was solely logical, as a Vulcan would say, to incorporate Tuvok as nicely, with Beyer telling me:
All that type of stuff is so enjoyable to play with in our universe. It is one of many issues that makes it so distinctive. What occurs is you are on the lookout for the factor, and then you definately hit the second and also you get chills and you are like, ‘All proper, that is it!’ And figuring out that Tuvok had served with [Sulu] and would have been there within the earliest days, proper across the time that Kirk would have been presumed lifeless,… you simply go, ‘Oh yeah, no, that is it, completely.’ And also you’re there.
Khan, Marla McGivers and the remainder of the surviving augments that had been put in stasis alongside Khan within the late twentieth century had been exiled to Ceti Alpha V on the finish of “House Seed.” They waste no time in beginning to construct a brand new civilization, although as Star Trek: Khan explores, the planet wasn’t with out its risks. In the end, it was revealed The Wrath of Khan that Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after their arrival, which shifted V’s orbit and turned the world right into a wasteland. Sadly, we additionally discovered that Marla died earlier than Khan and his remaining followers had been capable of escape Ceti Alpha V.
New episodes of Star Trek: Khan drop Mondays wherever you get your podcasts. Join a Paramount+ subscription so you will get your fill of Star Trek films and TV exhibits, together with the recently-concluded Unusual New Worlds Season 3.