Star Trek: Khan hearkens back to a time long before the television was a household staple — a period when the radio show reigned supreme as an entertainment artform. However, the new podcast/audio program is also arguably the best Trek has offered its fans recently, and one of the franchise’s most beloved baddies is at the heart of the matter. Khan concentrates on the time after Captain James T. Kirk exiled Khan Noonien Singh, his people, and his future wife, Marla McGivers, to the doomed planet Ceti Alpha V, but before the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Wrenn Schmidt has taken up the mantle of McGivers, who was originally portrayed by Madlyn Rhue in the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode “Space Seed” back in 1967. This time around, though, McGivers is a major character in the new podcast. Khan and McGivers' relationship is complicated, but there isn’t any question that the Star Trek villain is madly in love with her. And Schmidt believes that Trekkies will be “most surprised” by the “private” scenes the two characters share together. Schmidt said in an interview via TrekMovie.com:
“I think they’re going to be maybe most surprised by the scenes that are private between Marla and Khan, and the vulnerability that they bring out in each other. And the things that they end up illuminating for each other, the humor, especially Marla’s humor. I don’t feel like the audience got much of a window into that at all in that first episode.”
Schmidt, who is best known for portraying Margo Madison in the sci-fi television drama For All Mankind, continued her interview by saying:
“Also, this great exchange of ideas, and that there are these — again to relate it to our contemporary world — two great minds that think very differently about certain things, and the fact that they’re actually able to have those conversations and sometimes change each other’s minds, not because it’s just about, I want to win this argument, but because it’s about, ‘No, we’re actually really trying to, like, unpack this.’ I think that’s going to be fascinating.”
For those who are unaware of McGivers and Khan’s fates, you’ll just have to check out the podcast for yourself — no spoilers here. New episodes of the must-listen Star Trek: Khan drop every Monday through Nov. 3. Now, what do you think of the new Khan podcast? Share your thoughts and comments on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!