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written by Gene L. Coon
Story by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber
SECOND REVISED FINAL, dated December 13, 1966

report & analysis by David Eversole

This script has a few cut lines, a few cut scenes, and the usual shifting and restructuring of lines that seemed to happen on set a lot. By this I mean little things like changing a line from something like "The Klingons have fired on us, sir!" to "The Klingons are firing, Captain!"

A cut scene occurs directly after Kirk asks for (and mispronounces McGivers' name). Spock corrects him, then:

INT. CORRIDOR

Crewmen returning to quarters and routine jobs from their "alert" status. From which we can HEAR:

UHURA'S VOICE
(filtered)
Repeat... Alert rescinded, decks five
through twelve. Phaser crews, scanner
and deflector units, remain at battle stations.

We EMPHASIZE a brightly intense, pretty young woman as she enters from down the corridor. This is MARLA McGIVERS, a controls systems specialist. Another young woman, YEOMAN BAKER, crosses in from the other direction and stops Marla in TWO SHOT.

YEOMAN BAKER
Hey, Marla, Hanson from the Physics
Lab asked if you were coming to the
Rec Room tonight...

MARLA
(shakes head)
Tell 'Mister Afraid to Ask Me Himself'
that I'm waiting for a man who'll break
down my door and carry me to where
he wants me.

Yeoman Baker laughs, moves off, Marla turns to the door to her quarters -- it snaps open as she begins to enter.

This scene was shot, and Baker was played by the ubiquitous Barbara Baldavin.

Interesting to note that her "Historian" title may have been in addition to another job.

Khan's fist description is: "...an extremely handsome, well-built man. His face reflects the sun-darkened Ayrian blood of the Northern India Sikh people, suggesting just a trace of the Oriental blood often found too. The features are intelligent, extremely strong, almost arrogantly so."

Later on the bridge Spinelli reports to Kirk, and theorizes that the Botany Bay went off course when the port control jets took meteor damage.

Spock has a few lines cut from his scene explaining to Kirk who Khan is.

SPOCK
It does seem likely there had been a
group of scientists who had since the
60's been encouraging carefully selected
marriages, applied their knowledge of
heredity to the creation of superior offspring...

KIRK
(smiles, interrupts)
'Mad' scientists, of course...

SPOCK
Quite the contrary... These were
dedicated men who believed they
could produce and thaw children who
would grow up into wise leaders, take
over the world peaceably, put an end
to war, famine, greed...

When Khan takes over and holds everyone as Kirk is being decompressed, it plays out a bit differently. Khan drops McCoy with a phaser blast, Joaquin and Khan figure out how to activate the screen, there is no threatened backhand of Uhura. Spock admits he admires the precise logic with which Khan took over the ship. It is Spinelli who tells Khan to go to blazes.

In Engineering, Khan sets the engines on overload to bluff Kirk into surrendering the Enterprise to him. Kirk enters, Khan knocks him down.

KHAN
Use your ears, captain. If I
understood your manuals, I
believe that's an overload in
progress. Your ship flares up
like an exploding sun in minutes.

Kirk reacts to the INCREASING SOUND we've been hearing, leaping to his feet and toward the console... but Khan knocks him away from it and back against another line of controls.

KHAN
(continuing)
No, captain. I'll have this vessel, or
neither of us will.

KIRK
Is that an example of your
super-intelligence? Destroy over
four hundred of my people, seventy
of yours...

Kirk again tries to get past Khan to the control, is again slammed back harder against the wall of equipment.

ANGLE ON KIRK

backed up against the wall of equipment where he has been thrown. During the following we'll realize he has become aware of something in the wall behind him, which might offer a solution... and we'll see that he is carefully, trying to avoid suspicion, putting his hands behind him as if leaning back on them.

KHAN
I've five times your strength,
captain. Give up, you've lost.

The OVERLOAD SOUND VOLUME INCREASING continuously through:

KIRK
No... it's worth the price. We go...
but we take with us a posturing,
ambitious, petulant little dictator.

INSERT - KIRK'S HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK

Fingers working rapidly to release a solid control rod, the end of which we can see protruding from the equipment panel there.

KIRK'S VOICE
... who is as miscast in this
century as he was in his own.

TWO SHOT - KIRK AND KHAN

Kirk trying to release the rod without notice; Khan's features darkening at Kirk's last words.

KHAN
This 'petulant little dictator,' captain,
is prepared to die. I hope you're as
ready to sacrifice those hundreds of
crewmen under your care.

Khan waits for an answer, then finally shrugs, accepting the inevitable.

KHAN
A pity. But...
(a smile, almost friendly)
... I think you understand. I am as
incapable of submitting to your
century as I was to the one from which...

As in the episode, Kirk rips the rod from the wall (here it crackles with electricity as he rips it loose) and does a "beatdown" on Khan and shuts off the overload.

In the final scene we have this exchange before Khan and Marla are brought in:

KIRK
I'm unhappy with this, Mister Spock!
It's your job to suggest solutions,
alternatives...

SPOCK
The obvious solution is to let
star base command make the
decision for you.

KIRK
What decision can they make?

McCoy and Scott enter, also wearing dress uniform, take their places at the table with Kirk and Spock, who sit watching and listening to:

KIRK
(continuing)
A girl, Lieutenant McIvers, for
example...

SPOCK
McGivers, sir.

KIRK
(small smile at his lapse)
Either way a court martial. Yes, I
agree she has an area of weakness,
foolishness... but she's a romantic!
I wish I could afford to be one.

SPOCK
(a bit archly)
Perhaps you can. It amused them
to call their ship the 'Botany Bay...'

KIRK
(ignoring it)
And Khan... what a perfect waste
to put a man like that into a
reorientation center. And the rest
of his people. All that courage, that vitality...
(breaks off; looks up at Spock)
What did you mean 'perhaps I can?'

Interrupted by the arrival of Khan and Lieutenant McGivers under the care of armed Enterprise Security Guards. They motion him toward the defendants' area, but Khan refuses to sit, remains on his feet, defiantly eyeing Kirk.

Marla crosses to stand by Khan; Uhura takes a seat in another area. Kirk, still trying to fathom Spock's last remark, has thrown his second in command a couple of curious looks, but Spock's features give nothing away.

KIRK
(continuing)
The 'Botany Bay'....

SPOCK

Yes, sir.

KIRK
(nods)
Yes... I think I see...

SPOCK
I was sure you would, sir.

Kirk looks toward Yeoman Baker:

KIRK
Engage recorder.
(toward Khan)
This hearing is in session.

The rest plays out as written, though McCoy and Scott have lines about what equipment they can throw together to help Khan and his people survive.


CAREY WILBER (1916-1998): Television scenarist who started out in the live days of television, and wrote for a variety of programs over the next three decades. Shows that boasted scripts by Wilber include Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, Bonanza, Maverick, The Big Valley and Cannon. He wrote the famous "Ice Princess" storyline for the daytime serial "General Hospital" in 1981 (which featured John Colicos and Majel Barrett). For Star Trek, he is credited as the co-writer of "Space Seed." Wilber's son has put up an informative and funny website dealing with his father's career at http://tuppers.com/pop/


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