A new threat reveals itself…

We’ve not heard the Khan that opens this episode before. It’s Naveen Andrews of course, but he finds something very different to Richardo Montalban’s flamboyant monarch of Hell and his own determined, almost heroic take on Khan. This is Khan broken, grief-stricken and furious. He hints that Marla has died, and after a brief stop off in the present we start down the road that leads to that death and so many others.

The Ceti eel makes its presence felt here and the timing of every event locks in in the most tragic way possible. Ceti Alpha VI and its instability is discovered and immediately dismissed as a danger that will take centuries to become real. Doctor Ursula has solved the infertility issue and her wife, Medeaux, is pregnant and Khan’s hunting party haven’t quite returned. The world Kirk imprisoned them with, the second chance they fought for, is right there and their hands are starting to close around it. We know it will be too late.

What we don’t know is what will collapse first. With the Ceti eel claiming its first victim in artist Richter, it also gifts Khan the tool of his eventual release and destruction. Andrews does excellent work here, frantic to save his friend at the same time as instinctively learning where this weapon’s edges are. At the camp, Maury Sterling’s brutally pragmatic Ivan continues to be the only alternative to Khan and to seethe with contempt for Marla. It’s not that something must break. It’s that we know everything does and that starts here with a tragedy that breaks the camp apart and gives us one more new version of Khan. Not the grief shattered man we hear at the start but someone stepping forward into the story he knows too well. He has a foe; the world he’s trapped on He has a fight, and he knows how to fight. He thinks he has a plan and we know he doesn’t. Tragedy and horror swirling together as the wind whips up on a soon to be barren world.

Verdict: ‘Do your worst’ Khan dares the world. And it will. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart