The sky is falling. And crowded.

The long-expected explosion of Ceti Alpha VI happens and as it does, the show wrong foots us in a really interesting way. The first half of this episode is the exact sort of disaster preparedness we’ve been waiting for, as Khan and his people realise just how doomed they are. Ceti Alpha V’s orbit has been shifted. It will be peppered with debris from its sister world for generations. They need shelter and water, and they have neither. The terse algebra of survival is always interesting, and the cast do excellent work here, especially Maury Sterling as Ivan and Wrenn Schmidt as Marla. The former wants, very badly, to continue fighting the war he’s been engaged with life for decades, the latter has the training and focus to understand how much trouble they’re in. Schmidt’s Marla has consistently been one of the most interesting parts of the show and here especially we see how her training and character change Khan.

That change is especially true as we get the show’s first big surprise: that an alien vessel was in the system, damaged by Ceti Alpha VI’s destruction and crashes on world. For Khan, this is an opportunity to conquer a resource. For Marla, it’s a chance to negotiate with new allies. For everyone, it means freedom, it just comes down to how they want to reach that.

Khan chooses war, because he’s Khan. But even as we’re adapting to this new wrinkle, so is he. After some clever implications that the newcomers are Borg, we discover the truth. They aren’t, by the way, but it’s a testament to the script that you honestly feel they’d work here. What we get instead is something much more surprising, and something Khan can’t deal with. So he does the one thing he never expected to; surrender.

Naveen Andrews is one of the best actors of his generation and he shows us that here. Khan, a man defined by atrocity both endured and given, finds something close to a diplomatic solution. He does that in the face of overwhelming force but he does that. He changes and grows. In doing so he finds hope, new life through lifelessness. Jim Kirk would be proud.

And yet, we know something goes wrong. I’m increasingly convinced that something is Ivan, but we’ll see in coming episodes. This one peppers in further implications that Starfleet are complicit in the disaster but for the most part it’s locked in the past and is all the better for it. As is Khan. The tragedy being, of course, that we now this won’t stick.

Verdict: A surprising, and still very good, episode of what’s shaping up to be one of the best piece of Star Trek media in a long time. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart