One of the lackluster releases of this year was a nine-episode audio drama of Star Trek: Khan, which just concluded its run on YouTube and Spotify. Despite problems with characterizations that fly in the face of original Trek, it’s being treated as canon inside the Star Trek offices, according to writer Kristen Beyer.
Star Trek: Khan is a nine-episode audio drama by Kristen Beyer and David Mack, one of the few releases of the year in a pretty light build-up to the 60th Anniversary of Star Trek. The audio drama’s concept is to detail what happened to Khan Noonien-Singh and company after they were dropped off on Ceti Alpha V in “Space Seed” and what happened leading up to “The Wrath Of Khan” as they dealt with a hostile environment.
The drama starred actor Naveen Andrews as Khan and reprised Tim Russ as Ensign Tuvok and George Takei as Captain Hikaru Sulu.
The high concept was a wrap-around where a woman is investigating Khan’s past, looking for logs that might vindicate him and paint Captain Kirk as a villain in the process. The logs they find detail a kind, gentle Khan who cares about his people and makes stupid mistakes because of his desire for his posterity, quite a different character than was displayed in The Original Series or movie.
It had a lot of identity politics to it, with the woman constantly nagging Tuvok and Sulu, telling them they’re wrong. On the planet, Khan faced a similar situation as his woman, Marla MacGuyver, constantly nagged him to “be better,” something that would have gotten her a backhand to the face in “Space Seed.”
It also had a bizarre plotline of random lesbian characters who were trying to in vitro fertilize and have a baby together, cheered on by the diverse, inclusive Khan tyrant. It was bizarre to say the least.
It also featured Tuvok being emotional at the end, stating it was “comforting” to know that Khan could feel “love.” Something out of character for the ordinarily logical Vulcan.
Despite the glaring character problems in a high-budget fan fiction audio that rivals Big Finish productions for Doctor Who, it’s being treated as canon according to Beyer, even though most of the books are ignored by Trek. She said to Trek Movie, “Okay, here’s what I can tell you. Because I have had a few conversations. There is nobody who comes along and like waves a scepter and dubs a thing ‘canon.’ What I can tell you is that for the people currently working on Star Trek, [Star Trek: Khan] will be treated as canon, meaning it will not be overwritten, contradicted. And it will be—when possible—incorporated into future storytelling.”
She was asked if there would be a continuation or more audio productions in the future, of which she said, “I think there’s appetite for more from the people who made it. We’re like: this was great and we know how to do this. But beyond that, I don’t know.”
She’s also got a cagey answer as to whether the show was a success or not, saying, “I do think it’s too soon to have a real sense of what this really did for us, numbers-wise.”
Since she works in Hollywood and the book business, she knows that having a 9-week spanning series and having those numbers in does paint an indicator on exactly how well it’s doing.
The first episode had about 108K viewers on YouTube after two months, the bulk of these during its first week:
The dropoff for episode 2 is stark at about 21K views:
While the more recent episodes all hover in the 8-15K range:
It seems a lot of people gave the first episode a chance, but didn’t continue on with the series. While we don’t have Spotify numbers, based on YouTube ad revenue, a 10-15K video will make around $35 in revenue. With seven episodes in that range, those after the first two outliers made about $245.
The production cost of this had to have been in the tens of thousands, with an original score, writing, production, and professional acting. Therefore, the audio drama experiment has been a giant failure for Kurtzman Trek by the numbers so far.
If that’s enough to turn something into canon, then Star Trek is in for a rougher time than we realized.
I’m putting out a trilogy of some of the best science fiction in years, bringing back the sense of wonder and exploration to the genre. The crowdfund is open now, and if you miss what sci-fi used to be, this is the series for you. Back it today.
NEXT: Oscar Isaac Says He’ll Return To Star Wars If Disney Does “Not Succumb To Fascism”
George Takei aka Not Shatner aka Turd Tongue aka D List Loser.
Tim Russ is way too toxic, to watch anything he’s in, again.