CBS Announces Return Of Khan Noonien Singh To Star Trek

Star Trek has some interesting news coming from an unlikely source. CBS Studios announced a new scripted audio series of Khan Noonien Singh, starring Naveen Andrews (Lost) based on a story by Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan director Nicholas Meyer’s story.

Khan Noonien Singh has long been a character of fixation for Star Trek fans, with the episode “Space Seed” and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan captivating audiences with Ricardo Montalban’s performance. There’s a lot of room for storytelling in the backstory of Khan, a genetically engineered superhuman who took over a large part of Earth, ruling the world in the universe from 1992 to 1996 before he was placed into his exile on a sleeper ship bound for the stars.

Nicholas Meyer originally pitched Paramount a miniseries he called Ceti Alpha V for Paramount+, meant to be filmed as a three-part event for the channel when he was brought in as a consulting producer for the first season of Star Trek: Discovery.

He spoke on what happened to the project in 2022 to TrekMovie.com, saying “What was originally commissioned as a three-hour or three-night event, by the time I finished writing it, three hours was not enough. They wanted longer stuff. And somewhere between those two imperatives, the thing sort of fell between two stools. And I still don’t know why they’re not doing it, even if it’s to say, ‘give us ten episodes instead of three or whatever.’ I don’t know why.”

While it’s been quiet about the project for the last couple of years, CBS decided to turn it into an audio drama, casting Naveen Andrews, famous for his role in Lost as Khan living on the planet.

The audio drama is being written by long-time Star Trek novelists, Kristen Beyer and David Mack, who are best known for their work on the Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space 9 continuation novel series after the shows ended.

The casting also includes Wrenn Schmidt from For All Mankind as Marla MgGuyvers, the Enterprise scientist who defected to stay with Khan out of her fascination with him.

While Star Trek has a robust audiobook catalog, there are not many audio dramas to the show’s name. Paramount attempted short Captain Sulu adventures aboard the Excelsior released in the 1990s, and in 2022, Simon & Schuster released a scripted audio drama for Star Trek: Picard: No Man’s Land directly as an audiobook.

Star Trek: Khan is being labeled as a “podcast,” making it unclear on how this audio drama will be released to the public. It marks the first multi-part series done in a format like this.

Doctor Who has been very successful in audio dramas with their BBC audio book productions and Big Finish Productions, creating a wide array of works that tie into science fiction series.

David Mack, the writer, spoke about it on his Facebook page, saying, “Now that the news has gone public, I can at last share news I’ve been sitting on for over a year:

Coming later in 2025 is STAR TREK: KHAN, the franchise’s first scripted audio drama miniseries, based on a story by Nicholas Meyer, with all 9 episodes WRITTEN BY KIRSTEN BEYER and ME! Announced today at IGN Fan Fest, the project has already wrapped production on the recording of its voice actors. The miniseries stars NAVEEN ANDREWS (Lost) as Khan Noonien Singh and WRENN SCHMIDT (For All Mankind; Halt and Catch Fire) as Lieutenant Marla McGivers. The streaming audio podcast series is scheduled for release later this year courtesy of the fine folks at Realm. (Links to more info will be in the comments.)”

Fans on his page voiced enthusiasm for the project, hopeful that this could start a new line of Star Trek audio work similar to the Doctor Who franchise.

What do you think of Star Trek: Khan being developed by David Mack and Kirsten Beyer? Leave a comment and let us know.

For a great novel series with classic Star Trek feel, with sci-fi spy thriller action, read The Stars Entwined on Amazon!

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