Star Trek revisits 43-year-old story for new spin-off - and adds a major new twist

The fifth episode of the Naveen Andrews-led audio series, titled Imagination's Limits, delves into events that fans will recognise from the original stories. They saw Khan Noonien Singh exiled by Captain James T Kirk to the planet Ceti Alpha V before it was made completely barren and uninhabitable when the nearby planet Ceti Alpha VI exploded.

Now, the new audio series is answering questions that have plagued Star Trek fans for years – including what actually happened on Ceti Alpha VI and who, if anyone, knew the explosion was going to happen.

The new episode of Star Trek: Khan sees the explosion play out and adds a completely new detail – that an alien spaceship crash-landed on Ceti Alpha V.

After going to see the crash site, Khan and his team discover at least 100 survivors from the ship, and debate about whether to help them or engage in conflict.

Despite protests from his people, Khan soon asserts that they're a threat to him and leads them to war. But that's not all.

As a strange hum renders all of Khan and his team's weapons unusable, Khan orders a retreat and goes on alone, speaking to the aliens inside his mind.

The alien commander reveals their ship was caught up in the explosion and they came to Ceti Alpha V for repairs, telling Khan about fresh water under the ground that would help him and his people to survive the catastrophe.

The episode ends with Khan questioning whether he should trust the aliens, and grappling with his fear of the unknown.

These new details prove there are elements of the story we never knew before, and bring out even more unexpected elements of Khan's personality, gloriously brought to life by Lost star Andrews.

The series also stars Star Trek legends George Takei as Captain Hikaru Sulu and Tim Russ as Ensign Tuvok, as well as Wrenn Schmidt as Lieutenant Marla McGivers.

Recently speaking about taking on the role of Khan, Andrews said he wanted to honour Khan's original actor, Ricardo Montalban.

"If you’ve got someone like Ricardo Montalban creating the template, you got to at least try to adhere to," he told TrekMovie.com.

"But thank God he did set a template, and that was the one that I followed. So I’m very grateful to him.

New episodes of Star Trek: Khan are released weekly.

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