Gene Roddenberry questioned Carey Wilber's notion of wasting a high-tech spaceship and expensive resources on criminals - just like Kirk and Spock came up with the same question in the story itself - and came up with the concept of "a bunch of Napoleons" self-exiling in space.
The automated signal that the S.S. Botany Bay sends, "CQ", is an actual Morse code shorthand for "seek you", or "please answer, anyone that can hear this."
The main cast were enthusiastic about working with Ricardo Montalban. DeForest Kelley later said "I enjoyed working with Ricardo the best. I was privileged. He is a marvellous actor."
Ricardo Montalban called his role as Khan "wonderful", saying that "it was well-written, it had an interesting concept and I was delighted it was offered to me".
The first day's filming coincided with the airing of Balance of Terror (1966), and Marc Daniels allowed the cast and crew to go home early to watch it. The other five days ran to schedule, to the extent that there was an early finish on the final day of filming, allowing cast and crew time to return home to watch a repeat of What Are Little Girls Made Of? (1966) which had replaced Arena (1967) on that evening's schedule.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
