# Ricardo Montalban as Khan, real chest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355 "2005-11-30T11:03:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/21 "2005-12-01T20:57:17Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Montalban … certainly had the chops to do a great drama, but I can’t recall anything mainstream that he appeared in, other than Star Trek. Well, he’s the grandfather of the Spy Kids. I don’t think he had quite as many options for mainstream Hollywood success as you suggest. He was too exotic (by white-bread Hollywood standards) for most leading roles. He should’ve married a loudmouthed redhead. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/22 "2005-12-01T21:07:18Z")
Yeah, and he was the villain in the first _Naked Gun_ movie, too. ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/23 "2005-12-01T21:10:14Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Khaaaaaaaaaan! [http://www.khaaan.com/](http://www.khaaan.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/24 "2005-12-01T23:24:14Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Luckily, Ricardo loved the project and signed on immediately. And all was good in the world…(until movie #5, but that’s another story.) He couldn’t have liked it that much, he insisted that his contract state he’d never have to play the role again. (One of the writers for TNG wrote a script which revived Khan [on the holodeck] and was told that Montalban flatly refused to do Khan after TWoK.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/25 "2005-12-01T23:45:19Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > He couldn’t have liked it that much, he insisted that his contract state he’d never have to play the role again. (One of the writers for TNG wrote a script which revived Khan [on the holodeck] and was told that Montalban flatly refused to do Khan after TWoK.) It may have been because of his increasing back pain (and his chest no longer looked like that). On imdb it says that he liked the role so much he played it for only $100,000, dirt cheap for a big budget motion picture role even then and he didn’t need it as he was fresh off _Fantasy Island_. (I hope he got points.) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/26 "2005-12-02T04:04:29Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > He couldn’t have liked it that much, he insisted that his contract state he’d never have to play the role again. (One of the writers for TNG wrote a script which revived Khan [on the holodeck] and was told that Montalban flatly refused to do Khan after TWoK.) Cite? I’ve never heard of the contract stipulation or of a proposed TNG script featuring Khan and have read pretty extensively on TOS and TNG. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/27 "2005-12-02T04:42:49Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Cite? I’ve never heard of the contract stipulation or of a proposed TNG script featuring Khan and have read pretty extensively on TOS and TNG. Okay, I can’t cite precisely where I read this, or which Star Trek writer it was, but the writer who came up with the Khan in the holodeck scenario created it as his first script as he was breaking into scriptwriting for Trek. He didn’t get the script filmed for the reasons explained already, but he did get more work for Trek, either as a screenwriter of novelist or both, on the strength of it. I suspect it might have been an article in one of those early [Star Trek magazines](https://www.gefabbri.co.uk/startrek/index.asp?source=backcovers.asp) I own. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/28 "2005-12-02T04:44:54Z")
Oh. I just wanted to add I never heard of Montablan’s contract stipulation, either, although the ST:TNG article reinterates he refused to play Khan again. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/29 "2005-12-02T04:58:35Z")
Any idea which magazine? I have about two dozen sitting not ten feet from me right now. A google search for “khan+holodeck+script” doesn’t bring up anything. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/30 "2005-12-02T05:07:52Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Any idea which magazine? I have about two dozen sitting not ten feet from me right now. > > A google search for “khan+holodeck+script” doesn’t bring up anything. I read it in a special edition of Starlog Magazine entitled something like “How to Write For Star Trek” which was published in the early 1990s, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/31 "2005-12-02T05:21:41Z")
Huh. I’m intrigued enough by this that I started a thread about it on a Trek specialist board asking if anyone could give specifics and will repost whatever answer they give me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/32 "2005-12-06T20:54:43Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Huh. I’m intrigued enough by this that I started a thread about it on a Trek specialist board asking if anyone could give specifics and will repost whatever answer they give me. Please do. I’ve read a lotta stuff on ST over the years, and this was news to me, too. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/33 "2005-12-07T01:50:41Z")
Whoops. Forgot all about this thread. After about two dozen posts, the final word seems to be that someone named Marc Bernardin speced a story for TNG for a Khan story but was turned down with the excuse that Montalban didn’t want to reprise the role but, just as likely, it was a way to let the guy down since TOS, The Naked Now aside, was verboten on TNG in its early years and it never would have happened anyway. If **Sir Rhosis** can pop in (assuming he runs a vanity search), he’ll probably be able to tell you more. He’s more knowledgeable of that era of Trek than I am. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/34 "2005-12-07T03:37:36Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Whoops. Forgot all about this thread. > > After about two dozen posts, the final word seems to be that someone named Marc Bernardin speced a story for TNG for a Khan story but was turned down with the excuse that Montalban didn’t want to reprise the role but, just as likely, it was a way to let the guy down since TOS, The Naked Now aside, was verboten on TNG in its early years and it never would have happened anyway. > > If **Sir Rhosis** can pop in (assuming he runs a vanity search), he’ll probably be able to tell you more. He’s more knowledgeable of that era of Trek than I am. I dunno about that, since they did reprise the whole Tholian business in TNG. _Somewhere_, I recall reading or hearing that Montalban specifically insisted that Khan be killed in TWoK, so he wouldn’t have to do the role again. Now, that maybe fuzzy memory on my part, or it might have Montalban knowing that the story would work better if Khan died, than if he escaped. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/35 "2005-12-07T03:45:56Z")
The Tholians never appeared outside the original _Star Trek_ save three appearances in _Enterprise_ and two of the episodes – _In a Mirror, Darkly Part I_ and _In a Mirror, Darkly Part II_ – were practically sequels to _The Tholian Web_ ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/36 "2005-12-07T03:49:20Z")
I’ve heard about the Khan TNG spec script too, and I’ve never read a Star Trek magazine in my life. I recall it was an article written by a regular writer for the show, and the PTB had been impressed enough with his Khan script to give him a job, even though they told him Montalban refused to ever do Khan again. If I recall, the plot had something to do with the Enterprise-D encountering Khan and he once again trying to take over the ship. Only at the very end of the episode is it revealed (to the audience) that the whole thing is a holodeck training exercise. I’ve always vaguely thought that the writer was none other than Berman himself, but I may have been confusing the name with Bernardin. I wonder where I read it though? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/37 "2005-12-07T03:54:12Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > The Tholians never appeared outside the original _Star Trek_ save three appearances in _Enterprise_ and two of the episodes – _In a Mirror, Darkly Part I_ and _In a Mirror, Darkly Part II_ – were practically sequels to _The Tholian Web_ All I remember is an advert during the first or second season (due to work schedules, I didn’t become a regular TNG viewer until about the 3 or 4th season) of TNG which mentioned that the Tholians were going to reappear. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355/38 "2005-12-07T04:06:52Z")
Not only did they not reappear until _ENT_, they were never even a major plot point. The [entry](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tholian) on them at Memory Alpha mentions them in conjunction with \*TNG \*only three times and \*DS9 \*only six. \*VGR \*isn’t mentioned at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ricardo-montalban-as-khan-real-chest/333355.md?page=1)