While Khan Noonien Singh and Marla McGivers are the stars of the new scripted podcast Star Trek: Khan, their main narrative is accompanied by a framing story that takes place years later. That story is anchored by new character Rosalind Lear, played by Sonya Cassidy, and along for the ride are George Takei’s Hikaru Sulu and Tim Russ’ Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager. Kirsten Beyer, who worked with fellow writer David Mack to turn Star Trek: Khan from a TV miniseries into a podcast, went over CinemaBlend why it was the “most obvious” to loop in these two popular characters rather than go in a different direction.
Star Trek: Khan’s framing story takes place several years after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when Hikaru Sulu is captaining the USS Excelsior and Tuvok is an ensign aboard the ship. It’s also three months after the beginning of Star Trek: Generations, when James T. Kirk is thought to have died during the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. Beyer explained to me why it made more sense to go with Sulu rather than pick Kirk and place the podcast earlier in the timeline as follows:
