Warp Five: Wrenn Schmidt on Marla McGivers and the Heart of Star Trek: Khan

Welcome to Warp Five, StarTrek.com's five question post-mortem with your favorite featured talent from the latest Star Trek episodes.

We're halfway through Star Trek: Khan, the original scripted audio series that explores the untold events on Ceti Alpha V, which chronicles Khan Noonien Singh's descent from superhuman visionary into the vengeful villain. Central to Khan's story is his relationship to former Starfleet officer Marla McGivers, who is exiled alongside him and his followers.

StarTrek.com had the opportunity to sit down with Wrenn Schmidt, who voices Marla McGivers, to explore her first impressions of the Star Trek franchise, her character, and the emotional depth and historical resonance of the series.

The Emotional Hook of the Series

When diving into the project, Wrenn Schmidt was immediately captivated by Marla's complexity, praising the writing team for giving her character a compelling arc.

"Her humor and her intelligence and also her resilience," on the qualities that drew her to the role, shares Schmidt. "The ways in which she doesn't back down from having really difficult conversations with Khan."

"Who's the person that can go into a room with someone that looms large in our imagination historically like Napoleon or Julius Caesar, and actually go toe to toe with them," says Schmidt. "She seemed really, really interesting. And I loved also that she had such an incredible journey in the series, that she starts out very much being treated as a second-class citizen, and then slowly becomes part of this [Ceti Alpha V] community, but with, of course, a lot of obstacles along the way."

Reflecting on watching ' "Space Seed," Schmidt states, "[Marla] was the most fascinating part of the whole episode. Khan is also really intriguing — the character and [Ricardo Montalban] — in the episode and later, The Wrath of Khan, he's so charismatic. But really, I was like, '[Madlyn Rhue] is doing a magic trick,' because she somehow is embodying her intelligence and also her fascination with him, and how mesmerized she is by him. But also, she doesn't seem like this flimsy stereotype of 'Oh, I'm just falling head over heels for you.' It felt like there was so much more going on. And then, reading the first script, I loved how and the writing team wrote her."

A Love Story That Defies Expectations

Though she didn't initially see it, Schmidt came to agree with co-star Naveen Andrews that Star Trek: Khan is, at its core, a love story. The relationship between Marla and Khan is unlikely, intense, and ultimately inevitable.

"It's such an unlikely love story," she reflects. "In so many ways, it feels like, 'Yeah, that would never happen, or never pan out, or there's no way.' And somehow, by the time they're actually together, it feels inevitable. I love how much the tables are turned in that way for the audience in such a short amount of time."

"It's like a crazy fast whirlwind romance of attraction that happened almost at light speed," Schmidt expands. "They're [begin] very much strangers to each other, but there's an immediate attraction and immediate chemistry, an immediate fascination. There are also all of these holes that they've not yet filled in. Because of circumstances, they end up taking this giant leap together and saying, 'We're going to build a new world. We're going to a new planet, let's go.' There's kind of this beautiful evolution between the two of them when they both start to realize that maybe they can change, maybe they can grow, maybe they can accept a different point of view."

"There's a beautiful evolution between the two of them," adds Schmidt.

Shaping the Historical Record and Confronting Living History

The series' dual timeline structure reveals that Marla's personal logs are instrumental in determining whether Starfleet rewrote history, which Dr. Rosalind Lear pushes to uncover in the audio series' opening.

For Schmidt, this was one of the most powerful aspects of the role. As the former Starfleet officer, Marla’s desire to make her mark as a historian is fulfilled in ways she never expected. "She wanted to make her mark. And she did, even though it didn't happen in the way she thought it would."

"In some ways, that's what a historian hopes for is that they can somehow record history in a way that illuminates it for all the people that come after. And how many people can say that they're able to do that?"

The actress draws a compelling parallel between her own background as a history major in college and Marla's role as a historian. Marla's fascination with Khan stems not only from romantic attraction, but this rare chance to engage with a living historical figure.

"Imagine an opportunity where you can meet one of the most interesting historical figures that you've read about in books... and then that person is standing in front of you," notes Schmidt. "It really provokes something in her as a historian."

Schmidt praises the scripted audio format for allowing listeners to engage their imagination while exploring a story that's deeply personal and emotionally rich, how Marla's logs serve as both historical record and emotional diary.

“She’s recording history, but also her private feelings… it’s a very intimate moment with the audience”.

Marla's Choice: Exile Over Court-Martial

Schmidt believes Marla's choice to join Khan in exile was driven by a desire for purpose and connection. Despite the dangers of Ceti Alpha V, Marla saw more potential in exile than in her isolated life aboard the Enterprise; that her decision to join Khan was a deliberate rejection of that life of isolation and monotony in favor of challenge and meaning.

"Even though she's facing this really scary new place, it's still better than the alternative," Schmidt explains. "She chooses exile with Khan and the Augments over leading a life of captivity. She's more interested in the unknown with someone magnetic."

"That's one of the things that I admired most about her was that she, despite all of the odds against her, she has the most faith that something good can come out of this," adds Schmidt.

A Mirror to Our World

Schmidt draws parallels between the series and real-world issues; particularly, the fear of the unknown, the rewriting of history, and the importance of personal narratives. She sees Marla as a beacon of curiosity and openness, contrasting with Khan's guarded skepticism.

"She's the person that assumes the best… while Khan has been burned by humans and assumes the worst," observes Schmidt. "

Drawing connections to our real world, Schmidt questions, "Who's the person that will try as much as possible to sit down and write an objective recording of what this moment in time is? This past year, the number of things that have happened in the world, and then the number of leaders in the world that are just having an outsized impact, and what's happening to everyone everywhere. Will there be someone like a Marla McGivers? I don't know. It's just when you really start to dig into it, it's like, 'Holy crap. That's huge.' It's really hard to be a human and not wonder, 'What will my impact be on this world? Why was I here? What do I have to contribute?' There's almost like more than one pinch me moments for Marla."

For Schmidt, Star Trek: Khan is more than a sci-fi epic; it's a story about humanity, legacy, and the courage to believe in something better. "Somehow the whole Star Trek world, I don't know how they do it, but they somehow do it, where they're somehow writing about a thing that is relatable to things that we're grappling with now.

"There’s so much to unpack with this show," she concludes. "And the fact that they're doing it within a love story is also pretty amazing."