 Montalbán was the casting director's first choice for Khan and described the role as "wonderful". Despite being planned as an inexpensive bottle episode, the special sets and shots using starship miniatures caused the episode to go over budget. On first broadcast, the episode held second place in the ratings for the first half-hour with 13.12 million viewers, but during the second half it was pushed into third place. "Space Seed" has been named one of the best episodes of the series by Cinefantastique, IGN, and other publications. The 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan serves as a sequel to this episode. Plot elements of the episode and The Wrath of Khan were also used in the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness, and references to it appear in episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.
