The Khan of Star Trek II owes almost nothing (just his existence and his motive) to the Khan of the TV series, and yet he’s a terrific and memorable villain.

The problem with series is that it’s rare that a series really produces solid episodes week after week, so there tend to be a few clunkers and quite a few mediocre episodes. (C.f. Sturgeon’s Law.) This is why I eventually stopped watching Smallville - too many mediocre episodes, and things were just moving too darned slowly. Does it really take 75+ hours of tube time to tell this story?