 After the disappointing response to the first Star Trek feature film , The Motion Picture , Paramount executives appointed Harve Bennett , a television producer who had never watched Star Trek , to be executive producer for the sequel . Bennett watched all the original series episodes and chose Khan from " Space Seed " as a possible villain for the film . Early drafts of the script had Khan as a shadowy tyrant leading a planet in revolt ; later drafts added the " Genesis device " which Khan would steal . 
