 Wilber conceived the general plot for a different series , Captain Video and His Video Rangers , which featured humans from Ancient Greece who were preserved in cryogenic suspension and revived . The script changed numerous times during preproduction as producer Bob Justman felt that it would be too expensive to film . Eventually Gene L. Coon and series creator Gene Roddenberry also made alterations . These revisions include the marooning of the criminals at the end of the episode , and the change of the primary villain from a Nordic character to a Sikh . Roddenberry attempted to claim the primary writing credit for " Space Seed " , a request turned down by the Writers Guild of America . 
