Thread by @jeffs_comics

How about a little #ShakespeareSunday with #StarTrek

The Conscience of the King

Just the 13th episode, a fit number for this tragedy.

It originally aired December 8, 1966

A sad tale is best for Winter

(art by juan ortiz)

The episode begins with a murder - the on stage murder by Macbeth, as played by actor Anton Karidian (a play on Carradine?).

Arnold Moss is the actor playing the actor. A veteran of Shakespeare and Broadway, his voice oozes gravitas.

This episode is wonderful #startrek in exploring moral issues, but in some ways its very much not Star Trek.

By that, I mean there is very little scifi or science fantasy here. Its a script that could be adapted easily to other settings. You can argue thats deliberate.

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hands" right before our scarred man accuses the actor of being Kodos the Executioner.

Star Trek medicine can do wonders, but here we see a man who cannot be made whole, cannot be restored, cannot forget.

Kodos is dead.

- Is he? Is anyone sure? A body burned beyond recognition?

Tom, the authorities closed the book on that case years ago.

- Then let's reopen it. Jim, four thousand people were butchered.

Anyone getting Nazi hunter vibes?

Only a few years prior, Adolf Eichmann had been living in Argentina, was investigated, captured, tried and executed for his role in the Holocaust. The trial had substantial media coverage, and this would have been in the minds of many viewers in 1966.

The plot moves forward, like Hamlet itself, there are traps laid to ascertain guilt about an event 20 years prior (and 20 years prior to the episode is roughly the Holocaust).

A small colony of 8000 lost its food supply, igniting a crisis. (notice the lack of magic technology)

...Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.

Kodos, acting quickly, took over, and based on his own ideas of eugenics to divide the colony. Half were executed, including all but a handful who knew him.

4000 killed to give the other 4000 some hope to survive.

Lifeboat ethics

To break the Nazi analogy here, those that were killed were not necessarily second class colonists. Kodos acted, with his own judgement, during a chaotic crisis.

Again - the lifeboat. Who gets to decide what happens?

Then the moving finger wrote and moved on

Far sooner than possibly hoped for, rescue arrived. No lifeboat was needed, but neither Kodos nor anyone else knew that.

Again, its all very un-Star Trek. Starvation, chaos, mass murder, lack of communication, etc

Very little scifi here at all

Kodos' was presumed dead based on a burned corpse. Karidian's information begins at that point.

And again, no great technology. Is Karidian Kodos? It seems 1966 had the same tech as 2266 for that.

Also note Karidian has a 19 year old daughter, Lenore

19.

Lenore Karidian, played by Barbara Jeanne Anderson.

Kudos (not Kodos) to the production values. From costumes to cinematography to even the lounge lizard smooth jazz version of the #startrek theme playing at the cocktail party where we meet...Lenore

Lenore is a name that brings Poe to mind. In the poem, Lenore has died, but there no mourning from her fiance, in that perhaps the dead shall meet again in Heaven.

Barbara Anderson's entrance is stunning. Kirk offers her a glass, his hand lingers on hers...

You saw Macbeth. That was my father.
- Then I'll talk to Lady Macbeth.

So. Captain of the Enterprise. Interesting.
- So, Lady Macbeth. Interesting. What's your next move?

In hindsight, how telling this little flirtation is.

Good flirting in this episode. Very impressive.

I don't have a screen grab, but as Kirk and Lenore go outside, she pulls up whats almost a veil about her head. She looks suddenly like a widow, or death

and then the body is found.
(Was she going to ... oh, y'know)

I'll pick this up later. G'night all.

For a limited budget, the costumes often had a lot of thought and effort. Love the widow effect here. Lenore will have several costumes - a woman of many moods and faces. Some female Trek characters are cold works of art; Lenore is about passions.

When next we see Lenore she has on a fur wrap and little else - much like this Eva Gardner image. Its crafted to be an intimate look. Well done William Ware Theiss, and Barbara Anderson plays Lenore wonderfully. Not every damsel is in distress.

This script is so transportable, which is why it may not be so celebrated. Its only important the lead be a young virile man of authority. Oh, we just saw the last of Yeoman Rand until the Motion Picture. No dialogue.

Imagine had they killed Rand off in this episode?

All this power, surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, Captain?

...Worlds may change, but a woman always remains a woman.

All this and power too. The Caesar of the stars and the Cleopatra to worship him.

(followed by a visit to the nearby shuttlecraft)

Lenore Karidian

We have a real life actress playing a character who is an actress playing a character...

Notice no jewelry. Thats orchestrated as well.

So that lovely soft face of Lenore we see,mor she is showing to Kirk, is a mask - which is what Ortiz also used in his poster. The large mouths of masks helped to not mute the voices, and Barbara Anderson herself has a large and lovely mouth.

After exposition by Spock that says the remaining witnesses have all died when these actors were nearby and the last two are on the Enterprise - Kirk and Lt Riley.

Why Riley? Why not Rand (who was leaving) or someone like Sulu?

We also have to go back to see what is missing. Tom was forever torn apart by Tarsus IV, but not Jim.

Who did Kirk lose in the massacre? Anyone?
It never comes up. I find that is curious.

Notice how much of a Kirk-centric episode this is.

We get a full mid episode song by Uhura. Its really a delight, and its a nice way to spin out the murder in our little cozy here. Very low tech - squirt of poison in the milk. Again, there isn't much Trek scifi here.

Well, no use in crying over spilt milk

Then we get the expected attempt on Kirk

A phaser on overload in Kirk's quarters

Double Red Alert!
Now with twice as much panic

This is the weakest part of the episode, also showing how un-Trek it is.

How did the killer:
get a military phaser
get into the Captains cabin
time it for when Kirk was there
and its got no timer...just basically a fuse

None of that makes sense, but I'll flush my complaints

And now, Act III begins, and we get Arnold Moss. Up until now, its been all Lenore.

The coat is a nice aged touch. Also, the guest quarters are full of weapons! Props for his dramatic performances, maybe.

We are overdue for this talk (Kirk doesn't knock)

Are you Kodos? I asked you a question.
- Do you believe that I am?
I do.
- Then I am Kodos, if it pleases you to believe so. I am an actor. I play many parts.
You're an actor now. What were you twenty years ago?
- Younger, Captain. Much younger.
So was I. But I remember.

Lifeboat Ethics

- Kodos made a decision of life and death. Some had to die that others might live. You're a man of decision, Captain. You ought to understand that.

All I understand is that four thousand people were needlessly butchered.

- In order to save four thousand others. And if the supply ships hadn't come earlier than expected, this Kodos of yours might have gone down in history as a great hero.

But he didn't. And history has made its judgment.

There is a point made in books like The Caine Mutiny, that no matter how you see the situation out there,,at that moment, that its not going to play well back at the safe air conditioned courtroom.

What happens on the lifeboat may be called to accounting at the courthouse

I like the shadowplay here, as ideas of personal justice are discussed. Shatner plays Kirk here without the great emoting, no 'but thats why we're aboard her' speeches.

Kirk is in control, if boiling, wearing his own masks.

And back to Lenore, who accuses Kirk of using her (when we know both are using each other)

There's no mercy in you.

Which leads to Riley learning about Karidian as yet another Mousetrap play begins - Hamlet, a violent play about violent times.

Karidian: My hour is almost come, when I to sulphurous and tormenting fires must render up myself.

Hamlet: Speak. I am bound to hear.

Karidian: So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. I am thy father's spirit.

which is point on as Riley comes to do Hamlet avenging

bit I am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison house

Riley is talked down. Oddly, Kirk seems either truly unsure or in denial of taking responsibility for the 4000. Why not arrest him on suspicion?

Then the masks come off. Mad Ophelia shining.

My child, my child, you've left me nothing.

And the finale, where justice comes not from the victims or the state, but from his child.

The curtain rises...it rises...its no time to sleep...

In the end, McCoy asks Kirk if he really cared for Lenore.

Kirk ignores him, gives mundane orders to leave, and McCoy says 'thats an answer.'

Did Kirk so easily put Lenore behind him, or is work his medicine? I think the latter.

What do you think?

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