The Conscience of the King

"The Conscience of the King" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It is episode number 13, production number 13, and aired on December 8, 1966. It was written by Barry Trivers and directed by Gerd Oswald.

The episode takes its title from the concluding lines of Act II of Hamlet: "The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."^[1]

In the episode, Captain Kirk crosses paths with an actor suspected of having been a mass-murdering dictator many years before.

The episode featured the final appearance (in production order) in the series of Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand). Whitney had already been notified that she was fired from the series a week before filming on this episode began. Her brief walk-on scene was her last scene in Star Trek before her return in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Plot

On stardate 2817.6, the Federation starship USS Enterprise has been called to Planet Q by Dr. Thomas Leighton, a friend of Captain Kirk, ostensibly to investigate a possible new synthetic food source. Leighton's true motivation, however, is his suspicion that Anton Karidian (Arnold Moss), the leader of a Shakespearean acting troupe currently on the planet, is in fact Kodos "the Executioner," the former governor of the Earth colony of Tarsus IV, who was responsible for the massacre of over 4,000 people twenty years earlier, to which both Leighton and Kirk were eyewitnesses. Kirk dismisses Leighton's allegations at first, but agrees to meet Karidian and his troupe at a party at Leighton's home the next day. Karidian does not appear, but Kirk meets his daughter Lenore, and during a walk outside the two discover Leighton dead.

Kirk arranges for the Enterprise to ferry the acting troupe to its next destination. He also transfers Lt. Kevin Riley (Bruce Hyde) to Engineering, after discovering that he too was a witness to the Tarsus IV massacre. These actions arouse the curiosity of First Officer Spock, who, after an investigation of his own, learns the full history of the massacre and Kirk and Riley's connection to it. His research also reveals that seven of nine witnesses to the massacre have died, and that in each case Karidian's acting troupe was somewhere nearby.

An attempt is made to poison Riley, and a phaser nearly explodes in Kirk's quarters. Kirk, however, is unwilling to accuse Karidian without proof. Kirk has Karidian read the sentence Kodos pronounced before the massacre, and computer analysis of his voice results in a near-perfect match with Kodos, but Kirk still hesitates.

Lt. Riley, recovering in sickbay, overhears Dr. McCoy's log entry and learns that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos. Riley heads for the ship's theater where the Karidian troupe has begun their performance of Hamlet, and sneaks backstage, phaser in hand, to exact revenge for the death of his family. Kirk discovers him before he can act and persuades him to surrender the weapon. Karidian, overhearing, is visibly disturbed, and Lenore tries to assure him that all the "ghosts" of his past will soon be gone. Karidian now realizes to his horror that his daughter is responsible for the deaths of the first seven witnesses. Kirk, overhearing this conversation, moves to arrest them both. Lenore then snatches a phaser from a nearby security guard and takes aim at Kirk. Karidian jumps into the line of fire, is hit, and dies. Lenore breaks down and begs her father to wake up and continue his performance.

Reception

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A-' rating, noting strong performances from the actors including a "great Spock/McCoy dynamic" and "some very credible acting from Shatner."^[2] Keith DeCandido, writing for Tor.com, commended the acting of Moss, Shatner, and Anderson, but felt that the episode had aged badly in regards to only being able to identify Karidian as Kodos via an unreliable voice comparison. He gave the episode a "warp factor rating" of 7.^[3] Jamahl Epsicokhan of Jammer's Reviews rated the episode 2.5 stars out of 4 and similarly praised the performances of Moss and Anderson, but criticized the ending, calling it "inappropriate".^[4]

Michelle Erica Green of Trek Today wrote,

An episode that plays much better than it summarizes, "The Conscience of the King" has a number of moments that should be cheesy and predictable yet manage to be moving, piggybacking off the Shakespearean dramas to which they make reference. The plot is quite intricate - a mystery with an underlying horror story, and a present-day romance used as a tool to unravel a drama from the past that was never resolved ... Both Arnold Moss as Karidian and Barbara Anderson as Lenore give memorable performances even while struggling with a script that can't live up to its Shakespearean antecedents. Anderson in particular must walk a fine line, first playing a femme fatale who somehow maintains a charming naiveté, seemingly incapable of conceiving of her father as a butcher, then becoming the dazzling madwoman who can carelessly dispose of anyone threatening her private world. It's Oedipus and Electra rather than Hamlet and Ophelia who come to mind, for this daughter is far too close to her father from the earliest moments when we see her playing ruthless Lady Macbeth to her father's murderous Macbeth.^[5]

Later Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore considers the episode to be "deeply underrated" and one of the series' best.^[6]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: "The Conscience of the King"

• "The Conscience of the King" at StarTrek.com
• "The Conscience of the King" on IMDb
• "The Conscience of the King" at TV.com

• "The Conscience of the King" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• "The Conscience of the King" Screenshots before and after remastering