The Conscience of the King

Did You Know?

• Kodos the Executioner would be the inspiration behind the name of Kodos the Alien, a recurring character on The Simpsons.
• This episode is referenced in the HBO Max mini series Station Eleven episode Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Aren't Dead, where the episode is playing on television.
• 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.'

Plot

Captain Kirk receives a summons to Planet Q from Dr. Thomas Leighton, an old friend. The official reason is to evaluate a potential new synthetic food source, but Leighton has a hidden agenda. He believes Anton Karidian, the head of a Shakespearean troupe currently performing Macbeth on the planet, is actually Kodos the Executioner. Kodos was the former governor of the Earth colony Tarsus IV, where a fungal infestation caused a famine.

With no off-world relief arriving, he declared martial law and ordered the execution of half the 8,000 colonists, claiming it would save the more important citizens from starvation. Starfleet relief arrived unexpectedly days later, but the massacre had already occurred. Both Leighton and Kirk witnessed these events firsthand. Kirk has always insisted Kodos died during the relief operations, though no body was ever identified.

After looking into Karidian’s background, Kirk begins to reconsider. At a party hosted by Leighton, Kirk hopes to meet Karidian but instead encounters his daughter, Lenore. Later, while walking outside, Kirk and Lenore discover Leighton’s dead body. Kirk arranges for the Enterprise to transport the acting troupe to their next destination.

He also transfers Lieutenant Kevin Riley to Engineering after learning Riley was another witness to the Tarsus IV massacre. These moves catch the attention of First Officer Spock, who investigates on his own. Spock uncovers the history of the massacre, Kirk’s and Riley’s connection to it, and a disturbing pattern: seven of the nine eyewitnesses who could identify Kodos have died, each time when Karidian’s troupe was nearby. Riley is poisoned, and a phaser set to overload is left in Kirk’s quarters; Kirk manages to eject it into space before it explodes.

Kirk confronts Karidian with his suspicions. Karidian does not confess to being Kodos, but he argues in defense of Kodos’s actions. When asked to read a transcript of Kodos’s execution order, he does so with barely a glance at the paper. A computer analysis of his voice yields a near-perfect match with Kodos, yet Kirk still hesitates to make an accusation.

Production

This episode marks the last time Grace Lee Whitney appeared as Yeoman Janice Rand in the original series’ production order. Whitney had been told she was let go from the show a week before filming started. Her only scene is a quick walk-on where she glares at the blonde newcomer, Lenore Karidian, as she steps onto the bridge. That moment was Whitney’s final Star Trek scene until she returned thirteen years later for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

It is also the second and last appearance of Lieutenant Kevin Riley, played by Bruce Hyde, who first showed up in “The Naked Time.” Every regular background player from the first season is present: Eddie Paskey (Lt. Lesley), Frank da Vinci (Lt. Brent), William Blackburn (Lt. Hadley), Ron Veto (Harrison), and Jeanne Malone (Enterprise yeoman). The ship’s theater was created by reusing the engineering set. Pieces from the gymnasium set, first seen in “Charlie X,” hang on the walls, and the ceiling is visible in some camera angles.

Reception

In 2013, Wired ranked this episode one of the top 10 episodes of the original television series. 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. Keith DeCandido, writing for Tor.com, commended the acting of Moss, Shatner, and Anderson, but felt the episode had aged poorly in regard to being able to identify Karidian as Kodos only via an unreliable voice comparison.

He gave the episode a rating of 7. 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. Michelle Erica Green of Trek Today also praised Moss' and Anderson's performances, but criticized the episode's script. Later Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore considers the episode deeply underrated and one of the series' best.