Star date: 2817.6
Summary: An old acquaintance of Kirk's, Thomas Leighton, suggests to Kirk that Anton Karidian, the Shakespearean actor, is in reality Kodos the Executioner, a man who had executed 4,000 people on the Earth colony Tarsus IV 20 years before, when serving as the colony's governor. Kirk initially rejects the idea, taking the official position that Kodos is dead, despite the fact that his body was never positively identified. Leighton and Kirk are two of only three living humans who have ever seen Kodos in person, with the third being Kevin Riley, another member of the Enterprise crew.
After reviewing the histories of both Kodos and Karidian, Kirk changes his mind and returns to Leighton's home, where Leighton is hosting a party for Karidian's acting company. Neither Leighton nor Karidian is present, but Kirk meets Karidian's daughter Lenore, who is an actress in her father's company. Kirk and Lenore seem to take an instant liking to one another, and leave the party for a walk, where they find Leighton's dead body.
Kirk then schemes to take the acting company aboard the Enterprise so that he can investigate further to determine whether Karidian really is Kodos. Kirk and Lenore continue their relationship, and start to develop genuine feelings of attraction for one another. Spock catches wind of Kirk's investigation and becomes convinced Karidian IS Kodos, especially after Riley is poisoned and an attempt is made on Kirk's life.
When Riley learns that Karidian may be Kodos, he goes behind the scenes as Karidian's company is staging Hamlet and waits for Karidian with a phaser. Kirk disarms him and tells him to leave, and thus is backstage to hear Lenore tell Karidian that she's the one who has been killing all witness who can identify him as Kodos. When Kirk is discovered, Lenore grabs a phaser and attempts to kill Kirk, but ends up killing her father instead.
This show has its heart in the right place. It would appear it's trying to discuss the issue of Nazi war criminals (Kodos' crimes happened "20 years" before the current time, which would mean 1946 as of this episode's broadcast), which could be laudable or interesting, but it doesn't really delve into the morality of Kodos' crimes much (it does a bit). And it's certainly not the worst Star Trek episode we've seen so far. But it has its problems.
For starters, the fundamental premise of the show is that there are only 9 survivors of Kodos' atrocities who have ever seen him. This makes practically no sense. Kodos was the Governor of an Earth colony consisting of 8,000 people. His crime is that he butchered 4,000 of them. So --- what of the 4,000 survivors? None of them have ever seen Kodos, except for Kirk, Leighton, Riley and 6 others who (it turns out) are already dead at the start of this episode? That seems implausible to say the least.
But even granting that, why is it necessary for eyewitnesses to bring Kodos to justice? There are photos of Kodos in circulation --- Kirk even looks one up on the Enterprise computer --- so everyone knows what he looks like.
And visual evidence isn't the most important thing, anyway. We find out later in the episode that there is voice identification technology that, according to Kirk, is "virtually infallible". Kirk even subjects Karidian/Kodos to this test. So why are eyewitnesses so important?
And why does Kirk need to scheme to get Karidian and his acting company aboard the Enterprise? When Leighton dies under mysterious circumstances, so soon after expressing his doubts about Karidian to Kirk, Kirk has every reason to suspect that Leighton might be correct. But I'm pretty sure it would only take a credible person, like, oh, I don't know --- a STARFLEET CAPTAIN --- to suggest that Starfleet investigate Karidian, subject him to the voice test, and be done with it.
Of course that way, Kirk doesn't get to hold hands with Lenore Karidian as much. And not to stray too far off on a tangent, but this is the second consecutive episode where we see a Captain of the Enterprise getting a tingly feeling for an 18- or 19-year old girl (true, Vina in "The Menagerie" is actually much older, but she LOOKS 18). We don't actually know how old Pike or Kirk are, but significantly older than 19. Ew.
But back to the subject of this show's weak premise. Let's accept that an average person isn't going to make the connection between Karidian and Kodos, and only the 9 survivors of Kodos' atrocities can identify him. Let's next ask the question: how does Lenore Karidian find the location of those 9 people so she can systematically hunt them down and kill them? We don't know much about those 9 people except for Kirk (even Leighton and Riley are barely more than ciphers), but it's reasonable to assume that most if not all of them (except Kirk) have a lesser public profile than Kodos did as Governor of an Earth colony. So where is Lenore getting her information?
Forget that. Even assuming she had a way figuring it out, and she knows Riley is on the Enterprise, how does she find him? Kirk reassigns him to Engineering right before Lenore sets foot on the ship, so any information she has about where he works is no longer valid. And even if she knows he works in Engineering, how does she find Engineering in order to poison him?
For that matter, isn't there any security around Engineering? Given that it's, you know, probably the most important part of a starship? Or how about Kirk's cabin? Apparently Lenore got a phaser from somewhere, set it to overcharge, and hid it in Kirk's cabin. You mean just anyone can go in there?
Speaking of security, the security team of the Enterprise is really not worth a damn. In addition to just allowing anyone to go anywhere they like on the ship, they're not very good at carrying out orders. When Kirk confronts Lenore and Karidian/Kodos backstage, he orders security to take them into custody. The one security guy who shows up immediately lets Lenore steal his phaser and aim it at Kirk (aren't those guys supposed to block the bullet --- uh, phaser beam --- with their bodies?). And after Lenore kills Karidian/Kodos by accident while attempting to kill Kirk, the security team is nowhere to be seen. Kirk eventually ends up taking Lenore into custody himself after letting her monologue over her dead father for a couple of minutes.
Great job protecting your Captain, there, guys.
Okay, enough complaining. Now here are some simple questions/observations:
Lenore and Kirk discover Leighton's dead body when they're out for a walk. Considering that Lenore is the one who killed Leighton, why doesn't she make any effort to steer herself and Kirk away from there, to prevent the body from being discovered?
When Kirk does notice the body, he leaves Lenore and goes to check on him. Since Lenore certainly knows at this point that Kirk is one of the two remaining witnesses, why doesn't she kill him now? It's certainly not because she's waiting to get on the Enterprise and take out Riley too; at this point, she's expecting to be transported to Benecia colony by the Astral Queen the next day.
Shortly before Lenore arrives at the party at the Leighton's house --- where Kirk and Lenore first meet --- Leighton's wife Martha tells Kirk that her husband ". . . went into town, he called, he's on his way back." This means that Lenore almost certainly killed Leighton and then went straight to a party at his house. Cold.
Why is Karidian's acting troupe allowed to leave the planet immediately after Leighton is found dead under mysterious circumstances?
When Kirk finds the overcharging phaser in his cabin, he rushes into the hallway and drops it in a "Pressure Vent Disposal". I don't know what that is, but a logical guess would be a direct blow out into open space. If that's what it is, such a thing probably doesn't really function like a mail drop, which is what it looks like. If that's not what it is, then where did the phaser go? How is it that the ship (apparently) sustained no damage?
At this point in time (star date 2817.6) the Enterprise has at least one shuttle that travels with it. I'm guessing that after "The Enemy Within" (star date 1672.1), someone realized that a shuttle would be really, REALLY useful.
Those phasers sure are unpredictable. Used against androids, sometimes they blow holes in them, sometimes they vaporize them completely ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). Used against humans, they kill without leaving any visible marks on the body (when Lenore shoots Karidian).
There's an amusing exchange between McCoy and Spock, which includes this little nugget:
Spock: My father's race were spared the dubious benefits of alcohol.This is the first time I've heard about the Vulcans being a "conquered" race.
McCoy: Oh. Now I know why they were conquered.
Still other observations:
It hasn't happened often --- only twice so far --- and it's not bad, but did anyone ever think Uhura's singing added anything to the show?
And finally --- Shatner is confirming my opinion of his acting ability. He's not bad as a comedic actor, and he does well in certain dramatic pieces, like "The Corbomite Maneuver". But in this episode, he's wooden all over the place. It's bad enough that he doesn't really seem to be affected by Leighton's death at the beginning of the show --- he's still flirting with Lenore Karidian (say it with me --- EW!). But the two climactic scenes with Kirk and Karidian are just awful. We're talking about mass executions here, and neither actor (William Shatner or Arnold Moss, as Karidian) show much emotion. Moss is better than Shatner, of course, not that it's a high bar. But Shatner's performance in this episode is really pretty bad.
The Moral of the Story: Justice shall prevail.
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