Kirk Confronts Kodos The Executioner (TOS: The Conscience of the King)

[@finnmccool684]

Two pros acting their hearts out. Amazing.

[@LordZontar]

One of Shatner's finest scenes in Star Trek: a superlative, well written verbal duel between two veterans of the Shakespearean stage -- Shatner and Arnold Moss.

[@krisvires]

"If I had gotten everything I wanted... you might not walk out of this room alive..." THIS! All the new interpretations of Kirk have missed this. OG Capt. Kirk had an edge of darkness to him, more like Sisko than Picard. If Picard says he's gonna blow up your planet- he's bluffing to find a diplomatic solution. If Kirk or Sisko says they are gonna blow up your planet- you better start packing your bags.

[@JGlennFL]

Like when Sisko poisoned the planet the Maquis were using. He had enough and was going to do whatever it took. We only saw Picard do that one time, in First Contact when he was fighting the Borg. But he was irrational and unhinged, even calling Worf a coward. Plus he later apologized for it.

[@LordZontar]

The whole first season implies that Kirk endured some degree of tragedy in his early life. You could almost take a hint from this episode that he watched his own parents die in that massacre, as Riley had.

[@hitomisalazar4073]

I find in general that pop culture has just make up a Kirk out of Nothing. Because what Pop Culture says is Kirk is this womanizing cowboy who has no restraint and basically just lucks and plucks his way through everything that happened to him with raw charisma and the fact that Spock was there. But if you actually watched a lot of the show? Kirk was shown to be a far deeper character. He was actually really big on regulations and following the rules of the day (not his fault that later writers in TNG onward would try to change those rules then claim Kirk was breaking them, like Voyager did saying that Kirk's generation was "Too fast on their phasers, violated the prime directive all the time, and would have been drummed out of Starfleet if they were serving now".). He actually had very few love interests. The girl from this episode sticks out. Sometimes they seem to stretch to claim something I just think didn't exist (like Edith Keeler, a woman he respected but generally treated with respect instead of romance). He had a very dark side that was lurking in him that would pop up here and there, most notably highlighted in the episode where Kirk got split in two due to a transporter accident. And highlighted that it was his better part that was the better part of him. Showing his own reason and compassion were the controlling force in his life, in the end.

[@WarCriminalPhlox]

​@@hitomisalazar4073 yeah the James bond ladies man thing is what annoys me the most, on the whole show he has maybe 3 love interests and maybe another three women that he kissed once in order to break their conditioning or straight up manipulate them (like the Triskelion episode where he kisses the girl as part of his efforts to show her the benefits of freedom and of not being a slave). Saying that he just went around the universe having casual sex like James Bond really strikes me as a serious attack on his character

[@kenwaid8239]

Now that is some acting

[@D.N..]

Arnold Moss was great in this episode! He stands out over every one

[@markloveless1001]

He's all over Old Time Radio. What a voice. Check out Dimension X's "Knock". A Fred Pohl story brought magnificently to life by Arnold Moss.

[@Phlebas]

I can almost imagine a slightly different context to this exchange. A renaissance play, maybe a slightly older style of speaking. Sometimes, Old Trek feels like Shakespeare on a starship (and yeah, I know, a lot of the actors have that background).

[@zacharydaly5328]

While that might not be exactly right, I think you're on the right track. Shakespeare must have recognized the importance of art over mask (content over aesthetics), and so pouring it all into his writing he gets an entire universe named after him by stories he knows just CLICKS with people/ Other fictional productions - plays, movies, TV shows - that were smart could have made similar moves, and I have to guess that Roddenbery took a page out of Shakespeare's book too in those stories that everyone at least basically understands ... like revenge, the lust for it over duty, the breakdown of order, these are OOOOOLD stories. I wonder what KZbinr in Shakespeare's time was writing about who *Shakespeare* was taking a page from?

[@LordZontar]

This episode was basically Hamlet in Space. Kirk here is Hamlet and Kodos the wicked King Claudius.

[@captcorajus]

I could listen to Arnold Ross read stereo instructions.

[@historybuff66]

He’s also quite mesmerizing as a teacher disciplinarian to Mark McCain in “The Rifleman”.

[@GeminiladyJackson-xq6hc]

I could listen to him read the phone book.

[@thomashernandez6985]

In the 70's he was a voice actor on CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER. No matter who he played, I never trusted him. Lol

[@benre]

TOS at its best!

[@sandal_thong8631]

Sadly it was considered boring when it aired; and I read it didn't get a repeat broadcast before syndication.

[@fredklein3829]

@@sandal_thong8631 That's right, it has no sex or real violence. Instead, there are innuendoes about Kirk's stamina and stiff erections and off-camera murders. But I enjoyed it greatly.

[@22espec]

Hoshi Satos's family was killed by this man

[@markloveless1001]

OK, I'm impressed.

[@markloveless1001]

Arnold Moss. What a voice.

[@TheMikester307]

Arnold Moss was a big part of my childhood. I used to listen to him on Radio Mystery Theater when I was in High School in the 70s.

[@joshuariddensdale2126]

Arnold Moss played a very strict schoolmaster in an episode of the Rifleman, a few years before Star Trek.

[@davedahl4461]

Yes! I loved CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.

[@GeminiladyJackson-xq6hc]

I listen to Radio Mystery Theater almost every night on a show called,The Edge of Nightfall.

[@talljib]

Just saw this episode for the first time today. thoroughly enjoyed it

[@Acein3055]

Great scene and great acting. Thanks

[@jcortese3300]

I simply do not see why the stereotypes of Shatner as a hammy overactor continue to exist. The man knows his craft inside out and always has. Hire stage-trained, committed actors of superior talent and, with good writing, this is what you get. The current crop of endless CGI-laden comic book junk movies, with their scripts scribbled on cocktail napkins and actors chosen for their bodies, hair, and teeth, can't begin to come close.

[@oliverreno4734]

My favourite TOS episode...

[@vanyadolly]

Same! I'm surprised it doesn't get more recognition.

[@danhair]

I just want to say that I have seen people who were in charge of gulag type prisons who tortured and killed political prisoners and they had more in common with Kodos in this clip than all the ridiculous villains that Disneylike companies can ever write. Their vanier of strength only compes from their confidence in their political support. They don't value the sacrifice as much as the result. They went on with their lives by blending in back into society like any war veteran.

[@NewStarConstellation]

Would you mind explaining just a bit under which circumstances you met those horrible people? Thank you.

[@danhair]

@@NewStarConstellation okay, "met" was the wrong word. It is more like: seen them on TV, they were wardens of prisons for political prisoners, often even tortured them. They looked like your average old man, they believed they had served their country and often liked to keep to themselves.

[@NewStarConstellation]

@@danhair Ah OK, thanks. I was just interested. But you are right: That many of them are quite unremarkable and believe to serve their country/ideology/cause etc. is known from these types, it can be seen in history many times, like in Chile or Argentina as prominent examples from the 1970s. SImply put they're often people you would not believe that they are capable to do such horrible things.

[@geoffwilliams4478]

4:20 Superb dramatic acting, but still funny in a way😂

[@kronos5385]

I'm a huge fan of the original series and this episode in particular. The great Arnold Moss more than holds his own with Shatner in this show. Karidian / Kodos is a complex, bad guy who gives a pretty good explanation for his brutal actions. I took a class in Shakespeare and wrote a college essay on this episode. Like a number of Shakespeare's plays it's actually a "play within a play" format. I think I got my professor to become a Star Trek fan after this.

[@Simpleburger1968]

A "killer" ...who may not be quite the villain he appears to be . It is very "theatrical" .

[@GladiusTR]

If this were nu trek Kodos would have been a villain and have plans to escape or somwthing. Instead we see he's just a helpless, tired, long defeated monster. (i actually like lower decks and snw but they can't compete with tos, tng,ds9 etc)

[@Raguleader]

In context, he's not even the actual villain of the episode. He is exactly who Kirk thinks he is, but he's not responsible for the murders Kirk is investigating now. There is a Star Trek: Discovery novel that has Georgiou and Lorca trying to catch Kodos right after the massacre on Tarsus IV. Obviously he escapes because TOS but the story is more about Lorca than it is about Kodos. The implication is that Lorca went down the path that Kirk chose not to in this story and that's why it was so easy for his Mirror counterpart to replace him without being noticed.

[@richardgadberry8398]

I voted for Kodos!

[@geoffwilliams4478]

*Kang supervisor whip crack!*

[@Isuzu81]

Back to work!

[@SuperOmnicronsj44]

A precusror to the THANOS final solution ... The Mad Titan.

[@bernhardwall6876]

I wish this clip had included Kirk's exchange with Lenore right afterwards.

[@bernhardwall6876]

"Who are you to say what damage has been done?" "Who do I have to be?"

[@JackReynolds-w7g]

I don't know. To save some, would you condemn others, I just don't know. A hypothetical agony, is always so much less painful. I just don't know.

[@michelleshirek9253]

Ask for volunteers It was a starvation situation So you would have had grandparents giving their rations to the kids anyway It's the future They could have induced lactation in all the women (And some of the men even!) I think the tragedy of this was because they couldn't work (and maybe because he didn't want them to suffer) He mostly killed the children He also could have quietly poisoned people instead of executing children in front of their parents Pregnant wives in front of husbands Etc etc

[@jamesharris37]

When I was younger I always saw it as a coincidence that Kodos was a world leader who became an actor, and in real life Ronald Reagan was an actor who became a world leader!

[@sandal_thong8631]

He spoke of a revolution, so maybe he overturned the legitimate government that was doing nothing as people starved.

[@lavenderhuman]

And both were quite villainous lol

[@BigNoseDog]

The folks working on TOS knew they couldn’t rely on action or special effects because of the limits of technology and budget. That forced them to focus on good writing. And actors, even bad ones like Shatner, recognize good writing and can give better performances than they might otherwise give. Episodes like this I didn’t appreciate as a kid. But as an adult, I can see why they elevated Star Trek into something beyond just science fiction fantasy.

[@joshuariddensdale2126]

If you haven't already, you should read the Star Trek novel Collision Course. Flashback sequences detail Kirk's youth on Tarsus IV and the crisis caused by the alien fungus contaminating the food supply, and Kodos' decision to execute half the population. It sticks to the official canon that a body was found, but couldn't be identified. Starfleet was quick to tell the public that it was Kodos.

[@blondesouls7525]

Kodos is so dramatic lol

[@stevebishop9468]

Most actors are

[@maxi1ification]

Interesting how Shatner's acting on this episode was mostly subdued... to better contrast with the hamminess of the person he's confronting

[@markloveless1001]

Hamminess? Clearly not a Shakespeare fan. His shit is hammy as all hell, and yet....

[@michaelpettersson4919]

Why kill half the colony? I suppose that the other half was expected to go on an starvation diet. If they just lost half the food stores then they could go hungry through the crisis but if only a fraction of the food remained, that would not be an option.

[@janehrahan5116]

Precisely. He chose based on the people who could survive on basically nothing for months.

[@geraldsahd3413]

Kodos was the Thanos of Star Trek

[@sandal_thong8631]

This episode has a couple problems. First, no one before Spock has done a background check on Anton Karidian? Since his speech talks of a revolution then it would make more sense if he had been Karidian before going to Tarsus IV, led the revolution and assumed the role of "Governor Kodos." Then destroyed the records and governor's office where his DNA might be, faked his death and returned to being Karidian. Second, only Kirk, Riley, Dr. Thomas "half-face" Leighton, and a few others (subsequently killed) had seen Kodos in person. Yet a picture shows up near the end when they previously said there were no pictures. My fix would have no picture but have him wear a mask as governor, yet somehow be seen by teenagers and kids. Perhaps they had a sketch artist interview them later, but due to trauma they didn't match? They also now had a recording of his voice as governor to compare to, which isn't exact. Couldn't someone have used a sample of his voice from a play to compare it to, earlier? These flaws cheapen the experience. It should come down to Kirk having no evidence except his memories, Riley's and that of his friend Dr. Leighton. Kirk knows that eyewitness testimony is really untrustworthy, especially from children 20 years later, which is why he wants proof. Spock would then tell him the players were where the witnesses died, and "two plus two equals four." But if Kirk's plan was to lure the assassin out and catch him, he failed with the two assassination attempts on the Enterprise. Incidentally, instead of "Double Red Alert" they should have gone to "Security Condition Four" which closes decks or bulkheads and requires an accounting of all weapons.

[@SeanDiVarco-q2i]

Ha🎉❤.

[@davekinghorn9567]

Filmed before the days of DNA identification.

[@firecriss1392]

I would have said --"Whose Kodos?"

[@JGlennFL]

Why's Kodos?

[@historybuff66]

@@JGlennFL Wears Kodos?

[@johnmat4678]

Dude they have fingerprints?

[@cygil1]

The episode rather lamely explains that all biological records of the colony were destroyed.

[@GladiusTR]

Even today, FPs aren't all that reliable.

[@Philipwaltho]

unfortunately we have such alive today using eugenics

[@thebubbacontinuum2645]

This show was so much better than TNG. Even with Shatner overacting. It worked for him.

[@RickyJr46]

Bill Gates' pleas for clemency will be far less compelling.

[@garyspence2128]

Gates is considered above such judgment, both because of his vast amounts of money, and because he has given so much of it away through his humanitarian deeds. Any crimes that you suspect he has done will be conveniently overlooked. And so it goes...

[@millefune]

Kodos did nothing wrong.

[@blondesouls7525]

That's some Nazi shit bro

[@millefune]

Did you not watch the episode or the clip? In the situation he was in, he either had to let all 8,000 die, or save 4,000 by culling the other 4,000.

[@AdhamOhm]

It's not so much the killing half of the colonists to save the other half. It's more the way he approached it. He chose who lived and died based on his own opinions of eugenics. A completely random draft lottery would have been more ethical, and easier too because personal feelings don't come into play. Plus he seemed to jump the gun a little too quickly, as emergency supply ships arrived not long after the execution happened. I think Kodos was just using a temporary crisis as an excuse to murder people he saw as "inferior." That's what made him a tyrant.

[@grintrap4455]

@@AdhamOhm - It doesn’t matter whether you value your victim or not, only that you have taken what is not yours to take. God, and God alone has jurisdiction over life and death. If Kodos had left life and death up to God, NO ONE would have died.

[@dswrabkln4900]

We don't get much background on the crisis in the episode, but real life is rarely as simple as "kill 4,000 people immediately or 8,000 die!" Even if such extreme measures would have eventually been necessary, could he not have attempted a slow, phased starvation which made food supplies last as long as possible, allowing more to live? Could he not have allowed some people, say parents, to voluntarily give up their own rations to save their children? Even imprisoning those unlucky 4,000 chosen to starve would have led to a better outcome than just flippantly killing them! Help was on the way, after all, he just thought it would take longer to arrive. A true utilitarian would have realised that they were just stalling for time, and calculated the absolute maximum number they could save if they stretched food supplies as far as they could possibly go. Instead he went "Nah, fuck it, just kill half, the weak don't deserve to live anyway!" As it stands, between his talk of "revolution" and belief in eugenics, I'm willing to bet that his decision was more ideologically motivated than he wanted to admit. And his recklessness caused 4,000 people to die pointlessly. He wasn't a two-dimensional Hitler, but I can see why he was broadly regarded as a monster.