{"id":3815,"date":"2013-07-29T14:39:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T14:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/113-The-Conscience-of-the-King"},"modified":"2013-07-29T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T14:39:03","slug":"113-the-conscience-of-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2013\/07\/29\/113-the-conscience-of-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"1.13 “The Conscience of the King”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

1.13 “The Conscience of the King”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A dagger, a stabbing.\u00a0 Is this Star Trek?\u00a0 Did we click on the wrong link?\u00a0 Ah, Kirk and some guy we’ve never seen before are watching MacBeth.\u00a0 So begins Star Trek’s star-crossed love affair with Shakespeare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who is Kodos? \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kirk is in trouble because this Guy we’ve never seen before lied to him?\u00a0 Shades of the Menagerie, when they tried to shame Spock for getting Kirk in trouble.\u00a0 And, like Pike, we have a guy who can’t be helped by 23rd century plastic surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, if this is Star Trek’s first foray into Shakespeare, who is who?\u00a0 If Kodos is a Claudius\/MacBeth mashup, then Plastic surgery guy is the ghost, which means… uh, oh, Kirk is Hamlet (Shatner Does Hamlet<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kodos was deposed 20 years ago?\u00a0 How is Kirk old enough to have seen him?\u00a0 Didn’t he grow up on Earth?\u00a0 Yep, Kirk is definitely Hamlet.\u00a0 Ah, and Kodos has a 19-year-old space vixen daughter.\u00a0 Time for Kirk to break out the suave act!\u00a0 Out for a walk… space vixen’s outfit is terrible<\/strong>.\u00a0 Tom is found dead.\u00a0 Interesting mystery here; nice maneuvering by Kirk to get the troupe on board, but why would Kirk not confide in Spock to help catch “the conscience of the king”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hey, Lt. Riley again!\u00a0 Sadly (looking at the IMDB) this is the last time we see him.\u00a0 Also the last time we see Yeoman Rand until Star Trek: the Movie.\u00a0 I missed her.\u00a0 Where did she show up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oh, McCoy and Spock banter as they figure out what Kirk is up to.\u00a0 This scene is an absolute pleasure, and getting to see it makes Kirk’s stupidity at not bringing Spock into his confidence worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ANOTHER crazy outfit for the space vixen actress!\u00a0 “Surging, throbbing, yet under control?”\u00a0 Space vixen has quite the moves; she’s playing Kirk somehow. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aw, man.\u00a0 Kirk sent Riley down to engineering and didn’t tell security to keep an eye on him?\u00a0 And now he’s gonna die by spray bottle?\u00a0 Milk!\u00a0 It… does a body good. (gaahgrahagh)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McCoy and Spock confront Kirk, who claims “captain’s personal business”.\u00a0 Risking a crewmember’s life and screwing with the starship’s schedule is a captain’s “personal business”?\u00a0 They’re trying hard in this scene, but while deduction isn’t enough to convict a man, “feeling” is even less sufficient. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interesting that Kirk confronts Kodos directly.\u00a0 This is a reversal of Hamlet, who isn’t sure until he’s as good as dead that Claudius is his father’s murderer.\u00a0 What are we going to do for the last 20 minutes?\u00a0 Well, we could examine the differences between Hamlet’s situation and Kirk’s… but, we won’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is really weird that Kodos accuses Kirk of being mechanized and unmerciful, when Kodos is the one guilty of murdering half the population of a colony without mercy, and Kirk has shown great circumspection (for Kirk) in his investigations.\u00a0 Not impressed with the overall writing on this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Twist ending!\u00a0 I don’t want to spoil it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I really enjoyed watching Barbara Anderson in this episode, but a little too much Shakespeare quoting right at the end here.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/watch\/283841<\/a>