Post by magicmuggle01 on Feb 1, 2019 12:15:44 GMT
An actor traveling aboard the Enterprise may be a former governor who ordered a mass murder twenty years earlier.
Summary
The USS Enterprise is diverted three light years off of its scheduled course to Planet Q, lured by word of a new synthetic food which promises to ease chronic shortages on Cygnia Minor. But what Doctor Thomas Leighton actually wants to show his childhood friend Kirk is merely a traveling Shakespearean actor, Anton Karidian. Leighton believes Karidian to actually be Kodos the Executioner.
Act One
Kodos is notorious because he seized control of the doomed Earth Colony Tarsus IV in 2246 and ordered the execution of half its population of 8,000. Of the 4,000 survivors, only nine, including the young Kirk and Leighton, ever saw the face of the revolutionary governor.
Though convinced Kodos is long dead, Kirk does enough research to pique his curiosity about Leighton's claim. He returns to the planet in hopes of meeting Karidian in person. At a cocktail party held at the Leightons' home, Kirk meets Karidian's attractive daughter Lenore, and the two hit it off. They leave the party to stroll in Planet Q's desert, and come upon the body of their host Thomas Leighton.
Leighton's death makes Kirk take his dead friend's suspicions more seriously. After promising Leighton's distraught wife Martha that he will find out why her husband was killed, Kirk calls in a favor: he asks Jon Daily, commanding officer of the Astral Queen, to leave Planet Q orbit ahead of schedule and without notice. This strands the Karidian Players, who now have no choice but to ask for passage aboard the Enterprise.
Act Two
Researching, Kirk reviews the list of the nine eyewitnesses, and discovers that Lieutenant Kevin Riley, a member of the Enterprise crew, is one of them. Despite the fact that Riley recently was promoted from engineering to communications, Kirk orders Spock to send Riley back down to engineering with the apparent intention of protecting him. When Spock asks why, pointing out that such action may be regarded by Riley as a demotion, Kirk refuses to explain.
Spock becomes concerned about the captain's behavior and confides in Dr. McCoy, while Kirk proceeds to get more involved with Lenore. Spock does his own research and learns enough to raise his own suspicions, including the disturbing fact that of the nine eyewitnesses who could positively identify Kodos, seven are now dead. And whenever one died, the Karidian Players were somewhere nearby. Only Kirk and Lieutenant Riley remain alive.
With a tray of food at his side Riley broods while alone in engineering and calls up the rec room pleading for company. Lieutenant Larry Matson turns over the intercom to Uhura, who serenades him by playing a Vulcan harp and singing "Beyond Antares". While Riley is distracted by her performance, someone sneaks into the room and emerges from the shadows to squirt something into his glass of milk. His spirits brightened, Riley reaches for his drink and takes a long gulp. Uhura finishes her song and Riley begins choking. Fortunately, Uhura's party realizes the situation and sends help in time to save him.
As Riley lies in critical condition on a bio-bed, Spock realizes that if he dies, Kirk will be the next target.
Act Three
In McCoy's lab report on Riley's condition, he finds that the lieutenant had an appreciable amount of tetra-lubisol in his system, a milky lubricant used aboard the Enterprise. Spock is now certain that Riley was poisoned and with a reluctant McCoy confront Kirk in his quarters. Spock is now certain Karidian and Kodos are the same man, but Kirk remains unsure and has to make certain of it. McCoy asks Kirk what he will do if Kodos and Karidian are one and the same, inquiring if he will carry his head through the ship's corridors in triumph, noting that will not bring back any of the dead colonists. Kirk agrees but notes that "they may rest easier." Later, a similar discussion Kirk and Spock have is interrupted by the hum of an overloading phaser. Somewhere in Kirk's quarters is a potential explosive that can take out the entire deck. While Spock orders ship's personnel to clear the area, Kirk finds the overloading phaser in his quarters' red alert indicator and disposes of it seconds before it explodes.
Kirk is finally driven to confront Karidian, asking him point blank whether he is Kodos. Karidian gives him evasive answers, and after twenty years of playing parts that, of all things, he is tired. He does perform a short speech for the purposes of voice comparison with a piece of voice film in the Enterprise's database. This was apparently the speech made by Kodos condemning thousands of innocent people to death. Kirk mentions how Karidian barely looked at the text, hinting that it was already familiar to the actor, but Karidian simply states that he learns his parts quickly. Meanwhile, in sickbay, the recovering Lieutenant Riley overhears McCoy's log entry, learning that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos, the man who murdered Riley's family.
Act Four
The voiceprint comparison is close, very close, but Kirk argues that when a man's life is at stake, very close isn't good enough.
Kodos, Kirk and Harrison held at
bay by Lenore Karidian
The Karidian Players begin a presentation of Hamlet. Riley, with a stolen phaser, sneaks backstage. Kirk manages to talk him out of killing Karidian, who overhears their sotto voce conversation. Riley, with great reluctance, heads back to sickbay.
Kirk is still backstage when Karidian and his daughter Lenore discuss what he overheard during an act break. Trying to shield her from his past, Karidian attempts to pass off his distress as hearing the "voice of a part that he played long ago". But he is horrified when Lenore lovingly reveals that she knows all about his past deeds, and has already killed seven of the nine people who could identify him. Lenore goes on to tell him, innocently, that she will dispose of the remaining two after the performance.
Karidian is horrified that there is still more blood on "his" hands, but she proclaims that "they had to be silenced", and says, all with a smile on her face, that she buried those ghosts for him, and she has "saved" him. Karidian is devastated that all his attempts to prevent his past crimes from tainting his daughter have failed, and left him with nothing but a long legacy of murder.
Kirk appears from his hiding place to confront them. Lenore rebukes Kirk for interrupting her father before his appearance on stage. Kirk says she has killed seven innocent people, and she declares to Kirk that those people weren't innocent, they were "dangerous", and that she would have killed a world to protect her father.
Kirk summons security to take them into custody; Lenore snatches security officer Harrison's weapon and runs on stage. Her eyes show she's quite insane (reminiscent of Lady Macbeth and/or Ophelia). Karidian/Kodos, desperate there should be no more blood on his hands, steps between her and Kirk as she fires; the shot is fatal. Twenty years after earning the name, Kodos the Executioner is dead.
The death of her beloved father at her own hands sends Lenore over the edge. By the time Kirk leads her away, her tears have given way to laughter. Sometime later, after the performers have been dropped off at Benecia, McCoy promises Lenore will get the best of care, and that the last report of her is that she believes her father is still alive… performing to cheering audiences. McCoy suggests that Kirk did care for Lenore, which Kirk does not respond to, instead giving the order for Lieutenant Leslie to break orbit and go to warp. He does give McCoy a knowing look, which is all the answer the doctor needs.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 2817.6. Starship Enterprise diverted from scheduled course, purpose: to confirm discovery by Dr. Thomas Leighton of an extraordinary new synthetic food which would totally end the threat of famine on Cygnia Minor, a nearby Earth colony."
"Captain's log, stardate 2818.9. There are many questions in my mind, too many perhaps about the actor Karidian and his daughter. For personal reasons, I'm almost afraid to learn the answers."
"Captain's log, stardate 2819.1. Ship's officer Riley's condition worsening, Dr. McCoy making lab analysis to determine cause and antidote. Entire crew deeply concerned."
"Medical log. Lieutenant Riley sufficiently recovered to be discharged, but the captain has ordered him restricted to sickbay to prevent contact with passenger who calls himself Karidian, and who's suspected of being Kodos the Executioner, and of murdering the lieutenant's family."
"Captain's log, stardate 2819.8. Suspect under surveillance, strategic areas under double guard, performance of the Karidian Players taking place as scheduled."
Memorable quotes
"The chain of command is often a noose."
- McCoy to Spock, in sickbay
"My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol."
"Now I know why they were conquered."
- Spock and McCoy, as Spock declines McCoy's drink
"And this ship. All this power. Surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, captain?"
- Lenore, flirting with Kirk in the observation deck
"Worlds may change, galaxies disintegrate, but a woman always remains a woman."
- Kirk, flirting with Lenore
"The Caesar of the stars and the Cleopatra to worship him."
- Lenore, before kissing Kirk
"Even in this corner of the galaxy, Captain, two plus two equals four. Almost certainly an attempt will be made to kill you. Why do you invite death?"
- Spock, in Kirk's quarters
"Do you play God? Carry his head through the corridors in triumph? That won't bring back the dead, Jim!"
"No. But they may rest easier."
- McCoy and Kirk, on what to do if Karidian is Kodos
"What were you twenty years ago?"
"Younger, captain. Much younger."
- Kirk and Karidian, in Karidian's quarters
"I find your use of the word mercy strangely inappropriate, Captain. Here you stand, the perfect symbol of our technical society. Mechanized, electronicized, and not very Human. You've done away with Humanity, the striving of man to achieve greatness through his own resources."
"We've armed man with tools. The striving for greatness continues."
- Karidian and Kirk
"Blood thins. The body fails. One is finally grateful for a failing memory."
- Karidian, to Kirk
"There's a stain of cruelty on your shining armor, captain."
- Lenore, confronting Kirk
"You are like your ship – powerful, and not Human. There is no mercy in you."
"If he is Kodos… then I've shown him more mercy than he deserves."
- Lenore and Kirk
"Who are YOU to say what harm was done?"
"Who do I have to be?"
- Lenore and Kirk, before he leaves Karidian's quarters
"In the long history of medicine, no doctor has ever caught the first few minutes of a play."
- McCoy, before realizing that Riley is missing
"All the ghosts are dead. I've buried them. There's no more blood on your hands."
"Oh, my child – my child…"
(voice becomes an anguished sob)
"You've left me NOTHING!!!"
- Lenore and Karidian, after she admits killing seven of the last nine witnesses
"The play is over. It's been over for twenty years."
- Kirk, to Lenore
"Caesar, beware the Ides of March."
- Lenore, pointing the phaser at Kirk
"The curtain rises! It rises! There's no time to sleep!"
- Lenore, weeping over her father's corpse
Summary
The USS Enterprise is diverted three light years off of its scheduled course to Planet Q, lured by word of a new synthetic food which promises to ease chronic shortages on Cygnia Minor. But what Doctor Thomas Leighton actually wants to show his childhood friend Kirk is merely a traveling Shakespearean actor, Anton Karidian. Leighton believes Karidian to actually be Kodos the Executioner.
Act One
Kodos is notorious because he seized control of the doomed Earth Colony Tarsus IV in 2246 and ordered the execution of half its population of 8,000. Of the 4,000 survivors, only nine, including the young Kirk and Leighton, ever saw the face of the revolutionary governor.
Though convinced Kodos is long dead, Kirk does enough research to pique his curiosity about Leighton's claim. He returns to the planet in hopes of meeting Karidian in person. At a cocktail party held at the Leightons' home, Kirk meets Karidian's attractive daughter Lenore, and the two hit it off. They leave the party to stroll in Planet Q's desert, and come upon the body of their host Thomas Leighton.
Leighton's death makes Kirk take his dead friend's suspicions more seriously. After promising Leighton's distraught wife Martha that he will find out why her husband was killed, Kirk calls in a favor: he asks Jon Daily, commanding officer of the Astral Queen, to leave Planet Q orbit ahead of schedule and without notice. This strands the Karidian Players, who now have no choice but to ask for passage aboard the Enterprise.
Act Two
Researching, Kirk reviews the list of the nine eyewitnesses, and discovers that Lieutenant Kevin Riley, a member of the Enterprise crew, is one of them. Despite the fact that Riley recently was promoted from engineering to communications, Kirk orders Spock to send Riley back down to engineering with the apparent intention of protecting him. When Spock asks why, pointing out that such action may be regarded by Riley as a demotion, Kirk refuses to explain.
Spock becomes concerned about the captain's behavior and confides in Dr. McCoy, while Kirk proceeds to get more involved with Lenore. Spock does his own research and learns enough to raise his own suspicions, including the disturbing fact that of the nine eyewitnesses who could positively identify Kodos, seven are now dead. And whenever one died, the Karidian Players were somewhere nearby. Only Kirk and Lieutenant Riley remain alive.
With a tray of food at his side Riley broods while alone in engineering and calls up the rec room pleading for company. Lieutenant Larry Matson turns over the intercom to Uhura, who serenades him by playing a Vulcan harp and singing "Beyond Antares". While Riley is distracted by her performance, someone sneaks into the room and emerges from the shadows to squirt something into his glass of milk. His spirits brightened, Riley reaches for his drink and takes a long gulp. Uhura finishes her song and Riley begins choking. Fortunately, Uhura's party realizes the situation and sends help in time to save him.
As Riley lies in critical condition on a bio-bed, Spock realizes that if he dies, Kirk will be the next target.
Act Three
In McCoy's lab report on Riley's condition, he finds that the lieutenant had an appreciable amount of tetra-lubisol in his system, a milky lubricant used aboard the Enterprise. Spock is now certain that Riley was poisoned and with a reluctant McCoy confront Kirk in his quarters. Spock is now certain Karidian and Kodos are the same man, but Kirk remains unsure and has to make certain of it. McCoy asks Kirk what he will do if Kodos and Karidian are one and the same, inquiring if he will carry his head through the ship's corridors in triumph, noting that will not bring back any of the dead colonists. Kirk agrees but notes that "they may rest easier." Later, a similar discussion Kirk and Spock have is interrupted by the hum of an overloading phaser. Somewhere in Kirk's quarters is a potential explosive that can take out the entire deck. While Spock orders ship's personnel to clear the area, Kirk finds the overloading phaser in his quarters' red alert indicator and disposes of it seconds before it explodes.
Kirk is finally driven to confront Karidian, asking him point blank whether he is Kodos. Karidian gives him evasive answers, and after twenty years of playing parts that, of all things, he is tired. He does perform a short speech for the purposes of voice comparison with a piece of voice film in the Enterprise's database. This was apparently the speech made by Kodos condemning thousands of innocent people to death. Kirk mentions how Karidian barely looked at the text, hinting that it was already familiar to the actor, but Karidian simply states that he learns his parts quickly. Meanwhile, in sickbay, the recovering Lieutenant Riley overhears McCoy's log entry, learning that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos, the man who murdered Riley's family.
Act Four
The voiceprint comparison is close, very close, but Kirk argues that when a man's life is at stake, very close isn't good enough.
Kodos, Kirk and Harrison held at
bay by Lenore Karidian
The Karidian Players begin a presentation of Hamlet. Riley, with a stolen phaser, sneaks backstage. Kirk manages to talk him out of killing Karidian, who overhears their sotto voce conversation. Riley, with great reluctance, heads back to sickbay.
Kirk is still backstage when Karidian and his daughter Lenore discuss what he overheard during an act break. Trying to shield her from his past, Karidian attempts to pass off his distress as hearing the "voice of a part that he played long ago". But he is horrified when Lenore lovingly reveals that she knows all about his past deeds, and has already killed seven of the nine people who could identify him. Lenore goes on to tell him, innocently, that she will dispose of the remaining two after the performance.
Karidian is horrified that there is still more blood on "his" hands, but she proclaims that "they had to be silenced", and says, all with a smile on her face, that she buried those ghosts for him, and she has "saved" him. Karidian is devastated that all his attempts to prevent his past crimes from tainting his daughter have failed, and left him with nothing but a long legacy of murder.
Kirk appears from his hiding place to confront them. Lenore rebukes Kirk for interrupting her father before his appearance on stage. Kirk says she has killed seven innocent people, and she declares to Kirk that those people weren't innocent, they were "dangerous", and that she would have killed a world to protect her father.
Kirk summons security to take them into custody; Lenore snatches security officer Harrison's weapon and runs on stage. Her eyes show she's quite insane (reminiscent of Lady Macbeth and/or Ophelia). Karidian/Kodos, desperate there should be no more blood on his hands, steps between her and Kirk as she fires; the shot is fatal. Twenty years after earning the name, Kodos the Executioner is dead.
The death of her beloved father at her own hands sends Lenore over the edge. By the time Kirk leads her away, her tears have given way to laughter. Sometime later, after the performers have been dropped off at Benecia, McCoy promises Lenore will get the best of care, and that the last report of her is that she believes her father is still alive… performing to cheering audiences. McCoy suggests that Kirk did care for Lenore, which Kirk does not respond to, instead giving the order for Lieutenant Leslie to break orbit and go to warp. He does give McCoy a knowing look, which is all the answer the doctor needs.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 2817.6. Starship Enterprise diverted from scheduled course, purpose: to confirm discovery by Dr. Thomas Leighton of an extraordinary new synthetic food which would totally end the threat of famine on Cygnia Minor, a nearby Earth colony."
"Captain's log, stardate 2818.9. There are many questions in my mind, too many perhaps about the actor Karidian and his daughter. For personal reasons, I'm almost afraid to learn the answers."
"Captain's log, stardate 2819.1. Ship's officer Riley's condition worsening, Dr. McCoy making lab analysis to determine cause and antidote. Entire crew deeply concerned."
"Medical log. Lieutenant Riley sufficiently recovered to be discharged, but the captain has ordered him restricted to sickbay to prevent contact with passenger who calls himself Karidian, and who's suspected of being Kodos the Executioner, and of murdering the lieutenant's family."
"Captain's log, stardate 2819.8. Suspect under surveillance, strategic areas under double guard, performance of the Karidian Players taking place as scheduled."
Memorable quotes
"The chain of command is often a noose."
- McCoy to Spock, in sickbay
"My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol."
"Now I know why they were conquered."
- Spock and McCoy, as Spock declines McCoy's drink
"And this ship. All this power. Surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, captain?"
- Lenore, flirting with Kirk in the observation deck
"Worlds may change, galaxies disintegrate, but a woman always remains a woman."
- Kirk, flirting with Lenore
"The Caesar of the stars and the Cleopatra to worship him."
- Lenore, before kissing Kirk
"Even in this corner of the galaxy, Captain, two plus two equals four. Almost certainly an attempt will be made to kill you. Why do you invite death?"
- Spock, in Kirk's quarters
"Do you play God? Carry his head through the corridors in triumph? That won't bring back the dead, Jim!"
"No. But they may rest easier."
- McCoy and Kirk, on what to do if Karidian is Kodos
"What were you twenty years ago?"
"Younger, captain. Much younger."
- Kirk and Karidian, in Karidian's quarters
"I find your use of the word mercy strangely inappropriate, Captain. Here you stand, the perfect symbol of our technical society. Mechanized, electronicized, and not very Human. You've done away with Humanity, the striving of man to achieve greatness through his own resources."
"We've armed man with tools. The striving for greatness continues."
- Karidian and Kirk
"Blood thins. The body fails. One is finally grateful for a failing memory."
- Karidian, to Kirk
"There's a stain of cruelty on your shining armor, captain."
- Lenore, confronting Kirk
"You are like your ship – powerful, and not Human. There is no mercy in you."
"If he is Kodos… then I've shown him more mercy than he deserves."
- Lenore and Kirk
"Who are YOU to say what harm was done?"
"Who do I have to be?"
- Lenore and Kirk, before he leaves Karidian's quarters
"In the long history of medicine, no doctor has ever caught the first few minutes of a play."
- McCoy, before realizing that Riley is missing
"All the ghosts are dead. I've buried them. There's no more blood on your hands."
"Oh, my child – my child…"
(voice becomes an anguished sob)
"You've left me NOTHING!!!"
- Lenore and Karidian, after she admits killing seven of the last nine witnesses
"The play is over. It's been over for twenty years."
- Kirk, to Lenore
"Caesar, beware the Ides of March."
- Lenore, pointing the phaser at Kirk
"The curtain rises! It rises! There's no time to sleep!"
- Lenore, weeping over her father's corpse