ST: Shakespeare

First up tonight: The Conscience of a King. A reference to Hamlet, of course. The episode opens on the Scottish play, however, instead of Hamlet. Neptune's ocean? Apparently, this episode is about a war criminal and whether or not he is still alive and can be brought to justice. Unfortunately, his name is Kodos. Yep, just like one of the silly aliens from The Simpsons. More ridiculousness after the jump!

It's funny how often Kirk is personally familiar with the people he runs across in the galaxy.

Why does Kirk have to leave the room by the door before beaming back up to his ship.

His friend has a black Phantom of the Opera-style mask that looks like a cheap nylon fabric.

Young blonde woman with crazy hair enters room, she is immediately identifiable as love interest and the daughter of the potential villain. Kirk's small talk is hideous. "So, Lady Macbeth. Interesting."

Once again the exterior action takes place on Planet Styrofoam. But this time the rocks have been given a reddish tinge.

The deaths begin! Dr Leighton (the man who suspected the actor was really the war criminal) makes number one.

This time Kirk doesn't have to exit through the door before beaming up, but they saved the costs of the FX and cut away first.

Kirk seems to be playing a lone hand this time; Spock seems completely in the dark about what is going on. Clearly this is a brilliant tactical move that couldn't possibly backfire.

Heh. They just had to add a little catty glance at the episode's love interest from Yeoman Rand.

I really enjoy how the computer disks that they use are simply little squares of coloured plastic.

Spock reveals that Vulcans aren't affected by alcohol. I wonder if that's kept consistent throughout the series.

Holy cow. "All this power, surging and throbbing and yet under control. Are you like that, Captain?" I don't know who wrote the dialogue, but it's terrible. Aaaand Kirk gets the liplock.

Spock figures it out on his own, but he also figures out more than Kirk has. But because they're not talking, they don't each have the full picture. I never would have guessed that the secrecy would backfire.

NO! No, no, no! Uhura is singing some ridiculous song and "playing" some futuristic harp.

Apparently milk is a popular beverage of choice in the future. An unseen villain poisons one of the crew who is able to identify Kodos.

What the heck? Kirk is mad that Spock is figuring out what is going on? That Spock is meddling in his "personal affairs"?

Oh, cripes. What a load of bullplop. Kirk is spouting off about logic not being enough, he has to feel that he's right.

Ooh! a "double-red alert". There's a phaser going to overload and explode in the captain's cabin. Luckily he finds it and throws it out the nearest "pressure vent disposal". They're not terribly ecologically sound in the future it appears.

No one seems to have considered that it might be the case that someone else in the company could be the villain.

Electronicized?

The guy playing the actor Karidian(sp?) chews the scenery almost on a par with Shatner.

Oh, noes!!!11! The blonde dame overhears Kirk accusing her father of being a genocidal maniac and she realizes she gave it up to someone that was in pursuit of an ulterior end. You'd think an actor would be familiar with such things.

Turns out that he was the war criminal, but it's been his daughter who's been insane and murdering the witnesses to her father's crime.

Now it's gotten all crazy and weird. The security team on the Enterprise sucks. The guard has his phaser stolen. And we wrap up by having her accidentally shoot her father and eliminate the problem of a repentant mass murderer and she goes insane and can be safely locked away. All the extra crewmen end up just standing around watching Kirk handle everything. You'd think he'd have learned to delegate at some point.

Oof. I like Shakespeare and I'm game for most adaptations, but this was a real dog of an episode. Kirk doesn't answer McCoy when he's asked if he really cared for the girl. We all know he's really appalled that he knocked boots with a serial killer who went completely bat-guano crazy, but he likes McCoy to think that he was just feeling sorry for her.