More police procedural than
science fiction, The Conscience of the King also presents another
side to the brash Captain Kirk, a side which was explored (albeit
under extraordinary conditions) in The Enemy Within. Here, we're
presented with Captain Kirk as Hamlet, indecisive and hesitant, when
confronted with the fact that a mass-murderer from his past is not
dead as was thought but alive and on the Enterprise. Maybe the fact
that he has developed feelings for the mass-murderer's pretty, young
daughter, Lenore, has something to do with his reluctance to act on
the evidence that he has gathered? Or maybe the captain realizes
that human memory is fallible and if one is to accuse a man of having
ordered the executions of over 4,000 men, women and children, one had
better be certain that he has the right man.
Eugenics-inspired
mass-murderer? Or itinerant stage actor? Or both? After 20 years,
it's difficult to be certain...
The Conscience of the King is one of
the better of the early episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series,
due in no small part to the development of Captain Kirk's character
as well as the relationship between Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. Also of
particular interest in this episode are:
- Mr. Spock's concern for Lt. Kevin Riley's emotional well-being when the latter is "demoted" back to engineering and
- The 33-year old Captain Kirk's obviously carnal interest in the 19-year old Lenore.
The 33-year old James.
T. Kirk tongue fences with the 19-year old Lenore
The first point is interesting since
the logical Vulcan in Mr. Spock shouldn't even have considered the
possibility of Lt. Riley being upset at his transfer as being
significant; I guess his human half isn't quite as suppressed as Mr.Spock would like to believe. The second point is interesting because
of how it illustrates a point I've brought up before: Science fiction tends to reflect the mores of the era in which it was
written. Now, I wasn't alive back in the 60's but I'm guessing a man
in his 30's pursuing a 19-year old girl as aggressively as Kirk was
pursuing Lenore wasn't considered inappropriate back then; if this
episode were written nowadays, I would speculate that the
screen-writers would opt to age Lenore a few years in order to
minimize the ick factor or have Kirk limit his interactions with her
to the occasional avuncular pat on the head followed by a lollipop or
an ice-cream cone.
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