#tos: the conscience of the king

[saintspock]

do not remember this episode of star trek with macbeth

[anghraine]

#Spock was busy plotting her downfall#Gary? dead. Edith? dead. Rayna? dead and mindwiped away for good fucking measure.#obviously neither party was actually interested in the other in this case since they’re both manipulating each other#but I just KNOW Spock would have thrown her out the damn airlock had this been a real moment of interest for either of them#and he would have had a logical excuse locked and loaded and his big brown eyes with extra eyeshadow ready for Jim (via @alderaan-babe)

ahjkdfjk;adfjkjafd

I cackled at this, can't lie. It's genuinely hilarious to me that Spock's kneejerk reaction is so visibly displeased, and only later does he think clearly enough to conclude that Kirk isn't actually into Lenore and something is genuinely wrong.

Spock's conclusion that this flirtation + Riley's demotion + Kirk's random questions about Thomas Leighton suggest some unknown connection between Kirk, Riley, Leighton, and Anton Karidian (not Lenore) is dismissed by Bones but leads Spock straight to his discovery of the Tarsus IV genocide. He disregards the possibility of Kirk actually being interested in Lenore in the gayest way possible, so it's often a joke at his expense, but he's actually completely right about everything throughout the rest of the episode and it's Bones's het goggles that keep him from seeing the evidence that's so clear to Spock or understanding the weight of the genocide. And yet Spock is so pissed every time Kirk and Lenore interact, lmao.

It's like in "Dagger of the Mind" when Spock 100% knows about the neural neutralizer and goes to rescue Kirk specifically because he fears his mind has been altered. When he sees Kirk impulsively kiss Helen, Spock hears her say outright that it's morally wrong because Dr. Adams did this to him, and despite knowing all of this, Spock just looks incredibly bitchy about the whole thing.

Uhm excuse me miss but how dare u flirt with my captain in front of me 

[lenin-it-to-win-it]

Bones when Spock isn't around: Jim, you can't possibly blame Spock. Our dear friend Spock? Our best friend Spock who never lies? He's just doing his JOB, Jim. How can you even say that???

Bones interacting with Spock himself: Raise your eyebrows at me again and I'll slice you open just to watch you bleed you pointy eared fuck

[spirkbitch]

love when they show Kirk kissing and/or flirting with some lady and then immediately cut to Spock’s reaction

they know that the most important part of a kirk kiss scene is, of course, how Spock feels about it

+bonus: Kirk being confused when Spock’s the one flirting

[goodboigoose]

Conscience of the King of Swords

[9151967]

Jim Kirk + Loneliness in Star Trek: The Original Series

Dagger of the Mind, The Conscience of the King, This Side of Paradise, And The Children Shall Lead, Requiem for Methuselah, Mark of Gideon

[startrekladies]

I think his heart is sore.

[iamenits]

McCoy + Smiles | The Conscience of the King

[to-boldly-ship-mcspirk]

more of Bones being stunning in S1E13 (The Conscience of the King)

[spockeveryday]

[saintspock]

tos writers: oh yeah james t kirk survived a severe famine and a genocide as a teenager >>>> is never brought up again

[ilovefredjones]

i have not stopped thinking about tarsus iv ever

[sirellas]

Don't you see? All the ghosts are dead. I've buried them. There's no more blood on your hands.

TOS | The Conscience of the King

[tprings-hair]

what happened on tarsus iv?

this is my attempt at creating a definitive list of information on what kirk experienced on tarsus iv for fic writers and other fans who want to know wtf is up with kirk's backstory.

(I have a longer, more general post on tos kirk's backstory here.)

"Kodos the Executioner, summary. Governor of Tarsus Four twenty Earth years ago. Invoked martial law. Slaughtered fifty percent of population Earth colony, that planet. Burned body found when Earth forces arrived. No positive identification. Case closed."

let's start with this quote from spock, detailing the information he found on their ship's computer.

first of all: at its core, this episode is tos's take on the nazis who escaped capture. adolf eichmann was only found in 1960, and would certainly have been in the public memory as a high profile nazi who managed to make a new life under an assumed name. he was not the only one to have escaped capture, and I don't think I need to explain which conspiracy theory the circumstances of kodos's faked death call to mind.

this episode was an exploration of what form cruelty and authoritarianism might take in star trek's universe, with a huge amount of influence from shakespeare's work. the two together make up this central dilemma: is it kodos? might kirk be condemning an innocent man? if it is kodos, does kirk have the right to act as judge, jury, and executioner? is it possible for someone who carried out terrible acts to live a new life somewhere else, and not have the violence follow?

SPOCK: According to our library banks, it started on the Earth colony of Tarsus IV, when the food supply was attacked by an exotic fungus and largely destroyed. There were over eight thousand colonists and virtually no food. And that was when Governor Kodos seized full power and declared emergency martial law.

MCCOY: I've heard of it.

SPOCK: You may not have heard it all. Kodos began to separate the colonists. Some would live, be rationed whatever food was left. The remainder would be immediately put to death. Apparently he had his own theories of eugenics.

MCCOY: Unfortunately, he wasn't the first.

SPOCK: Perhaps not. But he was certainly among the most ruthless, to decide arbitrarily who would survive and who would not, using his own personal standards, and then to implement his decision without mercy. Children watching their parents die. Whole families destroyed. Over four thousand people. They died quickly, without pain, but they died. Relief arrived, but too late to prevent the executions. And Kodos? There never was a positive identification of his body.

the thing is, this introduces a number of inconsistencies. it could easily be chalked up to confusion between multiple drafts of the script, but if you want to look deeper and see where the information comes from, you'll notice the two survivors have very different stories than the official starfleet record.

specifically, spock says that they died quickly and painlessly, and though he is sure that karidian is kodos, he does not seem to treat him as a legitimate threat to anyone's safety. we don't know if kodos ever directly killed anyone, or if he only gave the orders. but kirk and leighton seem to agree on the violence: leighton refers to his own injury as "the bloody thing (kodos) did", and kirk recalls kodos "blasting" others out of existence. it's possible kirk was saying it to confuse kodos, so kodos might say "that's not how it happened" and give himself away. it's also possible that leighton sustained his injury at a different time than the massacre. it seems likeliest to me in any case that the information on the ship's computer is not the entire truth.

which also means you can headcanon whatever you want and nobody can tell you definitively that you're wrong. be free with your tarsus iv headcanons.

exploring the tarsus iv lore (or lack of it) has led me to this sort of consensus in the fandom that kirk was looking after a group of children. I think it's a very cool way of exploring how central it is to his character that he has to be in control, protecting people, and fighting back, and I've read and enjoyed some absolutely fantastic fics with that premise. even william shatner seems to agree. in his novel collision course (which gives kirk and spock a sort of alternate first meeting as teenagers and gives some great insights into how shatner viewed kirk's backstory), kirk ().

the ship's computer specifies the number of survivors later in the episode as nine, and lists them as

Kirk, J., Leighton, T., Moulton, E., Riley, K., Eames, D.

before kirk cuts it off. once leighton dies, the last two surviving are kirk and riley.

the novelization by james blish names a couple more characters, and in order of age: Leighton, T., Molson, E., Kirk, J., Wiegand, R., Eames, S., and Daiken, R., which was what they called the role of kevin riley initially. he is specified as being five years old at the time, and kirk is not a child or teen but a midshipman.

and collision course names still more characters. edith zaglada, an eight year old girl who kirk saw killed. donny, tay, and billy are named as other survivors. this novel doesn't get into kodos's motivations or kirk's circumstances, but it gives us two new characters, griffyn and matthew, who are teenagers employed by kodos as bounty hunters for escapees of the initial massacre. starfleet arrives just as edith is shot and griffyn is trying to convince matthew to shoot kirk. we don't really know if kirk knew any of the other survivors, but he mentions edith's name specifically a few times as a death that affected him a lot. it's heartbreaking to watch city on the edge of forever with that in mind. I also can't find a source for anyone calling him JT, but collision course does call him jimmy during the flashback chapters.

crucially, the novel isn't technically canon. so you can have your gang of children led by JT, or you can have jimmy stick with a couple of people, or you could do something totally your own. none of these are wrong! do whatever your heart desires.

if you want some practical details, there's a great post here by @spirk-trek and pt 1, pt 2, and pt 3 of a great post by @pywren. I may make my own tarsus iv headcanon post if anyone is interested, and if I do I'll link it here.

[9151967]

The lover's fatal identity is precisely this: I am the one who waits.

― Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

[hornyverymuch]

I love how the scene of Jim slutting himself for the mission instantly cuts to worried Spock, lmao

I remember somebody saying that Kirk is basically the bard of the group and I think it's really accurate. He uses his maxed-out charisma to whore himself all over beautiful women just to get the information he needs.

Too bad he usually leaves Spock, or anyone really, out of these plans and makes him worried. Poor pookie.