Star Trek The Conscience of the King (1966–1969) watch online HD

In the original draft, the character whose parents had been murdered by Kodos was named Lt. Robert Daiken. When Bruce Hyde was cast in the role, the staff realized that he played the character Kevin Riley in Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966) so the character was rewritten as Riley.

When Kirk goes to the Leighton dinner party and comes out to meet Lenore, you can hear a very slow jazz version of the series' theme song. This is the first time it has been played as "source music". The other times this occurs in the original series is later in the episode when Kirk is speaking to Lenore in Karidian's cabin, when Areel Shaw enters the bar in Star Trek: Court Martial (1967), and when Kirk, McCoy, and Tonia Barrows run to Sulu's position in Star Trek: Shore Leave (1966).

Barbara Anderson developed a fever blister/cold sore on her lip during filming. Besides using makeup to partially disguise it, she was often filmed with part of her lower face in shadow.

Favorite TOS episode of Ronald D. Moore, writer of numerous Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) episodes.

Kodos gives his name to one of the two cyclopic alien squids who repeatedly plague I Simpson (1989) in their Halloween fantasies. The other is Kang who takes his name from Star Trek: Day of the Dove (1968).

This is the first of a long line of Star Trek productions which feature scenes, quotes, or references to William Shakespeare. In this case, the title comes from "Hamlet" (Act II, Scene 2). Scenes from Hamlet and Macbeth are acted out, and there is a paraphrase of "Julius Caesar" (Act 1, Scene 2): "Caesar, beware the Ides of March".

A line scripted, but cut from the episode established that Kirk was a midshipman, fresh out of the Academy when he was stationed on Tarsus IV and witnessed the massacre. Since it happened twenty years before the events of this episode, this would have indicated that Kirk is somewhat older than what was later established in Star Trek: The Deadly Years (1967). (It should be noted, however, that while Academy cadets enter as midshipmen, they graduate as ensigns.)

In a never-filmed scene from the script, Yeoman Rand interrupted Kirk and Lenore on the observation deck to bring Kirk a report. This was incorporated into a 1994 Star Trek comic book story, "The Dream Walkers".

The script began with a view of the city on Planet Q, with a poster advertising the Karidian Company of Players superimposed over it, then dissolving into the performance of Macbeth. Director Gerd Oswald decided this lead-up was unnecessary, and chose a more gripping opening of Macbeth's dagger shown close up.

A scene of crewmen watching the performance of "Hamlet" on the bridge was filmed, but cut from the episode.

In the final bridge scene, Lt. Leslie is seen at helm but his uniform is missing the braid signifying the rank of lieutenant.

Barbara Anderson (Lenore Karidian) shares the record (with Ricardo Montalban and Joan Collins) for the most costumes worn in a single Trek episode by a guest star (six). She wears a maroon-colored dress for her Lady Macbeth costume, a blue dress with a veil at the party thrown by the Leightons, a fur mini-skirt dress when arriving on the Enterprise, a greenish multicolored mantle on the observation deck, a black and red evening dress when Kirk visits the Karidians in their quarters, and, finally, her yellow and lavender Ophelia costume. It could even be argued that the veil she wears while walking with Kirk just before discovering Tom Leighton's body could be considered a seventh costume.

Though Lt. Riley is part of the communications and, then, the engineering crew, his uniform is gold instead of red (a la Uhura and Scotty). No reason for this difference is given.

In all other episodes, the crew drinks non-alcoholic beverages aboard ship from Styrofoam cups. In this episode, Riley drinks his milk from a glass, presumably because its shattering would be more dramatically effective.

This and Mark of Gideon are the only episodes to depict the observation deck.

McCoy's cabinet has two skulls in it for the first time in this episode.

In Battlestar Galactica (2004), Ronald D. Moore named the prison barge Astral Queen after the ship commanded in this episode by Jon Daily.

In Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II (2005), the future biographical information displayed for Hoshi Sato states that she was one of the 4,000 people killed by Kodos on the Tarsus colony. It should be noted, however, that creator Mike Sussman never intended for the data to be readable on screen, and on his website he says to take that biographical information with "a grain of salt."

The phaser overload emergency is the only known instance when a double red alert is declared. However, in James Blish's adaptation of Star Trek: Court Martial (1967) in Star Trek 2, he has Kirk ordering a red alert and then a double red alert during the ion storm - as opposed to the yellow alert and red alert that were depicted on screen. "Red alert" and "double red alert" were used in the final draft of that episode's script but were changed on-set before filming.

This episode contains Star Trek's first direct reference to eugenics, although there is an oblique reference in Star Trek: What Are Little Girls Made Of? (1966). Spock declares Kodos' martial rule of Tarsus IV to have been an experiment in eugenics, causing McCoy to note that his wasn't the first such experiment.

In the scene where security guards are searching for Kevin Riley in the corridors, rectangular seams are visible in the floor. This is where the grates visible in Star Trek: Charlie X (1966) and other early episodes were eliminated and filled in with the corridor floor material.

This episode was among the lowest in ratings during the first season, mainly due to the fact that it was "too talky" with no action scenes, and didn't feature any "monster" or "sci-fi gimmick". Hence, it was decided not to give it a repeat broadcast.

Kirk finds this unthinkable that Karidian, an actor, would turn away adoring fans. This is possibly an in-joke relating to William Shatner's notorious fondness for being surrounded by fans who pay a high price to come and fawn over him.

Joseph Mullendore's score for this episode would be heard again in Star Trek: Court Martial (1967), Star Trek: Shore Leave (1966), Star Trek: Space Seed (1967), Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967), and in the teaser of Star Trek: The Return of the Archons (1967).

The dreamlike song sung by Uhura is "Beyond Antares". Nichelle Nichols got to interact with the Vulcan harp again in Star Trek: Elaan of Troyius (1968), but that scene was cut. In Star Trek: The Changeling (1967), she sings a portion of that song again, without an instrument, before Nomad interrupts her.

The preview for this episode features an alternate edit of Kirk searching for the overloaded phaser in his quarters. It was unused because the plywood under the mattress of his bunk was visible.

The city in the background out Tom Leighton's window is the same one used as Mojave in _The Cage_(qv. The window itself was used in the Delta Vega lithium cracking station set in _Where No Man Has Gone Before_.

The chair in which Leighton sits just before he rises to reveal his black facial patch would later be seen with its mate in Chief Vanderburg's office in Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).

The ship's theatre is a redress of the engineering set. Pieces of the ship's gymnasium are hanging on the walls, and the ceiling can be seen of this set in one of three glimpses in the first season.

The observation deck is a redress of the Romulan bridge set from Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966).

Chairs are shown by the panels in engineering. They are never seen again.

James Doohan and George Takei do not appear in this episode.

This takes place in 2266.

Kirk refers to Riley as a lieutenant in the "Star Service" - another early name for Starfleet.

The preview trailer for this episode gives the stardate as 2817.2.

This is the only episode to depict nighttime on the Enterprise (Kirk says that conditions of night and day are approximated as closely as possible aboard ship.) However, in both Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968) and Star Trek: Requiem for Methuselah (1969), various crewmembers bid each other goodnight.

The Karidians' quarters aboard the Enterprise appear to be a "VIP suite," the only one of its kind seen in this series. Just inside the door is a "sitting area" with an oddly-shaped bed or couch. (This same bed was seen in Captain Pike's cage in Star Trek: The Cage (1986)). Further back, behind the grating, are two doors leading to separate bedrooms. Finally, two walls of the sitting area feature the same "inset bookcases" that were last used in Pike's quarters in "The Cage".

The face covering Tom Leighton wore to hide his injuries is almost identical to one worn by a character in The Outer Limits: The Duplicate Man (1964), which was also directed by Gerd Oswald.

Gerd Oswald recalled this episode as "A very intriguing idea. A good story."

Lenore Karidian was born in 2247.

The cloak that Anton Karidian wears in the scene where he's questioned by Kirk is the same as worn by Lord Garth in the episode "Whom Gods Destroy".

During a theater performance, Karidian dons a mask bearing a striking resemblance to the one worn by Doctor Doom of Marvel Comics.

Kirk's quarters are labelled as "3F 121".

Near the beginning of the episode, Spock walks in on Kirk in the briefing room and through the doors we can see two crewmen (played by Ron Veto and Frank da Vinci) in the background across the hallway preparing to affix a door sign.

Eddie Paskey's character name, Mr. Leslie, is finally established in this episode.

The equipment-filled alcove that McCoy and Spock pass in the corridor as they discuss Kodos the Executioner is labeled "Engineering Circuit Bay G-121". This sign was later placed next to the Jefferies tube in season two.

This is the first episode to mention the shuttle craft.

This is is the first episode featuring the computer voice (although a talking computer was featured in Star Trek: Mudd's Women (1966)).

A scene was filmed showing Lenore resting in sickbay after her mental breakdown, but was deleted from the episode.

When Lenore shoots Karidian/Kodos and kills him, she doesn't zap him into oblivion as the "kill" setting normally does, allowing her to weep over the body. This indicates that the phaser has more settings than just "stun" or "kill", and it can be adjusted to different intensities. The same setting used by Lenore was used to kill the M-113 creature in Star Trek: The Man Trap (1966).

In addition to the title, this episode shares many plot elements with Hamlet: A leader's troubled conscience, his crimes being exposed during a play, and a daughter going insane (or more so, in Lenore's case) after the accidental killing of her father. Lenore recites the lines leading up to and including these over her father's body. The most overt reference is in the teaser. The Karidian Company is performing a scene from Macbeth, where the title character (played by Karidian) murders King Duncan and utters the line, "Will all Neptune's great ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?"