Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
A Geek Culture Podcast - Two life-long Geeks explain, critique and poke fun at the major pillars of Geek Culture for your listening pleasure.
Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
Memory Gamma: Kodos the Executioner
In a special bonus episode we revisit our old podcast Memory Gamma, the 'true' crime show about Star Trek villains. In this installment we tackle one of the most critically acclaimed Trek stories 'The Conscience of the King'. In it we learned of Jim Kirk's tragic backstory and the darkest chapter in the Federation's days of colonization.
The specter of Tarsus IV doesn't end with survival; it haunts Captain James Kirk as he comes face-to-face with Kodos the Executioner on Planet Q. Listen to the tensions rise and uncover the chilling truth behind the infamous massacre. Our discussion goes beyond the dramatic confrontations, prompting reflection on the slippery slopes of justice and the enduring challenges of human nature within the Federation. These narratives remind us of the sharp edges of fear and desperation that can emerge in times of crisis and the timeless lessons Star Trek continues to offer.
Welcome to the Memory Library Subspace Network Input inquiry. Now Kodos the executioner Access granted, Activating holographic interface.
Speaker 2:I've heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have, by the very cunning of the scene, been struck soul to the soul. But presently they have proclaimed their malefactions For murder. Though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous awe. I have these prayers. They're something like the murder of my father Before my uncle.
Speaker 1:I observe his looks, I attend him to the quick If he but blench.
Speaker 2:I know my course, the spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy, as he is very potent with such spirits abuses me to damn me. I have grounds more relative than this. The play is the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Exist in the universe On some mundane some galactic scale.
Speaker 3:This is a journey that will never be the most important crime to be killed when you wake up To be continued forced humanity to change 350,000 years of aggression and violence in order to piece together a shattered planet. Just three years removed from a Zindi attack which saw Earth's surface gashed from Florida to Venezuela and 7 million dead, for the first time since its incorporation, the United Earth engaged in open warfare, something no human wished to do again. The bloody conflict raged on for four long years, costing millions of human lives. Terrorized and haunted by an enemy who was never once seen face to face, earth only reached their stalemate with the aid of the combined forces of Vulcan, tellar and Andoria. This alliance united the former cosmic adversaries, leading to the Coalition of Planets, the precursor to the Federation.
Speaker 3:While United Earth leads the way to both the end of the devastating war and a historic union of Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers, not all of humanity was ready to put their futures into the hands of a multi-species alliance. For some, it was shameful xenophobia. For some, it was an ill-conceived sense of individualism and exceptionalism. Some simply don't know how to let go of the militarism they've been forced to revisit during the war the human race had put aside the petty differences between themselves that once divided and nearly doomed them to create a better world. Yet for some, their darker inclinations simply shifted. For some, their darker inclinations simply shifted. Humans may now love one another, but some bristled at the condescension and hand-holding of the Vulcans that helped Earth rebuild. Some saw the Federation as a hindrance to continued human evolution, and some saw the pursuit of peace a weakness. The United Earth Military Assault Command Operation, or MACOs, were dissolved after the war and merged into the United Earth Space Probe Agency, becoming the Peacekeeping and Exploratory Armada. Starfleet Soldiers were no longer soldiers, but instead diplomats and starship captains.
Speaker 3:So many who found they no longer fit into the world they fought to build and defend sought to find purpose outside of the Federation's benevolent but unified vision. Sought to find purpose outside of the Federation's benevolent but unified vision. Tarsus IV was a new opportunity for such people. Beyond the oversight of the Federation, romulan war veterans found a self-sustaining agrarian society with the promise of a simpler life. Those who call it home had been driven by a simple belief the right of self-determination. Their goal was a society devoted to peace and independence. So, although many of them had sought out a life of simplicity, they sought to build themselves a meticulous pseudo-technocracy. The government was built on a completely practical notion of what individuals in the society needed and what they in turn could provide. It was a strange but functional dichotomy. The colonists revered autonomy, independence and rural living, yet embraced communal living and data-driven analytics. Those strange bedfellows were a key to the colony's success and, ultimately, the tragedy that would befall them. Due to the planet's remote location, they would receive little in the way of support from the Federation, which was by design. However, this made their margins for error for agriculture and terraforming very thin. Cultivating plants and animals that weren't compatible with the natural ecosystem would mean calamity.
Speaker 3:Sadly, despite their detailed planning, in 2246, a mysterious fungal infection raged across the Tarsus IV settlements, devastating the entire food supply. It wasn't indigenous to Tarsus IV, nor was it Earth-born. The fungi lie dormant in the planet's soil for thousands of years, possibly delivered by an asteroid or a comet's collision. When a species of squash from Earth was introduced into the colony's crops, it somehow caused the fungi to spring to life. Spores were carried in the air to every food and water storage and production facility.
Speaker 3:By the time emergency procedures had been implemented, all of the planet's food production and capability had been neutered. Half of the food and water supply had been wiped out. The fungus was ravaging organic materials at an alarming rate, leaving only prepackaged military field ration packs to feed more than 8,000 colonists. The fungus also had infiltrated colony farms and hydroponics facilities, permeating soil and forcing the eradication of crops and plants across the entire planet. Only incinerating entire fields and greenhouses with phaser fire eradicated the infection, but it was a futile and self-destructive solution. Food processing equipment responsible for resequencing raw, inedible material into actual meals was also affected. Worse, the raw materials, such as those used in the colony's rudimentary replicators and primitive food synthesizers were also being exposed to the infection, spreading the fungus to anything that even resembled organic matter for consumption by the population. Engineers were dismantling and decontaminating the machinery, while the bulk of the compromised foodstuffs were being destroyed in a desperate attempt to salvage at least something.
Speaker 3:Only quick thinking on behalf of colonial agricultural scientists and a young Starfleet xenobiologist named Wynonna Kirk assured the colony's remaining food supply would escape contamination. The more immediate problem was that even the most generous estimates determined that the remaining food stores would never stretch far enough to support everyone for any meaningful length of time. A distress call had been dispatched to the governing body and help from Starfleet was en route, but there were concerns that aid would not arrive before the limited stores were exhausted. In response to this crisis, the colony leadership enacted strict protocols governing the apportionment and distribution of the remaining food. Still, officials estimated that the food would run out a full month before help would ever arrive. Casualties were estimated at 60% of the planet's population, and they were rarely wrong. Security personnel were charged with enforcing the new restrictions, curfews and maintaining order, their new mandate, a far cry from the regular ordinary lives that exemplified life among the colonists, but all too familiar for those who remembered the horrors of war.
Speaker 3:Panic began to set in among the colonists and faith in leadership fractured. Quietly, secretly, the machinations of ruthless forces quickly came to the surface. The governing council was desperate for solutions, but conventional thinking and even contemporary ethics seemed ineffectual. Without the knowledge of the colonists, a little-known analyst and advisor to the council had rallied a small but loyal faction of the planet's security forces. Like most revolutionaries, adrian Kodos' rhetoric was vague but decisive. Something must be done, and only he was strong enough to achieve it. In one fell swoop, the little-known Kodos had seized power, dissolving the council and declaring himself governor. By the end of the day, he had declared martial law and had set his fateful plan into motion. Even though almost no one even knew Kodos's face, the fates of 8,000 colonists were now in his hands.
Speaker 3:By the next day, an uneasy tension crackled in the air. Everyone on the planet knew something was about to happen, but few knew what or when. By nightfall, a strict curfew had been enforced and armed security forces escorted citizens to their homes. This was likely one reason why there was little argument when seemingly random members of the population were instead escorted to the city's center quadrangle. It was a public green space shaded by trees and surrounded by the colony's homes, government buildings and research facilities. The only true entrances had been quietly barricaded by armed guards when the last of the 4,000 chosen had been gathered closely in front of the presentation platform.
Speaker 3:Last of the 4,000 chosen had been gathered closely in front of the presentation platform. A 13-year-old, james Kirk, new to the colony, had broken curfew with his equally delinquent friend, tom Layton to investigate why Layton's parents had been summoned to the center of town, crouched on rooftops, so they could peer through the square. Kirk Layton, kevin Riley and six other local boys had a clear line of sight to the stage and the nervous crowd. Fittingly, a man emerged from the shadows to address the gathered citizens. He was a somber but pretentious looking man with red hair and a booming voice. It was a voice James Kirk would never forget Revolution is successful, but survival depends on drastic measures.
Speaker 2:Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society, your lives being in slow death. The more value of members of the colony, the more I have no alternative but but sentenced you to death, For execution is so important sign the code of the current task, as it were.
Speaker 3:After the blinding flashes of phaser fire had subsided and the sizzling air had cooled, kirk and the other boys stared shocked by what remained of their friends and families Nothing but scorched ground and smoking ash. Adrian Kodos and his security detail were nowhere to be seen. The boys, later called the Tarsus Nine, were the only living witnesses to mass murder at the hands of Kodos, the executioner. It's hard to tell exactly what methodology Kodos employed when deciding who would die on that day, but his words and the cold embrace of analytics echoed the primitive philosophy of eugenics, a practice shunned by humanity after its implementation during multiple devastating wars in the 20th century. Kodos likely used medical, educational and employment records of the colonists to formulate the so-called value of individual lives, but his judgment of value was the only one ever contributed. This cold action proved even more senseless when, only a matter of days later, starfleet vessels arrived earlier than anticipated to save the day. Fleet vessels arrived earlier than anticipated to save the day. When Star Fleet forces raided government compounds, all that was found was a charred corpse, presumed to be Kodos. Perhaps in the chaos following the massacre, those who had sought a life of peace after years of war, had embraced violence. One last time, james Kirk, now captain of the Enterprise, hadn't set foot on Tarsus IV in 20 years. Still, the massacre haunted the remaining survivors, none more than Tom Layton, who had lost family to execution and still wore the grotesque facial scars from his attempt to flee the scene attacked by CODIS's security forces. He could have had them repaired, but the scars were a stark reminder of the event that scarred his life just the same. He would never forget either when the Federation colony Signia Minor faced a deadly famine, jim Cook took the charge to make sure the events of Tarsus IV would never be repeated. This is why he was so willing and eager to divert their mission to Planet Q, where Tom Layton claimed to have developed a new way to synthesize food on a larger scale than crude replicator. When Kirk arrived, though, he was shocked to find that Layton had summoned the Enterprise under false pretenses. He had no new innovation, but a startling revelation Kodos the Executioner was still alive.
Speaker 3:As part of a cultural exchange program, the Caridian Company of Players performed the Shakespeare play Macbeth for the inhabitants of Planet Q. Leighton had no doubt in his mind that the troupe's leader, anton Caridian, was in fact Kodos. Kirk attended a cocktail party in honor of the acting troupe to meet Caridian and his daughter Lenore, whom Kirk couldn't resist wooing face to face, and his daughter Lenore, whom Kirk couldn't resist wooing face to face. Latent suspicions were tragically validated when his body is discovered murdered in the midst of his ruse. In an attempt to uncover the truth of Caridian's identity, kirk orders the Astral Queen, the vessel chartered to transport the troop about the Quadrant, to leave the planet with no warning to Caridian. Graciously, kirk offers the services of the Enterprise in exchange for a performance for the crew.
Speaker 3:Looking to pursue facts instead of just innuendo, kirk researches the only known records of Kodos that remained in the Federation databases. Kodos had been a private secretive man who, by virtue of controlling the colony's records, was able to erase nearly all proof of his identity and actions. Not even his DNA profile had been included in his medical records or transporter logs, which is why Starfleet was unable to positively identify the body they assumed to be Kodos. Upon reviewing the list of the Tarsus 9, kirk discovers that Lieutenant Kevin Reilly, a member of the Enterprise crew, is one of them, despite the fact that Reilly was recently transferred from his post in engineering to a more visible one in communications. Kirk ordered his first officer, spock, to send Riley back to engineering to hide him away. Spock asks why, pointing out that it may be seen as a demotion. But Kirk refuses to explain. Spock grew concerned by Kirk's behavior and sought counsel with Dr Leonard McCoy, the ship's medical officer. Spock did parallel research to Kirk's and learned what the captain had held close to his vest. Of the nine eyewitnesses who had seen the face of Kodos, seven had been found dead and in each case the Caridian players were somewhere nearby. That left only Kirk and Riley. It's when Lieutenant Riley is poisoned by the mysterious malefactor that Spock finally reaches the conclusion that Anton Karadian was indeed Kodos.
Speaker 3:The Executioner Riley narrowed escaped murder due to the stalwart Dr McCoy. But it was cleared that James Kirk was most certainly next. Spock knew Kirk's secretive behavior was likely to prevent intervention into his machinations. Spock moved to confront Kirk and appeal to the rational man he knew. But another plot demanded their attention. Whoever had been responsible for the other murders of the Tarsus Nine had set a phaser to overload and hidden it in the red alert panel in Kirk's quarters. Such an explosion would wipe out the entire deck at the very least. Kirk sprung into action and destroyed the weapon in a nearby matter disposal chute. But one thing was obvious the overload was meant to silence the last of the Tarsus 9.
Speaker 3:Knowing now they have no more time to waste to end his reign of terror, kirk decides to confront Caridian directly. Now they have no more time to waste to end his reign of terror, kirk decides to confront Caridian directly. Since there were almost no other records to identify Kodos, kirk has Caridian read aloud a script to compare, the only known audio recording of Kodos the Execution, the same speech which sealed the fates of 4,000 people. Still, kirk knew it wouldn't be enough to prove his identity. The Caridian players performed Hamlet for the crew, the asked price for the passage aboard the Enterprise. When Kevin Reilly slipped backstage, he had overheard Dr McCoy making a medical log entry and now he also knew that Kodos might be aboard and might be the person who had poisoned him. Filled with rage, reilly stole a phaser and stalked Caridian behind the scenes. But before he could strike against the man who might be Kodos, he was thwarted by his captain who convinced him to stand down.
Speaker 3:Caridian had tried to hide the true nature of his identity from his daughter but, much to his horror, lenore was all too aware of his sins. Anton Caridian was indeed Adrian Kodos, but it wasn't he who had murdered the Tarsus Nine. It was a misplaced love of a daughter to protect her father that inspired the deaths of seven tortured men. She pleaded her case with her father. All the ghosts are dead. I've buried them. There's no more blood on your hands. In a scene fitting Shakespeare, lenore stole a phaser from Lieutenant Harrison, now a security officer. She turned to draw on Kirk. There would be no more loose ends, caesar, she said, beware the Ides of March. But as she fired, her father moved to shield the captain, taking the full brunt of her attack. Kodos, the executioner, was dead once and for all.
Speaker 3:While the human race touts evolved sensibilities and is capable of building a near-perfect society in the Federation, these accomplishments are fragile. Human beings never truly changed their nature. They simply found a way to overcome it. Put them in peril, take away the things that helped build the world they now have. You may see the same human race which nearly caused its own extinction. Just as Lenore said to Kirk, there's a stain of cruelty on your shining armor, captain. The human race has proven that human lives only have value when treated as human, not simply numbers on a page, put them in a position to fall back on fear, anger, desperation or, worse, cold subjective pragmatism. The shine they put on their great society wears away, to reveal a deep bloody stain and to paraphrase Macbeth, Neptune's great ocean cannot wash it away.
Speaker 1:Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by nor affiliated with CBS, paramount Pictures or any other Star Trek franchise and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures. Live long and prosper.