10 Star Trek Assassinations That Changed Everything
These Star Trek characters changed everything but paid the ultimate price to do it
We might all like to believe that the future presented in Star Trek, and particularly in legacy Trek, is all rosy and full of friendship. That may be true in the early seasons of The Next Generation, when one confines ones view to Starfleet vessels, but that is far from the norm in the expanded universe.
The Klingon Empire barely goes a week without someone biting the dust, while assassinations are considered the standard for a Tuesday lunch on Romulus. On Cardassia, if you can make it to the local tailor's shop without an attempt being made on your life, you're considered an honoured elder.
So, which of the many assassination attempts in Star Trek make the slightest bit of difference, and which of them are considered notable? It feels awfully harsh to deem any assassination 'dull' but then one must also consider their outcome. Did YOUR assassination change the course of a war, Seán? No? Then perhaps we won't be considering you for this list.
It's a Targ eat Targ world out there.
In the Game of Star Trek Assassinations, you win, or you die.
Well, obviously.
10. Chancellor Gorkon
The assassination of Chancellor Gorkon kicked off a seismic shift in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, rivaling the explosion of Praxis itself. When Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country arrived in theatres, The Next Generation had been on the air for several years, so the audience was used to the Klingon Empire being allies. The death of Gorkon paved the way for this alliance.
Rogue elements from the Empire and Starfleet worked together to have him killed, which ironically was one of the earliest examples of cooperation between the two powers. As often happened, they failed to take the reckless nature of the Enterprise crew into account, thus putting Kirk et al. in line to scupper their plans.
The assassination was based on the death of Abraham Lincoln, evidenced in the design of Gorkon. The latter's death was part of an overall attempt to derail the peace talks, while the former's death was part of an overall attempt to revive the Confederacy. Thankfully, neither were successful.
The Khitomer Peace Talks were the beginning of a new age of peace in the Galaxy, with Gorkon's death serving to solidify their importance.