10 Star Trek Assassinations That Changed Everything
7. James T. Kirk (Mirror Universe)
When can one man's death spell the end of an Empire? Ok, lots of times really, when one considers history. But in Star Trek, the Mirror Universe went through an enormous shift of power once James T. Kirk lay dead in the ground.
The accidental arrival of Prime Universe versions of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura instigated the end of the brutal Terran Empire. Spock, as logical in that reality as ours, listened to their assertions that peace was the best way forward. He had even calculated the Empire would founder some 240 years after their arrival, regardless of their actions. With their influence, he brought that ending forward by centuries.
His message of peace left the former Empire open to attack so, almost one hundred years later, the Cardassian-Klingon-Bajoran Alliance rose and conquered it. This spelled doom for most of the Terrans, as they quickly found themselves deposited into slavery. A rebellion was born almost instantaneously, but it would take years for it to truly strike any major blows.
Mirror Kirk may have been an awful human being, in our estimation, but his death led to the destruction of the Empire and the eventual rise of both the Intendant and the Regent.
Whoops.