Star Trek: 10 Character Reveals That Didn't Have To Go THAT Hard
7. Kirk Is A Genocide Survivor
The Conscience Of The King is an early episode of The Original Series, so the audience were still learning so much about these characters. While there would be huge reveals later down the pipeline, Kirk's status of a genocide survivor was a big swing for such an early episode.
Having discovered the former governor of Tarsus IV, Kirk's past comes back to haunt him. He had been on that colony when drought struck, leading to Kodos's decision to put half of the colonists to death. Kirk was one of the lucky ones to survive.
This was a monumental part of his character, yet it rarely played much of a role after this episode. It may be one of the earliest cases of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the mix, yet was it perhaps too much? As we can see in the world today, the devastating impact of genocide is not something that one brushes off as the credits begin to roll - this is something that, presumably, Kirk would have at least discussed in future episodes.
Like Bashir's genetic engineering, this seems to be something that a character could have dealt with over a period of time, rather than saving it for a twist in a single story. It was certainly effective, but was it honest?