Director: Gerd Oswald
Writer: Barry Trivers

Captain Kirk: William Shatner
Science Officer, First Officer, Cmdr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Dr. Leonard "Bones" Mc Coy: DeForest Kelly
Lt. Sulu: George Takei
Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott: James Doohan
Lieutenant Uhura: Nichelle Nichols

Anton Karidian: Arnold Moss
Lenore Karidian: Barbara Anderson
Yeoman Rand: Grace Lee Whitney
Lieutenant Kevin Riley: Bruce Hyde
King Duncan: Karl Bruck
Hamlet: Marc Adams
Lieutenant Leslie: Eddie Paskey
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett

Stardate 2817.6

After a traveling theatrical troupe arrived at planet Q, Dr. Leighton contacts the U.S.S. Enterprise about information on a new synthetic food concentrate. On board Dr. Leighton contacts the captain to tell him about Anton Karidian, the real reason why he's made contact with the Enterprise. He suspects Karidian to be Kodos. Twenty-two years ago Kodos was governor on Tarsus IV. There an enormous famine was experienced and Kodos had ordered half of the planet's population to be executed (not including himself) in order to save food for the other half. An action which gave him the name "Kodos the Executioner."" It is assumed that Kodos died on the planet, but it is also possible that he had escaped and assumed another identity. 

So far, whoever might have recognized him was murdered. Only few still are left who knew him: James Kirk, Lt. Kevin Riley, and Dr. Thomas Leighton himself –the latter is killed soon. Karidian and his troupe are waiting for a transport to the Benecia Colony, where they must perform. Kirk manages to have the captain of the appointed starship "suddenly busy elsewhere", then  agrees to Karidian's request to transport the Players to the colony on board the U.S.S. Enterprise. Spock wonders at the captain's strange behaviour and shares his doubts with McCoy. The doctor suggests that Kirk might be interested in Karidian's daughter, who's a gorgeous young woman, but Spock isn't persuaded. 

The Captain hopes to be able to study Karidian and his daughter in an attempt to discover if he really is Kodos. Lt. Riley closely escapes death by poison and Kirk and Spock nearly are killed by an exploding phaser that they hear just in time. Riley's attempt to kill Kodos, since he has recognized him, is averted and Karidian is taken prisoner. He has been living the various Shakespeare characters to escape his own past, but he did not kill the people who knew him as Kodos. Karidian's insane daughter, Lenore, had committed the murders to prevent her father to be discovered. Lenore aims a phaser at Kirk. Quickly her father, who suffers from knowing that his daughter has killed, steps in-between and is killed.