The only regular cast member needed this day was William Shatner, working with guests Anderson, William Sargent, Natalie Norwich, and several extras. Filming commenced on Stage 10 with the scenes in the Leighton home and the outdoor area where Kirk and Lenore discover the body of Thomas Leighton. Gerd Oswald made an impression on the producers this first day of his first Star Trek, finishing on schedule and on time.
Day 2, Wednesday. Arnold Moss joined the cast on Stage 10 for the shooting of the teaser in the theater (stage sequences only). At 11:45 a.m., the company moved to Stage 9 and the interior of Karidian’s guest quarters. Again, Shatner was the only series’ regular in front of the camera, although Grace Lee Whitney was on set, waiting for the observation deck scene that Oswald never got to. The director wrapped at 6:55 p.m., 35 minutes late and one-third of a day behind.
On Day 3, work resumed in Karidian’s quarters, completing sequences scheduled for the previous day. The observation deck scene, now a day late, came next. Grace Lee Whitney was again present, on stage from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., scheduled to appear with Shatner and Barbara Anderson. But the scene timed out long and Oswald was behind schedule. So a decision was made to eliminate Rand’s involvement.
Day 3: Shatner and Anderson on the observation deck (NBC publicity photo, courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
As written, Rand enters the observation deck right after Lenore’s risqué line, “And this ship, all this power, surging, throbbing, but under control. Are you like that, Captain?” Rand carries a duty roster. Kirk signs it, thanks her and she leaves, attempting not to react to what she has witnessed. The script tells us that Lenore “watches her go, somewhat amused,” then says, “She’s quite lovely.” Kirk adds, “And very efficient.” Lenore’s woman’s intuition has been alerted. She asks, “Tell me about the women in your world, Captain. Has the machine changed them? Made them ... just ... people, instead of women?” Kirk answers, “On this ship they have the same duties and functions as the men. They compete equally and get no special privileges. But they are still women.” Lenore says, “Especially those like the one who just left. So pretty. I’m afraid she didn’t like me.” Kirk says, “You’re imagining things. Yeoman Rand is strictly business.” Lenore teases, “How charming. Captain of a Starship... and to know so little about women. Still, I hardly blame her. You are an exceptional man, Captain.” From here, Oswald resumed filming the scene as written.
Next, the company moved to the back stage area of the ship’s theater -- a makeover of the gym used in “Charlie X.” Bruce Hyde joined the cast, acting with Shatner, Arnold Moss, and Barbara Anderson. He later admitted, “I didn’t like the confrontation scene with Shatner. When I said, ‘He killed my mother and my father,’ I sounded impossibly whiny. Ugh. I do like the milk-drinking bit, however.” (88-4)
Also shot: the audience section of the theater on the planet for the teaser. William Sargent returned to put on that horrendous rubber mask and trade dialogue with Shatner.
Of the production, this day in particular, Barbara Anderson remembered the moody lighting, saying, “While doing that show, I broke out in a fever blister that ran from the top of my lip to the bottom of my nose. And that was catastrophic at that age. You really get crazy over it. That cinematographer [Jerry Finnerman] did a masterful job in hiding that. They would light my eyes to keep the focus off my mouth.” (1)
Gerd Oswald later said, “The reason for that goes back to the fact that she is a little loony. That was done on purpose.” (134)
Anderson countered, “The director may have said he was doing it to make me look crazy, but he mainly did that to hide my fever blister. And he could get away with it because she was literally crazy. The cameramen seem to be lighting for naturalism now, but in those years, on many shows such as Star Trek, you were protected with the wonderful key lights -that wonderful lighting job the cameramen did.” (1)
Overall, the lighting was kept dark. That was Finnerman’s vision for the series and Oswald embraced the idea. He said, “The stage setting that I had was very dimly lit. Inevitably, I thought I would get away from the general bright lights because the storyline was so dark. To me, it was a dream -- the Shakespeare thing on another planet.” (134)
As for her performance, Anderson added, “I thought the director was good in how he left me alone. And that’s what you want -- the director to tell you what to do and then not get in the way. And I found him to be very helpful and very gentle, especially with that scene in the end, because that was all in one take. I remember them doing the master of that just once, and then covering it with various close-ups.” (1)
Filming stopped at 7:07 p.m. The crew still had to wrap set and Nimoy had to have his makeup removed, but all were anxious to get home. In 1 hour and 23 minutes “Charlie X,” the second Star Trek episode to air, would beam across Los Angeles on KNBC.
Day 4, Friday. Numerous extras were needed for the interior theater scenes, followed by sequences in the recreation room, including the scene where Nichelle Nichols delivered her second singing performance on Star Trek. Besides Shatner, Nichols was the only regular this day. Grace Lee Whitney had been scheduled, with Janice Rand appearing among the audience in the ship’s theater. Her 10:30 a.m. makeup call was cancelled the day before when the revised script pages arrived. There was no reason to remove Rand from this scene. No money was saved; Whitney was paid a flat rate. It was beginning to appear that her character was deliberately being removed from the episode -- and the series.
Deleted scene showing the bridge crew watching the Shakespearean performance on the monitor screens (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
When filming stopped at 6:50 p.m., the rec room sequences were incomplete. Oswald was now a full day behind.
Day 5, Monday. Work resumed in the rec room, completing the scenes started the previous Friday, and then to McCoy’s office, followed by the darkly lit scenes in engineering where a lonely Lt. Riley mans his post -“the milk-drinking bit” Bruce Hyde fondly remembered. DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy were finally put to work this day, for their scene together in the doctor’s office. Because the company was a full day behind, Shatner, Whitney, and Barbara Anderson, all scheduled to work in various bridge scenes, were given the day off.
On Day 6, Tuesday, Oswald was holding at one day behind, all day. Scenes in the transporter room and those on the bridge were shot.
Barbara Anderson recalled, “The bridge was kind of imposing. But it was sort of like being in a comic book -- a lot of fantasy, and yet very serious. And it was a very interesting, stressful time. This was perhaps the thirteenth episode of Star Trek, and they didn’t know if they were going to get picked up. I mean, they weren’t spending anything on costumes because they didn’t know if the network was going to go forward or just drop it. A couple of my costumes were pasted on – literally! Bill Theiss was making them up as we went along. Oh my god was he inventive. It wasn’t like I went in for fittings -- I didn’t have fittings! The fittings were on the run. He flew the costumes in and then you’d walk on the set. And for that time those costumes were quite provocative. They were just hanging by a bobby pin. I remember it as, ‘This is what we’re going to do; this is where you are; walk down this aisle, do this, say this line, get across your intention and exit.’ And the hardest thing I had to do was keep the costume on. But that’s what made it so much fun and so creative. And so loose.” (1)
Note the dress worn by Anderson during this day of production, on the transporter room set and the bridge. She said, “I swear, I literally couldn’t sit down in that. That was the thing Bill Theiss pinned onto my back and I had to stand up the whole time. And it was so short! I wasn’t uncomfortable because it was revealing, I was uncomfortable in knowing that it may fall off if I did too many moves. That’s why I moved so stiffly, taking the Captain’s hand and slowly turning as if I were modeling a dress. That’s exactly what it was like.” (1)
This was Grace Lee Whitney’s final day. With her part on the observation deck and the sh
ip’s theater cut, all that was left for her was to enter the bridge, see Kirk talking to Lenore as they barter a performance for a ride, and take notice while appearing to try not to take notice. Whitney confessed, “I vividly remember how horrible and humiliated I felt, going in to shoot that final six-second walk-on, knowing that my Star Trek career was already over.” (183-2)
Nimoy and Kelley blow a “take” during scene in Kirk’s quarters as Spock and McCoy confront the Captain (Film trim courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
Day 7, Wednesday, September 21, was an extra day of production, and Oswald used every minute of it. Filmed on this day: scenes in the briefing room, Kirk’s quarters, and additional work in the ship’s corridors. Only Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley were needed. Arnold Moss was originally scheduled to appear wandering the corridor late at night, haunted by his dreams, then, waking, he overhears McCoy and Spock talking about him. This should have been shot earlier in the week. But now, because of the delay, Moss had a scheduling conflict and could not be present. It was another good moment in the script which never made it onto the screen.
Filming wrapped at 7:15 p.m., a day late and an hour into overtime.
With the filming behind him, Gerd Oswald said, “Nimoy was the greatest. He’s absolutely fantastic. Arnold Moss was excellent. The crew, everybody was fine, except Shatner, who I couldn’t communicate with.” (134)
Oswald was old-school and believed actors should play their scenes as the director told them to. Shatner, however, trusted his own instincts more, especially when it came to Kirk. Oswald said, “Those who come premeditated like Bill Shatner, there is no way you can direct them.” (134)
Anderson had a different perspective. She said, “Bill Shatner was really great and made it fun. He had great humor, but he was very serious at that particular time, as well. I would suspect he knew that something might happen with his career because of that show. And they didn’t know whether they were going to be dropped or picked up, so I’m sure that those thoughts were very present for him. But Bill would break character and use the humor as a release. He was a pleasure.” (1)
Post-Production
September 22 through November 15, 1966.
Music score recorded November 2, 1966.
Frank Keller and special emergency Edit Team #4 were tapped for a second time, following their work on “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” This was Keller’s only other Star Trek. In his future: Steve McQueen’s mega-hit Bullitt, for which he won an Oscar.
Because the episode ran long, an entire scene taking place in Karidian’s guest quarters between him and his daughter and substantial portions of several other scenes were cut. In the script, the missing Karidian/Lenore scene took place in between two scenes in Kirk’s quarters -- one in which the Captain is confronted by McCoy and Spock and another in which Kirk and Spock search for the overloading phaser. Removing it resulted in an awkward transition bridging the two back-to-back scenes in Kirk’s quarters.
During the post-production phase, Majel Barrett returned for the third time as the voice of the computer. As a result of this work, Roddenberry, sure that NBC might think he had given Barrett special treatment, wanted her vocal tones to be disguised more than they had before. The morning after “Conscience of the King” aired, he wrote to Eddie Milkis:
I would like the Star Trek computer voice to be a little more metallic and machine-like than it came off last night. The toneless reading by the actress is right but we do need some kind of additional or better dubbing treatment on it. (GR12-10)
At this early stage of the series, Roddenberry was careful to always refer to Barrett as “the actress” rather than her name. This was, after all, a secret affair.
Composer Joseph Mullendore provided the haunting and beautiful score. He was 52 and had worked for Irwin Allen on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space. Feeling this atypical episode needed something different than what was in the Star Trek library, Gene Coon asked Desilu Music Department Head Wilbur Hatch if he could recommend anyone. Hatch had already commissioned Mullendore to compose a slowed-down version of the series theme, retooled here as cocktail music for the party where Kirk meets Lenore Karidian. One particular musical sequence, the “love theme” heard during the observation deck flirtation scene, would be recycled in future episodes.
When Lenore reveals that she has been murdering those who witnessed the executions ordered by Kodos, Mullendore provided a section of music played by a solo harp. He later said, “I remember when I was questioned about it. They said, ‘This only has a harp in it.’ And I said, ‘That’s right.’ And it worked great.” (123b)
“Joe Mullendore opened and closed in one,” Robert Justman said. “I think he did a creditable job, but I was always hot to trot with Fred Steiner.” (94-9)
The Westheimer Company was assigned the optical effects. There were few needed. All shots of the Enterprise were stock and the transporter was never used. Only a couple of matte shots (bridge viewing screen) and a phaser beam had to be created. As a result, “The Conscience of the King” had the lowest optical effects bill of any episode in the series, a paltry $3,036.
Despite having run a day late, the savings in post-production helped bring this episode in at $8,641 under the studio per-episode allowance, a total cost of $184,859. This won Oswald a second assignment -- the much maligned “The Alternative Factor.”
Release / Reaction
Only NBC air date: 12/8/66.
RATINGS / Nielsen National report for Thursday, Dec. 8, 1966:
At 8:30 p.m., Star Trek lagged behind My Three Sons, a rare occurrence, placing at second position. With 11,470,000 households tuned in, Nielsen was estimating a total nose count of approximately 23 million.
Although a treasure to many, “The Conscience of the King” was not Star Trek for the masses. The coming attraction trailer and the description given by TV Guide and other television magazines and newspapers, indicating an episode that seemed more talk than action, warned many viewers away. For those who came, many tuned out at 9 p.m. for either Bewitched or the CBS special presentation of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, starring Shirley Booth and Hal Holbrook.
While Stan Robertson and his colleagues at NBC were enthusiastic about the initial story outline and early drafts of the script, they were not excited about the realization of this highly dramatic but not-so-action/adventure-flavored episode. Nor were Roddenberry and Coon who, while liking the theme and many things inherent within the script and the production, agreed it was far too slow. Robert Justman agreed, and since he was the one in charge of putting together the rerun schedule, “Conscience” would not be given a repeat broadcast.
Many Star Trek fans were lukewarm to it as well, mostly because of the story’s lack of action. But the more intellectual crowd seemed to embrace it.
The critics for Entertainment Weekly, in a 1995 issue devoted to Star Trek, deemed it “Shakespeare in a space suit -- and it’s not a bad fit.”
Ronald D. Moore, only two years old in 1966 but later to discover Star Trek, then be discovered by Star Trek, becoming a writer/producer for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, named this as his favorite episode from the original series. Moore said, “I liked the Shakespearean overtures to the episode as well as the use of the plays themselves. And I absolutely loved Kirk in this episode -- a troubled man haunted by the shadows of the past, a man willing to lure Karidian to his ship under false pretenses, willing to do one of his more cold-blooded seductions, on Lenore, willing to fight with his two closest friends, and risk his entire command in the name of justice. Or was it vengeance? Kirk’s aware of his own lack of objectivity, his own flaws to be in this hunt for a killer, but he cannot push the burden away and refuses to pull back from his quest to track down Kodos no matter what the cost.... The scene with Spock and McCoy in Kirk’s quarters [confronting the Captain] is one of the series’ highlights. The brooding tone and the morally ambiguous nature of the drama fasc
inated me and definitely influenced my thinking as to what Trek could and should be all about.” (120a)
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, named his recurring alien characters “Kodos” and “Kang” after the characters in this episode and the upcoming “Day of the Dove,” respectively.
Star Trek said goodbye to two recurring characters here.
Bruce Hyde -- Lt. Kevin Riley -- walked away from acting shortly after this, later saying he was one of those in the 1960s youth movement to “tune in, turn on and drop out.” Surviving the ’60s, Hyde eventually tuned back in and became a teacher. Riley returned to the worlds of Star Trek for David Gerrold’s 1980 novel The Galactic Whirlpool. Hyde said, “I thought it was great. [I] was honored to be selected by him as a subject.” (88-2)
As for Yeoman Rand, the version of “The Conscience of the King” appearing in short story form for the first Star Trek paperback book in January 1967, kept her in the scene on the observation deck. Lt. Kevin Riley is not present in this version but, instead, Lt. Robert Daiken. The short story was adapted by James Blish from the August 25, 1966 version of the script, written before the order came down to lose Rand and change Daiken to Riley.
Grace Lee Whitney suffered greatly after being jettisoned from the Enterprise. She admitted, “It just about devastated me to be written-out. I really bottomed out after that. I was all the way down and it was very hard for me.” (183-3)
Fans of Star Trek saw her once more in “Balance of Terror,” which, having been delayed in post-production, followed “The Conscience of the King” on NBC.
With the help of her agent, Whitney rebounded briefly with guest starring roles in Run for Your Life and Batman, both from 1967, and The Big Valley, Mannix, Cimarron Strip, and The Virginian, all from 1968. By the start of the 1970s, she was emotionally at the bottom and the work stopped. To support herself, the former singer turned back to music. In 1976 she recorded “Disco Trekkin’”. Alcoholism and sex addiction contributed to a further downward slide in her career and personal life. On the road to recovery in the 1980s, she returned to her career which included more appearances as Janice Rand in 1979’s Star Trek: the Motion Picture, followed by Star Trek III, IV and VI, then back on the small screen for guest spots on Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: New Voyages and the video game Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. More music followed -- Yeoman Rand Sings in 1999, one year after Whitney’s autobiography, The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, was published.
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 56
