for the ship's theater, where the Karidian troupe is performing Hamlet, and goes backstage, phaser in hand, to exact revenge for the death of his family. Kirk discovers him before he can act, and persuades him to surrender the weapon. Karidian, overhearing, is disturbed, and Lenore tries to reassure him by revealing that she has been killing the witnesses to his crimes. Kirk, overhearing this conversation, moves to arrest them both. Lenore snatches a phaser from a security guard and aims at Kirk. Karidian jumps into the line of fire, is hit, and dies. Lenore breaks down and begs her father to wake up and continue his performance. Later, on the bridge, McCoy reports on her psychiatric condition; she believes her father is still alive and giving performances to cheering crowds. Production The episode featured the final appearance (in production order) of Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand). Whitney had already been notified that she was fired from the series a week before filming on this episode began. Her brief walk-on scene was her last scene in Star Trek before her return 13 years later in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This episode was the second and final appearance of Lieutenant Kevin Riley, played by Bruce Hyde, who first appeared in "The Naked Time". All first-season core Star Trek regular background players appear in this episode: Eddie Paskey (Lt. Lesley), Frank da Vinci (Lt. Brent), William Blackburn (Lt. Hadley), Ron Veto (Harrison) and Jeanne Malone (Enterprise yeoman.) The ship's theater is a redress of the engineering set. Set pieces of the ship's gymnasium (first seen in the episode "Charlie X") are hanging on the walls, and the ceiling of the set is visible in some of the shooting angles. Star of The Addams Family John Astin provided the voice of the unseen Captain John Daley, though he went uncredited. Reception In 2013, Wired ranked this episode one of the top 10 episodes of the original television series. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A− rating, noting strong performances from the actors including a "great Spock/McCoy dynamic" and "some very credible acting from Shatner." Keith DeCandido, writing for Tor.com, commended the acting of Moss, Shatner, and Anderson, but felt that the episode had aged poorly in regard to only being able to identify Karidian as Kodos via an unreliable voice comparison. He gave the episode a rating