This is a list of all the references to Shakespeare within the episodes, movies, and books of the Star Trek genre. The goal of this post is to enhance the occasional threads which appear discussing the allusions to Shakespeare in Star Trek. This posting appears monthly. Note: Only deliberate references to Shakespeare are listed below. For example, "wink of an eye" is found in The Winter's Tale, 5.2. 112, but seems to have no bearing on the episode "Wink of an Eye." References to Shakespeare in Classic Star Trek: 1. Dagger of the Mind Macbeth 2.1.39 Surrounding Text: Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Macbeth 2.1.34-50 2. The Conscience of the King Hamlet 2.2.606 Surrounding Text: Hum, I have heard That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks; I'll tent him to the quick. If 'a do blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power T'assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds More relative than this. The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. Hamlet 2.2.589-605 "The Conscience of the King," as its title would indicate, is based largely on _Hamlet_. The basic plot is similar, and there are many plot devices which are duplicated in the episode from the play, such as the troupe of actors. Additionally, many of Shakespeare's characters find analogs in Star Trek. Here is a list of crossovers (as I see them): Hamlet --> Kirk Claudius --> Karidian (Kodos) Ophelia --> Lenore Ghost of Hamlet's Father --> Tom Leighton This is not a comprehensive list, obviously. The episode also contains several themes lifted from Macbeth, as one would expect since the episode opens with a scene from an "Arcturian Macbeth." The analogs (again, as I see them) are this: Macbeth --> Karidian Lady Macbeth --> Lenore Macduff --> Kirk At the beginning of the episode, Kirk and Doctor Leighton watch the Karidian Company of Actors perform a scene supposedly from Macbeth. The on-stage dialogue goes something like this: Lady Macbeth: Is he dead? Speak. Is King Duncan dead? Macbeth: O great Neptune's ocean, wash this blood clean from my hands! How is it . . . Blot out mine eyes! To my knowledge, this is not from any part of Macbeth. Toward the end of the episode, the Karidian Company of Actors performs Hamlet. Karidian, playing Hamlet's father, has the following lines (brackets indicate lines Shakespeare includes but Karidian does not): I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, [Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fearful porpentine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love -- Hamlet 1.5.10-24 Lenore later quotes the Soothsayer in Julius Caesar: Caesar, beware the Ides of March. Julius Caesar 1.2.18 & 23 And then paraphrases Fortinbras, after killing Karidian: O proud Death, What feast is stored in thine eternal cell, That thou such a noble prince at a shot So bloodily hast struck? Fortinbras' dialogue goes like this: O proud death, What feast is stored in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck? Hamlet 5.2.36-63 3. All Our Yesterdays Macbeth 5.5.22 Surrounding Text: She should have died hereafter; There would have been time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Macbeth 5.5.17-28 4. By Any Other Name Not a Shakespeare reference What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet 2.2.43-44 Kirk makes additional reference while talking with a woman as he holds out a rose-like flower and says, "As the Earth poet Shakespeare wrote, `That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'" I have never seen this episode, so if you have any comments, please tell me. 5. Whom Gods Destroy Marta quotes Shakespeare's eighteenth sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. Sonnet 18 The ensuing dialogue goes thusly: Garth: You wrote that!? Marta: Yesterday, as a matter of fact. Garth: It was written by an Earthman named Shakespeare a long time ago. Marta: Which does not alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! Perhaps this is an allusion to the Elizabethan practice of rewriting pre-existing poems and stories, using huge amounts of the same text? (It was considered bad writing not to.) 6. Elaan of Troyius The plot for this episode was taken from _The Taming of the Shrew_. As with "The Conscience of the King," some of Shakespeare's characters find analogs within the episode: Petruchio --> Kirk Katherine --> Elaan References to Shakespeare in Star Trek: The Animated Series: 1. How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth King Lear 1.4.285 Surrounding Text: Hear, Nature; hear, dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful! Into her womb convey sterility; Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her! If she must teem, Create her child of spleen, that it may live And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her! Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth, With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks, Turn all her mother's pains and benefits To laughter and contempt, that she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child! King Lear 1.4.272-286 References to Shakespeare in the Star Trek movies: 1. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home McCoy quotes from Hamlet 1.4.39: Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! The text goes on to add: Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me! Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements; why the sepulcher Wherein we saw thee quietly interr'd Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again. What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? Hamlet 1.4.40-57 2. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Hamlet 3.1.80 Surrounding Text: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolutions Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Hamlet 3.1.77-83 Note: a "fardle" is a burden. In addition to the title of the movie, the following make further reference to Hamlet's soliloquy: Chancellor Gorkon - When he toasts to "The undiscovered country." General Chang - Just before the photon torpedo hits his ship Many have criticized the movie's use of "the undiscovered country" in applying it to the future rather than death. Yet change is death--the death of that which is familiar to us. Like Hamlet, Kirk asks himself, "To be or not to be." If the Federation allies itself with the Klingon Empire, it will be the death of the universe as he knows it. It could, in fact, be disastrous: "ills that we know not of" might await the Federation should peace be made. The undiscovered country could be too agonizing, so it is safer to cling on to the "ills we have, [rather] than fly to others that we know not of." Of course, the undiscovered country may also be wonderful beyond description. That is the dilemma Hamlet faced, and it is also the dilemma which Kirk faces, though (like Hamlet) Kirk does not face this possibility for some time, preferring to cling on to the familiar ills of war and hatred. As viewers, we are quite aware of just what lies in the undiscovered country Kirk was so afraid of. We have seen the next generation of explorers (even if they never explore anything). I find it amusing that the "ills we know not of" happen to be seen weekly as Star Trek: The Next Generation. A part of me just can't help but wonder if that dig was intentional. Further references to Shakespeare As the Klingons leave the Enterprise, Chang says: - "Parting is such sweet sorrow." Romeo and Juliet 2.2.184 - "Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?" 2 Henry IV 3.2.212 [paraphrase] During the trial scene, Chang says: - "Let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings: Richard II 3.2.155-56 And during the final show-down, Chang says: - "Once more into the breach, dear friends." Henry V 3.1.1 - "There's a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-hew them how we will--" Hamlet 5.2.10-11 - "This above all: to thine own self be true." Hamlet 1.3.78 - "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now." Julius Caesar 3.2.168 - "How long will a man lie in space ere he rot?" Hamlet 5.1.163 [paraphrase] - "Our revels now are ended." The Tempest 3.1.148 - "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles . . ." Hamlet 3.1.58-60 - "Hath not a Klingon hands, organs . . . affections, passions? Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Merchant of Venice 3.1.56-63 [paraphrase] - "I am constant as the northern star." Julius Caesar 3.1.60 - "The game's afoot." Henry V 3.1.32 - "Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war." Julius Caesar 3.1.274 - "To be or not to be." Hamlet 3.1.57 [Whew! Sure was a blabber-mouth, wasn't he?] Note: if I receive enough requests, I will consider posting the context for these references as well. Also, if anyone can confirm for me that Chang did indeed say these things as listed above, I would be grateful. I relied on the novel by J.M. Dillard for most of these, and the novels aren't 100% faithful. Chang also claims that Shakespeare is best understood when read in the original Klingon. Anyone have a .gif of what the Bard would look like with a bony forehead? The reference is 2 Henry VI 4.2.74: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. 2 Henry VI 4.2.74 Miscellaneous Shakespeareana related to Star Trek Gene Roddenberry was a Shakespeare fan. William Shakespeare was a Roddenberry fan. General Chang, the Shakespeare-quoting Klingon from Star Trek VI, was played by Christopher Plummer. Plummer is an accomplished Shakespearean actor. He played Macbeth in a 1988 Broadway production of the play. William Shatner holds Sir Laurence Olivier as his favorite performer because of the late actor's technical skill and ability to project emotion. Olivier continues to be revered as the greatest modern Shakespearean actor. All Shakespeare quotes are taken from _The Complete Works of Shakespeare_, edited by David Bevington, third edition. This is the final edition of this post. I graduate in May. Posted by Marg Petersen. petersm@jacobs.cs.orst.edu