Kodos Governor Kodos , also known as Kodos the Executioner , was a male Human politician in the 23rd century . In 2246 , he governed the Earth colony Tarsus IV . In 2246 , an exotic fungus destroyed most of the colony ' s food supply , and its inhabitants , of which there were eight thousand , faced starvation . Kodos , implementing his own theories of eugenics , selected four thousand of the colony ' s residents to be put to death , so that the remaining four thousand might survive on the limited food supplies available . Among the dead were Kevin Riley ' s parents . Among the survivors were Riley , James T . Kirk , Thomas Leighton , D . Eames , and E . Molson . Of the survivors , these five and four others were eye witnesses who could identify Kodos . At that time , Kodos had red hair with a receding hairline , a red mustache , and a beard . Supply ship s from Earth arrived earlier than expected , and Earth Forces found a burn ed body . Kodos was presumed dead , and the matter was closed . In 2266 , Thomas Leighton was living on Planet Q when a troupe of itinerant actor s , the Karidian Company of Players , performed there . He became convinced that their star , Anton Karidian , was actually Kodos . Diverting the on a pretense , he argued this case to Kirk , who was less certain . Kirk ' s subsequent research raised some issues , and when Leighton was found dead outside his home , Kirk ' s suspicions became stronger . He arranged for the Karidian Company to embark upon the " Enterprise " , so that he could study the matter more thoroughly . Attempts on the lives of Kevin Riley and Kirk himself all but confirmed Kodos ' identity . The Karidian Players were performing " Hamlet " , the price of their passage ( so to speak ) , when Kevin Riley sneaked backstage . He had overheard Doctor McCoy making a medical log entry , and now also knew that Kodos might be aboard – and might be the person who had poison ed him and murdered his family . Riley stole a phaser and sneaked backstage , but was stopped from murdering Kodos in revenge by Kirk , who convinced him to give up the phaser . Karidian overheard their whispers , and during a conversation about them , discovered that his daughter , Lenore , had been slowly murdering the witnesses who could identify him . Distraught that Lenore , the one thing in his life untouched by what he ' d done , was , in fact , poisoned by it , he raced after her when she snatched Harrison ' s phaser and ran onstage . When he realized she planned to kill Kirk , he stepped in front of the captain , and the shot meant for Kirk instead killed Kodos . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Kodos was portrayed by actor Arnold Moss . In the final revised draft of the script for , Kodos ( according to Kirk ) appointed himself as a Messiah , ordered Kirk left alive , and threw a switch which activated an antimatter chamber that killed the four thousand colonists all at once . , creator of , named his recurring alien characters " Kang " and " Kodos " , after Kang the Klingon and Kodos the Executioner . Although not seen on - screen , part of Hoshi Sato ' s bio from – which was written entirely by episode writer Mike Sussman – revealed that Hoshi and her family were among the four thousand people who Kodos killed on Tarsus IV in 2246 . Kodos ' mirror universe counterpart appeared in the novel " The Sorrows of Empire " . According to the novel " The Autobiography of James T . Kirk " , his full name is Arnold Kodos . However , the novel " Drastic Measures " calls him Adrian Kodos .