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PLAYED BY:
Christopher Lloyd
After obtaining the information and destroying
the vessel Valkris was aboard in order to preserve secrecy,
he ordered a course set for the Genesis planet, on a mission
to subvert the technology from the Federation and utilize it
as a weapon. Arriving at the planet, they encountered the
USS Grissom, a Federation science vessel assigned to study
the newly-formed world. In an attempt to gain hostages with
which to bargain for the Genesis technology, Kruge ordered
his gunner to target the Grissom's engines in order to
disable the vessel. However, in what the gunner described as
a "lucky shot," the Grissom was destroyed, an event to which
Kruge responded by instantly killing his officer. Kruge
later discovered, however, that a landing party from the
Grissom had survived on the planet's surface, and
subsequently led a team to search for them.
Kruge and his officers eventually located the team,
consisting of Starfleet officer Lieutenant Saavik, son of
Admiral James T. Kirk David Marcus, and a rejuvenated
Captain Spock, whose body had been revived by the Genesis
wave. Taking the team as hostages, Kruge demanded to know
the secret of Genesis, and refused to believe Saavik when
she informed him that the technology was fundamentally
flawed, and that the planet they were on was on the verge of
destroying itself. Upon the arrival of Admiral Kirk and the
USS Enterprise, Kruge returned to his ship and attempted to
ambush the Federation ship. The Enterprise crew detected the
Bird of Prey's cloaked approach and got off the first shot.
Kruge returned fire, expecting to be destroyed because the
Federation ship outgunned him ten to one. Unknown to Kruge,
the Enterprise was crewed only by Kirk and a handful of
bridge officers. Without its normal crew of hundreds, the
Enterprise was effectively disabled when Kruge's torpedo
knocked out its automation center. Kirk, bluffing, opened
communications to demand Kruge's surrender. Sensing that
Kirk was hiding something, Kruge instead ordered Kirk's
surrender, threatening to execute the prisoners as "enemies
of galactic peace." As proof of his commitment, Kruge
ordered his men on the surface to choose at random and kill
one of the prisoners. As one of Kruge's men moved to stab
Saavik, David intervened, sacrificing his own life to save
her. In response, Kirk deceived Kruge into believing that he
was indeed surrendering, allowing a Klingon team aboard the
Enterprise while he and his own crew surreptitiously set the
ship's auto-destruct and beamed down to the planet.
After the destruction of the Enterprise and the
death of the bulk of Kruge's crew, Kirk contacted him from
the surface, demanding to be beamed up. Kruge, however,
chose to beam down himself to confront Kirk, allowing the
rest of his crew to transport to the Bird-of-Prey. Engaging
in a fight with Kirk amidst the conflagration of the dying
Genesis planet, Kruge lost his footing as the ground gave
way beneath him. Kirk caught Kruge as he fell, but instead
of accepting Kirk's offer of mercy, he attempted to yank
them both to their deaths. He failed, and was left dangling
from Kirk's leg over an immense lava flow. Kirk then kicked
him off the cliff where he fell to his death. |
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PLAYED BY:
Merrick Butrick
David was assigned to the USS Grissom with Lt. Saavik to
study the planet created in the Genesis explosion. At
first, he was thrilled with the array of environments,
but when he beamed down for a closer look, he found the
planet in a state of environmental chaos, and recognized
the cause as being the protomatter's instability.
David's naivete showed through when a
group of Klingons arrived and demanded the Genesis
Device. He honestly believed the Klingons wouldn't harm
them because, as a planet-building device, it was an
obvious failure. To the Klingons, however, Genesis was a
powerful weapon, and a hostage was selected to die as
proof of their serious intent.
As a d'k tahg knife was raised to Saavik's neck, David
lunged toward the Klingon in a burst of courage which
might have been expected of his father. However, he
lacked Kirk's fighting prowess, and was killed with a
single thrust of the three-bladed knife to his chest.
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