1 Star Trek Enterprise Character Has A Tragic TOS Link To Kirk
hoshi #hoshi
One of Star Trek: Enterprise’s main characters, Lt. Commander Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), has a surprising link to a tragedy in the past of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in Star Trek: The Original Series. Hoshi was the Communications Officer of the NX-01 Enterprise commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). Sato served on the first starship named Enterprise for a decade, but her death has a potential tie to James T. Kirk and the massacre on Tarsus IV.
In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Conscience of the King,” Captain Kirk learned that Anton Karidias (Arnold Moss), a famous actor, was secretly Kodos, the former Governor of Tarsus IV. James T. Kirk lived on Tarsus IV as a teenager, and he was one of the survivors of a mass murder by the planet’s Governor, Kodos the Executioner. Kodos killed one-half of Tarsus IV’s 8,000 residents to preserve dwindling food supplies before supposedly dying in a fire. Kirk romanced Anton Karidias’ daughter, Lenore (Barbara Anderson), who systematically murdered the survivors of Tarsus IV who could tie her father to Kodos the Executioner.
Star Trek: Enterprise’s Hoshi Sato’s Link To TOS’ Captain Kirk 
Star Trek: Enterprise season 4’s two-parter, “In a Mirror, Darkly,” contained a surprising link between Hoshi Sato and James T. Kirk. When the Mirror Universe crew of the ISS Enterprise encountered the Constitution Class USS Defiant, which traveled to the Mirror Universe from Star Trek’s Prime Universe, a computer readout explained the biography of the Hoshi Sato of the Prime Universe. However, a section of Hoshi’s bio that did not appear in the episode reads:
Tragically, Hoshi and her family were among the four thousand people who died on Tarsus IV in 2246 when a food shortage caused by an exotic fungus threatened the colony’s population. Governor Kodos ordered the deaths of Sato and the others in order to save the rest of the colony. She was buried in Kyoto with her husband, Takashi Kimura.
Hoshi Sato’s final appearance was in the Star Trek: Enterprise finale, “These Are The Voyages…”, which takes place a decade after the NX-01 Enterprise first launched. This biography is the only known mention of Sato’s death, which would have taken place when Hoshi was 117 years old. It’s a grim ending for one of the trailblazing members of the NX-01 Enterprise’s crew, but is this reported death of Hoshi Sato actually Star Trek canon?
Is Hoshi’s Enterprise Death Actually Star Trek Canon? 
The Hoshi Sato biography that appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise’s Mirror Universe two-parter was written by producer Mike Sussman, who shared the missing section relating to Tarsus IV years after the series ended. The fact that the part of Hoshi’s bio detailing her death wasn’t seen on-screen in “In a Mirror, Darkly,” means it’s likely not official canon since Star Trek generally has a rule that only what’s seen or mentioned on-screen in a TV series or movie is actually canon. However, there are many loopholes to this unofficial rule, and Hoshi dying on Tarsus IV was part of her bio written by a Star Trek writer when Enterprise was in production, which gives it some credence. At least until another Star Trek series or movie gives an on-screen update verifying Hoshi dying on Tarsus IV or giving her a different ending.
It’s fascinating to think that an elderly Hoshi Sato lived on the same planet as a teenage James T. Kirk. Hoshi would have been decades removed from her time on the NX-01 Enterprise while James was decades away from becoming Captain of a different Starship Enterprise. If Hoshi did die on Tarsus IV 80+ years after Star Trek: Enterprise ended, perhaps Kirk bringing Kodos the Executioner to justice in Star Trek: The Original Series would bring Hoshi Sato some solace in the afterlife.