First Aired: October 27, 1966Cast:
Kim Darby (Miri)
Michael J. Pollard (Jahn)
Keith Taylor (Jahn's Friend)
Kellie Flanagan (Blonde Girl)
Steven McEveety (Redheaded Boy)
Jim Goodwin (Lt. John Farrell)
John Megna (Little Boy)
Writer: Adrian Spies
In this episode, the Enterprise crew find a planet just like Earth and beam down to a back lot on the Paramount estate. There, they find lots of children, behaving like nutters, including one girl called Miri whom is almost old enough for Kirk to bone. But he doesn't. They all get a disease that kills all adults. But they find a cure.
Aaaargh! This is supposed to be a classic episode. What annoys me. Well, for a start Janice Rand is one of the crew that beams down with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. And all she does is glares at Spock and Kirk as they talk (well, she has about three lines) and she gets really jealous of Miri, who likes Kirk. This is a classic idea - in fact, the basic idea is very similar to the idea behind the creation of the Reavers in Serenity. However, the fact that all the children behave like, well, children, despite the fact that they are over 300 years old... the idea is a good one. The story, as I said, is regarded as a classic. Yet it just annoyed me. The childish behaviour of the kids is stereotypical, badly acted, annoying, and the Miri character herself, whilst engaging, could have been a little more risque in the way they handled her, but in fact she is just a silly young girl falling in love (who just happens to be about 300 and about to go mental).
We get some more moments that Kirk and Rand like each other - this is one strand that it would have been interesting to see how it would have developed if Rand hadn't left so suddenly later in the first season.
Crew Deaths: 0
Total Crew Deaths So Far: 19
Score: 4/10
3 comments:
Michael J. Pollard was in his charater. A Great actor delivers in this part which would have been just before, or aoon after his Bonny and Clyde part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi8HRAIpf1o
This is one of the first season's best episodes - mainly owing to the incredible performance of Kim Darby as Miri. Excepting her performance opposite John Wayne in True Grit, this was probably Darby's most intense performance as a child actress.
This was the first Star Trek episode to introduce the idea of the possibility that in all of the billions of possibilities out there, maybe there could be a planet that might duplicate Earth. Not merely a planet with humanoid life ... but a planet that had developed much as Earth had ... with similar architecture and landmasses.
Yeoman Rand also makes her first extensive appearance in this episode. She might have become Kirk's long-term unrequieted love interest had the writers for the series been interested in continuing longer term story-lines.
There's almost no question that this episode is also the origin of Serenity's boogeymen - the "reevers." At 6:00 minutes into the Episode, one of the mad characters yells "reevers, reevers, reevers" as he draws his last breath dying of advancing old age. This episode clearly had an impact on Joss Whedon.
Some of the writing was suspect in this episode. At 11:00 minutes, Yeoman Rand and Dr. McCoy beat a hasty retreat into the woodwork after only a glance by Kirk. This transition which creates the initial intimacy between Kirk and Miri could have been written much more subtly.
All-in-all, a wonderful episode of Star Trek.
First of; love your blog. I'm watching the episode in order as well, and this one is a stinker i agree. While i thought the story was one of the better ones so far, it never explains an epic question; another earth? Who cares, let's leave ans send some teachers, that'll do!I love that you count the redshirts, worst job ever!(redshirt i mean)
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