Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 8
Original Air Date: October 27, 1966
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| via Memory Alpha |
While the children in "Miri" tend in the opposite direction from goodie two-shoes Wesley, I still feel it is one of the weaker episodes I've watched in my current exploration. When the Enterprise crew respond to a distress call on a planet with a strong resemblance to Earth, they find the only surviving inhabitants appear to be children. Turns out, the children contract an infection which kills them once they reach puberty.
Miri is the lead character among the children, an older girl clearly not too far from puberty herself. Miri takes a shine to Captain Kirk, of course, which leads to all kinds of trouble. The rest of the children are highly suspicious of the visitors as they are of all "grups" (grown-ups) and work to undermine efforts to cure the disease.
The best among the child actors is Michael J. Pollard (27 at the time, though - not exactly a kid), who plays the gang leader Jahn. Generally, though, the performances are unconvincing. So perhaps the real problem is in casting capable children? I'm not sure - just doesn't work for me.
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| via Memory Alpha |
In the beginning, Yeoman Rand was one of three female characters intended as regulars in the original Star Trek series. By the middle of the first season, Rand was squeezed out and Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett, also creator Gene Roddenberry's fiancee) was greatly diminished, leaving only Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) in the central cast. In her autobiography, Whitney reported being sexually assaulted by a show executive during her stint with Star Trek, though she refused to name him.
On a lighter note, several of the children appearing in "Miri" were the offspring of cast and crew, including Whitney's two sons.
I remember that episode, but I don't remember it. If that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteRemember that it exists but forget the details? Yes, makes sense.
DeleteI was a teenager when that aired. Somehow the episode struck me as comedic. Puberty hits everybody pretty hard but that story was aimed at the suffering youth of America. Part of us didn't want to grow up and work hard, get drafted, become one with seamy and threatening world of adult authority. Maybe we wanted Miri's planet, “Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.” I remember there was some sort of cure, an inoculation that resolved the problem and Neverland dissolved. Strange story. Good post!
ReplyDeleteUntil your comment, I hadn't really considered either the Peter Pan or counterculture perspectives on the story. Thank you for that.
DeleteAnd yes, they did find a cure. Out of desperation, Bones gives himself an overdose of serum, but the stuff does prove effective.
Miri and the grups. About all I remember of this episode is grup and what it means. If I was home I could look in my books. I have an embarrassing amount of Star Trek books, manuals, scripts, histories, autobiographies, guides, art, novels. But yeah, not much to say about this one except grup, LOL.
ReplyDeleteI like the word "grups." It's a very realistic consideration of how a language evolves. Not my favorite episode but that's definitely a world-building win.
DeleteIt always cracks me up--the way adults are cast for teens roles. I get why it happens, but seriously, it's like, "Duh people, he's sporting the stubble of a full beard. This guy is obviously older than fourteen." :P
ReplyDeleteI can understand the choice in this case, though - very youthful, Puckish face. Perhaps I'll add a photo to the post...
DeleteIt's amazing to me how many people in their twenties, even late twenties, have played small children.
ReplyDeleteRalph Macchio, for instance? He didn't exactly play small children but he's one who always looked younger than he was. Michael J. Fox, too.
DeleteLinda Cardellini was 26 when she played a 15-year-old, quite convincingly, in F&G.
DeleteGood one!
Delete@Geo comment was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI rarely watched the spin offs not much time I guess. I was probably working and going to school. Not sure but they just never appealed to that much for some reason.
I do remember Wesley Crusher but I know Wil Wheaton from "The Big Bang Theory" better.
I did like the move "Stand By Me".
cheers, parsnip
Actually, I didn't watch the spin offs much myself when they were originally on the air. I had friends who were into TNG so it was often on in the background when the gang gathered. My interest was piqued about 10 years ago and I'm not even sure how it started. I've made up for a lot of lost time since.
DeleteThe thing that alwasy bugged me was that they initially made a big deal about the planet being an exact duplicate of Earth, but that ended up not having anything to do with the main plot of the episode. (It also implied the existence of super-powerful aliens that they never followed up on... though there was no shortage of super-powerful aliens in other episodes...)
ReplyDeleteMichelle's comment above about books reminds me that in Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance there is a nice, alphabetized list of the special words and phrases used by the kids in this episode, as if it's a new "language" like Klingon or Vulcan. I don't think anyone ever needed that list in order to understand what's going on! :-)
It really doesn't matter much in the end, does it? There is something powerful about the scene when they first arrive with the tricycle. It would have been difficult to score a similar emotional response with an object that was entirely alien. It probably also saved them having to design costumes for all of those kids.
DeleteIt's an episode I need to see again to find out if I've seen it before.
ReplyDeletePerhaps another one that wasn't in the syndication rotation?
DeleteOh I'm sure it was. But I saw the majority of the original series when I was a kid, and so have poor to no memory at all about most of the episodes.
DeleteSame for me. I feel as if I know the characters fairly well but a lot of these episodes are completely new for me.
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