Episode Title: And the Children Shall Lead
Air Date: 10/11/1968
Written by Edward J.
Lakso
Directed by Marvin J.
Chomsky
Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones” James Doohan as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel Louie Elias as unnamed Crewman Paul Baxley as unnamed Crewman Dick Dial as unnamed Crewman Jay D. Jones as unnamed Crewman Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman Craig Huxley as Tommy Starnes James Wellman as Professor Starnes Melvin Belli as Gorgan Pamelyn Ferdin as Mary Melvin Caesar Belli as Steve Mark Robert Brown as Don Brian Tochi as Ray
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Triacus
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins as the Enterprise is heading to the planet Triacus to answer a distress call from the science expedition that was sent there. When the landing party beams down, they find all the scientists are dead. The only survivors are the children who strangely enough don’t seem to care that their parents are all dead. This must have given Kirk flashbacks to when he meets Miri and her friends on that fake Earth. All the children want to do is play and they try to get the new adults to play too. The leader of the kids is named Tommy. He is the oldest and tallest one. The sight of Tommy must have made Kirk think of his nephew, to whom Tommy bears an uncanny resemblance. Sort of like Sarek and the Romulan Commander. McCoy thinks the children’s behavior may be explained by trauma.
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| Children who are happy with dead parents! |
They bury the bodies of the late scientists but the children aren’t interested in any service for their dead parents. To the children’s disappointment Kirk sends all of them up to the Enterprise while he and Spock investigate. While looking around Spock does pick up some strange energy readings and Kirk starts to feel dread. So much dread that it almost becomes overwhelming. Spock is puzzled by the Captain’s reaction but he respects it. They return to the but they are not yet done with this planet and plan to return.
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| Trying to have a funeral |
Nurse Chapel is caring for the children and arranged for them all to have
ice cream. Captain Kirk even stops by to
join them. However, the children get
upset when they ask for more ice cream and Kirk warns them that it would spoil
their dinner. When the children are
alone, they engage in a chant that summons a “friendly angel.” It is obvious to
the reader that this is the bad guy. He
wants the children to help him direct the Enterprise to the planet
Marcos XII, there the entity can take advantage of the population and get new
“friends.”
Tommy tires to get Kirk to change course willingly claiming to have family there but Kirk is determined to bring them to Starbase 8. So, the kids take matters into their own hands. They get up to the bridge and using magic fist pumps force Lt. Sulu and Ensign Chekov to unknowingly plot a course to Marcos XII. The children also make it so Sulu and Chekov to continue seeing the planet Triacus as if the ship is still orbiting it. Lt. Uhura sees what is happening and objects but a few magic fist pumps put her on board with her collogues. In the auxiliary control room, another one of the children uses their magic fist pumps to make the operators as unaware as the bridge crew. Mr. Scott comes down and sees what is going on and tries to correct it. However, the engineering team won’t obey their chief and actively resist him. Scotty tries to fight back but he doesn’t have the fighting talent that Captain Kirk does and he is swiftly defeated. He is then brought under their spell.
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| magic fist pumps |
Kirk sends down a few security guards to check out the planet below. After the two men beam down it is clear something is wrong because they are not checking in. Spock checks the controls and discovers the Enterprise is not orbiting the planet is it in fact in warp. Realizing that he just set the record for sending a red shirt to their death he and Spock head to the bridge.
 |
| Gorgan |
On the bridge Kirk finds Tommy in captain’s chair, he then challenges his bridge crew to snap out of their funk. However, the kids summon their angel who Kirk is somehow able to identify as Gorgan despite the fact its name had not mentioned at this point. Gorgan tells the children their plan has been discovered but with effort the whole bridge crew is given new illusions to be terrified of. Sulu sees giant swords flying at them while Uhura sees in her re-flection herself as old and near death. The children use their magic fist pumps on Kirk and Spock forcing them to retreat from the bridge. Fortunately, Kirk and Spock overcome the magic fist pumps by just being awesome.
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| old home vidoes |
The question is what to do about the threat. Spock points out that the creature Gorgan is dependent on followers to survive. His earlier research had shown that Triacus was once home to a great spacefaring civilization that had been brought down by unexplained internal conflict. In addition to that the science party, they discovered earlier, had all died of a mass suicide. If they get to Marcos XII it could create a threat big enough to effect the entire Federation. Spock suggests they may have to kill the children. While they are arguing this Chekov shows up with a security team in attempt to arrest Kirk under “orders from Starfleet.” Kirk and Spock use their supreme fighting skill to defeat Chekov and his men.
Kirk then comes up with a plan to eliminate the threat. On the bridge Kirk exposes the children to the recordings of their parents when they were still alive. Kirk basically shows them a bunch of home movies. This causes the kids to realize they killed their parents and they start to cry. Gorgan shows up but since the kids don’t like him anymore, he quickly dies. With that the adventure is over and they head to Starbase 8.
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| Bad guy gone kids now know they're orphans |
Additional thoughts: For starters I think Captain Kirk gave up on
the poor redshirts too quickly.
According to quick internet search it takes 15 seconds to die in the
vacuum of space. So, I thought they
should have at least tried to beam them back.
To be fair they were at warp at the time so that probably factored into
it. That however was one plot hole I had
a hard time accepting. How could the
ship be at warp and the crew not be aware of it? The ship just left orbit and took off, the
internal dampeners of a 23rd century starship weren’t so good that
they wouldn’t notice going to warp.
Those poor redshirts should still be alive.
One part I did really like is how both Kirk and Spock managed to overcome
Gorgan’s influence by just being awesome.
We have seen this from them before where the entire crew is stricken
with an element that they need Dr. McCoy or someone else to cure but Kirk and
Spock already cured themselves by being awesome. We saw this when the naked virus stuck and
when dealing with the happy planets.
In the end this episode was just okay.
It wasn’t great and it wasn’t bad.
Just okay with some good character moments.
FINAL GRADE 3 of 5
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