"Star Trek" Miri (1966)

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Writers:

Adrian Spies (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

27 October 1966 (Season 1, Episode 8)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Enterprise discovers a planet exactly like Earth; but the only inhabitants are children who contract a fatal disease upon entering puberty.

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title | Federation | Space | Starship | Computer

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Kim Darby	...	Miri
Michael J. Pollard	...	Jahn
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney	...	Yeoman Rand
Keith Taylor	...	Jahn's Friend
Ed McCready	...	Boy Creature
Kellie Flanagan	...	Blonde Girl
Stephen McEveety	...	Redheaded Boy (as Steven McEveety)
David L. Ross	...	Security Guard #1 (as David Ross)
Jim Goodwin	...	Farrell
John Megna	...	Little Boy

Runtime:

50 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Canada:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

This didn't receive its first UK TV showing until the 1990s, despite the show being frequently repeated. This was down to the BBC feeling that the episode contained some very dark themes, much too unsuitable for the show's early evening transmission.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the opening scene, where the ENTERPRISE orbits Miri's planet, you can see the hole at the top of the globe used for the original version of the scene where it would have been attached to its stand. This has been replaced in the remastered version with a digital shot of that same planet.

Quotes:

Capt. Kirk: Just children. 300 years old and more. I've already contacted Space Central. They'll send teachers, advisors...
Dr. McCoy: And truant officers, I presume.
Capt. Kirk: They'll be all right.

Movie Connections:

References "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960)

An Earth Where Children Play Eternally - Almost

The science fiction premise in this one is faulty - it's better suited for one of those parallel dimension stories or alternate histories. In another part of the galaxy, the Enterprise comes across another Earth; this is an exact duplicate of the Earth we know, except that on this one, in the 1960s, an artificially-created plague wiped out all adults, leaving children who age only a month for every 100 years. This begs a question: if no plague had occurred, would this Earth's civilization have progressed to form its own Starfleet and then the two Starfleets would run across each other and..? Of course, it's ludicrous and just an impossible set-up - an Earth with the exact same continents - the odds are probably trillions to one against.

The set design was pretty good for a TV series: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Rand and two red-shirts beam down into the middle of a dilapidated city. So, we are to assume they weren't able to detect the still-lethal virus in the air; the landing party all contract the disease and are slated to die in a week, except Spock, who is a carrier and is stuck on the planet regardless. A bunch of kids scamper amid the ruins and cause some trouble by stealing the communicators. Kirk & McCoy start to swipe at each other in frustration as the deadline looms. I'm wondering if there is a correlation between no fatalities occurring during a Trek story and so-so episodes of the first season; there's some tension but a ho-hum tone by the end. With many of the characters being juveniles, there's too much 'bonk-bonk on the head' and repetitive-style silly dialog which was designed for children to verbalize.

These were early roles for Darby, playing the title character, and Pollard as the weird-looking main troublemaker with the strange name. She went on to "True Grit" in '69 and he to "Bonnie and Clyde" in '67. Darby was somewhat touching as the girl on the verge of womanhood, while Pollard...well, he applied some method acting but he seemed anywhere from 15 to 35 years old in his scenes; I couldn't decide on which. This episode was also probably the closest that Kirk and Rand came to admitting they had romantic feelings for each other. Rand (Whitney) was booted off the show soon after.