Miri (27 Oct. 1966)

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

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Writers:

Adrian Spies, Gene Roddenberry (creator)

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Kim Darby

Cast

Episode complete credited 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 Janice Rand
Keith Taylor	...	Jahn's Friend
Ed McCready	...	Boy Creature
Kellie Flanagan	...	Blonde Girl
Stephen McEveety	...	Redheaded Boy (as Steven McEveety)
David L. Ross	...	Lt. Galloway (as David Ross)
Jim Goodwin	...	Lt. John Farrell
John Megna	...	Little Boy

Storyline

The Enterprise receives an old style SOS signal and finds on arrival a planet that is virtually identical to Earth. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Yeoman Rand beam down to the planet only to find that it is inhabited solely by children. Kirk befriends one of the older children, Miri, but they soon learn that experiments to prolong life killed all of the adults and that the children will also die when they reach puberty. They also learn that the children are in fact, very old. Soon, the landing party contracts the virus and has seven days to find a cure.

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Plot Keywords:

23rd century | character name in title

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 October 1966 (USA)

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The red-headed boy, Stephen McEveety, is the nephew of Vincent McEveety. One of the little girls is played by Dawn Roddenberry while the girl held by Kirk as he rushes to the lab with his newly recovered communicator, is played by Melanie Shatner.

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Goofs

Notice the lit Bunsen Burner (at around 10 mins). One could expect that the Gas Main would not still be going after 300 Years. Bunsen Burners weren't used in the labs on the Enterprise, however the Enterprise could have transported equipment down for them. It is also possible that they could have used a different source - such as propane, butane or white gas for the Bunsen Burners.

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Quotes

Capt. Kirk: You two will have to recreate their thinking. If you can isolate that virus, you'll be able to develop a vaccine.
Dr. McCoy: [Spock and McCoy trade incredulous looks] Is that all, Captain? We have five days, you know.

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Connections

References The Outer Limits: The Man Who Was Never Born (1963)

User Reviews

"I never get involved with older women"

Miri is one of the strongest and most gripping episodes of the original Star Trek, providing a pretty shocking spin on the age-old post-apocalyptic Earth scenario (except for the fact that none of this takes place on Earth, obviously).

The location is a planet which is an exact replica of Earth: same continents, atmosphere, buildings (albeit a bit old-fashioned) and people. Actually, there's a problem with the people: the planet is inhabited exclusively by children. No Stephen King-like twists (à la Children of the Corn), though: as Miri (Kim Darby) explains to Kirk, all the adults were wiped out several years ago by a virus which doesn't affect children. Dr. McCoy quickly comes to the conclusion that the virus works only on individuals who have already reached puberty, and with every crew member of the Enterprise - apart from Spock, as usual - starting to show symptoms, their exploratory mission becomes a race against the clock to find an antidote before someone gets killed, be it by the virus or Miri's more uncooperative "peers".

A lot of science-fiction thrives on the idea of what our planet would be like without specific groups of people. In this case, however, the story serves as a much more potent reflection on a seemingly trivial theme like puberty: a simple plot gimmick like a virus becomes a powerful metaphor, using the opportunities given by the sci-fi context to explore previously uncharted territory and delivering a compelling portrait of young people yearning to be part of the grown-up world even though they aren't quite ready for that yet (this is most obvious in the case of the titular character and her feelings for Kirk). The fact that it's a tense and scary story helps a lot, too.