"Star Trek" Miri (1966)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

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:

The sound effect of the signal coming from the planet can also be heard in "The Outer Limits" (1963) episode, "The Man Who Was Never Born".

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Near the end, when Spock and McCoy are debating on how much longer to wait for the Captain before testing the Anitdote, the scene is cast in a reddish tint. When Spock is walking out of the lab, the red tint abruptly changes to normal lighting.

Quotes:

Dr. McCoy: It's dead. It's incredible.
Capt. Kirk: What is?
Dr. McCoy: It's metabolic rate. It's impossibly high, as if it burning itself up. Almost as if it aged a century in just the past few minutes.

Movie Connections:

References "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960)

"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.