Miri

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Miri)

It may have been the first episode of Trek I ever saw, or it may not, but whatever the case, it certainly remains in the memory as my first exposure to this otherworldly, terrifying, exciting, inventive space saga, if it can be called that when this particular episode barely takes place in space. My memory was of seeing that grup run crazed out of nowhere to grab the tricycle, its mottled skin burnt and shrivelled, a scary, wild face with a shock of hair to complete the effect, madly desperate to take its forlorn prize, a tragic, terrible creature. It's more shocking and sad when you see it as a pitiful creature, an adult's body scarred, 'distorted' as Spock calls it, but with the mind of a child, an extreme of rage and fear, looking like Odo when he can't regenerate. I probably only recognised the basic horror of a scary-looking figure charging out of the blue, because I believe we went out in the dark afterwards to see what would become my secondary school, on its open evening, and all the way I was eyeing the dark corners either side of the path down through the estate for any sign of an attack by such a fiend! I also remembered them being in a laboratory, so it's nice in a way, during this fiftieth year (of the series, not me!), to come full circle and revisit the place I began. I've seen it other times since, naturally, although I hadn't seen as much of 'TOS' as the later series' so each episode has a freshness to it that isn't always the case with the more familiar series' that I've gravitated to more.

This could be the first proper Kirk/Spock/McCoy story, as they are the rare trio who beam down, along with three redshirts, two of which are (rather ineffective and muted), security, and the other is Yeoman Rand in one of the final appearances for her on the series (though her short shrift sacking would be redeemed later when she came back for cameos in several of the films and a lovely guest role on 'Voyager' for the 30th Anniversary - still hard to believe that's twenty years ago now, and we're almost as far removed from that time as that time was from 'TOS' in the sixties!). It's a good inclusion for her character as she gets to emote, has further development with Kirk, and provides a linchpin of confusion for the motivation of Miri, whose jealousy over 'Jim's' comforting reassurance of the stricken Yeoman drives her to split to the other camp and inform on her new friends and helpers, or more specifically, 'The Captain.' It's a story all about the pain and sadness of growing up, symbolised by the plague that affects all who reach puberty and makes them ugly, with skin blemishes and wild behaviour - kind of like teenagers… It's about the loss of innocence and that freedom of childhood that can never be regained, and it provides a unique challenge to young Kirk, for once made to feel old, despite his youth.

Even unruly children can't parry his razor wit and persuasive arguing, and though it at first seems his words fall on foolish ears, the onlies succumb to his urgency and zealousness, even if they don't truly understand their plight. It just so happens that the Enterprise has arrived a few short weeks or months before the food will run out, the episode doing a good job of ticking time bombs: the food shortage means the onlies are destined for destruction, but there's the more immediate effect of the plague on Kirk and his Landing Party, not to mention the likelihood that our main guest character, the endearing, eager to please Miri, could become a madwoman at any time. There's tension from any half open door or dark alley, as any moment a grup might appear to shock and scare, so these multiple angles of unsettling potential events builds a strong gantry of drama in which the group are trapped, unable to return to the ship for fear of contamination. I think the idea could have been taken a stage or two further, as the grups are basically zombies, and if we could have had more interference from them it would only have increased Kirk and co's peril. But it remains a more thoughtful story of science and psychology with fascinating examinations of their characters.

Kirk uses his natural charm to reassure the frightened Miri that these grups are here to help, though she knows they're doomed. It's a great introduction to the plague when he's won her trust, holds her chin up and she recoils at the blemish on his wrist, knowing what it means. In that respect it has the elements of a horror film: dark, rundown buildings full of broken down imagery such as dolls and toys covered in dust; monsters that can appear at any moment; creepy children with malevolent intentions; and a small group trapped amidst it all and slowly degenerating. But these aren't just run of the mill participants, they're Starfleet officers (even though I believe Starfleet has yet to be mentioned - this time Kirk references 'Space Central' who will send teachers and advisors to the planet), and they keep it together to solve the problem. Again, the potential isn't fully realised, with Spock taking more of a back seat when you can imagine he would have been the main character if it had been one of the spinoffs, since he was the only one unaffected by the disease, and was able to keep his temper in check when Kirk and McCoy are going off the rails. At the same time he's not a cold, calculating machine, taking time to banter with McCoy about the antique microscope they find, and reminding Jim that, as a carrier he also can't return to the ship, and he does want to. This could be down to William Shatner being the star, as it's really his vehicle with various impassioned speeches or reassurances to an audience of Miri, Rand or the onlies. I didn't get a strong sense of their helplessness - apart from the Communicators being stolen, they always seemed in control and I wasn't sure the passage of time was effectively marked since they're there for a few days.

It would have been good to see them having to access more survival skills, hunting for food and water, the security men needing to keep their wits about them as night draws in, that kind of thing. But I suppose it wasn't really that sort of episode. Perhaps if the onlies had been able to steal the Phasers too, it might have made their predicament more apparent. It's more of an inconvenience that they can't contact the ship to verify the data input on the 'personal computer' that was beamed down, which makes it seem a rather ineffective machine. And you'd think the Tricorder would be able to process this data and even send or receive such from the ship, but that's putting modern eyes on a series that's fifty years old in a time in history when the pace of change has increased exponentially. In a way it's astonishing that the series is watchable at all considering it's based so heavily on technology and extrapolating the future, but it just shows how imagination can do a lot more than scientific progress in presenting a believable future, and they were especially prescient in much of Trek, one reason it has lasted all these decades. Another is, despite all the technological trappings, it's about good people solving problems, problems that still exist to this day because humanity doesn't change, no matter how many advances are made: people are always going to be people, there will always be emotive issues and motivations, so Trek will never grow old as long as it follows this path.

It's one reason I feel some of the films, particularly the Kelvin Timeline entries, will date much more, because of their reliance on special effects and action sequences, rather than speaking to the soul and mind. Here, we see our characters put through a trying time, and the most they do is snap at each other, they never leave their humanity (or Vulcanity), behind. McCoy bravely injects himself with the potential antidote that could be deadly poison for all they know, without the ability to confirm via the Enterprise computer, and his gamble pays off. Kirk risks life and limb to save the children, and Spock proves invaluable in helping to narrow down the cure. It could be a stage play, as so much of the episode takes place on one set, and it's much more about the psychology of dealing with children, working under stress and keeping it al together, than violence and excitement. There's some of that, with Kirk getting beaten down by the swarm of children, directed in a most creepy way by the choice to hold on a little girl watching the attack, smiling as her friends draw blood from the poor Captain. No doubt he could have fought his way out, but he wasn't going to hurt the children, despite being quite rough with the skinny boy a couple of times, pushing him against the wall or flinging him off the table! It seems like another point where Spock would have been useful, even if it was just to give them nerve pinches, although I suppose that would have frightened them away when Kirk was attempting to engage with them to make them understand their peril.

Perhaps it wasn't advisable for Kirk to turn on the charm for Miri, but he had more to worry about than one girl's potential jealousy, he wanted her to feel safe and keep her close by as she was a key to solving the mystery of what happened on this planet. He keeps her busy with little tasks, partly to occupy her mind, and also so she doesn't hear the results of their speculations - I think he felt pity for her and what had happened there, after all she's so horribly afraid when they find her, she almost needs counselling before she'll calm down (another good use of Rand's presence, as comforter). Rand is wistful when she speaks of eternal childhood with endless play, but the environment they live in is squalid and without the discipline and direction of the adult mind, there is no society. It's not really touched on, but by the fact that the children are open to violence, having witnessed plenty of it from the grups (and despite being three hundred years old, their perpetual childhood means they still have young, fresh memories), it's very possible they could have murdered, at times, or severely injured, either each other or the grups that attacked. They flee at the mere sight of a grup, and they're described as mice, scurrying into holes, but that doesn't mean they never fought, and that nasty side to their existence is hinted at.

Something that's never mentioned is the potential for this world to be part of the 'parallel Earths' theory that Roddenberry put forward as explanation for the fact that so many of the planets visited were humanlike. It postulated that they were at a similar development as Earth, but at various stages, which gave us the gangster planet, the Nazi planet, or the Roman planet. In truth it was a budget-saving method, but it worked and gave us some memorable episodes, and this could be the first of that sub-genre. They do express amazement at a planet that appears identical to Earth, even down to the continents, so perhaps the theory hadn't reached wide acceptance through Starfleet then, though they say that the age of the buildings is equivalent to 1960. It seems to be a rare occurrence since they're out where no colonies are and no vessels have been, genuinely fulfilling their mission brief of going where no man has gone before. Out there the children have developed unique lingo: they are onlies because they're the only ones left. The grups were grownups. They make a fooly, or play a joke or game, and they remember the beforetimes when the grups went mad. It really is a tragic tale, a society that experimented with life prolongation, but though they succeeded, allowing their children centuries of existence, they all died from the resulting plague, and their children had no guidance. It's a warning to those who want perpetual existence, perhaps saying that a childlike state isn't the best experience that could be had.

I'm surprised they didn't really go into the success of the experiment, because it did prolong life, ultimately. You'd think they'd have people studying what was done to see if it could be replicated as it worked for the children, but that isn't the point of the episode. It ends a little limply with the ship heading off having arranged for adults to come and help, but we don't know how long it will be for them to get there and who knows what the children will get up to until then! It seems like Kirk's glad to wash his hands of the situation, because I don't recall anyone saying that a team had been left behind, Kirk just says something about them surviving successfully for three hundred years! Then there's a limp joke about him not dating older women and it's over. Some episodes have a powerful ending, others go the jokey route, and it doesn't seem to matter whether the tone of the episode suits it or not. It was sad to suddenly realise in the moments when Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Rand were together, that only one of those actors was still living, as two of them had died relatively recently, the last time I watched this it was only Deforest Kelley who had gone. But that's the reality of life: these people don't have any life-prolongation, so many of the actors from this time are dying and it gives the episode an added layer to its examination of eternal childhood.

One fascinating aside to having so many child actors in an episode is that some of them grew up to be on other Treks: both Phil Morris and Iona Morris would appear on later series', both Shatner and Roddenberry's daughters were among them, and Kim Darby who was Miri, went on to greater fame starring opposite John Wayne in the original 'True Grit.' Ed McCready is credited as 'a boy creature,' but there might be some mistake as there's an actor of that name credited for various other 'TOS' episodes, including the previous one, 'Dagger of The Mind,' which as far as I recall didn't have any children in it, so either there's a spelling mistake or the same rules  of only having one actor with a specific name don't apply for children. The Morris' have the distinction of being a handful of actors that played Trek characters in both the 20th and 21st Centuries, quite an accolade when you consider it's shared with Leonard Nimoy, the 'TNG' cast and the only other one that jumps to mind is Jack Donner, although you could also include the 'Voyager' cast who straddled the Millennium, and some of their recurring characters. It's still a select group, even more so for those appearing in 'TOS.'

With the focus on the triumvirate on the planet (plus Rand), there isn't much call for the ship's crew, which is why we don't see Scotty, Sulu or Uhura - in fact, her role at Communications is oddly taken by Lieutenant Farrell from 'Mudd's Women' and 'The Enemy Within' in his last appearance. A strange choice, but it's always nice to see the internal consistency of the crew played up a little to remind us that it isn't a ship of five or so people. I wonder if 'Star Trek V' was referencing this episode when it had a crazy cat woman leap on Kirk's back, as the grup does exactly that. It may have been just the shorthand for madness, the only effective way for a female assailant to make any impact on a male victim, long before martial arts and fitness was a possibility. Kirk does actually rip his shirt, but not in any fight: he pulls apart his sleeves dramatically to reveal the lurid blue signs of the plague. We also see his collar unzipped, but I wasn't sure if he did that on purpose for ventilation or not. It's one of the few times you can clearly see the zip on the uniform.

I have to say that I like this episode, it does a good job of creating a story that deals with childhood and the threat to adults it could mean. It sees things from both angles and gives Kirk a problem to deal with. Spock could certainly said to be underused, in his Captain's shadow, but it's good to see the three main characters divorced from the ship and all its amenities, while Rand is still being used well. It will always be remembered by me as the one with the scary guy rushing out, but there's much more to it than that. After all, how many things from childhood do we still like as we age out of them? Trek had the ability to appeal across the ages for different reasons, and somehow that's a fitting reminder to take from an episode about the frightening transition out of childhood.

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