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[Bud Brewster]

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Lesson #1 in How NOT to make a TOS episode

~ Cast a group of kids to play orphans who are being controlled by an unseen alien.

~ Hire a famous lawyer with absolutely no acting talent to play the alien, then dress him up like a Christmas tree and shot him out of focus in a vain effort to make him look “ethereal” or somethng.

~ End the whole mess with a smaltzy scene in which the kids realize what knuckleheads they’ve been.

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TOS episode #60 - And the Children Shall Lead

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__________ And The Children Shall Lead' Trailer


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The Enterprise arrives at a decimated scientific colony in response to a distress call. Only, it appears they are too late. They observe the bodies of the adults — all dead except one, and he only lives long enough to warn them about "The enemy within" (no relation to that titled episode).

Who or what is the enemy? It's them! Them!

They pump their fists at the command of an unseen menace and Uhura sees herself as a dying crone. Sulu sees daggers in outer space. Scotty threatens to kill anyone entering auxiliary control.

And Kirk? He gets anxiety attacks (this popularized William Shatner's unique style of tensing his body in an odd manner). These are some of the better (though too amusing) scenes in this episode which otherwise proceeds at a limp pace in the first half. And, that fist-pumping? It's gotta stop.




The foot soldiers of this new threat turn out to be little children or, as I term them, brats.

It recalls the other low-rated episode which also had many kids, Miri. If you thought the kiddies in Miri were annoying, wait'll you get a load of these little rascals.

They run around, playing their games, annoying Captain Kirk (Captain Picard on the TNG series also could do without children — he probably decided that when he studied old mission logs of this freaky invasion), and ignore the fact that all their parents have just died.

Well, it is a mystery in space, of a sort, and does have a slight curiosity factor built in. This episode also reveals, supposedly, the deepest fears of several key crew members.



The reveal is certainly a letdown.

Real-life famous attorney Melvin Belli is the culprit, materializing every time the kids voice a silly chant. He plays a mysterious entity known as the Gorgan — "friendly angel, come to me . . . " is part of the chant.

Belli had no acting experience or ability that I could see, literally seeming to 'phone in' (or 'project in') his performance. He resembles a holographic image, dressed in a weird robe, and his scenes were filmed separately to be matted into the show later.

His may very well be the worst guest appearance by an 'actor' on TOS. No explanation is given for what his so-called evil character really is (a fallen angel? an alien lawyer?) except some motivation-less ancient evil (Redjac alert!) . . . and I found I didn't much care anyway.





There was also a misconceived use of the transporter which, as depicted, cannot automatically detect the absence of a planet, even though it's the most sophisticated piece of hardware in the Federation.

I suppose the crew was hypnotized into believing that the planet was still there, even by way of the instrumentation, but I would think such a device would have a built-in safety factor, or humans would be accidentally beamed into vacuums quite a lot, based on expected human error.

Anyway, any entertainment value stems from the scenes of our crew behaving in a strange or hostile fashion, such as Chekov's attempt to arrest Kirk and Spock. As with everything in this episode, it was done better in others, such as in Day of the Dove.

Click below to see when Kirk loses command . . . and Shatner does, too!

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


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[color=#EEEEEE] _____ Shatner at His Finest!


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Extra Trek Trivia:

~ Child actor Craig Hundley, who plays the oldest kid in this one, Tommy, also played Kirk's nephew in Operation--Annihilate! in the 1st season.

~ One of the other children, Steve, was played by Melvin Belli's son, Caesar.

~ The girl, Pamelyn Ferdin, was in many shows as a child actor; she later had a regular role in the children's sf series, Space Academy (1977).

~ This episode was referenced in the film Zodiac (2007), in which Melvin Belli (Brian Cox) briefly speaks about his role here as the Gorgan (at the 45-minute mark).


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)