Star Trek – And the Children Shall Lead

★★ October 11, 1968 Season 3 Episode 4

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Edward J. Lakso, and Arthur H. Singer

Walter Koenig was not happy about this episode. While he felt that the episode was very poor overall, his biggest complaint was the casting of noted criminal attorney Melvin Belli as Gorgan, firstly because it severely undermined the main villain, and secondly, because he considered it an act of stunt casting which had robbed professional actors from a potential job. Belli’s son played one of the children…Stevie. 

Have you ever seen Children of the Corn? There is a little of that feeling in this.  The Enterprise comes to an outpost to check on the Starnes Exploration Party  and finds that all the adults committed suicide. All that remains are the kids, who oddly seem quite happy and indifferent to the deaths. So, despite all the warning signs that there is a major problem, the kids are taken back to the ship where they unleash their reign of terror after a little bit. 

Something has been influencing them since they were on the planet. The something was an evil presence named Gorgan. The Starnes Exploration Party accidentally released Gorgan from his cave. He used the party’s children to evoke the fears of the adults, eventually rendering the adults mentally unstable and driving them to commit mass suicide. He manipulated the children to follow him in his quest of conquering the universe.

While this episode might have been poor, it is written with a decent understanding of how children can resent their parents and deal with grief through denial. That’s about the best thing I can say about it. After the kids use Gorgan’s power to manipulate the crew…Kirk talks to the kids to make them understand they have been used. 

From IMDB:

This was lawyer Melvin Belli’s (Gorgan) first time playing a fictional character. His son Melvin Caesar Belli plays one of the children (Stevie).

Leonard Nimoy explained that when he complained about the script to Fred Freiberger, Freiberger said, “This script is going to be what ‘Miri’ should have been”. Nimoy objected, calling Star Trek: The Original Series: Miri (1966) a beautiful, well-acted story, and felt that Freiberger’s comments were as much as saying, “‘Miri’ was a piece of trash”.

This is the only episode of the original series in which we see the fully fledged United Federation of Planets flag. Previous appearances, such as Star Trek: The Original Series: The Menagerie: Part II (1966), simply used the pre-existing United Nations flag.

During one scene on the bridge, Kirk tries to give orders to Leslie, but his words are garbled. If the audio for this scene is played in reverse, Kirk can be heard to say, “Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Did you hear me? Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He’s relieved of duty. Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters, I said. (garbled) Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine him to quarters. Mr. Leslie, take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He’s relieved of duty.”

Producer Fred Freiberger hoped that the presence of Melvin Belli would boost ratings. This plan failed and Freiberger realized it would have been more appropriate to cast an actor in the role.

Actor Craig Hundley also made a musical contribution to “Star Trek.” Under the name Craig Huxley, he invented the Blaster Beam, an 18 foot long aluminum bar strung with piano wire and played with artillery shells. The instrument’s distinctive metallic twang was used to represent V’Ger on Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). James Horner used it as well for his “Star Trek” soundtracks, and Huxley composed “Genesis Project” for the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) soundtrack.

Craig Huxley (Tommy Starnes) previously appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series: Operation — Annihilate! (1967) as Kirk’s nephew Peter.

In James Blish’s novelization, Sulu is terrified by the sight of missiles on the view-screen, not swords. More interestingly, the children sing spells to cause havoc among the crew rather than making the fist-pumping gesture which has earned a lot of ridicule among fans.

It is never explained how Kirk knew to refer to the Friendly Angel as “Gorgan”. Based on early drafts of the script, and in a bit of sloppy editing, episode writer Edward J. Lakso alternated between the various names, explaining why it appeared and stuck so late in the episode. A deleted scene had revealed that Tommy did tell Kirk the name. However, this scene took place in the script after Kirk had used the name.

The title paraphrases the last line of Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”

Raymond Burr was the director’s, and several of the main cast’s, original choice to play Gorgan. However, he was either unavailable/too expensive/not interested or the director was overruled by the producers (depending on the source).

Professor Starnes and the other male colonists wore jumpsuits left over from Star Trek: The Original Series: The Devil in the Dark (1967), which were reused many times during the series.

The name on one of the tombstones of the parents is “Tsing Tao” which is the name of a city in China, now written as Qingdao. Tsingtao beer was originated there.

The mirror in which Uhura sees her aged reflection at the communications station is never used in any other episode. Of course, like Uhura’s reflection, the mirror itself may have been an illusion created by the children.

All eight major regular performers of the second and third seasons – Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chapel, and Chekov – appear in this episode.

A female Expedition Party member wore Martha Leighton’s costume from Star Trek: The Original Series: The Conscience of the King (1966).

This episode borrows elements and concepts from several sources, including Greek mythology (Gorgan), the Old Testament (the Book of Isaiah), and puritanical/colonial witchery (the incantations). It also has a similar plot to the first-season episode Star Trek: The Original Series: Charlie X (1966).

The arboretum set was originally built for Star Trek: The Original Series: Elaan of Troyius (1968), but became a deleted scene due to time constraints. It was later modified for the arboretum that appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968).

This episode is the first appearance of the set piece depicting the entrance to the Gorgan’s cave. It would be seen again in many third season episodes, including Star Trek: The Original Series: Spock’s Brain (1968), Star Trek: The Original Series: The Cloud Minders (1969), Star Trek: The Original Series: All Our Yesterdays (1969), and Star Trek: The Original Series: That Which Survives (1969).

The dress worn by the one of the female members of the Starnes Expedition Party was also created by William Ware Theiss, and was previously worn by Janet Wallace in Star Trek: The Original Series: The Deadly Years (1967). ) In fact, both costumes worn by Wallace can be seen in this episode, one worn by Don Linden’s mother and the other worn by an unnamed woman (who commits suicide in the teaser).

Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi would later co-star on the live-action children’s science fiction TV series Space Academy (1977), which was developed out of a rejected concept for Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) and starred ‘Lost in Space’ (1965) veteran Jonathan Harris.

This episode was the twenty-sixth remastered episode of the The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication the weekend of 14 April 2007 and, aside from the standard CGI replacement footage of the Enterprise, this episode most notably featured new effects shots of the planet Triacus.

Kirk’s request for “a very small” dish of ice cream, which he never actually eats, may have been a reference to the fact that William Shatner had put on considerable weight between seasons 2 and 3. According to producer Robert Justman, Shatner was invited to see the rushes (raw footage) from the first day of photography for “Spectre of the Gun.” He was aghast at how he looked on screen and immediately went on a crash diet.

Cameo
Chad Everett: uncredited as the crewman in Auxiliary Control who helps Scotty fight off Kirk and Spock.

 

Summary

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the scientific colony on Triacus and arrives to find that all of the adults are dead. Oddly, the children seem unaffected by the deaths and continue to play as if nothing had happened. When questioned, they show no remorse whatsoever and express a dislike for parental authority. Expedition logs reveal that the expedition had discovered an ancient civilization and that there might be one survivor. In fact, the Gorgon thrives on the innocence of the children and the adults’ self-doubt.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Craig Huxley … Tommy Starnes (as Craig Hundley)
James Wellman … Professor Starnes
Melvin Belli … Gorgan
James Doohan … Scott
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Pamelyn Ferdin … Mary
Melvin Caesar Belli … Steve (as Caesar Belli)
Mark Robert Brown … Don
Brian Tochi … Ray
Louie Elias … 1st Technician (as Lou Elias)
Paul Baxley … Security Guard (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Transporter Operator (uncredited)
Dick Dial … Security Guard (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jay D. Jones … 2nd Technician (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Leslie Carol Shatner Leslie Carol Shatner … Child (uncredited)
Victor Toyota … Tsing Tao (uncredited)