Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 6, Episodes 12 & 13: Miri/ The Conscience of the King

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I find it hard to give any of these episodes less than 5 stars because they are the cornerstone of Scifi, but I will say Kim Darby as "Miri" is amazing. She may be my favorite guest actor on the show and that covers a lot of ground. I don't agree that the plot was weak, I found it believeable. My only knock is the 'other' kids seem weak. Darbys' reaction to being 'found' at the beginning of the episode needs to be seen. McCoy and Spock are becoming an item to behold with this 12th episode, incomparable. Who does McCoy call out for in his time of pain? Spock.

The second episode here is not one of my faves but it is good. I never liked Kevin Riley much and was glad to see him leave, since he was a pivotal character of this episode it's no wonder I frown upon it ever so slightly. Anton Moss as "Karidian" is nice but nothing earth shattering.

This disc is a must though (aren't they all?) for the foundation building of Spock and McCoy and for the wonderful performance of Kim Darby. I wish someone would do a follow up "novel" with her character, "Miri" ... who knows maybe it will be me! There's just Something About Miri.

Well, while this was not my favorite set of episodes, there were lots of wonderful moments in both of these episodes. As indicated by my title, Uhura singing is such a joy! It adds the extra bit of life, the personal side of the crew which we so rarely see...Miri is the ultimate clock race dealing with the inevitable. The parallels of real life are hidden beneath the surface of this gem...I trust you to see it in order to "see" them.

The Conscience of Kings is perhaps more chilling now than it was 30 years ago. (as was so many of these episodes) The fact that murder could be executed by the government in this fashon! (i don't want to ruin the plot, but it is worth seeing) A common thread, the good of the many vs. the good of the few, is portrayed nicely in this episdoe.

There are lots of subtle hints in both of these episdoes, which makes them fun and entertaining to watch.

Trek occasionally pitted the starship crew against some horrid space-born epidemic, only to find a miracle cure just before the credits rolled. Miri did it best. It's one of Trek's darker episodes, with undercurrents of child violence and adolescent sexuality. Kim Darby and Michael Pollard are superb. Unfortunately the second episode on the DVD, "Conscience" is not up to "Miri's" standard.

This volume of Star Trek on DVD contains two rather unusual episodes. "Miri" starts out with a weak plot point, the crew of the Enterprise stumbles upon a duplicate earth (with no clouds!) and beams down. There is no explanation of how this "other" Earth came to be--no ion storms or parallel universes here. Our heroes beam down and find the planet devoid of all human life except impossibly old children. No more spoilers here, except that we hear several cast members say the forbidden word "puberty."

"Conscience of the King," directed by Sean Penn's father, Gerd Oswald, is an unusual episode in many respects: scoring, sets, and general mood. The only plot points I will give away are that Kirk faces a ghost from his past, and picks up a real looney chick who likes to talk about his "surging and throbbing" starship.

But seriously, even though the network censors were thankfully snoozing when these episodes were screened, these are well crafted stories featuring some fine acting from the consistently underrated William Shatner.

Volume 6 of The Star Trek original series DVD collection is similar to Volume 5: it's decent but not overall essential (except maybe MIRI). Although I am stating that these are decent episodes not a decent DVD release. (As I and many of the other reviewers have stated our discontent with this collection because each DVD has only 2 Trek episodes which seems like Paramount is robbing us) Anyway we have to settle for these 40(!) releases until Paramount will be kind enough to issue the episodes out by season (like they did with Star Trek TNG). All right now back to the episodes.

MIRI is one of the most popular Trek episodes from Season one. Guest starring teen stars (at the time) Michael J Pollard and Kim Darby (as Miri), this adventure finds Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Janice, and Dr.McCoy beaming down to a unknown planet after hearing a distress signal. When they arrive it is discovered that the planet is overrun by young children who hate grown ups. As the plot thickens it is revealed that grown ups (or "grups" as the children in this episode call them) once lived here and conduct experiments to prolong life however instead they created a deadly virus that kills all people once or after they have hit puberty(it also prolongs the aging process greatly before puberty therefore the kids are 300 years old!). Soon the members of the Enterprise gets the disease and it begins to affect everything they do. They have also lost contact with the Enterprise because the kids have stolen their communicators therefore they cannot use the proper equipment in order to find a cure for this virus. It's up to Kirk to get help from a girl named Miri in order to save the crew and the rest of the planet. Miri is a classic.

The second episode here is THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING is mediocre. It has a great back story aobut 'Kodos The Executioner' a man who governed the planet of Tarsus IV. During his rule he excuted half the population in order to stop the food shortage. It was believed that he was died on the planet but some thought he lived on and assumed another identity. Only 3 men are surviving witnesses of Kodos' evil reign: Kirk, Lt. Kevin Riley and Dr. Thomas Leighton. When a theatrical troupe including Shakespearian actor Anton Karidian arrives on the Planet Q where Dr.Leighton lives. Thomas accuses him of being Kodos. And when Leigton is murdered Kirk begins to beleive that Karidian really is the evil dictator. Kevin Riley is later poisoned and nearly killed but as it turns out Karidian daughter is responsible for Anton is trying to leave behind his past from 2 years ago and is horrified to find out what his daughter is doing. When she attempts to kill Kirk, Kodos saves his life by getting in the line of fire and killing himself. His daughter named Lenore goes completely insane when she realizes what she has done. And thats where this episode falls when Lenore goes crazy! She is truly just too weird for me and Barbara Anderson's acting of insane is very annoying. Thankfully it does not last long making this quite a watchable Trek episode but so much more could have been done with the Kodos character.

Overall Volume 6 is basically like Volume 5 of the Star Trek DVD collection it's worth getting both Trek episodes are entertaining. MIRI is definetly worth seeing. Recommended.

These are not two of the stronger eps from the first season but they are still worth viewing. The first ep, "Miri" is the stronger one with a very strong "Lord of the Flies" theme running through it addressing the premise: how would a bunch of kids react in a situation without adult supervision for a long period of time? A mysterious virus infects all adults with a dreaded terminal illness but Bones comes to the rescue with a vaccine. Very competent performances especially by the guest actors in what is overall a good episode.

In the second ep., we address the premise: which is more important; justice or mercy and forgiveness? Reminiscent of the Nazi War Crimes Tribunals of Nurenburg after WWII, a fugitive mass murderer is tracked down as a lead actor in a travelling acting troupe whose daughter becomes Kirk's love interest. Kirk and crewman O'Reily actually have lost family members due to the deeds of this man and now have to struggle with feelings of revenge and justice versus mercy and forgiveness. Overall an average ep with passable acting but mostly forgettable.

Verdict: Save your money for some other volume as this is not really a keeper.

Captain Kirk is transporting Shakespearean acting group led by Anton Karidian to Benecia Colony on Planet Q.

Prior to arrival, Dr Thomas Leighton contacts Kirk wishing to inform him of a new synthetic drug he created, but instead tells him that Karidian is really Kodos the Executioner, tyrant of Tarsus IV, responsible for 4,000 deaths, including members of both Kirk's and Leightons family. The execution of 4,000 people by Kodos justified because of a food shortage and Kodos applied his own personal theory of eugenics to decided who lived and died. Dr Leighton is found murder and Kodos is the lead suspect. Riley is found poisoned near engineering, but McCoy is able to reverse out the poison from the blood. Spock uses the computer to determine Karidian and Kodos are the same person using opportunity and proximity of Kodos to the nine eye witnesses as proof. However, voice match fails becauses of Kodos injuries, a close match but not decisive.

Kirk's charater is very undecisive. Spock should have confront Kirk and said, "What is up with your brain? Why so much caution?" Kodos kill members of Kirk family and one would think Kirk would have be in wrath, seeking revenge. Instead Spock, not Kirk, is the outspoken character and is determined to prove that Karidian is Kodos. Strange considering Kirk has never been one for proof, he often acts on intution. Kirk wants proof and answers. Kirk secret plots too get the truth and has another captain fake engine problems, so the enterprise can pick up the acting crew and bring Kodos closer.

Spock must have thought Kirk was out of his Vulcan mind and probably wanted Kirk to have the "whole crew arrested". However, Kirk wants evidence before imprison the criminal and pressing charges. So, Kirk brings the devil into his backyard in an attempt to get his answers.

The daughter Lenore is the one behind the assassinations of the nine witnesses. Lenore accidentally shoots Karidian in a confrontation with Kirk and she goes mad. Lenore acts innocent, seduces Kirk, but all this is a facade for murder. Lenore has an obsession with her fathers tutelage.

Kodos is an archtyrant type. As a tyrant, Kodos is Hilter ruthless, following a demented logic, and involves himself in mass executions of 4,000 people. While in power, Kodos was cruel and feared; once out of power, he faded into civilization undetected, living a double life. Kodos seems to live a blameless life: no suffering for his crimes, and no pentitence for his evils. Everyone thinks Kodos is dead, burnt beyond recognition. This Archtyrant masterful planned his exit and mysterously survived.

Hyper-paronia forces his Lenore to lauch an assassination attempt removing an possiblity of detection by nine eye witnesses, included in the nine is Kirk; and despite the fact the murders too place 20 years ago without undetection, all this time. Kirk escapes a phaser set on overload in his quarters.

If Hitler were alive today, would he be so easily undetected. Probably not, super ego would push Hilter back out into the lime-light. Kodos was different, he secret plotted to destroy people, Leighton privately discloses to Kirk, the terrible secret.

"Miri" has always been one our family's favorite Star Trek episodes. So much so, that my son named his first-born daughter "Miri". Miri is now almost 11-years-old, lives with us, and remains our favorite granddaughter/daughter. MIRI RULES!

Miri
The Enterprise receives an Earth style distress signal from a planet that is an exact duplicate of the Earth in every detail. Beaming down to the planet surface while tracking the signals exact location Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Yeoman Rand and a security detail find a city that is not only apparently devoid of life but in total disrepair as well. They soon learn that all isn't as it seems as McCoy is attacked by one of the city's inhabitants, a mutant life form with the body of an adult but the mind of a child. After being knocked out by Kirk, the man/creature goes into convulsions and then dies. Hearing noises in the distance the landing party fans out converging on the source of the disturbance in an old house. They discover a frightened teenage girl who tells Kirk and the landing party about an adult population or "Grups" going mad, and how the children or "Onlies" managed to survive. Spock and the security detail scout around the city and learn that there are children still alive and well. Spock attempts to get close but can't because they know the city so well and scurry around like mice.

Miri leads the landing party to a laboratory where they learn about what had happened. The planet's scientists attempted a life prolongation project which had gone horribly wrong; the project had killed off the adult population by causing an infected person to develop painful sores all over the body and die. This condition allowed the children to live extremely long lives before entering puberty; but once they entered puberty and became an adult the disease took its full affect. The disease strands the landing party on the planet in which the only hope of survival is to discover an antidote. The Enterprise, McCoy and the rest of the landing party work furiously to find a cure to the disease that has already started to affect them. The security guards continue to look for the other children, while the rest of the landing party discovers that they only have very little time left. Miri starts to show feelings for "Jim" Kirk, using that Kirk has Miri lead him to where the other children are. Miri leads him to a school house where the children, led by a teenage boy named Jahn are hiding. Kirk is attacked by another of the planets inhabitants, a teenage girl named Louise, who already afflicted by the disease was stunned by Kirk's phaser. The shot killed the already doomed girl and emphasized the urgency of their situation.

Mr. Spock calculates that they have one week left to discover an antidote, the disease wasn't affecting Spock as quickly but he is a carrier of it. The Onlies set up a diversion drawing the landing party out of the lab and allowing Jahn and some of the other children to sneak into the lab and steal the communicators. Without them the landing party would be cutoff from the Enterprise and the ship's vast resources. As the disease further develops in the members of the landing party the stress level rises and tempers flare. McCoy stumbles upon the disease that the planets scientists had accidentaly created giving the landing party a chance to cure the affliction.

Miri with the aid of Jahn and some of the other children hatch the ultimate "foolie", a ruse to lure Yeoman Rand into a trap. McCoy finds what he thinks is a cure to the disease but must have contact with the ship in order to test it. Kirk convinces Miri to help him find Rand and the communicators, as the disease had already started to affect her. She takes Kirk to where Rand was being held; convincing the Onlies was a whole other matter. Kirk teaches the kids a harsh lesson about a disturbing reality they will all soon face if they fail to listen. Desperate, McCoy administers the antidote to himself; it causes him to yell out and then renders him temporarily unconscious. Returning back to the lab all the adults and children witness the antidotes affect as it makes the blemishes on McCoy's skin fade away, with the disease eradicated, the planet can be saved and the civilization rebuilt.

A good story based upon what can happen with science if it goes unchecked.

Star Trek: The Original Series Volume 6 features two episodes originally aired in 1966:

"Miri:" Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Rand beam down to a planet inhabited by 300 year-old 'children' wherein they are infected by a maddening disease that is fatal to adults. This segment attempts to be a haunting take on the Peter Pan fable about children who never grow old, but fails to sustain interest (one's mind keeps wandering); there's also too many melodramatic scenes that simpy don't work. On the plus side Yeoman Janice Rand figures prominently; her horror at the disease' progress on her body, and hence the deterioration of her beauty, is an excellent analogy of the universal human struggle with the accursed reality of aging and death. Anyway, the episode provides adequate proof that kids and Star Trek don't mix (so why did they end up featuring Wesley Crusher so prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation two decades later?) (Of course he only lasted four seasons as Trek fans universally despised him -- including me). GRADE: D-

"The Conscience of the King:" Kirk becomes convinced that the leader of a Shakespearean troupe, Anton Karidian, which the Enterprise is transporting, is a notorious political figure responsible for a massacre twenty years earlier. This episode sadly marks the seventh and final appearance of Yeoman Janice Rand played by Grace Lee Whitney. Unfortunately her appearance here is merely a cameo. Apparently the network felt the presence of Rand would hinder Kirk's succession of romantic interests (an argument that really holds no water). Over the years Gene Roddenberry has stated many times that he should have kept Grace as part of the cast. She would return to Trek twelve years later in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Arnold Moss, who plays Karidian, gives an outstanding performance portraying Karidian when he painfully exclaims, "I no longer treasure life, not even my own... I AM TIRED...!!" Powerful! Bottom Line: An original, mature and well-written drama, not to mention heartbreaking -- kids won't like it. GRADE B+