‘Miri’ Remastered (Re)Airs This Weekend

The Enterprise discovers yet another Earth-like planet…but this one has a kind of "Lord of the Flies" kind of theme

Preview | Episode Info | Show times | Review

Although it is another ‘lets use the Paramount backlot’ episode, it actually has some strong character moments (including some good work by Grace Lee Whitney). The show was also a bit edgy for its day for the depiction of children being violent. This episode is one of the first ones done by CBS Digital, back when they were still learning the ropes. Apparently no changes have been made so expect to see the first digital model that was abandoned by CBS-D after 2 months. There are a number of establishing shots and a few shots of Miri’s ‘Earth.’

Note: Although technically it is a repeat, the remastered "Miri" onlywas seen in a handful of cities around the country. Neither Matt nor Igot a chance to see it or record it so we still do not have screenshotsand videos of that (but we will).

Bonk Bonk

Here is a promotional video for the punk band No Kill I.

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In like Flyn.

Rock it, Bitch.

I am reminded how badly I’d like CBS-Digital and the money deciders behind them, to AT LEAST replace the early attempts of the Enterprise cgi with the second, improved model for the DVD releases… Here we go again… ;)

Look forward to those added screenshots and videos though.

Not a whole lot of SFX in this one. The digital Earth looks better than the original cloudless globe. It was reused in “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “Assignment: Earth”. It was also tinted and reversed many times to serve as various planets through the years.

When I first saw this episode in 1966, I was fascinated with the science fiction of a duplicate Earth (even signs and reports in English). Of course it would be impossible for this to happen unless Hodgkin has another theory up his sleeve.

Always good to see Michael J. Pollard (why do most Michaels seem to have the middle initial of J ?) and a young Kim Darby (there both still working).

I guess this was part of the optimism of Roddenberry — Earth had avoided destroying itself somehow — nuclear war (although WWIII looms large in the canon), biological agents, eugenics, racial hatred, nationalism, etc. And in the 23rd Century, human are prowling the galaxy in starships.

I liked this episode, but it’s not one of my favorites.

FredCFO — You mention Michael J. Pollard (Bonnie and Clyde) and Kim Darby (True Grit.) It’s a great credit to this episode that they managed to case “child” actors that actually work well in this script. There are SO many bad kiddie sci-fi episodes and shows. That includes “And the Children Shall Lead.” This ep somehow steers around the WC Fields theory of parrallel bad scripts.
Plus, this ep is genuinely creepy. It’s got that quality of horror films like “On the Beach,” “28 Days Later” (and hopefully “I am Legend”) that let you see how truly sad it would be to let the nuclear or biological genie slip out of the bottle.

case => cast

Just as an FYI, Michael J. Pollard was 27 years old when “Miri” was lensed… not exactly a “child”. But I see and agree with your point–the casting in this episode was excellent, and it *was* a creepy installment of Star Trek.

Always good to see Michael J. Pollard (why do most Michaels seem to have the middle initial of J ?)

Michael Fox added the J. to his name as a homage to Michael J. Pollard… and because it just sounded better.

Well, no new FX…no me…ugh!!!

#8 “Michael Fox added the J. to his name as a homage to Michael J. Pollard”
Funny, I always heard that Fox added the J because when he first arrived in California to pursue acting there was already a Michael Fox registered with the Screen Actors Guild. They insisted he either change his name or add an initial so people could distinguish the two actors apart; he chose the latter.

cbs digital…bonk bonk on the head…summer redstone is the ultimate gump!

Not awful but not one of the shining moments of either the first production season or the first CBS-D season. That final departing shot of the Enterprise is particularly lifeless.

And “A Beaker Full of Death” is a great name for a rock band (if it isn’t already)

Re: #9 Michael J. Fox.

That too. I was rushed so I left it out.

Similarly, Michael Keaton’s real name is Michael Douglas, but it was already taken.

Never too fond of kids in Star Trek but this was generally the best in that category. At least for me. The cheese in some of the dialogue could have been better. Shatner’s daughters make a appearance. As well as children of people who worked on Mission Impossible which filmed at the same studio. Phil Morris (Trainee Foster who asked Kirk if they will be going home for a Hero’s welcome in ST III and VOY One Small Step’s Lt. John Kelly ). made his first Trek appearance here IIRC but was uncredited for his small role..

re: 13
Phil Morris-AKA Lawyer Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld.

^^^ Also he is Mission Impossible’s Greg Morris’ son. :-)

Anthony-
Is comment #1 appropriate to this site? If it isn’t, how about removing it and other such idiotic posts? This site is excellent, and posts like that one degrade it. Thanks.

I recall seeing this as a kid and was a touch freaked out when the dying dude freaked on Mc Coy holding the tricycle. It really set the tone that this was a creepy episode of TREK. The make up on those about the die still freaks me out a touch as an adult. It really is a mix of horror and heartbreak. Fun and cool stuff. It was interesting how many earth type worlds there were in this TREK universe. Some wild quantum physics were going on in this universe that is for darn sure. ;)

Anthony:

I second Gary Seven’s remarks about #1. I find this kind of drive-by profanity offensive, and unnecessary, given the usual high quality of posts to this site.
————————————————————-
Miri is the most effective of the TOS episodes using children. Also, the dying people makeups meet or exceed the makeups for the post-apocalyptic freaks of “The Omega Man”, in my opinion.
This episode is Grace Lee Whitney’s time to shine, and she does, especially in a emotionally charged scene where she reveals to Kirk the scars on her legs. The emotional impact of that scene always moves me..
BTW, Grace Lee Whitney’s autobiography “The Longest Trek : My Tour of the Galaxy” is a highly inspiring book-a must read!

Wow. First time I’ve seen “Miri” since I myself was a teenager. It always unsettled me. The paranoia of “who’s making that noise?” and “where are they? Will they attack?” … The super-freak makeup of the “creatures”… The obvious sexual tension, (especially as seen through the eyes of a young man in the 1970s) between Kirk, Miri and Rand… McCoy’s selflessness…

Looking at the “Onlies” costumes, I see a lot of USMC fatigues (only the Corps uses red rank insignia), especially their helmets with camoflage netting. I suppose it implied the military tried to maintain order at the end of this civilization. Never really noticed that before.

This time around I also picked up on the Love Theme variation of the Enterprise song (Courage’s theme tune). Super effect and almost cinematic in its effect. Indeed, the episode plays not unlike a motion picture from the era.

“Earth II” looks great — I wish I would have seen this when it first aired last year. It would have been quite the shocker!

And finally, some philosophical observations: Roddenberry had a real thing for “parallel” Earths. Genesis II, Earth II come to mind additional to the “exact duplicate of earth” they would find every few weeks.

While we seem to have a lot of laughs at this, is it really any different from the other program’s “parallel universe” ploy? I rather like the idea — it is a classic SF technique to suspend disbelief just enough to ask tough questions about ourselves, without getting too hokey. “Is eternal life worth the risk?” A question ST asked many times, but never adequately answered.

Well I hadn’t seen this episode on the first run though syndication, and I have to say. WOW they didn’t fix the freaking phaser shot? What’s with the bouncing phaser? That’s so glaring that I can barely say anything else about the episode. I don’t recall it being like that as a kid, but I’m sure it was. It also doesn’t look like they updated the model, which we all knew they wouldn’t. So let’s just chalk this up to good old fashion… eh. Not terrible, not great, just eh.

I noticed that the planet DIDN”T move at all! OOPS!

One of my favorite episodes, but watching it today there were several huge plot holes…

1) The “morse code” distress beacon had been transmitting for over 300 years. Wow, that’s some pretty good batteries there, cause the power grid was off. Also, why not beam directly to the building with the transmitter?

2) Didn’t detect human life forms with ship’s scanners or tricorders, nor seemed to be able to detect location of children with tridorders.

3) Where were the red shirts and their communicators? They disappareed until right at the end.

4) Nobody on the Enterprise thought it strange they hadn’t heard fromt he surface in days? Noone thought to use the transmitter to tell the Enterprise to beam down more communicators? They had no uplink/downlink to network computers on the surface to ship’s computers?

5) No effort at all to bring down a team in biosuits to set up a lab or help with medical needs, and there was no way to beam infected crew back to an isolation area on the E?

6) 300 years with no bathing or laundry, the clothing on tha backs of the kids would have rotted away, not to mention they’d all have rotted out teeth, gum disease, scurvey and malnutrition and a host of other medical and health problems.

I’m with you, donnysan, though this one was never one of my favorites, and for all the reasons you cite above. This and Alternative Factor are my least favorites from the first season… although after seeing a whole slew of the third season stinkers even this weak episode seems to shine.

Seems like while the technical details about how everything worked and what the ship would be capable of (you mention bio-suits, for instance) the characters at least were in character and well-scripted. And that makes it infinitely better than most third season episodes.

22. Donnysan – June 24, 2007
“4) They had no uplink/downlink to network computers on the surface to ship’s computers?”

— They had iPhones, but discovered Steve Jobs doesn’t take Federation credits.

#22. Those kind of questions could be asked about every Star Trek episode ever made. If you were with the PTB at the time the stories were pitched and did that, you would gets lots of disapproving stares plus get thrown out.

Well, putting aside technology nitpicks (like biosuits, linking computers, and so on), there still are the nagging issues like disappearance of the red shirts and their communicators, the beacon lasting 300 years, the Enterprise not checking on the shore party after not hearing from them for days, etc. Can’t do anything about it now, true.

Well, I do have one nitpick thats always bugged me. The autos were obviously from the 1940’s, yet Spock postulates the era is similar to the ’60’s. And why is Spock is the best authority of Earth history??

You do have to keep the story lines in context. In the mid-sixties we were starting to grapple with Vietnam, trying to negotiate elimination of stockpiles of nerve gas, etc. A lot of people were wondering if mankind was going to make it (part of Teri Garr’s small speech in the Gary 7 episode). Gene was ALWAYS ahead of the curve on this stuff. He did the half-black/half-white and Uhura kiss episodes BEFORE MLK was assasinated. You and my kids may laugh at some of these plots but, when I watch them in a quiet roomwithout distractions, some of the old fears creep back; it brings back memories and feelings I’d thought forgotten.

As for Spock being an authority, that was ALWAYS the plot device. The only times that I recall anyone knowing more about an Earth topic than Spock was the original Noonen Kahn Sing episode (where the female historian is consulted) and the holiday planet where Sulu finds the police revolver he’s been obsessing about (as an adolescent at the time I was much more interested in McCoy’s showgirls).

By the way, does anyone know where I could track down a DVD of the blooper reel that Roddenbery used to schlep around to Trek conventions in the 70s? An earlier comment about a bouncing phaser reminded me of a hilarious blooper scene where Kirk kicks a mace out of Sulu’s hand, it falls to the floor, and bounces back into his hand again! They also had a scene where Kirk is doing the usual voiceover about going where no man has gone before and the video shows Kirk with an evil look skulking up to a Trek door marked “Yeoman Rand” It was great stuff!

#22

If they only aged one month in one hundred years maybe things like gum disease could only spread at the same rate too?

I do agree with point 4 though!!

Despite the plot holes I think this was a brilliant episode because of the sense of menace it created – still creepy after 40 years, especially that Jahn character…