⁠I am convinced that this is the strangest episode from Star Trek: The Original Series

Through its three-seasons run, Star Trek: The Original Series has introduced the audience to many interesting and at times disturbing extraterrestrial life forms in the galaxy. But the one episode that probably invites the most discomfort is ‘Miri’.

In the episode, when Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) and the USS Enterprise crew members land on a planet like Earth, you are left with an eerie feeling. And rightly so.

In the episode, the crew learns that the planet is inhabited by children and the adults have died after contracting a fatal disease. What follows is a strange string of events that leaves the audience not just uncomfortable but also perplexed.

‘Miri’ is the eighth episode from Season 1 of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episode was so disturbing that it was even banned by the BBC for two decades after receiving several complaints. The episode was deemed inappropriate for young audiences due to the portrayal of violence and the graphic nature of the disease shown.

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What is The Original Series episode Miri about?

The USS Enterprise gets an SOS from a planet, which is an exact replica of Earth. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley), yeoman Janice Rand (played by Grace Lee Whitney) and two security personnel beam down to the planet. The planet looks exactly like Earth in the 1960s but is in a dire state. Spock realizes that the signal was automated and that the planet has been in this dismal condition for centuries.

While McCoy was examining a tricycle, he is attacked by a disfigured young man. After the young man shouts at them, he gets a paralytic attack and dies, leaving the crew members shocked. They then meet a young girl called Miri (played by Kim Darby), who was hiding from them.

Children inhabit an Earth-like planet

Spock and the security officers will encounter children who throw rocks at them. The children call themselves ‘onlies’. Meanwhile Kirk tries to seek information from Miri, who shares that the adults who are referred to as ‘grups’ get a disease, which makes them go mad. The ‘onlies’ hide from them. Shockingly, Kirk also gets infected, in which blue blemishes takes over the skin first.

McCoy decides to understand the disease to find a cure fast. As he leads his experiment in an abandoned hospital, everyone in the crew contracts the disease except Spock, whose Vulcan blood protects him.

Spock would come upon a research that dates back to three hundred years. The project was aimed at prolonging one’s life. While the research worked, an unforeseen error resulted in wiping out adults, leaving behind a planet inhabited only by children who were forced to fend for themselves for about 300 years. Even though the children go through a drastically reduced aging process, when they reach puberty, they will get infected.

A deadly disease that can wipe out adults

The ‘onlies’ are perplexed seeing the adults after so long. They decide to steal the crew's communicators to stop more adults from coming to the planet. When Kirk enters the room with ‘onlies’, a kid attacks him. Kirk uses his phaser to stun him, but the kid ends up dying. Miri informs that the child was like his brother and is upset by the turn of events.

Spock concludes that Miri has very little time remaining as she is getting older. The ‘onlies’ manage to steal the communicators, which leaves McCoy upset as he was trying to create a vaccine with the help of Enterprise’s computers.

After a couple of days, the crew start having emotional outbursts, a side-effect of the disease. Kirk tries to comfort an upset Rand, which is witnessed by Miri. Miri, who is infatuated by Kirk does not like the captain giving attention to Rand. In her angry state, she teams up with ‘onlies’ to capture Rand.

Kirk is worried that he cannot find Rand and accepts Miri’s help to look for her. He informs her that the children would eventually get the disease when they get older. Miri had already started showing signs of the disease. When Miri takes Kirk to the children, they attack him. Kirk makes the children realize that they are being the same as the ‘grups’ they fear and that their food will not last long.

McCoy is successful in his experiment. He decides to inject it on himself and collapses. But the crew notice that the blemishes are fading and they realize that the vaccine is a success. The Enterprise crew departs after leaving a medical team in charge of taking care of children.

While the episode is a tale of survival, but the grotesque plight of the children is highly unsettling and leaves the audience squirming in their seats. Whether it is presenting the disease vividly or showcasing children as antagonists, the episode is definitely one of the strangest from the world of Star Trek.

Star Trek is available on Paramount+

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