The Children Shall Lead

[MikeS]

So the children followed Gorkon willingly? So they were responsible for their own parents death? Did they face crminal proceedings or were they treated as victims? That is one hell of a job for a therapist to solve.

As an aside, loved the name of one of the parents Tsing Tao. What a lovely refreshing rice beer that is.

 

[GSchnitzer]

So the children followed Gorkon willingly? So they were responsible for their own parents death? Did they face crminal proceedings or were they treated as victims? That is one hell of a job for a therapist to solve.

As an aside, loved the name of one of the parents Tsing Tao. What a lovely refreshing rice beer that is.

MCCOY: Cyalodin.
KIRK: Self-inflicted.
(Kirk replays the tricorder.)
STARNES [OC]: Must destroy ourselves! Alien upon us. The enemy from within. The enemy!
KIRK: All this. Self-inflicted. Mass suicide.

[Later]

KIRK: Whatever happened here is locked up inside those children.
SPOCK: The attack on Professor Starnes' party must surely have been unprovoked.
KIRK: Attack? Mass suicide is what it seems to be.
SPOCK: I stand corrected, Captain. Induced would be a more precise term. Induced by an outside force.
KIRK: Such as?
SPOCK: The release of bacteria. Or a helpless mental depression and a state of suicidal anxiety could have been chemically induced.
KIRK: What would make the children immune?
SPOCK: I do not know, but it is possible.
KIRK: Then the children would have been exempted by conscious design.
SPOCK: A valid assumption, I would say.

So it's possible the children were uninvolved in the death of their parents. The deaths were self-inflicted.

(Also, "Gorgan," not "Gorkon.")

 

[Timo]

Since it was Kirk the classically educated Earth-born human who came up with the name for the beast, "Gorgon" appears the most likely spelling.

Apparently, possession absolves responsibility for crime committed by the possessed body - and even allows the court to err on the side of caution, as in the case of "Wolf in the Fold" where possession is not the only possible motivation for Scotty's body committing murder. So whether or not those kids wanted to kill their parents, or those security guys who got beamed into space, they'd most probably walk free.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bubbles McGee]

That is one hell of a job for a therapist to solve.

You bet it is! Presumably they were ultimately brought to live with their next of kin or, failing that, were adopted by a good family on one of the many Federation colonies. What I think might have made this terrible episode better is if there would have been more background on the Gorgon. I know some reference is made to it, but it seems insufficient for the viewer to invest much into this villain.

 

[MikeS]

The previous two posters seem to be absolving the children of any blame but I thought it was quite clear. The parents killed themselves because of their fear and paranoia. This fear and paranoia was brought about by the children through the Gorgon's power (they did that fist pump thing). As soon as the children stopped following him, the Gorgon had no power. So we can therefore conclude that the children were guilty of choosing to follow him and bringing about the death of their parents using Gorgon's power.

There was no forced possesion a lá Wolf In The Fold.

 

[Timo]

How do you conclude that the possession was voluntary? All we learned was that resistance to Gorgon was fairly simple once a large number of people put their minds to it, not that it would require active participation to become a Gorgon groupie or power source.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MikeS]

If Gorgon had the power to possess people against their will, why were The Enterprise crew immune?

 

[Timo]

What makes them look immune? They all fell for the illusions and did the Gorgon's bidding to varying degrees. Give them a day or two, and they could well have been loyal slaves of the creature. Except of course for the strong-willed leading hero - but you can't really hold a bunch of kids to the same standard as the heroic lead!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[plynch]

I HATE that thenGorgon turns physically ugly. Lame. Un-star trekky, even, which taught
me that Baloks and Hortas can be quite cool.

 

[MikeS]

What makes them look immune? They all fell for the illusions and did the Gorgon's bidding to varying degrees. Give them a day or two, and they could well have been loyal slaves of the creature. Except of course for the strong-willed leading hero - but you can't really hold a bunch of kids to the same standard as the heroic lead!

Timo Saloniemi

But The Gorgon couldn't do any of the illusions without the co-operation of the children.

 

[Timo]

...And the way to get the children to do the illusions could be to gradually subjugate them through illusions. Start small and weak, as is the true nature of the beast. Then boost your power when you gain in followers. With the children co-opting the Enterprise adults, the power could be increased even further, until eventually the Gorgon became the sort of terror that could credibly give rise to the Triacus legends, rather than the relative wimp we saw. But the earliest stages could have been wimpier still, yet sufficient to overcome the children - it would merely take even more time than it did with our heroes.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MikeS]

You asked me how I conclude that possesion was voluntary, well I never suggested that the children were possesed, neither does the episode. You then go on to form alot of your own conclusions, again, nothing of which can be substantiated by the episode.

Art can be interpreted in many ways. You have your conclusions, I have mine.

 

[Gary7]

Gorgan says "My followers are strong and faithful and obedient." He does not say "My followers are fully under my control. I possess them. They are mine to do with as I wish."

He appeals to the visceral childish desires of the children. And like any human beings, you bestow them with power and they are grateful. Gorgan used the power of denial. The children were completely detached from what had happened to their parents, until Kirk helped bring them back in touch with it. If Gorgan was masterful with illusion and possession, he could have either caused the children not to hear what Kirk was telling them, or distort it into something he would have preferred like "children, it's fine if you take control of the Enterprise. In fact, I have grown weary of command. You can have it!" His control of them was not solid. Part of this was due to the limited number of children. As Gorgan suggested, the more followers he has the more powerful he becomes. That's why his immediate priority was to get them to Marcos 12, so he could recruit more children.

The basic story idea had promise... dealing with human psychological trauma in children. But it had so many weak points, especially with the Gorgan manifestation. The shower curtain costume looked pathetic. And that repetitive fist thump motion to cause an illusion... looked rather silly, especially with the timed trumpet blaring. Something more conventional like holding fingers to the temple and putting on a look of severe concentration would've made more sense, but probably too challenging for the given child actors to pull off convincingly, I guess. The illusion of swords that Mr. Sulu sees makes absolutely no sense; if you see something completely out of place, it isn't convincing. A field of asteroids with Sulu desperate to keep the Enterprise moving straight through a narrow corridor would have made a lot more sense. But then, to defeat the Gorgan all Kirk had to do was win over the children and he turns into an ugly mess? It would have made much more sense for his apparition to begin to waiver, lose cohesion, then vanish. Then have Spock note that Gorgan's energy field has left the ship, heading in the direction of Triacus. It would make sense, as the Gorgan lost his advantage and fled back to his home base. Then Kirk would have a message sent to Starfleet warning about the Gorgan threat lingering on Triacus, to be dealt with accordingly.

 

[sbk1234]

They each got a spanking and sent to bed without dinner!

 

[T'Girl]

They each got a spanking ...

Oh Papi.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Kids are always creepy, because they have no innate moral compass. That's why Children of the Corn and Village of the Damned are so effective.

They used this theme again in the gleeful expression on the little girl's face (Melanie Shatner, I think) when Kirk is getting pummeled in Miri.

 

[sbk1234]

Makes sense. I remember as a kid (and even now as an adult) I used to dream about seeing my father pummeled.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

They each got a spanking ...

Oh Papi.

Now this just brings about all the wrong associations. Unless "Papi" is not an endearing term for father.

Still. Ew.

Thank you for the creepiness that outcreeps my creepy avatar.

 

[gomtuu20]

Scotty didn't do the murders - possessed or otherwise.

, as in the case of "Wolf in the Fold" where possession is not the only possible motivation for Scotty's body committing murder.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

No way to tell, really. Scotty is the most likely suspect for the murder that took place in the locked basement, as there is very little benefit of doubt that somebody else would have had the opportunity.

Then again, Scotty is an unlikely suspect for the murder of Sybo - but Hengist is an even less likely one. Most probably, McCoy stabbed Sybo, what with him being the closest and the only one capable of breaking the seance circle unnoticed and doing a right-hand stabbing. Although Morla could have done it with his left hand, too.

The one interpretation we can probably rule out is that Redjac resided solely in Hengist and simply used his hand for all of the murders, as this would not have been possible in the murder of Sybo. What we can claim is that Redjac used Hengist's hand but also hypnotized others so that they could not see the murders taking place in front of their very eyes, Hengist moving across the table to stab Sybo, and so forth. But that's very shaky. And we do know Redjac can jump from person to person.

Timo Saloniemi