And the children shall lead

[evangelist6589]

A dumb episode. Not sure if its the dumbest of the series as it is tied with some dumb ones from season 2 such as obsession, and the episode where Kirk and Spock let some aliens take control over their bodies, etc..

Anyone got anything good to say of this episode? I am watching the entire series for the second time and I am on season 3. So far there have been some good ones except for this episode. Spock's Brain is a true classic in my POV.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

A dumb episode. Not sure if its the dumbest of the series as it is tied with some dumb ones from season 2 such as obsession, and the episode where Kirk and Spock let some aliens take control over their bodies, etc..

Anyone got anything good to say of this episode? I am watching the entire series for the second time and I am on season 3. So far there have been some good ones except for this episode. Spock's Brain is a true classic in my POV.

Yeah, this is bottom of the barrel for sure.

But as for good things, I have three:

1) The redshirts getting beamed into space was something that I always found chilling. In a horror episode, which is what this is, that's a good thing.

2) The appearance of Gorgan at the end is hideous, and I think they went the extra step there, when they didn't even have to.

3) This episode brought us the UFP banner or pennant.

 

[evangelist6589]

A dumb episode. Not sure if its the dumbest of the series as it is tied with some dumb ones from season 2 such as obsession, and the episode where Kirk and Spock let some aliens take control over their bodies, etc..

Anyone got anything good to say of this episode? I am watching the entire series for the second time and I am on season 3. So far there have been some good ones except for this episode. Spock's Brain is a true classic in my POV.

Yeah, this is bottom of the barrel for sure.

But as for good things, I have three:

1) The redshirts getting beamed into space was something that I always found chilling. In a horror episode, which is what this is, that's a good thing.

2) The appearance of Gorgan at the end is hideous, and I think they went the extra step there, when they didn't even have to.

3) This episode brought us the UFP banner or pennant.

Horror? This one has me confused on Gorgan and why he vanished at the end.

 

[Melakon]

Anyone got anything good to say of this episode?

The older kid playing Tommy Starnes was Craig Hundley, at the time already well known as a gifted teen musician who had appeared playing classical piano, and with his own jazz trio. He's still a well known musician, now using the name Craig Huxley. As an adult, he contributed to the scores of ST:TMP, STII:TWOK, and STIII:TSFS.

 

[Push The Button]

Hail, hail, fire and snow..

Haha, now you're going to hear that stupid song all day.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, I'll add one more.

4) Three of the children have interesting performance trivia.

Brian Tochi was on TNG, and he was on Space Academy with Pamelyn Ferdin.

Melakon mentioned Craig Hundley, who also played Peter Kirk in "Operation -- Annihilate!"

 

[Nerys Myk]

A dumb episode. Not sure if its the dumbest of the series as it is tied with some dumb ones from season 2 such as obsession, and the episode where Kirk and Spock let some aliens take control over their bodies, etc..

Anyone got anything good to say of this episode? I am watching the entire series for the second time and I am on season 3. So far there have been some good ones except for this episode. Spock's Brain is a true classic in my POV.

It's given decades worth of punchlines.

 

[Melakon]

Pamelyn Ferdin

Man, for a while during the 60s and 70s, you could hardly turn on the TV or go to a movie without seeing Pamelyn. She was everywhere.

 

[Push The Button]

I remember her from The Odd Couple, she was one of the actresses that played Edna Unger, Felix's daughter.

 

[evangelist6589]

Yeah, I'll add one more.

4) Three of the children have interesting performance trivia.

Brian Tochi was on TNG, and he was on Space Academy with Pamelyn Ferdin.

Melakon mentioned Craig Hundley, who also played Peter Kirk in "Operation -- Annihilate!"

This I did not know.

 

[FormerLurker]

Pamelyn Ferdin

Man, for a while during the 60s and 70s, you could hardly turn on the TV or go to a movie without seeing Pamelyn. She was everywhere.

She's also the original voice of Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts cartoons, beginning with "A Boy Named Charlie Brown".

 

[CrazyMatt]

Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode!

I feel better now.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I've always disliked "And the Children" intensely, but I never willingly switched off a Star Trek episode until one afternoon when this one came on. I was in my early teens at the time, and there was no home video. I watched the reruns religiously, and thought that someday the show would be gone forever.

It was the day my brother-in-law's father died, and they came over to our house for some reason, and of course he was mourning his Dad. "Children" came on, and I realized that Kirk was about to discover all the dead parents. I said it wasn't a very good one and changed the channel.

I did it casually, but in my mind it was huge. I was putting someone else's feelings ahead of Star Trek for the first time. I felt pretty good about that. The next day, I went right back to watching every rerun no matter what.

 

[Melakon]

And Why is Sulu's greatest fear, of all possible things.......gigantic shiny space swords?

He remembered when he hurt his thumb on the fencing foil in "The Naked Time".

 

[Greg Cox]

It hasn't aged well, but I confess that this ep scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. And when you think about it, the idea that Kirk has to save the ship by forcing a bunch of little kids to face the fact that their parents are dead is kinda disturbing . . . .

(Heck, I even brought Gorgan back in a TNG novel several years ago.)

 

[Talos IV]

Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode! Horrible episode!

I feel better now.

This remains my least favorite episode, ever.

One reason I hate it so much: It was unseen here in Dallas/Fort Worth for years because my local UHF station refused to show it. (They were a CBN affiliate and were afraid the episode would persuade children they could conjure up evil spirits.) Read all about that censorship HERE in this 3-page STARLOG article.

When I finally did get to see it (at a local STAR TREK convention), I expected ... something. Instead, it didn't even feel like a STAR TREK episode. Boring, stupid, insipid. Makes the kids in "Miri" look lovable.

I re-watched it again recently to see if had improved with age. It hasn't.

 

[Greg Cox]

Makes the kids in "Miri" look lovable.

Nothing can make the kids in "Miri" lovable.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Makes the kids in "Miri" look lovable.

Nothing can make the kids in "Miri" lovable.

And that's no blah blah blah!

(Couldn't help it.)

 

[bbailey861]

It is certainly on or next to the bottom of my list. That being said, I went and had a look at the bio of Craig Huxley who played Tommy Starnes. It is, to say the least, very impressive.

 

[Warped9]

If only Gene Roddenberry or D.C. Fontana had had a crack at rewriting this. This could have been a genuine creep-out (and it does have one or two genuinely good moments), but so much went wrong to make this an embarrassment. It would also have been nice if the cast had dialed it back some in spots.