Episode of the Week : Miri
- Thread starter Botany Bay
- Start date
This is really not a bad episode, but growing up watching Trek on Ch 56 outside of Boston "Miri" was the most played episode. I don't know why, maybe someone at the station really liked this episode. I'm sure it's not true, but it seemed this episode was on every 2 weeks and I got kind of sick of it.
Having said that, It's a very well done episode. I give it a 7
McEveety does a nice job with the direction
Good job by the big 3, I've always thought this episode showed
Grace Lee Whitney's weakness. She does alright but her "look at my legs"
scene is not great.
Darby and Pollard are great!
How can the kids live for 300 years? All the prepared/canned food would have been
gone or gone bad looooong ago. Are they foraging, hunting, growing food?
They are kids!
Having said that, It's a very well done episode. I give it a 7
McEveety does a nice job with the direction
Good job by the big 3, I've always thought this episode showed
Grace Lee Whitney's weakness. She does alright but her "look at my legs"
scene is not great.
Darby and Pollard are great!
How can the kids live for 300 years? All the prepared/canned food would have been
gone or gone bad looooong ago. Are they foraging, hunting, growing food?
They are kids!
Not one of my favorites. The kids are annoying as hell and it always struck me as odd that Janice, of all people, would be the one to blurt out “Earth!” after Spock rattled off the specifics. And yeah, they just let it drop after that. It felt like that was going to be the story, not just an excuse to use Mayberry as the backdrop.
Not the shining moment of the first season. It was Gene Coon’s first episode on staff, but had yet to reflect his lighter touch. This episode needed it.
On the plus side, the music was well spotted. The Enemy Within piece ”Confrontation” was perfect for the rush into the building leading up to Miri’s discovery.
It gets a 4 out of me.
Not the shining moment of the first season. It was Gene Coon’s first episode on staff, but had yet to reflect his lighter touch. This episode needed it.
On the plus side, the music was well spotted. The Enemy Within piece ”Confrontation” was perfect for the rush into the building leading up to Miri’s discovery.
It gets a 4 out of me.
An easy 8 from me.
Yet another brilliant episode from the single best television season ever produced.
Yet another brilliant episode from the single best television season ever produced.
Generally a good story. I prefer to ignore the silly "duplicate Earth" business in the teaser, since it's just a cheap hook to get viewers to stay tuned and has no relevance whatsoever to the plot. Excellent performances by Kim Darby and Michael J. Pollard (that guy was always creepy, but he's super-creepy here).
7. Saw this in first run, I think it was the first episode I saw in its entirety. Though I liked Pollard and Darby through previous works, in my then 15-year-old eyes they looked like they were well past puberty. One cool thing at the time was recognizing John Megna, who had been in To Kill a Mockingbird, and was near my age.
1 - not a fan! This is one of the few episodes that have virtually nothing that appeals to me. Especially the almost complete absence of scenes aboard the Enterprise, which normally convey the feeling of being "out there" (to me, that´s what TOS is all about) makes it very hard for me to enjoy this episode. Seeing Kirk & Co. stumble through dirty and depressing rooms and ruins, tending to a bunch of loud, annoying and aggressive kids is not my idea of a good and entertaining Trek episode.
Mario
Mario
Given the way it's edited, it's possible that Rand is reacting to the viewscreen image rather than the stats. And reacting to that would be consistent with the supposed character, certainly.
Not one of my favorites, but having the landing party stranded is IMHO good material - at least they are out there, exploring the unknown, rather than in there, exploring the corridors of their own starship! I think I'll give this one a 7.
Timo Saloniemi
"Miri" is a sweet episode. I dig the whole "Lord of the Flies" aspect of it. I love it that Janice Rand is there and that she's got relevant things to do. It's great also that she gets to underscore her feelings for Kirk in this episode, partly because of the virus, but also because of Miri's crush on the good captain. Grace Lee Whitney is an Alpha Babe, all the way. Even when she's afraid of some circumstance on the bridge and needs Kirk to reassure her, Rand just gets real close to him and he automatically has his arm around her. She doesn't have to say a word! Any other yoman, or woman, on this show is too insecure to take any chances with that. Kirk's going to have it spelled out for him, "Captain ... I'm frightened!".
I guess that was aimed at me
Its great though, that there is something for every taste, isn´t it? I guess that´s one of the reasons for TOS´s lasting appeal.
Mario
Oh, definitely - and TOS would feel hollow if there wasn't at least one claustrophobic bottle show. Either of the shticks would grow old real soon: three or just two seasons of cardboard sets or 20th/19th century Earth replicas, or even a combination of those, wouldn't carry the show. (We really need weird things like "Spectre of the Gun" or "Gem", plus VFX festivals like "Doomsday Machine"...)
I just think "Miri" got a good slot for introducing the location-shot, castaway type of adventure, establishing this aspect of Kirk's mission after episodes like "Enemy Within".
Timo Saloniemi
I just think "Miri" got a good slot for introducing the location-shot, castaway type of adventure, establishing this aspect of Kirk's mission after episodes like "Enemy Within".
Timo Saloniemi
You do have a point, diversity gives the show that extra something and also the feeling that they really are out there exploring the unknown. Personally I still prefer those "claustrophobic bottle shows" however
I like "Miri." I like the exceptional guest stars, the creepy ruins of modernity (shades of The Omega Man), the genuinely scary attack by Louise, and the music spotting. I even like the children's taunting chants, perhaps because they're so stylized and representative of the culture that kids would eventually formalize and perpetuate.
The disease, and especially the violent attacks by Tricycle Guy and Louise, got past the censors! This despite the censors' apprehensions over workaday situations like Janice being in Kirk's quarters in "The Corbomite Maneuver." That's very revealing of what was considered dangerous or upsetting by the network, and what wasn't. Maybe NBC saw the disease as a stand-in for syphilis, and thus a kind of symbolic warning against sexual misbehavior.
That reminds me of why I don't like "Errand of Mercy," which is often cited by others as a popular episode. Seeing Kirk and Spock in tights and stuck on a planet whose production design bores me so much makes that one a drag.
The disease, and especially the violent attacks by Tricycle Guy and Louise, got past the censors! This despite the censors' apprehensions over workaday situations like Janice being in Kirk's quarters in "The Corbomite Maneuver." That's very revealing of what was considered dangerous or upsetting by the network, and what wasn't. Maybe NBC saw the disease as a stand-in for syphilis, and thus a kind of symbolic warning against sexual misbehavior.
That reminds me of why I don't like "Errand of Mercy," which is often cited by others as a popular episode. Seeing Kirk and Spock in tights and stuck on a planet whose production design bores me so much makes that one a drag.
No argument there. Plus Kirk acts very irresponsibly, IMHO - I don´t think Starfleet authorities would have approved of his trying to start a rebellion, and that against the explicit will of the planet´s inhabitants!
Mario
This had an embryo of a good episode in it, but it was very rough around the edges. It comes off as a cousin of "The Omega Glory" for obvious reasons.
It's hard to totally dislike an episode with lines like, "No blah blah blah!"
But then there are moments like, "Back on the ship, I used to try to get you to look at my legs. Captain, look at my legs." Wait, what? Rand was flirting with Kirk?!? Outside the train wreck of Spock's last line in "The Enemy Within", how were we supposed to know that Rand had actual feelings for Kirk? Surprise, I guess this is it! Or, did I miss something?
And, "Another Earth?" Ugh. If it had been followed up on, it could have been worth mentioning, but since it wasn't, no.
I'm lacking some historical perspective, but "Miri" does seem ahead of the curve on post-apocalyptic horror, especially of the disease variety. Obviously way before The Stand. For that germ of a good idea (), I'll place it on par with "The Cage". 6.
It's hard to totally dislike an episode with lines like, "No blah blah blah!"
But then there are moments like, "Back on the ship, I used to try to get you to look at my legs. Captain, look at my legs." Wait, what? Rand was flirting with Kirk?!? Outside the train wreck of Spock's last line in "The Enemy Within", how were we supposed to know that Rand had actual feelings for Kirk? Surprise, I guess this is it! Or, did I miss something?
And, "Another Earth?" Ugh. If it had been followed up on, it could have been worth mentioning, but since it wasn't, no.
I'm lacking some historical perspective, but "Miri" does seem ahead of the curve on post-apocalyptic horror, especially of the disease variety. Obviously way before The Stand. For that germ of a good idea (
), I'll place it on par with "The Cage". 6.
Well, that's an interesting interpretation, but . . . no. Sometimes a disease is just a disease.
Agreed. I give it a 5. One thing that bothered me even when I was a kid was the planet. Even with Hodgkin's law I never believed this planet could look exactly like Earth. Even if it had the same composition the continents wouldn't look exactly the same.
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