And the Children Shall Lead (episode)

A group of children on the Federation outpost Triacus, under the influence of an evil spirit, commandeer the Enterprise.

Teaser
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the Starnes Expedition at the Federation outpost on Triacus. But a landing party finds a scattering of dead bodies.

Act One
A log replayed from a tricorder supports McCoy's opinion that the event is a mass suicide. The log mentions an "enemy from within."

The scientists' children, however, are unharmed – and oblivious to the death, unmoved even as the landing party buries their parents. They continue to play as though nothing happened. McCoy theorizes that this could be a psychological defense against trauma. Captain Kirk and Spock believe the colony has been attacked, with the children deliberately excluded from the attack for an unknown reason. A strange tricorder reading leads Kirk and Spock into a nearby cave, where Kirk is struck by sudden anxiety, which subsides when he leaves the cave.

Kirk has the children beamed aboard the Enterprise, where Nurse Chapel serves them ice cream from the food synthesizer in the arboretum. But McCoy can find no physical anomaly in the children, and Kirk cannot get them to discuss what happened to their parents. When the children are left alone, they chant to summon a "friendly angel" (later referred to as Gorgan) and he appears, congratulating them for getting rid of the adults on Triacus and telling them that they must take control of the Enterprise and travel to Marcos XII.

Act Two
The children, with Gorgan's help, can exercise psychological control over adults. Scott sees that his engineers have taken the Enterprise out of orbit, but they subdue him. By pumping their fists, the children exert mind control over Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and other crewmen to do their bidding. For example, at first Sulu, Chekov and Uhura believe that they can see Triacus on the viewscreen even though they are no longer orbiting the planet. Kirk and Spock do not realize the starship is en route to Marcos XII until Kirk orders two additional security guards down to Triacus, who are instead beamed into space.

Kirk and Spock enter the bridge as the children summon Gorgan, revealing him to Kirk for the first time.

Act Three
Gorgan does not address Kirk but merely warns the children that their "operation" has been discovered. Kirk makes the crew realize that they have left Triacus and the children plant new fears in them: Sulu sees rings of swords that will destroy the Enterprise if he changes course and Uhura sees not her console but herself as a disfigured, diseased, dying old woman. The children briefly take over Spock's mind and unleash Kirk's greatest fear, losing command of his ship, as every command he issues is either disobeyed or heard as gibberish. Spock frees himself of the children's mind control and gets Kirk off the bridge to help him overcome his fear. They try to take control of the ship through the Auxiliary Control Center but Scott and the control center crew are now under the children's influence; he and his engineers force them out. Chekov and two security personnel corner Kirk and Spock, telling them that Starfleet has ordered their arrest. When Kirk resists, Chekov threatens to shoot him.



Act Four
Kirk and Spock defeat the delusional security team by fighting and with Vulcan nerve pinches. They summon Gorgan to the bridge by replaying a recording of the children's chant and then challenge him. They show the children footage of themselves on Triacus, playing with their parents, followed by images of the parents lying dead, then by the headstones marking their graves. The children suddenly realize what they have done and begin to cry. McCoy is pleased that the children are finally showing authentic grief. Without the children's support, Gorgan morphs into a grotesque being with a face of drooping flesh as he disappears.

As the ship nears Marcos XII, Kirk orders a course change to Starbase 4.

Log entries

 * "Captain's log, Stardate 5029.5. Responding to a distress call from our scientific colony on Triacus, we are beaming down to investigate."


 * "Captain's log, supplementary. We have buried the members of the Starnes Exploration Party. Everyone has been deeply affected by what has happened here, with some important exceptions."


 * Starnes Expedition Party log

Memorable quotes
"Humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose and excluding that which is painful."
 * - Spock to Kirk, on the children's lack of grief

"Parents like stupid things."
 * - Don, believing his parents liked living on Triacus

"It'll spoil your dinner."

"See what I told you? They all say it."
 * - Kirk and Tommy, as Tommy asks for more ice cream

"Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me."
 * - Tommy, Mary, Don, Steve and Ray, summoning Gorgan

"As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do. As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do."
 * - Gorgan, inciting the children

"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth."

"Or by misleading the innocent."
 * - Spock and McCoy, on what killed the Starnes Exploration Party

"But most legends have their basis in fact, Spock."
 * - Kirk, on the legend of Triacus

"Without followers, evil cannot spread."
 * - Spock to Kirk, on the dangers that the children pose

"Death to you all!"
 * - Gorgan's last words

Production timeline

 * Story outline by Edward J. Lakso,.
 * Story outline,.
 * Story outline,.
 * Teleplay,.
 * Teleplay,.
 * Teleplay,.
 * First draft script,.
 * Filmed: –
 * Score recording,
 * Original airdate,
 * First UK airdate

Story and production

 * This episode borrows elements and concepts from several sources, including Greek mythology, the old testament (the ), and puritanical/colonial witchery (the s).


 * It is never explained how Kirk knew to refer to the Friendly Angel as "Gorgan." Based on early drafts of the script, and in a bit of sloppy editing, episode writer Edward J. Lakso alternated between the various names, explaining why it appeared and stuck so late in the episode. A deleted scene had revealed that Tommy did tell Kirk the name, however, this scene took place in the script after Kirk had used the name.

Performers

 * The idea to cast noted attorney Melvin Belli as Gorgan came when his son, Caesar Belli was cast as Steve. Producer Fred Freiberger hoped that the presence of Belli would boost ratings. This plan failed and Freiberger realized it would have been more appropriate to cast an actor in the role.
 * Brian Tochi is one of a very few actors, along with Phil and Iona Morris in and Clint Howard in, who appeared in TOS as a child and was later cast in one of the new series or movies.  Tochi and Pamelyn Ferdin were later reunited on , a live-action Saturday morning television series produced by Filmation which aired on CBS from 1977 to 1979.
 * All eight major regular performers of the second and third seasons—Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chapel and Chekov—appear in this episode.

Sets and props

 * This episode is the first appearance of the set piece depicting the entrance to the Gorgan's cave. It would be seen again in many third season episodes, including, , and.


 * The arboretum set was originally built for, but would become a deleted scene due to time constraints. It was later modified for the arboretum that appeared in.


 * The mirror in which Uhura sees her aged reflection at the communications station is never used in any other episode.


 * During one scene on the bridge, Kirk tries to give orders to Mr. Leslie, but his words are garbled. If the audio for this scene is played in reverse, Kirk can be heard to say, "Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Did you hear me? Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He's relieved of duty. Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters, I said. (garbled) Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine him to quarters. Mr. Leslie, take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He's relieved of duty."


 * The attire worn by the children in this episode was designed by William Ware Theiss. Original sketches of the "playsuits" worn by Tommy, Don and Steve appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook (pg. 155)


 * The dress worn by the one of the female members of the Starnes Expedition Party was also created by Theiss, and was previously worn by Janet Wallace in . (Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook, pg. 135)


 * Professor Starnes and the other male colonists wore jumpsuits left over from, which were reused many times during the series.


 * Another female Expedition Party member wore Martha Leighton's costume from.

Continuity

 * This is the only episode of the original series in which we see the fully fledged United Federation of Planets flag. Previous appearances, such as, simply used the pre-existing flag.

Reception

 * The Agony Booth website included this episode on their list of "The Worst of Trek". They even named "And the Children Shall Lead" as the worst episode of The Original Series. They write that the episode "has a script that offers virtually nothing: No suspense, no character development, no intriguing sci-fi premises, and not one memorable line of dialogue. The director of this episode, Marvin J. Chomsky, is generally regarded as a skilled TV director (he also helmed Billionaire Boys Club and several installments of Roots), but there's really nothing he could have done with this script. Considering the guy who wrote it, Edward J. Lakso, also went on to write some pretty lousy episodes of Charlie's Angels, The Fall Guy, and Airwolf, need I say any more?"
 * The reviewer is also harsh on William Shatner's acting, which he sarcastically describes as being "renowned and imitated the world over" Describing Kirk's breakdown in the turbolift, he concludes, "There's no denying it: This is 100% grade-A pure Shatner here. We have now reached ShatNervana. The Shat goes through his entire range of grotesque, buffoonish facial expressions until Spock finally moves towards him, prompting Kirk to wildly grab him by the throat."

Remastered information
"And the Children Shall Lead" was the twenty-sixth remastered episode of the The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication the weekend of and aside from the standard CGI replacement footage of the Enterprise, this episode most notably featured new effects shots of the planet Triacus.


 * The next remastered episode to air was .

Apocrypha

 * In James Blish's novelization of this episode, Sulu is terrified by the sight of missiles on the viewscreen, not swords. More interestingly, the children sing spells to cause havoc among the crew rather than making the fist-pumping gesture which has earned a lot of ridicule among fans.
 * Gorgan also played a feature role in Greg Cox's Q Continuum trilogy of Next Generation novels published in . He is part of a powerful gang of interstellar evil-doers which includes the God-imposter from and the entity from . Not much is really added to Gorgan's origin and motivations, as Cox is content to emphasize Gorgan's modus operandi of using children to cause chaos, though Gorgan's placement on Triacus is explained.

Video and DVD releases

 * Original US Betamax release:.
 * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 31, catalogue number VHR 2383,.
 * US VHS release:.
 * UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.2,.
 * Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 30,.
 * As part of the TOS Season 3 DVD collection.
 * As part of the TOS-R Season 3 DVD collection.

Starring

 * William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring

 * Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
 * And:


 * DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Co-starring

 * Craig Hundley as Tommy Starnes
 * And:


 * James Wellman as Professor Starnes
 * And:


 * Melvin Belli as Gorgan
 * James Doohan as Scott
 * Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel
 * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
 * George Takei as Sulu
 * Walter Koenig as Chekov
 * Pamelyn Ferdin as Mary
 * Caesar Belli as Steve
 * Mark Robert Brown as Don
 * Brian Tochi as Ray
 * Louie Elias as 1st Technician

Uncredited co-stars

 * Paul Baxley as Freeman
 * William Blackburn as Hadley
 * Frank da Vinci as Vinci
 * Dick Dial as Security Guard #2
 * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
 * Jay Jones as 2nd Technician
 * Jeannie Malone as a yeoman
 * Eddie Paskey as Leslie
 * Frank da Vinci as Brent (stock footage)
 * Unknown performers as the three female and three male members of the Starnes Exploration Party.