And the Children Shall Lead
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"And the Children Shall Lead" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
''. Written by Edward J. Lakso and directed by Marvin Chomsky, it was first broadcast on October 11, 1968. In the episode, the crew of the ''Enterprise'' find children with great powers at their disposal.


Plot

The
federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
''Enterprise'' arrives at the planet Triacus. Captain
Kirk Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it. Basic meaning and etymology As a common noun, ''kirk' ...
,
Dr. McCoy Dr. Leonard H. McCoy, known as "Bones", is a character in the American science-fiction franchise '' Star Trek''. McCoy was played by actor DeForest Kelley in the original ''Star Trek'' series from 1966 to 1969, and he also appears in the an ...
, and First Officer
Spock Spock is a Character (arts), fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterprise ...
beam down in time to witness the death of Professor Starnes, the leader of a scientific expedition team. The other members of the expedition, apart from their five seemingly unconcerned children, seem to have died at their own hands. The crew bring the children back to the ''Enterprise'', where McCoy evaluates them and determines that they are suffering from
lacunar amnesia Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about a specific event. This specific form of amnesia is caused by brain damage in the limbic system which is responsible for our memories and emotions. When the damage occurs it leaves a lacuna, or a gap, i ...
, unaware of what happened to their parents and unable to grieve. However, when left unattended in one of the ship's rooms, the children chant an
evocation Evocation is the act of evoking, calling upon, or summoning a spirit, demon, deity or other supernatural agents, in the Western mystery tradition. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions and may employ the use of mi ...
and summon a glowing humanoid named Gorgan. He advises them to take control of the crew in order to get to Marcus XII, his preferred destination. The eldest child, Tommy, uses mental powers Gorgan has bestowed on the children to trick the crew into steering the ship while presenting illusions that make them think they are still in orbit above Triacus. Upon reviewing a troubling expedition film recorded by Starnes, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk return to the bridge to find the children and Gorgan fully in control of the crew. Unable to break their hold on the crew, Spock observes that the children are merely possessed by Gorgan, who must be the evil embodiment of an ancient group of space-warring marauders released by Starnes's archaeological survey. Believing they can break the hold Gorgan has on the children, Spock plays back footage showing the children happy with their parents, who are then shown to be dead. As the children realize what has happened, they break down emotionally and Gorgan's appearance begins to deteriorate. With the children's powers gone, the crew regains control and Kirk orders a course for Starbase 4 while they take care to comfort the children.


Production

Child actor Craig Hundley, who played Tommy, became a composer and inventor under the name Craig Huxley. His
Blaster Beam The blaster beam is a concept electric musical instrument consisting of a 12 to long metal beam strung with numerous tensed wires under which are mounted electric guitar pickups which can be moved to alter the sound produced. The instrument is ...
, an 18-foot (5.5 m) long aluminum bar strung with piano wire and played using artillery shells, would appear on
Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franch ...
's soundtrack for the first ''Star Trek'' film, as well as
James Horner James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music. Horner's first film score was in ...
's ''Star Trek II'' and ''Star Trek III'' soundtracks. Huxley also composed the piece "Genesis Project" for the "Project Genesis" briefing video in ''Star Trek II''. Ferdin (who played Mary) and Tochi (who played Ray) would later reunite on ''
Space Academy ''Space Academy'' is an American science fiction television series produced by Filmation that originally aired Saturday mornings on the CBS television network, from September 10 to December 17, 1977. (Repeats ran on and off until September 1, 1979 ...
'', a short-lived series that aired from 1977 to 1979 on CBS. The somewhat bizarre casting choice for Gorgan was
Melvin Belli Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a prominent United States lawyer, writer, and actor known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gab ...
, a personal injury attorney known as "The King of Torts." His son Caesar played one of the children. During a climactic scene on the bridge, the oldest child, Tommy Starnes (played by Craig Hundley), casts a spell to make Captain Kirk's voice unintelligible, so as to render him unable to give orders to his crew. To accomplish this effect in the production of the show, some of William Shatner's dialogue was recorded and then played back in reverse. When the audio is reversed in this segment of the finished soundtrack, Shatner can be heard clearly for the majority of the segment to state: "Remove Lt. Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Did you hear me? Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He is relieved of duty. Remove Lt. Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine nintelligibleTake Mr. Sulu to his quarters nintelligibleMr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters Mr. Leslie, take Mr. Sulu to his quarters" Dave Tilotta performs a script analysis on this episode, comparing the original script to what was filmed and aired. He observed a deleted scene with Sulu and words to the children's incantations among other things.


Reception

This episode was reportedly considered the worst episode in the ''Star Trek'' canon by Spock actor Leonard Nimoy, as of 1986. A 1995 newspaper fan vote for worst episode of the series nominated this episode and " A Piece of the Action". While the general fan consensus was that this was one of the poorer third-season episodes, and that Captain Kirk's "brusque, exaggeratedly authoritarian and at times unmistakably hostile attitude" towards the titular children undermined both the moral and the plot, Richard Keller of
TV Squad Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...
listed Gorgan as the tenth scariest television character. In 2016, ''
CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
'' ranked this episode as the 7th worst episode of all ''Star Trek'', based on rankings between an audience and discussion hosts at a 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. In 2017, ''
Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gan ...
'' ranked this episode as the 3rd worst ''Star Trek'' episode of the original series. In 2019 the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
found, when charting the average
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
ratings for all episodes of all the ''Star Trek'' series, that "And the Children Shall Lead ..." had the lowest of all Original Series episodes. In 2020, ''
Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gan ...
'' ranked this episode as the 11th most scary episode of all ''Star Trek'' franchise television episodes.


References in other media

In the 2007 film, ''
Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...
'', during the scene in which the killer is invited to call in to a television program and speak with Melvin Belli ( Brian Cox), the newsman asks about Belli's role in "And The Children Shall Lead".


Releases

This was released on
LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
in 1987 in the United States, paired with "Is there No Truth in Beauty" on one double sided 12" disc. This episode was released in Japan on December 21, 1993, as part of the complete season 3 LaserDisc set, ''Star Trek: Original Series log.3''. A trailer for this and the other episodes was also included, and the episode had English and Japanese audio tracks. The cover script was スター・トレック TVサードシーズン The episode was released on VHS in the United Kingdom, paired with "
The Enterprise Incident "The ''Enterprise'' Incident" is the second episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek''. Written by D. C. Fontana and directed by John Meredyth Lucas, it was first broadcast September 27, 1968. ...
". This episode was included in TOS Season 3 remastered
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
box set, with the remastered version of this episode.


References


External links

*
"And the Children Shall Lead"
reviewed i
The Agony Booth
{{Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, 3 Star Trek: The Original Series (season 3) episodes 1968 American television episodes Television episodes directed by Marvin J. Chomsky