1.8 Miri

Stardate: 1704.2 The Enterprise discovers a group of children who are survivors on an Earth-like planet ravaged by disease.

Plot Summary
Captain Kirk and his crew find a planet that is similar to Earth after Spock has analyzed the atmosphere's composition. He tells his crew to land towards the distress signal. After beaming themselves to the location, they find themselves in an empty town. Spock states that the planet has been deteriorating while Dr. McCoy marvels at the architecture. Suddenly, a dirty man attacks Dr. McCoy who touched the broken tricycle. Captain Kirk and Spock knock down the hideous man. The man suffers a seizure spasm and yells out liar before he dies. Dr. McCoy scans the man and notices the man's metabolism is unusually high. Captain Kirk and his team head inside a building when they hear something. They find a young girl (Miri) in the closet. Captain Kirk tries to comfort the frightened girl. While Janice talks with the girl, Spock and his team investigate their surroundings. Spock notices someone in a building nearby. Janice, Dr. McCoy, and Captain Kirk listen to Miri's story. They learn that the adults have become erratic and violent and most of them had died out. Dr. McCoy thinks it's some kind of plague. Meanwhile in town, Spock and his group search the alleyway, and they hear children lurking above. When Spock arrived back, Captain Kirk asks Miri to lead them where the doctors worked at. Miri freaks out when she sees a blue patch on Captain Kirk's palm.

Over at the medical facility, Dr. McCoy analyzes the tissues while the others go through the files. It turns out Spock is the only who isn't suffering from the disease. After equipment has been beamed down, Captain Kirk and the team investigate the disease. Spock asks Dr. McCoy if the children contract the disease upon entering puberty and finds it strange. Then, Spock receives data and states that the people age one month for every 100 years in the life prolongation plan. With the idea that the children had lived for centuries, Captain Kirk asks Spock if he had catch a glimpse of the others. Captain Kirk decides to take Miri on a walk to find the others. Elsewhere, John chats about the grown-ups they had seen and proposes to take the communicator. When Captain Kirk and Miri enter the building where John and rest of children resides, a female adult emerges and scares the rest of the children. Captain Kirk stuns the female adult after being attacked. He finds out that the female adult had passed out. Miri explains that woman was Louise who was a bit older than her. Back in the medical facility, Spock and the team look over the medical notes. Captain Kirk glances at his palms, the disease is spreading throughout his body. Spock states that the disease progression depends how much the patient has aged. He says that he is a carrier for the virus, and he receives a call from the staff. They only have 7 days left to live.

When they hear the children singing the song, Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Spock leave the room to find the children. John sneaks in the room to steal the communicators. Without the communicators, they are left stranded without any communication. With 3 days left, morale is very low. Janice asks Captain Kirk to look at her legs. Miri watches Janice hugging Captain Kirk. Then, Dr. McCoy finds a breakthrough. Meanwhile, Miri formulates a plan with the children to distract Captain Kirk. Later, Captain Kirk asks Miri where is Janice. Spock and Dr. McCoy reminds Captain Kirk that they need the communicators to confirm the vaccine works. Captain Kirk tries to talk some sense into Miri and explains that everyone is getting the disease once they enter adulthood. In a classroom, the children pretend to have school. John welcomes Miri in. When Captain Kirk arrives, the children heckles him. Captain Kirk reasons with the children and demands them to give them their communicators. After the children heckled and shout, Captain Kirk reminds them that they will end up like them. After Spock leaves Dr. McCoy alone to check up on Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy gives in temptation and administers the vaccine into himself. Captain Kirk arrives with the children. He and Spock finds the disease fading from Dr. McCoy's body. Back on the Enterprise, Captain Kirk informs Dr. McCoy and Janice that Miri and the others will receive help from headquarters.

Production Notes
The episode "Miri" is first screened in the United Kingdom in 1970. It was banned for over 20 years by the BBC due its dark themes that was unsuitable for early evening shows.

For children actors and actresses, Phil and Iona Morris, the children actors, appeared in later Star Trek episodes. They are the children of Greg Morris. The offspring of William Shatner, Gene Roddenberry, and Greg Morris. Interestingly, the actors who portrayed John and Miri, the children, are adults. Michael J. Pollard (John) was 27 while Kim Darby (Miri) was 19.