The Original Series 1×08: “Miri” Sage Elliott, 12 March 202526 March 2025 Welcome to the eighth episode of Star Trek, The Original Series to air. One things worth mentioning about “Miri” before I start discussing the plot is that some of the children in this episode were the children of various members of the Star Trek cast and crew. This includes William Shatner’s daughters, Grace Lee Whitney’s son, and Gene Rodenberry’s daughters. Miri: It looks kinda like a deserted earth. This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information. Table of Contents Toggle SummaryThoughtsWant to watch this episode? Summary So anyway. The Enterprise answers a distress call from a planet that bears a striking resemblance to earth. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Rand beam down to find what initially appears to be a deserted planet. However, the planet isn’t as deserted as they initially believe: on the planet live not adults, but a group of (what appear to be) children who are distrustful of adults. Miri: This is what happens when you get “too old.” It turns out that adults once lived on the planet, but they attempted to create a drug that would slow the aging process and they gave it to everyone 300 years earlier. The effect was that the adults went crazy and died. The drug did work on the children, whose aging did slow, but once they reached puberty, they also went crazy and died. It’s no wonder that the kids were so distrustful of adults if all the adults they knew went crazy and then died. And the landing crew also started to show signs of the disease. The crew questions Miri. So the crew of the Enterprise raced to find a vaccine in order to stop the progression of the disease in both the children as well as themselves. Kirk & McCoy in the lab. Thoughts I always feel like I come away from these Star Trek episodes with questions and this one is no option. So here goes: How is this disease spread? At first, I thought perhaps it was a drug or something that everyone injected hoping to slow down their aging. But that wouldn’t explain why the Enterprise landing party became ill, since they didn’t inject anything. The kids managed to live on the planet for hundreds of years and their population was clearly dwindling – as people reached puberty, they died. So how is it that they managed to live for 300 years off the resources at their disposal, but are conveniently running out now that the Enterprise is there? I hate to say it, but the amount of food they’re going to need is only going to go down as people hit puberty and die. Additionally, surely they must have found a way to grow/produce their own food or something – they had 300 years to adapt! Heck, how did they not realize that the disease happened to everyone as they aged? The Enterprise crew was adamant that they find a vaccine to stop the illness from getting worse in themselves. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought vaccines were supposed to prevent you from getting the disease in the first place, not serve as a treatment for a disease once you already have it…?? So I guess that’s all I have to say about “Miri.” This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information. Want to watch this episode? Stream it on Paramount+ | Buy it from Amazon Updated: Mar 26, 2025 @ 11:23 pm Go to top TOS episodereview
One thing that bothered me about this episode… the planet looks identical to Earth, but after the first 5 minutes this is never mentioned again. Why have it in the first place if it’s irrelevant to the plot? As to how everyone got sick, my understanding was that it was an airborne virus. Reply
Yeah, I have so many questions about why this planet looks so much like earth. How/why did this happen? Inquiring minds want to know! Reply