And the Children Shall Lead (Episode)
Series | Star Trek |
Season | 3 |
Episode | 4 |
Production Number | 60 |
Release Date | 11 Oct 1968 |
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Stardate 5029.5: A group of children is being controlled by an evil force.
Arriving at the planet Triacus, the Enterprise finds that the scientists in the Starnes Expedition have all committed suicide to escape an evil presence — "the enemy within." The colony's children are unharmed and strangely oblivious to their parents' deaths. Beamed aboard the Enterprise, the children are cared for while Captain Kirk attempts to discover the truth. Meanwhile, an entity named Gorgan, a "friendly angel" summoned by the children and made powerful by their belief in him, has come aboard the Enterprise with the intention of using the ship to take him to other planets. To prevent the Enterprise crew from fighting him, Gorgan renders Kirk incapable of giving orders, frightens the ship's officers with illusions, and convinces Spock that nothing is wrong. Kirk's distress shocks Spock back to normal. Fighting Gorgan, they show the children tricorder recordings of their parents — and of their graves. Suddenly, the children see Gorgan not as a "friendly angel" but for what he actually is: an ugly, evil force. Rendered harmless by the loss of his followers, the entity fades into nothingness.
Writer
Edward J. Lasko
Director
Marvin Chomsky
Starring
William Shatner … Captain Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Also Starring
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Guest Starring
Majel Barrett … Nurse Christine Chapel
Melvin Belli … Gorgan
Craig Hundley … Tommy Starnes
James Wellman … Professor Starnes
Pamelyn Ferdin … Mary Janowski
Brian Tochi … Ray Tsingtao
Caesar Belli … Steve O'Connel
Mark Robert Brown … Don Linden