"And the Children Shall Lead" Full Reaction! - Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3
Added 2024-08-23 18:00:09 +0000 UTCFollow along with your own copy of the episode!
Comments
Bunny, be who you are. Intelligent and sexy. In life and love it
Matthew Graves
2024-09-03 02:28:04 +0000 UTCFortunately there were supplies and communications equipment left behind by the colonists. So I assume Enterprise got word and returned to retrieve them. An early script screwup by Fred Freiberger.
Mark Chrisco
2024-08-28 22:46:16 +0000 UTCSo I saw this episode for the first time in many, many years. I still hate it. Three points... First: spankings. Second: The UFP flag always struck me as the prop guy said to an intern, "Here's twenty bucks. Go to the craft store and buy what you need to ma a UFP flag. And don't spend any more than that!!!" Lastly: the dopey clothes. Adults in rainbow longjohns. Kids in stupid fabric 1920s bathing suits with fake leather shiny GoGo boots. Oh sure, you may be thinking "they look dopey now, but I bet they were cool mid-century when this was made." But you would be WRONG! They were dopey then, too!!!" Honorable mentions to the dopey script, bad acting, stupid Gorgon makeup (not to mention his mumu), bad planet set, hokey knives for Sulu (not even blades pointing AT them!), and so much more. The script is not worthy of exploring all the plot holes, BUT... If they could make Checkov believe orders from Star Fleet to arrest Kirk and Spock, why not make Kirk believe Star Fleet ordered them to Marcus 12??? Yikes! Crap Sandwich with Vanilla and Cocoanut ice cream on the side. "Sometimes it's a BAD surprise." 🤮
John DiGiantomasso
2024-08-27 04:00:50 +0000 UTCPretty much my first time watching this. I kinda liked it for just that. But I do understand completely why a lot of people hate it. I was curious to find out how they'd resolve the situation.
SuicuneSol
2024-08-26 03:45:34 +0000 UTCYeah, I raised that point also in my own reply. I guess they got overlooked when the script was being written and directed.
Greg Polander
2024-08-25 17:49:21 +0000 UTCWait a minute! What about the 2 crew men that are still down on the planet?? My concensus? Kids in space suck!
Anthony Silva
2024-08-25 02:25:43 +0000 UTCThanks Dave!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 02:16:06 +0000 UTCGood point about the inner fears!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:15:01 +0000 UTCI did enjoy the final scene with the kids!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:14:25 +0000 UTCThis seems like a common opinion for this episode here on Patreon. I wonder if that will continue with the YT comments as well.
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:07:27 +0000 UTCHaha you all are NOT being kind to this episode! Well, it makes me feel a little better about not really caring for it.
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:05:57 +0000 UTCWell, it sounds like the worst is behind us, then!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:04:57 +0000 UTCNo need to worry. I’m more than invested 😊
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:00:48 +0000 UTCI hope I can provide some entertainment for those episodes you are not as fond of!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 01:00:06 +0000 UTCAh! There it is!
bunnytails
2024-08-25 00:58:57 +0000 UTCSulu's tripping balls
ded cowbowee
2024-08-24 16:51:02 +0000 UTC'Ring Around The Rosy' was about the black plague so you were close! 🌹😁🌹
ded cowbowee
2024-08-24 14:33:36 +0000 UTCLOL...Season 3 TOS Star Trek is definitely best described as "weird." (there are some good episodes though that are worth it.) Yes...I agree...this was a strange episode. But, I do remember, back in the day, I had a massive crush on Pamelyn Ferdin (Mary). She was in a lot of kids' TV shows back then; she was the original voice of Lucy Van Pelt in the Charlie Brown cartoons. And alas, she was 5 years older than me. 5 years was a life time when you're 6 years old.
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-24 05:03:59 +0000 UTCBunny I have committed to share the viewing of each episode with you, it has been an enjoyable experience and I appreciate your fresh insite of each episode. HOWEVER, it gets tough sometimes, having to endure episodes like this one. Like "Spock's Brain" this is the first time I have watched "...And the Children Shall Lead" in a very long time. I was 14 when it originally aired in 1968, and found the children, pounding their fists and chanting to summon Gorgan annoying at best. Maybe that's my "beast." Oh well, better episodes still to come, and I will watch them all.
Dave Riley
2024-08-24 04:56:40 +0000 UTCNot the worst, not the best, always worried when you watch a tenuous episode. More of a Twilight Zone concept than Trek. Actually, not as bad as I remember! Still plenty of good eps coming up!
Trilogian
2024-08-24 04:46:00 +0000 UTC...AAAAANNDDD Red Shirt Count +2... 18.
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-24 04:34:05 +0000 UTCPamlyn Ferdin (Mary) described her experience by admitting she had a crush on Bill Shatner and stayed near him every chance she got. Despite a very successful acting career she is now a nurse and activist.
Mark Chrisco
2024-08-24 04:24:03 +0000 UTCIn the nightly rerun era, when this came on I would usually just switch it off and go read something. Really bad. I am going to have to build up some strength to watch it with you! This is for me my absolutely "last place" episode in any ranking.
John DiGiantomasso
2024-08-24 03:27:03 +0000 UTCOMFG. I always despised this episode. It is my least favorite to be kind. It just gets under my skin. So much wrong with plot, ending, and contrivance. Why the kids just couldn't control Kirk with the dun, dun, dun! It's so bad that it's beyond making fun of. I'm sorry Bunny had to go through this. I'm going to polish of a fifth of liquor to forget it. "A wee dram", as Scotty would say.
Mark Gosine
2024-08-24 02:33:25 +0000 UTCJust want to say for the record that this is the worst TOS episode in my opinion. "The Alternative Factor" is really bad, but there were extenuating circumstances in that instance. So far as I know, the only cause of the failure of this episode is the new producer & script editor having no idea what they're doing. Several upcoming eps qualify as guilty pleasures for me (and I'll own up to them, for my sins), but this is just awful.
Lee
2024-08-23 23:33:20 +0000 UTCHmm... lots of highs and lows here. For me, the main low is scene after scene of Kirk trying to get through to his crew knowing full well he probably can't. I think earlier seasons would've cut this a little faster. So many moments are redundant. That said, the highs: the kids! C'mon, they acted pretty well (and creepy as you say, Bunny -- you wanting to strangle them, I think, was the point) -- and that last scene with the "realization" and the tears, that was pretty well done and gut-wrenching and also gotta give it up for our main cast - their interactions with the kids was also affecting, especially Shatner's. Lastly the new music by George Duning who recorded over a half hour of great stuff for this episode, notably the final bridge scene music entitled "Gorgon Summoned/Gorgon Zapped" which ends with a real punch to the heart. Shout out to Lee for that YouTube clip of Tommy in "Operation -- Annihilate!" I have never seen that - Thank you!
Skyman's Follies
2024-08-23 22:29:51 +0000 UTCNot a good episode for me though not the worst. There are a lot of glaring plot holes, which you seemed to pick up on. The whole “creepy kids” trope in horror never worked for me personally, I usually just find them annoying. So the vibe of this episode never really “landed” with me. I do like the way that the inner fears of each of the main characters pick up on established character traits. I.e. Uhura’s fear of aging, referring back to her being tempted by immortality in I, Mudd.
Matthew Graves
2024-08-23 22:05:43 +0000 UTCI just watched the episode with Bunny's reaction and I was in error, having forgotten about the guards who were already on Triacus and were evidently left behind. When Kirk orders Sulu to reverse course after Gorgon's defeat, I thought they were going to return to pick them up... but then he orders Sulu to set course for the starbase instead. I think we can chalk this one up to the third season production team demonstrating the general loss of quality in the show. Sadly, this won't be the last example.
Lee
2024-08-23 21:13:31 +0000 UTCOh, sorry, I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I realize the two security guards beamed OFF the ship were killed. But Kirk then tried to beam the two guards who HAD been on the planet ONTO the ship. Ergo, people were there, and they were left behind when the Enterprise headed to a Starbase at the end of the planet. At least, that's always the impression I had from watching this episode. (granted, a lot of TOS episodes have plot holes big enough to drive trucks through -- later shows did a better but not perfect job of fixing those.) Also thanks for the link to the deleted scene!
Greg Polander
2024-08-23 20:30:22 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure the Enterprise had already left the planet when the security guards were beamed off the ship, so they died pretty quickly. I suppose they could have retraced the ship's flight path to retrieve their bodies... Craig Hundley previously appeared in "Operation -- Annihilate!" as Kirk's nephew Peter. There's a deleted scene from the end of that episode in which he's wearing an appropriately-sized Starfleet uniform on the bridge and we find out what happened to him after he recovered. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hC16e8b8-C0
Lee
2024-08-23 20:15:46 +0000 UTCI've never liked this episode, and I never liked those kids. I was only 13 when I saw it as it first aired back in 1968. I do remember watching it with my dad, though. When the Gorgan first appeared, he shouted out," That's Melvin Belli!" I wondered... Who? Belli was a Los Angeles attorney, probably best-known at the time for having defended Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald. That's always been creepy to me, just that in itself. The oldest kid, Tommy, was played by the same kid that played Kirk's nephew in "Operation: Annihilate!" — although it looks like he'd grown a head taller between that season 1 episode and this one. But I do love Scotty's line, "We'd all be lost! Forever lost!"
J. Scott Phillips
2024-08-23 20:14:38 +0000 UTCAs soon as I saw this episode was next, I knew how Bunny was going to feel about it as I know of her dislike for kids. LOL I feel pretty much the same way you do about this episode, Bunny. Middle of the pack, average epiosde for me. Not terrible, but not great. I totally agree about the whole episode being creepy and unsettling, with the horror elements and the mind control and the kids being controled and influenced. The kids though are not nearly as annoying as in some past Star Trek episodes. The general idea and plot of this episode I really do like and think is solid. Best I could figure, the ancient civilization at that world was a bunch of raiders before some evil force found them and caused them to self destruct, and has been waiting there all these years for other people to return to the world so it can control them. Then it tried to gain a starship so it could go to another world, take over more people, and expand it's power so it could take over the galaxy. It found the kids easiest to control due to their mental state and not being fully developed, and made the kids see and feel what it wanted it do, and then the kids used the evil powers to control others on the ship. It's a solid horror/mystery idea, not executed the best way as I found the episode kind of slow and plodding, but a cool idea. "Ring Around the Rosie" is the American name of the song - it has other names and other lyrics in other parts of the world. The orgins of the song are unknown, nor is it know what the lyrics means. Most 'experts' say it does not seem to imply death or destruction. There's also some big plot holes in this episode, such as -- they didn't return to the planet to get the security officers who had been left on the planet? And where did McCoy vanish to during the climax of the episode during the end? Good acting though, as always -- even the kids were not bad -- and a pretty unique idea that I haven't seen in too many other fiction formats. How Kirk acted toward the kids always bothered me, though -- he seemed very cold, harsh, and uncaring. Some interesting trivia from this episode I just found out by looking it up on Wikipedia: Child actor Craig Hundley, who played Tommy, became a composer and inventor under the name Craig Huxley. His Blaster Beam, an 18-foot (5.5 m) long aluminum bar strung with piano wire and played using artillery shells, would appear on Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack for the first Star Trek film, as well as James Horner'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. 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. Leonard Nimoy considered this the WORST episode of the original series (at least in 1986 when he was asked).
Greg Polander
2024-08-23 19:55:04 +0000 UTCHey Bunny this isn't a good episode, it shows the darker side of children, too witchcrafty warlockish- if you had kids like that you'd give them up for adoption! Hey I'll send you some epoxy -its not just glue -its 2 separate components that chemically bond together-anyway Thanks for the reaction-much BETTER episodes coming up! Have a Great Day!
dave zink
2024-08-23 18:57:11 +0000 UTCMelvin Belli was a San Francisco lawyer who shot a cannon off the roof of the office building to celebrate a trial win. He played The Friendly Angel. Alway liked ATCSL. Sulu should have said you want to raise the shields to deflect the knife looking debris before we go. I wanted Kirk, when he tried to talk to the red shirt, to say "Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him." Because he was talking backwards... I could comment on Uhura and the Psychic Hotline, but I think it's too soon.
William Terry
2024-08-23 18:40:07 +0000 UTC
