They pump their fists at the command of an unseen menace and Uhura sees herself as a dying crone; Sulu sees daggers in outer space; Scotty threatens to kill anyone entering auxiliary control; and Kirk? He gets anxiety attacks (this popularized Shatner's style of tensing his body in an odd manner). These are some of the better scenes in this episode which proceeds at a limp pace in the first half, starting at a decimated scientific colony. The foot soldiers of this new threat turn out to be little children or, as I term them, brats. It recalls another low-rated episode which also had many kids, "Miri." They run around, playing their games, annoying Kirk (Capt. Picard on the TNG show also could do without children), and ignore the fact that all their parents have just died.
Mystery in space. The reveal is, certainly, a letdown: real-life famous attorney Belli is the culprit, materializing every time the kids voice a silly chant. Belli had no acting experience or ability that I could see, literally seeming to 'phone in' or 'project in' his performance. He resembles a holographic image, dressed in a weird robe, and I could kind of imagine that his scenes were filmed separately, matted in to the show later. No explanation is given for what his so-called evil character really is (a fallen angel? an alien lawyer?) and I found I didn't much care anyway. There was also a misconceived use of the transporter which, as depicted, cannot automatically detect the absence of a planet, even though it's the most sophisticated piece of hardware in the Federation. Any entertainment value stems from the scenes of our crew behaving in a strange or hostile fashion, such as Chekov's attempt to arrest Kirk and Spock. It was done better in the upcoming "Day of the Dove."
Mystery in space. The reveal is, certainly, a letdown: real-life famous attorney Belli is the culprit, materializing every time the kids voice a silly chant. Belli had no acting experience or ability that I could see, literally seeming to 'phone in' or 'project in' his performance. He resembles a holographic image, dressed in a weird robe, and I could kind of imagine that his scenes were filmed separately, matted in to the show later. No explanation is given for what his so-called evil character really is (a fallen angel? an alien lawyer?) and I found I didn't much care anyway. There was also a misconceived use of the transporter which, as depicted, cannot automatically detect the absence of a planet, even though it's the most sophisticated piece of hardware in the Federation. Any entertainment value stems from the scenes of our crew behaving in a strange or hostile fashion, such as Chekov's attempt to arrest Kirk and Spock. It was done better in the upcoming "Day of the Dove."