Enterprise visits a planet where all the adults are found dead and the children appear unaffected.
I think the basic concept is good. Written in the sixties during Cold War paranoia and with the horrors of WWII relatively fresh in people's minds, a group of children being influenced by a malevolent entity to do bad things is a sinister idea that could have worked well. However, what we are presented with on screen, is repetitive, silly, and tries the patience.
The scene with Nurse Chapel showing the children how to obtain ice-cream does for me have an edge of creepiness and gave me a sense of foreboding of what might come. Unfortunately the plot holes and characterisations rob the narrative of any plausibility, preventing any suspense or real interest about the outcome.
I never criticise child actors because they are generally an easy target. I didn't reach an acceptable level of emotional maturity until my late 30s, so I could never have expressed myself on a stage during adolescence. For me the creative decisions made about the use of these characters were questionable and the problem mostly lies here. They are no better nor worse than other children I have seen in movies but are allotted much screen time with the purpose of being antagonists. We see them play, chant, and generally confuse and horrify members of the crew and none of it works.
Lots of scenes involve repetition of a 'rock, paper, scissors' type action when the children use their psychic powers. This is a very uninspired visual and is cut into so many sequences by the editor it becomes tedious. Similarly repetitive are the visuals involving U'Hura and Sulu.
I am not sure how Melvin Belli was cast as Gorgan, but to be fair they try to disguise his acting ability with special effects. Unfortunately it is plain to see and hear he is rushing through lines in a way that sounds like someone reading a statement.
This character is not particularly well written and when explained by Spock in a bit of convenient exposition, it all sounds a bit ill conceived. Also, somewhere during the editing process there must have been a sequence removed from the final cut where Captain Kirk first learns Gorgan's name to provide continuity to his use of the name during a later scene.
William Shatner does his best to lead an episode where Kirk is written as weirdly annoying as he's ever been. His hostile and occasional patronising attitude from the start is distracting and his near mental breakdown borders on funny. James Doohan is just as much of a caricature of Scotty in his OTT scene. Although I thought the fight was well staged.
For me, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Majel Barrett give the most credibility with performances that are restrained and believable.
I think the basic concept is good. Written in the sixties during Cold War paranoia and with the horrors of WWII relatively fresh in people's minds, a group of children being influenced by a malevolent entity to do bad things is a sinister idea that could have worked well. However, what we are presented with on screen, is repetitive, silly, and tries the patience.
The scene with Nurse Chapel showing the children how to obtain ice-cream does for me have an edge of creepiness and gave me a sense of foreboding of what might come. Unfortunately the plot holes and characterisations rob the narrative of any plausibility, preventing any suspense or real interest about the outcome.
I never criticise child actors because they are generally an easy target. I didn't reach an acceptable level of emotional maturity until my late 30s, so I could never have expressed myself on a stage during adolescence. For me the creative decisions made about the use of these characters were questionable and the problem mostly lies here. They are no better nor worse than other children I have seen in movies but are allotted much screen time with the purpose of being antagonists. We see them play, chant, and generally confuse and horrify members of the crew and none of it works.
Lots of scenes involve repetition of a 'rock, paper, scissors' type action when the children use their psychic powers. This is a very uninspired visual and is cut into so many sequences by the editor it becomes tedious. Similarly repetitive are the visuals involving U'Hura and Sulu.
I am not sure how Melvin Belli was cast as Gorgan, but to be fair they try to disguise his acting ability with special effects. Unfortunately it is plain to see and hear he is rushing through lines in a way that sounds like someone reading a statement.
This character is not particularly well written and when explained by Spock in a bit of convenient exposition, it all sounds a bit ill conceived. Also, somewhere during the editing process there must have been a sequence removed from the final cut where Captain Kirk first learns Gorgan's name to provide continuity to his use of the name during a later scene.
William Shatner does his best to lead an episode where Kirk is written as weirdly annoying as he's ever been. His hostile and occasional patronising attitude from the start is distracting and his near mental breakdown borders on funny. James Doohan is just as much of a caricature of Scotty in his OTT scene. Although I thought the fight was well staged.
For me, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Majel Barrett give the most credibility with performances that are restrained and believable.