A landing party beams down to an outpost to find all the adults dead, seemingly by their own hand, but all of the children alive and well and not at all bothered by the deaths of their parents. The children are taken to the Enterprise where they proceed to control the minds of the crew, the mischievous tykes being commanded by Gorgan, a glowing green man in a dress intent on gathering followers and conquering worlds.
Just a few minutes in the company of the annoying youngsters in this episode and I was longing for Kirk to say 'what the heck' and start blasting them, phaser set to kill! It doesn't matter how good the story is (and it isn't), the little kids acting like obnoxious brats ensures that 'And the Children Shall Lead' is a painful experience from start to finish. After some spectacularly bad acting from Shatner, the problem is resolved by showing the kids a video of the good times they had when their parents were still alive, allowing them to grieve and have a good snivel. This causes the green man to turn mouldy and vanish.
2/10 - One of the worst episodes in TOS.
Just a few minutes in the company of the annoying youngsters in this episode and I was longing for Kirk to say 'what the heck' and start blasting them, phaser set to kill! It doesn't matter how good the story is (and it isn't), the little kids acting like obnoxious brats ensures that 'And the Children Shall Lead' is a painful experience from start to finish. After some spectacularly bad acting from Shatner, the problem is resolved by showing the kids a video of the good times they had when their parents were still alive, allowing them to grieve and have a good snivel. This causes the green man to turn mouldy and vanish.
2/10 - One of the worst episodes in TOS.