And The Children Shall Lead (Star Trek)
Aug. 31st, 2026 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eerietomWarning: spoilers ahead!
Recently, I re-watched “And The Children Shall Lead”, an episode from the third season of the original Star Trek series. It is generally regarded as one of the worst episodes of that series; there is an interesting premise but it comes off rather half-baked. There are plenty of reviews on the internet that pick it apart, but I’m going to dig into some aspects that were not addressed by the episode nor by any of those reviews.
Plot Summary
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the planet Triacus, where a group of families, led by Professor Starnes, has been conducting a survey. Captain Kirk and crew discover all the parents dead, apparently by suicide. Their young children are alive and physically healthy, but seem oblivious to the fact their parents have died. Dr. McCoy guesses the children may have developed amnesia in the face of whatever traumatic event caused the parents to take their own lives. Everyone beams up to the ship so the children can be taken to Starbase IV for medical observation. However, the children are under the sway of “Gorgan”, a non-corporeal humanoid who has turned the children against their parents and is using them as his “soldiers” in an attempt to conquer the universe. The children also seem to have paranormal powers which they use to control the Enterprise crew through nightmarish hallucinations. Eventually, Kirk is able to make the children realize the truth. As they finally mourn their parents’ deaths, Gorgan’s hold upon them loosens, and without the children’s loyalty, he fades into nothingness.
Analysis
Spock speaks of a gang of marauders that terrorized and pillaged a local star system, until the inhabitants revolted and destroyed them—all except one, who hid or was imprisoned in a cave “for centuries”. One member of the Starnes party, Professor Wilkins, unwittingly unsealed the cave, allowing this sole survivor—Gorgan—to escape. Gorgan then influences the children against their parents. He was undoubtedly a corporeal being when it was imprisoned, yet his transformation into a non-corporeal being is never addressed. And how does a cave keep such a being imprisoned—couldn’t he just escape through the walls? And how did he get to the Enterprise? Would the transporter be able to beam a non-corporeal being at all? Shouldn’t there be some kind of alarm indicating there were more entities being beamed than expected?* Or did Gorgan just sit around on Triacus until summoned by the children?
Did Gorgan bestow the paranormal powers upon the children? If so, then he is able to interact on at least a psychic level with corporeal humans. When Gorgan’s influence is shaken from the children, he fades away. It seems Gorgan was absorbing energy from the children, so how did he survive in the cave all those centuries with nobody around to sustain him? Was he just an inert blob of evil waiting for a catalyst?
And I really roll my eyes when anyone says they want to “conquer the universe”. Just conquering a galaxy would be quite a feat, no matter how many followers and resources one has. And what’s an insubstantial marauder going to do once he’s conquered the universe, anyway? Gloat?
Spock says Starnes’ party is the first exploration of Triacus. It seems highly unlikely adults would bring young children to a completely unexplored planet—imagine if this had happened in the episode “The Galileo Seven”! But I wonder: what if, like the kids in the 1964 film Children of the Damned, they were born with paranormal powers instead of getting them from Gorgan? Perhaps the parents brought them to Triacus partly so they could grow up in as normal and loving an environment as possible, without judgment or fear from others.
Now imagine these children as adults serving in Starfleet with their powers! A sequel film about these kids, now grown, might have been interesting! But such a poorly regarded episode is unlikely ever to be addressed again!
*Apparently not, as we have seen in the episode “Wink of an Eye”.
Recently, I re-watched “And The Children Shall Lead”, an episode from the third season of the original Star Trek series. It is generally regarded as one of the worst episodes of that series; there is an interesting premise but it comes off rather half-baked. There are plenty of reviews on the internet that pick it apart, but I’m going to dig into some aspects that were not addressed by the episode nor by any of those reviews.
Plot Summary
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the planet Triacus, where a group of families, led by Professor Starnes, has been conducting a survey. Captain Kirk and crew discover all the parents dead, apparently by suicide. Their young children are alive and physically healthy, but seem oblivious to the fact their parents have died. Dr. McCoy guesses the children may have developed amnesia in the face of whatever traumatic event caused the parents to take their own lives. Everyone beams up to the ship so the children can be taken to Starbase IV for medical observation. However, the children are under the sway of “Gorgan”, a non-corporeal humanoid who has turned the children against their parents and is using them as his “soldiers” in an attempt to conquer the universe. The children also seem to have paranormal powers which they use to control the Enterprise crew through nightmarish hallucinations. Eventually, Kirk is able to make the children realize the truth. As they finally mourn their parents’ deaths, Gorgan’s hold upon them loosens, and without the children’s loyalty, he fades into nothingness.
Analysis
Spock speaks of a gang of marauders that terrorized and pillaged a local star system, until the inhabitants revolted and destroyed them—all except one, who hid or was imprisoned in a cave “for centuries”. One member of the Starnes party, Professor Wilkins, unwittingly unsealed the cave, allowing this sole survivor—Gorgan—to escape. Gorgan then influences the children against their parents. He was undoubtedly a corporeal being when it was imprisoned, yet his transformation into a non-corporeal being is never addressed. And how does a cave keep such a being imprisoned—couldn’t he just escape through the walls? And how did he get to the Enterprise? Would the transporter be able to beam a non-corporeal being at all? Shouldn’t there be some kind of alarm indicating there were more entities being beamed than expected?* Or did Gorgan just sit around on Triacus until summoned by the children?
Did Gorgan bestow the paranormal powers upon the children? If so, then he is able to interact on at least a psychic level with corporeal humans. When Gorgan’s influence is shaken from the children, he fades away. It seems Gorgan was absorbing energy from the children, so how did he survive in the cave all those centuries with nobody around to sustain him? Was he just an inert blob of evil waiting for a catalyst?
And I really roll my eyes when anyone says they want to “conquer the universe”. Just conquering a galaxy would be quite a feat, no matter how many followers and resources one has. And what’s an insubstantial marauder going to do once he’s conquered the universe, anyway? Gloat?
Spock says Starnes’ party is the first exploration of Triacus. It seems highly unlikely adults would bring young children to a completely unexplored planet—imagine if this had happened in the episode “The Galileo Seven”! But I wonder: what if, like the kids in the 1964 film Children of the Damned, they were born with paranormal powers instead of getting them from Gorgan? Perhaps the parents brought them to Triacus partly so they could grow up in as normal and loving an environment as possible, without judgment or fear from others.
Now imagine these children as adults serving in Starfleet with their powers! A sequel film about these kids, now grown, might have been interesting! But such a poorly regarded episode is unlikely ever to be addressed again!
*Apparently not, as we have seen in the episode “Wink of an Eye”.
