star trek miri actress

Who Played Miri On Star Trek & Where Is She Now?

If there's one thing "Star Trek: The Original Series" loves, it's taking the Enterprise crew to planets full of disturbed children who are equal parts creepy and tragic. The infamous episode "And the Children Shall Lead" is a swing and a miss for many fans on this front (and often considered one of the worst "Star Trek" episodes ever), but the base concept was far more positively received with Season 1, Episode 8, "Miri," in which the team lands on a planet whose population contracts a fatal disease when they reach puberty, making the only inhabitants children. The most prominent of the group is Miri, an older girl who befriends Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew as they desperately search for a cure.

For this single episode, the youthful Miri was played by Kim Darby, an actor who went on to amass numerous credits across film and TV. In the ensuing years, she appeared on shows like "Bonanza," "Murder, She Wrote," and "The X-Files" while also starring in movies like "True Grit" and "Better Off Dead..." Darby remained active as an actor through the late 2010s, but what exactly is she doing now?

Kim Darby is seemingly retired (but still active)

Kim Darby celebrated her 76th birthday in 2023, by which point it had been at least a few years since any of her fans had seen her on-screen in a new project. The actor's latest credit is from 2017, when she starred in the horror flick "The Evil Within" as Mildy Torres. With no further roles in the years since and no upcoming projects, it appears as though Darby has retired from acting. Furthermore, it seems that she has long since capped off her time as an acting instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught for 17 years. However, all of this doesn't mean she's completely inactive in the industry.

Darby has continued to participate in interviews recapping her storied career and most notable roles into the 2020s. In 2021, she recorded a series of interviews with Justin Bozung covering her films "The Strawberry Statement," "The Grissom Gang," "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," and "The One and Only," and in November 2023, she participated in a Q&A in which she fielded various queries on her starring role in "True Grit." All told, it seems Darby is more than happy to continue speaking publicly about her experience in the industry, even if she's no longer actively appearing in new projects.

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Published Jul 7, 2017

Catching Up with Kellie Flanagan, the "Blonde Girl" from "Miri"

Kellie Flanagan’s acting career was fleeting but memorable. The former child actress made her TV series debut in 1966, at the age of six, and called it a day in 1970. Yet, television viewers all over the globe see her quite regularly, and that’s because one of her appearances – her first ever, actually – was as the “Blonde Girl” in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “ Miri ,” plus she co-starred as “Candy” Muir for two seasons on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir . Though she may have left the business, Flanagan has led a full and active life. This weekend, she will for the time ever, attend The Hollywood Show , where she’ll sign autographs and pose for photos with fans. StarTrek.com had the chance to chat with Flanagan about Star Trek , her decision to leave behind the acting world, and her life today. Here’s what she had to say…

I am the managing editor of Sierra News Online , a hyper-local news site dedicated to the Central Sierra, including Eastern Madera and Mariposa Counties. Gina Clugston is the publisher and editor of the site, and we are completely independent. Weekly, I record a radio segment for KRYZradio.org. On any day, I can go from writing about a local community event like the recent Mid-Sierra Loggers Jamboree to the increasingly common fires that plague the California forests now, in the aftermath of drought and bark-beetle infestation. We moved here 10 years ago. This area is ground zero for the unprecedented die-off of pine trees in the state. It’s also a beautiful, magical place where the backyard is one of America’s greatest National Parks – the waterfalls are rocking in Yosemite this year. We’re at www.sierranewsonline.com

Let's go back in time to Star Trek

l" was your first television serie s role. How did you land the part?

Before getting cast in Star Trek , I had done commercials and print work. My agent’s name was Dorothy Day Otis and she was a class act who always wore a snazzy suit and often, a hat. At least that’s how I remember it. Dorothy, I believe, handled a lot of children in those days in what was most likely a male-dominated industry – agents, that is. So she was really special, and very good to me and my family. You were so small and young that you were propped up on a table so you could be seen. What do you recall most vividly about shooting the episode? Shooting the episode “Miri” was a lot of fun, like everything I ever did, except it was special because of all the kids. So, in my mind, and remember this is over 50 years ago, it was just one big play-week. Later on, many of the shows I did had one or two kids or maybe more, but nothing ever had as many children as “Miri” and that made it seem like we were running the show, which dovetailed perfectly with the storyline itself. What's the story behind "blonde girl" with... a green wig?

What do you remember of working with William Shatner and also Grace Lee Whitney?

Take us through getting your line of dialogue in "Miri." I’ll tell you what I think I remember about getting the line of dialogue in “Miri,” but understand that memory works in mysterious ways and I would not swear to any of this in a court of law. Having offered that disclaimer, what I remember is… I was hired with a non-speaking part, as an extra. I remember a man, possibly the director, but I do not know, put me up on the table – just lifted me up there, which gave me a great view as far as my perspective was concerned.

After a couple of takes, or maybe more, Dorothy came up to me and whispered in my ear that I should say a line of dialogue. She said, when the camera’s rolled and the action was taking place, I should say “Call the police!” I did, and the director liked it, and it was “Cut and print that.” As a result of that line, I got my SAG card. I do not know if Dorothy had discussed this with the director or if it was staged and restaged, but it turned out to have been a very fortunate line for me. It was not unusual then, or is it now, to work out scenes on the fly – especially, perhaps, when you’re dealing with a throng of kids on the cusp of puberty who are on the verge of revolt. Normal stuff.

You were a kid when you did the episode. Star Trek was still brand-new at the time. What's it been like to see Trek not only explode into a phenomenon, but to see it cross the 50-year mark last year? To have been a part of the phenomenon that became Star Trek can only be described as a trip. Unlike most experiences which diminish as time intrudes, Star Trek has only become more popular, and the legs on this thing are enormous. I am pretty sure I could win a Nobel Prize for peace or something and my most popular legacy would still be Star Trek . It’s been an honor and a privilege, and I mean that sincerely. Had you stayed in touch with, worked with or run into any of the other child actors from "Miri" over the years?

For two years, I played Candace Muir on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir , which is where most of the people on my Kellie page know me from. It’s been popular, still, Down Under, and has been shown on television in the U.S. in the last couple of years, as well. My experiences in television were, without exception, positive. I loved it. Sometimes I got carsick on the way to Beverly Hills for an interview, but that was about the worst of it. To be able to spend all that time on set, it was like an incredible playground where the entire point was creativity – if it’s the right circumstance with the right people, it’s an amazing way for a child to grow up. I do recognize that many of my peers did not have great experiences and so my good fortune is not intended to offset any discomfort or trauma that young actors may have experienced, and there are, naturally, a host of concerns in these situations. I am proud to say that my daughter studies science and I would be equally proud if she had chosen the business. But maybe a little more nervous.

You will be attending The Hollywood Show this weekend. How excited are you to meet the fans, sign photos and also to catch up with some co-stars you probably haven't seen in years? Since I’ve never been to an autograph show professionally, or at all, I am super-excited to meet people, including fans of the show and others I worked with way back when. I have a Facebook page where fans of various shows I have worked on sort of gather to stay in touch and it’s been one of the most remarkable experiences of my life to get to “know” these people, and to see that they care. It’s really touching, and to have been involved with TOS is truly one of the best things that ever happened to me, even though I was only six at the time.

As an adult, you went on to write a book ( Lucky To Live Here: Your Guide To Life In The Yosemite Mountain Area ), to produce, to blog and to do all sorts of other things. What of your post-acting work are you proudest of? In terms of being a creative person, I have enjoyed and taken advantage of all opportunities to express myself. I am even in ASCAP because I wrote a song with a guitar in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, about 25 years ago. Just pointing out that, if you say yes to opportunities and don’t put too much red tape in the way, great things can happen on a comfortable scale. Success to me means having some freedom to operate in this world, a long marriage, good family, dear friends, satisfying work, pets, some laughs and lots of beauty all around. I think I worked hard and also really lucked out. I still work hard. The thing I am very most proud of is my daughter, Clara Briley. True. In a perfect world, what's next for you? A memoir and a one-woman show. The Hollywood Show will take place today through Sunday at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel. Go to www.thehollywoodshow .com for more information.

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Series: TOS

Character(s): Miri

Kim Darby is the actress who played Miri in the Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode “Miri” when she was in her late teens in 1966. Her shapeless costume was intended to hide her figure, since she was playing a younger girl.

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Miri (Star Trek: The Original Series)

" Miri " is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek . Written by Adrian Spies and directed by Vincent McEveety , it first aired on October 27, 1966.

Tie-in novel sequel

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In the episode, the Enterprise discovers an exact duplicate of Earth , where the only survivors of a deadly man-made plague are some of the planet's children.

The USS Enterprise answers a distress call. Using the ship's instruments Spock measures the planet and determines its dimensions. It has a circumference of 24,874 miles.

A landing party of Captain Kirk , First Officer Spock , Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy , Yeoman Janice Rand and two security personnel find it resembles an abandoned, 1960s-style Earth . They are attacked by a disfigured man, who has a seizure and dies after Kirk hits him while trying to fend him off. Noises draw the landing party to an abandoned building. They discover a teenage girl called Miri, who ran away from them because "grups" ("grownups") killed and maimed the children on the planet before dying out. She and her friends are "onlies", the only ones left. The distress call is traced to an automated signal.

The landing party, except for Spock, notice purple lesions on their bodies; Miri tells them that these are the first signs of the disease that has infected the planet and they will soon become like the other adults. The party find a medical research laboratory and look through documents for clues to the disease, discovering that it is a side effect of a life-extension experiment, affecting those who have reached puberty ; death follows a brief period of violent madness. The "children" are actually over 300 years old, aging one month every century, but show the mental and emotional maturity of their biological age, rather than their actual age. When the disease begins, its victims have seven days to live. Although Spock is apparently immune, he considers himself a carrier who could infect the Enterprise if he returns.

Kirk uses his charm on Miri to persuade her to show him to the other children. However, mistrustful of the "grups", they disperse when Kirk and Miri approach their hideout. Jahn, an older boy and the leader of the children, steals the landing party's communicators, rendering McCoy's search for a cure impossible without the Enterprise ' s computers. When Yeoman Rand panics at their impending fate and Kirk comforts her, a jealous Miri runs away and schemes with her friends to kidnap Rand.

McCoy discovers a possible vaccine for the disease, but without the ability to check the dosage with the ship's computers, the vaccine may kill the patient. Kirk tells Miri that they will all contract the disease if they don't help him find a cure. Upon realizing that she herself is infected, Miri brings Kirk to where Rand is being held. At Jahn's urging, the children swarm and gang up on Kirk. An injured and bleeding Kirk then angrily begs the children to think of the youngest amongst them, who will be helpless when the older ones are dead. He points out that their food supplies are running out; the children will starve within six months. Convinced, Jahn gives the communicators back to Kirk. He rounds up the children and returns to the laboratory, but in desperation McCoy has already injected himself with a dose of the vaccine. The doctor's sores fade, confirming the cure's effectiveness.

Back on the Enterprise, after vaccinating everyone and leaving the children in the care of a medical team, Kirk sends for teachers and advisers to help the children improve their lives.

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A− rating, describing using children as the antagonists as one of the script's "smarter twists". Handlen felt that the sense of threat was maintained throughout as, although the audience knew the crew wouldn't die, " they don't know that." [1]

Following the first screening of "Miri" on British television in December 1970, the BBC received a number of complaints regarding the episode's content. The quantity and nature of the complaints were never made public. [2]

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the BBC chose not to include the episode in repeat runs of Star Trek . Three other episodes from the series were also excluded: " Plato's Stepchildren ", " The Empath ", and " Whom Gods Destroy ".

Fans writing to the BBC to complain about the ban during the show's repeat run in the mid-1980s, its fifth showing altogether, received a standard reply: "There are no plans to screen the four episodes because we feel that they deal most unpleasantly with the already unpleasant subjects of madness, torture, sadism and disease. You will appreciate that account must be taken that out of Star Trek's large and enthusiastic following, many are juveniles who would watch the programme no matter what time of day the series is put into the programme schedules." However, the ban was finally lifted for the BBC's next showing of the series in the early 1990s. [3] In 2020 it was also shown in Britain on the Horror Channel .

The planetary exteriors were shot on the set used for fellow Desilu series The Andy Griffith Show , [4] part of what had originally been known as the RKO Forty Acres backlot in Culver City which had been acquired by Desilu .

Apart from guest stars Kim Darby (age 19) and Michael J. Pollard (age 27), several of the children on Miri's world were portrayed by relatives of the Trek cast and crew. Among them were William Shatner's daughters Lisabeth and Melanie, Grace Lee Whitney 's son Scott, Vincent McEveety's son Steven , and Gene Roddenberry 's daughters, Darleen and Dawn. Two others, Phil and Iona Morris , children of Mission Impossible actor Greg Morris , later appeared in subsequent Star Trek shows as well.

This was child actress Kellie Flanagan's first television role. She played the Blonde Girl standing on the table in the schoolhouse. Between takes her agent, Dorothy Day Otis, got her a line to deliver during the scene, which led to Flanagan receiving her SAG card . [5]

Another of the actors playing the children, John Megna , had played Charles Baker "Dill" Harris in To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962.

"Miri" was the first episode to feature regular background cast member David L. Ross as Lieutenant Galloway, one of the few core group of extras that had speaking lines throughout the series. [6]

The novel The Cry of the Onlies by Judy Klass takes place after the events of the episode. All references to Miri's world being a copy of Earth were ordered removed; Miri's world is presented as a long-abandoned colony of Earth. (In the original episode, no explanation is offered as to the reason the geography of the planet looks exactly like that of Earth.)

One Perfect Shot: Star Trek’s ‘Miri’

In the entire history of Star Trek, episodes that feature stories centered on children are some of the weaker installments , but season one’s ‘ Miri ‘ is the exception to the rule. After responding to a planetary distress call, the Enterprise landing party contracts a virulent disease that will quickly kill them unless a cure can be found. All of the adults, or “ grups ” as they are called have died leaving the children or “ onlies ” behind to fend for themselves. When the children enter puberty and start to become adults, they too contract the disease and eventually die a painful, violent death. The onlies distrust all grups and steal the landing party’s communicators , cutting off contact with the Enterprise along with any hope of finding an antidote. Kirk must convince one of the eldest onlies, a girl named Miri, to help him retrieve their communicators if they are to survive.

The episode’s one perfect shot is of the title character, Miri, as she spies on Kirk, Rand and the rest of the Enterprise grups desperately trying to isolate the disease that wiped out her entire planet. Miri is played wonderfully by actress Kim Darby who went onto star in a number of other TV and movie rolls including the original True Grit with John Wayne, Better Off Dead and Don’t Be Afriad of the Dark . I love this shot of Miri half-hidden behind a doorway as she tries to decide if the adults from another world have come to help or hurt her and her friends.

A sad production note: I learned while researching this episode that after filming was complete, at the friday-night after party for the cast, actress Grace Lee Whitney was sexually assaulted by a member of the show whom she only identifies as “The Executive” in her autobiography The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy . Horribly, she was fired from Star Trek soon afterwards and didn’t appear in the franchise again until the feature films. I shutter to think which Executive could have done this to her, but no matter who it was, it surely is one of the darkest footnotes in Star Trek’s long history.

Next time Spock prepares a historic first in the series – the Vulcan mind meld in ‘ Dagger of the Mind ‘!

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS1E8Miri

Recap / Star Trek S1 E8 "Miri"

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Original air date: October 27, 1966

The Enterprise answers a distress beacon from a planet that seems to be a carbon copy of Earth. No one answers their hails, so they beam down to investigate. What they find looks like downtown Detroit on a bad day. As Bones forlornly inspects a decaying tricycle, a strange person covered in blue lesions attacks him. The person cries over the broken trike after being wrestled into submission. And then he dies. Further searching brings them to a building where a young girl named Miri ( Kim Darby ) has been hiding in a closet. She tells the landing crew about the "Grups" who all got sick and killed each other. Even the animals died, leaving the "Onlies", children of pre-pubescent age.

Soon after, Kirk realizes he has a blue lesion on his hand. They have to find a way to cure the disease, to save themselves and all the Onlies. Unfortunately, their communicators have been stolen by Miri's friend Jahn, the little bast—uh, scamp!

Actor Allusion : Janice Rand says she always wanted Kirk to notice her legs. The Starfleet costumes went from sensible slacks in the second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") to miniskirts solely because Grace Lee Whitney complained they were hiding her "dancer's legs".
Adult Hater : The Onlies are violently suspicious of all adults who they refer too as "Grups".
A planet that is an identical copy of Earth, right down to the same positions of the continents. Despite this startling and very implausible discovery, the planet doesn't have much relevance to the plot itself.
When James Blish wrote the novelization of the episode, he changed the planet to being a long lost human colony that lost contact with Earth, and not an identical copy. The plot of the story largely remained the same. He was likely working from early drafts of the script.
And in the book Forgotten History , it's explained as being a displaced Earth from an alternate timeline that ended up in the main timeline somehow.
The Before Times : The Trope Namer , in regards to the times before The Virus killed all of the adults.
Big "NO!" : Shouted by Rand when she realizes she has lesions, too. Miri also when Kirk points out one on her arm.
Blah, Blah, Blah : Used by the children as a stock response whenever any of the crew tries to tell them something.
Cobweb of Disuse : Spock and Kirk pull the hospital files (as in, manila envelopes) out of 300 years of cobwebs. Did the disease spare the spiders?
Continuity Nod : To "The Enemy Within", as Kirk is deeply uneasy being alone with a crying Janice, and awkwardly pats her on the back in a crappy version of a hug.
Creepy Child / Enfant Terrible : The Onlies, even if they're Really 700 Years Old .
Creepy Children Singing : Combined with Mocking Sing-Song .
Creepy Doll : One hangs in the window of the building where the Onlies hang out.
Depopulation Bomb : A genetic engineering project got out of hand and killed off everyone over puberty. The children are still around, because the intended effect of the project was to drastically slow the rate of aging and it worked fine on anyone it didn't kill, at least till you reach puberty.
Disaster Scavengers : How the children have survived for over 300 years. Kirk and his team note that the surviving canned goods are starting to run short and that the children will soon starve to death unless they intervene.
Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity : The locals not only look like children, but act like children, despite being many times older than Kirk or his friends.
Fiery Redhead : Jahn, the little ginger brat!
Future Slang : Adults are "Grups" (a corruption of "grown up") and children are "Onlies" because they're the only living beings left. "Foolie" is a violent game with about as much structure as Calvin Ball .
Ghost City : The place where Kirk and crew first beam down.
Green-Eyed Monster : Miri betrays Kirk to the other Onlies after she sees Kirk give Rand a comforting hug.
Growing Up Sucks : Especially when it means you're gonna die.
Hand Wave : An infamous one. The concept of an alternate version of Earth existing elsewhere in the galaxy is invented just to explain why the outdoors scenes were filmed on the Desilu Productions backlot.
Hate Plague : The disease causes its victims to be progressively short-tempered, culminating in outright violence.
Held Gaze : Kirk and Spock held each others' gaze for a full twelve seconds, in complete silence, as the camera flicked back and forth between closeups of their faces, after engaging in extremely flirty dialogue.
Hero Antagonist : Jahn. Annoying little brat though he may be, he had every reason to suspect the landing party’s motives and to assume that they would be just as much of a threat to the Onlies as all the other Grups had been, and that they needed to protect themselves. Had McCoy not managed to find a cure in time, he would have been right (it would have been somewhat academic by then, as the Onlies would have run out of food within months, but Jahn didn't know that either).
He Who Fights Monsters : The children accused their adult overlords of violence. Then they inflict violence on Kirk and make him bleed, and he proceeds to point this out.
Immortal Immaturity : The Onlies still act like children despite being hundreds of years old.
Long-Lived : Due to the effect of a life-prolonging virus, the children are three hundred years old.
Mocking Sing-Song : The Onlies are fond of annoying Kirk and co. with the standard "Nyah Nyah!"
Mysterious Waif : The eponymous Miri.
Never Land : The episode contains a fairly dark example: a planet of long-lived, unaging children who sicken and die upon reaching long-delayed adolescence.
Nightmare Face : The face of anyone who is in the last stages of the fatal disease.
Older Than They Look : The children on Miri's planet are all much older than they look, with Miri herself being over 300 years old in 2266.
Only Fatal to Adults : The plague doesn't affect children; Spock theorizes that the changes involved in puberty are a factor in susceptibility.
The Plague : The disease that killed all the adults.
Precocious Crush : Miri has one on Kirk. He tells her she's pretty, but he may be flattering her in order to get her to be more co-operative.
Professor Guinea Pig : Our heroes are trapped on a planet and slowly dying from a disease that kills all adults. The McCoy has mixed up what may very well be the antidote. Only problem is, he's not sure, and the only way to be sure is to check the Enterprise 's computers, which can't be done because the local Creepy Children have stolen the communicators. What to do? Why, wait until Spock leaves and inject yourself, of course!
Really 700 Years Old : Miri appears to be a chestless 12-and-a-half-year-old. Actually, she's at least 300 years old.
Red Shirt : Averted; not only do the two in the episode survive to the end, but they don't even get visibly sick.
Rules of Orphan Economics : The Onlies have been living out of the supplies left by the original colony for three hundred years. Captain Kirk tells them they would not be able to survive much longer this way, because the food's running out. Some fans speculate that they could have made it a while longer. Many children are capable of learning to take care of themselves, and space colonists would have emphasized this. Learning how to plant and grow food in gardens would have been a big deal; they would even have had books on it, and older kids would have taught younger ones to do this. Whether they'd have the patience to do so, however...
Selective Obliviousness : When Kirk tries to convince Miri that every single one of the Onlies will eventually catch the disease and turn into a feral Grup, she desperately insists that it only happens "sometimes". Kirk manages to get through to her by pointing out the blotches that have begun appearing on her own skin.
Shaming the Mob : ...is easy when they're all emotionally under 13. Kirk pointed out that he was hurt and bleeding and it's their fault. They've become no better than the Grups who murdered each other.
Staring Kid : When the Onlies gang up on Kirk, one girl in a green wig just stares dispassionately.
Still Wearing the Old Colors : Jahn wears an army jacket. Given his age, it's unlikely he was in any branch of the (now obviously defunct) military.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome : Everyone warns Kirk that manipulating a three hundred year old childlike girl entering puberty will end badly and with her thinking she's in love with him. And it does, despite him thinking she just wants comfort, she's upset when she sees him (awkwardly) hugging Janice, betraying him to the other kids and scornfully calling him "Mr Lovey Dovey".
Technicolor Science : The laboratory where McCoy studies the virus includes an elaborate set of tubes containing a bubbling blue liquid with no apparent purpose beyond adding visual interest.
Teenage Wasteland : A planet where a virus had killed off all the adults, leaving the children to look after themselves.
There Are No Adults : See above.
Typhoid Mary : Due to his Bizarre Alien Biology , Spock cannot be infected by the disease but he can carry it.
Transatlantic Equivalent : Really cool coincidence: Two days after the airing of this episode, over in Great Britain Doctor Who would air the fourth episode of " The Tenth Planet ", a serial that featured a twin-planet of Earth and one of the main characters dying of a slow-acting disease.
For that matter, Star Trek has frequently used stock sets and background locations without bothering with such an explanation; just because the buildings and rocks generally look like Earth buildings and rocks doesn't mean the entire planet has to have the exact same geography as Earth.
We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future : Not made explicit, but affects the plot in its own way. When the entire crew leaves to investigate a noise, their communicators are all left on tables, allowing them to be stolen. Actually a point in Roddenberry's initial concept for the show; "A Starfleet officer should never be seen putting anything in his pockets," because they don't have any. Hence the use of velcro (standing in for a more futuristic technology) to attach things to people's belts.
Eventually explained, decades later, in reference materials. A Federation scientist studying this planet discovered that at some point in the past, the Sol system passed through a Negative Space Wedgie that caused the entire solar system to be duplicated at the subatomic level. One nearly perfect duplicate (this planet) was created near the center of the anomaly, while two less perfect duplicates (the planet featured in " The Omega Glory " and the 20th-century Roman planet in " Bread and Circuses ") were created closer to the edges — the duplicates appearing out of subspace in different areas. All ended up diverging from Earth at different points in history, with the nearly perfect duplicate being identical to Earth until the mid 20th century. It should be noted that Voyager encountered a Negative Space Wedgie very similar to this, which resulted in near-perfect duplication of the ship. The presence of the anomalies actually explain "Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development" proposed in the original series.
Star Trek S1 E7 "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek S1 E9 "Dagger of the Mind"

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Leslie Shatner

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Leslie Carol Shatner ( born 31 August 1958 ; age 65) played an Only girl in the Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode " Miri ". She is the eldest daughter of actor William Shatner , and sister of Melanie and middle daughter Lisabeth Shatner .

Young Shatner, together with her younger sister Lisabeth, shot their scenes from 25 August through 26 August, with an additional day on 29 August 1966, under the supervision of a social worker. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , p. 258) For the shoot, Leslie took her younger sister under her wings as the latter, then five-year old, recalled in Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , " Leslie accompanied me to the makeup room to visit dad. When we walked into the room, he was sitting in the make-up chair, his back to us. We ran forward, excitedly, relieved to see his familiar outline. When he turned towards us, I caught a glimpse of his arm and saw the skin on the inside of his elbow was covered with a long, bluish red scab! I blanched, and my dad burst out laughing, and told us to touch the sore. It was made of rubber. At that moment, I realized everything was "pretend". Once I understood, I relaxed. "

Lt. Leslie , played by actor Eddie Paskey , was named for her as he himself indicated on his personal website (X) , " But, how did he get the name "Lt. Leslie"? This was a result of his friendship with William Shatner. During a scene in which Eddie was at the helm, Bill felt that he should have a name since he was to issue a command to Eddie. Thus, he became "Mr. Leslie" named after Shatner's oldest Daughter, Leslie! "

Together the letters from the names of the three sisters were used to make up the name Mr. Le mli , as well as Shatner's Lemli Productions Inc.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 552) incorrectly lists Leslie's younger sister Melanie as the "girl in the black lace dress" in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode " Miri ", however, that girl is actually not one of Shatner's daughters and Melanie wasn't in "Miri" because she was only two years old at the time.

External link [ ]

Leslie Shatner at the Internet Movie Database
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Star Trek – Miri

★★★★★ October 27, 1966 Season 1 Episode 8

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This show was written by Adrian Spies and Gene Roddenberry

This is a wonderful episode of Star Trek. Miri is a name of a girl played by Kim Darby and she is brilliant in that role. I’m reminded of Lord of the Flies with a dash of a dark Peter Pan while watching this episode. A planet that is a replica of earth that has a disease that affects kids as soon as they start puberty. They start the symptoms with sores and then go berserk and die shortly thereafter.

The problem started with the earlier people on the planet experimenting with trying to prolong life. They ended up creating a serious virus (hmmm been there done that). The catch is the kids do have prolonged lives and are hundreds of years old before they reach puberty but they still have the maturity of children. The crew get there and because of their age start contracting the disease.

Bones and Spock are trying to come up with the vaccine while the children steal the communicators of the crew. Miri is a young woman about to hit puberty and is showing signs of the disease. She is not trusting of the Enterprise crew at first but then warms up to Captain Kirk and develops a crush on him. She is also jealous of Yeoman Janis Rand because of her close relationship with Kirk. She wants to help the captain and crew, to find a cure but she is scared and jealous. Can Kirk find the rest of the kids to get their help along with Miri?

This is one of my favorite episodes

Leonard Nimoy was asked to allow his children to appear as extras but Nimoy refused to let his children be involved in show business. His son, Adam Nimoy, did grow up to become a television director, including a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

The first of several “parallel Earth” plots in the series, contrived to save money by avoiding the necessity for “alien” sets, costumes, and makeup.

The outdoor scenes of this episode were filmed on the same back lot streets that also were used to create Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show (1960), except that the streets were piled with debris and dirt to create the appearance that the town was in ruins. Several building exteriors familiar from Mayberry can be seen in those exterior shots, including the courthouse, Walker’s Drugstore, the Grand movie theater, Floyd’s barber shop, and the Mayberry Hotel.

John Decker and Scott Dweck are Grace Lee Whitney’s sons. As an adult, Scott would return in a feature film appearance as a Vulcan members of the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

Leonard Nimoy and Grace Lee Whitney both named this as one of their favorite episodes of the show. William Shatner was more critical, however, feeling that the story dragged and that the initial hook of “another Earth” was interesting, but didn’t amount to anything.

This episode has a number of connections to The Andy Griffith Show (1960). The outdoor scenes are shot on the streets of the set that stood in for the town of Mayberry. Visible are the old courthouse, barber shop, feed and grain store, Walker’s Drugs, bank, grocery store, the Grand movie theater; and the building with the small porch into which the crew runs is the old Hotel Mayberry. Michael J. Pollard, who plays Jahn, the leader of the Onlies, played Barney Fife’s bumbling cousin in The Andy Griffith Show: Cousin Virgil (1962). And, when Kirk asks Spock to estimate in what time period the town seems to be, Spock responds with “1960,” the year that series debuted.

The Enterprise receives an old-style SOS signal and finds on arrival a planet that is virtually identical to Earth. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Yeoman Rand beam down to the planet only to find that it is inhabited solely by children. Kirk befriends one of the older children, Miri, but they soon learn that experiments to prolong life killed all of the adults and that the children will also die when they reach puberty. They also learn that the children are in fact, very old. Soon, the landing party contracts the virus and has seven days to find a cure.

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock Kim Darby … Miri Michael J. Pollard … Jahn DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy Grace Lee Whitney … Yeoman Janice Rand Keith Taylor … Jahn’s Friend Ed McCready … Boy Creature Kellie Flanagan … Blonde Girl Stephen McEveety … Redheaded Boy (as Steven McEveety) David L. Ross … Security Guard #1 (as David Ross) Jim Goodwin … Farrell John Megna … Little Boy Tom Anfinsen … Crewman (uncredited) John Arndt … Ingenieur Fields (uncredited) Iona Morris … Little African American Girl (uncredited) Phil Morris … Boy – Army Helmet (uncredited) Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited) Darleen Anita Roddenberry … Flowered Dress Girl (uncredited) Dawn Roddenberry … Little Blonde Girl (uncredited) Irene Sale … Louise (uncredited) Leslie Carol Shatner … Brunette Girl (uncredited) Elisabeth Shatner … Girl in Red-Striped Dress (uncredited) Scott Whitney … Small Boy (uncredited)

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. View all posts by Badfinger (Max)

26 thoughts on “Star Trek – Miri”

Lord of the flies mixed with a dark Peter Pan! Classic line right there Max

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lol thanks dude!

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Thank god for IMDB…or have you been digging around in Memory Alpha?

I’ve gone everywhere…but the trivia is from IMDB

It is a wealth of info.

Phil just weighed in on Ohio. I commented but, he moderates like I do.

I’ll check it out…

It was fun to see Kirk getting whacked by the kids.

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It was in a way lol.

but if they died upon hitting puberty, how did they breed and have any of them left?

There were no adults at all. So there would be no more people when this group of kids died. Of course this group of kids were 300 years old! They kept their kid emotions though…they could not grow to be mature.

Wow, heavy man, talk about addressing the generation gap, circa 1966! The title could have easily been ‘They’re kids, Jim, but not as we know ’em.”And I agree with DeKE, great line ‘Lord Of The Flies with a dash of dark Peter Pan.’ I’ve recently stumbled over the first series, buried deep in the far off rarely travelled lower reaches of Netflix here recently, so now I’m trying to sync my watching to the blog posts. One thing that has struck me- and I’m not overly Woke- but the sexism is so embedded in so many shows. Nowadays trawling through ‘Lost In Space’ is an embarrassing tragicomedy in that respect. But, a reflection of the times.

Oh yes…I’ve noticed that also. I mean what they dress those women in…yea I can see it and in the attitudes. On one hand you see women with power and then on the other…they are in micro miniskirts parading around. I think they tried to be forward thinking but just couldn’t pull the trigger on a lot of things.

Yes, when you’re helming a TV show you can only go so far.

The “parallel Earth” episodes…I never thought about the fact they allowed them to save a few bucks. Always gotta keep an eye on that bottom line!

And they most certainly did! I started to think after I read that…yea I remember a few parallel earths.

It’s one I remember from childhood. “Bonk bonk on the head” is a phrase I’ve used more than a few times in the past lol. Kim Darby was in some good TV shows and I loved her in “True Grit.” I remember Michael J. Pollard was in quite a few things also.

Oh jeez….you brought back some memories with True Grit…. Darby is a really good actress.

What the heck happened to her? She was everywhere for awhile.

I thought the same thing! I looked her up in IMDB and she hasn’t been in much…the last thing 2017. I would almost bet she is either halfway retired or more likely in plays…she is a high caliber actress. She was cute in the 70s…I remember watching her as a kid .

Yeah, Pollard was in a few ‘second kid on the left’ TV credits, or even guest roles for a while till he made it big in ‘Bonnie And Clyde,’ and I saw him in some motorcycle flick as well- and then I never saw him for decades. He had the classic movie star looks that would have made him perfect for the lead role of ‘Rumplestiltskin.’

Little Fauss Big Halsey with Robert Redford was the motorcycle flick. Great idea for his impish looks.

Looks like a good episode, Max. I can see why you gave it five stars.

It was a good episode. What I remember most is Janice Rand saying she’d wanted Kirk to look at her legs before on the ship, but now not so much since they were messed up and she tried to hide them…. that and “Bonk, Bonk, on the head.” Those crazy kids.

It is one of my favorite early episodes. One of my all time favorites is coming up with the two parter. Kim Darby was really good in this one. Michael J. Pollard was as well. He was older than I thought in this one…27 years old. I wish there would have been a relationship with Rand and Kirk .

There did seem to be some chemistry between Rand and Kirk. Makes me wonder……

This is a classic. Great work by Darby and good parts for all the regulars, including the last significant Yeoman Rand story. Having lived through COVID I had to laugh at McCoy’s quip when Kirk asks him to make a vaccine in five days.