Miri
Miri (Wikipedia; HD Video) is an okay episode with one glaring flaw: the Enterprise finds an exact duplicate of Earth where the only survivors are children.
Wait, what? An exact duplicate of Earth? Why? Why would that exist? There’d better be a great explanation for this, some alien copy-ray or a race of crazed world-builder mice.
But there isn’t. It’s just a duplicate of Earth for no reason at all.
Oh, except that it’s an alternate Earth where everyone dies at puberty thanks to a crazy virus. Yes, a little Jeremiah there, but since this came first by a few decades I think we can give them a pass.
Except for this whole duplicate-Earth thing. I mean, really, there’s no reason why there couldn’t be a crazy adult-killing virus on some alien world, or an Earth colony, or whatever. The duplicate-Earth thing is just lame.
Oh, and Memory Alpha notes that the duplicate Earth bit was added after the fact and that has necessitated huge rafts of silliness to make it remotely canon.
Begin Spoilers
The crew doesn’t die on the planet.
End Spoilers
What this episode does do well, though, is the relationship of Kirk with Miri, a young girl just about to hit puberty (and thus die). She loves Kirk, and he knows it, but he also knows that it’s not ever ever ever gonna work. Up to this point, Kirk has been pretty much a completely different character than the stereotype would have it. He’s not a womanizer; he in fact goes to great lengths to give Yeoman Rand space, because he knows he’s attracted to her. He only gets into the occasional fist-fight. He’s apparently a scientific genius and a hard worker who did incredibly well at Starfleet Academy. But his shirt does come off a little too often.
Best Big of Dialog
Kirk: This is the vaccine?
McCoy: That’s what the computers will tell us.
Spock: Without them, it could be a beaker full of death.
[Ominous music]
Grade
D; would be a solid C+ if not for the stupid, stupid duplicate Earth thing.
