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And The Children Shall Lead"And the Children Shall Lead" is a third season episode of , first broadcast October 11, 1968. It is episode #60, written by Edward J. Lakso and directed by Marvin Chomsky. Quick Overview: The crew of the Enterprise rescues a group of children stranded on a planet, along with their "evil" imaginary friend. On stardate 5029.5, the starship USS Enterprise intercepts a distress call from the planet Triacus, where a scientific expedition is located. Arriving at the planet, Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Spock beam down to investigate. They find the expedition leader, Professor Starnes, and all the other adult members of the team, dead from an apparent suicide. The expedition's five children however, who consist of four boys and one girl, remain alive and well. The group of children seem to follow the lead of the oldest child, Tommy, the preteen son of Professor Starnes. A recording is found, made by the research team, indicating they were driven to suicide to escape what they call "the enemy within". The landing team buries the dead adults and conducts a makeshift funeral as the children watch on in silence. They team notices the children seem strangely emotionless toward the loss of their families. Afterward, the children and the landing party beam to the Enterprise. McCoy looks the children over and finds them in perfect health. Kirk tries to talk to them and they reveal that they did not like living on Triacus and were resentful their parents wanted to stay. Kirk tries to ask more questions but the children begin to chant "busy busy busy" and rudely ignore him. The children are assigned quarters, and once they are left alone, they form a circle and begin to perform a summoning ritual, chanting: "Hail, hail, fire and snow, call the angel we will go, far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me". Answering the call, a humanoid apparition forms, appearing as a richly dressed man surrounded by a green glow, called Gorgan. Gorgan is happy that his children have completed their "first step" and encourages them to take over the Enterprise and change its course to the planet Marcos XII. There he promises the children will be happy, and offers a life without responsibilities or rules, once they are with the others of his kind. Tommy gets permission to visit the bridge where Captain Kirk and Spock look over data from the expedition site. He asks Kirk to take him and his friends to Marcos XII. Kirk refuses the peculiar request and tells him they will be taken to a Starbase 4 and reunited with their relatives. Kirk and Spock listen to an audio recording from Professor Starnes who documents the bizarre onset of paranoia and anxiety among his staff just after the recent excavation of a new archeological site. Just then, Tommy concentrates deeply and uses a series of gestures made with his clenched fist to telepathically fry the recording tapes. Kirk and Spock are confounded over the tape's demise and then leave the bridge. Tommy stays behind and observes Mr. Sulu and Mr. Chekov at the helm. He then concentrates and telepathically forces Sulu and Chekov to change course, however, in their minds, they are still orbiting the planet. Lt. Uhura notices the planet is gone and she questions Sulu, but Tommy affects her as well, and she gets a share of the same illusion, brushing it off as just seeing things. Meanwhile, Mr. Spock reports his findings on the obscure history of Triacus that may be linked to the disturbances felt by the research expedition. He informs Kirk that Triacus was the ancient base of operations for planetary marauders who fought wars throughout the sector thousands of years ago. The marauders were eventually defeated, but according to legend, their evil remained behind waiting for an escape. He believes that it only needs some sort of catalyst to bring it alive again. Armed with the news that something sinister may be lurking on the planet, Kirk assembles two security members to beam down to the planet to assist personnel already looking over the excavation site. As they are beamed away, Kirk notices the transporter did not have a surface lock and he has just beamed the two men into the vacuum of space, since the Enterprise no longer orbits Triacus. Kirk rushes to the bridge to discover the children have taken over and are utilizing his crew as their puppets. He confronts his two helmsmen about the change of course, but they insist there is no change. Kirk again orders Sulu to change course, but then enormous daggers appear on the viewscreen that only Sulu can see. Kirk tries to take over the controls, but is forced away by Sulu who shouts: "No Captain! We'll all be killed!", and desperately avoids being sliced up by the imaginary blades. He then realizes Tommy is affecting their minds and demands it be stopped, but Tommy ignores him. Kirk turns to Spock to override the controls but his mind is affected too, and he just stands there unable to carry out his Captain's orders. When Kirk orders Lt. Uhura to alert Starfleet, she too becomes useless, as the children make her think she has become a sickly old woman. All she can do is look horrified at her reflection in the console and sob. Kirk orders the bridge security officer to escort the children away, but all the officer hears is gibberish and just stands there in a daze. Angered, Kirk goes after the children himself, but they converge their powers and affect his mind, convincing him that he has lost his ability to command. As Kirk breaks down, Spock manages to shake off the children's control and quickly leads his shaken captain off the bridge. Kirk, now a mess of anxiety, collapses in self pity on the turbolift floor, and Spock takes him to sickbay to help regain his composure. Once back on his feet, Kirk listens to the remainder of Professor Starnes recordings. He speaks of doing things against his will and how he requested a starship come to the planet with no apparent need of it. Finally he says the power started to influence the children. The tape reveals a recording of the "summoning chant" the children sing to bring the power to them. With the tape in hand, Kirk and Spock then try to enlist Mr. Scott's help in regaining control of the Enterprise, but they find the engine room staff under the same control as the bridge personnel. Suddenly, Chekov arrives with a security detail, and tries to have Kirk and Spock arrested. The two manage to fight off the men and make their way to back the bridge. Kirk and Spock play the chant from the tape and Gorgan appears on the bridge. The entity informs the children that they are near victory, and encourages them to not allow the adults to gain control of the ship. Kirk however, queues up the rest of the tape recording and plays back video of the children's families. The images show the kids having fun and laughing, playing games with their parents. Kirk observes smiles returning to their faces as they watch. Then the images appear of the adult's dead bodies, and their smiles quickly turn to tears. Kirk reminds them their happy times with their families are gone and he tries to make them understand that Gorgan is behind their deaths. The children begin to cry as their ideas about Gorgan change. This obviously affects the beings powers. The entity's face begins to hideously decay as it tries to win the children's faith, but they are repulsed by it. Gorgan weakens and finally fades away chanting "death to you all." With the evil gone, the illusions subside, and control of the ship is restored. Trivia When the children ignore Captain Kirk, and chant "busy, busy, busy", this quote may be a reference to Cat's Cradle, by author Kurt Vonnegut. Specifically, Bokonon. External Links
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