Rewatching Miri

[ZapBrannigan]

In this episode, was Miri saying whatever the landing party was working on was butting in on things that were not their business? Or was she just demeaning their activities in general? The word sounds silly to my ear, and I wish I knew how it sounded to someone who knows the word well.

It's both: Miri was feeling scorned and jealous, so she bitterly accused Kirk of butting in on the kids' little society. It was a sour grapes moment; if she can't have Kirk, he's no good.

As to how it sounded, the word is demeaning when it's said to your face, but it can also be light and facetious. Obviously it's crafted to sound like a Polish surname, to be funny, and I can say from experience it was common parlance in the northeast among working class, ethnic-but-assimilated Americans. "Don't be a buttinsky" is harsh and cutting when you're just trying to help, but "He's always a buttinsky" could be mild and even affectionate.

 

[Timo]

Of course, if they age slowly, they might also metabolize slowly, and for them biologically, it indeed is a three-year timeframe.

In which case our heroes digging into the local food stores to meet their own needs might mean each child lost a century's worth of sustenance.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Neopeius]

It's both: Miri was feeling scorned and jealous, so she bitterly accused Kirk of butting in on the kids' little society. It was a sour grapes moment; if she can't have Kirk, he's no good.

As to how it sounded, the word is demeaning when it's said to your face, but it can also be light and facetious. Obviously it's crafted to sound like a Polish surname, to be funny, and I can say from experience it was common parlance in the northeast among working class, ethnic-but-assimilated Americans. "Don't be a buttinsky" is harsh and cutting when you're just trying to help, but "He's always a buttinsky" could be mild and even affectionate.

Russian surname. If it was a Polish surname, it'd end in an "i"

My slang dictionary (1960) notes that it's an unusual construction, being one of the few that ends in "sky" rather than "er".

 

[Neopeius]

Of course, if they age slowly, they might also metabolize slowly, and for them biologically, it indeed is a three-year timeframe.

And their B.M.s take a decade. Good thing they got rescued in time!

 

[BK613]

I find it amusing that someone attending one of those accredited universities could confuse their professor's intent of repeating the instruction:"Get Out!", for the purpose of providing individualized instruction in "clear and succinct communication".

I spent a decade in the US Navy and another decade teaching in an American High School. Not impressed.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Not sure what you're getting at. Seems pretty obvious the idea is it was an exact duplicate of Earth up until failed medical experiment 300 years ago, so progress stopped there but not on our Earth.

Indeed.

 

[Maurice]

I spent a decade in the US Navy and another decade teaching in an American High School. Not impressed.

The tone is even more unimpressive.

 

[Captain Tracy]

No, it doens't look 300 years decayed.

While the majority of the abandoned vehicles of a grayish-color we are shown have either flat tires or their wheels completely removed; however, there is one vehicle shown - a ruddy/rust-colored sedan parked inline with the door to the building with the catty-corner entry way - which, if you look closely, appears to still have it's tires still fully inflated!

Approximately 02:59 - 03:15 provides a good shot of the car, as the Landing Party slowly walks by it, just after they beam-down.

Tires still fully inflated would be quite the anomaly for something aged 300 years.

 

[BK613]

I wonder how many of those vehicles exist as they were from the before time and how many have been part of the Onlies's foolies over the years...it wouldn't be beyond the kids' abilities to air up the tires to go joyriding in the cars (until the batteries died and/or the gas supplies ran out anyway.)

Another odd thing is the lack of remains, either from the crisis or the death of the kids over the years.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Another odd thing is the lack of remains, either from the crisis or the death of the kids over the years.

The victims of the original crisis died so long ago, that their exposed bodies (and clothing) would have deteriorated by the time the planet was discovered by Kirk's Enterprise.

 

[GNDN18]

The corpses just fade away

like the blotches.

 

[cgervasi]

It's both: Miri was feeling scorned and jealous, so she bitterly accused Kirk of butting in on the kids' little society. It was a sour grapes moment; if she can't have Kirk, he's no good.

As to how it sounded, the word is demeaning when it's said to your face, but it can also be light and facetious. Obviously it's crafted to sound like a Polish surname, to be funny, and I can say from experience it was common parlance in the northeast among working class, ethnic-but-assimilated Americans. "Don't be a buttinsky" is harsh and cutting when you're just trying to help, but "He's always a buttinsky" could be mild and even affectionate.

Thanks. This helps me understand her performance in way I didn't before. Her face really conveys she's becoming an adult, but she's trying to orchestrate a childish prank, and she gives some looks that look flirtatious. It makes total sense that she would use this slang word for meddling that can be silly or demeaning to say these guys are butting in. She says dumb, not stupid, because words of Germanic origin sound more immediate, less theoretical than Latin-based words. I now get exactly what she was saying.

 

[BK613]

The victims of the original crisis died so long ago, that their exposed bodies (and clothing) would have deteriorated by the time the planet was discovered by Kirk's Enterprise.

Non-mummified remains can last longer than a few centuries.

 

[Maurice]

Non-mummified remains can last longer than a few centuries.

Not so much laying out in the open where all kinds of wildlife and bugs can nibble on them.

 

[BK613]

Actually, re-thinking the complaint in light of the last 20 months. If the disease had the same one-week onset as our heroes experience, then there would have been time in the early stages of the crisis for emergency services to deal with issues like corpses. Especially if Kirk and Company are at ground-zero for the startup of the disease. IOW, the beginning might not have been overwhelming; that would come later as the disease spread.

 

[Timo]

It would still be a bit odd for the authorities to nicely clean up a small town like this, yet not to move all the kids to hospitals, camps or containment tanks or whatever.

OTOH, the kids themselves would have centuries to do it. Even if they weren't particularly motivated, they might eventually get around to doing it anyway. But yes, the deaths from this weird "disease" might be weird themselves, resulting in the quick disappearing of the corpses.

A bit odd for this specific location to be sending the one and only SOS. Were there thousands originally, and the others went silent but this one had phenomenally good batteries?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BK613]

MIRI: That was when they started to get sick in the before time. We hid, then they were gone.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

MIRI: That was when they started to get sick in the before time. We hid, then they were gone.

This is rare for me, but I just had a Fridge Horror moment. I've never really noticed that line and let it sink in before.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeHorror

Under a different main title sequence and maybe change the ending, "Miri" would easily be one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone.

 

[BK613]

This is rare for me, but I just had a Fridge Horror moment. I've never really noticed that line and let it sink in before.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeHorror

Under a different main title sequence and maybe change the ending, "Miri" would easily be one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Well, the identical Earth opening does it no favors. Of course, the kids hiding may have saved them; it's easy to imagine quarantine camps where kids who were carriers starved from the lack of a city's worth of resources.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Well, the identical Earth opening does it no favors.

The duplicate Earth was a quintessential Twilight Zone touch. It wasn't meant to be hard science, it was the spooky, mysterious thing you had to stick around for to see what was going on. TZ had been demonstrating for years that you could do classy, adult drama that hinged on something impossible, and people loved it. When early Star Trek was finding itself, The Twilight Zone was one of its role models.

Of course, the kids hiding may have saved them; it's easy to imagine quarantine camps where kids who were carriers starved from the lack of a city's worth of resources.

Well, that makes it even scarier. I've always loved this episode, and now it turns out the deeper you look, the more there is. So much texture and detail on the screen, so many nooks and crannies in the story. It was more expensive to make than "That Which Survives" or "The Cloud Minders," but boy was it worth it. "Miri" did not roll off an assembly line. It was finely crafted.