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Who Mourns For "Miri"?

Esteban

Esteban

Commander
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Why is "Miri" so unloved?

Leonard Nimoy says, in " I Am Not Spock", that it was a lovely episode.

I agree.

Sure, there are flaws: the whole parallel Earth thing, the bad Globe, the bonk bonk on the head.

In defense I offer the following:

1) Beautifully and artfully directed by Vince McEveety. The smudging window, the hard closeups, the floor camera...much more than heretofore shown.

2) Acting. Nimoy: "and I DO want to go back to the ship". Whitney: "...look at my legs". Even Willy: "No, I DONT feel alright...NONE of us feel(s) alright!"

3) Forty Acres. For God's sake, when ST went outdoors, it was always a breath of fresh air. Having them on the lot instead of on Stage 9 was great.

4) Ed McCready. Ed showed up in all of the Vince McEveety-directed eps. This time, he played the "Mine, Mine!" guy terribly concerned for his tricycle. Despite 60s makeup, he was sufficiently creepy to make a solid impression...

5) The use of the word "Puberty". I'm an old guy, but let me tell you that that word was never, ever, used on 60s TV. Ever.

6) The underlying science fiction, to wit, that a culture (very much like ours) had tried to invent "life prolongation", and falied, horribly.

Yes, it missed the mark a bit, but as a great story, and an episode that I would take to a desert isle, give me my "Miri".
 
I didn't think it was unloved. Heck, I was shown that episode in an English class at school. Probably Rand's best episode, good stuff from the Big Three and from guest star Kim Darby.
 
I'm conflicted. It's bad in a lot of ways, but it's very professionally done. It feels like Trek. It feels like a Trek movie, really.

It's just kind of a dumb plot, although they probably could have fixed it with a second draft.
 
I always liked this episode. I could have done without the "exact duplicate of Earth" business - I had read the Blish adaptation before ever seeing the episode, and no exact parallel is mentioned there, so it was a bit of a surprise that the episode made the parallel explicit with the (cloudless) orbital view.

Michael J. Pollard was perfect as the kid who never grew up - even if he was (according to IMDB) age 27 during filming. "They're GRUPS!"
 
It would have cost them nothing to do a different spatial view - but fortunes to redecorate the streets to look sufficiently alien...

Perhaps the remastered and re-VFX'ed version should have changed the planet, and also have added alien text to the signs on the streets, plus an alien architectural feature or three... The dialogue could have been reinterpreted as plausible amazement on the fact that the planet was about 98% similar to Earth physically (even though the continents were shaped completely differently), and that the city featured so many architectural and functional parallels to be essentially 90% similar to 20th century Earth, as contrasted with previously encountered alien civilizations that were only a 75% match for the Earth of those centuries.

Oh, well. It's sort of fun to think that Earth could really exist in duplicate, thanks to some really weird quirk of the Star Trek rules on the universe.

Timo Saloniemi
 
The "parallel Earth" thing was a teaser; nothing more. It's got nothing to do with the story, really. It pretty much goes away at the beginning of the first act.

This episode never bothered me, but it's not one I go out of my way to watch. It does have many nice moments, as mentioned above. Even my wife, who doesn't care for Trek, has used the line "Study, study, study...or bonk bonk on the head, bad kids!"
 
It was odd to think that, despite her seeming youth and innocence, Miri was so much older than Kirk. And I also remember the sense of dread upon seeing McCoy seemingly succumb to the rigors of his miracle remedy, having experimented with it on himself.

A creepy but pretty cool episode...probably should be considered above average by some degree.
 
Yeah, I thought it was very well done.

Out of curiosity, what beyond the parallel earth thing is complained about?
 
I think it is a good episode. It sometimes moves a little slow, but all in all it's pretty good. There has to be some suspension of disbelief when races on every planet speak English. They do not seem to always have the universal translator with them, so it is quite remarkable. Anyway, any episode that features Rand's legs has a built in likeability factor for me.
 
Bonk! Bonk!

I like the episode, but I think the story had a lot of possibilities for exploration among all the characters that were never fleshed out enough making the episode feel superficial. The story could have benefited immensely with a re-write to give more focus to fewer plot points.
 
I always liked Miri.

It may have been the first TOS episode I saw in the 70's syndication.

The parallel-Earth thing never bothered me. It's science fiction for heaven's sake. . .
 
This is one of those cringe-inducing episodes for me. I never could stand it, for whatever reason.

I haven't watched the remastered version of it yet. Maybe I should. Who knows? My opinion might well change. It's been decades since I've seen it all the way through.
 
I guess that's up side of being 5 years old in '72 and catching it in re-runs after school. By the time I was old enough to care about some of the "issues" that have been mentioned, all of the episodes, including Miri were more like old friends. When ever they show up, I'm happy to see them. Flaws and all.
 
It's a fine episode -- sensitive, moving, disturbing, thought-provoking, dramatic -- but it's not a fun episode. It doesn't rely on juvenile shoot 'em up action, present an identifiable villain, or offer easy answers to what are some of life's serious issues -- growing up, growing old, confusing love with loneliness or desire. It requires a perspective from or perhaps mood of the viewer to be fully appreciated. Space opera stuff like "The Doomsday Machine" is much easier to watch because while emotions are there -- we feel for Decker, certainly -- the sweep of the episode let's us keep them more at a distance and get lost in the roller coaster of it all. But "Miri" wants us to reflect on our own smaller experiences, from unrequited crushes to suddenly finding ourselves older and not realizing how we got there. Trust me, the first time you see spider veins on your legs, you'll know exactly what Rand is going through; the first time you have to tell someone significantly younger than you it just ain't going to happen, you'll understand how gentle Kirk is trying to be with Miri, without treating her as a child. And, I hate to say it, but watching that poor wretch at the beginning die while clutching his tricycle still makes me truly sad.
 
Good character ep!

Many of Janice Rand's finest moments are in "Miri".

I like how she's the one who calms down Miri in the beginning. Grace was already a mother (her kids are in the ep, BTW!), so she knew exactly how to play that scene.:techman:

The romantic tension between her and Kirk is brought to full dramatic light. It's a big shame Grace wasn't forced off the show...the writers could've done so much with that....:(

There's also a nice hint into her past! About halfway through, she remarks--in a nostalgic, almost sad, tone, "Children who never age...eternal childhood filled with play...and no responsabilities. (sigh)...It's almost like a dream...."

That line could have been played many different ways. Grace interperets it...as if Rand's own childhood was anything but innocent and carefree....

It actually fits well with Vonda's Enterprise: The First Adventure.
 
I remember a line from a Star Trek comic book (the old Gold Key run) when Kirk and Rand were stuck in a holding cell or something together and Rand wistfully wished "Backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight, and make me a child again, just for one night."
 
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