Stardate: 2713.5
Quick Summary: The Enterprise stumbles upon a distress signal from a planet that is an exact replicate of Earth. As the crew beams down, they find its ruins are populated with no adults, only children, and that a plague was responsible 300 years earlier. When the Enterprise crew gets infected with the plague, they have seven days to find an antidote before they die, all while fending off the harassment of the troublesome children.
Review: That the planet is an exact replicate of Earth is, perhaps, the most interesting characteristic of this episode, and it's never addressed again after the pre-credit introduction. See where I'm going with this?
The entire story is an obvious analogy to Lord of the Flies - a group of children living in their own self-created society whose original playfulness has given way to dangerous mischief and anarchy. Kirk shows his paternalistic/authoritarian side stating, "Children have an instinctive need for adults, they like to be told right and wrong". That he is portrayed as Order in contrast to the kids who represent Chaos smells strikingly like Federation propaganda to me. Also, there's no real conflict or issue here either; the crew seeks an antidote to the plague, and Kirk has to convince the kids that they'll need it too. Ho-hum. The best line is that if they test the antidote without first processing it through the ship's computer, it could be "a beaker full of death!". That's about as dramatic as it gets.
Some episodes are bad. This one's just boring.
Review: 2 stars
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