History Recap / StarTrekS3E4AndTheChildrenShallLead

OK, fashion rant over. The children's behavior is disturbing. Not because it's TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior. They are acting exactly like children. Like unusually mouthy, disrespectful children who only care about fun to the point that they couldn't care less if their parents are dead. They were no fun anyway. Kirk wants to find out what went wrong, if something is still going wrong. The kids want to go to Markos XII. If they don't get what they want, they won't throw a tantrum or anything...

Kirk, Bones and Spock beam down to Triacus to find that [[EverybodysDeadDave Everybody's Dead, Jim]]. Well, not everybody. The five children that went with their parents are still alive and oblivious to the fact that their parents are dead. It is at this point, the viewer learns one essential thing. In the future, there is no fashion sense! Tommy appears to be wearing an OldTimeyBathingSuit. Mary looks like a flower child's acid trip. Don is wearing the curtains from Hell's dining room. Ray looks like he's been stealing from the closet of a dwarf used car salesman. And Steve looks like he's wearing [[Film/{{Braveheart}} William Wallace's]] hand-me-downs. (His family name is O'Connel, but this is taking Celtic pride a bit far!) Seriously, Will, what were you thinking?

* ApocalypticLog: Prof. Starnes (Tommy's father, incidentally) has left one.

* CoolDownHug: A frightened Kirk gets pulled into the turbo lift by Spock. Hello, HoYay! Looks like Miramanee from that last episode didn't banish you after all!

* DrivenToSuicide: All the adults of Triacus.

* FieryRedhead: Tommy

* GirlishPigtails: Mary sports a golden pair.

* HoYay: The turbolift scene.

* MouthyKid: All the kids, but especially Mary.

* RedShirt: Two of them get beamed into empty space because the kids have caused everyone to believe they are still in orbit around Triacus.
** Presumably, the security officers stranded in the planet are also [[RedShirt Red Shirts]], and by the time the episode is over Kirk has apparently forgotten about their existence. Expendable indeed.

* SpaceClothes: Oh, good Lord. Who the hell dressed these children?
* SummoningRitual: "Hail, hail, fire and snow...."

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Kirk leaves two security officers on the planet when he beams up, and they're left behind when the children take over the ship and force it to set course for Markos XII. When Kirk regains control, he orders the ship to the starbase where he had intended to offload the kids. No mention is given of the officers who are left on the planet. Unless Kirk goes to pick them up later, he seems to have forgotten all about them and just abandoned them!

* CallBack: The Gorgon preys on Uhura's fear of growing old. Previously in ''[[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd I, Mudd]]'' she had been tempted by an offer of near-eternal youth (in an android body).

* {{Namedar}}: Kirk addresses Gorgan by name in the final confrontation without the name having mentioned before, in his hearing or at all.

OK, fashion rant over. The children's behavior is disturbing. Not because it's TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior. They are acting exactly like children. Like unusually mouthy, disrespectful children who only care about fun to the point that they couldn't care less if their parents are dead. They were no fun anyway. Kirk wants to find out what went wrong, if something is still going wrong. The kids want to go to Markos XII. If they don't get what they want, they won't throw a tantrum or anything....

* TeensAreMonsters: Tommy (who looks somewhere between 12 and 14) is the de facto leader of these children who would take over the universe. He takes perverse pleasure in tormenting the adults.

* CryCute: The episode ends with five crying little kids. Bones is overjoyed at this. Now that the denial has been broken, he can help them recover.

* HamToHamCombat: Averted for the most part, due to Melvin Belli's flat performance, but he finally starts hamming it up near the end after Kirk breaks his control over the kids. Even then he comes across pretty subdued next to Creator/WilliamShatner, who turns his performance UpToEleven for this episode.

* CallBack: The Gorgon preys on Uhura's fear of growing old. Previously in ''[[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd I, Mudd]]'' she had been tempted by near-eternal youth (in an android body).

* CallBack: The Gorgon preys on Uhura's fear of growing old. Previously in ''[[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd I, Mudd]]'' she had been tempted by immortality (in an android body).

* EvilRedHead: Tommy, but finally subverted since they're all manipulated by Gorgan.
* FieryRedHead: Tommy

Kirk, Bones and Spock beam down to Triacus to find that [[EverybodysDeadDave Everybody's Dead, Jim]]. Well, not everybody. The five children that went with their parents are still alive and oblivious to the fact that their parents are dead. It is at this point, the viewer learns one essential thing. In the future, there is no fashion sense! Tommy appears to be wearing an OldTimeyBathingSuit. Mary looks like a flower child's acid trip. Don is wearing the curtains from Hell's dining room. Ray looks like he's been stealing from the closet of a midget used car salesman. And Steve looks like he's wearing [[Film/{{Braveheart}} William Wallace's]] hand-me-downs. (His family name is O'Connel, but this is taking Celtic pride a bit far!) Seriously, Will, what were you thinking?

* CryingLittleKid[=/=]CryCute: The episode ends with five crying little kids. Bones is overjoyed at this. Now that the denial has been broken, he can help them recover.

!!Tropes for this episode include:

* IronicNurseryRhyme: The kids sing and play "Ring Around The Rosy" within sight of their dead parents. "We all fall down!" indeed. The tune is played again where ironically appropriate. The chant that the children use to summon Gorgan could fall under this trope as well. It's also a bit of an EarWorm.

* VanityIsFeminine: When the characters' worst fears were shown: Kirk's was losing command, Sulu's was facing certain death that he had to maneuver the ship out of, and Uhura's was...being old and ugly. Granted, it seemed to be that being sick and near death that upset her most.