Trivia / Star Trek S3 E4 "And the Children Shall Lead"

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• Creator Backlash: Has received a fair bit from the people who worked on it.
  • Leonard Nimoy felt that it was an inferior rehash of the Season 1 story "Miri".
  • Walter Koenig hated that Melvin Belli, a lawyer with no acting experience whatsoever, was cast as the story's main villain (something that even producer Fred Freiberger later admitted had been a huge error)
  • Director Marvin Chomsky was reputedly embarrassed to have worked on the story.
• Deleted Scene: A short scene near the top of the fourth act where Sulu threatens Kirk with a phaser.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The arboretum set was originally built for "Elaan of Troyius", but became a deleted scene due to time constraints. It was later modified for the arboretum that appeared in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
  • Professor Starnes and the other male colonists wore jumpsuits left over from "The Devil in the Dark", which were reused many times during the series. Two of the female colonists wore Janet Wallace' costumes from "The Deadly Years". Another female Exploration Party member wore Martha Leighton's costume from "The Conscience of the King".
• Referenced by...:
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 season 8 had a two episode storyline where Pearl, Professor Bobo and Observer are harassed by three Space Children based off of the kids in the episode.
  • Zodiac: Jim Dunbar tells Melvin Belli he has seen him in this "excellent" episode, prompting Belli to claim he is thinking of becoming an actor full time. Yeah, good luck with that.
• Real-Life Relative: Melvin Belli's son Caesar Belli played Steve. In fact, this led to Melvin's casting.
• Stunt Casting: In one of the most bizarre examples in the history of television, producer Fred Freiberger cast famous lawyer Melvin Belli as the villain, hoping his presence would boost ratings. This plan failed and Freiberger realized it would've been more appropriate to cast an actor in the role.
• You Look Familiar: Craig Huxley, who portrayed Tommy Starnes in the episode, had earlier portrayed Capt. Kirk's nephew Peter in "Operation: Annihilate".

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