Rating: 
Summary: The last two episodes featuring Janice Rand.
Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Volume 6 features two episodes originally aired in 1966:"Miri:" Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Rand beam down to a planet inhabited by 300 year-old 'children' wherein they are infected by a maddening disease that is fatal to adults. This segment attempts to be a haunting take on the Peter Pan fable about children who never grow old, but fails to sustain interest (one's mind keeps wandering); there's also too many melodramatic scenes that simpy don't work. On the plus side Yeoman Janice Rand figures prominently; her horror at the disease' progress on her body, and hence the deterioration of her beauty, is an excellent analogy of the universal human struggle with the accursed reality of aging and death. Anyway, the episode provides adequate proof that kids and Star Trek don't mix (so why did they end up featuring Wesley Crusher so prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation two decades later?) (Of course he only lasted four seasons as Trek fans universally despised him -- including me). GRADE: D- "The Conscience of the King:" Kirk becomes convinced that the leader of a Shakespearean troupe, Anton Karidian, which the Enterprise is transporting, is a notorious political figure responsible for a massacre twenty years earlier. This episode sadly marks the seventh and final appearance of Yeoman Janice Rand played by Grace Lee Whitney. Unfortunately her appearance here is merely a cameo. Apparently the network felt the presence of Rand would hinder Kirk's succession of romantic interests (an argument that really holds no water). Over the years Gene Roddenberry has stated many times that he should have kept Grace as part of the cast. She would return to Trek twelve years later in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Arnold Moss, who plays Karidian, gives an outstanding performance portraying Karidian when he painfully exclaims, "I no longer treasure life, not even my own... I AM TIRED...!!" Powerful! Bottom Line: An original, mature and well-written drama, not to mention heartbreaking -- kids won't like it. GRADE B+
Rating:
Summary: Destroyers of Worlds
Review: These two are a mixed bag: "Conscience of the King" is fairly prosaic melodrama, though not bad, and "Miri" is one of the better episodes of the first season. Arnold Moss plays Shakespearean actor Anton Kiridian in "Conscience of the King," who may or may not be escaped genocidal mass-murderer Kodos the Executioner - who slaughtered an entire planet's population, including the parents of two of the Enterprise's crew: engineer Riley (Bruce Hyde), and Captain Kirk. Kirk and Riley, in fact, are the last two survivors of Kodos' notorious butchery, and so the only two who could possibly identify him. Is Kodos masquerading as Karidian? That would explain the attempts on Kirk's and Riley's lives, since his troupe boarded the ship... It's a passable episode, though unimportant. Moss gives a thoughtful, emotional performance, that is sometimes surprisingly touching, but Barbara Anderson as his daughter is a little more uneven, seeming perfectly comfortable as Kirk's love-interest but a bit more uncomfortable with the high intensity level of her role in the finale. "Miri" is a very well-written story, with two of the best guest stars ever on the series: Kim Darby and Michael J. Pollard, who have terrific chemistry with each other and with William Shatner, with whom they principally end up interacting. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Yeoman Janice Rand beam down to an Earth-like planet showing evidence of some catastrophe - it is all but abandoned, except for one violent, blue-skinned and seemingly-retarded man, who the landing party reluctantly kill in self-defense, and children who hide in the shadows. Kirk apprehends one of the children, Miri (Darby), who is just entering adolescence and develops a crush on the Captain. Her story and McCoy's tests show that the madman they killed was a diseased adult, infected by a biological warfare plague that devastated the planet two hundred years ago - but gave near-immortality to the children. As they enter adolescence, the children catch the disease. Miri, jealous of Kirk's attentions to Yeoman Rand, initially sells the landing party out to kids' gangleader Michael J. Pollard, stranding them on the planet where they will soon die, but helps him win them over when she realizes she, too, is contracting the disease. The performances all around are fabulous. Darby and Pollard are never uninteresting in anything they do, and the staple cast regulars are in fine form. There are a couple unintentionally funny lines, due to their hackneyed nature and melodramatic delivery, but the actors handle them really pretty well - my favorite being Spock's declaration that, if they try the untested cure McCoy has come up with without checking his data on board the ship, the cure "could be a beaker full of death!" Worth the price of admission for "Miri," and you could do worse than "Conscience of the King."
Rating:
Summary: Destroyers of Worlds
Review: These two are a mixed bag: "Conscience of the King" is fairly prosaic melodrama, though not bad, and "Miri" is one of the better episodes of the first season. Arnold Moss plays Shakespearean actor Anton Kiridian in "Conscience of the King," who may or may not be escaped genocidal mass-murderer Kodos the Executioner - who slaughtered an entire planet's population, including the parents of two of the Enterprise's crew: engineer Riley (Bruce Hyde), and Captain Kirk. Kirk and Riley, in fact, are the last two survivors of Kodos' notorious butchery, and so the only two who could possibly identify him. Is Kodos masquerading as Karidian? That would explain the attempts on Kirk's and Riley's lives, since his troupe boarded the ship... It's a passable episode, though unimportant. Moss gives a thoughtful, emotional performance, that is sometimes surprisingly touching, but Barbara Anderson as his daughter is a little more uneven, seeming perfectly comfortable as Kirk's love-interest but a bit more uncomfortable with the high intensity level of her role in the finale. "Miri" is a very well-written story, with two of the best guest stars ever on the series: Kim Darby and Michael J. Pollard, who have terrific chemistry with each other and with William Shatner, with whom they principally end up interacting. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Yeoman Janice Rand beam down to an Earth-like planet showing evidence of some catastrophe - it is all but abandoned, except for one violent, blue-skinned and seemingly-retarded man, who the landing party reluctantly kill in self-defense, and children who hide in the shadows. Kirk apprehends one of the children, Miri (Darby), who is just entering adolescence and develops a crush on the Captain. Her story and McCoy's tests show that the madman they killed was a diseased adult, infected by a biological warfare plague that devastated the planet two hundred years ago - but gave near-immortality to the children. As they enter adolescence, the children catch the disease. Miri, jealous of Kirk's attentions to Yeoman Rand, initially sells the landing party out to kids' gangleader Michael J. Pollard, stranding them on the planet where they will soon die, but helps him win them over when she realizes she, too, is contracting the disease. The performances all around are fabulous. Darby and Pollard are never uninteresting in anything they do, and the staple cast regulars are in fine form. There are a couple unintentionally funny lines, due to their hackneyed nature and melodramatic delivery, but the actors handle them really pretty well - my favorite being Spock's declaration that, if they try the untested cure McCoy has come up with without checking his data on board the ship, the cure "could be a beaker full of death!" Worth the price of admission for "Miri," and you could do worse than "Conscience of the King."
Rating: 
Summary: Two Atypical Star Trek Episodes That Drove the Censors Crazy
Review: This volume of Star Trek on DVD contains two rather unusual episodes. "Miri" starts out with a weak plot point, the crew of the Enterprise stumbles upon a duplicate earth (with no clouds!) and beams down. There is no explanation of how this "other" Earth came to be--no ion storms or parallel universes here. Our heroes beam down and find the planet devoid of all human life except impossibly old children. No more spoilers here, except that we hear several cast members say the forbidden word "puberty." "Conscience of the King," directed by Sean Penn's father, Gerd Oswald, is an unusual episode in many respects: scoring, sets, and general mood. The only plot points I will give away are that Kirk faces a ghost from his past, and picks up a real looney chick who likes to talk about his "surging and throbbing" starship. But seriously, even though the network censors were thankfully snoozing when these episodes were screened, these are well crafted stories featuring some fine acting from the consistently underrated William Shatner.
Rating:
Summary: Two Atypical Star Trek Episodes That Drove the Censors Crazy
Review: This volume of Star Trek on DVD contains two rather unusual episodes. "Miri" starts out with a weak plot point, the crew of the Enterprise stumbles upon a duplicate earth (with no clouds!) and beams down. There is no explanation of how this "other" Earth came to be--no ion storms or parallel universes here. Our heroes beam down and find the planet devoid of all human life except impossibly old children. No more spoilers here, except that we hear several cast members say the forbidden word "puberty." "Conscience of the King," directed by Sean Penn's father, Gerd Oswald, is an unusual episode in many respects: scoring, sets, and general mood. The only plot points I will give away are that Kirk faces a ghost from his past, and picks up a real looney chick who likes to talk about his "surging and throbbing" starship. But seriously, even though the network censors were thankfully snoozing when these episodes were screened, these are well crafted stories featuring some fine acting from the consistently underrated William Shatner.
Rating:
Summary: Darby shines in MIRI
Review: Trek occasionally pitted the starship crew against some horrid space-born epidemic, only to find a miracle cure just before the credits rolled. Miri did it best. It's one of Trek's darker episodes, with undercurrents of child violence and adolescent sexuality. Kim Darby and Michael Pollard are superb. Unfortunately the second episode on the DVD, "Conscience" is not up to "Miri's" standard.
Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER DECENT STAR TREK DVD!!!
Review: Volume 6 of The Star Trek original series DVD collection is similar to Volume 5: it's decent but not overall essential (except maybe MIRI). Although I am stating that these are decent episodes not a decent DVD release. (As I and many of the other reviewers have stated our discontent with this collection because each DVD has only 2 Trek episodes which seems like Paramount is robbing us) Anyway we have to settle for these 40(!) releases until Paramount will be kind enough to issue the episodes out by season (like they did with Star Trek TNG). All right now back to the episodes. MIRI is one of the most popular Trek episodes from Season one. Guest starring teen stars (at the time) Michael J Pollard and Kim Darby (as Miri), this adventure finds Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Janice, and Dr.McCoy beaming down to a unknown planet after hearing a distress signal. When they arrive it is discovered that the planet is overrun by young children who hate grown ups. As the plot thickens it is revealed that grown ups (or "grups" as the children in this episode call them) once lived here and conduct experiments to prolong life however instead they created a deadly virus that kills all people once or after they have hit puberty(it also prolongs the aging process greatly before puberty therefore the kids are 300 years old!). Soon the members of the Enterprise gets the disease and it begins to affect everything they do. They have also lost contact with the Enterprise because the kids have stolen their communicators therefore they cannot use the proper equipment in order to find a cure for this virus. It's up to Kirk to get help from a girl named Miri in order to save the crew and the rest of the planet. Miri is a classic. The second episode here is THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING is mediocre. It has a great back story aobut 'Kodos The Executioner' a man who governed the planet of Tarsus IV. During his rule he excuted half the population in order to stop the food shortage. It was believed that he was died on the planet but some thought he lived on and assumed another identity. Only 3 men are surviving witnesses of Kodos' evil reign: Kirk, Lt. Kevin Riley and Dr. Thomas Leighton. When a theatrical troupe including Shakespearian actor Anton Karidian arrives on the Planet Q where Dr.Leighton lives. Thomas accuses him of being Kodos. And when Leigton is murdered Kirk begins to beleive that Karidian really is the evil dictator. Kevin Riley is later poisoned and nearly killed but as it turns out Karidian daughter is responsible for Anton is trying to leave behind his past from 2 years ago and is horrified to find out what his daughter is doing. When she attempts to kill Kirk, Kodos saves his life by getting in the line of fire and killing himself. His daughter named Lenore goes completely insane when she realizes what she has done. And thats where this episode falls when Lenore goes crazy! She is truly just too weird for me and Barbara Anderson's acting of insane is very annoying. Thankfully it does not last long making this quite a watchable Trek episode but so much more could have been done with the Kodos character. Overall Volume 6 is basically like Volume 5 of the Star Trek DVD collection it's worth getting both Trek episodes are entertaining. MIRI is definetly worth seeing. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER DECENT STAR TREK DVD!!!
Review: Volume 6 of The Star Trek original series DVD collection is similar to Volume 5: it's decent but not overall essential (except maybe MIRI). Although I am stating that these are decent episodes not a decent DVD release. (As I and many of the other reviewers have stated our discontent with this collection because each DVD has only 2 Trek episodes which seems like Paramount is robbing us) Anyway we have to settle for these 40(!) releases until Paramount will be kind enough to issue the episodes out by season (like they did with Star Trek TNG). All right now back to the episodes. MIRI is one of the most popular Trek episodes from Season one. Guest starring teen stars (at the time) Michael J Pollard and Kim Darby (as Miri), this adventure finds Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Janice, and Dr.McCoy beaming down to a unknown planet after hearing a distress signal. When they arrive it is discovered that the planet is overrun by young children who hate grown ups. As the plot thickens it is revealed that grown ups (or "grups" as the children in this episode call them) once lived here and conduct experiments to prolong life however instead they created a deadly virus that kills all people once or after they have hit puberty(it also prolongs the aging process greatly before puberty therefore the kids are 300 years old!). Soon the members of the Enterprise gets the disease and it begins to affect everything they do. They have also lost contact with the Enterprise because the kids have stolen their communicators therefore they cannot use the proper equipment in order to find a cure for this virus. It's up to Kirk to get help from a girl named Miri in order to save the crew and the rest of the planet. Miri is a classic. The second episode here is THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING is mediocre. It has a great back story aobut 'Kodos The Executioner' a man who governed the planet of Tarsus IV. During his rule he excuted half the population in order to stop the food shortage. It was believed that he was died on the planet but some thought he lived on and assumed another identity. Only 3 men are surviving witnesses of Kodos' evil reign: Kirk, Lt. Kevin Riley and Dr. Thomas Leighton. When a theatrical troupe including Shakespearian actor Anton Karidian arrives on the Planet Q where Dr.Leighton lives. Thomas accuses him of being Kodos. And when Leigton is murdered Kirk begins to beleive that Karidian really is the evil dictator. Kevin Riley is later poisoned and nearly killed but as it turns out Karidian daughter is responsible for Anton is trying to leave behind his past from 2 years ago and is horrified to find out what his daughter is doing. When she attempts to kill Kirk, Kodos saves his life by getting in the line of fire and killing himself. His daughter named Lenore goes completely insane when she realizes what she has done. And thats where this episode falls when Lenore goes crazy! She is truly just too weird for me and Barbara Anderson's acting of insane is very annoying. Thankfully it does not last long making this quite a watchable Trek episode but so much more could have been done with the Kodos character. Overall Volume 6 is basically like Volume 5 of the Star Trek DVD collection it's worth getting both Trek episodes are entertaining. MIRI is definetly worth seeing. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Uhura Sings! Kirk Pleads!
Review: Well, while this was not my favorite set of episodes, there were lots of wonderful moments in both of these episodes. As indicated by my title, Uhura singing is such a joy! It adds the extra bit of life, the personal side of the crew which we so rarely see...Miri is the ultimate clock race dealing with the inevitable. The parallels of real life are hidden beneath the surface of this gem...I trust you to see it in order to "see" them. The Conscience of Kings is perhaps more chilling now than it was 30 years ago. (as was so many of these episodes) The fact that murder could be executed by the government in this fashon! (i don't want to ruin the plot, but it is worth seeing) A common thread, the good of the many vs. the good of the few, is portrayed nicely in this episdoe. There are lots of subtle hints in both of these episdoes, which makes them fun and entertaining to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Some fine acting in these shows.
Review: William Shatner was able to put his stage training to very effective useage in Conscience of the King, one of Trek's best shows from the first season. It;s a tale of love, Revenge, and Tragic story elements all coming from the plays of William Shakesphere, and starting the tradition which continues to this day of Star Trek using actors with extensive stage and theater training to appear on both the Trek shows and the movies.
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