The Enterprise discovers a planet identical to Earth - many lightyears away. A landing party to the surface discovers the planet appears to mirror Earth from the mid 1900's.Soon enough, the party are attacked by a mutated humanoid and the investigation begins.
So it turns out that the planet is mainly inhabited by children and further investigation uncovers that the original inhabitants were working on prolonging life, but there's obviously been some side-effects.
Kirk and the landing party (except Spock) start showing signs of infection and the children take their means of communicating with the ship in orbit which puts McCoy's plans to cure everyone in jeopardy, but Kirk's smooth moves and ability to charm Miri, the first young girl they encountered after arriving at the planet, allow the Enterprise crew to be saved.
This story has parallels with more recent stories like I Am Legend and while it was a decent tale, I just found the children annoying, particularly the "bonk bonk" kid, who also reminded me of someone I went to primary school with!
The blu-ray remaster is one of the most flawless episodes we've seen so far though.
Overall rating: 5/10
Dagger of the Mind
The Enterprise arrives at Tantalus Penal Colony to pick up some cargo and unknowingly takes aboard a stowaway, a crazed Dr. Van Gelder.Van Gelder finds his way to the bridge and requests asylum. Kirk and psychiatrist Dr Helen Noel beam down to Tantalus to investigate where they meet Dr Adams, administrator of the penal colony.
For the viewers, it's quickly apparent that things on Tantalus aren't quite right. Dr Noel though is lapping up Dr Adams' explanations and methods in keeping tranquility among the penal colonists.
Kirk and Noel find a room fitted with a neural neutraliser and soon realise this is the source of Van Gelder's claims. In a familiar storyline and turn of events to 'What Are Little Girls Made Of', Kirk ends up being shown the full strength of this torturous device.
With Dr Noel's help on the ground and Spock & McCoy working aboard the Enterprise, the crew are able to cause a powercut which deactivates the neural neutraliser and save Kirk. When the power is regained, Dr Adams' mind is wiped by the neural neutraliser and he dies.
As mentioned above, this story seems similar to that of 'What Are Little Girls Made Of'. The interesting parts surround Dr Helen Noel, who we find out had a prior encounter with Captain Kirk and manages to hold her own whilst sabotaging the penal colony.
Overall rating: 5/10
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