tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post7592601846886492359..comments2024-03-29T04:57:26.162-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Star Trek 50th Anniversary Blogging: "Miri" (October 27, 1966)John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-68607261348703426702016-03-02T21:22:31.059-05:002016-03-02T21:22:31.059-05:00Miri, as a character, is right there with Charlie ...Miri, as a character, is right there with Charlie X as one i wanted a follow up on.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03097420555737415471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-3941016981495454672016-03-02T10:23:13.871-05:002016-03-02T10:23:13.871-05:00Note the parallel here between Miri and the movie ...Note the parallel here between Miri and the movie version of Logan's Run. In both, adults are seen as the forces that make war and hate. Yet the Onlies and the children of Cathedral are themselves violent.<br /><br />It rather points out that there doesn't seem to be a time when a human has both the power and the wisdom.raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-10018512246223189342016-03-02T01:14:33.376-05:002016-03-02T01:14:33.376-05:00While "Miri" is not among my favorite ep...While "Miri" is not among my favorite episodes, I do have a personal connection with it. I believe it was one of my older brother's favorites. Kirk's shouts of "No blah blah blah" elicited unbridled laughter from the both of us. As kids, the only time we really got along was when Star Trek was on. The remainder of the time, my older brother's treatment of me made Wayne from The Wonder Years seem saintly by comparison. So whenever "Miri" comes on, I remember it fondly, even though it's somewhat low on my list of classic episodes.<br />SteveAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13101722769411384962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-56434308801679840512016-03-01T09:33:17.191-05:002016-03-01T09:33:17.191-05:00Excellent analysis, John. Well done.
"Miri&q...Excellent analysis, John. Well done.<br /><br />"Miri" is a show that one grows into, especially if your first viewing(s) happened when you were young -- like me. Along with "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"and "Metamorphosis", and, for that matter, "The Conscience of the King", "Miri" is a story that you appreciate more as you get older. Sure, the awesome starship Enterprise and the coolest hand-prop in the galaxy (the hand phaser) are still there, but the story's emotions, and all the sentimentality contained within, start clicking as a person starts to grow, develop, and mature. "Miri" has a lovely story of unrequited love. It gives this episode a underlying tone: A reminder that we are biological units, ones prone to flowery sentimentality, even amidst the organic breakdown all around. This pronounced humanity keeps the chemical and biological distortions of the story as problems to be surmounted and survived.<br /><br />Michael J. Pollard and Kim Darby are perfect in their roles. The children in this episode are of some note: Two of star Shatner's daughters have non-speaking roles; John Magna ("bonk, bonk, bad kids") appeared a few years before in the acclaimed feature film "To Kill a Mockingbird"; the red-headed boy, Steven McEveety, nephew of director Vincent McEveety, went on to become a film producer of some accreditation (one of his is a picture called "The Passion of the Christ").<br /><br />The series' regular cast is outstanding. They display this whenever they get together for group discussions. Real chemistry is on display; cast and character.<br /><br />I've long thought that "Miri" looks like a feature film. Not that episodes of a series <i>should</i> look like a feature film, necessarily, but Vincent McEveety directs this one as though he <i>is</i> making a feature film. Jerry Finnerman's lighting is gorgeous, and the location filming (at Desilu's "Culver City" plant, where the two pilot shows were shot) is atmospheric and effective. (I can easily imagine a viewer back in 1966 joining "Miri" in progress and them thinking they have tuned in to a movie, and not an episode of a television series.) This leads me to the subject of...<br /><br />Finances: "Miri" went over-budget by a significant amount, coming in at $206,815. Last week's episode, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", went way over-budget (at $211,061), and the episode photographed immediately prior to that one, "Balance of Terror", cost a whopping $236,150.<br /><br />The money men at Desilu were <i>not</i> happy, to put it mildly. (The studio-mandated per-episode budget was $193,500... not that that meant a heck of a lot, especially with a "physical" show such as this.)Barry Smighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02464450751543573690noreply@blogger.com