Post by magicmuggle01 on Dec 17, 2018 10:41:45 GMT
A group of children on the Federation outpost Triacus, under the influence of an evil spirit, commandeer the Enterprise.
Summary
Mass suicide.
The USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from the Starnes Expedition at the Federation outpost on the planet Triacus. But a landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Spock and McCoy find a scattering of dead bodies. Just then, a group of children emerge from a cave and begin playing, singing "Ring Around the Rosie" near their parent's lifeless bodies.
Act One
A log replayed from a tricorder supports McCoy's opinion that the event is a mass suicide. The log mentions an "enemy from within."
The scientists' children, however, are unharmed – and oblivious to the death, unmoved even as the landing party buries their parents. They continue to play as though nothing happened. McCoy theorizes that this could be a psychological defense against trauma and warns Kirk against questioning them further. Captain Kirk and Spock believe the colony has been attacked, with the children deliberately excluded from the attack for an unknown reason. A strange tricorder reading leads Kirk and Spock into a nearby cave, where Kirk is struck by sudden anxiety, which subsides when he leaves the cave.
Kirk has the children beamed aboard the Enterprise, where Nurse Chapel serves them ice cream from the food synthesizer in the ship's arboretum. But McCoy can find no physical anomaly in the children, and Kirk cannot get them to discuss what happened to their parents. When the children are left alone, they chant to summon a "friendly angel" (later referred to as Gorgan) and he appears, congratulating them for getting rid of the adults on Triacus and telling them that they must take control of the Enterprise and travel to Marcos XII.
Act Two
Gorgan appears on the bridge.
The children, with Gorgan's help, can exercise psychological control over adults. Scott sees in the auxiliary control room that his engineers have taken the Enterprise out of orbit, but they subdue him. By pumping their fists, the children exert mind control over Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and other crewmen to do their bidding. For example, at first Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura believe that they can see Triacus on the viewscreen even though the Enterprise is no longer orbiting the planet. Kirk and Spock do not realize the starship is en route to Marcos XII until Kirk orders two additional security guards down to Triacus, who are instead beamed out into space.
Kirk and Spock enter the bridge as the children summon Gorgan, revealing him to Kirk for the first time.
Act Three
Gorgan does not address Kirk but merely warns the children that their "operation" has been discovered.
Uhura imagines herself as a diseased,
dying old woman.
Kirk makes the crew realize that they have left Triacus and the children plant new fears in them: Sulu sees rings of swords that will destroy the Enterprise if he even slightly changes course and Uhura sees not her console but herself as a disfigured, diseased, dying old woman. The children briefly take over Spock's mind and unleash Kirk's greatest fear, losing command of his ship, as every command he issues to Leslie is either disobeyed or heard as gibberish. Spock frees himself of the children's mind control and gets Kirk off the bridge to help him overcome his fear in a turbolift. They try to take control of the ship through the Auxiliary Control Center but Scott and the control center crew are now under the children's influence; he and his engineers force them out.
Chekov, Freeman and a security
officer attempt to arrest Kirk and
Spock.
Outside auxiliary control in a corridor, Spock tells Kirk that so long as the children are present on the Enterprise, there is danger. Kirk doubts this, given that they are only children, but Spock also says that they are followers and without followers, evil cannot exist. He also says that if the evil inside the children is growing and if they cannot find a way to stop it, they will have to kill them, Kirk finishes for him.
Just then, Chekov, Freeman, and another security officer corner Kirk and Spock, telling them that Starfleet has ordered their arrest. When Kirk resists, Chekov threatens to shoot him with his phaser.
Act Four
Footage of recreation on Triacus.
Kirk again tries to reason with Chekov but under the influence of Tommy, Chekov tells his captain Starfleet Command supersedes his orders. Kirk and Spock defeat the delusional security team by fighting and with Vulcan nerve pinches. Kirk has Spock escort Chekov, Freeman, and the security guard to the detention area and goes to the bridge. Upon arriving, Kirk finds Tommy sitting in his chair and forces him out of it to stand next to Mary. Kirk, together with Spock, summon Gorgan to the bridge by replaying a recording of the children's chant on a microtape and then challenge him. They show the children footage of themselves on Triacus, playing with their parents, followed by images of the parents lying dead, then by the headstones marking their graves. The children suddenly realize what they have done and begin to cry. McCoy is pleased that the children are finally showing authentic grief. Without the children's support, Gorgan morphs into a grotesque being with a face of drooping flesh as he disappears, shouting "Death to you all!"
As the ship nears Marcos XII, Kirk orders Sulu make a course change to Starbase 4.
Log entries
"Captain's log, Stardate 5029.5. Responding to a distress call from our scientific colony on Triacus, we are beaming down to investigate."
"Captain's log, supplementary. We have buried the members of the Starnes Exploration Party. Everyone has been deeply affected by what has happened here, with some important exceptions."
Starnes Exploration Party log
"Log date: 5025.3. Ever since our arrival on Triacus, I've felt a certain growing feeling of uneasiness. At first I attributed it to the usual case of nerves associated with any new project. However, I've found that the rest of my associates are also bothered by these... anxieties. The only ones not affected are the children -- bless them, find the whole thing an exciting adventure. Ah, to be young again."
"Log date: 5032.4. The feeling of anxiety we've all been experiencing is growing worse."
"Log date: 5038.3. Professor Wilkins finished his excavation today. Although whatever civilization that might have been here was destroyed by some natural catastrophe, it appears one of the race took refuge in the cave. And, for our efforts, we are becoming only more apprehensive, as if some unseen force were... influencing us."
"I'm being influenced to do things that do not make sense. I even went so far as to call Starfleet Command, to request a spaceship to be used as a transport. It was only when I couldn't tell them what I wanted to transport that I began to realize that my mind was being directed. I decided to send a dispatch to Starfleet, warning them. God forgive us! We must destroy ourselves! The alien upon us! The enemy from within! The enemy!"
Memorable quotes.
"Humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose and excluding that which is painful."
- Spock to Kirk, on the children's lack of grief
"Parents like stupid things."
- Don, believing his parents liked living on Triacus
"It'll spoil your dinner."
"See what I told you? They all say it."
- Kirk and Tommy, as Tommy asks for more ice cream
"Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me."
- Tommy, Mary, Don, Steve and Ray, summoning Gorgan
"Captain, so long as the children are present, there is danger."
- Spock, to Kirk
"As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do. As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do."
- Gorgan, inciting the children
"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth."
"Or by misleading the innocent."
- Spock and McCoy, on what killed the Starnes Exploration Party
"But most legends have their basis in fact, Spock."
- Kirk, on the legend of Triacus
"Without followers, evil cannot spread."
- Spock to Kirk, on the dangers that the children pose
"Death to you all!"
- Gorgan's last words
Summary
Mass suicide.
The USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from the Starnes Expedition at the Federation outpost on the planet Triacus. But a landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Spock and McCoy find a scattering of dead bodies. Just then, a group of children emerge from a cave and begin playing, singing "Ring Around the Rosie" near their parent's lifeless bodies.
Act One
A log replayed from a tricorder supports McCoy's opinion that the event is a mass suicide. The log mentions an "enemy from within."
The scientists' children, however, are unharmed – and oblivious to the death, unmoved even as the landing party buries their parents. They continue to play as though nothing happened. McCoy theorizes that this could be a psychological defense against trauma and warns Kirk against questioning them further. Captain Kirk and Spock believe the colony has been attacked, with the children deliberately excluded from the attack for an unknown reason. A strange tricorder reading leads Kirk and Spock into a nearby cave, where Kirk is struck by sudden anxiety, which subsides when he leaves the cave.
Kirk has the children beamed aboard the Enterprise, where Nurse Chapel serves them ice cream from the food synthesizer in the ship's arboretum. But McCoy can find no physical anomaly in the children, and Kirk cannot get them to discuss what happened to their parents. When the children are left alone, they chant to summon a "friendly angel" (later referred to as Gorgan) and he appears, congratulating them for getting rid of the adults on Triacus and telling them that they must take control of the Enterprise and travel to Marcos XII.
Act Two
Gorgan appears on the bridge.
The children, with Gorgan's help, can exercise psychological control over adults. Scott sees in the auxiliary control room that his engineers have taken the Enterprise out of orbit, but they subdue him. By pumping their fists, the children exert mind control over Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and other crewmen to do their bidding. For example, at first Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura believe that they can see Triacus on the viewscreen even though the Enterprise is no longer orbiting the planet. Kirk and Spock do not realize the starship is en route to Marcos XII until Kirk orders two additional security guards down to Triacus, who are instead beamed out into space.
Kirk and Spock enter the bridge as the children summon Gorgan, revealing him to Kirk for the first time.
Act Three
Gorgan does not address Kirk but merely warns the children that their "operation" has been discovered.
Uhura imagines herself as a diseased,
dying old woman.
Kirk makes the crew realize that they have left Triacus and the children plant new fears in them: Sulu sees rings of swords that will destroy the Enterprise if he even slightly changes course and Uhura sees not her console but herself as a disfigured, diseased, dying old woman. The children briefly take over Spock's mind and unleash Kirk's greatest fear, losing command of his ship, as every command he issues to Leslie is either disobeyed or heard as gibberish. Spock frees himself of the children's mind control and gets Kirk off the bridge to help him overcome his fear in a turbolift. They try to take control of the ship through the Auxiliary Control Center but Scott and the control center crew are now under the children's influence; he and his engineers force them out.
Chekov, Freeman and a security
officer attempt to arrest Kirk and
Spock.
Outside auxiliary control in a corridor, Spock tells Kirk that so long as the children are present on the Enterprise, there is danger. Kirk doubts this, given that they are only children, but Spock also says that they are followers and without followers, evil cannot exist. He also says that if the evil inside the children is growing and if they cannot find a way to stop it, they will have to kill them, Kirk finishes for him.
Just then, Chekov, Freeman, and another security officer corner Kirk and Spock, telling them that Starfleet has ordered their arrest. When Kirk resists, Chekov threatens to shoot him with his phaser.
Act Four
Footage of recreation on Triacus.
Kirk again tries to reason with Chekov but under the influence of Tommy, Chekov tells his captain Starfleet Command supersedes his orders. Kirk and Spock defeat the delusional security team by fighting and with Vulcan nerve pinches. Kirk has Spock escort Chekov, Freeman, and the security guard to the detention area and goes to the bridge. Upon arriving, Kirk finds Tommy sitting in his chair and forces him out of it to stand next to Mary. Kirk, together with Spock, summon Gorgan to the bridge by replaying a recording of the children's chant on a microtape and then challenge him. They show the children footage of themselves on Triacus, playing with their parents, followed by images of the parents lying dead, then by the headstones marking their graves. The children suddenly realize what they have done and begin to cry. McCoy is pleased that the children are finally showing authentic grief. Without the children's support, Gorgan morphs into a grotesque being with a face of drooping flesh as he disappears, shouting "Death to you all!"
As the ship nears Marcos XII, Kirk orders Sulu make a course change to Starbase 4.
Log entries
"Captain's log, Stardate 5029.5. Responding to a distress call from our scientific colony on Triacus, we are beaming down to investigate."
"Captain's log, supplementary. We have buried the members of the Starnes Exploration Party. Everyone has been deeply affected by what has happened here, with some important exceptions."
Starnes Exploration Party log
"Log date: 5025.3. Ever since our arrival on Triacus, I've felt a certain growing feeling of uneasiness. At first I attributed it to the usual case of nerves associated with any new project. However, I've found that the rest of my associates are also bothered by these... anxieties. The only ones not affected are the children -- bless them, find the whole thing an exciting adventure. Ah, to be young again."
"Log date: 5032.4. The feeling of anxiety we've all been experiencing is growing worse."
"Log date: 5038.3. Professor Wilkins finished his excavation today. Although whatever civilization that might have been here was destroyed by some natural catastrophe, it appears one of the race took refuge in the cave. And, for our efforts, we are becoming only more apprehensive, as if some unseen force were... influencing us."
"I'm being influenced to do things that do not make sense. I even went so far as to call Starfleet Command, to request a spaceship to be used as a transport. It was only when I couldn't tell them what I wanted to transport that I began to realize that my mind was being directed. I decided to send a dispatch to Starfleet, warning them. God forgive us! We must destroy ourselves! The alien upon us! The enemy from within! The enemy!"
Memorable quotes.
"Humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose and excluding that which is painful."
- Spock to Kirk, on the children's lack of grief
"Parents like stupid things."
- Don, believing his parents liked living on Triacus
"It'll spoil your dinner."
"See what I told you? They all say it."
- Kirk and Tommy, as Tommy asks for more ice cream
"Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me."
- Tommy, Mary, Don, Steve and Ray, summoning Gorgan
"Captain, so long as the children are present, there is danger."
- Spock, to Kirk
"As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do. As you believe, so shall you do, so shall you do."
- Gorgan, inciting the children
"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth."
"Or by misleading the innocent."
- Spock and McCoy, on what killed the Starnes Exploration Party
"But most legends have their basis in fact, Spock."
- Kirk, on the legend of Triacus
"Without followers, evil cannot spread."
- Spock to Kirk, on the dangers that the children pose
"Death to you all!"
- Gorgan's last words
