AllMovie

Exploring the remnants of a plague-ravaged planet, Captain Kirk and an Enterprise landing party unexpectedly discover a number of young children who have survived the otherwise total devastation in this episode of the original Star Trek television series. These children all possess a strong distrust of adults, with the exception of Miri, a young girl who befriends the adults and develops a youthful crush on Kirk. The reason behind the children's animosity becomes clear when the Enterprise crew members discover that they have also been affected by the plague, which prolongs childhood to hundreds of years but brings death to anyone past puberty. Indeed, Kirk himself has contracted the disease and must somehow find a cure -- a quest that becomes all the more difficult when he and Miri, who has also begun to show symptoms, are held captive by a violent gang of children.