"Miri" (season one, episode eight; production code: 12; 27 October 1966): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: The Enterprise encounters a planet identical to Earth, a bizarre story element introduced, I suppose, so the producers could shoot on the Desilu backlot (the famous R.K.O. Forty Acres) without having to make it look "alien." This other Earth's human population was all but wiped out by a life-prolongation experiment, driving everyone above the age of puberty ("Grups," grown ups) to madness & a swift death; the children ("Onlies"), however, were granted greatly prolonged lifespans, aging approximately one month per every hundred years. The episode is sadly devoid of any commentary on the obvious parallels to Frankenstein, but there are several affecting dramatic scenes between the infected landing party stranded on the planet & the eponymous Miri, a young girl on the cusp of puberty. Miri was played by Kim Darby, three years before playing her most famous rôle as Mattie Ross in True Grit.
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