You’d think I’d really dig this episode. You’d think the fact that Michael J. Pollard, at age 27, was cast as a pre-pubescent is reason enough to love it. And while I do respect the base “what if” elements of the story (more on this in a bit) I just gotta say: this episode gets on my frickin nerves. And that was BEFORE New York Magazine based one of its all time dumbest articles on it. A race, looking for immortality, retards the aging process. As a result, one can live over 300 years — but one lives as a child, and dies upon entering puberty. So the question is: which system is better? Ours, where the expectancy is a mere 80 (if you are lucky), or theirs, where one can over three times as long — but with the mind of a child? Is this life an extended 300 year bliss? Or is it a 300 year waste where no one can undestand true reason or know the joys of responsibility? Heavy shit, no? But when they start yelling “Nyah nyah nyah!” I wish Spock would just give them all the Vulcan nerve pinch.
