Professor Starnes is the head of the scientific expedition on Triacus in And the Children Shall Lead, found dying among his dead colleagues and survived by his son Tommy.
Professor Starnes leads a Federation research party on the planet Triacus in the Original Series episode And the Children Shall Lead. The Enterprise answers a distress call and finds the adults of the expedition dead by their own hands.
Starnes is the last alive. He staggers towards Kirk, fails to recognise him and collapses, while the five children of the party, his son Tommy among them, play nearby without a trace of grief.
His log tapes tell the story afterwards. He records a growing dread among the adults, his suspicion that something in a cave at their dig is influencing them, and a final broken entry about the enemy within. The cause is the Gorgan, an evil being that has enlisted the children and driven their parents to suicide.