By: Rebecca's Niece

Wonderful, Loraine! I laughed out loud several times.

This episode is a favorite of mine for a few reasons. We see the three main characters really begin to exhibit their essential characteristics here. Spock uses his intellect to solve problems, as we’ve seen before of course, and in this episode Bones’ deep humanity and compassion, even for a murderer, begins to come to the fore (I’ve always assumed this is what drives him to drink, though he never loses control of that). And Kirk’s greatest gift, which makes him such a master Captain, is his ability to, in his own words, “feel his way” through a problem, utilising not just intellect but his gut, his instincts, so that he can keep all the balls in the air and all the players off-guard, until he knows what’s what. All great leaders have this quality, and it’s rare I think. Anyway, from here on out, the show really takes shape.

I love the mirroring with Shakespeare’s big revenge plays in this episode, especially this wandering ghost of a fallen king, even though this company really needs to start going to Overactors Anonymous meetings! There is an interesting discussion to be had about Kodos’ actions–what would you do in his situation? And, always, bonus points for any episode in which Uhura sings (she started out as a singer).

At this point the writers hadn’t settled on what to call the organization of which the Enterprise is part. They call it the “Star Service” in this episode; it’ll go through a couple more iterations before they hit on Starfleet, which stuck. To answer Elly’s question, at this point the United Federation of Planets hasn’t been named, but it shows up soon and makes this whole world much more ordered and sensible. It is, indeed, the galactic version of the UN, quite deliberately (in the late 60s the United States did not despise that organization the way it does now). The Prime Directive will be stated soon, too, and this will become the guiding principle throughout the entire canon.

This was the last episode shot featuring Yeoman Rand, but as they were shown out of order, we’ll see her again. Grace Lee Whitney had a serious problem with alcohol; the story of her departure varies, but that fact played at least a part in it. She ended up, literally, on skid row, then got herself together and rejoined the Trek World for a couple of the movies in the 80s. She’s fine now, last I knew.

Have you thought, Loraine, about doing two episodes a week? It’s going to take about a year to get through just the first two seasons this way! They were long seasons in those days, not like the sissy 13 or 22 episodes we have nowadays.

P.S. I appreciated your message to me last week but for some reason, I couldn’t comment there to say so. I’m glad I have something to offer this noble enterprise (get it? get it? nudge nudge). You’re doing a fantastic job; I really enjoy reading these and look forward to them. A final note for you, Loraine, on the epitome of Geekery: my friends and I made our own United Federation of Planets t-shirts when we were in HS, with the UFP logo on them, hand-drawn! xxoo, Annie