I enjoyed this one more this time around than I have on previous viewings. The atmosphere is terrific, with the episode proving to be a forerunner of sorts to the later and superior episode Balance of Terror. All the way through you get the claustraphobic submarine feel to the Enterprise. The bit with the Fesarius is also very reminiscent of TNG's opener Encounter at Farpoint when they stumble onto Q.

This was originally due to air as the second episode and feature the first appearance of McCoy. This probably goes some way to explaining Kirk's agressive attitude towards Bones in Sickbay towards the beginning of the episode. That and Uhura's gold uniform.

After all the planet-side episodes of late it makes a welcome change to go back to a ship-based story, and one that works rather well. As mentioned earlier it doesn't work quite as well as BoT, both are tense affairs, but they'd appear to have learnt a few tricks by going through the motions here.

One of the season's better episodes so far, and it actually makes sense them removing this and airing it later on in the schedule.

This is a great, if a little odd, episode. On the one hand it holds true to much of what Star Trek, in its original incarnation at least, stands for. On the other it can be quite monotonous (there are a lot of shots of extras throwing themselves from one side of a corridor to another and people on the bridge bouncing up and down as the Enterprise tries to escape).

I like it, always have. There are some good comedy moments, some excellent dramatic moments and some good character interaction. Some of the crew, mostly McCoy, are still in their formative stages (this was, after all, the first episode filmed of the series proper, and therefore effectively McCoy's first appearance). He comes across more as a psychiatrist than a doctor, a role I am assuming the ships physician would have had to fill until the later introduction of shortarsed counsellors with extremely deep cleavages and a penchant for chocolate.

Shatner's on form again, although the purely gratuitous shot of him walking down the ships corridor half-naked and covered in a sheen of sweat manages to be hilarious and nauseating at the same time. He also gets to bite another crewmember's head off, argues with McCoy and has to apologise once again. How many times is that now? Is this guy really fit for command? Of course he is - he's the best in the business, otherwise why are they telling stories about him?

Balok (in puppet form) always used to scare me witless when I was a kid, threatening the crew with death and such. It's slightly lessened now by the knowledge that the real, childlike Balok was played by Clint Howard, who doesn't look any different now from how he did then. Only then he didn't need his brother to cast him in roles just to keep him employed.

A very enjoyable episode.

I'm sensing great anger there Steve ;)

No, no anger. I have a healthy amount of respect for Troi and her cleavage. :whistling:

Accentuated perfectly by the intergalactic cheerleader's outfit of course :lol: