The Original Series is my favorite show of the Trek franchise. I imprinted young when I developed a crush on Captain Kirk at eleven. At it's best it could be amazing, and featured scripts by science fiction talents such as Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison. And that first season featured among the very best episodes the show ever produced--and both of these episodes are good ones.

Among fans it's the consensus that if "City on the Edge of Forever" is Kirk's best, most resonant love story, then "This Side of Paradise" is Spock's. And certainly the ending of that one, with Spock quietly saying wistfully that for once he "was happy" in the way someone might describe first tasting a new food is in its own way heartbreaking. "The Devil in the Dark" is a favorite episode of many too. While the Horta might not quite have the following of Trek's tribbles, she's certainly among the most original and memorable aliens the Original series ever produced--at least among those appearing only in one episode. ( )