Watching Star Trek episodes in their original air date order makes for some interesting viewing. You get to catch a lot of 'firsts', such as Spock's yet unnamed Vulcan mind meld that others on this board have already referenced. In this story you also get Roddenberry's testing the waters for which direction he might want to take Captain Kirk's libido in future episodes. Even though the Captain was under the influence of Van Gelder's (James Gregory) neural neutralizer, his scene attempting to seduce Helen Noel (Marianna Hill) was still played for romantic effect, even if the doctor turned into an unwilling participant. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at that Science Lab Christmas Party though.
What I enjoyed most however was seeing how the principal characters really began to take shape and develop their relationship with each other here. It was rather bold of McCoy to challenge Kirk by going on the record with his medical observation of Dr. Adams' (James Gregory) methods. Then you had Spock shedding more insight into his Vulcan heritage - "Where there's no emotion, there's no motive for violence".
Curiously, the planetary scene where Kirk and Noel first beamed down to the Tantalus Colony had already been used in the series' third episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. That surprised me a bit since it was still early in the show's history; so much for that tag line. Considering that the show's budget offered some really cheesy landscapes is probably a tip off that they weren't going to spend a lot of money at this stage of the game. Even some of the effects on board the Enterprise looked bare bones in terms of design. But I guess that's all part of the nostalgic feel one comes to acquire for the series after four decades.
What I enjoyed most however was seeing how the principal characters really began to take shape and develop their relationship with each other here. It was rather bold of McCoy to challenge Kirk by going on the record with his medical observation of Dr. Adams' (James Gregory) methods. Then you had Spock shedding more insight into his Vulcan heritage - "Where there's no emotion, there's no motive for violence".
Curiously, the planetary scene where Kirk and Noel first beamed down to the Tantalus Colony had already been used in the series' third episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. That surprised me a bit since it was still early in the show's history; so much for that tag line. Considering that the show's budget offered some really cheesy landscapes is probably a tip off that they weren't going to spend a lot of money at this stage of the game. Even some of the effects on board the Enterprise looked bare bones in terms of design. But I guess that's all part of the nostalgic feel one comes to acquire for the series after four decades.