'The Corbomite Maneuver' has the good stuff - drama, suspense - but it's mostly about attitude. When you're out there in deep space, dogged by (essentially) an intergalactic bully, do you fall to pieces like crewman Bailey (placeholder until a new navigator comes along) or do you hold steady in the captain's chair and outwit the pother guy with an epic bluff? In the end, it all turns out to be creepy Clint Howard behind all of this, and all he really wanted was a friend. But it's the poker-inspired standoff between himself and Kirk that really makes this one cool. You can see the seeds of the Kobayashi Maru being sown here with Kirk's creative solution to the problem, and it makes for some solid tension.
7/10
7/10