Captain Ahab, ahem, I mean Kirk, chases after a creature that once nearly killed him to the point of endangering his ship and crew.
Gee, I wonder where they got the idea for that plot?
Moby Dick plagiarism accusations aside this is a clever episode. The part when McCoy and Spock have to ask Kirk about his state of mind is well done, and rests on the relationship between the three that has been established in the series so far. The creature itself is a bit dull (aren’t most of the mysterious energy beings), with just enough characteristics to engage the plot, not enough to make it interesting. Shoot first again appears to be the order of the day for Kirk.
Five pure red shirts, taking the total to nine. More than in the rest of the series put together! How ironic that all of their red corpuscles were taken. The Red Shirt massacre seems to be getting a move on.
(I also noticed that there was a subtle reference to this episode in the 2009 movie: Uhura is initially assigned to the USS Farragut, which is Kirk’s first ship here).
42 down, 695 to go.