Everyone has their favorite Trek episode and while this one may not be my favorite, it's really close. If your looking for a high tech starship to starship action packed battle episode this has got to rank right behind The Doomsday Machine (James Doohan said that was his favorite episode (as it was mine when I saw him at age 13 in the 70's)). The guest has most of the great dialog moments so there are no memorable Kirk/Spock/Bones banter scenes, but still William Marshall is a great guest to take the spotlight, isn't he? So why do I really like this episode? A space ship is destroyed early on (how many TOS episodes did that happen in the beginning?, not many), than the Enterprise takes on FOUR starships of it's same class (I'm sure the limited budget made that the case and that they were all pics of the same model, but who cares?!). Great scene here is when the computer picks the landing party, was that putting Kirk in his place or what? I felt for Kirk in this one, how many episodes does that happen in? I remember when I watched this episode for the FIRST time, I WAS RIVETED! If I was 13 years old again this would rank easily in my top 5, but since now I like McCoy/Spock/Kirk (in those order) exchanges (and the edge of first viewing has well worn off dozens of viewings ago), I'll just give it a 10 out of sentimentality and because it is still a really good episode.
Review of The Ultimate Computer
