There's something very special about this episode.  You can feel it.
It's in the writing, the colorfulness of the dialogue and the characters
brought to life ... yes, that's it.  Life.  There's life in this episode.

Something very special about it.  An author's touch, to make his characters
living things, such that he cares about them ... Harlan Ellison did this too,
with City on the Edge of Forever.


He knows the confines of the writing -- terminology, certain character
traits for each character, in fact he expands upon them -- and adds his
own twist to it.  Harlan Ellison did this too.  You can see it in the flavor
of each writer's writing

David Gerrold is like a role model to me, an inspiration.

This is one of those episodes that transcends the show it is on, is larger
than the show it is a part of.  it works within the confines of the show,
yet achieves something greater.

He brings ihis own signature to it, the characters and setting are a platform,
and he stays true to that, yet at the same time achieves something greater on
top of that.


I think a lot of this is that Gerrold had so much scripted out, so much detail
laid out, like a storyboard - very precise ideas and visualizations of what is
supposed to happen, very tight, you can feel it all over this episode.  Makes
filming it very tight, makes pre-production and production for this episode
very tight, they all hav ea precise blueprint for what is supposed to happen.
This is what a good writer does.

Similar to James Cameron, in that his screeplays are beautifully visualized
out, almost like poetry.  it gets the crew, all hands to think and see the 
same, to get them all seeign teh same thing.  Which furthers production.

Everyone all seeing the same thing, it makes for great art, great television,
any kind of art form where multiple people all have to work together to 
achieve a thing.

--

I think what makes this transcend television is all the details:  Kirk's
reaction shots, little reactions, little mannerisms, and of course all the
humor - each moment is packed full of stuff.  Not a moment is wasted.