An Enterprise landing party investigates a idyllic planet that sensors show has no life on it. But the landing party members start seeing things that seem to have leaped from their imaginations: Dr. McCoy sees the White Rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland," Sulu sees a samurai, Kirk meets an old academy bully and an old flame and things like tigers and fighter planes crop up. The landing party must figure out what's going on, because this seemingly idyllic planet is draining the Enterprise of power, and the at-first innocuous visions are becoming more and more threatening.
Shore Leave is right up there with Doomsday Machine; Mirror, Mirror; and Errand of Mercy as the very best episodes of the series. It is well-paced, intelligently written, and it has a nice breezy comedic tone. For the most part the plot developments make sense and nobody does anything illogical for their situation: and the stakes and air of danger grow and keep the audience interested. And characters commit no contrived, dumb actions obviously forced into the story to move it along (arguably. Even if they do it's not so bad to ruin the quality of the story). It is also nice to watch the characters reveal sides of their personalities by the things they imagine. We learn a little about Sulu's fascination with history, for example. This episode is also another chance for Spock to be at his best: cool, composed, indispensable to his captain, and effectual under pressure. I always liked Spock when he was that way. The rapport between Kirk and McCoy is nicely on display in how they discuss McCoy's sighting of the White Rabbit. The crew's camaraderie has always been a factor in any episode's success.
The episode falls just short of a ten rating with me because of Kirk's awkward scene where he first encounters his old flame, Ruth. Also, the characters of Rodriguez and Angela are not properly closed out. A moment or two of time taken from the lengthy Kirk-Finnegan fist fight could have been used to fix that. Guest characters should always get a proper close-out. The script needed just the smallest polishing.
But overall, a great, fun episode.
Shore Leave is right up there with Doomsday Machine; Mirror, Mirror; and Errand of Mercy as the very best episodes of the series. It is well-paced, intelligently written, and it has a nice breezy comedic tone. For the most part the plot developments make sense and nobody does anything illogical for their situation: and the stakes and air of danger grow and keep the audience interested. And characters commit no contrived, dumb actions obviously forced into the story to move it along (arguably. Even if they do it's not so bad to ruin the quality of the story). It is also nice to watch the characters reveal sides of their personalities by the things they imagine. We learn a little about Sulu's fascination with history, for example. This episode is also another chance for Spock to be at his best: cool, composed, indispensable to his captain, and effectual under pressure. I always liked Spock when he was that way. The rapport between Kirk and McCoy is nicely on display in how they discuss McCoy's sighting of the White Rabbit. The crew's camaraderie has always been a factor in any episode's success.
The episode falls just short of a ten rating with me because of Kirk's awkward scene where he first encounters his old flame, Ruth. Also, the characters of Rodriguez and Angela are not properly closed out. A moment or two of time taken from the lengthy Kirk-Finnegan fist fight could have been used to fix that. Guest characters should always get a proper close-out. The script needed just the smallest polishing.
But overall, a great, fun episode.