A Tender Adventure
Star Trek was a wonderful series despite not ever being able to live up to its awesome potential due to serious financial limitations. Granted the special effects don't measure up to today's wowing computer graphics, but the talent of the cast made up for it. How I wish that Paramount had caught the true potential and had committed to it. What a series it would have been!

In this episode, Star Trek was at its best. The tensions between McCoy and Spock in this case, disagreeing over life based on silicon vs carbon. And between Spock and Kirk over the dangers of new beings vs the sanctity of preserving life. Definitely the strength of Star Trek was in the heart of the relationships between the three main characters and their actor counterparts.

This is definitely an episode to acquire and treasure.

Two extremely different species learn to co-exist
A planet that has so many rare minerals that it is considered a miner's paradise sends a distress call to the Enterprise. Some kind of monster is killing the miners and it appears to be invulnerable to phaser fire. When the Enterprise arrives, the "monster" enters the main reactor and steals a circulation pump, which will cause the reactor to go critical. Since shutting down the reactor will cause the air to cease circulating in the tunnels, this will force the humans off the planet. Scotty is able to rig up a temporary solution so that the hunt for the creature can begin, although it does not last long.
Spock very quickly surmises that the creature is made of silicon, so he modifies their weapons to be more effective against silicon. Kirk and Spock confront it and severely injure it. Spock also determines that it may be the last of its' species, so he argues that they should try to capture it. He is able to make mind-to-mind contact with it and learns that it is called a Horta. The Horta live in the rock and digest it for food. Nearly their entire species experiences a cyclical dying, with only one remaining alive. It cares for the eggs and when the young Horta hatch, the remaining adult Horta cares for them and mothers them. The mother Horta felt forced to instigate the war against the humans when they broke into the hatchery and destroyed thousands of the Horta eggs.
Since the Horta is severely injured and on the verge of dying, Kirk sends for McCoy and tells him to treat the Horta. McCoy responds with, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer." This has no affect on Kirk, who orders him to cure the Horta. McCoy manages to succeed, announcing that he feels that he may even be able to cure a rainy day. At the end, the Horta and humans agree to co-exist on the planet and the young Horta help the miners find new deposits of valuable ores.
This is one of the best episodes in the series, because it shows the Enterprise crew as ambassadors as much as policeman. Even though over fifty miners have been killed, Kirk and Spock hesitate to kill the Horta, understanding that it is intelligent and perhaps additional deaths can be avoided. I contrast it with the much weaker episode, "The Galileo Seven", where the crewmembers criticize Spock for being unwilling to kill the humanoid creatures. It also contains one of the oldest mottoes in human fables. `Once you conquer your fear and learn more about your "enemy", you may find that there really is no reason to be enemies and it may be easy for both of you to coexist.' One can only hope that any beings with an advanced technology that humans encounter in space will follow the same set of ethical standards.

Horta-culture
Yet another in the string on winning episodes, this one concerns a conflict between miners and a silicon-based life form. This unusual episode has a strong element of suspense, since we are not only trying to figure out just what's happening, but also worried about what lurks in the dark tunnels. The episode is more than just suspenseful though. Themes explored include the rights of all creatures to survival, and the mammal bias inherent in our notions of both ugliness and maternal love. Star Trek must have been one of the first shows to devote so much thought to ecological/environmental questions, which like so many themes explored by Star Trek has only grown in importance. More research is of course devoted today than ever before to boundary conflicts, and more generally to finding ways to balance our human resource needs with the survival of other species.

Tidbit: William Shatner's father died during the production of this episode.

Ugly alien isn't so ugly....
Spoiler Alert for those who didn't see the episode.......

Turns out this creature that's eating the employees of this mining company is only protecting it's young. While Kirk and Spock find out about the creature we find out something about humanity. I thought this was a mindless creature that radomly killed only to discover it was acting on parental instinct. This is a must see for any Trek fan. Orginal or Next Generation, you name it.

Nice Story, Nice Lines, and a Nice Moral
This episode features the "horta", which I like to call the "giant pepperoni pizza". In this episode, the giant pizza wrecks havoc on the crew and equipment of a mining operation and it's up to Kirk and Spock to set things right.

The story moves along fairly briskly, though the suspense seems a little light and the mystery isn't all that intriguing. Still, the pizza dispatches its share of technicians and redshirts and there are some funny lines uttered by Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and especially McCoy. These actors have, by this time, grown comfortable with their roles, and it shows in a very positive manner.

The best parts are near the end. I don't want to give anything vital, but this episode demonstrates why Star Trek has been considered as ground-breaking television.

Very nice episode.