I was fully prepared to not like this episode from the fairly sketchy start it has, but I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. My memory of this episode was a long way away from its reality.
The idea of an alien life form based on Silicon is an old one in SF, and it’s used well here. There are a few holes in the story logic, but generally it holds up well. But the end is a bit jarring, with the ‘well, you’ve been murdering each other for a bit now, but there’s profit to be had’ apparently winning over all concerned.
Another thing I noticed in this episode was the repetitive music cues. Some of them, like the ‘Oh wasn’t that a wacky thing Spock just said’ cue are really starting to annoy me. Obviously the music budget was another place to save money, along with the sets.
Red shirts: one more down (although not a ‘pure’ red shirt, in that they didn’t beam down at the start of the episode with the rest).
McCoy: “Damnit, I’m a Doctor, not a Bricklayer”. First appearance of the classic meme in pure form.
25 down, 712 to go. And now ready for the last disc of Season 1.