82.75%

One of the saddest things about this story is that no-one seeing it now for the first time will be appreciate it the power of the story on its original broadcast. At the time I saw it all I knew was that it was set in the 26th century and guest starred Beryl Reid. That was it, and on reflection that was the best. Even a hint that it might feature the return of a popular foe might have spoilt it although the first episode does contain a red herring that I grasped upon (ie the scanner only detects mammalian life forms and the first episode deals with people going missing in some caves). All this made the surprise ending of episode 1 an utter delight. I can remember raving about it with my friends and even some of my non-interested classmates the following day.

This is a very popular story although some fans detest it. I have come across poorer dialogue in other stories (and other series) and to be honest, while some of the dialgoue makes you wonder if the writer can speak English, I never found it to be as bad as some fans would have you believe.

One other factor about the story is the final ending - once again, this came as a surprise to me. Without giving away too much for anyone still to see this story - it adds something to a particular character that s/he lacked previously. A fine swansong indeed. Overall I think this is a good story, only really let down by its second episode which lacks the pace of its companion episodes.