Like so many, I have watched Star Trek and all its various incarnations since I was a wee lad, and love it to pieces. I have to say I haven't been super-impressed by the Trek Phase 2/Continues/what have you. While I certainly admire the zeal of the actors and crew, especially the designers and others for faithfully recreating the original sets, much of what I've seen has been, well, OK. Until this episode, that is. Sure, one could nitpick some fine points, but for the most part this is a terrific yarn. Good writing, acting, everything. One thing that drives me crazy about many of the other fan episodes is poor choice of accompanying music from the original series scores. But not with this this episode. Never once did I think "Why did they choose THIS piece of music for this scene?" In fact, I barely noticed the music at all, which means that it integrates seamlessly with, and enhances, what's on the screen. One other problem that many of the other episodes has is poor camera focus. The operator focused on the background, not on the subject, which is annoying as heck. But hey, it's pretty much a volunteer crew -- or are they actually paying for the privilege? Sorry, I digress. One thing they should have done in this episode is in the final scene when Spock takes the captain's chair in his new command gold uniform shirt, Uhura and the navigator should also have changed -- into traditional (and not quite so revealing) Trek uniforms, to signify that women in this alternate universe are now not so overly sexualized. Regardless, bravo and three cheers to the cast, crew, writers, etc of this episode!