| Review : |
A very good episode with an excellent story, good pacing and decent acting. However, the plot was a bit thin in places. Firstly, this depended on an incredibly unlikely series of events, and ran the risk of losing one of Starfleet's finest ships for the sake of the cloaking device. Firstly, they had to find a Romulan ship with the right sort of commander. Then they had to gamble that Kirk's death was believable. Then they had to hope that they could get past the Romulans' security procedures. Then they had to hope that the cloak worked. Then they had to gamble that the Romulans could not penetrate their own cloak. Not to mention retrieving Spock. All very unlikely, and all had to happen in the right order. Luckily for them, it did happen. One thing I can say is that it convinced on first viewing. I really thought that Spock might be tempted, and that Kirk just might be dead - but then I was eight at the time. That was down to the acting, with Leonard Nimoy allowing Spock's façade to crack just far enough, and Joanne Linville just about matching him as the Romulan Commander. D.C. Fontana's writing (despite the thin plot) was as good as ever, with some excellent dialogue. The new effects were as good as ever, with the Bird of Prey returning, the new markings and some dynamic movement in space. A very good episode, but I'm afraid a star has to go for the thin plot. |
