I thought this was a decent, if unexceptional episode. The legal drama was a little dragged out and the outcome is somewhat obvious; the only possible explanation is that the computer was tampered with. This was probably my major complaint with the episode; this seems so obvious today, but perhaps a less sophisticated audience in 1967 really did believe in the infallibility of computers (or at least was more susceptible to such a belief); but it just seems hopelessly naive, now.
The legalistic aspects were not handled badly for a TV series, although I thought Kirk's attorney's big dramatic speech was a bit silly. There was a much better logical argument: shouldn't there have been more time allotted to the defense, to thoroughly check the computer for tampering? And shouldn't examining the computers have been the focus of the trial from the outset? But I guess the 'big speech' played out better dramatically, so its use was understandable here.
Finney's scheme was kind of crazy-- it critically depended on never being discovered by Starfleet, thereby burning his bridges permanently-- but he was indeed portrayed toward the end as having totally lost it, so at least that part was internally consistent.
The other technological part that was probably good for its time, but seems quite silly now, was the use of the heartbeats of the crew to locate Finney. Surely they could have detected him more directly with the ship's sensors? There was also a minor contradiction with the Menagerie episode; in that episode, it was stated that detailed video records of all ship activity simply aren't routinely made; but that's a minor quibble.
Some minor trivia: This episode confirms that Spock's rank in the first season was lieutenant commander (this was also mentioned in several earlier episodes, but seems fairly definitely established here), as was Dr. McCoy's.
The legalistic aspects were not handled badly for a TV series, although I thought Kirk's attorney's big dramatic speech was a bit silly. There was a much better logical argument: shouldn't there have been more time allotted to the defense, to thoroughly check the computer for tampering? And shouldn't examining the computers have been the focus of the trial from the outset? But I guess the 'big speech' played out better dramatically, so its use was understandable here.
Finney's scheme was kind of crazy-- it critically depended on never being discovered by Starfleet, thereby burning his bridges permanently-- but he was indeed portrayed toward the end as having totally lost it, so at least that part was internally consistent.
The other technological part that was probably good for its time, but seems quite silly now, was the use of the heartbeats of the crew to locate Finney. Surely they could have detected him more directly with the ship's sensors? There was also a minor contradiction with the Menagerie episode; in that episode, it was stated that detailed video records of all ship activity simply aren't routinely made; but that's a minor quibble.
Some minor trivia: This episode confirms that Spock's rank in the first season was lieutenant commander (this was also mentioned in several earlier episodes, but seems fairly definitely established here), as was Dr. McCoy's.