Star Trek: TOS 1.05: "The Man Trap"

I can see why this episode was picked to air first. The cast has really come together at this point and everyone seems comfortable in their roles. It's got some of that "western in space" flavor Roddenberry was going for with the lone scientist/rancher in the desert having a shootout with space army/marshals. It has a really scary alien monster at the end that freaked me out as a kid. There's a glimpse of some classic Trekian morality as Kirk briefly laments to death of the last of its kind.

You kinda have to wonder what the monster's problem was. Clearly, the critter was intelligent. It could speak in English when in human form and successfully pretended to be various crew persons. One of the reasons a starship arrived on its planet in the first place was to drop off supplies. Why couldn't the thing hold its horses and wait for the giant bags of salt to beam down? To immediately begin feasting on the new arrivals has got to be a record in the annals of bad manners. I'm glad it was phasered to death, the rude bastard.

yr: 2266
sd: 1513.1
ad: 8 Sep 1966