At long last, I have transcribed Juanita Coulson and Kay Anderson's rebuttal (or at least counterpoint) to Ted White's savaging of Trek. It is much more favorable and worth a read for an idea of what the stf fan who was also a Trek fan thought of Trek in early '67 (particularly with an eye toward Hugo season and compared to other TV shows of the time):
The Roddenberry Maneuver
Science fiction on American television has rarely been kindly treated. Most often, it's situation comedy with a slight twist (MY FAVORITE MARTIAN or IT'S ABOUT TIME), or it's LASSIE with a twist (LOST IN SPACE substituted a robot for the dog and added Jonathan Harris as a hickory—cured fly—in—the-plot-ointment).
The more ambitious tv stf series offerings in 1966 —with one exception— were built around two themes: (1) Xenophobia and/or (2) The Mental and Moral Superiority of Homo Sapiens, particularly the 100% red-blooded American boy branch of that species.
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, in its search for ever more frightening menaces for the crew to conquer with .44 and fireaxe, has dredged the horror film libraries of the 1940's. They have, for one example, temporarily turned Admiral Nelson into a werewolf. And early in 1967, poor Kharis shuffled about the corridors of the Seaview in his continuing pathetic search for the Princess Anankha. That episode, so help us, ended with:
"There are some things Man was not meant~to know."
Irwin Allen also introduced TIME TUNNEL, and the viewer might initially gather the idea this is an adventure series set in an alternate time line. That would indeed be a fine, imaginative series – but the concept is marred by the fact that producer, writers, and actors all seem under the delusion they are meddling with the events, past and future, of our own time stream. As it is, it's lucky they are in an alternate past, not our own — for in each episode the heroes tromp with giddy abandon again and again on the butterflies of paradox.
Roddenberry's STAR TREK was the only stf tv series to depart from the twin formulae. On star trek humanity is neither all-villain nor god-like, neither superior nor inferior; arid alien life forms display the same wide variety, from primitive savagery to mentally and morally superior beings who look on homo sapiens with pity.
In depicting mankind as sometimes worthwhile, sometimes appallingly clay-footed, STAR TREK not only broke Allen's rules for a successful "science fiction" tv series, but it also proved that Science Fiction could ask far more interesting questions than: "How Can We Conquer This Hideous Alien Menace?"
During 1966, STAR TREK tackled plots dealing with such diverse subjects as ESP drug addiction, futuristic penology and psychiatry, genocide, medical experimentation.extraterrestrial diseases and chemicals, and the conflict between man and machine. Its aims were frequently very lofty, and it did not always succeed. But surprisingly often STAR TREK matched or even surpassed the efforts of major film companies (who work with comparatively limitless time and budget allowances and big name casts and promotion).
The following are the STAR TREK episodes broadcast nationally in 1966. (The question mark indicates uncertainty about the script writer deserving the credit or blame.)
9/6/66: "The Man Trap" - Roddenberry (?)
9/15/66: "Charlie X" - script by D.C. Fontana
9/22/66: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - script, Sam Peoples
9/29/66: "The Naked Time" script by John D.F. Black (?)
10/6/66: "The Enemy Within" -script by Richard Matheson
10/13/66: "Mudd's Women" - script by Stephen Kandel
10/20/66: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" - script by Robert Bloch
10/27/66: "Miri" - script by Adrian Spies
11/3/66: "Dagger of the Mind". - script by Shimon Wlncelberg
11/10/66: "The Corbomite Maneuver" - script by Jerry Sohl
11/17/66: "The Menagerie:Part I" - script by Gene Roddenberry
11/24/66: "The Menagerie:Part II" - script by Gene Roddenberry
12/08/66: "The Conscience of the King" - script by Barry Trlvers
12/15/66: "Balance of Terror" - script by Paul Schneider
12/29/66: "Shore Leave" - script by Theodore Sturgeon
"The Man Trap", the series' "premiere", was apparently so selected to attract the necessary large audience quickly, and it did make use of that familiar xenophobic theme. Yet, there was compassion expressed for the Alien, and the plot was not a rehash of a werewolf movie, but rather a distillation of "
Who Goes There?" and "
The Black Destroyer".
Both "Charlie X" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (the pilot film) concerned the problems of undisciplined, uncontrolled ESP, and it was unfortunate-the episodes were scheduled on consecutive weeks; both lost some effect by the proximity. STAR TREK has suffered several times from this tendency to schedule episodes with similar, though not identical, themes very close together. Perhaps television's time pressures are the culprit.
"The Naked Time" script infected the ship's crew with a bound water molecule from an alien planet, converting the victims into drunks and psychotics — and coincidentally providing the cast with a field day for character development. The plot posed a believable, soluble prob lem for the ship's surgeon, and provided a secondary crisis when the mysterious "disease" caused the affected members of the crew to nearly wreck the ship, "The Naked Time" was well directed and acted, tightly edited, and ranks as one of the two best STAR TREK episodes of 1966.
"The Enemy Within'' gave Matheson another chance to explore the contrast and conflict of Man's good and evil halves. Though having some inconsistencies, It was a considerable cut above the werewolf plot.
"Mudd's Women" concerned a
Magnus Ridolf-type con man, drug addiction and mail-order brides. It was the sort of story-the Standard mags might well have featured^, and it was handled with commendable humorous touches.
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?", though scripted by Robert Bloch, was unhappily one of STAR TREK's two worst scripts. The plot involved an droids, a mad scientist, and enough large holes to drive the starship Enterprise itself through. To borrow Roy Tackett's phrase, this time Bloch was not superb.
"Miri" was STAR TREK's second outright failure, and again it is strange to note these episodes fell on consecutive weeks. The opening teaser made much of the fact that the planet of this plot was an exact duplicate of Earth — then did absolutely nothing further with this strongly established "fact". The plot made the crew seem inept idiots, and the direction vias oddly spotty.
"Dagger of the Mind" was a 22nd Century exploration of penology, and the moral question of — in effect — prefrontal lobotomy (though the process involved was far more sophisticated, medically and psychiatrically).
"The Corbomite Maneuver" rivaled "The Naked Time" in excellence, and is our nominee for a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation at the Nycon this year. Jerry Sohl scripted a fine suspenseful First Contact story that did much to wash away the taste of Alien Menace permeating the air ways throughout the tv season. "Corbomite"'s special effects alone were awesome; an alien ship — a tremendous, spherical, multi-faceted vessel — was both menacing and beautiful. The diplomatic game of wits between the two captains was an adept treatment of a theme that has long needed doing in drama form.
"The Menagerie" (considered here as one episode) used Roddenberry's original unsold pilot via flashbacks, and in order to do so, had to twist both plot logic and the already-established character of Mr. Spock.
"Conscience of the King" and "Balance of Terror" both took the non-stf viewing audience into the 22nd Century with a minimum of readjustment of thinking on the part of mundania. "Conscience" described the tracking down ofa former genocidal dictator, and "Balance of Terror" was "The Enemy Below" with spaceships. Oddly, STAR TREK's experiment with submarine warfare was more convincing and exciting than that generally presented on VOYAGE, despite several large logic holes in the plot of "Balance of Terror".
"Shore Leave" gave Sturgeon his chance to exhibit Homo Sapiens as a peculiar, mixture of Savage and Dreamer. It was interesting to note that during the final scenes, when Captain Kirk asked The Keeper about his home planet that alien politely avoided answering the question. Sturgeon created the impression The Keeper was quite willing to play host to these primitives withall the facilities of his planet-wide amusement park, but that he hardly considered them a species civilized enough to invite as house guests.
In excellent, mediocre and poor episodes STAR TREK has featured adequate, occasionally very fine direction – one symptom of which has been the fine point honing of the throwaway line, the throwaway business. During ah involved scene, an almost overlooked intercom will report some piece of equipment malfunctioning, and mid-dialogue the efficient Scots engineer will depart, muttering,to correct this error while the rest of the cast smoothly dialogues the plotline down a totally different channel. (On VOYAGE, the engineer's reaction and the other characters' comments upon it would consume a minute and a half of dialogue, at a modest estimate.)
The tossed away lines (so quick and subtle as to be easily lost if one is not alert), the efficient bits of business, the impression of believable technical ability on the part of the crew are a tremendous cut above both the directoral and acting techniques of the Irwin Allen series, VOYAGE and TIME TUNNEL. STAR TREK's hardware alone is a very pleasant contrast to the pinball machine impression of Allen's efforts.
In the first episodes, STAR TREK's Captain Kirk came across as a petty, quick-tempered, sarcastic, stubborn, and resentful man. It is, of course, impossible to judge how much of this character creation was the writers', how much the directors', how much the personal interpretation of actor William Shatner. But as the series progressed, and most notably during "The Corbomite Maneuver", Kirk was a much better, more powerful personality — in command of the situation, quite credible as the captain of a starship. Kirk has done far more with the lead role than did Jeffrey Hunter's Ensign-On-His-First-Adventure portrayal during the flashback sequences in "The Menagerie".
Leonard Nimoy was given an emotionless, half human-half alien executive officer to bring to life, and he was, perhaps apocryphally, quoted as saying the role was "impossible". Thanks to Nimoy, Spock is not impossible, nor even unsympathetic. Far from it. Rather than being emotionless, he has developed as a man of admirable emotional discipline and depth of character. Spock allows us sparse glimpses of this fascinating suppressed character, glimpses which tend to excite the viewer to speculate and extrapolate. To cite but one such tack: Could Vulcans (the race of Spock's father) have non—human emotions which humans, not being able to describe, would deny existed? It would be similar to trying to describe a color without a known color reference. Spock's mannerisms, subtle expressions and enigmatic dialogue invite such ideas, almost involuntarily. One becomes curious about his childhood, his past life. Alien make up quite aside, Spock is now both intriguing and quite likable, and not at all the computer-in-the-flesh of the original Peeples script.
A television series should, fairly, be judged on its total output — for It must produce thirteen or more complete dramas within the same of less time than that allotted to big name, big budget films. But the specifications for Hugo awards insist that a television series must stand or fall in a single episode.
Very well then: keep firmly in mind "The Naked Time" and "The Corbomite Maneuver", particularly the latter. Those episodes of STAR TREK certainly had no competition from anything else on television during 1966, and they deserve your serious consideration when you are making nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation for the Nycon Hugos.
Any episodes aired in 1967 are, of course, not eligible at the Nycon. But it is worth noting that the episodes of STAR TREK in '67 have kept up the caliber of those released in '66. The series even tackled the very delicate concept of time travel; unlike TIME TUNNEL, STAR TREK's writer, director and producer all seemed quite aware of the immense problems of paradox, and they dealt with the subject with commendable care.
STAR TREK's "The Naked Time" and "The Corbomite Maneuver" stack up very well against their dramatic competition (and a large amount of their written competition as well, in our opinion). Granting Sturgeon's Law, two poor,several average,and two excellent episodes out of a total of fourteen puts STAR TREK above that hoped-for 10% of worthwhile -material. We think that excellence should earn "The Corbomite Maneuver" a Hugo, and we hope you agree.
We would like to express our appreciation to Frank-Wright of Desilu for his valuable assistance in preparing the above article.... .Juanita Wellons Coulson and Kay Anderson
(And if you haven't already, YOU can vote for your favorite episode in our retake of the 1966 Best Dramatic Hugo Award 
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