From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: graemecree@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: The Pirates of Orion (TAS): my review   
      
   This one is a good one.  I might give it 8 or 9.  It easily makes my   
   Top 5 TAS episode list .  Not only do they work a lot of story into 22   
   minutes, but it feels like Trek, and has things that they couldn't ot   
   wouldn't have afforded in the live action series worked in naturally,   
   like the two extra ship models, and the confrontation on the   
   asteroid.  Kirk gets a really good mix of action-adventure and   
   diplomacy for such a short story.   
      
   The idea behind it was long overdue.  After all those plagues that   
   affect everybody *except* Spock, let's do a story about a disease that   
   affects *only* Spock.   
      
   I believe Howard Weinstein was still a teenager when he wrote this.   
   Or at least very close to it.  I don't remember the story of how he   
   got his foot in the door, but I think he just submitted a script that   
   they liked too much to ignore.  He was buddies with David Gerrold, who   
   broke into Trek the same way.   
      
   One minor foible. After incorrectly pronouncing it "O'Ryan" in Journey   
   to Babel, they corrected it to "Oreon" for this episode.  At that   
   point they might as well have stuck to the error and said that the   
   pronunciation had changed over a couple of centuries.   
      
   This is the episode more than any other that got the Orion Pirates   
   added as a major race in Starfleet Battles.  Of course they had to   
   ignore the ending to the episode, because in SFB the pirates are not   
   only still in operation, but the Orion government is still plausibly   
   denying any connection with them.  Maybe in the SFB Universe, this   
   story ended with Kirk and the Pirates completing their deal.   
      
   And that's the one minor problem I have with this episode, and with   
   Trek in general.  Too often it confirms the viewer's thinking rather   
   than challenging it.  Tough choices are often avoided (i.e. Operation   
   Annihilate, where Kirk has to kill a million people or let a plague   
   spread, but it's just a tease, and he doesn't really have to make that   
   choice at all in the end), or circumstances work out so that   
   unpleasant things that have to be done play out in such a way that   
   keeps the stars hands clean.  Edith Keeler has to die, but Kirk   
   doesn't have to actually do it himself.  Despite all their   
   interference, she's still crossing the street at just the right moment   
   for fate to do it for him.  Or Kruge pretty much has to die, but to   
   make Kirk look less bad, he actually does offer his hand to him whe   
   he's dangling off the cliff.  Then and only then is it okay in the   
   audience's mind for Kirk to kick him off.  (I guess the life and death   
   struggle that had been going on for the last 5 minutes still wasn't   
   enough).   
      
   The sticky choice that is conveniently avoided in this episode is what   
   if the Orions, not wanting to slug it out with a Heavy Cruiser, and   
   knowing of Kirk's Boy-Scoutish reputation (except with women, nudge,   
   nudge), had gone ahead with the deal they made with him, and taken   
   their chances that he'd stick to it?  Their backstab was only possible   
   at all because they conveniently happened to be orbiting unstable   
   asteroids at the time.  Suppose they hadn't been?   
      
   Would Kirk have stuck to the deal?  Well, the audience wouldn't have   
   respected him if he'd made the deal in good faith, saved Spock, and   
   then turned around and betrayed the Pirates.  So, I assume he would   
   have.  But for how long?  From then on, he'd feel responsible for   
   every act of piracy they comitted, and for every death.  They couldn't   
   tell that story in 22 minutes, of course, but it would make a great   
   season-long story arc.  In the end, I suspect he'd have had to go back   
   on his word.  And the audience would have understood, but they   
   wouldn't have been happy about it.  But this being Trek, we don't have   
   to worry about things like that.  The Orions go back on the deal,   
   which frees Kirk from having to complete his end of it, giving him the   
   chance to go Shatnertastic on their candy-a$$es, and bring home both   
   the strobolin, and their ship.  They don't even self-destruct this   
   time, they're so in awe of his performance.  It's a great episode, but   
   just once in a while, you'd like to see them show a successful but   
   messy ending, because in real life you can't avoid those every time.   
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