Well 'who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale'? I guess it's the same guy who put the 'bop in the bop-she-bop', because this episode is done with sheer fun in mind, never taking things too seriously, and offering different takes on the personalities of the main Star Trek characters. For sure, Captain Kirk is totally befuddled by this intrusion into his command ("Does everybody know about this wheat but me"?), and totally vanquished by Scotty's honesty, to the point of rewarding him with confinement to quarters! Just fine with Scotty - more time for those exhilarating technical journals.
I can only think of one thing that might have made this one more hilarious, and that would have been to bring back Mudd. As it was, William Campbell does return in another guest spot as a bearded Klingon, last seen as Trelane, the Squire of Gothos back in the first season. Maybe Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams) should have been given more screen time, what with his being a licensed asteroid locator and all. But we do get to see a Trek version of a barroom brawl, one more diversion from the regular course of duty aboard a Federation starship.
This isn't one of my favorite episodes, but I can't begrudge anyone who holds it in their top ten. It's a lot of fun, and a nice departure from battling space aliens and trying to figure out how those time warp stories work. Also a neat jumping on point for new viewers who might not know anything about Star Trek and are on the fence about joining the club.
I can only think of one thing that might have made this one more hilarious, and that would have been to bring back Mudd. As it was, William Campbell does return in another guest spot as a bearded Klingon, last seen as Trelane, the Squire of Gothos back in the first season. Maybe Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams) should have been given more screen time, what with his being a licensed asteroid locator and all. But we do get to see a Trek version of a barroom brawl, one more diversion from the regular course of duty aboard a Federation starship.
This isn't one of my favorite episodes, but I can't begrudge anyone who holds it in their top ten. It's a lot of fun, and a nice departure from battling space aliens and trying to figure out how those time warp stories work. Also a neat jumping on point for new viewers who might not know anything about Star Trek and are on the fence about joining the club.