premiered. Reception In 2009, Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' rating, describing it as "TOS [The Original Series] at its best—gripping, well-paced, and thematically coherent," and noting the ending's note of optimism. In 2010, SciFiNow ranked this the sixth-best episode of the original series. Io9 rated it the 14th best of all Star Trek episodes, in 2014. In 2015, WIRED magazine did not recommend skipping this episode in their binge-watching guide for the original series. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter rated "The Corbomite Maneuver" the 45th best television episode of all Star Trek franchise television prior to Star Trek: Discovery, including live-action and the animated series but not counting the movies. In 2016, they ranked this episode as the 16th greatest episode of the original series. In 2017, Business Insider ranked "The Corbomite Maneuver" the 8th best episode of the original series. In 2017, Den of Geek praised this episode as one of the "most thoughtful episodes of the entire franchise" and noting how it set the trend for bizarre first contact situations. In 2018, PopMatters ranked this the 9th best episode of the original series. Actor Clint Howard, who played Balok in this episode, was very impressed with the acting opportunities in the Star Trek franchise, having acted multiple times including in three other Star Trek series. On being interviewed by StarTrek.com about his roles in Star Trek (TOSs "The Corbomite Maneuver" (1966), DS9s "Past Tense: Part II" (1995), and DSCs "Will You Take My Hand?" (2018)), he stated "Oh, sure. I'm an actor and I love gainful employment. Virtually every job offer gets a legitimate consideration from me, but the fact that it's Star Trek is a yes at the drop of a hat. How many people have been on shows 50 years ago and are still being asked to be in incarnations of the same franchise?" Howard also appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise’s 2002 episode "Acquisition". In 2018, Collider ranked this the 19th best episode of the original television series. In 2019, Nerdist included this episode on their "Best of Kirk" binge-watching guide. In 2021, Den of Geek ranked this the number three episode of the original series, remarking "Like a good bottle of tranya, this episode only improves with time". Parody At the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on October 30, 2010, Jon Stewart used the imaginary threat of "corbomite"