thought B-stories slowed stories down. He said, "They added a whole subplot about people down on the planet, ready to freeze to death, because they have a transporter functioning problem...I stuck entirely with Bill." Leonard Nimoy, unhappy with part of the script that called for Spock to hit "evil" Kirk on the head with a phaser to render him unconscious, suggested the idea of the Vulcan nerve pinch. Director Leo Penn had a difficult time understanding the idea, but William Shatner helped demonstrate Nimoy's concept. This episode is one of the small group for which a full score was written, in this case by Sol Kaplan. Jeff Bond noted: Reception Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A−' rating, noting that while the last act of the episode was somewhat redundant, the first two run smoothly, and describing Shatner's acting as Kirk's good half as "very solid stuff." In 2014, IO9 rated "The Enemy Within" the 81st greatest episode of Star Trek. In 2016, IGN ranked "The Enemy Within" the 7th best episode of the original series. In 2016, Empire ranked this the 15th best out of the top 50 episodes of all the 700 plus Star Trek television episodes. In 2016, Radio Times ranked the moment where Kirk exclaims "I'm Captain Kirk!!", the tenth best moment of all Star Trek film and television up to that time. They felt that Shatner's acting performance "completely carries this early first season episode." In 2017, Fatherly ranked this episode as one of the top 10 episodes for kids to watch. In 2018, PopMatters ranked this the 8th best episode of the original series. They praised Shatner (who plays both Kirks) for his nuanced yet over-the-top performance, depicting an extraordinary range of emotions. A 2018 Star Trek binge-watching guide by Den of Geek, recommended this episode as one of the best of the original series. In 2019, Nerdist included this episode on their "Best of Kirk" binge-watching guide. In 2019, CBR ranked this episode as one of the top 8 most memorable episodes of the original Star Trek. References External links "The Enemy Within" Side-by-side comparison before and after remastering at TrekMovie.com Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) episodes 1966 American television episodes Television episodes written by Richard Matheson Films scored by Sol Kaplan