Arena

TOS Season 1 Episode 18
Air Date: January 19th, 1967

Arena is one of the most ridiculed episodes of any TV show. It is the episode where Kirk fights the Gorn. It starts with the Enterprise being called to an Earth colony but when they beam down the colony is destroyed. They are then attacked from the hills and take cover and return fire. After winning the land battle the attackers beam to their ship and fly away. The Enterprise pursues.

After pushing the engines to it's extremes (Warp 8) the enemy ship suddenly comes to a halt. Kirk tries to use this to his advantage and arms weapons but then the Enterprise also comes to a stop, all weapons dead. Then a voice says that both races are barbaric and to solve the dispute, the captains of each ship will fight each other to the death.

Then Kirk and the Gorn appear on a planet and fight. During the fight Kirk learns that the Gorn was just defending their space and saw the Federation as the intruders. Kirk eventually builds a make shift canon and uses it to disable the Gorn. When he goes for the killing blow securing the win he decides against it. When the alien asks why, he said that it was a misunderstanding and peace was still possible. This was the answer the alien was looking for and returns both captains to their ships.

Two crew members died in this episode. One was a red shirt and the other was a blue shirt.