Favorite Star Trek episode

During this week of the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, I've thinking about which one of the classic 79 episodes is my favorite. My choice has shifted over the years; the pacifist in me has long loved "Errand of Mercy" (with the Organians, and John Collicos as the first Klingon, Kor).

But I actually think the most beautiful writing the series ever saw was in Jerome Bixby's script for "Requiem for Methuselah" (the one with the thousands-of-years-old human named Flint, who had been Brahms, da Vinci, and a hundred other geniuses, and his quest to make the perfect android woman, Rayna).

It ends with this fabulous little soliloquy by Dr. Leonard McCoy. Captain Kirk has been totally heartbroken, and has fallen asleep, his head in his arms, on the work table in his quarters, while Spock and McCoy look on. Says McCoy (the "him" he refers to is Kirk):

You wouldn't understand that, would you, Spock? You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him, because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to: the ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures -- and the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know simply because the word "love" isn't written into your book.