Is the space sickness suffered by Lt. Romaine the same malady which afflicted Ezri Dax?

When the crew discovers the Memory Alpha databanks have been burned out, Spock comments on it being a disastrous loss for the galaxy. Hasn't the Federation ever heard of back-up files?

The Federation may have, but writers in the 1960s whose conception of libraries meant unique BOOKS hadn't.

Did they edit something right at the beginning of the show? Scott's dialogue abruptly mentions that Mira is the nicest, SANEST person on the ship. This is hardly what you'd call an opening conversational gambit. Could Mira have been mentioning her dreams of the Enterprise being attacked, that Scott refers to later in the story with no apparent earlier dialogue?

After the first attack, Kirk asked Spock the condition of the warp engines. Isn't Scott the better choice to ask? Or did Kirk figure that Scott was so ga-ga over Mira that he wouldn't know the answer?

Uhura said that she froze just as she was about to answer a hail from Memory Alpha. Did she ever bother to answer after she unfroze, or did she wait until the Zetarians had gotten there first?

The Zetarians were looking for a living body to sit in--what was the point of ruining the computer records?

When Mira finally beamed in to the ship, didn't she notice that she was the only one on the transporter? Why didn't she ask what happened?

Scot said he didn't believe in ESP. A Scotsman not believing in the Sight?

Considering all that happened, Scott's advice to Mira was pretty stupid.

The Zetarians said they were the last hundred of Zetar. Yet Spock identified only 10 distinct forms.

I sure hope Mira wasn't just dumped on Memory Alpha alone.

I'm not sure as I've not seen the episode (yet) but according to my friend,somewhere in this episode Scotty is wearing the Sciences emblem, not engineering. Please let me know if this is so.

To Bryan: Yes, Scotty does wear the Sciences emblem on his red shirt. Funny that Phil never noticed it. :)

Furthermore, another thing that disturbed me, was that when McCoy says that the pressure in the chamber is extremely high (it could even kill her), Kirk nevertheless orders Spock to increase the pressure, bringing "The Girl" into even more peril. How come that Kirk doesn't listen to his MD, when everyone knows that McCoy is fully qualified to know his med stuff?

Is it just me, or when someone is channeling the Zetarians(?) and speaking in tongues (presumably Zetarian), don't they sound like Charlie Brown's teacher?

Mwa-wa-wa-wa?
Yes ma'am.
Mwa-wa-wa-wa.

Those blockheads!

My answer to HarleQuin's question above about putting Mira in more peril is that Kirk's training was similar to Deana Troy's command training that we saw in the Next Generation, i.e."Your first duty is to the SHIP." He may not have wanted to hurt Lt. Romaine, but was willing to do so to safeguard the rest of the crew.

This is a TOS episode which actually has a novelized sequel (perhaps better termed a prequel) which is not even a Star Trek novel at all! Gerard F. Conway, under his psuedonym of Wallace Moore, wrote a book with the exact same title as this episode as part of his "Balzan" series of sci-fi novels. In this story, the hero Balzan discovers a planet formerly ruled by the Zetarians, a race of beings who died out millenia ago (as the Zetarians of this episode were said to have done). They have, however, left behind a computer which can absorb and possess people's minds. This novel has a Trek-like finale as Balzan talks the computer into destroying itself!

"Ay. We have all the time in the world now"....

Then the following week....

"Lt. Romaine? Who is that?"

Scotty comes off as a real dummy in this one. His advice to Mira about space sickness is ridiculous. In the Voyager episode "Relativity" the Doctor thinks everyone has space sickness, all it seems to be is nausea and maybe feeling dizzy. He never asked, "Now, could see into the future?". Considering all that has happened you would thik he would consider if worth reporting. She passed out, predicted the storm coming back, and said she saw the dead people exactly as they were. Just how does that seem perfectly normal? He acted more like an overprotective father, and considering the vessel is under attack the fact he would rather go to Sick-Bay than Engineering is crazy. He shows a total disregard for his job, in fact in the teaser another engineer has to get his attention away from Mira even though everyone else knows the storm is coming. This one of those times you hope Kirk pulled him aside and gave him a serious lecture. Finally, the dumbest thing of all is falling for this girl who the Enterprise was bringing to Memory Alpha to work. Just what sort of lifetime together did he have in mind? At least the girl in "Adonais" was a crewperson.

One last note to the above, no that sounded nothing like the adults in Peanuts cartoons.

Question: Why is Romaine bobbing up and down in the chamber?
Answer: She was doing a great imitation of Lamb Chop the sock puppet.

(The episode was written by Sheri Lewis)

Under his Ruminations for this episode, Phil pointed out that this episode gives a rough idea of when the common cold was cured, mentioning that the first season of NextGen established that it no longer exists, and that Scott tells Romaine in this episode that it still exists. I would point out that Bones made a similar comment back in The Omega Glory.

Once again Kirk defies all logic by firing weapons at a non-corporeal lifeform. I'll bet he throws chairs at ghosts too.

Shari Lewis, who wrote this ep with her husband, Jeremy Tarcher, died of cancer in 1996. As divorce is so prevalent in Hollywood circles, I was surprised to learn that they were still married at the time of her death.

The Zetarans look very simular to the "Companion" in "Metamorphosis"

The eerie glow that shows up on people's faces looks kinda cheesy....hmmm...maybe this episode SHOULD HAVE been called "The STAGE Lights of Zetar"

GREAT SHOTS: The opening shot of the Enterprise & the overhead shot of Kirk in the command chair.

GREAT SFX: The viewscreen readout of the Zetarans 'projected course'...you can see the word "Contact" pop up on the screen...THIS IS MOVIE QUALITY!!!!

The panel from the penal colony on Elba II returns.

The door to the Transporter room ALMOST closes on Scott & Mira.

Desktop monitor of Mira's brainwaves & the Zetaran brainwave overlap is MOVIE QUALITY!!!

The "dirge" music from "Spock's Brain" is back again...along with A LOT of music from "Where No Man Has Gone Before"...I was waiting for the "Gary Mitchel & the Remote Control" music again.

Spock notes that Memory Alpha has no shields...Why not? The Alpha Quandrant ain't exactly the safest spot in the universe ya know!
Who's the brain who built this station anyway?

Which gets even scarier when you realize said shieldless installation is supposed to be a repository for something like most of the knowledge in the ruddy Federation! How long would it have been before the Klingons decided to register for a library card...using phasers?

Meanwhile:
Scot said he didn't believe in ESP. A Scotsman not believing in the Sight?

Well, he is an engineer, after all. As the proud possessor of a brother-in-law who's the same, I can certify that they tend not to believe anything they can't break down into arcane mathematical formulas.

I am a man of science and reason your silly superstitions do not frighten me!

Yeah, but didn't he get zapped by a Greek God? Also, wasn't he on board during Where No Man Has Gone Before?

True. But in both cases, those 'supernatural' happenings turned out to have very explicable triggers.
In other words, Marla hadn't been zapped by the Galactic Barrier, so Scotty had good reason not to believe she had ESP. He phrased it as emphatically he did so as to make her feel better.

Meanwhile....J&S Reeves-Stevens wrote a sequel to this ep called 'Memory Prime.' I can't really recommned it though. Like most of their Trek novels, it's technically impeccable but very cold - even hostile - where characterization is concerned. Scotty and Mira don't even begin to interact until the last few pages!

Sometime after the first attack, they show a close-up of Sulu...it is flipped. (Look at the hair)

In the Briefing Room, Sulu's image fades from the desktop monitor screen BEFORE Kirk presses the button

When Kirk talks to the Zetarians thru Romaine, he says: "This is Captain Kirk of the SPACESHIP Enterprise" Uh....isn't it "STARSHIP Enterprise"?

The rectangular window in which everyone watches Romaine bob up and down (like a sock puppet) looks very similar to the cryogenic chamber windows seen on the Botany Bay in "Space Seed"

When Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Romaine & Scott leave the
Briefing room, the door opens and you can see an extra in blue BEGINNING his stride past the door....it's like he was standing there all along and waiting for the door to open!

No doubt listening closely on the other side for incriminating tid-bits! Section 31, anyone?

This episode marks the last time we see Mr. Kyle (or "Kowel") until STII

STAB IN THE BACK AWARD:

Sheri Lewis (a big "Star Trek" fan) originally penned the part of Romaine for HERSELF. However, TPTB chose Jan Shutan.

DORKS!

Would it have killed them to have Lewis play the part that SHE WROTE? HMM?

David Gerrold in "The Trouble With Tribbles" also wrote the part of Ensign Freeman for himself, however he was not considered buff enough by the shows producers to be a security guard.

Hmmmmm...Shari & Scotty...cute.

(Incidentally, John A., I do believe this is the first time you've ever argued against having a statuesque blonde guest star! )

But in all honesty I can't see Lewis being considered for the part no matter what the circumstances.
IIRC, she was a tiny, 'cute' woman with a high-pitched voice...best known for a ventriloquist act with a sock lamb. Not exactly the type the creators would picture as the head of Starfleet's main library complex.

Why not? They had a mannequin working at PSI 2000 in "The Naked Time"

I must note that this is the last episode in which we see the Enterprise's phasers firing until STII.

This episode opens with Kirk making another unnecessarily long log entry to bring viewers up to speed.
He then comments, in his own log, about Scotty finding love.
To paraphrase Bones,
Dammit, Jim, don't you have any respect for your officer's personal affairs?
Do you really think Starfleet Command will give a d@mn about Scotty going gaga over someone?

I think this episode marks the last time we see the pressure chamber in Sick Bay in use.

Prior to Kirk & co. beaming down to Memory Alpha, there's two shots of the Enterprise in orbit; one approaching the camera, and one moving away.
Watch the lower portion of the planet for an island close to a squiggly land mass. The first angle shows the point of the sguiggly land in one direction, with the island on the left, then as the Enterprise moves away, the island has shifted sides and now on the right! The sfx producers flipped the image of the planet!

This episode marks the last time we see an Andorian until STIV. (Originally, I thought it was "Gamesters of Triskelion", but I was mistaken.

There is an Andorian in the crowd scene in ST-TMP, where Kirk addresses the crew in the Rec Room. However, you probably have to use slo-mo on your DVD player and look real hard. His antennae are smaller than what we are accustomed to seeing.
You also noted previously that a lot of the music from "Where No Man..." was recycled in this ep. That speaks highly of the quality of the music from that ep (very tension inducing, part of the package that sold the series in the first place.) In fact, a lot of first season music was re-used in the third season.

GREAT MOMENT:

Major kudos goes to the SFX people. During the opening title, you see the exterior of the Enterprise changing colors along with the flashing effect of the Zetarians. Perfect sync.
It was an easy place to make a mistake & they pulled it off flawlessly.

When Kirk and co. beam to Memory Alpha, his voice over says that the situation is "OmiMous." That is not a typo, he says Omi-mous" instead on omiNous.

Jan Shutan, like Barbara Anderson, in "The Conscience of The King," goes through most of this episode with a very visible cold sore (bottom lip).

Sir Rhosis

The music for this episode makes no sense whatsover.

Sometimes when a piece of music is being played, it gets cut off mid-note and a totally different piece of music cuts in....sometimes at a different tempo and a different key!

Great Line: "Wonderful!" Kirk after hearing that Memory Alpha has no shields. My sentiments exactly.

Re: Shari Lewis wanted to play Mira, I've heard that it was the cast who were against it, especially Doohan. I have to say, in retrospect, it's a good call. Can you imagine if she had played Mira? It's all that would ever be talked about the episode.

At least that would have been SOMTHING that was interesting about this episode! (just joking)

*yawn*

According to the "Memory Alpha" website, James Doohan did not like the idea of Scotty falling in love with Mira.

That's odd, because IIRC, according Joan Winston in "Star Trek Lives!", Doohan was thrilled about a love story for Scotty.

He must have changed his mind. Either that or someone got their facts mixed up.

I may be mixed up, it's a long time since I read that, hence the IIRC.

ScottN is right; "Star Trek Lives!" does say that Doohan was happy about the love story, on page 182.

Thanks, Nove!

From the late Mr. Doohan's autobiography, Beam Me Up, Scotty^TM:

"It was nice to have an episode ('The Lights of Zetar') focused on Scotty, although his fixation on Mira Romaine certainly seemed to come out of nowhere. The fixation was more of a matter of plot convenience, to give the episode more emotional depth, rather than something that flowed naturally out of Scotty's personality. On the other hand, it also gave them yet another chance to zap poor Scotty, who always seemed to get his head handed to him whenever he tried to save a crewwoman in distress (see 'The Changeling' and 'Who Mourns For Adonis?')" - Beam Me Up, Scotty^TM, pages 155-156.

Live long and prosper.

That great overhead shot in the teaser, where the camera zooms right in on Kirk, wasn't shot for this episode. My guess is it was shot in the first season; I don't think it was ever used before this ep. The navigator in the shot isn't Chekov; it's probably Bill Blackburn's Hadley. The nav's shirt has lieutenant's stripes. Kirk's chair is missing the pad on its base that was put in for the third season, and the uniform shirts are velour, not the polyester double-knit used in season three. Also, Shatner's hair in that shot is shorter than he wore it in mid-third season. If anyone can remember if that shot was used in a previous episode, please let me know.

After the landing party returns to the ship from Memory Alpha, and Kirk enters the bridge he asks Chekov for a report, only he pronounces it 'Cheken'. Not quite 'chicken', but there's a definite lack of a 'v' in the name.

Is this the only episode in which Nurse Chapel gets the last line?

Oops! My above question was intended for 'Return to Tommorrow'..! How careless of me!

It's OK. IIRC, Kirk got the last line here ("Can I stand the strain?", followed by a short chuckle.) It's a rare episode where Kirk doesn't get the last line. He even got the last line in the series. ("If only, if only...")

Can you imagine if she (Shari Lewis) had played Mira? It's all that would ever be talked about the episode.
Shari Lewis may have been trying to get out of the kiddie-show image. She even appeared in two episodes of Hugh Hefner's variety show Playboy After Dark. That apparently didn't take, because Lamb Chop was eventually resurrected (see Lamb Chop's Play Along, a PBS series Ms. Lewis did before her death). More of her credits here.

This episode missed a great dramatic opportunity, which could have made Scotty seem less like a teenager in love, and at the same time strengthen the dramatic structure.

We've often seen Kirk sparring with McCoy (The Man Trap, A Private Little War, etc.). Suppose Scotty had stuck by Mira's story a little more firmly, and Kirk had to pull him aside to discuss his distration to his duties? Sort of like Kirk did to him in Who Mourns for Adonais?, only more so.

This episode has one of those (at least to me) recurring Star Trek oddities. When in the briefing room, McCoy is reading off the information about Mira's psychological profile to the others. What always bugs me is figuring out just what he's reading it off of? Those computer terminals contain nothing but a dozen or two blinking lights, if I recall.

Also, referring to "tape deck D" and "tape deck H" in the briefing room seems awfully vague and simplistic. I always assumed those "tape decks" spoken of were simply tapes prepared for that meeting in particular, each containing information relevant to that particular situation. We've often seen people at the end of briefings gather up a pile of those tapes before they leave, but I think this is the only episode that referred to them by name (or letter). In another episode (any one), "tape deck D" might've contained info on Lazarus' condition, Khan's history, or maybe Capellan society. 'Tape deck H" could've been loaded up with facts about Captain Christopher or the Nomad probe. Basically, a "futuristic" equivalent of re-writable CD's.

To kerriem's post from Thursday,Novemeber 29,2001 at 8:29pm } The Klingon's would register for a library card with sonic disruptors & not phasers wouldn't they?

Next week the Lights of Zetar is enhanced ...what can be done to make it better?

New Zetarian effects, including in Lt. Romaine's eyes. There's a new Memory Alpha planetoid and visible facilities on its surface, and the phaser shots at the Zetars are redone.

The tactical display of the Zetarians approaching Memory Alpha is the same, as are the color effects on the faces. Lt. Romaine's brain scan looks unchanged as well.

Re: Phil's "Boys in the Hall" sidebar, not only does the Enterprise crew refer to her as "the girl", so do the Zetars!

A DVD oddity: This episode has the Balok puppet for the second slide in the closing credits, and that's what Phil's book says too. However, on the season 3 DVD set, the second slide is an overhead view of the Providers from "Gamesters of Triskellion". And as a bonus nit, a studio clapboard is clearly visible at the top. You can see it in the screencaps at trekcore.com (they got them from the DVDs). It's not a slide from a different episode, as it credits Libby Erwin who only appears in this one epsiode.

Also, they mention that the pressure "might" harm her before it harms the Zetars. The gauge gets has high as 40 atmospheres before they drive off the Zetars. Um, that's 588 psi. Yes, increasing to that level that quickly would pretty much instantly kill her.

One more, in the end scene look under Spock's elbow into the other room. There's a newspaper (or possibly a dropcloth) on the floor.

There is a large border on the bridge viewscreen in the enhanced version; it's almost like a picture frame.

There's a new Memory Alpha planetoid and visible facilities on its surface..

The domes of the new Memory Alpha are arranged in a shape similar to the old Chrysler Pentastar logo. Check it out here.

Here's an analysis of the original script. Including some material that was cut.

Why just an analysis? Why not the entire thing? Maybe some of us here would like to read the whole thing?

I saw part of the enhanced version of this when it was on TV a few weeks ago, it looked very nice.

The Wrath of Paramount. The scripts are copyrighted, so Paramount's legal department would get them taken down.

They switch the viewscreen to show what the forward scanner is picking up, but the background starfield (the part which we don't see moving when they show a starfield) stays the same as the previous shot.

When Kirk and the others are in the briefing room with Mira and asking all kinds of questions about her psychology, someone should have asked why she just stares ahead, real creepy and android-like. She never blinks! In fact, she doesn't do alot of blinking throughout the episode.

Before Spock's sensors tell him that there are '10 distinct lifeforms' within the Zetar lights, everyone calls them a 'storm' or a 'phenomenon', but he lets slip the forthcoming surprise by calling them an 'elusive creature', before it's established the lights are alive.

And that's another thing. If the lights can travel as fast as the Enterprise (at one point matching warp 8), then how could they have spent 1000 years searching for a victim? They should have visited dozens and dozens of planets in all that time, perhaps even hundreds.

Kirk and Spock agree that the lights of Zetar can't be a natural phenomena since it can travel faster than the speed of light, but aren't the brainwaves of the aliens 'natural'? The only answer is that the aura that encompasses the lights is the result of the technology that keeps them alive and able to travel the galaxy.

Without the benefit of years of space shuttle footage of space, I suppose TV writers assumed space was that- completely empty. However, I think Memory Alpha at least deserves deflectors, if not outright shields to protect it from floating space debris and drifting rocks and chunks of ice.
The fact is rendered moot, anyway, once the Zetars prove Spock's theory that the Enterprise shields won't stop them from entering the starship. The library could have had their shields up and shocked the crew when the 'phenomenon' pierces them easily.

I know it's a sign of the times, especially during Trek's time, but the frequent references of Mira Romaine as 'the girl' just makes me cringe. A quick check on IMDB.com shows that she was about 37 years old at the time of the episode, and presumably so would her character be of the same general age. Hard to call someone on the doorstep of her 40's 'a girl'.
Hey, Kirk; she has a name and the rank of lieutenant! A little respect here!

Well, Classic Trek was produced almost half-a-century ago. The show may have been set in the 23rd Century, but the writers were not.

When the dying memory Alpha technician is speaking in those strange garbled sounds, McCoy tells Kirk that Mira was making the same sounds on the Enterprise's bridge after the first attack. Kirk asks him if he's sure and McCoy says yes. However, Kirk was on the bridge and able to listen to Mira's garbled speach for much longer than McCoy, who only heard it for a second or two. He should have been the one to identify the sounds made by the technician. At the very least, he should not have needed McCoy's confirmation.

After Mira leaves the bridge to go to sickbay, Scotty asks permission to tag along. Kirks orders him in no uncertain terms to remain at his post. Yet, moments later, Scotty does leave his post and strolls right into sickbay. I'd call that insubordination.

At the end, Kirk declares an Enterprise first when Spock, McCoy and Scott are all in complete agreement. There's another Enterprise first in this episode. Spock miscounts the number of Zetarians by a full order of magnitude. I think this is the worst mistake he's made in the entire Star Trek franchise.

At the end they decide that working at Memory Alpha would be good therapy for Romaine.
Yeah, that'd be alot of fun...if every person there hadn't been killed, and the entire station is a murder scene. Is she supposed to repair the station by herself?

I think the climax would have been better if Romaine had somehow been seen to reach out and 'hold' the Zetarians inside trhe chamber (since they should have just passed through the walls, as it did the hull of the Enterprise). It would been a cool way of showing her in charge of her future, kinda like, "You tried to take over my body, but I'm not letting you get away with that!", and that would make her the hero of the episode instead of just a victim.

Mira Romaine returned in the novel, Memory Prime, that was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, back in 1988.

That's the only novel she's in that I have.

It was asked, twenty years ago, if Scotty is wearing the science department symbol on his shirt. He is, in a good chunk of the episode - in the transporter room when they almost lose Lt. Romaine, in the briefing room, when Kirk et al analyze the lieutenant's condition, and in the entire last act. Maybe more as well.
I wrote ages ago about the overhead zoom shot in the teaser; I'm positive it was an unused shot from "The Galileo Seven".

Classic Trek used stock footage to save money.

Of course, stock footage of the ship in space was done away with when the series was remastered in the last decade.

At the end they decide that working at Memory Alpha would be good therapy for Romaine.
Yeah, that'd be alot of fun...if every person there hadn't been killed, and the entire station is a murder scene. Is she supposed to repair the station by herself?

I think she's gonna head up the team that will be sent there to repair it.

Sadly the team is a handpuppet called Lambchop. ;-)

Oh yeah, Shari Lewis co-wrote this one.

Well, she did a good job in giving us a creepy episode. First time I saw it, that croaking sound that Romaine and the dying Memory Alpha tech made really freaked me out (mind you, I was only nine-years-old then).

Uhura said that during the first attack, she couldn't move her hands to respond to Memory Alpha, which was hailing the Enterprise. Is she sure it wasn't her legs that she couldn't move, because when everyone is attacked, she leaps AWAY from her console and doesn't return to it until after the opening credits.

Sulu is cold! Mira Romaine collapses right BESIDE him, barely 2 feet away, and it's Scotty who notices her fall, not Sulu.

After the phasers hurt Mira and Scotty tells Kirk this, he tells him to take Romaine to sickbay. Just one problem; Scotty and Mira are upstairs in Emergency Manual Monitor, a location accessible only by a single ladder. She was unconscious-- did she wake up or did he have to lug her limp body down the ladder? He must have called out to one of his engineers down below, because within 2 minutes of the call, Kirk is asking McCoy in sickbay how Romaine is.

It's aggravating listening to Romaine being unreasonable and argumentative while in sickbay. She berates McCoy and the others for not knowing what's wrong with her, despite more experience in space than her. Yeah, Mira, okay, we'll tell you what's wrong with you without any information from YOU about how you feel and what you experienced. It's like this;
Customer; My car is broken. I need you to fix it.
Mechanic; Yes, sir. And what needs to be fixed?
Customer; I don't know. You tell me!
Mechanic; Well, what's broken? The brakes, the transmission, the wipers, the radio, what?
Customer; You're the mechanic, you tell me! You have experience fixing cars, I don 't!
Mechanic; ARRRGGGHH!!!

I've always wondered about Scotty's pained expression as he picks up the Zetaran-possessed Mira and places her inside the chamber. Is he in pain from a bad back? Or is he suddenly horrified by her body which is suddenly extremely cold (her arm is stiff, as if she's locked in position)?

Those Zetarans sure can expand and contract to extreme sizes. As the episode begins, they've encompassed the Enterprise and are, in fact, even bigger than the 24-deck starship. And near the end, they've shrunk to less than the size of Mira's eyeball, inside her body. What is their true size?

Add Memory Alpha to a long list of bases, science outposts, and colonies completely wiped out; Psi 2000, the Korby expedition, Outpost 4, Cestus III, Gamma Hydra IV, Triacus, Minara, Memory Alpha, Camus II, and even in the movies, Regula One.
Space was very dangerous in Kirk's time!

Mira Romaine collapses right BESIDE him, barely 2 feet away, and it's Scotty who notices her fall, not Sulu.

Well, Scotty was dating her at the time.


Space was very dangerous in Kirk's time!

A long way from "another day at the office" vibe of the later shows.

I got this off the internet; at the end of the show, when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are in sickbay discussing what to do with Romaine, if you look towards the entrance to the next room, right at Spock's elbow is what seems to be a crumpled newspaper on the floor. Looks like a technician left the Sports section on set!

Got a picture of the scene in question?

Not a photo, but here's the video from youtube by Trekculture. It's the first of 10 examples of things seen on screen that you weren't supposed to notice, and includes TNG and other Trek series.

https://youtu.be/jyD6sZZ-QWs

The host in that video says he doubts the date on the newspaper read 2266 when the episode was set.

No. When the episode was made TPTB had no hard dates in mind. 2266 was a retcon made years later.

Yeah, one has to remember no specific year or century was ever mentioned in TOS.

It was not until the movies, and later TV shows, that the Star Trek time line firmly took shape.

Yeah, one has to remember no specific year or century was ever mentioned in TOS.

Not directly, but there were indications given, most contradicting each other. For instance, in Space Seed, the Eugenics Wars were said to have happened in the late 1990's, and the Botany Bay had been travelling for about two centuries, which puts the events of the show in the late 22nd century. However, in The Squire of Gothos, Trelane recreates an 18th century palace on his planet, and they are 900 light years away from Earth, which puts the show's events in the 27th century. It's only during the movies and TNG that they finally started putting firm dates on Star Trek history, ignoring the contradictory info of the TOS era.

And now Kirk's five year mission is considered to have taken place from 2265 to 2270.

The events of this episode would have happened in 2268.