Finally finished listen to the two episodes and had a couple of thoughts...
1. "Soylent Orphan...It tastes like loneliness." I am glad that I didn't have a drink in my mouth at the time.
2. On Kirk dodging the phaser, it doesn't seem to be that uncommon to be able to dodge phasers, especially in the TNG episodes. I can recall two episodes, one with the space slugs that are controlling Admirals in Starfleet and the other where Tasha, Data, and Riker are trapped on a planet with a self-replicating drone that is programmed to kill them, where characters (and the drone) easily sidestepped phaser fire. If I recall, Picard was one of the people who dodged a phaser blast. And it always confused me, since the phaser is a sustained beam of energy, as to why people firing phasers didn't just hold down the trigger and sweep their target until they hit them. That way even the crappiest of shooters could be effective in a phaser battle. Also, I agree that when they shoot the phaser in the accelerated state, the crew should be able to see it appear from nowhere, and also be pretty worried, as it could have taken out a random crewman or piece of Bridge equipment...
Joe -- I'm liking the new seperated format of the two series. I know it's a long way down the road, but is there any chance of covering the other series in the same way when you are done with TOS and TNG? -- Anthrax