This episode compared to TNG episode "Darmok" summerizes the differences between the two shows.

TNG
A well thought out and acted episode featuring two sympathetic characters trapped on a planet and forced to work out thier communication differences to survive.

ToS
William Shatner throws rocks at a man in a lizard suit for 40 minutes.


Strangely, both episodes are my favorites from both series.

The short story that inspired this episode, by Frederic Brown played sort of the same except it featured a human space pilot transported from his one-man ship in humanity's fleet to a isolated world and pitted by a nigh-omnipotent alien against the alien race man was at war with, believing the two races are too evenly matched and their war will wreak havoc on the universe. So one man, one pilot without anything but his two hands and his mind to rely on vs. an alien 'Roller', a red sphere that has dozens thin, retractable tentacles.

Sometimes, my cat looks like a cat hand puppet. Who's to say that when the aliens finally come, they won't look like guys in plastic lizard suits?

It wasn't JUST Shatner pitching rocks! ARENA ends with Kirk looking into the fake plastic eyes of the distinctly non-human creature he had pursued across the galaxy, an "other", if ever there was one, and a gaining empathic insight. That's kind of advanced for 1966.

You construct a weapon--look around you, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?

The one thing I recall best about this episode is the way Spock kept saying "Yessss!"