This episode was derided when it first came out for "exploiting and denigrating hippies". While stock versions of hippie counter culture folks and themes are used, it is not some mindless hippie love or hate fest, though it had scenes of intense hippie corniness with bad folk style music & vocals, and extravagant psychedelic day glow fashions. Star Trek was always hip to the current trends and if they didn't have at least one episode like this, in the height of the anti-war Woodstock days, they would have been neglectful. It certainly is a lot more sympathetic to hippies than a contemporary right wing talk show crackpot raving about evil godless communist hippies. The episode brought up some useful questions about how even the enlightened and far more humane and just future may be sterile, depressing and boring to some. It also captured the mindset of some of the demented radical types; renegade intellectuals and Scientists, who found a niche in those movements. It had some comedy, some drama and some insight. It wasn't one of the best episodes but far from the worst, I say 6 out of 10 in the scale of ST episodes. Certainly, it was in the spirit of Star Trek and avoided the stock monsters, bad aliens, superior beings or evil villains which drive most sci fi shows while it did explore uncharted space and ideas.