Searching for fresh deuterium, the Enterprise crew visit a planet where Klingons make frequent visits and take everything the locals have. How can they stop this from continuing?

This would work a lot better if it wasn't built on several flawed premises. The fact that it mentions a couple of them proves that the writer is aware of them, yet they're not given a satisfactory answer. I'll get onto that problem in a moment. Taken on a basic level, there's not much wrong with this story. Our boys (and girls) set up a rather clever little trick that fools a group of Klingons and allows them to demonstrate their skill in combat and planning. If you just want to watch a bunch of characters running around like marines wearing t-shirts and army-type gear, then fighting, running and shooting, you'll be perfectly happy. However, it's impossible to hide the glaring errors.

The first flaw, and the one that's mentioned, is that even if the Klingons are beaten, they'll keep coming back. Now, assume these marauders are behaving outside the mission parameters. This means that if they're all killed, it's unlikely a bunch of other ships will come to help. However, this group is just frightened off. Firstly, Klingons don't frighten as easily as they seem to here, second just because there are seven of them doesn't mean there aren't another 130-odd on the ship in orbit, and thirdly: they have this ship in orbit. As they point out, they can get deuterium anywhere, so why don't they just nuke the entire colony through their irritation at being tricked? Or send down troops to kill some of the locals? It can't be that old chestnut the 'honour' thing, as they've killed some of the colonists on a whim before and even if blowing up a colony isn't acceptable, who's going to know? And why can't they come back? Because the colonists claim they're 'ready for them'. Yes, this time, but it's not like the same plan's going to work a second time, and if they take the colonists by surprise, they can put them back into submission easily. For God's sake, there are no shields, they could transport down! They can beam up all the weapons, or indeed all the colonists if they wanted and do what they liked! It doesn't make any sense!

The other major flaw is in the plan itself. Firstly it relies on the Klingons being painfully stupid and walking into a ring of fire. Assuming they don't realize there's a trap nearby, at the very least they should be wary that the people they're pursuing have stopped to hide, then have all started moving over to the left. Why don't the Klingons just charge them? Why don't they transport to just behind Archer and company and gain the upper hand? Why, indeed, do they all stand within centimetres of each other and are therefore trapped by a ring of fire? And then why are they so concerned when they are able to simply beam out without being more than lightly sauteed? Plus the colonists only have one defensive battle move, which apparently works every time. Any fighter would quickly notice repeat tactics and do something about it. It simply doesn't ring true with what we know of Klingons.

As an episode where a bunch of Enterprise crewmembers play Rambo (just check out Trip's ludicrous and unnecessary bandanna), this is simple fun where the good guys beat some bullies. It just doesn't make any kind of logical sense.

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