Star Trek: "One of Our Planets Is Missing"

Data
Title: Star Trek [The Animated Series]: “One of Our Planets Is Missing”
Year: 1973
Network: NBC
Episode: the third (of sixteen) from season one; 24 minutes
Creator: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Hal Sutherland
Writer: Marc Daniels
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
With: George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett, James Doohan
Music: Alexander Courage (theme); Ray Ellis, Norm Prescott
I saw it: on video a couple times, most recently a few days ago (have on DVD)
Synopsis: a space cloud eats planets

My reaction
Concept:
Story:
Characters:
Dialog: It's ironic, the dialog in the cartoon is so much more natural and believable and all-around grownup than it became toward the end of the original series. There's this nice bit where Kirk gets Bones' advice on whether or not to let a doomed planet know it's doomed; it feels like they're actually the characters they're meant to be, instead of some sort of childish cowboy/Flash Gordon hybrids.
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
Music:
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, ). The title is "One of Our Planets Is Missing." That's all I have to say about that.
Objective Rating (Average):

eta: The writer, Marc Daniels, directed a lot of the better episodes of the original series, including "The Doomsday Machine" (written by Norman Spinrad), which this episode rips off. Shameless. But I've always complained that if they're going to rip off earlier episodes, why don't they rip off the good ones? Giant Space Monster, Devourer of Worlds - none of that Little Timmy Gets Magic bullshit.