Spock's not the First Officer in that episode - Mitchell is. (Spock is solely the Science Officer.)

I'd go for "in the worst 10%" certainly - and "worst in its season" probably - but overall? No.

There's actually one that would be a closer fit to that ideal: the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Officer Corps, who run seagoing and airborne research ships and aircraft for US science. (In the days of ST:TOS, that component was still the US Coast and Geodetic Survey.)

You're welcome…and there's another potential explanation I forgot. ST:TAS did almost all the dialogue recording isolated rather than as group sessions (as a lot of the cast were working or touring on varied schedules); it's quite possible that the voice director forgot to have Barrett do the computer's lines for that…

A local Oregon chain, Ray's, was stocking Herr's chips and cheese curls as a promotion about every six months the last couple of years (including the ketchup chips), but they seem to have stopped. Which is a bummer - pretty much all of their stuff beats anything from Frito-Lay ( or Kettle, or Tim's, by a mile.) So…

Also a nod to other traditional Navy/Merchant Marine honorifics -"Boats" for the Bosun, "Chips" for the ship's carpenter, and in later years "Sparks" for the radio officer.

Chief?

SAG didn't cover TV animation (and still doesn't so far as I know), but Filmation may have had some agreement to the effect you mention.

The early '90s syndication packaged the series in production order for once, instead of the original airing order, so we got "Where No Man…" as the first episode and "Corbomite Maneuver" as the second. Actually works pretty well.

Yes, but more commonly in the Royal Navy than in the US. (A USN ship's second-in-command is the Executive Officer, usually addressed as "XO" by the crew and maybe "X" by the Captain. The RN equivalent is the First Lieutenant, addressed by the Captain and others as "Number One." )

Probably the worst proto-Limbaugh on radio nationwide was Westbrook Pegler in the 1940s and early 50s.

In real life, that line was attributed to John Hay (Huston's character); Hay apparently really was as cynical and snarky as in the movie. (His other historic quote came after TR insisted on going before Congress to address his administration's meddling with Panama's government, and used language that made it clear…

Happens occasionally. (Remember Glenn Beck used to be on CNN.)

Hell, I want to hear Shatner do Pump Up The Jam.

They're sung twice in the movie - partially during The Painless Pole's "Last Supper" and fully during the end titles (interspersed with the Giant Voice reading the actor credits.)

My mother had (and I still have) two of Nimoy's albums, including the one with that track (titled as "Maiden Wine." )

Not only showrunners. Morey Amsterdam tried to claim his lyrics to the Dick Van Dyke Show's theme as "official" for years.

Wouldn't it be nice to think so?

Hey, I used to time my morning shower as a teen so I could hear Dr. Science on the NPR station.

Not any more, at least not officially. The core is NPR News.