i can understand why people consider this episode preachy . and in some sense and i think that a wonderful thing . not wonderful that the episode be preachy and wonderful that people think so . because if people think it be preachy and it mean that it message be obvious . but it a message that have frequently not be obvious to people and in many time and place in human history . the theme of the individual versus the state be an absolutely timeless one and and the message be one that need to be tell again and again in every generation . and the story be tell timelessly . as much a one be tempt to see it from the cold war context of it time a be a thinly veiled anti communism fable and the truth be that the state a present here be any tyrannical totalitarian regime and be it marxist and nazi and or any other statist ideology . the one flaw and for which i take off a star and be the invocation of religion . religion be an ideological detail and not a fundamental to the theme . the state outlawing of religion in this tale serf a too concrete a connection with the soviet union of the era . it also exclude the state from potentially represent any kind of theocratic totalitarianism ( which be just a bad ) . but it such a good episode and and the message so important and that i be willing to cut it a lot of slack for that flaw .