Continuity mistake: After Kirk knocks the jailer out, there's a bit of stew on the cell's door above the lock. After Kirk drags the man into the cell and closes the door, the bar above the lock is clean and dry.
Continuity mistake: When Checkov turns on the viewer in the transporter room, the Defiant is seen directly from the starboard side, when it should have been seen from the quarter profile port side, as it was drifting to the Enterprise's port side.
Continuity mistake: When Kirk intervenes to keep Losira from touching Sulu, she jumps back about two feet and stops. When the camera cuts to look at her, she's still moving, and is about ten feet from Kirk.
Continuity mistake: When Kirk, Bones, Chekov, and Spock go over to the Defiant, the suits they have on have a black support bar in the left side of the headpiece. When the camera looks down at the dead men and back to Kirk, you see the bar is on the right, and his hair is parted on the right. The very next look at Kirk, the bar and the part of his hair is back on the left.
Continuity mistake: When the Enterprise is trying to push away the asteroid using the deflector, a quick shot of Uhura is shown from stock footage of "And the Children Shall Lead," but she is not in the rest of the episode.
Continuity mistake: At the end, on the Bridge, when the warning marker explodes, Kirk's arm shifts position between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Scotty inhales the gas, the amount of smoke changes between shots.
Answer: Kirk was getting his physical and Dr. McCoy probably turned off communications, because if he hadn't, Kirk would have left and headed straight for the bridge, leaving McCoy irritated.