Robert

Ugh. I solved the puzzle but I HATE when I have to read the explanation to "get it." I think I'm fairly smart but if the theme needs a lot of unpacking and explaining, the puzzle is a dud in my book

What a fantastic puzzle! So clever and fun to solve. A welcome change from the mundane.

Ugh. What is with these puzzles recently? The themes are so unnecessarily convoluted. The puzzle was easy to complete but this was the second time in a week I had to read the description to understand the theme. Also buries is not a homophone for berries. Sorry.

While I'm not a star Trek fan, I thought the puzzle construction was extremely impressive and well executed.

A wonderfully clever puzzle that made great use of both a theme and wordplay. Great job!

Ugh. If I have to have the theme explained to me after I finish the puzzle then it's not a good theme. Too much going on here. Baseball metaphor, math, languages. Surprised this got accepted

An extremely impressive puzzle. One of the best in recent weeks. Kudos!

Hands down, this was one of my most favorite puzzles in recent memory. The execution was stellar and so creative. Well done!

A great theme marred by terrible fill. Nerts? Sked? Akon? Neyo? Surprised this got the greenlight from the editors

One of the best and most clever crosswords seen here in a while. Very well executed!

Overall I like this puzzle and thought it was clever but the different slope markers I found confusing and didn't really add anything to the puzzle. I still can't tell if each one is supposed to reflect a different skill level within the puzzles clue itself. It seems that the puzzle would have worked just as well with the whole hill theme without the different colored markers