I had, by chance, seen the original within a few weeks of seeing this episode. My wife, though, had not. I was excited for the references in ways she couldn't be, but she was able to enjoy the episode in a way I couldn't since, for her, she got to enjoy the story as a single whole piece.
I wasn't much of a TOS viewer, aside from marathons on holiday weekends. I had a feeling that some characters might have been a bit much intentionally (looking at Ortegas) but was really enjoyable. I think I liked not knowing much about what happened.
It’s a good episode and enjoyable on its own I think. I had rewatched the relevant TOS episode (I forget the episode name) only weeks before seeing it, and so it was epic, like “holy shit they’re actually doing this”!