Episode Title: Balance of Terror
Air Date: 12/15/1966
Written by Paul
Schneider
Directed by Vincent
McEveety
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” George
Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Paul Comi as Lieutenant
Stiles Stephen Mines as Lieutenant Robert
Tomlinson Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley Barbara Baldavin as Ensign Angela Martine Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice
Rand Frank da Vinci as unnamed Crewman Sean Morgan as Crewman Brenner Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman Anthony Larry Paul as unnamed Crewman Ron Veto as unnamed Crewman Garry Walberg as Commander Hanson of Earth Outpost 4
Mark Lenard as the Romulan Commander John Warburton as the Romulan
Centurion Lawrence
Montaigne as Romulan Lieutenant Decius Robert Chadwick as Romulan
Scanner Operator Walt Davis
as unnamed Romulan Crewman Vince
Deadrick Sr. as unnamed Romulan Crewman
Ships and Space
Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, The Praetor’s Flagship, Earth Outpost 4
Planets: None
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: *special notice
there are also MAJOR spoilers for the movie The Enemy Below (1957).* The episode begins with a rather joyous occasion there
is a wedding ceremony about to take place on the ship. Lt. Robert Tomlinson and Ensign Angela
Martine are getting married and Captain Kirk is performing the ceremony. Right from the go things seem to be a little
odd as the Captain is receiving messages of Earth Stations going silent. Since this is a wedding you would think everyone
would be dressed up for it. You know put
on the old dress uniforms instead of their regular duty uniforms. Poor Ensign Martine doesn’t even get to wear a nice dress to her own wedding just a some white lace in her hair while wearing her regular uniform skirt.
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| The should have put the Ensign in a red uniform it would make for sense for Scotty to be Father of the Bride! |
Kirk starts the service by
reminding everyone that since the days of wooden ships all captains have had
the privilege of uniting happy couples in matrimony, and this is completely wrong. It just goes to show you that
Captain Kirk may be an incredible starship commander but there are just some
subjects that he might not be strong on.
This leads me to wonder when exactly Star Fleet adopted the policy of
allowing their captains to marry people.
It must’ve been early on so that through all Captain Kirk’s life he has thought
the right as being ancient.
 |
| Kirk performing an "ancient" tradition |
The ceremonies are interrupted to
the sound of a red alert, so I guess it’s a good thing they did didn’t all wear
their dress uniforms. It would’ve been
a funny sight to see Lt. Tomlinson and Ensign Martine running around their phaser
room in a tux and wedding gown.
One the bridge we get an update of
what’s going on. From dialogue we in the audience learn that the job these Earth Stations is to monitor the Romulan
Neutral Zone. At this point we all get
history lesson for Mr. Spock about the relationship between the United Federation
of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire.
Apparently over hundred years before the time this episode takes place the two powers got into a massive
military conflict a war that raged on for years. During that time ships were very primitive
compared to modern 23rd century technology. The war was fought with atomic weapons and no
ship to ship visual communication. This
means no member the Federation nor did a member of the Romulan Star Empire has ever
seen the other one. We also learn that
our new Chief Navigator, Lt. Stiles, had ancestors up on that war who were all
killed. But not before reproducing so
they could give us our current Lt. Stiles.
 |
| The face of a victim of Romulan aggression |
As the Enterprise speeds towards the Earth bases in peril they get in
contact with Cmdr. Hanson of Earth Outpost 4.
He describes the attackers as coming from nowhere having weapons of
great power. The crew of the Enterprise watches helplessly as they
see Henson and his outpost destroyed by this Romulan Bird of Prey. Spock points out that they can still get
traces of the enemy ship on their sensors leading him to conclude that the
Romulan ship doesn’t disappear and reappear it simply turns invisible. He notes to Kirk that invisibility is
theoretically possible and the Federation has even looked into this but the
power cost of making a ship invisible is enormous but the Romulans appeared to
solve this problem.
 |
| On the attack! |
Lt. Uhura picks up a coded message and being the talented decoder that she is she is able to pick up a visual image of the interior of their
enemy vessel. To everyone’s shock and
amazement it turns out the Romulans are in fact really angry Vulcans. To see that Mr. Spock so resembles the
enemies that killed his great-great-great grandfather, his great-great-grandfather,
and all his great-great-grand uncles; fills Lt. Stiles with anger and bigotry
that Earth had long since eradicated. It
is probably best for everyone involved that Mr. Spock did not exasperate the
situation by proclaiming with innocent curiosity, “What is my dad doing all
that ship? It looks like he’s leading an attack against us. I always knew my dad could be kind of a jerk
but I never expected him to do something like this.”
 |
| Kirk telling Stiles not to be a bigot! |
At this point the viewer is
transported to the Romulan ship and we get to meet their crew. All of those who have seen and enjoyed the
film The Enemy Below would be pleased
to see that the crew of the German submarine is back reincarnated as the crew
of the Praetor’s Flagship. Captain von
Stolberg has been reborn as the Romulan Commander, and his loyal First Officer
Heinie Schwaffer is now the Centurion.
Unfortunately for the Romulan Commander the Führer-loving Von Hole is
now the Praetor- loving Decius. In
addition, like in his old life, he is not to particularly happy with the regime
the he is serving. He also disadvantaged in that he won’t be
facing off against Captain Murrell, for this time he is facing James T. Kirk
who unlike the sea captain won’t for settle tie. (How do you like that double spoiler?)
 |
| The Romulans! |
We learn from his conversations
with the Centurion that the two of them are veterans of many campaigns, I’m
assuming that since there was this imposed neutral zone the Romulans went
conquering in the other direction and that is where these two seasoned warriors
get most their experience from. The
Romulan Commander doesn’t want there to be another war and almost wishes for their
destruction before they get back.
However he assures his friend that he is bound by duty, which the
Commander has already shown when he overrode his tactical officers and told him
that the so-called “sensor mirage” was not a mirage at all but an enemy
starship copying their movements.
At the emergency meeting of the
senior officers, Mr. Spock shocked the now Romulan plus Vulcan hating Lt.
Stiles when he agreed with him they given the similarities that Romulans have with Vulcans, and more to the point similarities with ancient Vulcans, it is imperative that they stop this ship from returning
home. For if they return with what they
perceive as the weakness of the Federation it will mean all-out war. With that the game is on and it is now
Captain Kirk versus the Romulan Commander!
In the same meeting the senior
officers also perform an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each ship.
They determine that the Romulan ship has both superior firepower and the
invisibility cloak but they have advantage when it comes to speed. Scotty goes so far to say that the Romulan
ship only has impulse power, which is actually absurd there is no way that they
would be able to get from star system to star system much less all the way past the neutral zone if they only had impulse
power. I’m assuming Scotty must be
speaking in some form of euphemism.
 |
| Kirk and Spock going over strategy. |
The first part of this battle took
place around a comet. The Romulan Commander wanted to use to fool his
opponent’s sensors, while Captain Kirk wants to use the comet to force an
invisible ship to become momentarily visible.
When the Romulan Commander sees the blip on his sensor screen disappear
he realizes what his opponent is attempting to do and compensates by moving his
ship away from the comet. Kirk figures
out what the Romulans are doing so he strafes apparent empty space to find the
Romulan ship with phaser fire to the point of burning his phasers out. This would be sort of like a surface ship
dropping depth charges onto a submarine, and it has the same effect.
 |
| Getting desperate |
With the phaser barrage stopped the
Romulan Commander dumps some debris and the body of the Centurion to distract
the Enterprise. He then relocates his ship before decloaking
and attacks with a plasma torpedo. The Enterprise needs to hit its top speed to
get away but the plasma torpedo can follow it into warp. Without phasers they can’t blow it out of the
sky before it reaches them and I am going to assume that a photon torpedo
hitting a plasma one would be a disaster with the forces of both impacting the Enterprise. As it starts to catch up the plasma torpedo begins
to break apart. It still hits but with
only a fraction of its power. Both ships
back down on each other and silently work on repairs as a long waiting game
beings.
The two ships sit in silence for
nearly nine hours until Spock accidentally turns one of the computers on while
making repairs. This Lt. Stiles uses as
one more excuse to justify his bigotry.
The whole ‘need for silence’ really doesn’t make sense to me seeing that
there is no noise in space so it shouldn’t be a big deal. It is almost like Paul Schneider was so big
on basing this episode on a sea battle he forgot it was a space battle. I’ll say it was the vibrations. That is it!
The enemy ship’s scanners can pick out vibrations so we have to be
quiet. Considering this is supposed to
be The Enemy Below in space I guess
we can count ourselves lucky that Schneider didn’t have the Romulans start
singing.
Even through Spock making noise
doesn’t make a lick of sense and shouldn’t endanger them at all, Kirk decides to go on the offensive and
blankets space with phasers. This has
some success as Bird of Prey is knocked around like a submarine being depth
charged. Praetor-loving Decius is now in
a state of depression, with the Praetor’s Flagship about to be beaten. Then in my favorite line of the episode the
Romulan Commander declares he will save the Praetor’s pride for him. They do another debris dump this time with one
of their atomic weapons normal reserved for self-destruction with enough casing
to make the Enterprise’s sensors
think that it was their ship. Kirk falls
for it and they blast it causing a nuclear explosion to go off near the Enterprise damaging the vessel but the
shields absorbing most the force.
With the Enterprise reeling the Romulan Commander wants to retreat but faces
pressure from his men to finish her off.
The Commander is uncertain he doesn’t really think the Enterprise is helpless and is afraid
this might be a trick; he gives into his officers demands and moves against the
Enterprise. He should have listened to and trusted
himself because Kirk does exactly what he fears. Far from being helpless Kirk has the phasers
ready and waiting for the Romulans.
 |
| Although each may have a specialty, every officer must be able to preform at every station! |
Because of damage to the ship the
phasers can only be fired from the phaser control room itself not the
bridge. So the bigoted Lt. Stiles joins
Lt. Tomlinson to make sure they go off.
Mr. Spock goes to check up on them only to get the cold shoulder but it
turns out it is a good thing he is there because as he leaves a type of gas
leak is detected and it knocks the two weapons control officers out. Romulan ship de-cloaks and Kirk orders them
to fire, but nothing happens. Hearing
Kirk’s calls to the phaser room Mr. Spock returns to it fires the weapons and pulls
the men out.
With that the Romulans are
defeated, Captain Kirk hails the Romulan Commander and offers to take
survivors, to which the Commander refuses the Captain’s offer for it is not they’re
way. He tells Kirk that he wishes he
could have known him under different circumstances and then he destroys his
ship. He has a much different fate than
the earlier incarnation of this character.
 |
| Final Farewell! |
In the aftermath of the battle Lt.
Stiles, having his life saved by Mr. Spock, now realizes that a content of a
person’s character is more important than the shape of their ears. So this what we would call from my early
childhood in the 1980s “A Very Special Episode.” Spock lets Stiles know that doesn’t care
about his opinions he was just trying to logically save a fully trained
navigator. Lt. Tomlinson wasn’t as lucky
as the Enterprise’s only
fatality. Kirk finishes the episode
comforting the would-be bride.
Additional thoughts:
Well that was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Although Star Trek doesn’t have space battles as a dominant theme they
are nevertheless an essential part of the franchise and can often create some
of the most exciting moments. What a
great adversary—I can’t bring myself to call him a villain—the Romulan
Commander was for Captain Kirk. At this
point Kirk had faced his best friend mutated into a god, an alien with so muchtechnical power it dwarfed the Enterprise,
a pimp, a broken transporter, a Salt Vampire, a space virus, and boy god. This was the first time he faced someone so
much like himself—even more than when he was split in two—it was lot of fun
watching their space chess match.
Some
interesting trivia the line that the Romulan Commander says to Kirk when tells
they are two of the same kind, “In a different reality I may have called you
friend.” In the major Superman comic book revamp The Man of Steel (1986) writer John Byrne—who also wrote Star Trek
comics—recycles that line as a thought Batman has about Superman in issue
#3. The difference was in the aftermath
of Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman
and Batman had their histories altered.
Where Batman did once call Superman “friend” in another reality, the
Pre-Crisis universe, in the Post-Crisis universe the two were more like
professional acquaintances.
I wish
all Star Trek writers had to watch this episode before writing anything about
cloaking. Often writers seem to forget
that invisible does not mean intangible.
I love how the Enterprise responds
to their invisibility by just firing randomly into space like they are playing
the board game Battleship. “Well they
are out here somewhere!” Too often in
modern Star Trek we’ll see the crew be like “Oh, they disappeared. I guess they got away.”
The
episode was a great way to introduce these classic Star Trek villains: The
Romulans. A society of Vulcans based on
the values of the Roman Empire as opposed to the values of Suark. This episode would pave the way for many more
great appearances of these adversaries.
No Romulan character that follows however matches the Romulan Commander
from this episode and if I were to cite this episode an error it is in not
giving him a name.
FINAL GRADE 5 of 5
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