Star Trek Flashback: Balance of Terror

Among fans of the original Star Trek, a handful of episodes loom large -- consistently cited as the best of the series. One of these is "Balance of Terror."

The Enterprise is dispatched to the edge of the Neutral Zone, where the mysterious Romulans have apparently crossed into Earth space to destroy several outposts. What soon ensues is contest of wills and ingenuity between Kirk and the Romulan captain, with Enterprise's speed up against Romulan stealth. As the Enterprise pursues the enemy back toward their their home space, we learn that Romulans seem to be related to Vulcans, a fact that makes at least one person on the bridge suspect Spock of being a Romulan spy.

Classic Star Trek was generally at its best when it used a science fiction lens to examine something about modern society, or when putting a fresh coat of sci-fi paint on a tried-and-true narrative. "Balance of Terror" offers both: it examines cold war prejudice and spins a sci-fi version of a classic submarine movie. Though this being a product of 1960s television, neither of these is presented with great subtlety.

Of course, this episode wasn't being written "for the ages" at the time, so nothing about the concept of the Romulans was thought through. Instead, their capabilities in this episode map exactly to those of a "submarine" so that Enterprise can be cast as a "destroyer." That's why they have a cloaking device (a detail that would endure through all subsequent Star Trek), and why they have a slow-moving ship and a torpedo-like weapon with a limited range (details that would not endure). The Enterprise weapons are utilized like depth charges against them. We get the classic ploy of jettisoning debris and then going motionless to hide. The sub battle metaphor is so complete that there's even a section of the story where both ships "run silent," with crew members whispering so as not to be overheard by a "sonar operator" on the other ship. (Whether that makes sense in the vacuum of space maybe depends on what you imagine future technology can do?)

Another story point, chosen for convenience for this one story, would cast an even longer shadow on future Star Trek -- the idea that Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcans. Whole episodes of later spin-offs would develop this concept; here it's just meant to set up Cold War tensions and give a possible reason to distrust Spock. The most overt bigotry is given to a one-off character, Lieutenant Stiles, who also gets a minor arc of coming to accept Spock when the Vulcan saves his life. Within the context of this one episode, it's perhaps not clear why Kirk trusts Spock so completely -- though it does give Kirk several moments to call out Stiles' prejudice. (And with the fullness of Kirk and Spock's background being explored in the prequel series Strange New World, it tracks.)

There's one other curious detail about the Romulans -- the degree to which their culture matches that of ancient Romans. This inspiration means they have two homeworlds and a praetor (more details that would last), and a very Roman military complete with those ranks (not so much). Even the one canonical Romulan name we get here, Decius, screams "Roman." It's not clear whether the writers didn't want to be totally on the nose with their Cold War analogy, or didn't want to depict "Russian aliens in space."

There are a few details that don't quite work for me. In a cold war, it's not clear to me what drives the Romulans to destroy Starfleet outposts. Nor is it clear why Starfleet orders would be to just let that go. All that in turn slightly spoils the ending for me, where Kirk and the Romulan commander share a moment of mutual respect (as opposed to Kirk being all "what the hell, man?"). But generally, I think the story holds together well -- and I particularly appreciate the added personal stakes of the couple looking to get married just as the chaos begins.

Other observations:

• Scotty sets up a big old camera to film the wedding. 

• There are some interesting shots on the bridge where Kirk and another character (Uhura, or Spock) are held together in focus at different distances from the camera -- both without the typical obvious line in the middle of the screen that marks the use of a split diopter.

• Of course, Spock should be most shocked at the appearance of the Romulans, since the captain looks just like his dad! Mark Lenard looks good in ears here, and gives a good performance. It's only natural he'd be asked to appear again on Star Trek later.

• In dramatic fashion, Spock illustrates the effects of the Romulan weapon by crushing in his hand a sample from a destroyed outpost. But... how did he get the sample? The outpost was destroyed while Enterprise was well out of range, and then the ship turned immediately to chase the Romulan ship.

• As the Romulan "torpedo"-style weapon closes on Enterprise, Yeoman Rand very melodramatically embraces Captain Kirk.

• Cast and crew definitely haven't worked out how to react to the ship being struck by weapons. There's an unintentionally hilarious moment where people fly every which way -- including Uhura, in the background, falling/walking halfway across the bridge in the opposite direction of the camera tilt.

• In a much stronger moment for Uhura, when Stiles is ordered to another post, Kirk has her take over at navigation... and she just jumps right in.

• Strange New Worlds built their first season finale around this episode. 

"Balance of Terror" does show its age in places, but it still holds up overall as one of the best examples of Star Trek finding its early footing. I give it a B+.