A Look at Balance of Terror (Star Trek)
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Opinionated Star Trek Episode Guide makes its monthly return with Balance of Terror, the first Romulan story. After the last war, Earth built listening posts along the Neutral Zone to see if the Romulans return. By watching to see if the outpost ever blows up.
The one that confused me most as a kid because I remember seeing TOS out of order and going "... Why is Sarek attacking the Enterprise?"
😀 Oh, you youngsters with your cable channels and your syndication. Why, when I was a boy we watched Star Trek on network TV like God intended. Once a week! In order of episodes! And we liked it that way!
And so when Sarek showed up I wondered, “Why is Spock’s dad a Romulan?”
I would think it was obvious why Sarek was attacking Spock .
His disappointment in his underachiever son knows no bounds !
At least Sybok was a nutter and not ... so human . 😅
It’s funny how everyone reacts to the Romulans resembling Vulcans when we see aliens that inexplicably look like humans every other episode.
It's the pointy ears.
What are the Odds that such superior ears would evolve a second time by pure Coincidence😂
Yeah and in the Corbomite Maneuver, everyone appears appalled at the appearance of a blue alien.
Too bad they couldn't do what "Farscape" was able to do.
@sureshmukhi2316 @comentedonakeyboard
Soval: “What is their fixation with our ears?”
T’pol: “I believe they’re envious.”
ST:ENT S2 E15 Cease Fire
“Space vessel” is probably actually a good thing to clarify, the outpost confirms they weren’t attacked by a crystalline entity or giant green hand.
Or a telepathic pitcher plant, or a space whale ("We think it jumped from a Star Wars film").
@@All2Meme _Star Fleet Battles_ assumed that any proper starship captain would see a couplethree space monsters over the course of any given cruise. They covered all the ones you'd expect from _TOS_ (giant space amoeba, doomsday machine, etc.) as well as others that were of questionable originality (space dragons?)
'Space monsters' were noteworthy for being piles of custom rules and, especially, random tables, designed as PvE scenarios in a game focused primarily on PvP starship combat. The random tables meant that, for example, _your_ space amoeba wasn't necessarily stopped by a probe full of anti-matter; you had to scan and research the things to figure out how to deal with them.
There's a reason why this episode is considered one of the all-time great Star Trek episodes a good 60 years later. It's intelligent, sharp, poignant and anti-war in a way that still aches so much later. The great tragedy of the episode is so beautifully summed up in the Romulan Commander's dying message; were things different, they could have been FRIENDS.
It's funny how the Romulans started off as the honourable soldiers and the Klingons were the deceitful foreign power, since that dynamic flipped by the time of TNG.
I mean, even though the Klingons are presented as straightforward warriors, there are plenty of TNG and DS9 were they rely on underhanded schemes.
I blame the forehead ridges.
Huh, I never thought of that, but you're right... the "smooth forehead and goatee" Klingons in _Trouble with Tribbles_ were using infiltrators, poison and deceit. While the TOS Romulans were heavily patterned after the old Roman Empire (if the Romans had been xenophobic).
A lot of the changes in the Klingons could be as a result of the aborted 1979 Star Trek Series. From what i read, the Klingons was to be more Samurai-era Japan in the 1979 series. A lot of the 1979 proposals for the Klingons was incorporated into TNG.
@@cwf1701 As Chuck pointed out in his review of Undiscovered Country, the depicted there felt more Samurai, while the TNG Klingons had more of a Viking presentation. At least the sterotypical dumb raider verson of Vikings, which i'm convinced is some form of retroactive revenge for the fact many British women preffered Norsemen because they had much better hygine..
My theory is the real reason Spock went to Romulus in TNG wasn't because he wanted reunification with the Romulans, but because the first Romulan he saw looked like his dad and he had unresolved father issues.
Surprised you didn't have "Sarek" go, "Search your feelings, you know it to be true", and Spock go, "Okay, my father would NEVER say that."
From a certain point of view
My personal favorite episode of all of Star Trek.
The first ever appearance in Star Trek TV history of the Romulans.
Hands down my favorite episode of TOS. So good in establishing what the show is at its best in terms of writing, characters and drama. Its especially vital given what would grow from this episode like the Romulans.
The SNW reimagining of this episode aint too shabby either and I look forward to when you'll tackle that one.
@@ChaosSepherthe Segway is a scooter
He should be doing the SNW episode Saturday
The SNW one was really good, except for the beaming back and forth between the ships. Feels like dropping the shields so the officers can chat in person in that situation is a really bad idea.
This was Trek's finest hour. I don't think there's a better episode in the whole franchise
07:19 A pity the Federation forgets that sometimes its better to have a fight now instead of a worse conflict later when dealing with the Cardassians a century later.
Edit: I always thought a novel or short story set in the TOS era of a universe where the Federation and Romulans are allies with Kirk and the Romulan Commander are friends working together would be awesome.
There are, in fact several of them: one cluster involves the Sister of The Romulan Commander played by Joanne Linville. I guess she patrols the Neutral Zone a lot and Her ship (Bloodwing) and Enterprise have scorched each other's tail feathers on numerous occasions.
Another, involved the Romulans getting a visit from the Probe from Voyage Home-Kirk marveled that his 'intel' on the Romulan skipper had a picture of him 'smiling'--which he never pictured a Romulan being happy. When they depart at the end of the story: "Good Bye Romulan Captain"; "Good Bye, Federation Captain".
@@nickmitsialis Yeah I've read those (Hell my STO Romulan alt's ships are all named after Romulan ships from the final novel of the Bloodwing arc) But I don't remember anything set in alternate universes where the Balance of Terror commander and Kirk met.
@@roguerifter9724 No not the Mark Leonard character, It was ANOTHER Romulan commander, who liked to smile.
I always viewed that as a post borg stablising the ship policy, point is cardassia got very lucky
@@queekheadtaker7327 If there were any reason to trust the Cardassian government to keep its word that might make sense. But pretty much every time we see Cardassian forces in TNG and pre-season four DS9 they are either outright committing acts of war against the Federation that get ignored or let off with a slap on the wrist or carrying out actions that only make sense if they are secretly preparing for war in the near future.
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One of Trek’s best episodes!
The Roddenberry of Star Trek was NOT the Roddenberry of The Next Generation. In the 23rd Century, humans were still human.
I do wonder what caused his no conflict at all mindset
@@dragon22214I think over time he got more and more uncomfortable with the action and/or military elements of the franchise to the point that he over corrected.
That's like complaining why (most) people in the 2020s no longer act & think like people in the 1920s or the Victorian Age in regard to child labour, female suffrage, animal rights, environmentalism, colonialism....
@@TF2CrunchyFrog There’s a big difference between “recognizably human but with different societal attitudes” and “completely inhuman”. Hell one TNG episode implies humans no longer grieve their dead or have any sort of funeral, making them sound more like aliens or robots than people. You can have a ship full of evolved crew who are past todays societal prejudices. But if the humans are so perfect they never argue it’s hard to write a tv drama.
If I had to guess, I think Roddenberry, like Lucas, perhaps let the fame/mythology he created go his head in his later years, and he was trying too hard to live up to that image, and fan expectations. I'm just grateful some of his silly ideas like the Enterprise-D having no weapons didn't make it to the end-product (even in a "utopia" that genuinely tries its best to prioritize peace of course they'd still want defense). Otherwise, I think perhaps early TNG was well-intended for all its flaws with the idea humanity had "evolved," but I think Kirk/TOS had a more realistic view of humanity's nature including our negative traits while still advocating for optimism/peace.
You get a like just for fitting "droits des seigneurs" into your monologue. Another great video!
I assumed the whispering was psychological and Spock gave them away with the power readings from whatever he accidentally turned on, not the noise.
🖖😎👍Balance of Terror has always been one of my all time TOS episodes reminding me of the WW2 movie The Enemy Below, Any ways a job very nicely well done on your execution and informatively explaining this episode in every detail and format in every way shape and form provided Sir!...
Just to stay I haven't watched this video yet, but as this is one of my favorite episodes a thank you first is recognized.
Kirk vs Brutus, the most honourable Romulan of them all .
By the way, the actor who played
the German submarine captain,
also played the Swedish Bond
villain Karl Stromberg in The
Spy Who Loved Me ( 1977 ) .
I suspect that establishing the Romulan Neutral Zone as "a hundred years" old is just one of those "SF/F writers don't understand scale" moments. Stiles's hatred and paranoia toward the Romulans is wildly out of proportion for events that took place _a full century_ earlier, mostly or entirely outside of living memory.
It's still a fantastic episode, but that one thing is just weird - even by the standards of "unevolved" humans of the 20th and 21st centuries, let alone Roddenberry's Master Race.
I don’t know if I’d agree with that, the Korean War ended nearly 3/4 of a century ago and there are some pretty strong feelings towards North Korea today.
@@starwarsnerd100 to be fair if I was south Korean citizen and they were still firing missile's over me I would have strong feelings to
@starwarsnerd100 In the case of Korea, you have the North Korean government actively stirring the pot - both by propagandizing its own people and antagonizing the South. Compare that to Vietnam, which has both better and more recent reasons to hold a grudge against the West in general and the US in particular, but where the attitude is generally a lot friendlier (so much so that now we're talking about selling them F-16s).
The situation in this episode is that the Romulan Neutral Zone had apparently been dead quiet for a full century, with not just no hostile contact but no contact _of any kind_ in all that time - to the point that nobody on the Federation side recognized the Romulan ship as Romulan, or even knew what the Romulans themselves looked like. Those are not the conditions to sustain Big Hates of the kind shown by Stiles.
You should go to American Civil War pages and look at the back and forth there sometimes. That war ended over 160 years ago, yet people still takes "sides" when it comes to who was right or wrong in that conflict, or to what degree.
@@Philistine47 ok yeah it is taken to a bit of a silly extreme in that they’ve had no communication or knowledge of the other side at all, but my point with Korea is that in real life century long grudges can exist even when there’s no active conflict to fuel them.
This was a great episode, showcasing the inner conflict of the crews and the inner turmoil of the individuals. Mark Leonard was great as Sarek.
Nice to see uhura at the helm too!
That's navigation. Sulu is at the helm.
Probably my favorite classic trek episodes
One of my top three favourite TOS episodes, alongside Errand of Mercy and Trouble With Tribbles 😊
For TOS it's a toss-up between this one and the Doomsday Machine for me. Both are great episodes.
The giant marrying the hobbit 😅
And now we wait for A Quality of Mercy...
Kinda wish Chuck held this back so this and the SNW rework could go up one after another.
Aside, it was fun going to this review after seeing Quality of Mercy. It was fun seeing the parallels.
@@Future_Vantas it'll be up Saturday
Gonna be honest right now, I find the comradery much more believable in Quality of Mercy over this story. Mostly since the Romulan captain actually interacts with Pike directly. There's an actual basis for what he says. And, plainly, his speech sounds far more fitting as final words before execution, versus going down with the sunken submarine.
In Balance of Terror it's more about the two captains finding mutual respect for one another through their individual tactics and counter-tactics. Worthy opponents, etc... "If we were not on opposite sides, we would be friends as we are in sync with one another", that whole thing.
In Quality of Mercy, it's more about, as you said, the personal interactions between Pike and the Commander. They did form a connection, and an agreement, and it's important for the commander to let Pike know that it was real "I never called for that armada." - he made sure to tell Pike that. And then he knew his duty was to die for that weakness (bit heavy-handed, the message there, but it came across).
This is a great episode, one of my favorites. It is, however, almost a shot-by-shot remake of "The Enemy Below." That isn't a bad thing though since that movie is one of the greatest WWII movies.
I can't see this episode without thinking that George Takei lived this. He and thousands of Japanese-Americans were rounded up and interned in prison camps for the crime of looking like Japanese.
When I was a wee little kid, I was a big fan of Martian Successor Nadesico and I really thought TOS ripped off the anime because it has an episode eerily similar to this plot wise. It even quotes the enemy captain's final speech word for word. I guess one of the anime's writers was a huge Trekkie.
Im doing my first watch through of the entire TOS, and Balance of Terror is the first episode so far that I felt impacted by. Really, really good episode
When I was a kid, I thought someone on the Enterprise destroyed the Romulan ship. When Kirk didn't complain, I thought he approved. I think the reason was the camera effects were similar.
My favorite original series episode
Spock sees the face of his enemy and it's his own father... HOLY EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, BATMAN!!
Back in the 90s I got a VHS of this episode at a $2 store. I have more fondness for it because of this
Over a decade ago but still on point; thanks Chuck! :)
Feral Historian was talking about communication limits and what that implies just last week, although his focus was on _Star Wars._ And how later writers, especially as time marches on through the decades, keep speeding up the communication speed... even when the time period within the ficton moves backwards.
Just a thought inspired by the mention that Star Fleet's reply was at least three hours away, while the Neutral Zone was a half hour of cat-and-mousing.
I recently watched the SWN take on this episode and then rewatched this episode and boy does SWN's one not live up to the premise. Would love to hear your take on it!
I kinda liked 'A quality of mercy'. Shows how things might have played out if Pike didn't get injured and continued to Captain the Enterprise. It wasn't meant to outdo the original, but give an alternate version of it.
Damn, even the clip at the end wasn't funny, the whole episode is just...so good
I really wish Chuck would talk about the Tholian Web. Apart from that, this is my fav TOS episode, too.
Distrusting Spock because of the Romulan Vulcan Relation is a bit as if a WW II Officer would distrust an English crew member because the Anglo Saxons came from Germany ca fifteen centuries ago
I hope this means the next review will be the season 1 finale of Strange New Worlds
Another aspect of this episode is that the time between the Earth/Romulon war was the same as the American Civil War and the time that the episode was made
Try Honor Harrington books if you're interested in a scifi based on Horacio Hornblower.
I’m early! Very excited for this review
I will comment "First" because I was at least the fourth person here
This episode makes the entire Enterprise series non-canon. It was all just a bad dream.
“Every war movie, good or bad, is an anti-war movie.”
They certainly should be.
WWII brought down a racist government bent on extermination of Jewish people and other . . . Any movie depicting that wouldn’t be an anti war movie.
Eh, you _can_ easily make pro-war movies that glorify "heroic battles" and soldiers and dying gloriously in battle without showing the gruesome reality. Basically, the worldview of ancient tribal warriors because they had to psych themselves up to fight for the tribe.
@@TF2CrunchyFrog but do you remember them?
@@ThumperE23 Yes. A great example is "To Hell and Back" which was based on Audie Murphy's book by the same name. (And was basically his autobiography.)
The movie is pretty good... but it definitely sugarcoats the grislier stuff he wrote about in order to favor the heroic parts (and the funnier moments). The most egregious bit is the part where his best friend (Brandon) was killed. The movie doesn't get it wrong, per se... but it kind of makes it look like Brandon only made a mistake by being too cocky and not keeping his head down. When the reality was more that he simply got shot, because it was World War II.
Several of John Wayne's WWII movies also qualify... like The Longest Day. Good movies that DO show bad stuff... but are mostly about being heroic.
As with all these things, your mileage may vary... some people will find any movie that depicts carnage and death to be anti-war. Others will focus on the heroic aspects. I'd say most good war movies also hit on the fact that some wars MUST be fought... or evil will stomp its boot on humanity. (I am not defending all wars. There have been many, MANY pointless wars.)
It's one of Star Trek's better episodes, but I do have a few complaints about it. My main ones are that the way they get a view of the Romulans is dumb. You'd think if they could zero in on the other ship's bridge they'd know where the ship is. It would have been much better if it had been done by intercepting the Romulan transmission. And the anti-bigotry message is a bit too heavy-handed. You don't need to hit the audience over the head with it.
What "anti-bigotry message"? What the hell are you talking about? The episode came out at the height of the cold war... the revelation that Romulans look like Vulcans (and vice versa) sparking suspicion towards Spock was a metaphor for the fear of Communist spies "among us", as Romulans could easily infiltrate Vulcan ships, and fear of Spock's loyalties if the Enterprise had to fire on "his people". Remember, in WW2 the USA had put US-American citizens of Japanese and German descent, entire families, in internment camps for fear they would switch sides to the enemy and commit sabotages.
This is the same show that painted one man white and black and another man black and white to get the point across. I'm not sure this is all that heavy handed in comparison.