Balance of Terror

I love a good submarine movie. Subs combine the life-and-death thrills of a war movie with the cerebral cat-and-mouse of a good chess game. Plus they tend not to be as two-fisted-macho-men as war pictures or as what-the-hell-is-going-on as a masters’ chess tournament.

Thus I love this episode, because it’s basically a sub movie moved to outer space. The Enterprise is called to the edge of the “neutral zone” between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. Several of the Federation’s outposts have been destroyed by a mysterious attacker hiding behind a cloaking device. Our heroes arrive on the scene and immediately pursue the elusive enemy.

The main drama is ship-to-ship combat. Kirk and his Romulan counterpart (Mark Lenard, who would later reappear as Spock’s father in “Journey to Babel”) try to out-maneuver each other, often resorting to real-life submarine tricks such as mirroring movement while following closely behind and jettisoning debris and bodies in order to simulate a kill.

Of course we get a handful of subplots (pardon the play on words) as well. A young couple were about to get married before the battle began, so you pretty much know one of the two of them will be toast before the end credits roll. And a member of the bridge crew thinks Spock looks a little too much like a Romulan for his taste, which is reinforced when the good guys manage to tap into the bad guys’ bridge camera and get humanity’s first look at members of the rival empire. So we get a minor message piece about racism on top of everything else.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 1709

Episode type: Starship battle

Written by: Paul Schneider

Original air date: 12/15/66

The Conscience of the King / Shore Leave

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