Star Trek’s ‘Balance of Terror’ Struck a Compelling Tale of Two Captains

Today, we look at how an early classic episode of Star Trek, “Balance of Terror,” struck a compelling tale of two starship captains.

This is “All the Best Things,” a spotlight on the best TV episodes, movies, albums, etc.

This is a Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day this year, we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

One of the interesting things about serialized television series is that they are often have such distinctive characters that it really doesn’t matter, per se, what the plot is. I don’t mean to dismiss the importance of plot, as obviously, plot is very important. What I mean by this is that a great TV show should have enough well developed characters that you could place them into a similar plot as another film or TV show and have your show be distinctive. For instance, I noted yesterday that I Love Lucy was the first show to do the whole “getting trapped in a freezer” shtick, but I ALSO noted that even had it NOT been the first one to do so, the episode would have STILL been great because of how well it was handled.

The great Roy Huggins used to literally just mix and match his scripts sometimes among his shows, adapting them as needed. So when I note that Paul Schneider’s classic Season 1 episode of Star Trek, “Balance of Terror” (originally aired in December 1966), was adapted from the basic plot of a couple of submarine movies (The Enemy Below
and Run Silent Run Deep, I think it’s a bit closer to the latter than the former, but I think they were both influences), I don’t think it detracts from the power of the episode at all.

The episode opens with the Enterprise discovering that Earth outposts along the Neutral Zone with the Romulan Empire are being systematically eliminated by a starship with a cloaking device. We learn that the Earth-Romulan War over a century earlier was done with more primitive weapons and ships, so that no one actually knows what Romulans LOOK like.

Schneider has cleverly come up with an alien race based on the Roman Empire, and they have become one of the more notable Star Trek rogues in the history of the franchise. After the Enterprise sees the Romulans destroy the final outpost, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) has the ship follow the enemy back to the Neutral Zone in a parallel path, thereby not giving away that they are following them. They then intercept a signal that allows them to see inside the Romulan ship, and discover that the Romulans look like the Vulcans!

Lieutenant Stiles (Paul Comi) instantly doubts the loyalty of Mister Spock (Leonard Nimoy), since the Romulans appear to have spies working for them. Kirk cuts that out quickly with a sharp, “Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There’s no room for it on the bridge.”

An excellent thing to hear Kirk say in 1966.

The commander of the Romulan ship (I say “two captains,” but technically the Romulans call their captain “commander,” but, well, come on, “tale of two captains” sounds cooler, right?), played by the brilliant Mark Lenard, who doubts the ethics of their attacks on the outposts, figures out that he is being followed. What follows is a stunning exercise in gamesmanship, as Kirk and the Romulan Commander keep trying to outsmart each other, just like rival submarine captains in the ocean. The Romulan commander keeps getting freaked out by how well Kirk is handling his moves, shouting, “He’s a sorcerer, that one! He reads the thoughts in my brain!”

The Romulan commander loses his best friend at one point (after the Enterprise begins blasting phasers – photon torpedoes hadn’t been invented yet – in a spread pattern, hitting the Romulan ship a number of times), and he uses his friend’s corpse to help try to make it look like their ship was destroyed (by releasing debris and the dead body into the path of the Enterprise). The Americans in Run Silent Run Deep pull off that same move.

Both ships power down for a while in the Neutral Zone (which Kirk has decided to enter to chase the Romulan vessel) to avoid detection, and during this waiting game, Kirk is wracked with uncertainty over his decision to break a treaty that might lead to war. He notes that the crew are all relying on his instincts. What if he is wrong? He commiserates with his friend, ship doctor, Bones McCoy, who struggles to come up with something to tell him to console him, finally settling on, “In this galaxy, there’s a mathematical probability of three million earth-type planets… and in all the universe, three million million galaxies like this one. And in all of that, and perhaps more, only one of each of us. Don’t destroy the one named Kirk.”

After the Enterprise accidentally alerts the Romulans of their presence, the other ship attacks. Kirk is prepared for them, and fires on them. The Romulans then try to blow up the Enterprise with an old school nuke, but Kirk gets out of THAT, as well. Finally, after a breech in the phaser room, Spock is able to activate the ship’s phasers (also saving the bigoted Lieutenant in the process), and finally damage the other ship enough for it to be unrepairable.

The Romulan Commander then signals the Enterprise, and he and Kirk talk over the viewscreen, “You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.” Kirk tells him to send over his survivors, but instead, he tells Kirk, “We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform.” He then self-destructs his ship.

WOW, what a poignant episode, and what excellent acting from Mark Lenard, in perhaps his best Star Trek role, and considering he later played Spock’s dad for decades, that’s saying a lot!

There’s another plot about the only casualty being a Lieutenant who was set to be married at the start of the episode to an Ensign, and Kirk has to console her at the end, telling her, “It never makes any sense. We both have to know that there was a reason,” but really, this was about a tale of two captains (and some nice messages about bigotry being dumb).

Okay, if I’m going to have 350 more of these, I could use suggestions, so feel free to email me at brian@poprefs.com!