Star Trek (TV Series)

Balance of Terror (1966)

Leonard Nimoy: Mister Spock

Photos 

Quotes 

• Stiles : These are Romulans! You run away from them and you guarantee war. They'll be back - not just one ship, but with everything they've got. You know that, Mr. Science Officer. You're the expert on these people, but you've always left out that one point. Why? I'm very interested in why.

  Captain James T. Kirk : Sit down, mister.

  [Stiles does so, there is an awkward silence] 

  Mr. Spock : I agree. Attack.

  Captain James T. Kirk : Are you suggesting we fight... to prevent a fight?

  Dr. McCoy : Based on what? Memories of a war over a century ago? On theories about a people we've never even met face to face?

  Stiles : We know what they look like...

  Mr. Spock : Yes, indeed we do, Mr. Stiles. And if the Romulans are an offshoot of my Vulcan blood - and I think this likely - then attack becomes even more imperative.

  Dr. McCoy : War is never imperative, Mr. Spock.

  Mr. Spock : It is for them, Doctor. Vulcan, like Earth, had its aggressive, colonizing period - savage, even by Earth standards - and if the Romulans retain this martial philosophy, then weakness is something we dare not show.

• Mr. Spock : Referring to the map on your screens, you will note beyond the moving position of our vessel a line of Earth outpost stations. Constructed on asteroids, they monitor the neutral zone established by treaty after the Earth-Romulan conflict of over a century ago. As you may recall from your histories, this conflict was fought - by our standards today - with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives, nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication; therefore, no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other. Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous. And only the Romulans know what they think of Earth.

• Stiles : We enter the Neutral Zone in one minute, Captain.

  Dr. McCoy : Do we violate the treaty, Captain?

  Mr. Spock : They did, Doctor.

  Dr. McCoy : Once inside, they can claim we did. A set-up. They want war, we furnish the provocation.

• Captain James T. Kirk : Go to full magnification.

  Sulu : Screen is on full mag, sir.

  Captain James T. Kirk : I don't see anything. Can't understand it.

  Mr. Spock : Invisibility is theoretically possible, Captain - selective bending of light - but the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that problem.

• Mr. Spock : Sweeping the area of Outpost #2. Sensor reading indefinite. Double-checking Outpost #3. I read dust and debris. Both Earth outposts gone and the asteroids they were constructed on - pulverized.

• Mr. Spock : [holding a shell of metal]  From the outpost protective shield - cast rodidium. This is the hardest substance known to our science.

  [With hand pressure alone, the fragment shatters] 

• Sulu : More wreckage, sir. Scattering across our path.

  Capt. Kirk : Cease fire.

  Mr. Spock : Debris on our scanner.

  Capt. Kirk : Analysis, quickly.

  Mr. Spock : Same type as before. Except... one metal cased object...

  Capt. Kirk : Helm! Hard over! Phasers, fire! Point blank!

  Stiles : PHASERS, FIRE!

  [a nuclear weapon detonates close by. The ship shakes violently and the bridge goes dark save for a few telltales. Enterprise hangs in space, apparently disabled]