User Reviews

Let's get the flaws out of the way. It relies really heavily on the "Space is an Ocean" trope. It takes the submarine movie in space bit way to far to where apparently sound can travel through space. Translating other genres to sci-fi is an age old concept, but you need to stray from the source where appropriate.

Second is the internal conflict on the Enterprise. Styles is a guy we've never seen before and will never see again. He's supposed to be a bigot, but he's actually got a point, at first. If no one's seen a Romulan, how do you know they haven infiltrated the Federation? His focusing on Spock is a bit less forgivable, given his long Starfleet career and the fact that there's a planet full of Vulcans. However, while an earlier stardate, this episode actually originally aired a few weeks after "The Menagerie", so audiences at the time may have been more accepting of the idea of a Spock betrayal. Styles' attitude shift was a bit far-fetched, but not wholly unbelievable.

Now let's get to what makes this episode ooze with awesome. The chess match between Kirk and The Romulan commander was awesome. It was a match between equals, each with advantages and disadvantages to deal with. I somewhat disagree with another reviewer who called this a clear good guy vs. bad guy scenario. While the Romulans are certainly the aggressors, The Commander and The Centurian are portrayed quite sympathetically. They're not wholly comfortable with their mission, but are experienced soldiers doing as ordered. Mark Lenard did a great job bringing out a brilliant, but somewhat tired old soldier. He got to make a classic line at the end that is really sums up how you feel about his conflict with Kirk,

"CAPTAIN, I REGRET THAT WE MEET IN THIS WAY. YOU AND I ARE TWO OF A KIND. IN A DIFFERENT REALITY, I COULD HAVE CALLED YOU FRIEND."

It's entirely believable from what we've seen. For both Kirk and the Commander none of this was personal. There was no malice. Each was doing his duty and that forced them into a conflict where only one could survive.

I didn't realize just how much of this episode was taken from The Enemy Below until I finally saw the movie (it has since become my fave war flick). There were a couple of elements lifted from Run Silent Run Deep as well. Nothing wrong with stealing ideas, as long as you do something cool with them. And Roddenberry and company did something very cool with this one.

Trouble starts right away, as a wedding between two junior officers (presided over by Kirk) is interrupted when the Romulans violate a 100-year old treaty by crossing the neutral zone and destroying a series of Federation outposts along the zone, ostensibly to test their superior weaponry and invisibility screen (and subsequent shift in the balance of power between the Romulans and the Federation, in their view) as a prelude to an all-out invasion. Kirk has to decide whether it's worth risking war to try and stop the Romulan ship, or if in fact the greater risk lies in letting the invaders go after they destroyed 4 military outposts. Kirk wisely chooses the latter.

This is our first look at an enemy of the Federation, the Romulans, a warlike, yet in their own way honorable race who are distant relatives to the Vulcans. However, unlike their peaceful cousins, the Romulans did not renounce their emotions and violent and imperialistic ways, even as they advanced technologically.

None of this matters to Mr. Stiles, the ship's navigator and this episode's chief antagonist on board the enterprise (the Romulan commander has his own problems with a gung-ho junior officer). All that matters to him is he hates Romulans and Spock looks like one..until the end when Spock saves his life (naturally). This contrasts sharply with Captain Kirk and the Romulan commander, neither of whom has any personal ill will towards the other at all. Both men are simply doing their duty. In fact there's a mutual respect. This is the first Trek episode to deal directly with prejudice, and it does so deftly (as opposed to season 3's not-so-subtle "Let That be Your Last Battlefield").

Like The Enemy Below, we have a classic chess match between two ship commanders who are actually very much alike. You see right away that both of these captains are good..VERY good. If you were going into battle you'd want either of these men as your leader. Both are honorable and decent men who are duty bound. Yet even though the Romulan commander is bound by duty to his home world, he still finds himself wishing for destruction before he can make it home rather than start another interstellar war. Yet he still does everything he can to make it home, just as Kirk does everything he can to stop him.

This is, in my opinion, one of Trek's 5 best. It has everything: Plenty of action, suspense, great dialogue, fine acting (I still maintain the Romulan Commander was Mark Lenard's best Trek role), and it manages to make its social commentary without being overly preachy. A pity Roddenberry forgot about the last part when he did TNG.

Watch this episode, then watch The Enemy Below.

Rightly regarded as one of the best episodes of the series, Balance of Terror takes the plot of the 1957 submarine thriller The Enemy Below, and adds strong moral and personal stakes to the battle of wits. The result is a wonderfully suspenseful, and deeply affecting, episode.

The episode opens with a wedding between two crew members, being presided over by Kirk. The nuptials, however, are interrupted by a red alert, as several Federation outposts on the Romulan neutral zone have suddenly gone silent, a century after a war between the Federation and the Romulans, where neither party made visual contact with the other. When the Enterprise goes in to investigate, they come across the latest output to be attacked; just before the outpost is destroyed, the commander tells the Enterprise that the attackers were undetectable, and had weaponry of incredible power. And thus, the cat-and-mouse game begins.

Paul Schneider's script uses the sub hunter/submarine plot line extremely effectively, with Kirk and the Romulan commander (Mark Lenard) playing an elaborate chess game with much higher stakes. The back-and-forth between the two ships is counterpointed with the internal conflicts on both ships -- a bigoted navigator Stiles (Paul Comi) suspecting Spock of espionage, while the Romulan commander's distaste for the repeated martial pattern of the empire brings him into direct conflict with his more bellicose (and politically connected) second-in-command. Vincent McEveety's direction is equal strong, using shadow and extended silences effectively to set the siege-like mood, enhancing the tension.

The performances are superb. Shatner gives one of his best turns, as we can almost literally see the weight of command wearing on him, while at the same time giving full demonstration of why Kirk commands a starship; Nimoy's performance is also exceptional, as his understatement serves to feed Stiles' suspicion of him; and Comi effectively conveys Stiles' bigotry, as well as its source, making his eventual epiphany all the more believable. And then there is Lenard (who would later play Sarek, Spock's father in "Journey to Babel") -- his performance is perhaps the best in the episode, mirroring Shatner's, with his character's "humanity" (for lack of a more apropos word) made all the more striking given the authoritarian upbringing. Those moments - - counterpointed with the character's tactical skill -- makes his eventual interaction with Kirk remarkably poignant. And then there is the finale -- effected without excessive sentimentality and, indeed, Shatner and Barbara Baldavin deliver a scene that is low-key, but equally poignant in its own way about the costs of war, and the need to balance those costs against the consequences.

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As a final side note, and in response to one of the prior commenters, Spock's "decision" to save Stiles rather than Tomlinson isn't a real choice (and therefore, not really a failing of the episode) -- it is clear from the scene that, by the time Spock arrives, Tomlinson is unconscious (and, given that he runs directly toward the coolant leak, probably more likely dead already), while Stiles is still alive. Thus, Spock's decision is eminently logical and moral.

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One of the best five episodes of the series.

This episode is one of those rare ship-to-ship duels a lot of people would have preferred to see more of in STAR TREK -- and it is probably the best one if what you are looking for is action and a kind of dogfight. But Real movie fans over the age of -- well, 50, maybe -- will recognize it immediately as Gene Roddenberry's answer to the Robert Mitchum/Curd Jurgens 1957 minor classic of World War II, THE ENEMY BELOW, with the Romulan ship being the U-boat and the Enterprise the American destroyer escort. The writers could have easily had a copy of the earlier effort's script in their hand while they wrote this. No other submarine movie was focused for its entire plot on a one-to-one cat-and-mouse face-off between one submarine and one surface warfare ship, captain to captain. Even all those references to "the praetor" jump out at you -- particularly in the dialog and bearing of the Romulan second-in-command -- as references to a better-known figure once known as "Der Fuhrer", as related in classic world-war-two-moviese. This episode shows that George Lucas (STAR WARS, etc.) had nothing on the STAR TREK production team when it came to shameless copying of an earlier successful entertainment formula (and even if this irritated well-regarded STAR TREK contributor Harlan Ellison).

Thus, while in one sense it is one of the better episodes, I gave it only a seven-star rating as somewhat lacking in originality. Rather than getting as absorbed in the story as I was supposed to be, I instead found myself dwelling on correlating the analogies -- the random phaser-firing patterns for depth-charging, the dust-generating near-hits on the Romulan ship for the effects of same, and so forth and so on. This took the edge off of something that could have been more gripping had it not been so obvious and predictable a copy.

P. S. Since first writing this review I learned that this episode was in fact a straightforward rewrite of THE ENEMY BELOW, and that indeed the writer was working directly from the script of the movie.

Definitely a Top Ten episode of the series, and apparently an overwhelming favorite with fans on this board. The story introduces the Romulans and the Neutral Zone, while setting up a fascinating cat and mouse game between starship captains of virtually equal skill and talent. As Kirk matches the Romulan Commander move for move, he's dealt the ultimate compliment by his adversary - "He's a sorcerer, that one". Knowledgeable viewers have mentioned 1957's "The Enemy Below" as part inspiration for this Star Trek classic, and the plot might have been given an even greater psychological thrust in 1981's "Das Boot". But I digress.

As the series progressed through this, the first season, it's interesting to see how Captain Kirk's leadership and authority were continually developed and expanded upon. Always willing to listen to the advice of his officers, it's never in doubt that Kirk himself will be the final arbiter of any decision to be made. What's interesting here is that Kirk recognizes that his duty might ultimately wind up making the Enterprise expendable. Interesting too, that Spock's logical approach leads him to the same conclusion as navigator Stiles (Paul Comi), who earlier expresses doubts about Spock's resolve. When Spock proclaims - "I agree. Attack." - it's a chilling moment.

Underneath it all, Gene Roddenberry lays down a not so subtle sub-text involving racial prejudice and bigotry. It's patently clever that he does so by involving two alien races, instead of those we are so generally used to, black and white, North and South, Semitic/anti-Semitic. It helps one step outside the box of common stereotypes to question why one race, religion or nationality is any better or worse than another. Was Spock suddenly suspect because the first time ever seen Vulcan Commander looked similar in appearance? Not fair you say? But it's done all the time. Roddenberry was really well ahead of the curve on this, and he would do it again in future episodes.

Fortunately for the Enterprise, Kirk makes all the right moves to defeat the Romulans. In the hands of less skilled writers, the story might have ended there with a victory for the good guys. However I admired the way the Vulcan Commander accepted his fate, refusing to accept sanctuary for himself and his crew. He says to his rival Kirk - "In a different reality I could have called you friend". It's those defining moments that make Star Trek a classic of Sci-fi television.

This episode was brillant from start to finish inlike that it began with a wedding aboard the enterprise it made the characters more human gave them more depth and the overall issue of invading the neutral zone and starting a war with the romulan empire was well written and thought out this episode is basically a cat and mouse game a submarine battle in space and I loved it and of course the romulan commander who later played Spock's father was brillant in his role glad they chose to him recast him but best part about this episode is not the battle its the fact at the end the happy couple is no more because the husband died as a result from damage to the ship this episode really raised the stakes and is a shining beacon of how good tos can be

When outposts near the Neutral Zone between Federation space and the Romulan Empire are attacked the Enterprise responds. We learn that a century before a war took place against the Romulans but at no point did anybody from either side see the other; nobody even knows what the Romulans look like but they do know that entering the Neutral Zone would precipitate a war. Navigator Stiles, who lost relatives in the previous war, is certain that the Romulans must be to blame but Kirk is more cautious. When another outpost is attacked it soon becomes clear that it is the Romulans and that they have a new weapons system and a device that renders their ship invisible. The crew of the Enterprise manage to hack into the Romulan ship's bridge cameras and they are quite shocked to see that they look like Mr Spock… he cautions that if they are indeed related to ancient Vulcans they are likely to be very dangerous. It appears that the Romulans are effectively blind while they are cloaked and what follows is a game of cat and mouse as each commander tries to anticipate the others next move.

This is probably the best episode to date; indeed one of the best episodes in the entire series. The opening, where Kirk is preparing to perform a marriage ceremony for two crew members but is interrupted by red alert effectively flags that something tragic is likely to happen… and makes us care when it finally does. The story serves to introduce one of the 'Star Trek' universe's best known villains; the Romulans are only topped by the Klingons in this department. The Romulans get a great introduction; at first they are mysterious and dangerous but as the story progresses we see that they have a degree of nobility; this means they aren't pantomime villains. The scenes where the two ships hunt each other was top notch; it felt like a classic war film but with spaceships rather than submarines. If there is a weakness it is Stiles; we are meant to believe he holds a bitter hatred for the Romulans because of family members who died in a war that ended decades before he was even born. The cast do a solid job; Mark Lenard, who plays the Romulan commander, is particularly good and Paul Comi, who plays Stiles, does a decent job despite the flaws with his character. Overall this is a superlative episode from this classic series.

"Balance of Terror" is, to this Star Trek fan, what the series is all about. The story is tense, compelling, and thought-provoking. It deals with two strategic, tactical generals, using their intellect and cleverness in a game of cat and mouse, Captain James T Kirk (Shatner, in my mind, has rarely been better as Kirk than here, where we literally see the cerebral chessmaster contemplating and debating within himself the next move to make)directing the USS Starship Enterprise to the Neutral Zone after reports of destroyed outposts which guard said zone (built on asteroids that surround the NZ) leading him to believe that perhaps the Romulans (a warring race who engaged in combat with Earth vessels a century ago) have attacked in a breach of a peace treaty that ended the war between the two races.

Mark Lenard is exceptional as Kirk's equal, the Romulan commander in charge of a warbird that has cloking capability (a first for the United Federation of Planets) and a devastating weapon that can render the most powerful metal obsolete ( a type of plasma that can disintegrate asteroids is pretty damn scary). The key to this episode's power is Kirk's back-and-forth with the Romulan Commander and the pressure placed on both leaders as they determine what the next move needs to be. Each strikes, damage on both sides (casualties and ship damage), and we see how both Kirk and the Romulan Commander react, deep-thinkers planning on what the next cause of action should be. I love the way both crews are at alert, operating their posts, the seriousness of the situation, as life and death factor/weigh heavily on attention to detail and not making miscalculations. Even Uhura must operate the console at one point which someone like me thought was really cool, as Sulu reacts with a smirk…in battle, you never know what might happen.

Lots of memorable scenes, so many, such as the first glimpse at the Romulan race, with Lenard turning around to unveil Vulcan pointy ears and eyebrows, with vocal, emotionally charged con Hansen (Garry Walberg, a rare chance to see a crew member of the Bridge openly voice his opinion on matters such as Spock's similarity to the Romulan race being a danger to ship (clearly the script's indicting of racism) and his open hatred for this enemy because of the loss of ancestors at their hands, not to mention, his discouragement at not engaging the enemy after they destroyed the outposts in an open act of war) vilifying Spock due to his likeness to the Romulans. I think the best examples of this show, compared to the many campier episodes, are when we see Kirk challenged by a race with the Enterprise and its crew in peril. There's this marvelous scene (similar to Captain Pike's in "The Cage") where Kirk is in his quarters lamenting on the difficult task of having the lives of a crew resting on his decisions to Bones, with the good doctor providing words of wisdom when needed the most. Spock even gets to save the day when the detrimental need for phasers leads to saving his most livid critic, Hansen, as well as, providing the ship with weapon capability at the most imperative time. There is a bit of tragedy (most of us could see this coming a mile away) in that a wedding was to take place, interrupted by the Romulan conflict, resulting in those plans never coming to fruition. In my opinion, "Balance of Terror" is one of the greatest Classic Star Trek episodes of the series—and of all the various other series for that matter. I think the template for Captains under pressure in strategic situations come from "Balance of Terror".

This was a pretty good episode overall, I thought. The Romulans are introduced to the Star Trek mythos as one of the major threats to the Federation. Kirk has an interesting 'duel' of sorts with the Romulan commander, played here by Mark Lenard, the same guy who would play Sarek, Spock's father, in later episodes. Kirk ends up preventing a likely war that would have ensued if the Romulan ship had safely returned to Romulan territory, so the stakes were high.

There was at least one major flaw, though, which bothered me a lot even as a kid. The bigoted navigator, Stiles, even says that a "phaser hit" against the cloaked ship, at far range, would be "the wildest stroke of luck", and Kirk says "I'm aware of that". Yet, the Enterprise, again and again, seems to hit the Romulan ship at will with their phasers. The cloaking device seems almost useless under these conditions.

A possible explanation is that the Romulan commander indeed wanted to die, as he directly suggested to the Centurion, in order to prevent an otherwise inevitable war, and so deliberately did things to make his vessel visible to the Enterprise; but that's not what seemed to happen. I never felt like there was a good explanation for the Enterprise's seeming ability to hit the Romulan ship repeatedly despite the supposed cloak. A better script would have come up with some clever maneuvering by Kirk and Spock that somehow defeated the cloaking device; their repeatedly hitting the enemy "by the sheerest stroke of luck", over and over again, seemed quite ludicrous by the end.

The second flaw was the thoroughly unsatisfying ending. Spock has a choice between saving two men's lives-- and he chooses the bigot rather than the young man who was to be married. I guess they were trying to give the bigot his 'moment of realization' while also creating a sense of tragic loss, but it's just too irritating-- why was it just the two of them, and why did Spock pick the jerk? I actually think it would have been more interesting if Spock had shown emotionality and picked the less offensive man to save, since he apparently only had time to save one of them.

Other reviews have went in depth about the obvious parallels between the story of "The Enemy Below" and this episode so I won't. I'll focus on the episode itself. And the episode is a good one!

While this episode doesn't have any particularly deep storylines or talking points, the tension that builds as the two equally matched captains battle it out is extremely effective. Mark Lenard's portrayal as the Romulan captain is flawless; he never really feels like the villain of the episode, more like a rival of Captain Kirk. The mutual respect the two feel for each other can be seen in their final and only face-to-face interaction.

I won't harp on the science beyond this episode (it is science fiction after all) but I will say the character of Tomlinson is an odd one to me. This war happened literally a century ago and this guy's still mad about it? That would be like someone being mad at the Austrians for WWI, no one alive really cares anymore.

Beyond this, I can't find much of a fault with this episode. It contains a great build up of tension, the first (if we're ignoring the loophole from Star Trek: Enterprise) face to face interaction between a human and Romulan, and just a great overall story to tell.