"Balance of Terror" is a touchstone for the Discovery story arc
- Thread starter elric428
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Spock, in Balance Of Terror:
"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 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. The treaty, set by sub-space radio, established this Neutral Zone, entry into which by either side, would constitute an act of war. The treaty has been unbroken since that time. Captain?"
In the Discovery teaser clip, we see the ship stationed in an asteroid. It would make sense if it's one of these Earth outposts.
"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 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. The treaty, set by sub-space radio, established this Neutral Zone, entry into which by either side, would constitute an act of war. The treaty has been unbroken since that time. Captain?"
In the Discovery teaser clip, we see the ship stationed in an asteroid. It would make sense if it's one of these Earth outposts.
I wonder if they'll get Ben Cross to play Keras…
(Although, I wasn't too fond of his Sarek.)
(Although, I wasn't too fond of his Sarek.)
I'm a bit confused. I thought the Romulan War was ruled out as the "event" alluded to by Fuller from which the main arc of season 1 would be based off of. Plus the war was 100 years before TOS not 10. Unless this "touchstone" is something separate and not related to the aforementioned "event" Fuller was talking about before?
Touchstone in this context could mean anything. Most likely he's referring to the tone, action, suspense, bit of day in the life, etc that Balance of Terror brought to the show. Doubtful he's going to use the Romulan War, for all the reasons mentioned. Besides, who's to say that the Romulans aren't out and about in the Balance of Terror because of something the Discovery and her crew did?
Thinking about Stiles' und Sulus very abrupt warnings about possible spies on board the Enterprise I think there could be a former incident - maybe ten years before. I know, their warnings are based on stolen ship design mentioned in a cut scene but without that scene it seems Stiles ans Sulu are thinking about other incidents with romulan spies. A star trek series from the perspective of an romulan spy on board a starfleet ship could be interesting.
It would be great to have the Romulans feature heavily as the bad guys for a change. Romulan spies disguised as Vulcans. The crew not even sure what Romulans look like. The Vulcan crewmembers talking to each other in hushed tones, because they know. Which of course makes the rest of the crew grow concerned that they're the spies. Perfect Romulan manipulation. Instead of the brutish Klingons so frequently as the enemy, it would be a nice change to see something more sinister, elusive, and intelligent as the bad guys. Just as long as they're not played too similarly to the Cardassians or Vorta.
Thus had been my initial thought too, but this....
Makes a lot of sense as well. Also connects to Fuller talking about a direct link to a reference in TOS with no follow up to date.
The themes are brinkmanship, political maneuvering. Could be a tense atmosphere. Also the elements of Stiles' bigotry and racial divides could also be a factor. Its possible that the Klingons and Romulans may have started their partnership behind closed doors around this time too.
Balance is also my favorite TOS episode. Actually it's because of the perfect balance of tense drama and action-adventure.
RAMA
Balance is also my favorite TOS episode. Actually it's because of the perfect balance of tense drama and action-adventure.
Treknews is pretty reliable.I've never heard of Treknews.net is it a reliable source? I'm not seeing this story anywhere else?
It would be great if true though!
RAMA
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Funny how differently people interpret words. I considered the ideas that heroes and villains, nobility and barbarism, racism and respect, can exist among and between different species, even those in conflict. An apt "discovery" to make over the course of a season, referring both to the crew of the titular ship and any antagonistic alien species encountered.
Whether Fuller refers to that, to political and or/tactical maneuvering, taut tension, or even simply starship weddings, Balance of Terror is my favorite episode of TOS and as such I'm overjoyed that it has any kind of connection, thematically or storywise, with Discovery.
Whether Fuller refers to that, to political and or/tactical maneuvering, taut tension, or even simply starship weddings, Balance of Terror is my favorite episode of TOS and as such I'm overjoyed that it has any kind of connection, thematically or storywise, with Discovery.
Doesn't really matter right? Are they are doing here is reporting on an actual tweet from Fuller. You can go see the tweet itself is legit.
Well, in the Discoverse there's no reason that Discovery can't have a face-to-face encounter with the Romulans.
The only requirement to maintain some continuity with oldTrek would be that the crew of the Enterprise not be informed of it.
Which is not at all inconsistent with the way that diplomatically and militarily sensitive information about adversaries is handled at the highest levels in our world, so there's no good argument against it.
The only requirement to maintain some continuity with oldTrek would be that the crew of the Enterprise not be informed of it.
Which is not at all inconsistent with the way that diplomatically and militarily sensitive information about adversaries is handled at the highest levels in our world, so there's no good argument against it.
He's too old now. But 25 years ago he'd have made the best Romulan
Agreed regarding Dennis's face to face contact comment. This is definitely the kind of continuity that they will not make the mistake to try and preserve as they did with Enterprise. The hoops they jumped through to fit continuity were done at the cost of good story.
And if they had just said it was a reboot, they wouldn't have people giving themselves massive coronaries when the inevitable massive contradictions happen.
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