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Balance of Terror - 45th Anniversary this week

Wingsley

Wingsley

Commodore
Commodore
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the classic "Star Trek" episode "Balance of Terror". This episode first aired on NBC on 15 Dec. 1966. The show was an allegory about the 7 Dec 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, shown through the science fiction lens of opposing starships playing a game of cat and mouse, derived from the 1957 submarine chase movie "The Enemy Below".
 
Possibly the best episode ever! Almost always in just about everyone's top 5! It is one of those episodes that even non-fans (including those that usually put down TOS) often consider to be quite good!

:techman:
 
Unfortunately, the legacy of Pearl Harbor is fading from the public's collective memory, as the survivors of that day age and pass into history. This article should underscore the tragedy, compounded by the passage of time:

"Pearl Harbor Still a Day for the Ages, but a Memory Almost Gone"
By ADAM NAGOURNEY - NEW YORK TIMES
Published: December 6, 2011
After 70 years, Pearl Harbor survivors, aging and fewer in number, are giving up on major gatherings in the future.
 
It's simply a damn fine bit of television. It's well written, well acted and good all around. This was Star Trek and science fiction at its best.
 
Perfect Episode. Oh how I wish we could have had more of this quality and care.

Here is a little piece of 'Trek Eye Candy' from Reindeer Wrangler, added to my post to celebrate the event!
58enterprise_romulan_pro.jpg


Speaks volumes, eh!!
 
I don't know why, but I envisioned the Romulan attack ship as being larger. Maybe the breadth of the Romulan would be the same breadth as the Enterprise's saucer. YMMV.
 
One of my all time favorites.

But, it is also a tribute to the men who served aboard submarines in WWII, the ones who sweated in terrible working conditions, dark, confined spaces where one didn't even had his own bed to sleep in. The men who dove into an underwater grave and utterly defeated a modern navy. Americans, AND Germans (I know we might have people on here that are rightfully anti-Nazi, but there is a difference between Nazis, and German Navy seamen who just wanted to live through the war)

..Thank god we have not had another one.

Anyway, great episode! However, I didn't know Spocks Dad was a romulan. ;)
 
A.V.I.A.F. said:
Possibly the best episode ever! Almost always in just about everyone's top 5! It is one of those episodes that even non-fans (including those that usually put down TOS) often consider to be quite good!

:techman:
Click to expand...

Agreed, and yet oddly, I don't like it at all, and never have.
 
Wingsley said:
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the classic "Star Trek" episode "Balance of Terror". This episode first aired on NBC on 15 Dec. 1966. The show was an allegory about the 7 Dec 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, shown through the science fiction lens of opposing starships playing a game of cat and mouse, derived from the 1957 submarine chase movie "The Enemy Below".
Click to expand...
That's an interesting reading but I fail to see what the episode has in common with Pearl Harbor except for the surprise attack.
 
Actually, there were Japanese mini-subs involved in the 7 Dec 1941 attack. The first shot fired in the war was by the U.S.S. Ward when her skipper ordered action taken against an intruding sub just off O'ahu.
 
horatio83 said:
Wingsley said:
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the classic "Star Trek" episode "Balance of Terror". This episode first aired on NBC on 15 Dec. 1966. The show was an allegory about the 7 Dec 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, shown through the science fiction lens of opposing starships playing a game of cat and mouse, derived from the 1957 submarine chase movie "The Enemy Below".
Click to expand...
That's an interesting reading but I fail to see what the episode has in common with Pearl Harbor except for the surprise attack.
Click to expand...

Actually, it does have some similar incidents, such as the Romulans sneak attacking without provocation those Earth outposts.
 
Wingsley said:
Actually, there were Japanese mini-subs involved in the 7 Dec 1941 attack. The first shot fired in the war was by the U.S.S. Ward when her skipper ordered action taken against an intruding sub just off O'ahu.
Click to expand...
Thanks, not being versed in the military aspects of history I did not know this.
 
Wingsley said:
Actually, there were Japanese mini-subs involved in the 7 Dec 1941 attack. The first shot fired in the war was by the U.S.S. Ward when her skipper ordered action taken against an intruding sub just off O'ahu.
Click to expand...

Yes but their contribution was negligible, it was probably riskier to be their crew than their target.

I have a hard time seeing many parallels between BoT and Pearl Harbor. Yes there was a sneak attack, but one was on fringe outposts by a lone raider, while the other was on the main body of a fleet in its home base by a major concentration of the opposing fleet's striking power. One was furtively testing the enemy's defenses, the other was aimed to be a disabling first strike in an all-out war. There obviously wasn't time at Pearl Harbor for extended one-on-one duels as in BoT, nor any personal contact between the opposing commanders.

The episode is not much more than a re-working of the submarine war movie, mostly from The Enemy Below with a touch of Run Silent, Run Deep, but also doubtless inspired by others like Hell Below, Destination Tokyo, The Bedford Incident and others. And that's good enough for me.

I really love this episode. It's a great story, well paced, with some fine character moments. It also has a tone I really like, with Enterprise feeling like a ship that takes its dangerous business very seriously. Kirk striding through the red-alert corridors with his officers right behind is one of my favorite character moments for him.



Justin
 
What I like most about the episode is the respect Kirk and the Romulan commander have for each other, that the enemy who just conducted a sneak attack upon Federation outposts is not depicted as a 'villain who twirls his mustache' but as a war-weary officer who simply does his job.
 
Wingsley said:
^ This is one of the biggest cues from "The Enemy Below". That movie is a must-see!
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Yes, the honorable and professional captain, his trusty old comrade and confidante, and the dangerous young ideologue officer are pretty much directly lifted from that movie. If you have to steal, steal from the best, as they say.



Justin
 
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