Balance of Terror Observations

One of those I picked up some things i never realized before.

1) Tomlinson: "Well until then (His marriage) I'm still your boss."

I think I once thought that meant they'd have to be put in different departments when married, but now think it's a sly joke that she'll be his "boss" cause they're married.

2. I guess I never realized that because of the limited range of the plasma torpedo, Kirk seems to be staying at that range and firing from that range. That's why the Romulans can't simply decloak and fire once the Enterprise is nuked. Also, not only does the Romulan Commander not want to finish off such a noble opponent...he (correctly) thinks Kirk is playing dead.

3. Spock talking about Vulcans savage colonization period makes Romulus sound like a lost colony....not a group of Vulcans who left due to a schism. I guess they could be both.

4. I don't know who got the bidding for Phaser control safety protocals (no masks??) and circuit design (They burnt out before being hit and nuked) but they need to be sued.

 

Another possibility is that Angela was going to give up her career to become a housewife, which was the usual expectation for career women in the '60s. See the discussion about Carolyn Palamas in "Who Mourns for Adonais."

 

Indeed, even if from the current viewpoint we might prefer alternate interpretations...

This also establishes the range of Kirk's phasers as formidable: he consistently reaches, hits and damages the Romulans across a distance defined as more than two minutes at extreme ("emergency") warp speed.

Or Spock could simply be saying that back when Vulcans were colonizing the far corners of their own planet with sandships and desert dreadnoughts, they were such an incredibly brutal and barbaric bunch that humans obviously cannot property comprehend it. Yet Kirk in this situation must understand that only Surakian self-discipline keeps that brutality at bay, and that the enemy of the day is unlikely to have Surakian self-discipline.

After all, Spock likens the Vulcan aggressive colonization period to that of Earth, in the past tense: it would be more fitting for him to be speaking of Cortez, Ivan the Terrible and General Custer than of Earth's supposedly non-aggressive later colonizing of space.

There's plenty of historical precedent for militaries operating hardware that is dangerous mainly to the users themselves, either because nothing better is available, or because it would be politically unwise to admit to the shortcomings. Starfleet may have thought the price here worth paying for the admittedly quite impressive capacities of the phasers.

Interesting how the episode explicates the existence of multiple phaser control rooms ("just the forward one" stays operational for the final fight), when VFX never admits to the existence of multiple phasers... If there's a Lieutenant in charge of each phaser installation, does that make the phasers more "precious" (or perhaps "finicky") than the average naval gun?

Timo Saloniemi

 

1. That is exactly the way I've always interpreted that line. I know because I have a boss, myself.

2. It's too bad Decius manipulated him into that final attack, too bad he fell for it, it seems like his only mistake in the whole episode.

3. There's so much about backstories that have been changed or never actually explained at all, it's hard to say. Some books and other sources, which I don't have available, said that the Vulcan's had several planets under their control. Maybe they had space travel before they had Surak.

4. Yes. Plus, it's a little off the way Spock seems to fix it immediately after they don't need it anymore. If he wasn't quite so sure or it took maybe just a little longer, but then I'm sure he was trying to hurry and it wouldn't have been good to say "I'll fix it 2.3 seconds after impact"

 

The script for that scene actually reads:
ANGELA: You won't get off my hook this easily. I'm going to marry you, Mister, battle or phaser weapons notwithstanding.
ROBERT: Well, meanwhile, temporarily at least, I am still your superior officer. So get with it, Mister.

A little thing I know but what always struck me about this scene was the expression of irritation on Angela's face as Robert walks off after this exchange. I could just hear her thinking, "What a d*ck!" Add to that the way she jabs her finger down so forcefully on her console buttons and I get the feeling Robert, knowingly or not, just pushed her buttons.

 

I think I've stated this before, but I feel that the few moments in the chapel after Martine leaves is interestingly telling. Kirk takes a sideways glance at what, from the perspective observed would seem to the front of the space. The effect to me was of his soberly considering, if but for a moment, the possible relevance of a deity at this sorrowful moment. He quickly looks away, as if to avoid remaining too long in this reverie, but his reaction was observed and amplified significantly by the musical cue which, while heard at other times, I believe, gave the impression here of an ego humbling moment in the face of some far greater truth or reality . The interlude's feeling is broken when Kirk stops out into the corridor and encounters numbers of the crew filing around, accompanied by the upbeat musical finale.

This simply has long stood out to me as an unusual type of admission of the limits of Kirk's, and by extension, humanity's ability to prevent tragedy that can shake one's foundations, despite the age's manifest expression of great powers.

 

As I recall, isn't this the episode where the order is given to fire phasers and then they show the Enterprise firing white bursts that look like photon torpedoes instead? I didn't like that. I was expecting blue beams striking out at the enemy, not little white globes.

 

Yeah, the effects we are shown are that of torpedoes.

 

Yes, and then the phaser bolts exploded! The details of the weapons were still being worked out.

 

Believe it or not, I'm giving a presentation on "Balance of Terror" at the Popular Culture Association's annual conference in about 10 days.

 

http://ncp.pcaaca.org/presentation/balance-terror-star-trek-history-and-national-security

"Presentation Title:
"Balance of Terror": Star Trek, History, and National Security

“Balance of Terror,” broadcast December 15th, 1966, has been recognized for almost 50 years as a key episode of Star Trek. It involves a series of space battles between the Enterprise and a Romulan Bird of Prey around the Neutral Zone, the restricted region of space separating the Federation and the Romulan Empire. The Neutral Zone evokes the Korean Demilitarized Zone, as well as the Iron Curtain. Both Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the Romulan Commander (Mark Leonard) know that their clash could ignite a devastating war, parallel to the threat of nuclear war at the time between the US and the USSR. On the bridge, Lieutenant Stiles (Paul Comi) questions the loyalty of Spock (Leonard Nimoy) because he looks like a Romulan. Kirk responds, “Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the bridge.” It’s been little noticed that the title of the episode is an exact quote of then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s description of the Cold War. The moody lighting, including strange pink hues for the Romulans, and shadowy light for Kirk, shows that weighty decisions literally play across the faces of both sides. Star Trek has sometimes been criticized as a near-utopia where greed and discrimination have mostly been overcome, but “Balance of Terror” not only has a sharp militaristic edge, but reveals that bigotry on the bridge of the Enterprise is almost as much a threat as the Romulans."

 

some production documents say the phasers can be fired as continuous streams or in "squirts". The 'splosions are not addressed.

 

They behaved exactly as photon toroedoes are described in the Season 2 Writer's Guide, which describes them as being used like depth charges. It was, what, episode 9? Not surprising.

 

This episode is basically a ripoff of the movie "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum as a destroyer Captain hunting a U-boat. It's a really great movie.
I think that the intent of the phaser blasts was to mimic the effect of depth charges being dropped. With the Romulan bird of prey representing a U-boat. With the cloaking device representing the U-boat's ability to submerge and hide.

 

This presentation sounds fascinating--I love in-depth analysis of Star Trek as a form of American literary and cinematic art.

 

In my presentation I do talk briefly about The Enemy Below, as well as another good submarine movie, Run Silent, Run Deep, which also influenced "Balance of Terror." The "silent running" mode of submarines in World War II was one of the inspirations for the Cloaking device. The bottom line is that the episode has a complex range of references and inspirations. What's remarkable is that "Balance of Terror" is in many ways still relevant today. And it's also a good dramatic episode.

 

I wish people wouldn't get so hungup on shrugging things off as a "ripoff". Everything's a remix, after all.

 

Forbidden Planet is a "ripoff" of The Tempest--it's what the episode did with the stuff it ripped off that matters. Balance of Terror has long been one of my all-time favorites.

 

RE: The Enemy below.
I was always struck at the relationship between Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum) and the ship's doctor. Their conversations reminded me of those between Kirk and McCoy.

 

I'm trying to remember. If the last scene was of the U-boat commander on his bridge saluting the destroyer Captain as the U-boat went down. I think that the U-boat Commander was played by Curt Jurgens. Kind of reminiscent of the final scene of BOT where the Romulan Commander tells Kirk "In another time and place, we could have called each other friends."