• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Balance of Terror

NTRPRZ

NTRPRZ

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
I sat down with my Blu-Ray last night and watched the enhanced version of "Balance of Terror," then watched it again with the commentary provided by Mike and Denise Okuda, DC Fontana, David Gerrold, et. al.

It has been a very long time -- years -- since I've seen BoT and I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it is. The right mix of action and character from all of the cast, including Mark Lenard. This really has to be one of the top 10 episodes of the series AND the movies.

Aside from a minor plot hole or two (why remain silent in space?) the only thing I found out of character was Spock's accidentally hitting a button on his console, thus alerting the Romulans. If Spock had been a guest character instead of a series regular, I immediately would have suspected him of being a Romulan spy, just as Stiles did. Heck, even some of the regulars (Uhura, Sulu, Scott, Leslie) looked at him with suspicion.

Overall, however, a definite highlight of the series.
 
NTRPRZ said:
I sat down with my Blu-Ray last night and watched the enhanced version of "Balance of Terror," then watched it again with the commentary provided by Mike and Denise Okuda, DC Fontana, David Gerrold, et. al.

It has been a very long time -- years -- since I've seen BoT and I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it is. The right mix of action and character from all of the cast, including Mark Lenard. This really has to be one of the top 10 episodes of the series AND the movies.

Aside from a minor plot hole or two (why remain silent in space?) the only thing I found out of character was Spock's accidentally hitting a button on his console, thus alerting the Romulans. If Spock had been a guest character instead of a series regular, I immediately would have suspected him of being a Romulan spy, just as Stiles did. Heck, even some of the regulars (Uhura, Sulu, Scott, Leslie) looked at him with suspicion.

Overall, however, a definite highlight of the series.
Click to expand...

This is for me the best episode from the 1st season..
well written, well acted, excellently scored, good special effects (for the mid 60s)and tightly edited it has always been one of my favorites from the get-go.
 
I love this episode - and I'm not ashamed to say that I think it's fantastic. Sure, there are a couple of little problems here and there (I think the whole anti-Vulcan bit was overdone), but the basic plot is great, and we get to see our first Romulans, and it's just great. (Yes, I said "great" twice, and I'm OK with that.) And it's got Marc Lenard in it - what could be better than that?
 
Last edited:
Some have likened the friendship of the Romulan Commander and the old Centurion to the Kirk/McCoy friendship. It is even more poignant when the Centurion dies saving the Commander and the grief experienced by the Commander when his friend not only dies but that he must unceremoniously dump his body overboard.
 
The whole episode is so well acted and directed that the plot holes that become obvious on later repeated viewings (which didn't happen pre-vcr/dvd) are easy to overlook. My biggest nitpick is the anti Vulcan bigotry. I think the Vulcan/Romulan connection could have been made more concrete by noting that Romulans look like Vulcans (because of bodies recovered during the war) but that would have taken more rewrites, which take more time and on a weekly production schedule nothing is more valuable than time.
What we have is superb drama, filled with tension and a real sense of regret at the death of the Commander and his friend the Centurion. I have a hard time believing that any performance that was Emmy nominated that year was better than Mark Lenard's and, Shatner really nailed it. I love the closing scene where he consoles the young widow and then goes walking through the corridors, going about the business of being Captain. Damn it was good!
 
^I've wondered if the young widow was already pregnant. Because Kirk says "You both have to know, there was a reason". Of course originally, I thought the "both" was the widow" and her deceased husband.
 
10/10


When one says, "The best Star Trek was always on television, not the big screen..." ---this is one of the episodes you reference. It's a true classic.


I always thought TNG should have modeled NEMESIS after this episode, instead of TWOK.
 
Knight Templar said:
Some have likened the friendship of the Romulan Commander and the old Centurion to the Kirk/McCoy friendship.
Click to expand...

It may be reminiscent of that, but the relationships on the Romulan ship are basically lifted straight from the U-boat officers in The Enemy Below: the consummate professional captain, his trusted old comrade-in-arms and the up-and-coming young ideologue officer.

It is even more poignant when the Centurion dies saving the Commander and the grief experienced by the Commander when his friend not only dies but that he must unceremoniously dump his body overboard.
Click to expand...

That's one part that's quite different from the movie and is very well done.

Here's a thought: Would anyone here be up for a "book club" type viewing and discussion of The Enemy Below compared with BoT?



Justin
 
What I find amazing is not just all the praise that has been noted in this thread, which I firmly agree with, but that it was one of the first Star Trek episodes ever, (except for the Vulcan bigotry thing) the characters are the way we know them, and 45 years later, it's still damn good.
 
As a kid watching Trek re-runs, this episode confused me. I remember Mark Lenard playing Spock's father, and here was an episode where Mark Lenard looks just like a Vulcan. I thought he was Spock's father in this episode too, especially when they first show the character on the screen and everyone looks at Spock.

At the time, they looked to Spock due to the similarities of the two races but in my mind they were looking at Spock and thinking..."Hey...what's your father doing there?"

Yes, I know this was the first episode with Mark Lenard but in syndication there was never really any continuity as far as episode order and I thought Journey to Babel took place first. It took years before I realized that Mark Lenard was playing two different characters.
 
Like the most popular hot babe that everybody coos over endlessly, but does absolutely nothing for me, Balance of Terror has always been one of my least favorite episodes. There's nothing wrong with it per se, quite the opposite actually....I have just never taken to it.
 
sbk1234 said:
What I find amazing is not just all the praise that has been noted in this thread, which I firmly agree with, but that it was one of the first Star Trek episodes ever, (except for the Vulcan bigotry thing) the characters are the way we know them, and 45 years later, it's still damn good.
Click to expand...

Right on. Blows away the idea that later ST series always need two or three seasons to hit their stride. TOS was getting it great from the first handful of eps.
 
^ ...only to blow it in the 3rd season. That's a bit of an overstatement because there are some good episodes in season 3, and most of them are at least somewhat enjoyable, but there are some real turkeys there, too (more so than the first two seasons). I don't mean any disrespect for TOS - I've been a fan of it since I was a little kid - but there's no point in over-romanticizing it either.
 
^^ No disrespect inferred. Even the most passionate Trek TOS fans generally agree that, except for a handful of episodes, the third season sucked giant hairy elephant balls.
 
There are crappy episodes all over Trek, but the point is that it didn't take "a few seasons to find its footing." Classic Trek got it right pretty much from the start. And when you're that good, there's nowhere to go but down.

Actually, a lot of shows were like that back then. Today every show seems to take a while to hit its stride, but series like Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Invaders, and so on were amazing starting with the pilot episodes, but then dropped over time (some more quickly than others). Trek took a while to settle into it's regular, comfortable format, but the episodes leading up to that point are still mostly really good. I can't count the number of long running SF shows of recent years where I say "the first season is a little rough, but stick with it, it gets better in the second year."
 
Balance of Terror is a fantastic episode. I've noted several comments about the anti-Vulcan bigotry being a problem, but remember; TOS, and Gene Roddenberry in particular (IMO) were a bit heavy-handed when it came to delivering their message. Frequently, the hammer over the head won out over subtlety.
 
I wonder if the racism angle in this episode might have paralleled anything that went on during WWII with Chinese-Americans coming under unjust suspicion because of a superficial resemblance to the Japanese. Don't know if that even happened because I wasn't around...
 
Oh, the anti-Vulcan prejudice was there for a perfectly good reason. I just really thought it was clumsy and unnecessarily obvious - and it really seemed forced and unnatural, too. In a lesser episode, it might not have bothered me as much, but just about everything else about the episode is just so good that this flaw really stands out. It's not enough to spoil it for me. obviously.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top