Hey! Wait just a minute!

[StarTrek1701]

I am on a late night trek (har har) watching some old episodes of TOS on CBS.com. I have several remastered episodes in my hard drive, but I wanted to see the old 'untouched' episodes for some unknown reason.

Anyways, watching 'The Enterprise Incident' right now, and Kirk, Spock and crew seem to be surprised the Romulans are using a cloaking device. The dialog specifically points:

Kirk: "Mr. Spock, you said you have a theory as to why the sensors didn't pick up the new ships until they were upon us?"

Spock: "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless."

Kirk: "So the Romulans can attack Federation territory before we even knew they were there, before a vessel or a planet could even begin to get their defenses up."


Wait, what? Didn't they encounter a cloaking Romulan ship in 'Balance of Terror' just a couple of years prior? Didn't that same thing happen to a few starbases in the asteroids by the Neutral Zone? Wasn't a huge part of BoT about this new weapon of the Romulans, one that renders them invisible to all spectrums? Why are they surprised now?

Was this an honest to the Flying Spaghetti Monster* mistake that fans have overlooked through the ages? Or am I too sleepy and finding mistakes where there is none? Help please!



*I am a new Pastafarian convert. The FSM is All. I have been touched by his noodly appendage. RAmen.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Spock: "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless."

Which is still correct. The device used in "Balance of Terror" did things differently to other sensors, as did the device used on Romulan vessels in ENT.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

The first draft of the script had dialogue that made it very explicit that this was a new and improved cloaking device, one that rendered the tracking sensors useless.

Sir Rhosis

 

[pookha]

Spock: "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless."

Which is still correct. The device used in "Balance of Terror" did things differently to other sensors, as did the device used on Romulan vessels in ENT.

yep,, go look at balance of terror.
they did a pretty fair job of actually being able to track the cloaked ship.

i akways wish they had something in the script about how the cloak could be seen as a treaty violation of some type of that is the reason the federation wanted it to prove that this was so.

 

[Kryton]

Besides, the cloaks in Archer's time were MUCH more effective.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Besides, the cloaks in Archer's time were MUCH more effective.

Obviously they had some problems, because the Romulans had to replace them, and keep the research ongoing.

 

[Kryton]

I know engineers...they LOVE to change things!

 

[Timo]

The phrasing in "The Enterprise Incident" was quite brilliant, really: it does the job regardless of whether one has seen "Balance of Terror", or is a novice who has never seen an episode with cloaks or Romulans. The latter might think that the heroes have never seen cloaks, either, and that's a legitimate way to interpret the dialogue. But the former would know that the wording fits the general continuity bill, too.

On an interesting meta level, this bit of dialogue is a rare example of an expository throwaway line legitimated by the plot itself. While the actors are explaining things to those in the audience who haven't seen much Star Trek, the audience (at least in retrospect) also comes to understand that Kirk and Spock are speaking for the benefit of their crew and the official flight recorder. After all, they both must already be fully aware of the new capabilities of the Romulans, as their whole mission rotates around stealing those capabilities.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[deg3D]

HA, a continuity discrepancy in the Trek universe? No never, say it isn't so. Make it not so.

Trek is laced with 'em, part of the fun IMO. Pick up the Trek Nitpicker's Guides, gives you the rundown on all kinds of 'em. I've even reported (to the author) a couple I spotted myself that were not in the books. He never put out a TOS Vol. 2 to my knowledge though.

Gotta love Trek inconsistencies eh.

deg