I was watching "Balance of Terror," earlier. It always irks me that Stiles is allowed to stay on duty despite ignoring repeated warnings from senior officers to quit fucking with Spock.
Stiles should have been confined to quarters
- Thread starter Nerdius Maximus
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...Of course, Kirk might have done wisely to confine Spock to quarters. The accusations of espionage and treason were logical and serious enough. And if the ship could survive a navigator switcharoo, replacing Spock with his top lieutenant should probably have been possible as well.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
That's like saying it was a good idea to put Japanese Americans in internment camps.
It would be more like throwing those Japanese currently serving aboard USN ships into the respective ships' brigs for the duration of the immediate crisis if it became evident that Japan was providing key intel to Al Qaeda, intel which might have helped in the recent nuking of the naval bases at Okinawa and Norfolk.
What Stiles said made excellent sense. If the Enterprise were dispatched at, say, the Klingon front or the survey of Alpha Phi Kappa, it wouldn't matter much whether there was a Romulan traitor aboard or not. A careful investigation could be carried out in due order. But the ship was dispatched to the Romulan Neutral Zone and was in combat, not to mention in a precarious political situation. It would just be common sense to jail Spock first and apologize later if he proved innocent of wrongdoing and unlikely to participate therein.
Perhaps the suspicions were a bit vague at first, and Kirk would have been unwilling to accuse his longtime friend (even though said friend was always very secretive and often astoundingly ruthless). But when Spock "accidentally" revealed the ship's location to the enemy, there was no real excuse not to relieve him of duty as a sensible precaution.
Timo Saloniemi
What Stiles said made excellent sense. If the Enterprise were dispatched at, say, the Klingon front or the survey of Alpha Phi Kappa, it wouldn't matter much whether there was a Romulan traitor aboard or not. A careful investigation could be carried out in due order. But the ship was dispatched to the Romulan Neutral Zone and was in combat, not to mention in a precarious political situation. It would just be common sense to jail Spock first and apologize later if he proved innocent of wrongdoing and unlikely to participate therein.
Perhaps the suspicions were a bit vague at first, and Kirk would have been unwilling to accuse his longtime friend (even though said friend was always very secretive and often astoundingly ruthless). But when Spock "accidentally" revealed the ship's location to the enemy, there was no real excuse not to relieve him of duty as a sensible precaution.
Timo Saloniemi
Stiles was repeatedly insubordinate to both his commanding officer and the XO, and Kirk was justifiably concerned about his conduct. It was Kirk's call to keep Stiles working, even though Stiles gave Kirk a solid case for putting the young lieutenant on report.
One can say Stiles was a patriot, doing his job, raising concerns in an explosive situation, and all that's true. But if the XO's being a Vulcan and making a clumsy mistake is all that it takes to throw him in the brig, the Vulcans probably wouldn't stay in the Federation very long. Remember, Spock agreed with Stiles' recommendation to shoot the attacking vessel. Spock was very blunt with his historical knowledge of Vulcan. These are not things a traitor would say. Spock may have earned a reprimand for his stupid mistake, but that was Kirk's call as well. The real issue there was how dangerously unprepared the Enterprise was for deep space combat. Apparently, the Federation didn't have much fighting experience at that point, or their Constitution-class vessels lack "modern" combat experience. Instead of meaningless punishments for the failings of an XO and a lieutenant, a sober captain's duty would be to report the Enterprise's technological issues to Starfleet Command and have the bugs rectified immediately.
One can say Stiles was a patriot, doing his job, raising concerns in an explosive situation, and all that's true. But if the XO's being a Vulcan and making a clumsy mistake is all that it takes to throw him in the brig, the Vulcans probably wouldn't stay in the Federation very long. Remember, Spock agreed with Stiles' recommendation to shoot the attacking vessel. Spock was very blunt with his historical knowledge of Vulcan. These are not things a traitor would say. Spock may have earned a reprimand for his stupid mistake, but that was Kirk's call as well. The real issue there was how dangerously unprepared the Enterprise was for deep space combat. Apparently, the Federation didn't have much fighting experience at that point, or their Constitution-class vessels lack "modern" combat experience. Instead of meaningless punishments for the failings of an XO and a lieutenant, a sober captain's duty would be to report the Enterprise's technological issues to Starfleet Command and have the bugs rectified immediately.
Luke Lightsaber
Captain
I would wonder why someone suddenly hates Spock since he had saved Kirk and the Enteprrise a few times before.
Stiles probably had every reason to hate the Romulans. And now it very much looked as if Spock was one, too. Everything he had done for our heroes before would now begin to look like the work of a skilled sleeper agent, biding his time until he could deliver a devastating blow (or, as it seemed, be suddenly exposed for what he was).
It's comforting to see how Kirk never wavers, not even at the moment of Spock's "accidental" revealing of the ship's position. His body language is always one of trust and support, even though many other bridge crew cast suspicious or alarmed looks. But Kirk's trust could well have been misplaced...
Timo Saloniemi
It's comforting to see how Kirk never wavers, not even at the moment of Spock's "accidental" revealing of the ship's position. His body language is always one of trust and support, even though many other bridge crew cast suspicious or alarmed looks. But Kirk's trust could well have been misplaced...
Timo Saloniemi
Certainly this would be a prudent measure aboard a starship that is facing Klingons in combat and suddenly suffering sabotage and intel leaks. At least as regards those humans who test positive in the tribble-squeal test - as damning and distinguishing a fact as Spock's Romulan ears.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
It does come down to practicalities, doesn't it? Spock was just one man: not jailing him was criminal negligience. Had there been a reason to suspect a larger group of treason, it would have been more difficult to expunge them from their posts. And of course, the situation where all humans were found suspect would be absurd, as not all of them could be traitors while the ship still continued to act loyally.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
Those would be long-term measures - and I trust such measures were indeed taken, unless the Vulcans preempted it by telling the truth to a few people in positions of power and convincing them that the masses either should not find out the whole truth, or should be fed it gradually and on Vulcan terms.
In the immediate situation, it would have sufficed (and would have been a good idea) to keep Spock away from any crucial instrumentation, and to stop trusting his every word implicitly; confining to quarters under guard would have been the most prudent way to do that.
Timo Saloniemi
In the immediate situation, it would have sufficed (and would have been a good idea) to keep Spock away from any crucial instrumentation, and to stop trusting his every word implicitly; confining to quarters under guard would have been the most prudent way to do that.
Timo Saloniemi
^From Enterprise, it's not clear that the Vulcans even realised who the Romulans were. Certainly, a few people did but they had presumably been contacted directly by the Romulans themselves.
I don't think Kirk would have taken any action against Spock until his "guilt" was clear.
I don't think Kirk would have taken any action against Spock until his "guilt" was clear.
Spock cannot be blamed for the phaser coolant leak.
In the first draft of the script, his racism and anger toward Spock was even more pronounced. He died because of it, IIRC.
But also the paranoia and threat of Romulan spies was better played in the early draft, too: the Bird of Prey's design was clearly based on Federation tech, which means they've had spies on Earth (similar to the Russians of the time).
The writer sketched what he thought BoP should look like, on the cover (blown up a bit; the original is tiny):
Extrapolate badly, and you get this:
Joe, bad extrapolator
But also the paranoia and threat of Romulan spies was better played in the early draft, too: the Bird of Prey's design was clearly based on Federation tech, which means they've had spies on Earth (similar to the Russians of the time).
The writer sketched what he thought BoP should look like, on the cover (blown up a bit; the original is tiny):
Extrapolate badly, and you get this:
Joe, bad extrapolator
Thanks for this info! It explains what I always took to be a problem with the story (still one of my top three episodes)... I saw no reason in the episode to suspect Romulan spies when the subject came up, other than "it could happen!"
I just watched this episode a few days ago. I'm not sure the fear of espionage was that justified. Spock says that no Romulan, human, or ally has ever seen the other. The Romulans are far more isolated and cut off than other races like the Klingons, and it would be much more difficult for them to penetrate into federation territory. Plus how would the Romulans know how to blend in considering they don't know what humans look like and presumably that Romulans look like Vulcans.
As for doubting Spock it seems a little silly. By this time Spock had been serving aboard the Enterprise a dozen years. The Vulcans had seemingly forgot or it wasn't common knowledge that the Romulans had split off from them. Were we supposed to believe Spock was a Romulan? Or that Spock was approached by a Romulan spy at a a space station and agreed to abandoning his entire principles after a few conversations?
As a slight aside it is interesting that considering that 90% of the alien races the Enterprise encounters look just like Mr. Stiles couldn't it be conceivable that Spock looks like just one or two other races in the Galaxy without causing that much suspicion?
Otherwise a really good episode. The idea that there were Romulan elements that opposed war was even carried on into TNG and DS9,and this was a great intro to the Romulans.
As for doubting Spock it seems a little silly. By this time Spock had been serving aboard the Enterprise a dozen years. The Vulcans had seemingly forgot or it wasn't common knowledge that the Romulans had split off from them. Were we supposed to believe Spock was a Romulan? Or that Spock was approached by a Romulan spy at a a space station and agreed to abandoning his entire principles after a few conversations?
As a slight aside it is interesting that considering that 90% of the alien races the Enterprise encounters look just like Mr. Stiles couldn't it be conceivable that Spock looks like just one or two other races in the Galaxy without causing that much suspicion?
Otherwise a really good episode. The idea that there were Romulan elements that opposed war was even carried on into TNG and DS9,and this was a great intro to the Romulans.
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