Balance of Terror is one of the best 2 or 3 episodes of not just TOS but all of Star Trek series.

So much good stuff: Its a homage to classic submarine movies like Run Silent, Run Deep. Watching Kirk and the unnamed Romulan match wits is great. The tension really builds each waiting for the other to make a mistake. There are also Cold War/WWII over tones with references to the past war and Neutral Zone. Racial elements are also explored with the Romulans looking like Vulcans and Spock making a silly mistake that puts the ship a risk raising suspicions.

I hadn't seem this in s while. When they first put TOS episodes on VHS, this was the only 1 I bought. There's really only 1 other contender for my favorite episode (we'll get to it in a few weeks). Aside from the dated effects, this really hasn't aged a bit. Great, great episode.

This post was edited on 8/1/13 at 9:16 am

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Posted by Ace Midnight

Between sanity and madness

Member since Dec 2006

89790 posts

Posted on 8/1/13 at 9:34 am to H-Town Tiger

quote:
There are also Cold War/WWII over tones with references to the past war and Neutral Zone.

No question this is a warning about the Cold War turning hot - it was just a couple of years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Neutral Zone evoked the Iron Curtain, as well.

Romulans only factored in 3 episodes, this one, The Deadly Years and The Enterprise Incident - but those are all excellent episodes. Obviously, a lot more was done with the race in TNG and DS9, but I don't think the potential shown by Balance of Terror was ever fully realized. It seems that later efforts to make the Klingons (more overtly in the role of the Soviet/Chinese communist threat, at least initially) more 3 and 4 dimensional (and ultimately erstwhile allies of the Federation) was more of a priority and the Romulans remained (perhaps fittingly) at arm's length and more menacing.

This post was edited on 8/1/13 at 9:35 am

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