In the fourteenth episode of the first season of Star Trek, ROMULANS. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Okay, this was great. VERY GREAT.
I’m so used to being asked to watch shows that are, for lack of a better word, fairly complicated. I know that the way stories on television are told has changed drastically over the years, and I’m watching Star Trek after experiencing Revolutionary Girl Utena. They simply DO NOT COMPARE. But “Balance of Terror” works so well because it’s so singular in its narrative. Like “The Corbomite Maneuver,” the suspense is so effective because of the slow burn of the story.
That’s not to say that there aren’t a couple sub-plots here. The episode is book-ended with the start of a wedding between two crewmembers and the “end” of that wedding. Admittedly, there’s not that much here aside from tragedy. Before getting married, Lt. Tomlinson dies during the Romulan’s attack, leaving his fianceé without a husband, both literally and figuratively.
The episode is compelling, though, because of the worldbuilding and the way that the writers use this to explore the concept of bigotry. I was vaguely aware of the term Romulans from jokes by Patton Oswalt and Maria Bamford, but I had no real concept of what they looked like or what they were. That mystery is the initial source of tension in this episode. While checking up on some Earth bases just outside of a neutral zone, they discover that at least three of them are non-responsive. Spock goes into the requisite bout of exposition, and it’s SUCH A GREAT IDEA. It stands to reason that not every race that the Federation has come across got along well with humans. Here, though, the writers add a new twist, putting us at the same level as the people on the Enterprise.
No one has ever seen what the Romulans or their ship looks like.
It’s a stunning, bold choice. The entire neutral zone and the Earth-Romulan treaty was conceived entirely through radio transmissions. This is important for the entire subplot with Spock and Lt. Stiles because it’s one of the few metaphors for racism that largely feels both faithful and genuine. I didn’t think this was callous at all. Spock’s got clear markers that differentiate him from his fellow crewmates. On top of this, note that Lt. Stiles’s prejudice against the Romulans is based on having never seen them. What little anyone knows about them is rooted in rumors and hearsay. Granted, Lt. Stiles has a personal reason to hate the Romulans: members of his family died in the Earth-Romulan War.
I was glad to find out that my confusion over the Romulan commander’s appearance was intentional. Those same physical markers that set Spock apart are on the commander. Was this a Vulcan working for the Romulans? Except then this kept making less and less sense when Centurion is revealed to look exactly like the Commander, too. UM, WHAT IS GOING ON. SPOCK, WHERE ARE YOU, I NEED YOU TO SPOUT EXPOSITION AGAIN.
Here’s where this gets even more interesting: the Romulans are, more or less, a genetic offshoot of Vulcans. I suppose a way of putting it is that they’re Vulcans who never evolved a rigorous sense of logic. I don’t know that “evolved” is the right word. Maybe “adapted”? They might be the same race, but different cultures. I’d love to eventually learn more on this, but for now, it’s established that the Romulan culture values duty and violence. It sets up the intense game of cat-and-mouse that permeates the second half of “Balance of Terror.” Both Kirk and the Commander have to try to think as the other would in order to get one step ahead of them. But on the Enterprise, Lt. Stiles is too concerned that because the Romulans and the Vulcans look alike, that means that Spock is probably a traitor.
It’s an absurd notion, one that Captain Kirk BEAUTIFULLY shuts down on the bridge, but still lives on in Stiles until the end of the episode. It takes a direct act of courage for Stiles to see Spock as one of the crew, but Spock? Oh, he’s having none of your bullshit. He doesn’t argue with Stiles or try to convince him otherwise because he knows it is a waste of time. Why even get involved? Spock knows he is loyal to this ship, he knows that he’ll do a great job, and he knows that Lt. Stiles would be dead without him. So I aspire to attain Spock levels of I DON’T CARE when it come to racists.
Captain Kirk, in the meantime, spends this episode engaging with the Romulan Commander by putting himself in his shoes. Kirk has to acknowledge the Enterprise’s faults while playing to her strengths of speed. And it’s a wonderful treat to watch unfold, not just for the suspense, but for the big twist at the end. Just before setting his ship to self-destruct, the Romulan commander admits to gaining a respect for Captain Kirk. “In a different reality, I could have called you friend,” he says, and then he’s gone.
IÂ love how ambiguous a lot of this is. The Romulans more or less wanted to find a weakness in the human bases, and this was probably the precursor to a huge war. But the Romulans who decided to violate the treaty all perish, and there’s no real closure given to us. I think that’s because we’ll see more of this plot in the future. For now, it was a fantastic introduction to the Romulans. I still feel like I’m watching HISTORY. It’s awesome!
The video for “Balance of Terror” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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