How Star Trek’s First Space Battle Defined the Genre
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Balance of Terror was Star Trek’s first real space battle. Kirk’s Enterprise faced off against a wily Romulan in an encounter inspired by World War 2 submarine movies. The TOS science fiction classic influenced all battles that followed and defined what ship-to-ship combat in the stars would look like.
#startrek #sciencefiction #spacebattles
Does Balance of Terror hold up today?
What other space battles defined the genre?
Let me know in the comments.
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For some reason, while I'd always loved Balance of Terror, it never really twigged with me that this was THE first time Star Trek had shown a proper ship-to-ship battle. It really is not only one of the best episodes of TOS, but one of the most influential episodes of television in the history of science fiction.
Balance of Terror and Space seed (because of Star Trek II), were my favorite episodes from ToS, also really liked the Horta episode.
@@Chris-ut6eqHorta are based
@@brotherhoodofsteeld.c.chap1917
Waves of searing pain......
No kill I
BoT is, in my estimation, one of the best episodes in the franchise.
It's too bad that so many other shows, including other iterations of Star trek, forgot that battles are stories too, not just eye candy.
Absolutely and it's really sad, when you think about it. The actual action-shots of BoT aren't that spectacular on their own, but the audience is glued to the screen, cause they are invested in the characters and everything that's going on in between and leading up to the action scenes.
What makes the action so entertaining isn't the spectacle, it's the character and atmosphere.
Too many shows and movies try to replace that with (admittedly good looking) CGI. All new Star Trek have an insanely high level of quality when it comes to CGI space battles, but visually, they usually are just sensory overload clusterfucks. And it might just be me, but somehow these newer movies and shows just don't have the same emotional weight to them.
The duel between Kirk and Khan works, cause everything surrounding that space battle is multi-layered, emotional and interesting. STD/STP clusterfuck space battles seem like they just go through the motions and present us with (again: admittedly nice looking) CGI battles, but there's no heart in them.
Know what I mean?
There are plenty of good action scenes in star trek. So many that the newer shows are just straight up copying them now.
the ending is a bit sad the young ensign who almost got married and it deals with bigotry from one of the officers
You have to admit, the writer of BoT made the battle into a story by have each commander talk to someone about what was going on in their minds. Without that, it's just old eye candy. By the end of the episode, was just a kid when I saw it, I wanted both ships to survive somehow and was greatly saddened by the Romulan ship loosing. Obviously did not want the enterprise to loose either. Great drama!
@@adcraziness1501 The problem is when their splashy action scenes become a crutch instead of a tool.
This is one of the greatest Star Trek episodes of all time.
Balance of Terror totally holds up even all these years later. It is Star Trek at its best.💫
One of the first great episodes of the series, although in the episode Romulans have better weapons, the Enterprise has warp speed whereas the Romulans do not and is therefore a lot faster, so that kind of evens things out.
@@aligborat I don't think the Romulans didn't have warp speed...where did you possibly get that idea?
@@davidcraig9938 It is in the episode, Scotty says they have only impulse engines.The implication is that the Romulans home planets are not very far from the Neutral Zone. They are only featured on two episodes of the original series, this one and a third season episode " The Enterprise Incident ".
@@aligborat It's also possible that using the cloaking device and warp engines at the same time was not possible with Romulan technology at that point. Perhaps later, their technology improved.
This episode cemented in my mind what deep space warfare would be like. You’d never “see” your enemy. You would fight using sensors (radar, sonar, etc), ships didn’t zip around like biplanes. The Romulan ship might have been more maneuverable, but it was also smaller and weaker and had to use stealth to compete and survive.
There were also tactics, deceit, and long periods of time where nothing but tension existed.
There was also the emotional and physical impact on the people crewing these ships. Loss of friends and the threat of an ever escalating war that could cost millions of people their lives.
The perfect Star Trek episode.
This episode is one of the best because it also shows that not everyone survives a space battle. One of the most poignant scenes is when Captain Kirk tries to console Angela Martine when she just lost her fiance, knowing that nothing he says will console her but he has to show he cares. That's one of the hardest duties of a Captain, as opposed as to one of the happiest duties that Kirk said at the beginning of the episode when he was about to perform a wedding ceremony.
This version of a romulan was amazing, shame no other Star Trek show explored it
Warmongering Vulcans in a more pure sense
TNG season 7 had an episode where every species was simultaneously cooperating and subterfuging to get some superweapon macguffin. The romulan representative was this same type of amazing.
Btw, who played the Romulan commander?
Oops, somebody below just answered. Mark Leonard.
@@henrybrowne7248you know he also played Spock’s father, right?
"Balance of Terror" earns plenty of praise-it's one of my favorite episodes of TV-but one such plaudit is that it has a perfect TV-episode title, in part because it pays off in all you explain here.
I'm tired of people claiming that TOS was a cheap show. As I understand it, TOS was one of the most expensive shows of its time.
I think its more it's visual style looks unrealistic and the general aesthetics dated very fast.
Legit point - although even pricey tv was way cheaper than equivalent movies of the time (and even accounting for inflation, I reckon modern prestige tv has far more money to play with.)
Also really basic effects were extremely time consuming and costly back then. Apparently most of the Romulans wore helmets in this episode because applying those pointy ears was quite an undertaking!
I think we can probably agree that despite it having a good budget by tv standards of the time, they still had to work around a lot of limitations on what they could reasonably afford to put on screen.
Yeah. I totally agree. It's become a bit of a cheap talking point.
@@Phintasmo In today's money they've spent 1.85 million per Episode in 1966.
You are absolutely right about the technological limitations with the effects work.
The lack of good modern special effects turns out to be a plus, as then storyline and character development have to hold the audience's attention.
Mark Leonard puts one of his best performances in this episode and his character would have made for a wonderfully interesting antagonist since both he and Kirk are positioned as two sides of the same coin. Whilst he would go on to play Sarek, I can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity to have a well developed counterpoint to Kirk. Imagine a world where the Romulan Commander is given a name and fleshed out over the series and effectively WOK is Kirk and the Commander have their final showdown.
Leonard is really great! His performance is very Shakespearean without crossing the line into being too stagey. I would have enjoyed seeing Kirk spar with him a few more times.
@@Phintasmo *LENARD,* not Leonard.
*LENARD,* not Leonard.
For that we have the books (yeah, that's not always ideal); in some cases interesting characters appear--one is the captain of the Romulan warbird 'Bloodwing', Ael, apparently the niece of the Romulan captain from 'The Enterprise Incident'. From what I read, the patrols along the neutral zone sometimes got quite 'bloody'.
This was the best and longest way to say "JJ Abrams Star Trek sucks" I've seen thus far.
Indeed
It stands the test of time. Does a fantastic job of translating anti-submarine warfare to space.
Great analysis. I learned about the borrowings from "The Enemy Below" and "Run Silent, Run Deep" as an adult, but my parents were Trekkies and turned me on to the series at the tender age of 6 or 7, in 1969/70, so in effect this WAS my first 'submarine cat and mouse' film. I'm still charmed by all the younger folks who insist the effects are 'cheap' when what they are is 'expensive but technologically unsophisticated': y'all, visuals like this were what prompted a generation of SFX artists to keep doing even better, because they saw how good something could look and then imagined how much better they could make it. That said, the focus is definitely on the drama, and yeah, it's slow pacing by today's standards, but it's effective as hell.
I'd never really pondered the parallels between Stiles' attempts to coax Kirk into quicker action and the Romulan counterpart who goes over his Captain's head to force him into a bad decision. Great observation. But let's also talk about a very subtle but important detail that tells us a lot about where Roddenberry and the rest of the team's heads were at: Stiles is a bit bigoted about Vulcans, but when he goes down to the phaser room, nobody bats a fricking eye at Uhura just parking her miniskirt right at his station. For 1966, on mass media television, that was HUGE. Even the original version of Christopher Pike was a little touchy about "a woman on the bridge" and here comes Miss Nichelle Nichols with the calmest "hold my beer" moment in early Trek. And nobody says boo, because in the Federation, human equality is already so normal we don't even notice. Bravo.
I do love this TOS episode (it's in my top 5), and I agree completely that it set the stage for future Trek episodes. It also gave the ship-to-ship battles more of a feel where there were actual tactics and strategy to consider when fighting an enemy ship rather than just two vessels standing still and slugging it out. TNG seemed to regress on this idea since we usually saw the two ships fighting each other at point-blank range until the enemy blew up or the Enterprise ran away. I prefer the tactics and strategy aspect.
And spouting out named maneuvers that nobody in the audience can relate too. Compare the episode The Ultimate Computer where Chekhov is relaying course and speed the the M5 and other starships are taking to try and outmaneuver the other, and the TNG episode Peak Performance where Picard and Riker are using named maneuvers that we don't know. So dissatisfying.
@@indetigersscifireview4360 Kuma maneuver aka "fly towards target" god that episode.... imagine bekng able to hack the ferengimbut then not shutting them down and arresting em for attacking you....
Boy, could you imagine a multilevel starship like this flying through tight quarters at rapid speed, performing impossible maneuvers? I'm glad they never tried to put that on screen.
Yes, thank goodness that never happened. Ships in close quarters flying around like jet fighters! Ridiculous.
@@indetigersscifireview4360 Quite right, absurd to think about. Luckily no one would ever try to show it!
by maneuvers you mean the ones done by the Defiant in DS9?
@@kicsilaci Defiant is a much smaller Vessel, it is more believable to the viewer when the Defiant or a Bird of Prey moves quick Imagine the same with a Galax Class. The Big Spacebattles in DS9 did a great job with showing a good sense of size and movement. Wish they coud bring that back, in new trek al the ships move to fast and it looks uncanny
@@Hans-Yolo I know the Defiant is a smaller ship, that is why I asked if he meant the maneuveres they did with it. Also the Defiant class is about twice as heavy as a Constitution class.
That is an excellent video on my favorite episode of my favorite television series.
By the way, at the end of The Enemy Below, the two opposing commanders are rescued from the sea. The American captain helped save his opponent by throwing him a rope. In the final scene they are talking to each other, and the German commander says something that indicates he is tired of the war. The American says, "Next time, I won't throw you the rope." The German replies, "I think you will."
Enemy Below is a good time.
I loved that they had to shoot something like that on an actual warship back then - its quite a spectacle!
Fantastic analysis of the episode! Balance of Terror has always been in my top 5 episodes of TOS. So good, on so many levels!
_"Balance of Terror has always been in my top 5 episodes of TOS."_
-> Balance of Terror has always been in my top 5 episodes of Star Trek in general.
There, fixed it for you.
The problem with "throwing a bunch of ships up on screen" is that it has always completely ignored "fleet maneuvers" which are even more important than individual ship maneuvers.
ST:TNG bantied about terms like fleet and flagship with absolutely no idea how those two concepts work in a real navy.
“Who operates the ship controls?”
“CONNNN!”
lol
Balance of tear has been my favorite episode of the original series as long as I can remember. Outstanding job and deconstructing the episode.
The Enemy Below was a brilliant movie, filmed on a US Navy ship with real sailors as extras.
Fascinating to see that the producers chose the perfect movie to make Balance of Terror.
Phintasmo credits Rbt Mitchum as the American captain , but neglects the appropriate shout-out to Curd Jürgens for his stellar performance as the U-Boat commander.
_Balance of Terror_ is one of my favorite episodes and this is despite the overly dramatic/long bit of not firing phasers at the end (seriously, there was no reason for the Romulan ship to delay firing upon Enterprise for so long). I don't think I cottoned on to the destroyer/sub aspect when I first watched it (I was 2), but it didn't take long to recognize it (there were a lot of WWII movies on TV in the 60's and 70's). It was also a little later when I realized having the Romulans _only_ having Impulse was ridiculous (you simply can't get anywhere with that). Now being restricted to Impulse while cloaked would've made perfect sense.
One tidbit I _totally_ missed was that both captains had trouble-making young officers on their respective bridges. Indeed, you've showed me that this episode was as much a comparison between the Federation and Romulan cultures as it was a cat-and-mouse battle.
Overall, I like _Strange New Worlds_ series. However, the episode _A Quality of Mercy_ disappointed me. I generally like SNW's Spock, but the difference with TOS's Spock was striking here. Like many others, I felt the Romulan Commander here was poorly done (in the script; what he did and said did NOT feel like the Romulan Commander). Finally, I disliked the visual effects because of the "need" to have ships near each other to have a space conflict when they should be out of visual range of each other. The most egregious case is when the Enterprise is rushing to the aid of Federation Outpost 4, but is still too far out to help. The exterior shot has them within sight of each other...easily within weapons range.
Sorry for the rambling.
I liked that SNW episode but I agree with you about the Romulan. That actor they got was no Mark Leonard!
The impulse thing in BoT makes no sense but i make some allowances - they were probably still working out the lore details on that stuff. In the same ep they talk about firing phasers to flush out the Romulan when they clearly mean photon torpedos.
I also make a few concessions to realism if it makes things visually interesting. The Lost Fleet books do a good job of depicting space combat where weapon fire takes hours to hit its mark - but I don’t think that translates to film/movies too well.
They may have retconned the impulse issue since they later reveal in TNG that they use a different power source for their warp core. Maybe it wasn’t something the Enterprise’s sensors could figure out. Like I said- a retconn for sure.
Thanks, this was great. But I gotta tell ya..if Uhura is onscreen then I don't notice anything else..best legs ever...
Balance of Terror is one of the best episodes. Glad to see someone talk about it.
I wish you would use the original effects instead of the CGi remaster that doesn't fit the vibe of a 1960's television show.
When I was 13 I began to love watching TOS original episodes (and WWII naval movies). TOS reruns were on at midnight, making Friday the only night I could watch. There was something about the dark and quiet of the night I saw Balance of Terror for the first time that accentuated the excellent suspense in that episode. Since then, it has always been my favorite. Thank you for this analysis of the episode!
Many years ago I discussed with like-minded family and friends how I recognized the obvious similarities between this episode of Star Trek and the movie “The Enemy Below” (my favorite WW2 film). Notwithstanding the fact that many others have already thought the same way, it’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one to make the connection.
"The Enterprise doesn't zip around like a fighter yet"
SNW: "Hold my beer, I am going to reboot how it works"
TOS was to look like Adm Nelson's navy..in space.
Eventually because VFX got cheaper more got packed into the screen.
Real ships that cover light years in minutes would be millions of kilometers apart...at least an AU apart. This is similar with supersonic jets in real combat...movies show them far too close like they are WW2 fighters.
Like asteroid belts. In real space, asteroids are far apart, further rhannthw Earth to the Moon....but they are still shown exactly as 1950s B movies with a stage hand throwing foam rocks at the rocketship model. Effects by Billy.
The original Star Trek is the only series in the franchise where we get an idea of space combat. We are given courses and distances, tactics, and weapons. After the original it was this maneuver or that that nobody ever heard of or get any idea what they are. It gets worse in DS9, when capital ships fight in close quarters and maneuver like jet fighters.
Then you never saw DS9
@@RealKull I have seen DS 9. The flight between the Odyssey and the Jem Hadar made some sense. Although the Odyssey should have been moving some. And the K'tinga versus the Defiant is reasonable. But when two massive fleets battle it becomes ridiculous. Wings of Galaxy class starships in close combat with Cardassian ships. They are capital ships. They shouldn't have the maneuverability of fighters.
@@indetigersscifireview4360 Show me the scene were a galaxy moves like a fighter in DS9? The movement in DS9 is still believable, ever seen a battleship or a carrier doing a hard turn? You might be suprised how agile those can be for their size and weight
@@Hans-YoloSacrifice Of Angels for one.
Yes I have seen an aircraft carrier in a turning movement after we refueled from the U.S.S. Ameica. I wouldn't call a minimum turn radius of half a nautical mile particularly agile. Also carrier strike groups are spread out over an area of about 600 square miles and consist of a handful of ships. You're not going to see other ships in the strike group. But in DS9 you see multiple capital ships stacked on top of each other in combat and moving at fractions of the speed of light. So that is like capital ships moving like fighter jets. The ships are too close for safe navigation in any situation, and are a menace to each other. They did a better job in the original Star Trek episode The Ultimate Computer, with only four capital ships going up against the Enterprise.
@@indetigersscifireview4360 ua-cam.com/video/TN7BjeRad2I/v-deo.html
i am not a sailor or live anywhere near the sea but for me this is very impressive and agile for a ship that size. Also i dont see any Capital ships in that episode zooming around like fighter jets. Are the Ships stacked to close, yes, would it look good on screen if they where kilometers away and just small blimps on the screen no.
My point is the movement must be believable not realistic. In comparison to a Defiant, Akira or Miranda a Galaxy should move a bit heavier ( not slower because full impuls is the same speed for all of them ) If i want somewhat realistic spacebattles i watch the expanse
Almost 60 years old, and it still hold up. Even when Wrath of Khan came out, you can see the cat and mouse maneuvering in the Mutara Nebula.
Wrath of Khan owes so much to this while definitely being itself the next evolution.
One thing I wonder about a lot is how those huge starships fly around like fighter like fighter planes while other shows have actual fighters doing the battle. I guess that is why Star Trek is unique.
I have loved Balance of Terror since I started watching Star Trek as a kid. I thought it was phenomenal. In my opinion, it still holds up to this day. The writing, the directing, the tension were all top notch. This episode should be a master class.
Balance Of Terror is absolutely one of the best episodes in all of Star Trek. It was one of the last episodes of TOS to be new to me back in 1996. I'd started watching a little further down season 1 a few years earlier, so I was already well-acquainted with the Romulans looking like Vulcans. I can imagine it must have been jaw-dropping for anyone seeing this without knowing that fact. Stiles expressed what they couldn't help wondering, but later learned his lesson when Spock saved his life.
This space battle does everything right in terms of storytelling. Watching this episode for the first time, it was quickly clear that this episode was going to be a really great tense space battle. Lovely. I knew early on that I was going to like this episode a lot, and I still do, almost three decades later. The only other episodes of TOS that had me to quite this same level were the parallel universe intrigue of Mirror Mirror, which I'd seen 3yrs earlier and adored, Arena, and maybe Space Seed. The City On The Edge Of Forever I did like a lot, but I was about 10 when I first saw it so on that initial viewing when Kirk said he was in love with Edith my mind went "ewwww!" - I can appreciate Kirk's dilemma a lot more now, and rate that episode 4th, with the others I mentioned completing my top 5.
Superb episode. My favorite for sure of TOS. I love Uhura’s “gotcha” look after they deliver the final blow.
Unsure if the claim to be the "first" is true BUT that episode is, to this day, a masterpiece.
Sure, one can tell it's been taken from naval combat, Destroyer vs Submarine hunt style, but it's overall story telling is what makes it so good over just better special effects.
i love the end where the girl who lost her fiancee just looks at kirk and they dont say anything..she just embraces him....they both know that is just the way life is in war..and thats what they signed on for when they joined star fleet
One of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Too often, this day in age, we rely on special effects with little or no story.
" Balance of Terror" Has been and Forever shall be a Classic. I would like to see a two hour Movie, modern remake introducing scores of new, as well as old Tactics and Strategy with modern Video artistry, while maintaining that Old School Movie feel....
I am fortunate to have watched Star Trek in its original showing. I remember this episode very clearly. As many have said, it still holds up. I am a believer in substance over special effect even now.
I really like your analysis and the details of its development. Keep up the good work.
Balance of Terror is such a perfect episode, it's one of the handful that I've recommended to @NewbieStarTrek as one of their must-watch TOS episodes. It defines so much-the idea of Starfleet as the navy, the kind of space battles SF has used for decades, and within the Trek universe, the beginning of the Romulans as a major foe, introducing them as a warlike Vulcan offshoot. In fact, it's so iconic, Strange New Worlds used it as the lynch pin in the two possible futures for Christopher Pike, right down to every line of dialogue.
Always one of my favorite of all Star Trek episodes, since I was a kid in the 70s .
Well done exposition vid you've done here!
The Romulan plasma torpedo was a sledgehammer of a weapon. But by Next Generation, the Romulans had traded it in for disruptors.
I appreciated the tactics on both sides in this episode. When the Enterprise played lame duck in order to get the War Eagle to close with her, and de-cloak. This was reminiscent of some of the old WWII submarine movies where the movie pitted a destroyer captain against a u-boat commander. In many ways, one can see the similarities. Photon, and plasma torpedoes, cloaking as a way to emulate a submerged submarine, and a ruse by a Fed Heavy Cuiser to lure the enemy into a false sense of security. Like a destroyer captain covering his ship in burning mattresses to appear mortally wounded. Ya, real cool. Assassin verses warrior scenario.
Kudos for this vid.
That battle aside, which was great. It's the characters and story that make this a stand out episode.
I really do miss writing like this. Two ship captains. Two equals. Two good men. Two doing what they believe is right. Two missions that come into conflict. Both men honor and respect one another, but neither are willing to shirk their duty, nor are they willing to shirk their morality either. When they come into conflict they act in a professional manner. They don't give into petty and juvenile emotions or baser urges. They act as adults, as professionals, as officers, as soldiers (I know they are naval here, using soldier as a generic term), and as men should.
The dialogue is deliberate, calculated, and powerful. This is a story of two men who should have been friends. But their duty and duty only, made them adversaries. The limitations of the technology of special effects did nothing to detract from the story, in fact it enhanced it in a way. It wasn't a petty distraction of flashy lights and effects. But a representative of the symbolism of what failure means. Failure meaning the loss of ship and crew. That was shown in the special effects they had, and it gave its message well. Once that was established, the stakes were known, the story of these two good men who should have been friends can unfold.
This is what I miss when I watch many shows and movies that came after. Sometimes we get some of this, but it has become increasingly rarer. It is too tempting to lay on the distractions, when the focus should be on the story, the conflict and the interactions between two characters. This scene should be studied and studied well.
Balance of terror, my FAVOURITE Trek episode, it was very much like the WWII submarine movies that I loved so much.
Great analysis. I'm going to have to go back and rewatch this episode!
I didn't realize that Strange New Worlds was re-doing this old TOS episode. They called it "A Quality of Mercy". IMHO, that show is better because it treats Enterprise like a war SHIP.
It's my favorite episode, for all the reasons indicated. It's GLORIOUS! GLORIOUS!!!
Perfect example of factors limiting the "artistic vision" ultimately making the artistic vision, better. A lack of big budget effects limiting what they could do ended up forcing a much better level of creativity.
Your comments and points of view are spot on perfect. You're right in saying the special effects were limited but the story line, acting, character development...etc, made the special effects almost unnecessary. BOT in my opinion was and will always be TOS best episode.
I remember being on the edge of my seat watching this episode. Really well written.
Thank you! “Balance” has always been on my top 10 scifi battle episodes. Your analysis is spot on!
This episode introduced the Romulan Bird of Prey, which is my favorite starship design. It looks like a warship, and is a warship! As for how good the episode is, I think it was very well done, with the right amount of intrigue, action, and uncertainty.
In case no one realizes this, the actor that portrayed the Romulan Captain, later portrayed Spock's father, Sarek. His first appearance in that role was in the episode "Journey to Babel".
"troublesome subordinate" - perfect characterization
I think it was ST TNG that established the Prime Directive for fleet battles: All ships, on both sides, shall establish which end is up, and no ship shall ever fly into battle upside-down.
Balance of Terror set the precident by indicating Enterprise pretending to be crippled by showing it listing to one side slightly.
Lol!
Balance of Terror is a classic episode for a reason.
This episode has grown on me over the years, especially when re-hashed like you do here.
The plaster falling from the ceiling of the Romulan ship was classic. You need to build your ships out of sturdier material!
It’s a pure classic because the creators worked around their limitations to craft a compelling story using the wits of its starship commanders.
Strange New Worlds revisits this event in a What If scenario with Captain Pike in command, and taking a more peace minded approach to the encounter. They keep the same template and scenarios, just seen through another lens taking different actions that lead everyone down a more muddy path.
I saw that SNW episode while I was making this. I’m not a big fan of Nutrek but was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Anson Mount is a really good lead and it’s a nice throwback without leaning too heavily on nostalgia references. My one quibble is their Romulan actor was no Mark Leonard - but that’s a tough act to follow!
I’m now working my way through season one. The episode where they fight the Gorn ship is probably the best Star Trek space battle of the current era -great stuff!
Up until this episode, viewers were thinking, hmm, Star Trek is _pretty good_ television. Well-told stories, likable characters, not nearly as much campiness as you'd typically find in a space story. Balance of Terror was the first _great_ episode of Trek, and as such was a turning point in all of 1960s network television, a raising of the bar. Other producers used to put up walls in their minds around science fiction, thinking they were just pure camp, cheesy laser battles, ray guns, and robots. Remember CBS turned down Trek from Desilu on account of already having scheduled "Lost in Space," which in their minds, already ticked the kiddie space show box. While producers in the 1950s thought Westerns were campy, shoot-em-up, albeit popular shows with Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry riding their horses while playing guitar, in the 1960s, they thought Westerns were high drama. (Bonanza, Laramie, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Rawhide) They never expected to compete qualitatively against science fiction.
In the middle of this scenario drops Balance of Terror, and it goes off like a stun grenade. Suddenly, hot damn, you can tell a good sci-fi story on a series that's not an anthology (Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, One Step Beyond) with regular characters. And never mind that it was a retelling of "The Enemy Below," it was powerful stuff and it fit within a 50-minute framework in living color. This is where other genres of television, including Westerns and crime dramas, started stepping up their game, realizing they needed to tell better stories to stay competitive. Balance of Terror wasn't just better television. It made television better.
One of my personal favorites and anyone from even this generation can watch this and understand its content
Balance of Terror was a brilliant episode and I agree, that it became the blueprint for other shows to follow, like Babylon 5 and others. I'm not sure I agree with your assessment of the battle in that trek episode though. I think the reason the Romulan commander ultimately lost was due to combat fatigue, remember that conversation between the commander and his Centurian friend. After the Centurian died you could almost see the change in the commander, but his sense of duty prevented him from giving up, he still had to fight on. Just perhaps a little bit differently from what he might have done otherwise. IMO
Boy was Spock's mom fooled! She thought she married a Vulcan!
2:05 The incredible zoom in on Spock. Classic. Iconic. One of my favorite TOS moments as the Enterprise bridge crew and the audience looks to Spock for a reaction as it is confirmed for the first time what Romulans actually look like.
Just for the record: many a capital ship has dodged torpedo spreads through maneuvering. From PTs & boats alike. Still…great analogy! 😊
The Enemy Below is a great classic sub movie, and for anyone who has not watched it, you will not be disappointed. That is especially true if you look at the similarities and correlation of it to this episode of Star Trek.
Just about my favourite episode of the whole franchise.
Space battles have one of two inspirations. Either the Age of Sail duel between two ships, or the air battle between aircraft carriers. Star Trek went with the duel, most SF went with the carriers launching small fighters. Probably The Expanse will prove to have been the most accurate if we ever do have serious space battles.
DUDE! Your insights caught me by surprise several times; and I'm so old I saw this episode for the first time in the 60s. Instant sub!
Oh wait... I was already subbed for your BABYLON 5 material. Oh well... ;)
Yep, me too. I went back through his previous videos and oops, already watched them all...
Like a favorite band... when you already own all their albums!
I would have liked an expansion on the analysis of later Star Fleet battles to be explored as comparisons but there you have it.
Great analysis and spot-on comments. Well done.
One of my very favorite episodes also. I do agree that the writers weren't thinking it through when they said that the Romulan ship had impulse power only; it had come a long way from home. But I think that it would have made much more sense to postulate that the Romulans couldn't use their cloaking device and their warp drives at the same time...choose one or the other.
About the special effects of TOS...I don't call them "cheap" or "limited." I call them "pioneering." Compare them against anything done in feature films of the era, or before. In My Estimation, only *Forbidden Planet* tops them.
Honestly the space battle with the romulans is still my favorite the pacing of the battle the back and forth the tactics it's all a lot of fun
This episode and The Doomsday Machine are my favorites. Both episodes had so much else going on besides the battles. There was a lot of character elements in both episodes.
An awesome episode..that set up the bar..really high..
Balance of Terror and Doomsday Machine are my two all time favorite TOS episodes. The Enterprise Incident a close 3rd.
I became an engineer because of Scotty. This certainly one of the best episodes. Actor Mark Lenard goes from dead Romulan commander to Spock’s dad!
Great episode! The SNW retelling from a different timeline is a worthy double feature.
The episode title is a great pun for the "Balance of Power" invoked during the Cold War with the 2 nuclear superpowers USA & USSR. I think "Balance of Terror" is more appropriate.
One thing that frosts me about what they've been doing to Star Trek going back to the 90s and early 2000s. Way to many space battles. And although the Enterprise in TOS did not maneuver like a fighter, but more like the ships in Capt. Horatio Hornblower, they did in the later series. It got to where there were so many space duels, it was becoming white noise to me. And it seems as though they're still at it. It's getting difficult to tell the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars. Even the makers of Star Trek fan films can't get away from space duels. Battles in space were very few in TOS. In the 90s, I received an official writer's guide for Star Trek TNG. There was a list of do's and don'ts for writers to follow a big "Don't" was writing in space battles.
Agree 100%! In my opinion the old special effects in the original series done with the clunky models portrayed much better the ponderous nature of these large spaceships. I don't think that the new CGI enhanced battle scenes are an improvement on the original. And the limitations on creating a large number of loud and bright battle scenes enhanced the story creation.
In the past space battle did cost a lot and so storytelling was key, today if you cant fill your full episode with story just throw in 5-10 mins CGI Battle because special effects just dont cost as much as in the good old times. Just look how much screentime today is wasted with CGI shots of things.
Agreed. Modern SciFi depends too much on visual effects and not enough on stortelling and psychological drama. Reference first Star Trek movie as an example.
I call it, "Flash, glitter, and ADHD attention spans".
I never put it together that this episode was a sort of sci-fi Enemy Below. Great catch, and really interesting piece of scifi history to examine, thanks!
Your conclusion was spot on. A well told nuanced story that has a battle plot from beginning to end is much, *much,* superior to a long flashy battle preceded only by a few words to set it up.
It has to be done well, though. I've seen a number of sci fi or simply war movies where the dialogue is obviously just filler because they couldn't afford to do enough battle scenes.
Of course, "Balance of Terror" holds up. It is Star Trek's story telling at it's best. I'm two years older than Trek itself and this is my favorite episode out of the entire lexicon of trek episodes.
THANK YOU! "The Enemy Below" (and "Run Silent, Run Deep") also inspired "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" as well as "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country". Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett must have been real fans of these ideas.
Wrath of Khan is really a Napoleonic era battle between sailing ships, with the Battle of the Mutara Nebula a battle in a fog bank.
I like that the ships were always right side up
Very well done breakdown of easily one of TOS’s best episodes.
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EXCELLENT breakdown!!! And BoT remains one of my FAVES!
I was so impressed with your video. You hit the mark on your comparison. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. ❤
"When one is outmatched, checkmate."
"Not chess, Mr Spock, poker."
This and The Doomsday Machine are my favorite episodes of any Star Trek series.
It’s is one of my favorite episodes, very underrated, IMO I found a basic computer game back in the 1970s that was very similar and got it running on our family’s trs-80 😂
If the episode was primarily told from the Romulan point-of-view, "Balance of Terror" (1966) would look more like 1981's "Das Boot". (That's how good the storytelling of both are.)
This is a very good analysis. Now I want to watch The Enemy Below.
Well done, good sir! Now THAT is how to write an analysis essay! My compliments.
Great commentary, a well crafted story does not need dazzling effects!
And the most spectacular FX are no substitute for a good story! "Cutting edge" special effects will too soon look dated, but half a century later "Balance of Terror" holds up.
The story and character development/interaction is always the priority. Good video, sir.
Yes, Balance of Terror is Star Trek and sci fi storytelling at its best. It is timeless.
I always loved the dynamic of the Romulans. Culturally, they're clearly an analogy of the ancient Roman Empire on Earth. But politically, they're an analogy of Sino-American Cold War relations. The Neutral Zone is both metaphorical of the Berlin Wall and the Korean DMZ. The schism between the Vulcans and the Romulans can also be connected to the division of Tibetan Buddhism from Communist China. So there's a lot going on here. And it works! And when in DS9 the Romulans finally come to the Federation's side, it feels like it's a truly earned alliance.
i totaly agree with you, story is always more important than any special effect, it just seems that a lot of producers or directors have forgotten that which is one reason we get so many bad movies these days....
By now, it's well known that "Balance of Terror" was inspired by, and took many cues from, "The Enemy Below." What's not as widely known is that both U.S. films were based on a British book -- and improve on that book in one crucial respect. In the movie and TV show, the antagonists come to respect each other. In the book, they hate each other's guts -- so much so that the British destroyer ends up ramming the German sub, and then both crews come out to bash each other to a pulp.
Even before Darth Vader became Luke's father.The Romulan commander was a dead ringer for Spock's father
Um, that's because both are portrayed by the same actor. The Romulan Commander was his first role in Star Trek, then in 'Journey to Babel' he was Sarek, Spock's father! He continued in that role even into the Next Generation!
@@l.clevelandmajor9931 That’s also true