Balance of Terror (Star Trek TOS - S1E15)

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In this episode of Treks and Tangents, we’re diving deep into "Balance of Terror"—aka the moment Star Trek basically reinvented Submarine Battles in Space!

We struggle to explain how the Enterprise and the Romulan ship end up locked in a silent duel, why this episode still rules decades later, and how Star Trek used helmets to save money.

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[Music]>>Galene Freakens is open and welcome aboard Trek's Intangents. I'm your co-host Brian.>>And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm the Star Trek Newbie of the Trek's Alpha Intangents.>>And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on Trek. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. And this week we watched... Star Trek, the original series. Season one, episode 14, Balance of Terror.>>And welcome back to another episode of Trek's Intangents, where the only people who take us seriously are the ones who aren't having any fun.>>Right, this is supposed to be fun. >>This is supposed to be fun. This is supposed to be just random fun.>>And going around the world. >>Yeah. >>The Star World. >>The Star World. Well, looking at some of the metadata from our... podcast and listeners, we actually do have listeners from around the world. >>Really? >>Yeah.>>Someone out there is a consistent listener in Germany. >>Oh, that's awesome! >>Wherever that is, thank you so much. We do see the data and we do check on that. >>Say hi to us. Hello! >>Hopefully you're enjoying your listen. If you're listening to this episode when it comes out live the day of, that would be January 20th of 2026, to date the episode. This Friday, the 23rd is our second episode of animated detours over on our Patreon page.>>Wild. >>Yes. So, if you haven't checked it out, if you want to become a crew member over there at patreon.com/treksintangents, you can check out our little monthly detour into the animated series for Star Trek. And of course, just to thank you to everyone who listens to the show, everyone who leaves a comment to the episode, to their thoughts, their feelings toward the episode that we just covered. It's more fun for us to do this and have an interaction with our audience. We absolutely encourage people to leave a like, leave a comment, leave feedback, we appreciate it. >>And share it! >>And certainly share it with a friend.>>Then you'll like having fun talking about it with a cup of tea. >>Yes, but enough of show bizz and show announcements. Let's just jump into this week's episode, Submarines and Space. Let's revisit the Turbo Lift T's from last week. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And Jackie gave her elevator pitch or Turbo Lift T's to what she thought the plot was gonna be. So, computer, what was Jackie's prediction to this week's episode?>>After being given a hint that this week's episode introduced a new alien species to the Star Trek universe and that they frequently portrayed villains last week Jackie guessed this week's episode plot to be, well then we are going to get better fighting powers. So we are going to have a new person on the Enterprise, an alien type.>>So Jackie, how accurate do you think your Turbo Lift T's was to the actual plot of the episode?>>Definitely a failure. >>Yeah, I think on the opposite end.>>The opposite end? You had a big focus on a new crew member joining the Enterprise. Most of it though was, of course, the Romulins, the introduction of the Romulins.>>Well, I had no idea it even existed. >>Well, that is true as well. Probably thinking back to the animated series where we suddenly start seeing all sorts of new crew members pop up.>>Yeah, which is why it's confusing because you're like, it's not like it, but it is. It's not. But maybe it is.>>But with all that being said, what did you think of the episode?>>So it's funny that you said submarine in space because that's the initial thought I had when I saw all of the Romulins huddled in a circle.>>As if there was a periscope that they were looking out of while they were trying to figure out how to blow up the Enterprise.>>Yeah, that's actually an interesting thought because I had made that parallel.>>Of course, this episode is heavily inspired by submarine warfare and movies of the time period. The phasers from the Enterprise acting as depth charges, running silent, not relying on visual clues as to where your enemy is, relying on sensors and readings, like sonar. But I hadn't actually given that much thought as to every shot of the Romulinship all takes place in their bridge.>>It's very cramped or sometimes it seems to be. I guess that does kind of give the impression that the Romulinship is extremely cramped and closed. Quarters, much like a submarine.>>Well, when they did show the visual with the yellow bird under it, it did look smaller and sized, you know, in comparison. But whenever I kept watching that huddle-up scene, I kept seeing that Denzel Washington movie with "Oh shoot, that gentleman that just passed away in New Mexico." He and Denzel are on the submarine down below, and he's yelling at each other.>>Crimson tied and it was Gene Hackman that passed away.>>Yeah, I pulled up the quick little summary. I forgot James Gandalfini was in that movie, too.>>It was a great movie.>>It is a great movie. But yeah, I think an interesting point to go back, the fact that we only get one shot of one room on the Romulinship, probably due to budget, was unintentionally portraying this feeling of a submarine, which was an intentional.>>So they wanted it to look like a submarine?>>They wanted the episode to feel like submarine warfare. I don't think it was intentional that the shot of the Romulinship, what I'm saying is that they only used one room, the bridge, on the Romulinship for budgetary purposes.>>It just happened to also coincidentally portray a submarine that's tight, closed quarters, and then those types of movies we usually only get one room or two rooms.>>Right, and then the captain or main character is in the front corner just zasp or aided and, "Ah, what am I gonna do?">>Yes, that's one way to describe it.>>Well, there's a lot going on in his head.>>So I take it you like the episode?>>I really did, except I needed to talk to their costume department because the Romulinship, their head gear was not great at all. They kept falling off their noses.>>The little helmets that they had?>>Yes.>>Yeah, that was a deliberate decision on their part to make. We'll get to it later in the triple tidbits or fun facts at the end of the episode.>>And they all had like a towel pinned to their chest like a little kid in a gardener? Need to note to their mom?>>Yes, they're trying to portray the Romulinspecies as ancient Rome. That's why we had these specific titles for their ranks, the costumes, the helmet, the helmet served a practical purpose. But I think that's part of the, that's the motivation behind their costume designs. Certainly their titles, how they address each other and so forth. I don't necessarily think that that carries forward into Star Trek while the Romulins certainly make reappearances time and time again. They just like the Vulcans and Spock and some of these other concepts, they certainly morph and change into what becomes more familiar that carries forward beyond the original series into the next generation, DS9, certainly other series as well.>>No, that makes complete sense and this is the first time anyone is seeing them. So it's kind of like a touch, like a touch test, like how will these guys work out?>>Right. Also, an interesting point to the concept of submarines and lack of visuals is that moment where they reveal in the episode the fact that they haven't seen what the Romulins look like. They fought an entire war without ever seeing what the Romulins look like, which plays an important part of the episode.>>Only that their spacecraft is shaped like a, it has like a bird of prey underneath it.>>Right.>>It's painted. But even then that came from styles.>>Stiles and styles got that information from word of mouth, family history that wasn't something that was pulled from the computer database.>>And I think part of what gives the episode such drama is how much they lean into this idea that the Romulins are an unknown adversary.>>I think that is recreated later in Star Trek with other villain alien species. The Borg come to mind for sure.>>Don't know about my head.>>Jackie looks totally confused, but I think Star Trek fans can draw an analogy between the appearance of the Romulins in this episode and how the Borg is introduced in the next generation.>>So it's safe to say we both enjoyed this episode.>>Yes.>>And with that, Jackie, why don't you dive in, see what I did there, submarines, and walk us through the episode?>>We open by gathering in the Enterprises Chapel. We're gathering for a wedding.>>Janus is in the front lighting candles and she's right behind the podium.>>I mean, it's simple but pretty.>>Scotties in the back ensuring that the ceremony will be available on all the screens throughout the ship.>>Curtus and have to worry about that.>>But McCoy does tell him that there is a call waiting for him, so please, Kirk contacts the bridge.>>Spock informs Kirk that the Earth, outpost number two and three are silent.>>When Kirk asks about number four, I mean, come and get a report at number four whenever you can, because he has, you know, let's say I'm going to need to go put on.>>Well, specifically, Kirk tells Spock to maintain a course to outpost number four.>>So, this seems to be a developing situation where the Enterprise is already on its way to investigate.>>When Kirk is settled at the front, Scotty walks the bride who happens to be Angela Martene to her groom Robert Thomelson.>>She's worrying like a feather crown tiara thing. It's really cute because otherwise they're in their uniforms.>>Yep, no fancy wedding dress or tuxedo for this wedding.>>But her feathers were cute.>>I wonder if the little bride and groom on top of the wedding cake are also wearing uniforms.>>I'm going to be really cute.>>When she gets up there to meet Robert, Kirk begins a monologue discussing how he gets the privilege of being the captain.>>And he gets to be efficient at all of these weddings.>>But while he's talking about that, Suu interrupts with the red alert.>>Kirk then runs back to, called a Spock and inquire what is happening and Spock tells him that all posts four is under attack by an unknowledge ship.>>And then the red alerts continue to blast and everyone is scrambling in the hallways to get to battle stations.>>And then we have our opening credits.>>After the credits, we have captain's log where we are patrolling the neutral zone between Romulus and Remus.>>Our post number four sends an emergency call to the enterprise and the enterprise will move into assist.>>On the enterprise, Kirk enters the bridge where he hurries relays that post number four is under attack.>>Spock verifies this, his are eight minutes out, but it's got to promises to make sure they get there before then.>>Yeah, he promises Kirk that they're going to try to get some more energy out of the engines to get there as quick as possible.>>He is magic.>>Kirk then asks Spock to put the star vector on the screen.>>And we get a map on the view screen of the bridge that shows a breakdown of Romulus space, the neutral zone that lies between Romulus space and star fleet space.>>And we get a detailed look of all of these different outposts on the Federation side that line up along the neutral zone.>>Kirk asks you her to open a blind of communication for the crew, so Spock is able to explain about the asteroids, the monitors, and how the zones worked, how they're established by a treaty after a huge war, a century prior.>>Each side is supposed to stay on their own side of this divide, and if one goes over on the other side, then that is a declaration of war.>>That's generally how neutral zones work.>>But because this war was so long ago, there are no actual visuals of what? The Romulans look like, and the Romulans do not know what, the enterprise, the earth people look like.>>Yeah, it's touched upon that it's because of 100 years ago when this war existed that technology did not allow them these visual communications like we have in Star Trek now, that again also lends to this idea and leans into the theme of submarine warfare where you're fighting and conducting war without any visuals of what you're doing. You're relying on sensor readings and screens and data, but there's no connection like, say, pilots in a plane, fighter pilots where they can physically see what they're shooting at.>>Or soldiers on the ground.>>In fact, the Collective, we believe that the Romulans are warlike, cruel, and treacherous.>>But thankfully, there was a subspace radio established that the neutral zone would be an effect, and so far the peace has been kept until what seems to be in now.>>And if either sides crossed the line that would be an act of war, so they would be able to defend themselves.>>In fact, Kirk ends the announcement to the crew of the Enterprise by explaining that they will have limited abilities and orders to defend themselves, but the Enterprise and these outposts in comparison to avoiding a full scale re-ignition of this war are expendable.>>Starfleet does not want them to take any action that would escalate conflict into a full scale war.>>It is more important for Starfleet to maintain this shaky truce and peace agreement than it would be for the Enterprise to defend itself and respond to save itself.>>Navigator's styles brings up that number four is being attacked and that they may intercept the Romulans.>>Their styles is definitely pushing for seeing how far they can push their orders in response and defense of themselves and these outposts.>>He is very pushy. Kirk asks how would we know what a Romulan looks like? How would you know?>>Their styles tells Kirk that their ships look like large birds of prey. He reminds Kirk that his family fought in the war that was mentioned that started this whole neutral space and he -->>He is a great family history of officers lost during the war for Starfleet's family. Kirk reminds that that was their war and not the current situation at the moment.>>So the Enterprise on its way to outpost four is passing by outpost two and outpost three. And when they get within sensor range of these two outposts is when Spock is able to confirm that both of these outposts, the asteroids that they set on, had been pulverized that they're gone. That's why they weren't communicating with them.>>Kirk asks Yehara to connect to the nearest command base and give a report every quarter hour. Then has Sulu call for everyone to man the battle stations. Navigator styles is also energizing the weapons to full power.>>Sulala, our bride is at the phaser station, Thomas and the groom to be passed by, Angela jokes that he's still her commanding officer, but soon they'll be married and they'll happily ever after turning this crazy interaction on the ship.>>And interesting moment besides the fact that we see that the bride and groom work together and one is a superior officer to the other, but it's one of the only times, if not the only time that we see this kind of disconnect between a command being issued on the bridge for the phasers to be powered up and fired.>>And then a cut to the actual station in engineering or weapons or wherever on the enterprise it is to show that order being executed many times it's just the orders given on the bridge and we see the final result again maybe an illusion to the whole theme of submarine warfare watching submarine movies where you see an order given on the bridge and then that.>>Order is relayed through the calm system to the relevant section of the submarine where it's carried out they tell it to fire torpedoes and then we see the actual loading of torpedoes and the firing of torpedoes just an interesting moment.>>Our votes for is five minutes away now and still responding to communication.>>Her talks with the commander on four and it is relayed that two three and eight are gone kind of repetitive for the commander to say that two and three not the commander it's repetitive for the show to again say that two and three are gone when we had the dramatic reveal by spark but I guess within the star track universe the commander would have no way of knowing the enterprise knows that.>>And then they do focus on two and three a lot and then they throw in eight like they're coming down and up yeah that was interesting as well I don't even think eight appears on the map from earlier I didn't see either so I was confused.>>I thought it was I don't even know if one appears I thought it was just two through seven that's what I saw yeah maybe that's all that they were focusing on maybe.>>The number the commander on number four doesn't know it took them out and even with the deflectors that they have it still wasn't enough power to eliminate a hit break through it took us a second time to break through the shield also.>>Yeah and it's an unknown weapon it's not one that they've seen before again it's an unknown ship and unknown weapon we all know it's the Romulins it's not that big of a surprise.>>But he does also very quickly mention that with their shields down they can't withstand another attack.>>Well the commander and the enterprise are discussing what has been happening the invisible alien ship becomes visible again and shoots and destroys the outpost that the commander was in.>>It's in a great large red ball of flames the enterprise crew stunned spark then relays that the outpost number four is disintegrated.>>Cook realizes that the Romulinship must be visible when firing after enterprise or in the other ship and then it can go back to mean invisible.>>Now that it's invisible spark though can you see the blip on the screen and notices that it is just moving at a leisurely pace on its way home as if it doesn't it seems that it's alone that no one's following it.>>Curt believes that this invisibility works both ways preventing them from seeing the enterprise as well.>>Which would explain why the ship is not making a more direct course back across the neutral zone it's taking a more leisurely.>>Spock's exact words root back toward the neutral zone instead of a route that is designed to evade the enterprise and run away from it.>>Curt also orders at styles and so do match the Romulinship act like a shadow and follow it however it goes just don't be caught and do not cross the neutral zone.>>Ura is able to find code communication that spark is able to lock on and bring up a visual on the screen of exactly what they're looking at on the bridge of the other ship that ironically look a lot like Vulcans.>>Which is a big dramatic moment for the show because this would be the first time ever that humans and members of starfleet have.>>Seen what Romulins look like and then we get a commercial break.>>We're still on the bridge of the enterprise and you heard is it tempting to interpret the Romulins signals and style sarcastically.>>Suggest just giving the job to Spock making underlying comments and Kirk orders him to keep his bigotry to himself while that is happening though on the other ship of the Romulins.>>They're personnel are having the same discussion as well.>>They believe they're being followed cloaking takes extra power their earth outpost contacted the earth vessel and that vessel just keeps following them they call it a reflection but yet their own commander does not agree.>>He continues on with the clue with the cloaking system in fact he's actually happy he's almost others ask why not attack the earth ship.>>I think it's just a way for the show to establish to the viewer that this is a cautious Romulin commander.>>His crew wants to just head back to their home territory across the neutral zone and not use the cloaking device during that trip.>>They think themselves invincible they've just won a greet victory.>>The captain of the ship says know that they need to remain stealthy they need to remain quiet he's cautious he doesn't want this mission I think to lead to outright war.>>This is more of a covert operation not the launching of a new intergalactic conflict with starfleet also apparent when a crew member comes on to the ship to answer for why he sent out that code.>>He sent out that coded communication the communication that spark was able to lock on to to get that visual on the enterprise again the crew member sent it out because he was boasting he was bragging he was over confident in their victory and the captain was saying no we need to be silent we need to get back home without being detected which is why he demotes them to ranks.>>On the bridge of the enterprise styles let's kerfno that they are one hour from the neutral zone and Scotty them pop in and says they have debris they have debris from outpost for.>>That they somehow have magically been able to transport on to the enterprise keeping in mind when they were experiencing the destruction of outpost for they still were a couple minutes away from it.>>I don't know how they ended up getting the debris on board but somehow they do it floated to really fast to them but it is in the briefing room and styles so the Kirk meet with McCoy to go over it in the briefing room in the debris spark finds.>>So it's a very strong material that he can also break specifically this is parts of the deflector shield from outpost for spark explains that it's made out of some of the toughest material known to mankind and yes he crumbles it in his fist to demonstrate that whatever weapon the Romulans used was able to reduce it to this fragile state.>>The men also discuss the ability to win an attack in a war they are powerful meaning the Romulans but the enterprise can run faster.>>Stiles is passionate about why Spock doesn't share what he knows about them Romulans like others have weaknesses he suggests an attack especially since the Romulans entered neutral space they did it first.>>Stiles also doesn't want to appear weak he argues that running from the Romulans would give them the appearance that the enterprise is easy prey and an easy target.>>Spock agrees but for a different point of view Spock ties in that there's a theory that the Romulans are an offshoot or an evolutionary side branch of Vulcans and drawing on that history of Vulcans explaining that Vulcans were war like as well but they branched off in a different direction by suppressing their emotions and giving up their war like ways.>>But if there anything alike ancient Vulcans and modern day Romulans running away would give the appearance of weakness but again they have to balance that they don't want to start an outright war.>>At that moment they get a report from the bridge that the Romulanship is reported to be on a trajectory and veering toward a comet.>>It's theorized poorly but it's theorized in this moment that as the Romulanship enters the tail of the comet it will become visible to the enterprise and the enterprise will be able to target it with its weapons and destroy it.>>So right before we go to commercial break Kirk orders for red alert.>>The enterprise is still following the Romulanship but the Romulanship decides that they are going to backtrack and go around so that they can attack the enterprise from behind but they find that the enterprise is no longer following them after all.>>And so then they do evasive maneuvers to be able to ensure they're out of the way of the enterprise.>>Right because both of their captains plans have sort of canceled each other out. The Romulanship was expecting the enterprise to just be leisurely following them but instead the enterprise had jumped forward to attack a ship that was supposed to just be leisurely heading back toward the neutral zone.>>Both of their plans caused their ships to be out of place or to avoid an eminent direct attack.>>I find it interesting also that they both captains of the ship kind of give props to the other commander.>>Like wow he's really smart. Look what he did.>>Yes. I think that is a direct poll from or a direct homage to submarine war movies.>>It's a very common theme in the submarine war movie genre where each captain develops a mutual respect for their enemy.>>Oh that's kind of poetic.>>So since both ships are out of place from each other's maneuver canceling each other out the enterprise acts first and starts shooting wildly from its phaser banks into where they think the Romulanship might be.>>Again best metaphor these are depth charges being dropped from a ship on the surface of the ocean down to try to attack a submarine.>>The phasers hit the Romulanship which begins to rumble and equipment is failing so they divert their power to their weapons.>>Minewel on the enterprise the bridge of the enterprise they also have power overload and Spock has to jump underneath his station to rewire whatever is sparking underneath his station.>>Well everyone is picking up and putting everything back together from that hard turn earlier and correcting whatever overload is happening.>>They do see the Romulans fire a large ball of fire for lack of better term.>>It would be plasma.>>Thank you that's the word.>>The device is able to back away from the plasma fast enough to learn that there is limited limited length and amount of plasma and it dissipates the longer it's out in the open.>>An apt metaphor for a torpedo or torpedoes only have a specific range that they're effective before they become extremely unreliable, not accurate and ineffective.>>On the Romulanship the Elder of the crew suffered an injury and the commander does tend to him and orders an order to cloak the ship again even though it's low fuel.>>On the bridge of the enterprise Kirk don't advise command base that they are entering the neutral zone.>>They don't have a choice but they are firing phasers steadily at the Romulans.>>On the Romulanship the Centurion has in fact passed away the commander then decides that he will do another more like a decoy and put all of their debris along with their friend Centurion out in this space.>>On the enterprise Spock announces the motion centurion signal has stopped Kirk has seized fire, Sulu announces the debris in space including the body yet Spock notices that this wouldn't be enough if the actual ship was wrecked but now the Romulanship is completely gone.>>So the decoy only half worked where it was able to escape but the enterprise knows that it still exists and is out there.>>And then we get our last commercial break before the final act.>>We have a captain's long Kirk says that if they're out the neutral zone they lost contact but the Romulanship must be nearby on silent mode as you call it.>>And they also will go quiet while waiting the enterprise that is.>>9 hours and 40 minutes later of silence.>>9 hours and 47 minutes.>>While we're in Kirk's quarters, Janus goes in to ask Kirk if he needs anything.>>Again proof that there's no doorbells are knocking on a starship.>>Oh yeah, she just walks right in and then I chuckled to myself because I was wondering if she was going to ask if he wanted coffee and she was going to heat it up with her face.>>Right.>>And no, Kirk has her take everything to the bridge and then McCoy enters as Janus leaves.>>He wonders why he would be there and not somewhere else at that moment. Having fun, being outside on earth, anything.>>Because right now they're stuck in space doing nothing.>>And it's funny. He actually says in all of the world, all of the 3 million earth light planets and 3 million stars and 3 million galaxies.>>There's only one of you, so be sure to take care of you. Those kinds of nice words of encouragement.>>Now we're on the bridge, still quiet, still dark. Something starts beeping, super loud and they all rush to turn it off. Be quiet.>>Yeah, I think it happens when Spock is making repairs to some systems, I think it's Spock that accidentally triggers the beeping of whatever the system is.>>But in any case, the loud beeping does get shut off, but not before it alerts the Romulans.>>The Romulans are super excited that they found them and they've decided to send out into this into space an old-style warhead that is usually used on their ships for self-destruction.>>It's the same weapons that were used over 100 years ago during the first conflict between humans and Romulans. It's a nuclear warhead.>>Even more scary. And the Enterprise fires at the warhead and that rattles the ship around.>>The Romulans think that everything is a balance when and they push to end the fight.>>When the Enterprise tries to check in to see how bad that warhead affected his own crew, he learns that 22 were harmed and are in sick babe.>>But they are okay. Most do have radiation burn.>>Basers are still in working order according to Scotty and as everybody settles down and is looking their wounds, Kirk says they're just going to play dead and wait it out.>>Mine while we learn that in the weapons area, Thomason was down there alone.>>Stiles does go to help and then her take styles seat at navigator.>>And then down in weapons they also find a coolant leak which resulted in Thomason's death after Spock was able to save styles.>>But he was unable to go back in and save the young man who was supposed to get married that morning.>>On the Romulans ship they are very excited. They are going home. Although they do argue should we just blow them all up or just leave it alone.>>But the commander is smart and says we'll leave it to another day.>>The Romulans ship is not as able as they thought it would be and Kirk connects with the commander of that ship and offers to beam him and any of his crew members that may be alive.>>It's important to point out that the reason why the Romulans ship is in such bad shape and is so badly damaged is because they in fact did not try to go home.>>They in fact came back to finish off the crew of the Enterprise and in and amongst all of the confusion Spock when he ran into the room to save people also was able to fire the phasers.>>Catching the Romulans ship off guard because Kirk was playing dead this whole time and damaging the ship.>>Captain Kirk offers to beam the commander of the Romulans ship over to the Enterprise to get well, mend any of his wounds and the commander refuses.>>It is not their way but then he does say that perhaps in another life they could be friends and then he blows up his ship but I think in another life they would be friends.>>It's certainly a moment of reflection for both of them where they both have mutual respect for each other as captains and leaders.>>And you can see that throughout the entire episode I think.>>You know good especially the Romulans captain he's always saying what a good thought that was or he did good maneuver.>>I like his honesty.>>In the sit-bay McCoy is checking on styles who is alive and well and he's actually very thankful to Spock for saving his life.>>Spock does not accept the thank you he's not his way also he was just returning a trained navigator to duty sadly though Tomlinson did die.>>Andra the bright to be can be found in the chapel Kirk visit her in the chapel and says that their death never really makes sense.>>We both know that there there was a reason and then Angela she kind of believes what he says and then agrees and then she and then she leaves and goes back to I'm assuming her quarters are back to duty.>>She's a tough one. >>Yep and then Kirk just strides out of the chapel and roll credits.>>So Jackie what did you think about season one episode 14 balance of terror?>>I loved it I just explained it horribly.>>It was fantastic I loved that we finally got to see what the enterprise does beyond.>>Going from planet to planet galaxy the galaxy and meeting people and flirting and eating food we got to see them use their brains.>>You know a different side of the 13 previous episodes we've seen.>>Yeah I equally liked this episode it's an interesting take on star ship battles and starship warfare.>>Some of the science or some of the facts behind it that were introduced to kind of fit it into the mold of submarine combat don't necessarily make sense.>>But overall I can look past some of those minor defects in the plot to appreciate the show trying something new so I really enjoyed it.>>We of course do have some triple tidbits or fun facts about the episode first airing December 15 1966 which is also the day that Walt Disney died.>>Just starting off the fun facts with not so fun stuff.>>Jackie mentioned at the very top of the episode and then never mentioned it again throughout the rest of the episode.>>The helmets that some of the Romulans wore on the ship those in fact were used as a time and money saving endeavor so that the extras and all of the actors on the Romulanship didn't have to go through make up to have the pointed ears put on each and every day.>>So time saving certainly can lend itself to this idea in the episode that the Romulan Empire is structured after ancient Rome don't necessarily think we're going to see those helmets again though.>>Actor who played the Romulan commander was Mark Leonard he would later go on to play Spock's father, Seric. He also would be a Klingon in the motion picture for Star Trek the first motion picture.>>It makes him the first actor to play three different alien races in Star Trek.>>That's fantastic.>>He also was on the short list after the first season when everyone was entering into contract negotiations Leonard Nemoy who plays Spock was holding out for a better contract.>>So he was on the short list of potential people to replace Leonard Nemoy as Spock in season two.>>Thankfully the contract negotiations worked themselves out. I think I read Spock received like $1200 per episode in season one and his new contract for season two he got double that roughly.>>Nice.>>We've made mention of it several times throughout the episode but the plot of this episode was directly inspired by World War Two submarine movies and submarine warfare specifically cited by the writer, the director, the developers direct inspiration would have been the movie The Enemy Below from 1957 and Run Silent Run Deep from 1958. Both are actually movies I've seen both are worth a watch.>>Sadly Jackie we have to say goodbye to Yomon Janis Rand.>>This is the last appearance in the original series. We will see Janis come back in the motion picture whenever we get around to doing.>>They lead by they make her leave.>>So Jan the actress who played Janis had a contract for only eight episodes.>>Oh my gosh.>>There were some behind the scenes that we won't get into. I highly encourage you to read her autobiography about her time in Star Trek. She goes into fantastic detail. I won't take it away from her. It's her story. It's her words. But sadly this will be the last appearance of Janis Rand in the original series.>>I have to have some ice cream for her.>>And my last trivel tidbit is just to point out that this is an example how Star Trek would skirt network censorship. TV networks at the time had censorship rules in place that required television shows avoid hot topics of the times for the 1960s.>>So this would have included subjects such as war, conflicts, the United States was involved in, but also the civil rights movement and equality and some of those current events at the time.>>So that Star Trek was able to circumvent this in this episode by clearly having a subplot involving the blatant racist attitude of Mr. Styles towards Spock and his prejudice feelings toward Vulcans because of their similar appearance to the Romulans.>>It's not going to be the last time that Star Trek does this, but just thought we'd point it out. And those are your triple tidbits.>>This is where we share our episode ranking where we pretend the episode is a member of our fictitious starship crew and we assign the episode to starfleet rank.>>A higher rank not only means that we were more entertained by the episode when we watched it, but we feel it to be a more important crew member on our ship.>>And the opposite is true, a lower rank means that we were not that entertained by the episode and it's more of a disposable member of the crew, meaning it could get killed off at a later episode and we would not miss it.>>Our ranking system begins all the way at the bottom with an ensign. It climbs to a lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, and then we get limited availability and limited available rank spots for Lieutenant Commander, Commander.>>Captain and Admiral, if none of that makes sense listening to this because it's an audio podcast and we're using a visual gag, you can see our rankings listed on our Patreon at patreon.com/treksintangents where anyone can view.>>Jackie, for your season ship, the USS Galactic Glitter B, what ranking do you assign this episode?>>I'm rounding out my five commanders.>>On a scale of one to ten, that'd be like an eight or a nine out of ten.>>Yes.>>This will join last week's episode of the conscience of the king, both parts of the menagerie and the dagger of the mind, which is going to be five out of five commanders for the starship.>>Someone's going down.>>As a reminder, we can as needed promote or demote episodes to make room or just because we decide we want to change the rank.>>So which for my starship, the USS Cosmic Shark, I'm going to do just that.>>Currently in my captain position, the only captain position that I have available, I have it filled by the Corbemite maneuver.>>I enjoyed the balance of terror a lot more.>>I think it's a better structure. The Corbemite maneuver was still a fantastic episode, but it's time to make a change.>>So I am going to demote the Corbemite maneuver out of captain down to commander, because I still have room in my commander spots.>>Uh-huh.>>And I'm going to put the balance of terror up with captain.>>Nice.>>As a reminder, again, we will publish our updated rankings on our Patreon on Wednesday, the day after this episode airs, at patreon.com/treksentangents.>>For comparison, as of the recording of this episode on IMDB, this is one of the top rated episodes for the season, it holds an 8.8 out of 10.>>We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, but before we go, this is where we'll give our TurboLifties or Elevator Pitch to next week's episodes plot.>>I'll give Jackie the title of the next episode, and Jackie with no other information, we'll give a brief pitch to that plot.>>Jackie, next week's episode is entitled "Shore Leave.">>Mike, "Shore Leave" when sailors get to go off-ship at a port?>>Sure, but that's the only hint that you're getting.>>I'm going to go with that.>>They're going to go to another planet, Galaxy, and they're going to have a break and enjoy some time with some of the cultural fun on that planet.>>Tune in next week to see if Jackie's prediction is correct.>>You want more show information? You can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon and patreon.com/trucksintangents.>>Again as a reminder, if you're listening to this episode live this coming Friday will be our second episode for our animated detours, where we do a dive into the animated series of Star Trek.>>Available at our Patreon for all of our crew members.>>You can also follow us on x.com at Trek's_Tangents. We're also on Instagram and Blue Sky at Trek's and Tangents. Jackie, "Working people find you and what are you up to?">>You can find me on Instagram at Jibboom, where I share a whole lot of life. I play tuba and flute in many bands.>>I have a music lesson to anyone who wants to learn how to play anything. I also show off fashion and makeup tips for those in different size bodies.>>We dress for your body, not the number on the scale. Also, I'm working on my wet-nought shop, and that's good or bow boutique, where all of the clothes and treasures I can no longer have, they can be yours next.>>You can watch me stream a variety of video games over at Twitch.tv/pilot-town on YouTube, post video games and other random content on my main channel at Pirate Pound Town and Coin Collecting and Hobby Content at Pirate Treasure Hunting.>>I post socially on Blue Sky at Pirate Pound Town and I can be found on Instagram, occasionally under Pineapple Cannibal.>>Linxtall social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in this week. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week.>>And I hope Angela got a good martini. >>And transmission.[Music]