Season 1 Episode 15 ('Balance of Terror')

Hey, we got Romulans in this one! I was a little confused by that. They seemed indistinguishable from Vulcans? I'm probably just missing something, but as far as I could tell, Romulans were Vulcans in Flash-Gordon-level-kitschy costumes, with an obsession with war and a culture that was - totally inexplicably - based on ancient Rome.

That last bit bothers me, a bit. I mean, seriously? How did they end up being so influenced by Rome when they are a.) obviously not human, with the ears to prove it, and b.) have never been seen by humans. At least, I think that was what was said early on; I might have misheard and they just had never been seen by any currently-living humans, but the impression I got was that there had been a war that had been fought without any real communication/contact other than slaughter and had been finalized via visionless radio-transmissions when both sides had had enough.

Either way, it's weird. The episode actually started out with a wedding underway, which was annoyingly predictable. If you see a wedding going down that gets interrupted by bad shit, you can pretty much bank on the fact that bride or groom is not going to survive the episode; doesn't matter what show or even what genre. That's a trope of tropes, and it was followed to the letter in this 'un.

There was more anti-Spock racism, in this one. Bones seems to have pretty regular issues with Spock/Vulcans, but this was the first ep (as far as I can recall) that had another crewman being all dickish about Spock. It may have been suspicion of Spock personally, rather than all Vulcans; it seemed to revolve around Spock's study of the Romulans? I dunno.

In case you couldn't tell, I was doing other shit while I watched this, namely learning about SSH authentication n' stuff, so while I was paying 85% attention to what was going on in the show, the 15% of time I was reading or doing something on the other PC meant I occasionally missed important stuff. Still, I think I caught the gist of it, and enjoyed the episode.

After the serious Cold War vibe I've been getting from the show already, I'm wondering if the introduction of an enemy that is not communicated with and that exists behind an 'Iron Curtain' neutral zone, and has scary technology, is going to end up reinforcing that. I got a kind of Das Boot vibe from this episode specifically - it seemed very submarine-warfare, as far as the action goes, and it was also kind of about a cloaked/hidden attacker trying to get home, in a way. I haven't seen Das Boot in 17 or 18 years, but at least in a broad way, I'm pretty sure that comparison holds water. Pun totally intended. If not very good.

Random stats: 5 large shots of Boru vodka, 2 hour interregnum between watching the episode and writing about it (I forgot), 1 miserable-ass hangover from last night's multi-booze frenzy of rock shows, clubs, and television shows, and 0 desire to get that fucking drunk again tonight. As far as the episode goes, I can't think of anything interesting that I could throw a number on.