"Balance of Terror" (season one, episode fourteen; production code: 09; 15 December 1966): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: Romulans! "Balance of Terror" introduces the Romulans, revealing them as an offshoot of Spock's Vulcans & gives us the first starship combat in all of Star Trek. 'Tis one of the best episodes of the series, full of tension, pathos, & moral instruction. Mark Lenard guest stars as the Romulan Commander; he later returned, more famously, in the role of Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek.
"Balance of Terror" is so highly regarded that it was the first episode released with the fortieth anniversary remastered visual effects.
In one of the most puzzling things I have ever seen, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds revisited "Balance of Terror" in the episode "A Quality of Mercy" (season one, episode ten; 7 July 2022). Captain Pike, still in command of the Enterprise in an alternate timeline, botches the confrontation with the Romulan Bird-of-Prey resulting in full-scale war between the United Federation of Planets & the Romulan Star Empire. What is the purpose of making an episode about how massively inferior Captain Pike, the protagonist of S.N.W., is to Captain Kirk? Why slag your own main character?
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