Episode Epilogues Chapter 8: "Balance of Terror"

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McCoy looked sternly at Stiles. "I've flushed all the phaser coolant out of your system and encouraged your lungs to regenerate. You'll feel a lot better than you did when you came in here, but that doesn't mean you can go do whatever you want. I want you mostly sitting down and mostly doing things that don't make you breathe hard. No exercise, no sex, and no duty for the next week. You can read or watch vids or play cards and so on, as long as whatever you do isn't exciting enough to make you breathe hard. Understand?"

Stiles nodded. "Got it, doc. Take it easy and let my lungs heal. Believe me, I know I'm lucky to be alive, so I'll be good!" He thought for a minute, then looked questioningly at McCoy. "Is it all right if I go talk to Mr. Spock?"

McCoy chuckled. "I'm pretty sure HE can't raise anybody's respiration rate; there isn't enough excitement in a Vulcan to do you any harm." As Stiles got off of the biobed, the doctor added, "Come back in a week, and if everything goes well, I should clear you for duty then."

Stiles smiled. "Thanks for everything, doc."

He left sickbay and went to the nearest turbolift, saying "Deck 2" aloud and heading for the Science Officer's office. Once there, Stiles pressed the button to ring the chime, then entered Spock's office when he heard the Vulcan say, "Come."

Stiles had never been in this office before and looked around curiously. Of course there was a standard-issue Starfleet desk, chairs, and computer screen, plus shelves filled with a staggeringly large number of tapes. The walls of the office were decorated with a poster of the periodic table; charts of the explored areas of the galaxy; and taxonomic charts for the life forms of Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar. Stiles was surprised to see such elementary items decorating the walls, then realized that these must be visual aids for when Mr. Spock was explaining something to the lesser scientists under his command.

Stiles looked at the office more closely and recognized items from the fields of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology, Psychology, Sociology, and Mathematics. He suddenly felt rather intimidated by the breadth of knowledge possessed by the man he'd so casually insulted on the bridge, and he had to remind himself not to breathe harder.

Spock looked up from whatever he'd been working on and said, "Please take a seat, Mr. Stiles, and tell me how I may assist you."

Stiles sat down. He quashed a desire to fidget by clasping his hands together in his lap and said, "I've come to apologize, Mr. Spock. I was way out of line on the bridge, and I should never have said what I did. I think I've learned my lesson, but if there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know."

Spock regarded Stiles for a moment in silence, then said, "Your reaction on the bridge is an example of the reason why Vulcans decided to control our emotions. Your emotions were aroused by the attacks on the outposts and on ourselves and were enflamed by your family history of loss during the Romulan war a century ago. Those emotions led you to scorn one who resembled the Romulans superficially."

Stiles swallowed and nodded.

Spock continued, "You are not a Vulcan, and I do not demand that you behave as one. But notice the behavior of Captain Kirk. While off duty, he is as emotional as any human, but when on duty, especially during a crisis situation, he controls himself very strictly most of the time. You might pattern yourself after him, learning to rein in your emotions when on duty so that they do not control you and do not lead you into error."

Stiles sighed. "That's a tall order, Mr. Spock, but I think you're right that I need to learn to control myself better on duty. Do you have any tips for how to go about it?"

Spock looked dubious. "The techniques that Vulcans use are not appropriate for you. I suggest that you consult Captain Kirk, as the exemplar you wish to emulate, and ask him how he has achieved his admirable control."

Stiles smiled. "That's a good idea! Thank you, Mr. Spock, I'll do that." He looked silently at the Vulcan for a moment, then added, "But that doesn't do anything to make things up to you; that will only help make me a better officer, so really, it's for me, not you."

Spock huffed quietly. "I assure you, Mr. Stiles, having a member of the crew be less flagrantly emotional in my presence will, indeed, make my life easier."

Stiles laughed. "Okay, sir, if that's the way you want it." He stood up and looked at Spock, who inclined his head briefly and added, "Dismissed," to make the message clear.

Feeling relieved, Stiles left the office and returned to his quarters. He'd rest up a bit before tackling the captain.

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That evening, Spock was reading quietly in his quarters when Kirk came to visit him. A quick glance at his captain showed that Kirk was in professional mode, not personal mode, so Spock stood up and asked, "How may I assist you, captain?"

Kirk waved him back to his chair, then dragged another near and seated himself across from Spock. The captain leaned forward and said, "I wanted to check on you, since I know you had to fire the ship's phasers today. I know it's hard for you to have to kill."

Spock raised a surprised brow. "Neither of us is cavalier about killing; I should be surprised if any Starfleet officer enjoyed killing another sentient being, and I am certain that you feel the emotion of sadness every time you must kill. The protection of the Federation is one of our duties, however, and sometimes it requires that we perform unpleasant but necessary tasks."

Kirk nodded. "It's true that I'd prefer not to have to kill." He smiled and adopted a teasing tone. "But we humans are a little closer to our savage pasts than Vulcans are, and I think it bothers me a bit less than it bothers you, especially when I'm energized by the heat of battle."

Kirk sobered and spoke seriously once again. "And really, killing Romulans is different for you than it is for me; the Romulans don't look so much like me, and it must have been much harder for you to have to fire on someone so much like you."

Spock sat back slightly in his chair and stared at his captain for a moment before leaning forward and speaking earnestly. "What makes one sentient creature similar to another? Is it external appearance? I would submit that it is not, that similarity is to be found in one's values and goals. Romulans are warlike and predatory; Vulcans are peaceful and helpful. We may share some physical characteristics, but that does not make us similar."

Spock looked intently at Kirk. "The person who is the most similar to me is, in fact, yourself. We are both career Starfleet officers, devoted to exploration, to assisting those who require aid, and to defending weaker peoples from those who would prey upon them. Surely the shape of one's ears is inconsequential, compared to those shared values and goals."

Kirk smiled. "Completely inconsequential, Mr. Spock. Our blood may be different colors, but we're obviously kin nonetheless."

Spock inclined his head in wordless agreement. He couldn't speak, or he might reveal too much emotion, for having Kirk declare them kin gave him — he could not deny it, though he did control it — considerable joy.

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Author's Notes

1. Most fan sites will (correctly) tell you that the plot of "Balance of Terror" was directly lifted from the WWII film "The Enemy Below," with a few elements also possibly inspired by "Run Silent, Run Deep."

While "Balance of Terror" is an excellent episode, its having been based on a WWII submarine movie means that the Enterprise's technology is considerably clunkier in this episode than it will be later on. For example, usually the phasers can simply be fired by pressing a button on the navigation station, which certainly seems a lot more in keeping with what 23rd-century technology should be like! It also seems a lot more likely that phasers would be aimed with the help of sensors than by having people manually aim them by eye.

2. This episode makes a lot of people's lists of the ten best episodes of the original series; according to TV Guide Magazine, that includes Gene Roddenberry.

3. Uhura takes over navigation when Stiles goes to the phaser room yet somehow manages to run communications from the navigation station. Those bridge officers obviously have a lot of training and flexibility, and it looks as if the various stations can perform more than one function.

4. This episode begins with various people setting up for a wedding between two crew members. The bride and groom both wear their normal uniforms for the ceremony — not even dress uniforms — though the bride does wear some white stuff on her head that I think is supposed to be flowers and feathers, though it just looks like white fluff to me. The lack of special dress for the ceremony was probably due to TOS's legendarily skimpy budget, though it's also possible that they just didn't have time to figure out what people might wear to weddings three hundred years in the future. Do you know what people wore when they got married in 1722? Me, neither, but I doubt it was long white gowns and tuxedos. :-)

In "The Naked Time," Kirk tells Spock that the captain isn't allowed to notice his yeoman's beauty, implying that a romantic or sexual relationship between him and Rand is not allowed under Starfleet regulations. The current episode makes it clear that SOME relationships are permitted, though, since Martine and Tomlinson are allowed to marry. Legions of eager fan fiction fans would love to know exactly what those fraternization regulations say, but actually, it may be better that we don't know, since we have more latitude to do whatever we want that way. :-)

5. This episode uses Spock's difference from the human crew to make points about the unacceptability of racism. Roddenberry wanted a future where humans had conquered racism based on skin color, but he still wanted his show to be able to talk about racism, and using Spock in this way allowed him to have them both. We take their using Spock like this for granted now, but I actually think this was quite a clever way of giving us an egalitarian future to aspire to, while still being able to demonstrate the ugliness and ridiculousness of racism.

6. One of the reasons why this episode is excellent in spite of its clunky technology is because of Mark Lenard's excellent performance as the unnamed Romulan commander. He was truly brilliant as the war-weary but intelligent and dutiful Romulan. Lenard is mostly remembered for having played Spock's father in "Journey to Babel" and in three of the TOS movies, and it's true that he's better at playing a Vulcan than most people. But THIS performance is, in my opinion, his best TOS performance.

TOS was made at an interesting time in the evolution of acting, because it came at a time when many young actors were learning the new technique known as "Method acting," while most older actors were still acting according to older techniques. When done well, Method acting produced a far more realistic performance than the old techniques did, but it took awhile for it to catch on and for actors trained in this method to replace actors who were not trained in it. So in TOS episodes, we can see some really excellent performances given by trained Method actors, as well as some rather clunky performances given by actors who were not trained in it.

I probably should have mentioned this during my write-up of "Journey to Babel," because that provides a great example of the difference. Jane Wyatt, who played Spock's mother during that episode, was an older actress who was very popular and very well respected. But she wasn't a Method actress, and her performance looks rather stiff and fake when compared to those of Mark Lenard and Leonard Nimoy. Of course, Wyatt really was of an age to play Spock's mother, whereas Mark Lenard was only seven years older than Leonard Nimoy and had to be aged with make-up to make him look old enough — even with a Vulcan's slow aging — to play Spock's father.

7. One of my favorite lines of any TOS episode is Kirk's line to Stiles here: "Leave any bigotry in your quarters; there's no room for it on the bridge." There's no room for it anywhere, really, and sadly, our world still needs that message even 56 years after this episode was made.

8. Plans for the starship Enterprise, created by a fan, were published as "Star Trek Blueprints." These blueprints were used as a reference for the first three Star Trek movies, and excerpts from them were shown on screen in TMP when V'ger was reading the ship's database. So these plans aren't really canon, but they're closer to canon than most fan-made works. It is from these blueprints that I've taken the science officer's office on Deck 2.

9. At the end of this episode, Yeoman Rand tells Captain Kirk that they've received a reply to their message from "Command base." Even eight episodes into the season, they haven't quite figured out who sent this ship out there. It's coming. :-)

10. McCoy's thoughts about Spock being unable to raise anyone's respiration rate belong to him, not to me; I'm well aware that plenty of Star Trek fans are panting after Spock. I'm among them, after all. :-)

11. Although I'm happy being human and (mostly) enjoy having emotions, I think the Vulcan way does have value. A lot, even of canon, treats the Vulcan approach to emotions as something Spock needs to get over, and most fan fiction does, too. So I wanted to take the first half of this story as an opportunity to show that the Vulcans aren't crazy; uncontrolled emotions can lead to the ugly behavior that Stiles showed in this episode. Of course, I prefer Kirk's "controlled on duty but relatively free off duty" approach, but then, he and I are both human. Given that Vulcan emotions are likely to be MORE intense than human ones, I think perhaps Vulcans seriously didn't have a choice about whether it was necessary to control their emotions in order to have a peaceful society.

12. If you enjoy K/S, don't miss J. S. Cavalcante's post-"Balance of Terror" story "Ritual," which you can find at the Kirk/Spock Archive. Please note that although MY story is safe for work, J. S. Cavalcante's is not. :-)

13. I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional most of the time, which means that I am not always able to reply to comments. I do read them all with great attention, though, and I do cherish every single one of them, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply. I apologize for being so limited in what I can do.

14. I don't own Star Trek, and I make no money from the stories I write; everything here is just fans playing in the sandbox. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Star Trek owns ME. :-)

15. Thanks for reading! If you liked anything about this story, I'd love to hear what you enjoyed.

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