Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 027: (TOS S01E14) Balance of Terror

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

The future of the galaxy is in the balance as The Enterprise takes on an unknown threat.  The Gang watches Balance of Terror, and discuss the difference between this episode and the Strange New Worlds remake. Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Hey everyone, welcome to yet another Star Trek podcast. I'm your host Drew. I'll be podcasting with you today. Joining me in this podcasting adventure are two of my closest year's friends. First of all, let's start out with the man who skipped the gym this morning. My jeede.

Hi, I forced myself to go to a rest day. I slept since 10 o'clock last night. Oh, yep, just 7 o'clock this morning. I went to bed at 9.30. I fell asleep on the sofa in the middle of the baseball game. 9.30. Yeah, baseball is boring, so it's easy to fall asleep in front of.

You're boring. Baseball, let me rephrase. Baseball on TV is boring. It can be. I will concede it can be. But I don't find it boring. I find it enjoyable. But yeah, I don't know. Like slept, I went to bed at like 930 and then at 430 in the morning I decided to wake up again. I laid in bed until like about six.

But anyways, we're also joined by the man who goes to Costco on Mondays. That's Brad. Good morning. How's everybody doing? I'm good. How is your Costco croissant? So Costco croissants were delicious.

I have to say that was the first I went to Costco and probably I want to say 15 years. Wow, it was quite an experience. It's something that I don't think you can truly prepare yourself for if you've never been to Costco. All the overwhelmingness of the merchandise you can purchase, the mass amount of people, all trying to get the same deals that you are. Do you punch anybody? No, no, thankfully there's no brawls. However, the amount of produce that you can buy, I feel the main reason why I've never been to Costco is that it's

really just been me and my wife and there's really no need to buy mass quantity. Yeah, I mean, if you're buying like, you know, paper goods or items that are, you know, packaged and preserved, like, Costco's a great deal, but if it's just you and your wife, do you really need five heads of Romaine lettuce? You're never gonna eat them that fast. Well, there's, I think it was, this massive mountain of ground beef. It had to have been maybe 15 pounds of ground beef, and I was like, who the heck needs 15 pounds of ground beef and I was like who the heck needs 15 pounds of ground beef if we did Himmerous episode titles that would be the title of this episode

15 pounds of ground massive mounds of ground beef When you walked in did they actually say welcome to Costco. I love you. Oh I was I was looking for that guy. No, unfortunately, unfortunately, I love you guys out sick that day Oh, it's your final complaint. She sent a card. Yeah, I am very excited to be talking about an episode that I've been looking forward to watching for quite some time, even more so after we got through Strangely Worlds. and I had to take myself back away from strange rules and forget I even saw that episode because quite frankly That's what you kind of need to do with with a TOS sometimes. Yeah, I mean you kind of do need to just check your brain at the door And forget about everything else that you've seen that came out, you know 60 or so years later. No go go and fresh. No, but the exact opposite

I was like, oh, okay, this is what that camera angle was. They were mimicking this. This stupid zoom. Were you watching it like side by side comparison, Mijid? No, I wanted to watch Trank the World after I finished the TOS episode. But again, I knocked out. But all those little camera angles and the character decisions, the things that were done in the training to the world that I was confused about,

they were in TOS. Yeah, I was actually expecting to have to wait a little longer. I didn't realize it was this quick up on the episode list for us. So it was a nice little surprise when we started it. Yeah, I didn't realize that we were going to be that quick on it as well either, but yeah, I'm very much excited to get into it with you guys. And we're going to be talking about this in detail and comparing it to Strangin worlds as well too.

But Brad wrote us an offsets and I'm going to read it so what do you say we get to that? I had time to write it. Who has time? Apparently I do. Well I mean you only have a baby. He hasn't had it yet so he has time. Yeah wait wait until like the due day and then after that, I'll be like, nope, no more time.

The reason that we are recording two days consecutively and some sort of an accelerated schedule is because Brad is having a baby and we're expecting to never hear from him again. Yeah, I mean, probably. I mean, honestly, it's kind of selfish of him. Yeah, I would agree. Wow, I mean, I don't have kids.

Yeah, you have, yeah, if you have two cats, but, but I didn't like, you know, stop everything for them. I didn't birth them. But jeez, I was a kid. I was, that was, that was like, you know, years ago, she's self-sufficient now, she has a job. She's pretty much self-sufficient. So, so, Mjee, when you had the kid, did your wife give you this free pass

of being like, you can do whatever you want to be hard? My situation in terms of my free pass versus what you would get from your wife are completely different things Please don't try to compare them I I could I could take that one of two ways, but man, that's that seems like you're a jerk. I love you Love you too, buddy. All right guys. Let's get into it We start this week's episode with a joyous occasion. Brands having a baby! Oh wait.

Yay. I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself. Wrong, wrong summer. Wrong summer. Wait, who? I'm not sure with this person. I hate you, you see. We start this week's episode with a joyous occasion, Kirk performing a wedding ceremony for two young members of his crew. However, this is short lived when a red alert sounds off throughout the ship. Multiple outposts guarding the neutral zone have been destroyed by an unknown enemy.

The crew quickly suspect the Romulans, a hostile alien race. Enterprise makes it to a heavily damaged outpost for but is quickly destroyed by a Romulans, a hostile alien race. Enterprise makes it to a heavily damaged outpost for but is quickly destroyed by a Romulanship before anything can be done. With this, I've noticed that this episode took a, it felt like a much quicker approach than the Stranger World's episode. I mean, Pike did get thrown in the exact same moment that this episode opened, which was kind of a surprise where I didn't expect it to be so similar in that sense.

Yeah, they mirrored it almost, almost exactly. Yeah, almost. You know, maybe the camera angles are different or the set is different obviously, but obviously the set was different. The dialogue was definitely, definitely changed obviously in that sense, but for the most part, the scene for scene was very close, closely spot on. We'll get into it a little further, but there are some sections where the dialogue is

identical, which is fascinating, you know. Clearly somebody on the writing team was paying attention to, you know, the Star Trek history. They took the time and effort to get it right, which I can't often say this is the case with a lot of the new Star Trek these days, but anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Spot believes he has found a lock of the ship, allowing the crew of the Enterprise to follow the Romulan ship. After a signal is intercepted by the Enterprise, the crew get their first glimpse of the Romulans revealing a very vulcan-like race. Now, M'Gee, you don't have a ton of experience with the Romulans. Now, I know, obviously,

with strange new worlds it kind of got spoiled for you, but do you have any kind of a take on this you know you have race of aliens that look almost identical to the Vulcans. How do you feel just does that like does it make you feel like they just kind of cheaped out on the whole process or? No, I'm creative. What? I have no idea how to feel. You guys usually tell me how to feel and then I'll either agree with you or disagree with

you. Yeah, you don't really have an opinion either way. Yeah, I just thought there were cousins, you know? That's the way you're like, yeah, like the same way Brad has evil cousins, but he doesn't share those same, you know, genocidal views. Yeah. No, your assessment is correct. The two races are related. But they say Brad and his genocidal cousins. Yeah. Yeah. Now, the Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcans. The Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcans. You know, over time, we'll come to learn that they don't really follow the emotionless path

that the Vulcans do. You know, they tend to embrace their emotions a little bit more, but you know, we'll get into that further as we go along. I'm not sure if we encounter the Romulans again in another episode of the original series, though. So that'll be fun to find out. I know we get the Klingons at some point.

I'm really excited for that. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that as well, too. Klingons at once put their little ridges in the forehead. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yes. Kirk holds a meeting with several members of his crew, debating on what to do with the Romulans, trying to retain the peace and prevent a possible war.

They devise a plan that takes on the enemy but is quickly floiled. The Enterprise begins to fire aimlessly at the Romulanship, eventually damaging it. Kirk makes a decision to attack the ship again before it crosses back over the neutral zone. Against his better judgement, he makes a decision to attack the ship again before it crosses back over the neutral zone. Against his better judgment, he makes a decision to follow the ship across the neutral zone. Romulans attempt to deceive the Enterprise by expelling debris. This in turn successfully distracts him long enough to lose the Enterprise's lock. For several hours, neither the Romulans or the Enterprise make a move, but unfortunately Spock cleansely tips off the Romulans when he touches a control panel. This gives the

Romulans a moment and they spell debris along with a nuclear device damaging the Enterprise. Can we talk about the wonderful acting on display when the Enterprise took that nuclear hit. Everybody just flying around in different directions. I think Michelle Nichols gets the credit for doing the best job because she like flew her arms in the air and like spun around in circles towards the turbo lift. You just got to fly it in the air there like you don't care. Oh, man.

So I shared this subreddit with you. True. I'm not sure if I gave the bread, but it was our slash star treks stabilized. Yes, which is bread where they basically take out the camera shake. Oh, yeah, I've seen that. That's that's always like a fun. It's like, what's everybody doing? Yeah, I've seen that that's that's always like a fun It's like what's everybody doing yeah the some of the actors have talked about what the direction is like Those scenes if you ever have an opportunity to watch any of those interviews you should they're quite entertaining But he feel like at this point the ship gets hit everybody At this point, the ship gets hit. Everybody randomly falls somewhere.

With at least with the newer series, they've made an effort to kind of all fall in the same direction. Whereas with the original series, they just kind of fall wherever they feel like, I think. I think the director is really understood. More so be like, hey, everybody lean to your left. Yes. All right, if you're lean to your left. Yes, all right.

If you're lean to the right now, you're good. Yeah, I think with the new shows now, or even with the new movies, they have Gibbles, they have platforms where the entire platform remove as needed. I don't think they've gone to those lengths with Star Trek, but they do use those in other shows. Star Trek, the actors just...

Oh, still? Yeah. Yeah. Sucks. Yeah. The other thing that I wanted to talk about here is the damage that the Romulanship was taking. Every time they took a hit, the crew member was pelted by rocks. I know. And that is a

longstanding trope with Star Trek as well too, which I did not realize started in the original series. I'm watching Metro eating my robe. Hold on. Buddy! You have a robe? He has multiple ropes. Gee, let's talk about Drew while he's away. Let's talk about his wonderfully sexy bodies. So therefore he knows that we talk about when he's editing the video. I'm I'm opposed to talk about you when he's gone I love him so much. I don't think I want to do that. Oh, okay. We're just talking about you. Okay, cool You'll get to hear it when you edit the episode. Oh, all right great. You know he can just cut you out right? I know cut Cut that. Cut that. Cut that.

All right. What was I saying before Metro attacked the thing? Oh, rocks. Oh, yeah. The trope. Did I complete my thoughts or did I abandon them? I don't remember. And maybe I'll just cut that out too. Uh, let's see here. 5, 4, 3. So the Romulans make an attempt to take down the Enterprise. The Enterprise tries to fire back however due to a phaser malfunction they are almost destroyed.

Spock gets to the weapons room in the nick of time and fires the phasers on behalf of the knocked out crew, thus damaging the Romulan ship. This is enough to push the scale in the Enterprise favor, offering to beam survivors over to the Enterprise they're capped in declines, taking himself and their crew down with their ship. Kirk finds that the young man who was to be married died in that phaser room. It takes Responsibility upon himself to try to provide some level of comfort to the grieving bride To sum up this episode Unforred October may have been inspired by this episode

May I think no, I'm gonna debunk that hang up. That's the bunk that. All right, well let me finish my whole bribe accountable. Oh boy. Romulans are really just Romans and Kirk is a better captain than Pike. Question mark. Gentlemen, not one of my better sum up to you. Okay, so the Hanover Rod October was originally a book published in 1984.

Yeah, and this came out before then. Brad looks so relieved. He looks so relieved. His face, his face went from like worried to relief. Oh no, it was me doing a joke. And apparently Majid's like, I got a fact check this joke. Yeah, no, seriously. joke and apparently Majid's like, I got a fact check this joke. Yeah, no, seriously.

Actually, it's a, um, the film is an adaptation of, of a book. Yes. Right. I'm aware that was based on real events of a mutiny. Let me finish you jerk. Yeah. When did the mutiny occur? I don't know.

Uh, God, we're not going to, you know what? We should start out our own Hanford, October podcast. Uh, doing a 1970s when 1970s. Yeah, when did this episode occur? Wait, so you're saying that the true story that occurred that inspired the events of this book were from Star Trek? Always always everything's based upon Star Trek. I mean, that's fair. Should be. Man, guys, there's a lot to unpack in this episode. Let's focus on the episode itself and try not to think about Strange New World too much yet. I honestly really felt that this had a very hunt for the Red October type of feel to it.

It was very similar to that type of style episode of the and I think this is kind of one of our first episodes where it was very ship versus ship between the two different alien species I don't think we really saw that before in TOS no, and it

and I think really the the enterprise interacted with the the Romlands other than that one scene, right? You are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct. The best kind of correct. This also kind of gave me vibes of Star Trek 2, the wrath of Khan. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can see that. Obviously, Khan would have been inspired by this instead

of the other way around, but just the ship battle reminded me in a lot of ways of what went down in the Mutara Nebula. Just truly a wonderful, wonderful thing to watch. really enjoyed it The episode is a whole surprise me Um, I You know, it's funny. I know we don't want to really want to comparison strange new worlds

But um, I can see how How much care strange new worlds Um did when recreating this episode? It felt like they actually and the torn confrontation between the crew of, you know, whether just a destroyer or go with peace. I was at, I believe, um, and Banga was in the side of peace just like bones was, and so it kind of mirrored that, um, that sediment right there. Yeah, I mean, all the characters, you know, had parallels even the ones that weren't present for, you know, Kirk's battle You know, Ortega's and styles were mirrors of each other and Let's talk about styles for a second because I think he was an interesting character especially in 1966 You know being so hostile towards Spock once

seeing that the Romulans were, you know, visually at least, very similar. He, I know with with me, it was his point in the episode was that the prejudice that humanity has and you know, Kirk was that voice of reason to say, we can't go base upon that. We can retain that level of prejudice when we're just looking at somebody and not knowing anything about the background or anything and it felt it felt very I didn't really care for the character but I felt that it was very accurate at that time period and I think they did a good job with Kirk trying to quash that type of mentality What do you think, Mjub?

I don't know all my names, but I do think it was nice that Spock saved, again, and I made the mistake of trying to compare in real time what happened in the training of worlds to what was Hoverham's episode? So with the... Oh. Can we call him a bigot?

Erasus? Yes, B.C.ist. Okay. I thought it was interesting. He's in the phaser room. And the purple coolant is leaking. And, you know, Spock saves him, and that's how he gets Spock's respect, right?

Because he didn't die at the end. No, but the Spock wasn't able to save the groom, which is unfortunate, because he was also in that room too. Yeah, yeah. But he did earn, you know, disguised respect, the big tree, yeah Hey, but he did earn you know This guy's respect the big it big tree. Yeah styles You say styles to me. I think of a very obscure like obscure movie, but you know

I'm not a well-known movie by any Samberg It's just called pop star and One of the you know his group is called the style boys. So every time you say styles to me, I think style voice. Fair enough. Yeah. What do you think, buddy? I mean, I really enjoyed it.

I thought it was a well handled situation, right? I thought Kirk took a stand in a, in a strong and assertive way. He led, you know, by example, he knows Spock, he trusts Spock. And in the heat of the moment, the reality is where the Romulans came from, it doesn't matter because they're shooting at the enterprise. They're trying to destroy the enterprise. So survival is really the most important thing and They can't survive if they're not working together if they're focused on Where this this race came from or if Spock's been lying about his heritage like

That's just gonna get people killed so Kirk shut that down like that and You know, unfortunately, it took a near death experience for this guy to realize that, you know, Spock was a good guy after all, but at least he came around, you know. Eventually. Eventually. Which, unfortunately, isn't something that a lot of people can say. Like, there's been situations like that where you have somebody even in modern times

racist to the bone. They have a life or death situation, they're saved by somebody of the race that they hate and then they still disrespect them, right? They don't come around on that. It's sad. One changing topics a bit. Uh, one thing I do want to bring up is the, the Romulan ship. Yeah.

How did you guys like the design function of the bird painted on the bottom of the ship? Is that what that was? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because the bird is a bird of prey. So they had to paint it onto the ship in order to, you know, I'm taking a look at the pictures just to be like,

oh, maybe they did it just for the remastered. No, they did it for the original. I thought it was a bird of work. When I was a kid, I had a model kit that had the Enterprise, a Klingon Cruiser and this ship the Romulan bird of prey. And it came with decals and then the decal for the Romulan ship was that bird. And when I was a kid I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Apparently, people are not smart enough to make, you know, put two and two together. They of the it to although I prefer the approach that they took with the Klingons with the

bird of prey later on down the line. Yeah, even though it is confusing as to which is what, you know, yeah, Romulan, bird of prey, Klingon, bird of prey. Yeah, yeah, it's a little silly, but if you can just kind of shut that part of your brain off, you know, I mean, does that mean the Starfleet has a bird of prey as well? Sure. They let loose the hogs of war.

Fuxx for. Get a little stout nose, ship their ramming speed. Mmm. Ramming speed. Ramming speed. That's also an obscure reference, by the way. Brad Hugsworth was a reference to what Archer said in the show. Archer. I wouldn't have gotten that one. Yeah. Yeah, neither of us.

I think the only person that would get that one is Wayne. Probably whatever I chuckled at it. Nice job, Mich of us. I think the only person that would get that one is Wayne. Mm. Probably. Whatever. I chuckled at it. Nice job, Miche. Don't make me give you a dimaret, so early in the ability to cloak. Right, and this Romulan ship, they came up with this, I guess, strategy where they cannot

fire while they're cloaked. Do you guys have any thoughts on that? The ship takes up a maximum amount of power to handle this as Spock said, bending light. So it takes up a maximum amount of power. I, you know, honestly, Drew, it actually makes sense to me because thinking about our playing video games when I played D&D, if you have an enemy that has the sense of overpowering ability to just do whatever it wants, the situation arises to a point where when the good guy is finally win, it becomes even more ridiculous because there's no way they technically should win. It would be a

what's the term? Active God. Active God has to actually be the true resolution. And that is the only reason why they're able to successfully be through Ami. So they need some sort of level of weakness. And as, you know, thinking about, if I were an individual in that position, wanting to design a ship, like I would really want the best of both worlds,

but I would imagine that, you know, any writer wants that too, but, you know, they I would imagine that any writer wants that too, but they just know that that type of enemy would just be unbeatable in a situation like that, unless there is that sense of active God. Yeah, they gave them a weakness so that it would have some plausibility. and it's just go around destroying things without being seen, then there's no way anybody realistically would be able to win. Absolutely. And this is, go ahead. I think that's consistent. They remain consistent throughout the years with Stratrack. If I remember correctly, even the Klingons need to decloak to fire, I think at 1.1 episode, maybe the next generation, they did an episode where that the ship could fire without...

That was actually Star Trek 6? It is 6? Okay, yeah, yeah, that's what it was, that's what it was. and that when they do fire, remember correctly. Yeah, I mean, they found a weakness to expose the advantage, right? And that's always been, I think, something that Star Trek has excelled at, is using science and logic to find a way out of a situation. They don't often rely on the act of God. No, they're, they're a level of science, however, is on the smaller side of times. It can't be questionable, especially when they start using, you know, techno-babbling.

It's no, it's no expense. Let's, let's be, let's be real here. It, it, it isn't. But, you know, in, in the universe that they've established they make it work. But jeez, how about you, man? We got our e-ears. We got our e-ears. Oh, ship go fast, room. Yeah. Ship go fast.

Room from. Listen, I blacked out there for a second once Brad said well in the TNG or deep face nine the ship can't fire while being cloak Mac Mac Mac Mac Mac Mac Mac and then Drew joins in. I'm that comic book nerd. Yeah. Well, no, you're not comic nerd. We've already established that I'm better at comic books than you are. Oh okay. It just happened to be a bigger nerd for Star Trek. Because you've watched the episodes and shows

and no one else watched or remember watching. I'm I'm I can assure you that I'm probably on the lower scale of Star Drac nerds compared to some people. Hey, Drew probably is the as much higher up there on the food chain that I drew his the king of the nerds. Hey, Drew probably is the much higher up there on the food chain than I drew his king of the nerds Because you hate you out to make it look like you're not smarter than him It's gonna be like it's gonna be much easier

Nerds If I had that kind of power, you know, and Drew has If I had that kind of power, you know, it true has. With great power comes great responsibility. Don't do that. Don't, don't try to get into. Don't, no, no, don't try to get into. What is there? Come on, we can do it, we can do it.

But, but this episode, I think overall, it was a very entertaining episode to watch. Oh yeah, it was gripping me tight since the very first scene. Going back to the comparison to Strangelo Worlds though, it was surprisingly done very well. I don't remember did the Strangelo Worlds, did the fiancé die? I can't remember did the um, industrial worlds did the um, fiance die? I can't remember if you did. Damn near the entire ship died. Yeah. Because yeah, they were a multiple, multiple deaths,

including, including, uh, spot. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Because, uh, all because, you know, Boyce got one to be a boy stuck. Spocked and die. He just got severely paralyzed. know, Boyce got wanted to be a boyce. Spock didn't die. He just got severely paralyzed. Yeah, but it was implied that he may not survive. Yeah. And if he did survive, you know,

but he was the key to this whole victory. Right. Well, it's not that Spock was the key to the victory. It's that Spock is the key to the future of relations with Romulans. And that's like heavy spoiler territory for a multiple series. But you got a glimpse of that in the original,

or in the first Star Trek reboot, the movie. You also kind of see it in the Abrams stuff. Well, that's the Star Trek reboot. So yeah, it's not a reboot. But it's not a reboot. Really, it's a alter universe. Right. Well, whatever you want to call it, we're talking about the same movie. So, so it's it's not that I mean, you're you're still getting you're still getting a bit of that, but to understand the full complexity of it, that's a story that really spans out over multiple series, including some of the new ones in a way, right?

I only think that he's that important because he was part of the main cast. I mean, you could say whether it's convenient or not, but, but that's what they wrote. So I agree. Um, it, it can't be frustrating at times because it's like, oh, the fate of the universe relies upon one individual, which is, right, think about it completely another BS. Of course. But, you know, like you said, that's what they wrote.

And so that's how it is. Right. Again, I kind of wish they would just do new material. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. But I mean, it's not like they didn't do this in next gen. No, no, no, no. They keep the cycle rolling.

Yeah. So this is a ball that's been rolling for At least 25 years You know, I don't think I don't think they had any plans of doing that with Spock, you know in 1966 But you know next generation certainly did it and it kind of just kept progressing beyond that so So we had I think the one thing that I was a little I think the one thing that was a little Happy that strange snow worlds didn't do was try to bring back most of the collect the the I cast And like rebooted form where it was more of like oh, they would have a different saloo

They would have another bones and yeah, I'm glad they didn't try to do an attempt like that when they were recreated this episode We did have sky I think we have they did have Scotty You know one thing I think maybe is They could have done which I would have been okay with would have been a human rant Mm-hmm if they brought her back, and when they redid the episode, just to have some sort of homage in that sense, I think I would have been okay with something like that.

Who stuck the Yomon for Rand? And I still don't remember. There hasn't been a replacement for her. Well, and it turns that episode. I don't think they really had somebody specific. Yeah, there there wasn't a there wasn't a parallel there. There didn't need to be her part was minuscule. Yeah, which which is probably why I would be okay with them bringing the character and having them create more stories and backgrounds. McCoy gives Kirk a pep talk in this episode. Kirk has a moment where he's doubting himself right he says he wishes that he were on a cruise somewhere with

no responsibility He admits that he's second-guessing his his orders. What if I'm wrong? He says and McCoy says to him in this galaxy There's a mathematical probability of 3 million Earth-type planets, and in all the universe, 3 million, million galaxies like this. And in all that, perhaps more, only one of each of us.

Don't destroy the one named Kirk. That was so confusing to me. Yeah, I think I think that it was a really bad way of saying despite there being millions of planets and galaxies out there, we are all unique, So don't kill us. Yeah. Well, I think it's more of, don't give up. Yes. I mean, it's funny. I kind of take that line and go back to the mentality of,

was it, you know, in the larger scale of things, we're really only a grain of sand in the entire ocean of the universe. and doing right. Don't give up do what you feel is best. But I think I think if you if we want to compare between strange and worlds in this, you look at Pike's actions versus Kirk's actions, you know his, Kirk's more aggressive approach to the situation was what what it really needed. Right. And so it kind of shows to me the difference between Pike and Kirk. In a really, you know, thinking about each type of captain, their personalities really do shape the a lot of the stories that go on around them because of that. the a lot of the stories that go on around them because of that. The

the one thing too that I noticed is like I felt like I don't know I felt like strange new worlds kind of misled me to what the ending of this episode would have been right like when I was watching quality mercy I came walking away from that episode that thinking that Kirk was aggressive in the balance of terror but ultimately the two separated uh peacefully right the the Romney and Commander surrendered Kirk let him go Sent him with a message like

You remember this and tell your tell your people that you know, we want peace or there's something to that effect Not that he self-destructed his ship and and bailed out on that and That was kind of surprised that that's not what we got, you know I can just yeah, I can understand that. Just really quick. Um, find out. So these guys just have regular old-style nuclear warheads under ships. Yeah, that's, uh, apparently. Yeah.

I was like, uh, what an odd thing just to have it lying around. Yeah. Yeah, I was like a what an odd thing just to have the hang around yeah I mean if you remember correctly, Mijita's like, you know, this is the you know the peak of the nuclear era where nuclear weapons were really starting to come into play Was maybe what less than 10 years after. Oh, right. Yeah. You did my one day original episode aired.

Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. But yeah, so when the writers were probably going through, they probably wrote that. But, but, drew to your point, though, I can understand where you were coming from because it, it shows a difference in there. and that we kind of misled us in that sense, but I think it shows the actions within the actual Romulan ship didn't like that. Well, there's an old guy in the Romulan ship that ends up dying. Was that that wasn't the captain? Was it? No, that was the sub commander. So you remember

the one in the strange new worlds that turned his back on the captain and yeah, yeah, so that was him. Okay. And so that that makes sense is that, um, so in this episode, the sub commander died, whereas the sub commander lived in, in a strange new worlds, right. And therefore portrayed the captain and thus, you know, generate everything. Right. and the reach the point maybe halfway through the episode or maybe near the end of the episode where they did come into peace and they let him go and then the ramen fleet appeared that way because they let him go because it showed it how peace an attempt to peace failed right So yeah, but yeah, I get it makes sense. You guys have any other topics you want to talk about before we I get it make sense. Do you guys have any other topics you want to talk about before we start giving this thing a score?

I think I'm good. It's, you know, with this episode, it was so very similar to Strangestional Worlds and the episode itself really, if you think about it, not much really happened. It was a very straightforward episode, no major plot twists, unlike the last episode we watched where there was this level of mystery, whereas this was very straightforward up and front and in your face. No, that was a mystery about what these Vulcan's, what do you think? What do you think?

What do you probably look like? Remins. You know, why they were attacked, why were they attacking? And the, the fact that their weapon was able to disintegrate the, um, the basis and shield. The further away, you know, well, why don't we get into it? Let's, uh, let's, uh, let's rank this episode. Brad, I'm gonna start with you. Looking at the episode as a whole, um, trying my best to remove that strange new world, um, because I feel like if I, you know, commit to strange new worlds, it's kind of be a, I don't know, a bit of a shaded mentality. The episode was entertaining, I enjoyed it, but you know, I felt it could have done a little better. I'm at a solid seven though. It wasn't bad, it just, it was, you know, a basic episode that, you know, did hit a lot of the good marks.

It allowed me to, you know, pay attention at times and some other times, not so much. But overall, not a bad, not a bad one. I'm sort of surprised, but I'm disappointed in you. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, you're a terrible person. Yeah. Apparently, apparently I'm a horrible person. I mean, you gave the episode of Shrews New World where Hammer dies, you gave that a 10. Oh, yeah.

I really stay up, staying by that. Which is why you're a terrible person. Magid, Magid, you're up. We have an in nine. You know, this, uh, obviously mirrored one of my, uh, favorite, you know, strange new world episodes. And I know we got to keep them separated, but I can't. It was just a really good episode.

This one. And, um, you know, the whole war game's aspect of it was, uh, was lovely. The hunt for red October. Um, this, uh, just at night, just, just, it kept me hooked. I stopped doing, I stopped folding laundry while I was, uh, watching this episode. That's high praise. Yeah. That's high praise. Yeah, I mean, like, this is, this is widely regarded as one of the classic episodes of the original series and

If you were to look at a a hundred top ten lists, this would be an almost all of them and I think in 2022 This largely holds up Very well. It didn't feel dated at all to me the Context was relevant the The acting was strong. The story was strong. It all has stood the test of time in a very positive way. I think as our first introduction to the Romulans in the original series, they did a great job of leaving enough on the table to continue the mystique of the race while still

making them feel like formidable foes. And the performance of the Romulan commander played by Mark Leonard was just truly wonderful, you know, and we'll get to know him as an actor a little bit more as the show goes on, but it was really cool seeing him in this spot. So keeping my thoughts from stranger worlds separate on this and trying to treat this as its own entity. This lift up to all my expectations, and I loved it. I would put this on again.

I want to go back and compare the two episodes and and see how it all shakes out. And uh... Yeah, man, I loved it. The the the submarine battle, the the stakes were high. It had one of Majiz favorite tropes, the ticking time clock. It had it all. So 10. Boom. Wow. A bold statement there, sir. I was kind of hoping it would live up to that expectation. I had spoken about that in the last episode that I would be kind of deducting points down instead of giving points up, but I can't think of a single reason to deduct a point in this episode. Even when there's concrete falling on the crew, I'm used to the rocks. I'm also used to the rock as well. Sure thing, Pebble.

Thank you. Pebble, Pebble, Pebble. Yeah, I'm actually not surprised that you guys gave us a try score. I was kind of torn in this one, but it's, I think the, the type of story is just not a story that I particularly find interesting. Well, it doesn't have horror in it. I know, I know, clearly. But it was very well done episode.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's definitely solid. But I'm a little surprised you gave it a 10, but I could see you easily giving it a 9. I was kind of waffling between 9 and 10, even as I was speaking. Yeah, I just kind of waffling between 9 and 10 even as I was speaking Yeah, I just kind of I don't know. I just I just felt like this one earned it

This is I think the highest rated to us episode we've given so far Except way. Yeah Yeah Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, does it, doesn't surprise me? I feel like next episode is gonna be the lowest rated episode. Well, let's talk about. I'm excited, I'm excited, I can't wait to see how it is. The next episode that we're watching is called Shore Leave. And memory alpha's description is,

the Enterprise crew take Shore leave on a planet where their imaginations become reality. Oh my goodness. So Maggi, you get to host it. I looked into memory alphas or Trek Core one of those and give me extreme crabs. There's a giant bunny costume. Yep. So someone was on acid.

Was acid a thing back then? I'm sure. In the 60s. Yeah. I'm pretty confident it was. I'm not sure if it was acid or cocaine back in the 60s. Yes. You're gonna, you're gonna be happy.

Kirk rips his shirt. You know what? I'm looking forward to arena, which that happens as well where he fights the Gorn. That's coming up soon. Yeah we have a few good episodes coming up. Yeah I'm looking forward to it. I think I think we kind of got the I'm hoping we got the the bad episodes out of the way before you know before the rules, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be that way. No, there's more. There's more. There's plenty more.

I'm looking forward to the, the, the TOS stuff. It's, it's going to be interesting. Yeah. All right, guys, on that note, I have to go pick up groceries. So can you give me some of my bonus chicken? I need bonus chicken. I need a yellow onion. I need a garlic sauce. Perchie, no, for the Perchie and shape. Can you use some tomato sauce?

I need some at Jotte. Just send me a list. I feel like if I tell you now, you just remember. No, I won't. All right, whatever, it's fine. I'll send you a list. On that note, folks. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of yet another Star Trek podcast.

We'll see you next week for short leave. Thanks for listening. Bye, love you. Take care. Thank you for listening to this episode of yet another Star Trek podcast. We are part of the Retro Sessions Network. This episode was hosted by Brad, Drew, and Majeed. I'm Drew, and I edited this episode. Hope you enjoyed it.

I want to thank Brad for writing the lovely synopsis that I read. Amma Gede for Taking Care of All of Our Artwork. You know who else takes care of our artwork? Somebody named George Retau. He drew us like lower dex characters, and if that's something that you'd like, swing on over to Fiverr,

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