Battle Analysis!! Balance of Terror - Animated

one of the most interesting and important battles in Star Trek history is the one portrayed and the old series episode balance of Terror balance of Terror was like the third Star Trek I'd ever seen and the very first to really portray a battle in Star Trek this episode is very important as an episode but also for the lore of Star Trek it tells the story of a battle that had to be fought and won in order to prevent a war with the Romulan Star Empire so we're gonna break down both the out of universe and in universe Laurin tactics behind this important battle between the enterprise and the Romulan warbird first about this episode itself I have to first tell you that this episode is heavily inspired by the old classic 1950s naval movie the enemy below which is about a battle between an American destroyer and a German u-boat it's an excellent movie which goes in depth about naval tactics the thinking and strategy of each commander and the will and guts of both sides I highly recommend watching it if you have a free evening or afternoon now there are some elements of the movie that are almost direct copies in the Star Trek episode however after re-watching both side by side I can't dismiss the innovative manner in which the writers really integrate real live naval tactics into Star Trek and even to this day there are only a few Star Trek movies or episodes that really match the deep thinking and attention to strategy as seen in this episode before getting into the battle let's look at both of the contenders now neither side had contact for a hundred years the last contact was the ending of a bloody war between Earth and her allies and the Romulan Star Empire as you can see on this map the treaty that ended the war established a neutral zone any incursion by either side into the neutral zone would be considered an act of war each side maintains a number of outposts along the borders of the zone to keep an eye on the other side now in the last 100 years earth and her allies have United and for the United Federation of Planets this is largely the result of the Romulan war which although devastating in the end served to create a powerful interstellar entity a power that expands rapidly and often comes in odds with martial civilizations such as the Klingons based on what we know from the last season and the best season of Star Trek Enterprise the Romulans pulled strings behind the scenes to weaken earth and others certainly a prelude to Romulan military aggression clearly the Romulans know a great deal more about earth and our allies than earth knows about the Romulans Spock declares in this episode that the Federation still doesn't know what the Romulans looked like while the Federation continued to grow after the war it is not known what the Romulans were up to but based on the Romulan commanders reference to all the battles and campaigns he spot with his comrades and bringing another war to the Empire I'm sure it's safe to say that the Romulans had been busy more than likely while the Federation has been expanding through diplomacy the Romulans have been doing the same through conquest by the time of this episode the Romulans are confident and brazen which tells us they've been rather successful in their various military campaigns and finally feel ready to risk testing their old adversaries the people of earth and the Federation but the Romulans although aggressive aren't stupid they decide to send one ship and one ship only so why did they send them one ship instead of everything well the Romulans are not willing to commit to a full-scale war without first testing Starfleet's resolve in tactical abilities if this one ship was successful in its mission by defeating Starfleet defenses or seeing that they're afraid of Romulan weapons then they can prepare for another war with the Federation if this one ship loses the battle the in park and then claim the Romulan commander was not acting under orders in his renegade or rogue they know the Federation would rather not go to war over just this one incursion and the Romulans will have learned a great deal about the Federation's military capabilities no matter the outcome whew so that's a lot of setup for the contenders so let's go into what happens the enterprise is on its way to the neutral zone because the outposts watching it are going dark one by one for mysterious reasons finally outpost 4 manages to get a distress call out I find it interesting that outpost 4 was the only outpost that managed to get the call out indicating that some sort of jamming may have taken place the Romulans seem to have deliberately allowed outpost 4 to get its call out perhaps to see what Starfleet's response will be even though the enterprise is at maximum warp just before reaching phaser range the Romulans D cloak finish off outpost 4 to everyone shocked with powerful plasma weapon and then re cloaks again this is all testing Romulans now know the maximum speed of the enterprise I must note that all this time both Kirk and Spock are genuinely caught off guard by the cloaking device as if they had never seen this kind of technology before although emotion sisters do track something out there perhaps a distortion which they call a blip the enterprise cannot get an exact fix on the Romulan ship while it's close and then the Romulan ship very leisurely turns back in the direction of the neutral zone again very obvious as if letting everyone know yes we are Romulans we are here come play with us now Kirk believes that the cloaking device may work both ways preventing the Romulans from seeing them as well leaving only special sensors capable of seeing the enterprise while cloaked and he may not be wrong in that after all that the photons are bending around the Romulan ship to create a true cloaking device the cloak would work both ways so Kirk decides to order a parallel course matching the exact speed and course of the Romulan and in an attempt to look like an echo or a sensor ghost this is actually a direct allusion from the movie the enemy below where the American destroyer captain does the same thing when the German u-boat at this point someone on the Romulan ship makes a serious mistake subspace radio silence has broken and they send a visual message back to Romulus reporting of their glorious mission GU Hara and Spock are able to intercept this message and finally after a century the appearance of the Romulans is revealed and they are Vulcan oeid apparently at some point in the past a Vulcan splinter colony formed the Romulan Star Empire this erases one of the Romulans great advantages after all it is much harder to fight an unknown enemy than a familiar one the Romulans then decloak and make some maneuvers we're not clear why but there are some talk of saving power but the Romulan commander is not fooled by the reflection that follows them why would he be Kirk has underestimated the Romulans who are still just toying with them at this point the Romulan ship reek cloaks and occasionally turns to see if there's any change to the sensor echo after the shock of the discovery about the Romulans origins wears off both sides are considering all the information they have gathered and the enterprise is finally able to make a tactical assessment let's line these ships up side by side the Constitution class armed with phasers which are accurate and energy efficient and photon torpedoes which are not actually used in this episode but will be a few episodes later I believe the torpedoes may have been too imprecise to track a cloaked ship the Constitution class has an extremely powerful matter antimatter warp drive shields and deflectors the Romulan warbird on the other hand is designed around their primary weapon the plasma torpedo launcher this extremely powerful weapon can reduce the hardest substance known to man to a brittle crust that crumbles under Spock's fingers the plasma envelops the target and then forces an implosion the warbird has a practical invisibility screen making it very difficult to hit but still possible with accurate sensor readings its power source is unknown Scottie implies that it's simple impulse I believe he means to say that at least while cloaked the Romulan ship is only capable of running on impulse power and that the power supply is finite a fuel that can be depleted of course there can be no doubt that it has some sort faster than light travel or it would have taken it decades or even centuries to even reach the neutral zone I believe this is further set up for a submarine like battle the enterprise's warp drive is analogous to the diesel engine of a world war ii destroyer a powerful and fast propulsion system while the Romulan warbirds power when cloaked is similar to a u-boats battery's power when submerged limited by charge and much slower than a diesel engine and of course the Romulans must D cloak to fire their weapons so we have two very different ships with very different tactical abilities and this is an excellent matchup in my opinion after some discussion and assertions by Spock and lieutenant style that the Romulans are likely to start a war with the Federation if weakness has shown Kirk decides to fight this battle to prevent a larger conflict I totally agree with his decision sometimes battles or even wars must be fought to prevent larger conflicts the next plot element is fantastic and perhaps one of the more innovative parts of this battle the warbird is changing course for a comet Kirk sees a chance to attack knowing the warbird will leave a visible trail when it goes through the comet's tail giving the enterprise a target to shoot at but it's not what Kirk thinks it is Kirk in this instance is overly anxious to catch the Romulan before it escapes back into the neutral zone and didn't stop to think why the Romulan would head for the comet in the first place the Romulan intends to use the Commodus cover to conceal a u-turn back on to the enterprise where he will suddenly attack but the Romulan also misjudges Kirk who capitalizes on speed and swings around to the other side of the comet where he intends to attack when the Romulan comes through the tail the Romulan commander suddenly realizes Kirk's intent orders evasive at the last second but the enterprise also lose its opportunity to fire at any tray of the Romulans of left not all is lost for the enterprise however the enterprise aims with sensors can attacks it anyway with phasers now I want to say something about the nature of phasers here Styles clearly states that the phasers are set to proximity blast this is pretty much the first time we see their use in space combat in this special mode or other than beams they are fired in bursts and on the receiving end they act a little bit like depth charges but over the years we've seen in Star Trek all manner of phasers some are beams some are pulses some are like bolts and sometimes the same phaser system will fire in two different ways phasers although probably over-engineered are very sophisticated and versatile weapons in this case an expanding phaser burst towards an invisible target would have more chance of hitting or doing some kind of damage of course such a burst would dissipate a bit quicker limit its range and would be less potent overall but this is the appropriate mode needed for hitting a cloaked Romulan ship that isn't easy to lock on to anyway the enterprise is able to rough up the running and warbird enough because the Romulans some distress with this less than optimal attack and then disaster strikes as I said perhaps phasers are a bit over engineered and aren't intended to operate in this manner the phasers overload in a control circuit earns out the timing couldn't be worse the Romulans D cloak and fire on the enterprise just in the nick of time Kirk orders full astern and to engage emergency wart the plasma ball follows the enterprise and begins to overtake her normally I wouldn't think that a plasma ball would be able to make warp speed but apparently this one can either this weapon is working as intended or it is possible either by design or by accident that this plasma torpedo was caught up in the enterprise as warp field and drug along at warp speed luckily plasma torpedoes lose their potency over time and by the time the plasma hits there is a minimal damage to the enterprise at this point the weaknesses of the Romulan warbird are becoming quite apparent the enterprise closes easily again and continues to fire phasers on proximity blast if there's any sign of the Romulan D cloaking the enterprise can simply outrun any torpedo attack and/or use a phaser blast to attack the torpedo itself while the Romulan ship has a finite amount of power it cannot continue to maintain its cloak the Kirk pursues the Romulan into the neutral zone and continues to its out the Romulan commander has lost the tactical advantage and the constant phase a barrage is getting under the Romulans skin they must now resort to trickery to get the phasers off of them and ejected debris field enough to distract the enterprise of sensors they then stop moving while Spock does realize that this is a trick he's also lost all sensor contact with the Romulan ship the enterprise has lost the Romulans a waiting game then ensues for hours both sides know the other is still out there Spock while working on the phasers accidentally powers up a sensor on this console and gives away their position the waiting game is up the Romulans have regained the advantage and move towards the enterprise still undetected Kirk is brilliant in this instant and turns their blunder into an advantage having already predicted that the Romulans are already moving towards them he simply reverses course and fires at the enterprise his previous position for some hits on the wrong Island but the Romulans have one final trick up their sleeve they eject more debris and within the debris field they sneak in a nuclear mine the enterprise detects it at the last minute but not before the blast from the weapon hits the enterprise with loads of gamma radiation like you'd see from a nuclear blast this shocks the enterprise rendering it helpless for some moments but this is where the Romulan commander makes his most fatal mistake he doesn't take the opportunity to finish off the enterprise I must comment here that I really prefer the Romulans opponents to the Klingons with the Klingons you mostly know what you're gonna get the Romulans are far more complex and intellectually intriguing this Romulan commander is a very war weary unlike his subordinates although he is competent and experienced whatever the conflicts the Romulans have recently been involved in this Romulan has clearly endured some personal losses it's hard to not like this Romulan and actually feel something for his plight as an audience we want him to have a fighting chance but after the enterprise recovers the same old game continuously the Romulans subordinates Decius to his credit goads as commander into doing the Romulan thing to fulfill his duty and attack again and here again we see the flaw in Starfleet weapons over engineering too many things can go wrong with Klingon disruptors their crude but you know they're going to work every time Romulan plasma same deal it has its limitations but you don't have to worry about silly things like circuit burnouts and coolant leaks the phaser control room has been contaminated with a coolant leak rendering the enterprise defenseless with Romulan zero in on their prey had it not been for Spock's heroics who gets the phasers charged up in spite of the leak the enterprise would have been destroyed here's a small spoiler about the movie the enemy below that movie ends with both commanders saving each other's lives from the burning hulks of their respective vessels in this case the Romulan commander knows he will be dishonored if he allows himself to live or his vessel to be captured he acknowledges Kirk's offer for a declaring that they could have been friends in another life with no countdown at all he triggers the warbird to immediately self-destruct glorious and honorable death for a true Romulan this tells me that in many ways the Romulans have an honor and duty code that rivals the Klingons in spite of their reputation for treachery but in this battle the enterprise was at risk of being destroyed on at least three occasions it could have easily gone the other way I love how this episode occasionally drops what appears to be unpredictable random plot elements for better or for worse like the phaser burnout the coolant leak and the Romulan commanders war weariness all of these are unpredictable elements that take place in real combat no matter how much sunsoo one reads or how good the tactician czar battles and more is a very messy and unpredictable business amazingly the enterprise came away with only a single casualty when at times the entire ship was in danger of being destroyed the Romulans would not start a war that day but the defeat would later push them to develop their technology further and into a brief alliance with the Klingons in short this battle having prevented a war and spurring the Romulan Klingon Alliance briefly would have an impact on the quadrant that would last for decades thank you for watching space friends be sure to LIKE and subscribe and comment do you think the Romulan commander would have destroyed the enterprise if he weren't so hesitant what would have happened if the Romulans that actually won this battle also special thanks to new crewmates on patreon The awkward screw and as of now jean-luc Martel has edited his pledge to a higher amount YouTube ad revenue is but donations and patreon support tell me you want me to keep going and so I shall until next time starship cruise

Channel: Resurrected Starships

Views: 473,901

Keywords: Bird of prey, star trek, TOS, plasma torpedoes, v6 bird of prey, neutral zone, consitution class, the enemy below, submarine warfare

Id: cVcgBA70yBI

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 23 2018