Balance of Terror

 This episode started with a wedding. Or well, it tried to start with a wedding. It kinda got interrupted. But before I continue, everyone knows what happens when you start a show like Star Trek with a wedding right? One of the couples dies in the end. Right! Glad we've got that established. Keep that in mind for later.

  This episode is basically one giant game of "Cat-and-Mouse" between the Enterprise and the Romulans. Which I find funny, because immediately they know it's Romulans but people from Earth have never seen Romulans. How does that work? Well, mostly it's from the insinuation of one particularly racist crewman Styles, who ends up directing alot of his hatred at Spock, who will make his "this is completely illogical" face and then walk away.
You know the children's rhyme to ward off bullying:
"I'm rubber,
you're glue.
Everything you say bounces off me
and sticks to you."
They need to make a new saying for Spock.
"I'm Spock,
you're glue.
Everything you say is completely illogical, 
so of course bounces off me 
and sticks to you." 

Yes, I know this picture isn't from this episode but I thought it looked like Spock was going "Hey, You're witty!" 

 

  Kirk and Spock explain about the war between Earth and the Romulans and why there is a "neutral zone" in space. The Romulans blow up a ship that was close to the neutral zone, a ship that didn't see the Romulans at all. Why? Because according to Spock invisibility is theoretically possible, it just takes a helluva lot of energy. Kirk and the Enterprise catch a quick peek at what Romulans look like only to realize they look like angry Vulcans, which means half the bridge then turns to stare at Spock...and Styles says a couple racist things to Spock. 

  The Enterprise shoots phasers at the Romulans blindly and miraculously hit them. The Romulans either dodge, weave, bicker among themselves, or shoot stuff back(which doesn't happen as much as the bickering). At one point the Enterprise loses use of their phasers at a very annoying time and after the Romulans blast the ship Spock manages to have them fixed(which was just so extremely useful). 

  The Enterprise manages to kill a Centurion, figure out how the ship works, and severely weaken the ship. The Romulans try to give it one last go setting off a toxic gas in the engine room of the Enterprise. Spock saves the two men in the room and fires the phasers. This makes the Romulans attacks for naught and their ship was destroyed. The commander wanted to die his way and then blew up the ship. 

 After a body count Styles the  racist git lives and apologizes to Spock and the other man who was in the engine room was...you guessed it! Tomlinson! The groom! And yes! You guessed right again! He died! Rest in peace the boy who almost got married! But as Kirk says,"It never makes any sense but you have to know there was a reason." I mean the reason in this case being you never start a show like this with a wedding or someone dies...

R.I.P Tomlinson