10 Star Trek Actors Whose First Appearances You've Totally Forgotten
3. Mark Lenard As Romulan Commander
Mark Lenard is best known as Sarek, the father of Spock who has appeared in The Original Series, the feature films and The Next Generation. Lenard's first appearance was not as a Vulcan, but as one of their biological cousins, the unnamed Romulan Commander. Balance of Terror is the first appearance of the Romulans in Star Trek, and, canonically, the first appearance to a Federation ship in a century.
Balance of Terror is said to have been inspired by the WW2 movie The Enemy Below. It's basically the science-fiction version of a U-Boat battle, with the Enterprise confronting a Romulan Bird of Prey that can cloak their presence. It's a tense episode, and whilst Lennard and Shatner never face-off physically, their back and forth on the viewscreen is incredibly compelling.
Lennard's Romulan commander is a much different character from Sarek. A determined military leader, who insists on going down with his ship. This loyalty and ego is miles away from the colder logic of the Vulcans. Sarek became such an integral part of the Star Trek mythology, that it will always overshadow Lenard's excellent Romulan performance.