25 Best Episodes Of Star Trek EVER

One of the classics now. Balance of Terror introduced the Romulans to the franchise, an enemy that the Federation is attempting to deal with in the show to this day.

The episode itself is famously designed to feel like a submarine battle as the two ships face each other without being able to see each other (a trick that would later be used in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan in the Mutara Nebula). Getting our first look at the Romulans was at the time a shock as they were shown to look exactly like Spock.

Mark Lenard turns in a performance worthy of the most honourable Klingon in this episode as these Romulans are far from the duplicitous and conniving ones that the franchise would later come to display. It is a tense, nail-biter of an episode, displaying racism and bigotry as well. As soon as the Romulans are shown, the crew turns to Spock to answers and not all of them show kindness.

So much of Romulan lore is established in this first episode. The Neutral Zone. Romulus. The Roman aesthetic and basis. The avian motif on the ship that would feature in all designs to follow. It is a show about two captains standing off against each other over a field of battle, unable to do anything other than follow their orders, despite their own personal issues.

'In different reality, I could have called you friend'