Template:Realworld
- For Jerry Sohl's Incredible Tales story, see "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Exploring a distant region of space, the Enterprise is threatened by Balok, commander of a starship from the First Federation.
Summary
The marker buoy
Balok as he first appears to the Enterprise crew
The real Balok laughs
The Enterprise is exploring a region of space that has not previously been mapped by the Federation. While photographing and mapping it, they detect a strange object heading towards them. In spite of their efforts to evade it, the object stops right in front of them, and when the Enterprise tries to steer around it, the object moves along, always in front of the ship. The navigator, Lt. Dave Bailey, gets nervous and raises his voice, getting a reprimand from Spock, who is acting as the ship's captain. Spock then activates red alert.
Captain Kirk assumes the ship, and they spend 18 hours in this situation, after which time Spock suggests the strange object is either a space buoy or a trap. Kirk decides to try getting away from it again, but the cube starts to emit ever-increasing radiation towards the ship. Kirk orders the navigator to have the phaser banks fire against the object, but Lt. Bailey is so nervous that he doesn't hear the order the first time. When the phasers hit the object, it explodes.
After the object is destroyed and the minor damages to the ship are being fixed, Kirk orders the Enterprise to travel ahead, in the hopes of encountering whoever sent the object. He also orders a series of simulations for the phaser and engineering crews, because he is not satisfied with their performance against the cube. Some time later, another object, a sphere, approaches and holds the Enterprise in a tractor beam. Bailey once again fails to hear an order, when Kirk tells him to lower the viewscreen magnification. When the sphere is hailed, the answering voice identifies itself as Balok, captain of the ship Fesarius of the First Federation, and says that the Enterprise destroyed one of their "warning buoys".
The launching of a recorder marker by the Enterprise is interpreted as a hostile gesture, and Balok announces the Federation ship will be destroyed in 10 minutes. Bailey snaps, and has an anger fit at how everybody else is dealing with the situation so calmly. Kirk orders him to get out of the bridge, and has McCoy escort him. Balok's 10-minute deadline is passing, and the tensions keeps growing in the bridge.
Then an innocent use of the word bluff by McCoy, and Spock's mention of chess, give Kirk an idea. He contacts Balok and tells him that there is a substance aboard all Federation vessels, called corbomite, which is sure to destroy any attacking ship. Kirk then dares the alien captain to attack them, saying the Fesarius will be destroyed by the corbomite. While they're waiting to see if the bluff will pay off, Bailey returns to the bridge, apologizes to Kirk and asks to return to his post. The captain agrees.
After the 10 minutes have gone, Balok tells them that the Enterprise's destruction was "delayed" until the First Federation can know the truth about the corbomite. He demands proof of the existance of the substance, but Kirk refuses to give it. Balok announces then that they will be escorted in a small ship, through tractor beam, to a nearby First Federation planet, where their ship will be destroyed. When they are away from the Fesarius, Kirk orders the Enterprise to pull in the oposite direction from the escort ship. This generates a great strain for such a small ship, so the Enterprise breaks free and the alien's engines become useless. But instead of destroying Balok's ship, Kirk goes to rescue him.
Kirk, McCoy and Bailey transport themselves to the escort ship, where they meet the real Balok, who resembles a child. He welcomes them and offers tranya to drink. He explains that all this was a test to see their true intentions, and that the alien they saw in their viewscreen was actually a dummy. Balok then suggests a cultural exchange between their cultures, and Bailey offers to remain in his ship to learn more about them.
Log Entries
- Captain’s log, Stardate 1512.2. On our third day of star mapping, an unexplained cubical object blocked our vessels path. On the bridge, Mr. Spock immediately ordered general alert. My location: sickbay, quarterly physical check.
- Captain’s log, Stardate 1513.8. Star maps reveal no indication of habitable planets nearby. Origin and purpose of the cube still unknown. We've been here, held motionless, for eighteen hours.
- Captain’s log, Stardate 1514.0. The cube has been destroyed. Ship’s damage minor, but my next decision: major. Probe on ahead or turn back?
- Captain’s log, Stardate 1514.1. The Enterprise is in tow; to this point no resistance has been offered. My plan: a show of resignation. Balok's tractor beam has to be a heavy drain of power on a small ship. Question: Will he grow careless?
Memorable Quotes
"Hailing frequencies open, sir."
"What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?"
- - McCoy
- - This is the first time any variant of the line "I'm a doctor, not a..." is spoken.
"Hailing frequencies open, sir."
- - In this, Uhura's debut, her signature phrase—or some minor variation—is uttered no fewer than seven consecutive times. In fact she has no other line until the fourth act.
"If I jumped everytime a light came on around here, I'd end up talking to myself."
- - McCoy (with no one else in the room)
"We've got phaser weapons, I vote we blast it!"
"I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Bailey - when this becomes a democracy."
- - Kirk and Dave Bailey
"This is tranya. I hope you relish it as much as I."
- - Balok
"Yes, we're very much alike, Captain - both proud of our ships."
- - Balok
"I don't understand this. Spock's wasting time! Everybody else is just sitting around. Somebody's got to do something!"
"Easy, Bailey."
"What do they want from us? Let's find out what they want us to do!"
"They want us to lose our heads, Bailey, now..."
"We've only got eight minutes left!"
"Seven minutes and forty-five seconds."
"He's doing a countdown!"
"Practically end of watch."
"What, are you all out of your minds?! End of watch? It's the end of everything! WHAT ARE YOU, ROBOTS?! Wound up, toy soldiers?! Don't you know when you're dying?! Watch and regulations and orders? What do they mean?"
"Bailey, you're relieved! Escort him to his quarters, Doctor!"
- - Bailey, Dr. McCoy, Kirk, and Sulu after Balok condemns the Enterprise to destruction
"You have an annoying fascination for timepieces, Mr. Sulu."
- - Scott, as Sulu keeps track of the countdown to the destruction of Enterprise
"Our respect for other life forms requires that we give you this... warning. One item not recorded in any ship's tapes is... corbomite. It is a substance and a device that prevents... attack on us. Should any destructive energy touch the ship, an energy of equal or greater strength is returned, destroying –"
"Eight minutes."
"– destroying the attacker. It may interest you to know that since the introduction of corbomite, more than two of our centuries ago, no attacking vessel has survived the attempt. Death has little meaning to us... if it has none to you, then attack us now. We grow annoyed at your foolishness."
- - Kirk's bluff, with Balok's time check
"If, uh, anyone's interested... thirty seconds."
- - Sulu, continuing his fascination as time runs out
"Then may heaven have helped your mother"
"I regret not having learned more about this Balok. In many ways, he was reminiscent of my father."
"Then may heaven have helped your mother."
"On the contrary; she considered herself a most fortunate Earth woman."
- - Spock and Scott, as Kirk's bluff brings a reprieve
"A most interesting game, this... poker."
"It does have its advantages over chess."
"Love to teach it to you."
- - Spock, Kirk, and McCoy
"I thought the power was off in the galley...?"
"I used a hand phaser and zap – hot coffee."
- - McCoy and Yeoman Rand
"That puppet..."
"My alter ego, so to speak. In your culture, he would be Mr. Hyde to my Jekyll. You must admit, he's effective – you would never have been frightened by me. ... It was a pleasure testing you."
"Testing us?"
"I had to discover your real intentions."
"But you read our memory banks --"
"Your records could have been a deception on your part."
- - Kirk, Balok and Bailey
"Ah, you represent Earth's best, then."
"No, sir, I'm not; I'll make plenty of mistakes."
"But you'll learn more about us that way; and I'll get a better officer in return."
- - Balok, Bailey, and Kirk
"Raising my voice ... doesn't mean I was scared and couldn't do my job. I just happen to have a human thing called an adrenal gland."
"It does sound most inconvenient, however. Have you considered having it removed."
(to Sulu) "Very funny."
(sotto voce) "Try to cross brains with Spock – he'll cut you to pieces every time."
- - Bailey, Spock, and Sulu
"Why Doctor, you've been reading your textbooks again?"
- - Kirk, attempting to sidestep McCoy's belief that the captain has been riding Bailey because he recognizes something of Bailey in himself, from 11 years ago
"Has it occurred to you that there's a certain ... inefficiency ... in constantly questioning me on things you've already made up your mind about?"
"It gives me emotional security."
- - Spock and Kirk
Background Information
- This was the first regular episode of Star Trek: The Original Series produced following the two pilots.
Story and Script
- A line from Balok warning the crew they had one minute left was not recorded, leaving Sulu to comment, "I knew he would" in response to nothing. The preview has an unused cut of Balok saying, "We grant you one minute" that could be modified and dubbed into the episode.
- Spock confesses an ignorance of poker, and he probably wouldn't enjoy the game since he said in "The Doomsday Machine" that Vulcans do not bluff.
- Part of engineering's location is referred to in this episode. Kirk orders Bailey to coordinate drills with engineering, and Bailey says on two distinct occasions "Come on, Deck 5, give me the green light!" and also "Engineering Deck 5, report! Come on phaser crews, let's get with it!". He could either be referring to an engine room in the saucer on deck 5 or a separate "engineering deck 5" that exists in lower levels (where some of engineering is referenced to be in episodes like "The Enemy Within", "The Conscience of the King", and "Day of the Dove").
- This is one of the few episodes of the original which places a time stamp on the events. It is placed two centuries after mankind's early space explorations, or roughly the late 22nd century.
- When addressing the Fesarius, Kirk identifies his ship as the United Earth Ship Enterprise, nomenclature which would never be used again.
Cast and Characters
- Leonard McCoy, Janice Rand, and Uhura debut here.
- Sulu has transferred to Command division from Sciences division following his premiere in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". This the first episode in which he occupies his familiar seat at the helm.
- The "tranya" served by Balok was actually grapefruit juice. Clint Howard had to pretend very hard to like the drink, which he found distasteful. (citation needed • edit)
- James Doohan's wartime injury to his right hand is briefly visible in the conference room scene when he passes a coffee thermos. Generally this was carefully hidden off-camera, but it can also be seen when he's holding a phaser in "Catspaw" and very briefly in freeze-frame when he's reaching into the box to restrain the evil dog in "The Enemy Within".
Effects
- In the original version of the series, this was the first episode in which the forward sections of the warp engine nacelles were made to glow, though in the teaser this didn't happen because it seems to have used footage from "The Cage". In the remastered TOS, however, this is no longer true, as the nacelles of the ship are uniformly shown to glow—even in the pilots.* The distinctive bridge sound effects of TOS are first heard in this episode. Early episodes of "The Twilight Zone" (notably "Execution" from 1960), previously featured this distinctive computer sound.
- The set of Balok's room was a re-dress of the Enterprise conference room set. (Inside Star Trek) It was later recycled to create the bar in "Court Martial". (citation needed • edit)
- The unique phaser burst that the Enterprise fires at the warning buoy is seen only in this episode.
- The camera shot of the ship being towed by the small First Federation pilot vessel, from a perspective behind the nacelles, were re-used countless times in future episodes, with different ships or planets matted in. When it was used later, it was often slowed down, which made it much more grainy than the clear print in this episode.
- Although we never learn the specific dimensions of the Enterprise during the series, it is established visually to be bigger than the cube, which Sulu says is 107 meters on each side.
Costumes
Spock's high-neck collar
Sulu's zipper is showing
- This episode contains a number of "firsts" for the costume department. Although some of the pilots' uniforms were seen on background extras, this is the first episode in which black collars on tunics debut. Nevertheless, some of the uniforms—particularly Spock's—have higher, loose, "turtleneck" black collars than would generally appear throughout the series. In Sulu's first close-up, the zipper built into the collar is clearly visible—because he was wearing a "leftover" from the first two pilots that was retrofitted, not quite expertly, with the new black collar. Additionally, "The Corbomite Maneuver" saw the initial appearance of skirt uniforms, as well as "plunging neckline" collars for most women. Red, Operations division tunics were also seen for the first time here, as was the silk, short-sleeved "laboratory" tunic for the CMO. Finally, the system of sleeve rank insignia was more refined in this episode than it had been in either pilot. Noticably, Kirk first wore the insignia he would display throughout the series, and the rank stripes themselves took on a more stylized design than the simple bands they had been in the previous pilots.
- Despite the introduction of the red Operations division tunic in this episode, Uhura is seen in a gold Command division uniform both here and in "Mudd's Women".
- In addition, in the bridge scene following the destruction of Balok's cube, several crew members who are repairing the damage can be seen wearing blue uniforms without black collars that were left over from the pilots.
- When Kirk leaves sickbay, he throws his uniform shirt over his shoulders; the tunic has only two solid gold rank stripes. In the turbolift and changing in his quarters, his tunic has the 2½ stripe marking.
Sets and Props
Engineering station read-out
- There are detailed close-ups of some of the engineering station read-outs in this episode.
- There are signs of this being an early production, such as a bridge chair squeaking rather loudly near the end of the episode (when Uhura is listening in on Balok's distress call), as well as hearing the ship doors, made of wood, slide on the stage floor as they open and close. Stage noises would be edited out of later episodes.
- When Kirk reports to the bridge from the turbolift, a rare camera angle from the elevator illustrates the panel to the right of the main viewscreen, and the two bridge consoles to the left of the science station. These sections were usually rolled out (off-screen) to facilitate filming the navigation console and Spock's station. Like "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the turbolift has double doors (the inner is gray; the outer is red), like modern elevators. This feature was later eliminated, probably because it was too cumbersome to maintain.
- The colors of the cube buoy reflect on the railings at the front of the bridge. When this perspective was later re-used as the stock view screen shot for the next three seasons, the reflecting lights still showed up on the railings. (A new stock shot of the viewscreen was made in the middle of the second season.)
Production
- Also filmed for this episode (by associated producer Robert Justman) was George Takei's reaction shot in which he turned around and looked at Kirk, reused in dozens of future episodes whenever something strange appeared on the viewscreen. A similar clip would be filmed of Walter Koenig during season two. (Inside Star Trek)
Other Information
- This episode was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1967 as "Best Dramatic Presentation".
- Balok's line "You are being taken under our power to your destination" was sampled by Corona in the 1995 music single "The Rhythm of the Night".
- In the 1970s, the Mego toy company used Balok's "puppet head" to create "The Keeper" action figure doll (despite Balok not being Talosian).
Remastered Information
The corrected chronometer of the remastered version
- The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication the weekend of 9 December 2006. New shots of the Enterprise, the pilot vessel, the Fesarius and the warning cube were rendered. As a "tip of the hat" to the original episode, the opening shot of the Enterprise for the remastered version was the same as seen on the view screen in the remastered version of "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II" (except the CGI model was modified to match the rest of the episode, with the smaller antenna dish, the spinning nacelle domes and the lack of spires on them).
- In the original version of this episode, when Sulu announces there is one minute left on the timer, the timer actually reads: "2:02...2:01...1:00 (the two-minute marker changes to one as the one-second marker changes to zero) ...1:59". In the remastered version, this apparent error is corrected by the insertion of an entirely redesigned chronometer.
- The next remastered episode to air was "Friday's Child".
Production Timeline
- First draft script: 21 April 1966
- Final draft script: 3 May 1966
- Second revised final script: 20 May 1966
Even the Final Draft of this script, dated 3 May 1966, is quite different than the aired version:
- The character of Uhura is not present. Dave Bailey is the communications officer, and he does not "flip out" as he does in the aired episode.
- Lieutenant Ken Easton is the navigator.
- Many bits of character-building are also absent. There are no flypaper, chess or poker analogies – Kirk simply decides to bluff Balok out of the blue.
- The planet where Balok intends to imprison the Enterprise crew is named Carpi.
- There is also no reference in this draft to:
Video and DVD releases
- Original US Betamax release: 1985.
- Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2, catalogue number VHR 2210, release date unknown.
- As part of the UK Star Trek - The Three Beginnings VHS collection: 31 January 1994.
- US VHS release: 15 April 1994.
- As part of the UK Star Trek - The Four Beginnings VHS collection: release date unknown.
- UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.1, 24 June 1996.
- Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 1, 17 August 1999.
- As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection.
- As part of the TOS Season 1 HD-DVD collection.
Links and References
Starring
Co-Starring
Featuring
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
- Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Rand
- George Takei as Sulu
- James Doohan as Scott
- Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Uncredited
- William Blackburn as Hadley
- George Bochman as Crewman
- Gloria Calomee as Crew woman
- Ted Cassidy as the voice of the Balok puppet
- Frank da Vinci as Brent
- John Gabriel as Crewman
- Ena Hartman as Crew woman
- Mittie Lawrence as Crew woman
- Jonathan Lippe as Crewman
- Bruce Mars as Crewman
- Sean Morgan as Harper
- Stewart Moss as Crewman
- Eddie Paskey as Leslie
- Vic Perrin as the voice of Balok
- Jeannie Shepard as Crew woman
- Ron Veto as Harrison (bridge sciences division crewman)
- Unknown actor as Bobby
Many of the extras credited as crewmembers in this list were edited from the final print. Sean Morgan, Bruce Mars and Stewart Moss are nowhere to be seen in the episode.
References
2255; adrenaline; Balok's cube; Balok's pilot vessel; Bobby; Constitution-class interior; corbomite; directional beam; Fesarius; First Federation; navigation beam; poker; quarterly physical; recorder-marker; salad; spectrograph; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; tranya
External link
- Template:NCwiki
| Previous episode produced: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" |
Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 |
Next episode produced: "Mudd's Women" |
| Previous episode aired: "Dagger of the Mind" |
Next episode aired: "The Menagerie, Part I" | |
| Previous remastered episode aired: "The Menagerie, Part II" |
TOS Remastered | Next remastered episode aired: "Friday's Child" |