“Balance of Terror” is rightfully considered one of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), with anti-war and anti-bigotry messages couched in an intense battle of wits and starships. It’s also an important episode for the franchise as whole because it introduces major antagonists for the United Federation of Planets in the unsettling form of the Romulans. In the opening of “Balance of Terror,” we learn that the Federation, despite having warred with them a century earlier, never actually saw what a Romulan looked like. Without knowing the face of the enemy, Kirk and his crew have to entertain the possibility of a spy in the crew. But before they can start accusing one another, a chance visual transmission is intercepted by Uhura, and the crew and audience share in the stunning revelation that the Romulans have pointy ears.
Although Romulans, with this episode, have pretty much been with Star Trek since the beginning, they have also remained — 47 years later — remarkably undefined. As we learn more about Klingons, we learn about their bushido-like code and oligarchical feudal system of government. The Ferengi are commerce-minded chauvinists that don’t like war (though war is good for business). The Cardassians have a Prussian efficiency and ruthlessness that they share with the Romulans, but they go on to demonstrate other aptitudes and capacities through seven seasons of development on Deep Space Nine (DS9). Moreover, those three races change quite a bit in the course of the audience’s time with them. We meet characters that are quite often wrestling with their cultures and governments in rapid flux. Cardassia flirts with a Weimar Republic before the Dominion War. Ferenginar becomes more progressive as Quark’s mom challenges gender norms. Chancellors Gorkon, K’mpec, Gowron, and Martok all evince different personalities and approaches to changing and saving their government and their people without losing identifiable Klingon cultural tics.
But the Romulans? They’re inscrutable, yo.
Except being evil is in itself not the most important thing about the Romulans. The thing that matters is that they have pointy ears. That’s the key to the terror they bring. Romulans look like Vulcans. And Vulcans look like Romulans.
The dynamic between Romulans and Vulcans as introduced in “Balance of Terror” is unique among all of the alien races in Star Trek. While perhaps the Klingons and the Kazon bear some similarities, all of the alien races bear distinctive physical features to distinguish them from one another. No one confuses a Bajoran for a Tellarite. Or a Pakled for a Nausicaan. Only the Romulans and Vulcans are physically indistinguishable 2.
Or coming another way, Vulcans are Chinese analogs 3 and the Romulans are Japanese analogs. Since the Chinese were allies during WWII, the US Army saw fit to produce a useful pamphlet on “How to Spot a Jap” that aimed to show differences between the good and bad Asiatics. Of course, the pamphlet also noted that Japanese spies “fooled even the Chinese.”
Perhaps looking for an historical analog is going the wrong way. Though Vulcans vis-a-vis Chinese and Romulans vis-a-vis Japanese holds as an analogy, there’s yet another way to parse this dynamic.
There are two types of aliens in Star Trek, humanoid and non-humanoid. Typically an omnipotent might show up masquerading as human but their powers make them conceptually something different. Or maybe they’re sentient rocks5. The non-humanoids work as vehicles to chart “the unknowable possibilities of existence.” But where the non-humanoid aliens create stories that take us to new possibilities, the humanoid aliens, the ones with two arms and two legs and cultures, they bring us back to Earth and to interacting with one another.
In this way I suggest a different read on the Vulcan/Romulan dichotomy. Vulcans are the good Orientals and Romulans are the bad Orientals. Setting aside the vaguely “Asiatic” makeup, what matters is that Vulcans support Humans and are charter members of the Federation. Romulans aren’t. Vulcans are certainly all sorts of “other,” but at least it’s our kind of otherness. Romulans aren’t.
Moreover, they speak in a clipped English, dropping off pronouns and verbs with a jarring economy. The “otherness” amplifies our ability to distinguish them from the familiar Spock who carries a name and has regular syntax. I am not suggesting that Spock and Vulcans are subservient to Humans and the Federation. What is important is that they are known quantities. Different and weird. But known quantities. That’s what makes the foreignness and aggression in behavior so powerful in the Romulans. They aren’t known quantities; moreover, they destabilize how we can perceive our Vulcans.
The Romulan Commander is ultimately outmaneuvered. In his final moment, he contacts Kirk and admits he has been defeated but that he has found a respect and admiration for his opponent. During that battle, Stiles is injured and in danger when coolant leaks in the Phaser Control room. Spock saves him, and Stiles learns his lesson to not be racist anymore. But the seed is sown. There’s an Other out there that looks friendly, but you better believe isn’t. And while Spock ultimately saves Stiles’ life, it’s hard to imagine Stiles’ bigotry to have dissipated otherwise.
And Spock can’t save every racist.
- Though that movie is terrible. ↩
- It’s also worth noting that Romulans are inconsistently portrayed between the original series and The Next Generation as having an extra forehead bump. ↩
- Obviously. ↩
- The spy story is problematic considering if she had the time to become a famous diplomat, then she had to be in deep cover for over 54 years. And Romulus had closed itself from interactions with the Federation for that amount of time just prior to the first season of TNG. But I digress. ↩
- “Devil in the Dark” is another amazing episode, by the way. Sentient rocks. Spoiler. Whoops. Sorry. ↩