“After Romulan war birds destroy Federation outposts, the Enterprise pursues them. Similarities between them and Vulcans spark bigotry against Spock.”
Yay! Romulans! And Mark Lenard appears as a Romulan before they cast him as Sarek!
We open on preparations for a wedding, but Kirk receives a message from the bridge that Earth outposts 2 and 3 are u reachable. This is never a good thing to hear. But the ceremony must continue.
Scotty walks a female crewman in a regular gold uniform but with a feathery white headpiece down the aisle. Too bad she couldn’t wear a wedding dress, but everyone is in uniform at all tunes, except Kirk, who quite surprisingly didn’t manage to lose his shirt at all in the past three episodes. Kirk is performing the ceremony and everyone is happy
And then they’re interrupted by a red alert and a message from the bridge that Earth Outpost 4 is under attack.
***
The navigator, Lt. Stiles, is telling Kirk that he has a family history with the Romulans. Some of his ancestors were killed in the war with the Romulans a century before. Kirk reminds them that it was his ancestors’ war, not his.
***
Outposts 2 and 3 have been reduced to dust. They’ve made contact with Commander Hanson on Outpost 4, who confirms that 2, 3, and 8 are gone.
***
The war bird uncloaks and destroys Outpost 4. The Enterprise watches this by tying into a feed from the outpost’s main viewscreen. It re-cloaks, and the Enterprise tries to find and follow it. They determine it’s going back into the Neutral Zone.
***
Stiles thinks there may be Romulan spies aboard the ship. Sulu agrees. Uhura picks up a transmission from the warbird and they manage to tap into the feed and see what the Romulans look like. Cue dramatic music as not-Sarek turns toward the camera! Everyone stares at the screen, except Stiles, who stares at Spock.
***
Uhura is working on translating the Romulan code, and Stiles suggests they give it to Spock. Kirk tells him to leave his bigotry in his quarters and not on the bridge. Honestly, it’s about time someone said to knock off the anti-Vulcan racism.
***
We cut to the warbird. Not-Sarek has figured out that the Enterprise is following them, and they re-cloak. He demotes a crewman for sending the message intercepted by the Enterprise, and is warned by a centurion that the demoted crewman has friends. Not-Sarek knows, but stands by his decision.
***
Back on the Enterprise, Stiles remains insubordinate. He really wants to fight the warbird, and is doubling down on his overt racism toward Spock. Oddly enough, Spock agrees that they should engage the warbird, because if they’re related to Vulcans but violent, the Enterprise can’t risk showing weakness. Kirk agrees to attack the warbird. McCoy strongly disagrees but is overruled.
***
The warbird entered a comet’s tail to lose the Enterprise, so now the Enterprise is firing blindly and hoping to hit them. Meanwhile, the warbird turns on the ship and fires the outpost-destroying weapon. They try to outrun it, and discover it has a limited range.
***
The warbird is almost into the Neutral Zone, so Kirk decides to fight them again before they get away. The Romulans in turn dump a bunch of debris and the body of a dead officer to trick the Enterprise into thinking they’ve been destroyed.
The Enterprise and the warbird are both playing dead, waiting to see who moves first. After 9+ hours, Spock completes modifications on his station and they draw the Romulans out. The Romulans fire a nuclear warhead, and head back toward the Neutral Zone.
***
The Romulans are out of fuel, but decide it’s their duty to attack the Enterprise. On the Enterprise, Stiles is in charge of weapons and tells Spock they don’t need his help. Unfortunately, a coolant leak knocks him and another crewman out, and Spock has to fire phasers for him, disabling the Romulan ship.
Kirk hails the Romulans ship, and non-Sarek declares that in another time and place, they may have been friends. Kirk wants to beam their survivors aboard, but the Romulan commander refuses and the ship self-destructs.
***
I’m sickbay, Stiles has to acknowledge that Spock saved his life. The only fatality is Tomlinson, who was supposed to get married that morning. Kirk goes to the chapel and comforts the would-be bride.
***
So this is the episode that introduced the Romulans. I felt like it was a little slow, but much like The Corbomite Maneuver, really established a lot about the characters and the canon. Plus, there was a real submarine warfare feel to it that I thought worked well. Overall it’s a very solid episode.
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