Trivia / Star Trek S1 E14 "Balance of Terror"

• Creator's Favorite: Mark Lenard said, "The Romulan Commander was one of the best roles I ever had on TV." Comparing the part with that of Sarek, Lenard elaborated, "In many ways, I did enjoy that role [Sarek], but I think the more demanding role and the better acting role was the Romulan Commander".
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Gene Roddenberry named this as one of his ten favorite episodes.
• Deleted Scene:
  • A portion with the doomed Commander Hansen was filmed but cut from the final episode. In it, Hansen informed Kirk that the Romulan vessel is of "starship design" and that the Romulans had probably stolen Earth designs via espionage and traitors. This is the basis for Stiles' remarks in scene 52 about a vessel "remarkably similar to ours", and having Romulan spies aboard the Enterprise, which was aired before he even knew what Romulans looked like
  • Kirk salutes the Romulan commander before he destroys his ship. A scene showing the commander and Decius arguing about the Praetor's orders, soon before the centurion died, was also filmed.
• First Appearance: Of the Romulans.
• Recast as a Regular: Mark Lenard (the Romulan Commander) would later have a recurring role as Sarek.
• Technology Marches On: Spock removes a panel to reveal that some internal electronics have caught fire. (And then he puts the fire out with his hands. Love that Vulcan stoicism.) It seems unlikely that an interstellar spaceship wouldn't have an over current protection device that would prevent such a fire. The reason that he was able to "put the fire out" was because power was cut off. An electrical fire will continue to burn as long as there is power applied and fuel to burn. This is pretty much an early, low-key example of Trek's notorious Explosive Instrumentation.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Mark Lenard, who plays the Romulan Commander here, would go on to play Spock's father in "Journey to Babel" and a Klingon Commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Some fans humorously (and a couple of Expanded Universe authors earnestly) call Lenard's Romulan Commander "Keras" ("Sarek" spelled backwards), and his Klingon commander "Krase." Some sources have even speculated that Lenard's Romulan character is a distant relative of Sarek's, based on the idea that the two shared a mutual ancestor before the Romulans split from the Vulcans.
  • Lawrence Montaigne (Decius) later played Stonn in "Amok Time."

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