Balance of Terror

As Kirk prepares to marry two of his crew, Lt Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine, the Enterprise learns that outposts guarding the Romulan Neutral Zone are under attack. A Romulan ship destroys Outpost 4 using a cloaking device and a devastating plasma weapon. When the bridge intercepts an image of the Romulan commander, the crew are stunned to see he looks Vulcan, and Lt Stiles, whose family fought the Romulans, turns his suspicion on Spock. Kirk must stop the raider before it gets home, or risk a new war. A tense duel follows, each commander trying to outthink the other: the Romulan ship is slower but more powerful and must uncloak to fire. Kirk lures it in by playing dead. When a coolant leak floods the phaser room, Spock saves Stiles and fires the shot that cripples the enemy. The Romulan commander salutes Kirk as an equal before destroying his own ship. Tomlinson is killed, and Kirk comforts Martine.