wanttaja@ssc-vax.UUCP (05/03/84)
<Full ahead for attack, Mr. Wearer. Maybe we can rip him open in the middle of a waltz..> Congrats to those who picked "The Enemy Below" as being the movie on which "Balance of Terror" was based. TEB starred Robert Mitchum, Kurt Jurgens, and David Hedison in a yarn about a US Destroyer (Commanded by Mitchum, Hedison as XO) detecting a German U-Boat (Commanded by Jurgens, natch). TEB does not contain the subplots of BOT, and, as the action takes place during World War II, the destroyer may attack the U-Boat without the convolutions necessary to BOT. I'll cover some of the simularities. General simularities are rife. Against the Romulan cloaking device, the Enterprise's sensors are simular to the Destroyer's Sonar. The relative maneuvering capability of the sub vs. destroyer are similar to that of the Romulan to the Enterprise. The "Proximity blast Phasers" are identical to depth charges, and the relative effect of the Romulan's new weapon on the Enterprise is similar to a sub's torpedo striking a thin-skinned destroyer. Finally, each show features the opposing captains aquiring mutual respect for each other as the battle goes on. Some Specific Simularities: 1. The Enterprise/Destroyer attempt to follow the other ship in such a way as to appear as a "ghost" on the Romulan's/U-Boat's sensor/sonar. 2. The Romulan/U-Boat captains are apolitical, just doing their duty. They are each beset by a heavily political junior officer. 3. After each attack, the Romulan/U-Boat resumes a particular course, and the other captain comments upon that. The Romulan is trying to get back to Romulan space, while the U-Boat is on its way to a meeting with a Commerce Raider. 4. The Romulan attempts to throw off the Enterprise's attack by travelling through a comet's cloudly tail. The U-Boat emits "Bold", a cloudy substance, in an attempt to throw off the tin can. 5. The U-Boat/Romulan drop debris to simulate destruction (This was a standard German trick during the war. They would occasionally eject pig's intestines so realistic "guts" would be found. Ick.) 6. At one point, both sides go silent and attempt to wait out the other ship. 7. At the end, the destroyer/Enterprise plays dead to convice the enemy ship to appear. The Enterprise simulates being mortally wounded by a nuclear device included in the Romulan's fake debris. The destroyer, badly hit by a torpedo, burns matresses soaked in gas on the opposite side of the ship, to give the impression of a mortal hit. 8. Finally, the enemy's downfall is due to his desire to finsh off the Enterprise/Destroyer. Both the Romulan and the U-Boat appear and close with the other ship to finish it. The Enterprise, off course, blasts the Romulan with Phasers, while the destroyer puts on a sudden burst of speed and Rams the U-Boat. Both the vanquished captains scuttle their ships. The endings, of course, are slightly different. The Enterprise, of course, must return next week. The Destroyer is jammed together with the U-Boat and goes down with her, not, however, before the American captain rescues his German counterpart. The last scene of the movie is the two captains together, on a American ship that rescued them. An interesting aside: in the book, the American survivors massacre the German survivors after their ships go down. Oh, Holywood.... Ron Wanttaja (ssc-vax!wanttaja)