Star Trek: Who Is Balok?

The Star Trek franchise has nearly 1,000 episodes across its numerous shows, but they often fall back on similar stories. How many times have fans seen some bizarre antagonist slide out of a holodeck malfunction? How many times did a ship’s crew leap through time or get caught in a loop? It’s reasonable to find patterns that work when one is attempting to tell infinite stories in the same endless universe. One such archetype involves a powerful alien being that decides to test the heroes. Among the first notable examples of this concept is “The Corbomite Maneuver,” starring a young-looking being named Balok.

In many ways, the olden days of Star Trek contain more fulfilling stories and more adventurous narratives. The only aspect that falls well short of the franchise’s modern iterations tends to be the visual effects. Star Trek has a lot more money to spend these days, and technology has moved forward a great deal. Even the practical effects outclass those of the original shows, thanks to tremendous advancements in technique and material. It used to be acceptable to throw a puppet in front of a shoddy camera and call it a sci-fi show, and the current era’s shift away from that has been a disaster.

Who is Balok in Star Trek?

Balok is a small humanoid being of an unknown alien race who encountered the USS Enterprise and its crew in the year 2266. His role was unclear, but Balok tasked himself with testing those who would trespass upon the territory of the First Federation. To that end, Balok set up a floating warning buoy in the form of a massive multicolored cube. That cube would detect vessels approaching the area, then behave aggressively and emit harmful radiation to test their response. The Enterprise entered the area while mapping stars for the Federation. When the cube approached, they attempted to outmaneuver it and finally destroyed it with a phaser blast. This prompts a response from Fesarius, a massive spherical ship in the area that claims to be the First Federation’s flagship. The being who reaches out to the Enterprise is a thin, blue-skinned, knob-headed organism with vaguely feline eyes. Balok operates this puppet, only allowing the Enterprise crew to see the puppet through very limited visual capture technology.

After the Enterprise destroys the cube, Balok, through his puppet, claims that the Fesarius sent his much smaller pilot ship to destroy the Enterprise. Balok traps the ship in a tractor beam and gives them a 10-minute timer, promising death at the end. This sets off a chain of bluffs back and forth. Kirk claims that the Enterprise is loaded with an otherwise unknown element called “corbomite,” which immediately and violently reverses the impact of any energy weapon that it receives. His argument is that Balok’s ship will also be destroyed if he launches his attack. This gives Balok some pause, as he agrees to stop the timer until Kirk and the crew can provide him proof of this “corbomite.” Instead, they gun the Enterprise‘s engines at a right angle to escape the tractor beam. This leaves Balok’s small ship stranded without power, leaving the Enterprise crew to determine what to do with him. They discover that Balok’s distress signal can’t reach the Fesarius, prompting them to intercept and board Balok’s vessel. They meet the small, child-like being behind the puppet and share a drink called tranya as he leads them on a tour.

What effect does Balok have in Star Trek?

Though Balok has never appeared again in any Star Trek media, his interaction with the Enterprise is actually a case of first contact between the United Federation of Planets and the First Federation. It’s hard to tell if Balok works for or with the First Federation, but he definitely tested the Enterprise before allowing them to interact with his people. This leads to a few scant references in later Star Trek media. Most notably, Quark, the Ferengi bartender aboard Deep Space 9, served tranya at his iconic bar. The only other major reference comes in Lower Decks, in which a framed portrait of Balok’s puppet appears on the wall of a bar on Starbase 25.

Balok is a minor character, but he is arguably the starting point of a lot of interesting elements of the Star Trek franchise. He’s one of the earliest examples of the old “alien morality test” episode structure, the first envoy of the somewhat unknown First Federation, and the first Star Trek character to be portrayed by veteran actor Clint Howard. He may not have become an icon of the franchise, but he certainly kicked off a lot of its familiar elements. Beyond all that, he’s also the main antagonist of one of the best episodes of The Original Series.

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