What it’s mainly about
A waste of brainpower
The Romulan commander and crewman strategize about defeating the Enterprise.
A game of hide-and-seek, or cat-and-mouse, between the Enterprise and the Bird of Prey, the Romulan flagship. Which commander will out-guess the other? The suspense is great, but so are the glimpses we get into the type of societies that each starship represents.
Why it’s awesome
Our first sighting of the Romulans is so intriguing: they are warlike yet strictly hierarchical, and they bear an uncanny resemblance to… Vulcans. The question arises, as in so much suspense narrative, of who one can trust, and on what basis… One crewman believes Spock to be disloyal on the basis of an accident, and because his distant ancestry is shared with the Romulans. But life does evolve, civilizations can change, and Spock’s devotion… well, you’ll have to watch the episode.