Trama

After the Enterprise is forced to destroy a dangerous marker buoy, a gigantic alien ship arrives to capture and condemn the crew as trespassers.

In a section of unexplored space, the Enterprise comes across a marker of sorts that will not let it pass. They destroy the marker and move on but soon find themselves in conflict with an unknown alien who accuses them of trespassing and tells them they have only 10 minutes to live. Kirk decides it's time to play a little poker and literally bluff his way out of the situation by telling the alien that the Enterprise has a device on board that will destroy the alien as well as the Enterprise. The bluff works but the alien turns out to be something quite unexpected.—garykmcd

On a mission of exploration, Kirk destroys a warning buoy at the edge of space controlled by a mysterious alien race. In response, the Enterprise is met by an extremely powerful ship that plans on destroying the Enterprise. Kirk bluffs his way out of this destruction by letting the aliens think that if the Enterprise is destroyed that they will also be destroyed by the fallacious Corbomite device. A subsection of the alien ship, the Fesarius (captained by the fierce looking Balok), then takes the Enterprise in tow. After presumably disabling the Fasarius, Kirk then returns to aid the seemingly hostile aliens. However, the alien's hostile nature (as well as the appearance) is a ruse to test the character of the humans, and Kirk has passed the test.—JW Kearse

The Enterprise is making star maps in a previously uncharted section of space. No star-ship has been this far out from Earth before. The ship has been making star maps in this section for 3 days now. Kirk and the Enterprise have encountered a space buoy which will not leave their path. The cube object stays at a distance of 1593 m and measure 107 m on each side, 11,000 metric tonnes in weight. the cube has been holding the ship for 18 hrs. It is a device of some kind and currently is posing no threat to the ship. No signs of life, or any answer to any communication frequencies of any kind. Kirk tries to go around and then retreat, but the cube follows and narrows the gap, thereby increasing the radiation on the ship. As everyone's life on the Enterprise is endangered, Kirk decides to destroy it with phasers. Kirk is not happy with the performance of helmsman Bailey during this crisis. Bailey took time to follow Kirk's orders and panicked at several instances as the cube followed the Enterprise. Kirk orders a set of simulation drills till the response times are adequately addressed.

A few hrs later a mammoth ship traps them in its tractor beam. The ship has energy readings similar to the cube, only much larger. The ship is more than a mile in diameter. Bailey again freezes at his station and fails to act timely on Kirk's orders.

The captain of the other ship is named Balok (Clint Howard), a hideous, ugly being who promises to destroy them. He says Enterprise has illegally entered his star system and destroyed the buoy that was supposed to be their warning. Any hostile action will lead to destruction. Balok grants them 10 mins to say their prayers before the Enterprise is destroyed. Every time Kirk tries to explain their actions as an act of self preservation, Balok starts a humming frequency on all channels to drown his voice out. Kirk pretends that the Enterprise has a doomsday weapon called Corbomite which will destroy everything, including Balok. Kirk says that there is no record of Corbomite, and the last time it was used was 2 centuries ago. Every Earth vessel is equipped with it. If the vessel is fired upon, Corbomite generates an energy pulse of equal and opposite intensity aimed at the firing vessel. Kirk further says that death has no meaning for Earthlings and challenges Balok to fire.

Dave Bailey (the helmsman) begins to lose control, and Kirk orders him to leave the bridge. Later he comes back and tries to remain calm. Balok is deceived by Kirk's trick and delays the destruction of the Enterprise. Balok retreats and leaves a smaller vessel (2000 metric tons) to guide the enterprise to a suitable planet to be interned, while the Enterprise will be destroyed. The smaller ship tows the Enterprise towards a planet. Kirk uses the Enterprise Engines and Impulse power to work against the tow. He drains the towing vessels power and overheats their engines, thereby damaging them. As Enterprise breaks free, it picks a distress signal from Balok saying that engines are damaged and life support systems are failing.

Kirk decides to board the vessel and rescue the alien. Kirk, Bailey and McCoy beam over. Balok is not a gruesome being. He is a small man, no more than three feet, the size of a small child.

He laughs and offers them orange drink called Tranya. The distress signal was a test to gauge the real intentions of the Enterprise. He asks if one of them can stay with him to share cultures. Kirk asks Bailey, and Bailey says yes, because the pressure would be less.