[Nate the Great]

COMMANDER: Mister Spock. That corridor is forbidden to all but loyal Romulans.
SPOCK: Of course. I shall obey your restrictions.



Oops. If she had just said that he accidentally took a wrong turn, we'd have a problem since our heroes would never find the cloaking device. Which brings up the question of how our heroes intended to find the thing in the first place.


COMMANDER: I've had special Vulcan dishes prepared for you. I hope they're to your liking.
SPOCK: I am very flattered, Commander. There's no doubt that the cuisine aboard your vessel is far superior to that of the Enterprise.



Spock? Very flattered? I know he's under orders to lie, but that's still laying it on a bit thick, right?



SPOCK: An hour from now will do even better. Would it not, Commander?
COMMANDER: Yes. Yes, it will, Mister Spock. You do know I have a first name.



This doesn't make sense because the viewers don't know her last name yet!



COMMANDER: The Federation. And what did you want?
SPOCK: It was my only interest when I boarded your vessel.
COMMANDER: And that's exactly all you came away with.
SPOCK: You underestimate yourself, Commander.



Yikes. For Spock, that's about the biggest admission of attraction he's made while not under the influence of spores or polywater or pon farr...



Memory Alpha

* Just like in "Journey to Babel" we see the Vulcan hand-touching kiss equivalent. Memory Alpha indicates that this is the first time we saw it, however, which is sorta true. "Journey to Babel" only featured the first two fingers, probably more of a peck on the cheek. This episode had full-blown Vulcan salute rubbing, probably closer to a French kiss. Very racy by Spock standards.
* So the studio wanted to get their money's worth from the Klingon ship model. What about the Romulan ship model? Didn't they want to get their money's worth from that?
* Fontana agrees that there were a lot of out-of-character moments in this episode.


Nitpicker's Guide

Phil has fun pointing out that it’s silly for the Romulans to be smug about identifying the Enterprise, saying “Big deal. So they can read. It says ‘USS Enterprise’ right on the saucer.” Which is absurd, nobody can read the words on a ship unless they’re in a shuttle or something and only a few hundred meters away. The Romulans can ID the Enterprise is because they’ve figured out how to interpret the ship’s transponder signal.
Regarding the Vulcan Death Grip, Phil brings up the tal-shaya, the Vulcan method of breaking necks mentioned in Journey to Babel. This is a good point.

If the Romulans let women be captains and the Federation doesn’t, why do the Romulans also force their women to wear miniskirts?



YouTube

The Vulcan Death Grip in action
Kirk steals the cloaking device, and Charvanek is not happy