2.10 — “Journey to Babel”
Plot: The Enterprise is assigned to transport a shipload of ambassadors to a Federation council. What could go wrong? Murder. Assault. Ship-to-ship battles. Medical emergencies. Intrigue. Stiff-necked Vulcan pride. This episode features Spock’s Vulcan father, Ambassador Sarek, with whom Spock has been estranged for 18 years, and his human mother, Amanda.
Thoughts: There are a few episodes which, through exercise of imagination, forever expand the universe of Star Trek, and the possibilities that exist for later writers. “Journey to Babel” is such an episode. Spock and Vulcans are changed: through Spock’s relation to Sarek we now have a much clearer picture of Vulcan society than could be gleaned from “Amok Time.” More importantly, Starfleet is changed. It is now a parliamentary body that has councils and intrigues and politics between member races. And the Star Trek universe now contains Andorians, Tellarites, and Orions, along with a verbal callback to Romulans and Klingons (for what I believe is the first time?), establishing them as recurring characters in the series, not just one-off villains from Season One. After “Babel,” the Star Trek universe is a bigger, roomier, more well-defined place. Could Deep Space Nine could have existed without this episode? The Cantina scene in Star Wars? Babylon 5? This is also an episode that establishes, budget be damned, they’ll fill the screen with alien races if that’s what the story calls for.
First season featured episodes told in many different styles. The tradition continues with this one resembling a soap opera: family drama, medical emergencies, airing of old grudges and recriminations, with dramatic scenes played in the operating room, bed room, board room, and bridge.
Leonard Nimoy is just great here. I’m not sure how he manages to play Spock as being crushed and impassive at the same moment, but he makes it crystal clear what the character is going through and you always feel exactly where he’s at. The scenes between him and Amanda, especially the scene in Spock’s quarters where she begs him to save his father’s life, are just fabulous television. And she has a great right cross!
The bar scene may call to mind the Cantina, but the Tellarites look most like Ugnaughts. The difference between Star Trek and Star Wars is that in the remastered version of “Journey to Babel,” the Andorian still stabs Kirk first.
You can’t watch this episode and not want to see Spock’s Sehlat with the 6-inch fangs. Star Trek fans got to do that in 1973, in the Animated Series episode “Yesteryear,” scripted again by D.C. Fontana. I had a View-Master reel of that episode at the age of 7 or 8.
I like Dr. McCoy shushing people at the end of the episode like Dr. Evil. And seeing Sarek’s touching relationship with Amanda. He’s as passionate as his son, isn’t he? That’s the secret of Vulcans–they didn’t develop their emotion-negating philosophy for no reason. I like the way Mark Lenard slyly shows Sarek’s wisdom, knowing that through his marriage he has made a choice to walk down human and Vulcan paths simultaneously, as his son is forced to do by his biology.
I don’t know, however, why Sarek didn’t seek medical attention for his heart condition while he was still on Vulcan. It would have been logical.
5 out of 5 blood cells T-negative.
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