Entertainment
 

Journey to Babel (episode)edit

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
"Journey to Babel"
TOS, Episode 2x15
Production number: 60344
First aired: 17 November 1967
Remastered version aired: 3 February 2007
← 45th of 80 produced in TOS →
← 39th of 80 released in TOS →
← 19th of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 39th of 727 released in all →
Written By
D.C. Fontana

Directed By
Joseph Pevney
3842.3 (2268)
  Arc: {{{wsArc0Desc}}} ({{{nArc0PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc0PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc1Desc}}} ({{{nArc1PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc1PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc2Desc}}} ({{{nArc2PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc2PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc3Desc}}} ({{{nArc3PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc3PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc4Desc}}} ({{{nArc4PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc4PartCount}}})  
For D.C. Fontana's Incredible Tales story, please see "Journey to Babel".

As the Enterprise comes under attack on the way to a diplomatic conference on Babel, one of the alien dignitaries is murdered, and Spock's sick father Sarek is the only suspect.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

Sarek

The USS Enterprise arrives in orbit around Vulcan, picking up the last delegation of Vulcans to add to an assortment of ambassadors and dignitaries aboard (including Andorians and Tellarites). The delegates will be attending a conference on Babel to decide the admission of the planet Coridan to the Federation, which is rich in dilithium but poorly defended. As the shuttle of Vulcans arrives, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy greet the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, Sarek, and his Human wife Amanda. Welcoming the ambassador aboard, Kirk offers to have Spock take him and his wife on a tour of the ship, but Sarek coldly asks that someone else give it. Sensing unpleasantness between the two Vulcans, the captain suggests to Spock that, with two hours before the ship leaves orbit, he should beam down to the planet and visit his parents, which Spock insists would be unnecessary, for the ambassador and his wife are, in fact, his parents.

[edit] Act One

"Captain's log, stardate 3842.3. We have departed Vulcan for the neutral planetoid code-named Babel. Since it is in our sector, the Enterprise has been assigned to transport ambassadors of Federation planets to this vitally important council. The issues of the council are politically complex, the passengers... explosive."

As Kirk conducts a tour of the ship for the ambassador and his wife, he also discovers roots of estrangement between Spock and his father, springing from Spock's election to attend Starfleet Academy over his father's choice of the Vulcan Science Academy. Kirk voices his support of Spock's choices and his personal friendship with Spock to Amanda, who appreciates the sentiment but also warns that the estrangement may be permanent.

"Captain's log, stardate 3842.4. The interplanetary conference will consider the petition of the Coridan planets to be admitted to the Federation. The Coridan system has been claimed by some of the races now aboard our ship as delegates, races who have strong personal reasons for keeping Coridan out of the Federation. The most pressing problem aboard the Enterprise is to make sure that open warfare does not break out among the delegates, before the conference begins."
Gav found murdered.

As the delegates meet at a reception and Kirk and McCoy discover hints of Spock's childhood from Amanda, Sarek encounters voices of vehement opposition to Coridan's admission from the Tellarite ambassador, Gav. Kirk also learns the Enterprise is being tailed by a mysterious unidentified vessel, and someone within his own ship is in secret communication with it.

Amanda speaks with her husband against their son's estrangement, but Sarek resists. Later, Sarek is again confronted by Gav, and a brief struggle ensues, broken up by Kirk. Gav's lifeless body is later found stuffed up a Jefferies tube.

[edit] Act Two

Kirk, Spock and McCoy investigate Gav's murder. McCoy explains his neck was broken in a very precise manner, leading Spock to conclude it can only be a Vulcan execution technique called tal-shaya. Kirk then deduces that Sarek is logically the prime suspect, but when he is confronted by Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, it is revealed that Sarek is becoming increasingly ill with a cardiac defect, and claims he could not have committed the murder.

It falls on McCoy to attempt to heal the ambassador with surgery, but the doctor has reservations, what with his own limited surgical experience on Vulcans and the requirement of large amounts of a rare Vulcan blood type. Spock elects to take the role of blood donor, risking his own life by taking a dangerous stimulant to induce blood cell production despite Amanda's objections.

However, Kirk is suddenly stabbed by Andorian delegate Thelev. He subdues Thelev and alerts Spock on the bridge, before passing out in the corridor.

[edit] Act Three

Thelev in the brig
"Captain's log, stardate 3843.4. First Officer Spock in temporary command. The captain has been critically wounded by one of the delegates to the Babel conference. The ship is on alert status. We are still being followed by the intruder vessel."

Thelev is placed into custody. Kirk has survived the assassination attempt, but now Spock refuses to participate in the procedure while his captain is lying in sickbay. In a bold move, despite objections from McCoy, Kirk assumes command before he is fully healed, and sends Spock to surgery.

As McCoy takes blood from Spock and begins to operate on Sarek, Thelev attempts to escape from his cell, but is stunned unconscious. As he falls his antenna breaks, revealing a transmitter to communicate with the intruder vessel. The unidentified ship begins to move towards the Enterprise, causing Kirk to raise shields and go to red alert. The intruder ship begins to open fire on the Enterprise. The smaller vessel makes unbelievably quick passes and phaser strikes against the larger starship, too fast for Enterprise to return fire effectively, missing with a phaser attack. Despite being faster than the Enterprise, their weapons only consist of standard phasers according to Chekov, indicating to Kirk they have little chance of success. As the Enterprise continues to fight a battle against the smaller and faster ship, shuddering with each successive hit and suffering power losses, McCoy fears he may lose both his patients if the ship continues to take a pounding.

[edit] Act Four

As Enterprise struggles against the unknown vessel, missing with a full spread of photon torpedoes, Thelev is brought to the bridge, where Kirk confronts him as to his true identity. Thelev is uncooperative, preferring to taunt Kirk and enjoy the view of his fellow ship succeeding over the larger Enterprise. As the power goes out in sickbay, Sarek goes into cardiac arrest. McCoy and Nurse Christine Chapel try to make do with portable resuscitation equipment in an attempt to restart his heart again.

Meanwhile Kirk, fed up with Thelev's taunts and the other ship's apparently superior tactical ability, does the unthinkable. He drops the shields, then systematically fakes losing all power to lure the other ship in. Enterprise appears dead in space. The enemy ship appears to hesitate, then slowly closes in for the kill. As soon as it is in range, Kirk delivers phaser fire that cripples the vessel, to the observing Thelev's disappointment. The mystery ship then self-destructs to avoid capture, and Thelev commits suicide on the bridge via slow poison.

Dr. McCoy happy at finally getting the last word

In sickbay, Kirk discovers that Sarek's surgery was a success, and not only are he and Spock recovering well, but also talking again as father and son. They even tease Amanda together, Sarek explaining that despite her rampant emotions a marriage to Amanda seemed at the time the only logical thing to do. When Kirk orders McCoy to perform an autopsy on Thelev to determine his true identity, Spock surmises Thelev and the attackers in the enemy ship were Orions, who had much to gain from disrupting the Babel conference so they could continue to loot Coridan of its dilithium. Kirk then slumps, finally too exhausted and in pain to continue, but he continues to protest as he is led to another empty bed in the ward by McCoy and Nurse Chapel. McCoy, exercising his rightful medical authority over his patients, is eventually successful in telling Kirk and Spock to lie still and be quiet, finally and gleefully gains his first "last word" of the original series.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"Dress uniforms, spit n' polish - I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be able to stand this."

- McCoy, to Kirk, as they prepare for Sarek's arrival


"That hurts worse than the uniform."

- McCoy after attempting a Vulcan salute


"As soon as you're settled, I'll arrange a tour of the ship - Mr. Spock will conduct..."
"I would prefer another guide..."
(Noticing the tension between the two Vulcans)"As you wish, Ambassador. Mr. Spock, we'll leave orbit in two hours - would you care to beam down and visit your parents?"
"Captain, Ambassador Sarek and his wife are my parents."

- Kirk, Sarek, and Spock


"Spock, I've always suspected that you were a little more...human than you've let on. Mrs. Sarek, I know of the rigorous training of the Vulcan youth, but tell me - did he ever run and play like the...human children, even in secret?"
"Well, he did have a pet sehlat he was very fond of..."
"Sehlat?"
"Sort of, a...a fat teddy bear..."
(With the biggest smile of his life)"A teddy bear?!"

- McCoy and Amanda, recalling Spock's youth


"A teddy bear!"
"Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive – and they have six-inch fangs."

- McCoy and Spock, after learning of Spock's pet sehlat


"Tellarites do not argue for reasons. They simply argue."

-Sarek


"Tell them to take a good guess but clear the boards, lieutenant!"

- Kirk, to Uhura


"When you were five years old, and came home, stiff lipped, anguished, because the other boys tormented you -- saying that you weren't really Vulcan -- I watched you, knowing that...inside...the human part of you was crying. And I cried too. There must be some part of me in you. Some part that I still can reach. If being Vulcan is more important to you, then you'll stand there, speaking rules and regulations from Starfleet and Vulcan philosophy, and let your father die, I'll hate you for the rest of my life."

- Amanda, confronting Spock


"Logic! Logic! I'm sick to death of logic! Do you want to know how I feel about your logic?"

- Amanda


"Emotional, isn't she?"
"She has always been that way."
"Indeed – why did you marry her?"
"At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do."

- Spock and Sarek teasing Amanda about her outburst

[edit] Background Information

[edit] Story and Script

  • This episode introduces the Andorians and the Tellarites. Along with Humans and the Vulcans, they are two of the four founding members of the United Federation of Planets.
  • This episode is the first mention of Spock's pet, a sehlat. I-Chaya is seen D.C. Fontana's animated episode, "Yesteryear".
  • In the original script Sarek and his company were beamed aboard the Enterprise. But after going over budget with the expensive Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite make-ups and the outer space footage of the Orion ship there was no money left for the transporter effect. Their transportation to the ship by shuttlecraft was decided because it could be made completely by using stock footage from "The Galileo Seven".
  • Spock reports that he gets readings of "trititanium" in the Orion ship's hull. It is not clear if the entire hull is made of it or parts of it. Trititanium is the material that the Enterprise's hull is made of as Gene Roddenberry says in his novelization of The Motion Picture. It is not clear whether it is the same material as "tritanium" which is reported to be "20 times as hard as diamond" in TOS: "Obsession".
  • Kirk orders that photon torpedo "tubes 2, 4, and 6" to be loaded, and requests "widest possible scatter". The ship only seems to get off two shots though, and Chekov reports "a full spread miss, sir". Photon torpedoes also seem to be controlled by Chekov from the science station in this episode.
  • Shras's suggestion that Spock forget logic and consider motivations of passion when investigating Gav's murder and Kirk's stabbing foreshadow the Vulcan-Andorian conflicts seen a century earlier throughout Star Trek: Enterprise.

[edit] Makeup and Costumes

  • The actor playing Gav couldn't see well through the prosthetics over his eyes, thus causing him to raise his head to see. This added to the early mythos that all Tellarites were arrogant as well as belligerent and aggressive.
  • Tellarites were seen in two third-season episodes, with greatly modified masks: "The Lights of Zetar" and "Whom Gods Destroy"
  • William Blackburn in an unused make-up scheme for the Tellarites from a make-up test can be seen in the end credits of "The Deadly Years" and "A Private Little War".
  • Andorian make-up was very expensive. Three different sets had to be created, for O'Connell, Nalder and for the stuntman doubling for O'Connell.
  • Many of the costumes worn by extras in the hallway and reception room scenes were recycled from several first season episodes, including the outfits worn by Galactic High Commissioner Ferris from "The Galileo Seven" and by Lazarus in "The Alternative Factor".
  • Manny Coto originally pushed to have the short, gold-skinned species from this episode attend the Coalition of Planets conference in "Terra Prime", but it proved too expensive. He named the species Ithenite, which was mentioned in "Azati Prime" by time traveler Daniels.

[edit] Effects

  • The matte shot of Uhura appearing on the screen in engineering is one of the smallest mattes ever used in the series until the view discs in "All Our Yesterdays".
  • For some unknown reason, during the fight between Thelev and Kirk, just after Kirk's failed wall kick the comical sound effect of a coconut conk can be heard. This may have been meant to indicate Thelev's head hitting the floor. In the Remastered Edition of this episode this effect has been removed from the fight.
  • The coded message sent by Thelev is the same signal heard in "Miri".
  • The Orion ship is recycled as the missile in "Patterns of Force".

[edit] Sets

  • The Tantalus field controls used in "Mirror, Mirror" can be seen behind McCoy while Amanda is inquiring about Sarek's condition.
  • The Tellarite ambassador is found dead in "Deck 11, section A3", which according to Matt Jefferies' original internal schematics is at the bottom of the main interconnecting dorsal. The "slanting wall tube" that the Tellarite is found sprawled in is also identified as "Engineering Circuit Bay" by the wall plaque in another episode.

[edit] Cast

  • James Doohan (Scotty) and George Takei (Sulu) do not appear in this episode, although Scotty is mentioned.
  • Frank da Vinci plays one of Sarek's aides. Russ Peek, who plays the other aide also appeared as mirror Spock's Vulcan bodyguard in "Mirror, Mirror".
  • As a tribute to her long and distinguished career, Wyatt is called "Miss Jane Wyatt" in the closing credits.
  • Jim Shepherd, Thelev's stunt double, died in a stunt accident on another show/movie shortly after his work in this episode.

[edit] Response

  • While Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was often deluged with fan mail on a regular basis, this trend was outdone following the broadcast of "Journey to Babel". Indeed, the fan mail poured into the studio at an incredible rate, only this time addressed to Mark Lenard, who for two weeks, topped those coming in for Nimoy. (The World of Star Trek)

[edit] Remastered Information

Galileo approaches from Vulcan

The hangar deck, with observers and Columbus added

A more detailed view of the Orion ship

  • The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication the weekend of 3 February 2007 and featured several notably altered effects. The Enterprise shuttlebay and landing sequence was completely redone digitally, featuring a number of background actors visible within the viewing galleries. Also revamped were shots of Vulcan (now more closely resembling its appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise) and the battle between the Enterprise and the Orion ship, now more featuring an identifiable design.
The next remastered episode that aired was "The Doomsday Machine".

[edit] Production timeline

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also Starring

And

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Featuring

And

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

[edit] Stunt double

[edit] References

2165; 2237; 2250; 2264; alert status four; antimatter; Andorian; autopsy; Babel; Babel Conference; benjisidrine; blood; blood bank; blood plasma; blood pressure; blood transfusion; brig; cardiostimulator; cardiovascular system; cloak; Columbus; commission; computer science; Coridan; Coridan (planet); Coridan system; cryogenic open-heart procedure; dilithium; directional locator; Earthmen; engineering section; execution; fang; Federation Council; Federation law; Galileo; general quarters; hangar deck; heart; heart attack; heart valve; heartbeat; honor guard; Ithenite; K-2 factor; Klingon; liver; logic; lung;meditation; mining; observation deck; Orion; Orion scout ship; patricide; personal receiver; phasers; physical examination; physician; physiology; planetoid; quarterly physical; reader tube; recorder; Rigel V; Rigelians; Romulans; Saurian brandy; Scott, Montgomery; sehlat; sensor locator; sensor probe; Skon; sledgehammer; spleen; Starfleet; Starfleet Command; Starfleet dress uniform; Starfleet Intelligence; Starfleet regulations; sterile field; suicide; surgical support frame; T-negative; tag; tal-shaya; teddy bear; Tellarite; Tellarite ship; transceiver; tri-tritanium; truth drug; verifier scan; Vulcan; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan salute; Vulcan Science Academy; yellow alert

[edit] External link


Previous episode produced:
"Bread and Circuses" 		Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2 		Next episode produced:
"A Private Little War"
Previous episode aired:
"Metamorphosis" 		Next episode aired:
"Friday's Child"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" 		TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"The Doomsday Machine"
Retrieved from "http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Journey_to_Babel_(episode)"