Journey to Babel (episode)

File:Sarek2267.jpg

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.

Summary

Teaser

The 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 and McCoy discover that the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, Sarek, and his human wife Amanda, are in fact Spock's parents.

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."

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.

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.

Act Three

"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, 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, the unidentified 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. Thelev attempts to escape from his cell, but is stunned unconscious. As he falls his antenna breaks, revealing a transmitter to communicate with the attacking vessel. As the Enterprise continues to fight a losing battle against the smaller and faster ship, shuddering with each successive hit and suffering power losses, McCoy fears he may lose both his patients.

Act Four

As Enterprise struggles against the unknown vessel, 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 a torpedo salvo 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.

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 painful to continue, but he continues to protest as he is led to another empty bed in the ward by McCoy and Nurse Chapel. McCoy, eventually successful in telling Kirk and Spock to lie still and shut up, finally gains his first "Last Word" of the original series.

Memorable Quotes

"Well, what do you know? I finally got the last word!"

- Dr. McCoy

"That hurts worse than the uniform."

- McCoy' after attempting a Vulcan salute

"Mr. Spock -- explain the computer components."

(pause) "I gave Spock his first lesson in computers, captain. He chose to devote his knowledge to Starfleet, rather than the Vulcan Science Academy."

- Kirk and Sarek

"They're both -- stubborn."

"A human trait, captain?"

- Kirk and Amanda discussing Sarek and Spock

"Now, if you keep arguing with your kindly family doctor, you'll find yourself spending the next ten days here in sickbay. If you cooperate -- you'll be out in two."

- McCoy, after Kirk protests his extended stay in sickbay.

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

"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 discussing Amanda's outburst.

"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.

"The ambassadors are demanding to know what's happening."

"Tell them to take a good... guess, but clear that board, lieutenant!"

- Uhura and Kirk

"Are you quite through shaking the ship around?" "- McCoy to Kirk

Background Information

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 the Tellarites were arrogant.
Tellarites will be seen in two third-season episodes, with greatly modified masks.
An unused make-up scheme for the Tellarites can be seen in the end credits of several episodes.
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 konk can be heard. This may have been meant to indicate Thelev's head hitting the floor.
During the same fight Thelev's hands noticably alternate between Andorian-blue and stunt-man "pink".
The unknown actor who plays one of Sarek's aides also appeared as mirror Spock's Vulcan bodyguard in Mirror, Mirror.
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.
The guest actors in this segment are uniformly excellent, with Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard leaving their mark with some of the most memorable portrayals in the series. As a tribute to her long and distinguished career, Wyatt is called "Miss Jane Wyatt" in the closing credits.
John Wheeler, William O'Connell and Reggie Nalder make the most of their small roles, with Nalder's Austrian accent giving a great sense of the exotic to the role of Shras.
We learn about Spock's childhood pet, a sehlat, in this epiode. We will meet I-Chaya in D.C. Fontana's animated episode, "Yesteryear"
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.
The Orion ship, a convincing piece of animation, is recycled as the missile in "Patterns of Force"
The coded message sent by Thelev is the same signal heard in "Miri"
Jim Shepherd, Thelev's stunt double, died in a stunt accident on another show/movie shortly after his work in this episode.
In the original script Sarek and his company were beamed aboard the Enterprise. But after going overbudget 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 intended because it could be made completely by using stock footage from The Galileo Seven. The resulting scene was far more dramatic and interesting than a beam-over would have been.
James Doohan (Scotty) and George Takei (Sulu) do not appear in this episode, although McCoy does mention Scotty's name.
If you look behind McCoy while Amanda is inquiring about Sarek's condition, you will see the Tantalus field controls used in "Mirror, Mirror".
According to Spock, the Orion ship travels at "approximately Warp 10" in its first pass.
According to Uhura, Starfleet says "No authorized Federation vessel in this quadrant". The quadrant that she is referring to is obviously a different kind than the galactic Alpha, Beta etc quadrants.
The Tellarite ambassador is found dead in "Deck 11, section A3", which according to Matt Jefferie's 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.
Spock reports that he gets readings of "trititanium" in the Orion ship's hull. It's 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 ST:TMP. It's not clear whether it's 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.
After repeated attacks by the Orion ship, which is armed with "standard phasers", the Enterprise's #4 shield buckles, at which time Kirk orders "auxiliary power", after which Chekov reports "Shields firming up, #4 is still weak, Sir."
Kirk says to Engineering: "Cut power on the port side, except for phaser banks." It's unclear whether this means there are phasers on the port side somewhere or if he means the port side of the forward banks.
The Orion ship is destroyed while closing on the Enterprise at sublight, at a range of around 75,000 km.

Production timeline

First draft script: 22 August 1967
Second revised final script: 19 September 1967
Filmed late September.

Links and References

Main cast

References

Babel Conference; benjisidrine; cardiostimulator; general quarters; heart surgery; Orion (species); Orion scoutship; quarterly physical; Rigelians; Saurian brandy; sehlat; steri-field; surgical support frame; T-negative; Tal-Shaya; trititanium

External Links

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