Journey to Babel
- Episode aired Nov 17, 1967
- TV-PG
- 50m
The Enterprise hosts a number of quarrelling diplomats, including Spock's father, but someone on board has murder in mind.The Enterprise hosts a number of quarrelling diplomats, including Spock's father, but someone on board has murder in mind.The Enterprise hosts a number of quarrelling diplomats, including Spock's father, but someone on board has murder in mind.
- Amanda
- (as Miss Jane Wyatt)
- Lieutenant Hadley
- (uncredited)
- Babel Conference Attendee
- (uncredited)
- Montgomery
- (uncredited)
- Small Copper-Skinned Ambassador
- (uncredited)
- Vulcan Aide
- (uncredited)
- Purple-Skinned Delegate
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFor two weeks after the airing of this episode, Mark Lenard received more fan mail than Leonard Nimoy.
- GoofsKirk is attacked and clearly stabbed in the lower back. McCoy later reports that the knife narrowly missed Kirk's heart and Kirk is bandaged across the upper chest, nowhere near where the knife wound occurred.
- Quotes
McCoy: Spock, I've always suspected you were a little more human than you let on. Mrs. Sarek, I know about the rigorous training of the Vulcan youth, but tell me, did he ever run and play like the human children, even in secret?
Amanda: Well, he, uh, he did have a pet Sehlat he was very fond of.
McCoy: Sehlat?
Amanda: It's sort of a... a fat teddy bear.
McCoy: [grinning] A teddy bear?
Sarek: Excuse me, Doctor. It has been a rather long day for my wife. Captain.
Captain James T. Kirk: Ambassador.
McCoy: [needlingly Spock after Sarek and Amada have gone] "A teddy bear."
Spock: Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan the "teddy bears" are alive, and they have 6-inch fangs
- Alternate versionsSpecial Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
- ConnectionsEdited from Star Trek: The Galileo Seven (1967)
The presence of Spock's parents allows writers D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry to further their character development of Spock as a man half-Vulcan and half-human. There are a number of wryly humorous moments between Spock and his father, who we learn not only have the normal Vulcan unemotional relationship, but who have some bad feelings towards each other. Maybe because they're feelings, they don't talk about it, and just ignore the situation as best as they can. Amanda, played by an elegantly attractive Jane Wyatt, proves to be a surprising fulcrum balancing the two. Surprising because despite being married to Sarek for so many years, her spunky emotionalism still shines through, and her being married to Sarek seems contradictory to the "pure Vulcan" way of looking at things. This suggests that the cracks that we occasionally see in Spock's unemotional public veneer aren't just there because he's half human--it seems to be almost as much a Vulcan trait.
The action side of the episode is a lot of fun, and the menagerie of less human aliens on their way to the Federation meeting would have been a blast to explore more. Perhaps if there's a flaw to this episode, it's that it should have been two separate episodes, instead. But then of course we'd miss out on one way of showing the non-emotional Vulcan sense of duty and its ethical priorities.
There's a great William Shatner fight with an alien in this one. I always get a kick out of his fight scenes, and this one is particularly notable because of the weird "butt-fu" move that he performs just before he gets injured. It's a hoot.
DeForest Kelley also gets some choice lines here, especially right before the credits roll.
- BrandtSponseller
- Jul 24, 2006
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