Journey To Babel (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Journey To Babel) (2)

It's all about the journey, not the destination, and this journey travels much further than Babel, into the far future beyond the TV series' end and into its rebirth, generally, and all the way to what I now regard as its final ever season (that was true to Trek), 'Enterprise' Season 4: they spun out a whole trilogy of episodes on much the same premise, a faction of the galaxy attempting to foment war and strife among the major members of the Federation, though at that time the august body was yet to be and suitably only strengthened the ties of these disparate races finding their feet on the galactic stage to become the Coalition of Planets which led to the Federation - Andorian, Tellarite, Vulcan, human, little gold men and that purple pixie girl off 'Andromeda,' they all have their part to play. Okay, so those last two were from this episode, but how I wish we'd seen them in 'Enterprise' (although according to Memory Alpha, the little copper men, whose skin is reminiscent of Data, were named Ithenites in 'Azati Prime,' though sadly never seen)! The more general legacy of this episode was to show that Trek could be more than mere action adventure, but veer off into space opera, which the later, more sophisticated 24th Century series' with their bigger budgets and greater scope, built atop such examples as this. It wasn't the beginnings of showing the wider life of our characters by introducing their families, we'd already met Kirk's brother Sam, and nephew in Season 1 ('Operation -- Annihilate!'), and in 'Amok Time' this season we'd encountered Spock's betrothed, but never had we been treated to so much insight as we do meeting his parents in the flesh, while also clearing up the mystery of why no family members showed up to his big wedding do.

For Spock and his Father, Sarek, Mark Lenard returning to wear the ears again having been so memorable as the Romulan Commander, Kirk's equal in battle during 'Balance of Terror,' in his second major race role (before returning to score the hat trick by playing the Klingon Captain in 'The Motion Picture'), haven't spoken in eighteen years for the son's decision to join Starfleet. There's some slight confusion since his Mother, Amanda, says he hasn't visited them for four years so it's not as if they hadn't been together in that time, but I can imagine a tense family get together, all sitting round drinking tea silently and Spock resolving not to do this to himself and stay in deep space as much as possible! Not to say he went home to visit them, otherwise he might have looked up T'Pring while he was there, so perhaps she meant visit them on Earth since Sarek is the Ambassador so he could have been on the planet a lot. It's fascinating to view this episode having seen the first two seasons of 'Discovery' and all the mess they added to the characters and their backstory in stark contrast to the clean, tidy job of histories Trek had managed until then - Sarek was made out to be someone who sanctioned genocide for the Klingons, considered himself a bad Father and husband so much that he apologised to the women of the family, Amanda and Michael Burnham, adopted daughter. The only somewhat sensible thing to come from it all was to present a reason for why he disapproved of Spock's choice - he wanted both children to attend the Vulcan Science Academy (although even that was messed up with some Vulcan Expeditionary Force, or something, that confused the issue), and when only one was permitted, and Spock turned it down, it reflected badly.

Enough about that terrible alteration of these wonderful established characters by inferior writing, it was enough to accept Sarek did not accept his son's choice - in 'DSC' it seems inconceivable that he would disapprove of Starfleet because it represents force and he is a man of peace (Vulcans believe peace should not depend on force, explains Amanda), but perhaps it was what motivated him to strive even more, those events and what they made him, a constant source of… not sorrow, that is a human emotion, but remembrance that his logic is uncertain where his son is concerned, to copy and paste from the film series. It's enough to know there is a rift of sorts between Father and son, one that isn't even really healed by Spock risking his life to be the blood donor that will save Sarek's life - it's not until 'Star Trek IV,' that Sarek accepts Spock's friends are good people and he made the right decision, a couple of decades later. That's what I love about the best episodes of Trek, they deal with characters and personal history in a way that transcends different production periods and groups, writers, directors, producers (the ones that took care to be true to Trek, that is, not this current Kurtzman era of misery and gloom). Sarek was created for this episode by DC Fontana (now sadly no longer with us, as is the case for most of those involved with 'TOS'), he returned in four of the original films (including flashback to a young man witnessing the birth of Spock), then twice more in 'TNG' where we were privileged to see his story finally come to an end.

In the same way, the great Mark Lenard's own story came to an end a few short years later (Jane Wyatt outliving him by ten years), but his contribution, however small it was in raw time, was assured to go down as one of the greatest guest roles in Trek, no small feat when we've seen so many amazing actors over the years. Far from the double-minded Sarek of 'DSC,' only ten years removed, he is a most Vulcan of Vulcan men, his wife is in submission to him and on a short leash ('my wife, attend'), quite different to the version so full of herself in 'DSC,' so at least we can say that for all the follies and failures of the pair as shown in 'DSC,' they learnt from it and became better people, even if not always reasonable even now (Amanda flies off the handle at Spock, slapping him hard in the face when she can't accept his duty to the ship, and again when she rails against Vulcans, not able to understand their ways - Spock was right, how can she have lived among them so long yet not understand what it is to be one!). It would be interesting to examine Amanda more: it was great she returned in 'Star Trek IV' by the same actress, and she is a memorable character in a unique position, willingly going into an alien culture so different from her own. When she tells that heart-shredding story of Spock coming home at the age of five with a stiff lip having been bullied by other children who don't accept him as a Vulcan, and how she knew inside his human half was crying (note that he didn't outwardly express emotion, unlike how Vulcans are portrayed now), you also see that this is how she must have been treated herself.

Even what she wears when coming aboard the Enterprise is like a deliberate concession to Vulcan mores with that very high collar which hides her ears from side and back as if she must not offend the people with which she coexists. It's not that she's ashamed of her humanity, but it's easy to speculate that this is the kind of thing she'd be expected to wear to reduce the impact of her humanness, quite different to the strident, outspoken version of 'DSC' that you sometimes wonder could stay on Vulcan for long. You see also that once she's established aboard and is away from Vulcan, she dresses differently in brighter colours without a collar, freed from constraints of convention. These things aren't overt and it's only speculation, but I love how things make sense when you think about them (the opposite of 'DSC' and its ilk), one of the hallmarks of Trek that bound it together. The colour Amanda brings to the ship is just a part of the variety and brightness of the various alien delegations, many of which are new to Trek, yet are a founding cornerstone upon which cultures would be built. Though we never see the Orion, disguised as an Andorian as he is, we know his people are green (hang on, doesn't blue and green make purple - so maybe the purple girl was also an Orion spy? Conspiracy!), as we saw an Orion woman (technically a human woman transformed to appear Orion), in the first ever episode, 'The Cage.' Sadly, we'd never see a true, native Orion man (though another female of the species showed up in Season 3), and strangely it wouldn't be until 'Enterprise,' and its final season at that, when we finally did.

As well as the false Andorian, Thelev (real name unknown), we see a true one, Shras, only one of the great alien designs they came up with for this episode - notice how a darker shade of blue is used around the eyes, something used to great effect on Quark in 'DS9,' and the snow white hair and striking blueness with those tall antennae and the thin, bony faces instantly created a distinct and specific classic Trek alien. It's only a shame we got so little of them, with only one further appearance (Season 3), left until 'Enterprise' to really get to know something of their culture - those missing links and gaps to fill were both a blessing and a curse since for future generations there was so much to explore and take ownership of without stepping on the toes of what had come before, but expanding it and detailing it and building upon it. The other side of that coin is that we've seen the opposite happen, characters and races misrepresented, things that hadn't been tied down messed about with to further modern ideals - yes, I'm talking Kurtzman era Trek yet again, a group who have shown their disinclination to keeping the Trekkiness intact and instead using gaps for their own ends and sometimes not even relying on gaps to do so (e.g: the Klingon debacle). It only makes you appreciate what the Berman and film eras did so well to stay within keeping of what had gone before without overwriting it.

Andorians and Orions are joined by Tellarites whose argumentative attitude is well established here. But it's the superb makeup that stands out for me - the face is well known, that pig-like snout and inset eyes forcing the performers to stare upwards down their noses. But it was the three-fingered claws or hooves that I had forgotten about: covered in a short warthog scrub of hair and with bright nails, they really were a work of excellence. And to put all these various races together and play out the simmering tensions was a great prospect. The story is helped not just by the addition of space opera and the moral quandary into which Spock is plunged, duty to a dying father versus loyalty to a ship in danger, but in the way we're thrown into things: Gav, the Tellarite Ambassador, suddenly seizes Sarek and is easily rebuffed, reminding us of superior Vulcan strength when Sarek merely shrugs him off! Then when we see Kirk fighting Thelev we cut to it out of nowhere, we're not sure how they came to be in combat, just that they are, and it's a thrilling choice to jump into scenes like this which we'd usually anticipate. The threat from the covert Orion ship is uncertain, like a wasp in the room that suddenly darts at you, you know where it is but not when it will strike. It's unfortunate that they couldn't stretch to building some kind of model as they had for Deep Space Station K7, but don't forget, even in that episode they still hadn't given us a Klingon ship. Here we see the standard 'TOS' representation of an alien vessel as a spinning light which isn't impressive but at least keeps an air of mystery since they can't identify it.

Were the Orions working for another power? We're told they're smugglers and they're clearly not a galactic force in the sense of an empire (borne out by later iterations that they're involved in criminality rather than outright empire building), they work for payment, so it could be that either Klingon or Romulan forces were behind their employment - both are mentioned but we never get to the bottom of it all other than as an attempt to destabilise and sow seeds of distrust that could lead to interplanetary war. It's apparently faster than the Enterprise, travelling at Warp 10 (we never found out if they turned into salamanders because they self-destructed), but this of course is on the old scale! There's one notable omission from the episode (aside from Sulu), as Scotty is usually the one to be telling the Captain how badly damaged the ship is, but he never appears once, not even to show off his kilt when the senior staff are kitted out in dress uniform to welcome the ambassadors. Could this be because his presence would lessen the pressure Spock is put under, the one weak link of the episode. It's easy to believe Spock would put, shall we say, the needs of the many over the needs of the few… or the one: namely his Father. And if Kirk is incapacitated he would be sure to follow regulation to the letter and the exclusion of all else. But if we were reminded of the competency of Mr. Scott (and McCoy does actually voice the view that Spock could turn over command to him), who's been seen several times in command this season, then we might not see it from Spock's side so easily.

The solution should have been to have Scotty up to his elbows in repairs from the damage done by the alien attacker, either external or internal, complaining that he had to do what he could as no one else would be able to. That would have made sense, but I suppose they were already limited by the costs of makeup, costumes and a large guest cast, so perhaps Scotty was the sacrifice amid all this. It's sad, but it makes sense for the drama. What there was, however, did use the budget most effectively, whether it be dusting off the dress uniforms (it seems it wasn't only the crews of later Treks who found them uncomfortable!), or my favourite addition: the Hangar Bay in which we see a Shuttlecraft enter (with the announcement of depressurisation, then pressurisation again - I love those details, living in that world!). It rotates on a large turntable so that the shuttle can face the Hangar Bay door, presumably for easy egress. But the most fantastic moment is when we see the full-sized (well, you know what I mean!), shuttle with an honour guard of Enterprise Redshirts, their Phasers drawn, forming a line by which Sarek, Amanda and their retinue enter the ship. How ingenious to film the whole scene as if we're standing in the doorway so they didn't need to construct an entire set, merely hinting at it and yet absolutely selling it. We're more concerned with the guests arriving to worry about the set details and the whole scene is superb, even down to Sarek appearing to be a rather undiplomatic ambassador in the way he snubs Spock by refusing to greet him and requesting a different guide when Kirk assigns him!

We're also gifted more on Vulcan culture, especially Spock's childhood and the fact he had a large pet called a sehlat (again, something we'd not see 'in the flesh' until 'Enterprise' Season 4 - how happy I am they weren't cancelled at the end of Season 3!), something 'The Animated Series' was able to show. There's also 'tal-shaya' a merciful form of execution by breaking the neck, which is how Gav was murdered (was that a spider's web in the Jefferies Tube? The cleaning crew need to do better, both in the fictional world and the real!). It's said that there are other Vulcans aboard who could have done it, rather than Sarek, though this could mean the members of his retinue or suggest there are other Vulcan crewmembers aboard (like the Mirror Universe's ISS Enterprise). Sarek has no alibi, but claims to have been on the Observation Deck at the time of the murder (so they don't record what goes on all over the ship as they do on the Bridge, shown in 'Court Martial') - I think that's the hallway overlooking the Hangar Bay which we saw Kirk take Lenore Karidian in 'The Conscience of The King,' and though we don't see it, it's great to have these real places spoken of. And we see a fair amount of the Enterprise in this episode, such as the Brig. You'd think they'd have thoroughly examined the prisoner before incarceration, but maybe his false antennae were somehow blocking scans of the receiver secreted there. Was it linked directly to his brain or could he take it out to use, I wonder? We're told both 'verifier scan' and 'truth drugs' were used on him, but his mental training was too strong for it. And the guard shoots him with a Phaser blast (a bright flash), rather than a beam.

Oddly, when the Enterprise fires on the Orion ship at the end the beams show up purple - I don't know if this was meant to denote a more powerful blast or was merely a visual effects mistake. What wasn't a mistake was the return to battleship tactics that made 'Balance of Terror' work so well, none of this zipping about like a fighter craft from 'Star Wars' - in fact that was the approach taken by the Orion attacker, it was faster and more manoeuvrable, so Kirk, even while injured and in grave discomfort, uses the trick of playing dead to lure them in for the kill. Kirk shows himself not just a true hero and a wise Captain in this episode, but a true friend, pulling off a convincing performance so Spock will believe he's up on his feet again, despite being severely stabbed in the fight with Thelev, a rare example of real damage which he's usually immune to. He sinks into his Captain's Chair the second the Turbolift doors close as Spock heads for Sickbay, but true to form, Kirk quickly loses thoughts of pain when confronted by an enemy intent on attacking his ship - she and the crew within her come first above all considerations and he's really inspirational in his choice not to let a little thing like a stabbing stop him from doing his job. In an age when a little cold prompts people to phone in sick it demonstrates that in the future people are hardier and more able to cope with feelings rather than just accepting them and using them as an excuse to take the easy way out.

Though Kirk and Spock are top billing in the episode, as normal, Dr. McCoy continues to make his presence felt and his role essential. This time he has the tricky task of carrying out surgery on Sarek he's never performed before, with both his and Spock's lives in the balance amid a battle which keeps shaking up Sickbay, and never once wastes time calling up to the Bridge to yell at the Captain for not keeping the ship steady (no, he has a moan later once it's all done). The contraption over Sarek's torso must have inspired the later tech of 'TNG' because it looks very much like the kind of addition to the biobed that they used, and beyond. McCoy may not be able to make his hand perform the Vulcan salute, but as Dax once said, he had the hands of a surgeon, in the truest sense. But did he have a cigar under there, as smoke keeps wafting up from within the surgery, unless they were implying heat was being used somehow? Nurse Chapel is as devoted and efficient as ever, such as having Spock's medical file ready for use (note McCoy's desk cluttered with those coloured 'tapes' as they call the square disks, a precursor to later series' when desks would be full of PADDs!). Is the Science Lab just off his office? Because there's a door on the left that seems to show through to the lab by the looks of it. And is the Doctor breaking the fourth wall and looking directly at the camera when he says he finally got the last word at the very end? I wasn't sure, he could have been looking slightly off to one side which would suggest he was talking to himself rather than committing the sin of addressing the audience…

Everyone gets their moments, such as Uhura showing up on what I think was a Tri-Screen in Engineering (though it was difficult to tell as we only see it from one side), although she lets the Captain down slightly later by not narrowing down the communication with the spy, for which she looks suitably chastised. And Chekov spends his time between his usual station and Spock's viewer (having to tap his replacement on the shoulder to take back his rightful place - unlike in the 'TNG' era where unnamed crewmembers seemed to have a sixth sense about when they should vacate a regular's seat!). And it's always nice to have Chapel along. I wonder if there was a deleted scene since we see a shot in the end credits where Spock is walking towards the shuttlecraft in an otherwise empty Hangar Bay. I'd love to know what that was all about… Last episode we heard Kirk speak of the oath he took, and this week it's Spock who cites taking the oath, I never knew there was so much oath-taking in Starfleet! Though it was hardly worth calling a trip, this is another time we'd been to Vulcan this season, only seeing the red planet from orbit, before it was off to Babel for the conference where Coridan would be voted in or out of joining the Federation, though it's not without good reason since it's a planet rich with dilithium. Sarek's Vulcan retinue includes a 'familiar' face in Russ Peek who plays one of his aides (uncredited), and had previously been the executioner in 'Amok Time' so perhaps he was a spy for Sarek on that occasion and would never have actually killed Spock had he lost?

In all, a worthy addition to the Trek canon and one that would have lasting repercussions throughout Trek history both real and production-wise. It gave us so many gifts to the canon and cultures and is one of the most important episodes for showing what Trek could be capable of. I'd never considered it as a precursor to the kind of personal stories we saw in later Treks on a regular basis, but seeing it again (for possibly only the second time as this was one I didn't recognise when I saw it for the first time on DVD), underlines how much they got from this. I only wish modern Trek was able to create the reality of Vulcans and their culture as true as this did, but that's no fault of this episode's. I didn't even go into the Coridan link that runs through 'Enterprise,' but it's enough to make you want to see all those episodes as well and solidify the history in your mind, as so many of the great Treks did. The destination was much further in the future than they ever realised and this stands as an ideal of the sub-genre Trek created.

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