2x10 Journey to Babel

[9.0/10] Most of the time, episodes of the original Star Trek series are such standalone, independent stories that my knowledges of the other, successive series doesn’t affect how I experience episodes of TOS too much. Sure, I already know what the Federation is, who the Klingons and Romulans are, and what a warp drive is, but for the most part that just makes it easier to slip into the world of The Original Series than it colors my view.

That’s not true for “Journey to Babel” an episode centered on Spock and his family. For one thing, it ruins the surprise when Spock announces that Sarek and Amanda are his parents. (Cue the dramatic musical sting.) But more importantly, it’s hard not to think of the way that Captain Picard, imbued with the memories and emotions of Sarek, lamented the man’s ability to show Amanda and Sarek the love and tenderness he wished too. It’s hard not to think of the 2009 reboot, and the way it centered on Spock’s struggles to relate to his human side, represented by his mother, and his Vulcan sense of duty.

But the beauty if that such foreknowledge enhances my appreciation for “Journey to Babel” rather than superseding it. The episode, like any centered on Vulcans, explores the contrast between their culture’s commitment to stoicism and looking down on human emotion, while expressing their deeply-felt, internal emotions in subtle ways, always with the fig leaf of “logic” to protect them.

Leonard Nimoy has become an expert at playing that dichotomy as an actor, and Mark Lenard holds his own as well. But it’s enhanced by the knowledge of all those strong feelings bubbling under the surface of both characters. I don’t mean to be a slave to continuity or anything. Obviously, writer D.C. Fontana wasn’t relying on stories that wouldn’t be written for decades, but he does clearly conceive both Spock and Sarek as having sentiments for and about one another that they’re incapable of expressing through anything but their staid Vulcan demeanor, and those sentiments having been given shape and form by later works helps deepen that conflict and divide here.

But one of the nice things about “Journey to Babel” is that the drama between Spock and his parents is only a part of the episode. For one thing, there is a diplomatic delegation on board, allowing Trek to introduce a variety of new, colorful species with pig-faces or gold skin or powder blue stalks. The notion of diplomatic tensions feels very TNG, and it not only creates an excuse to have Spock’s dad on board while establishing his name and reputation, but it produces a heightened atmosphere from the beginning of the episode.

And if that weren’t enough, it’s also a murder-mystery, with one of the pig people showing up murdered in an airlock (or some weird corridor), and a mysterious ship following the Enterprise at a speed the Federation can’t match or account for. It’s a testament to Fontana that despite the many moving parts in “Babel,” it still feels like a tightly-written episode, where each scene and detail bears on the larger whole. Reveals in the episode like that The Andorian is an Orion in disguise trying to sow discord to allow his people to sell dilithium crystals to both sides, or that the alien ship could travel so fast that it could elude the Enterprise because it was on a suicide mission and thus could use up all of its power without worrying about getting home are not only satisfying, but they prove to be meaningful events for the more personal drama and dilemmas that the episode examines.

To that end, I loved the way that dilemma becomes a microcosm of Spock’s feelings about both his father and Starfleet. On the one hand, he insists on being a blood donor to allow Bones to perform surgery on his dad, even though it is a risky procedure that could threaten both their lives. Naturally, he couches it as the only logical course of action, but it’s clear that the choice stems as much from sentiment for his father as it does any medical decision tree, whether or not he can admit it.

And yet, when Kirk is incapacitated, he forebears, and tells his rueful mother that he cannot subvert his duty to Starfleet to command the ship in the Captain’s absence. It’s a sound plot move, since the diplomatic coterie and phantom ship explain why he cannot simply step aside and let Scotty take over. But it’s also a morally complex one, where Spock not only feels like he needs to do right by the codes and regulations and most importantly the people he has agreed to lead and protect, but also by his father, who would want him to apply such logic despite choosing Starfleet over the Vulcan science academy.

I also love Kirk and Bones’s choices here. For one thing, Bones is just on fire in this episode, between finally getting the last word after he convinces both the captain and first officer to “shut up,” but he’s also kind of adorable getting details about Spock’s childhood from Amanda. (It should be said, Amanda is great here too, if occasionally a bit overwrought, being in the unique position to understand both her son’s Vulcan and human sides, while being just as likely to push against pure logic in both Spock and Sarek.) And Kirk is used well here too, trying to trick Spock so that he doesn’t have to make that choice between duty and family, in a move that is as crafty as it is well-meaning.

It works, all those different plot points converge as the saboteur is captured, the alien ship attacks, and Spock and Sarek undergo the procedure all at the same time, with each threatening the other in its way. There is, naturally, a happy ending, one where everyone recovers, but so does Spock and Sarek’s relationship. They will never admit it, but the gesture meant a lot to them both.

Even a man like Sarek, who stands as a bastion of the Vulcan community, has the sort of sentiment in him that leads him to “illogically” marry a human woman and take pride in his son’s accomplishments and sacrifices, and a man like Spock, engaged in the closest thing a Vulcan has to rebellion, can show great affection for the man who raised him. As the later stories involving these two individuals will show, those feelings run deep, even if the waters on the surface seem still.

Perhaps the best cold open of this show yet. What a revelation. What a mysterious race.

It's a joy to learn about Vulcans and about Spock's family in particular. At this point, he's by far the most intriguing character aboard and he's the only guy that writers care enough to tell a wonderful background story (Kirk's family appeared in last season's finale but that did not contribute to his character at all). This episode is kind of the sequel of Amok Time - another episode with a focus on Vulcan culture.:vulcan:

The whodunnit part - almost a B-plot - ain't bad either. It shows again Spock's towering intelligence. First time I think that Spock's and McCoys strange relationship - all that constant bickering fueled by McCoy's curiosity - actually makes sense. Before, when he made fun of Spock it was rarely more than an inconsequential comic relief. McCoy stars also in very interesting medical scene. Sci-fi at its best. How silly Kirk's fight scene is in comparison!

Andorians, who I always liked, are already really well designed. Later shows were able to capitalize on their excellent make-up. That's actually a surprise since most aliens often look like humans and sometimes nothing like they were pictured in later shows.

The whole episode still works today. It's not impaired by the technical limitations inevitable back then, 'cause it's just a good story.