Journey to Babel by: D.C. Fontana and directed by: Joseph Pevney

 

“Journey to Babel” is written by D.C. Fontana and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 44, was the 10^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 39^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 17, 1967.

 

“Journey to Babel” is an incredibly ambitious episode of Star Trek and giving an ambitious script from D.C. Fontana to Joseph Pevney for direction means that it’s going to meet that ambition head on.  The premise of the episode is another to show Fontana’s deep care and understanding of the appeal of Star Trek: the Enterprise is transporting alien ambassadors from the Federation to the planet Babel for an emergency conference on whether to admit Coridan to their ranks.  Coridan is a planet with several natural resources but a small population and so it is the target for invaders and those that would take advantage of their strategic position.  It’s the backbone of a ship only episode in the best way, much of the budget clearly went to designing and executing the alien costumes.  While Star Trek was limited to just humanoid aliens and there isn’t much exploration of any species in particular outside of a few singular traits, the designs of “Journey to Babel” are excellent, from the simple people under a lot of body paint to be a different color to Tellarites being pig men in rather effective masks to the Andorian antennae just being visually interesting to look at.  D.C. Fontana’s script also does an excellent job of setting up the differences of opinion of the different delegates as whether to admit Coridan to the Federation while slowly shifting into the background of the episode so the main focus of exploring Spock’s heritage can come to the foreground.  Meanwhile, Joseph Pevney’s direction, while only having a couple of action sequences, does a wonderful job of being dynamic in an episode made of entirely reused sets and with so many performers under heavy makeup.  It does also provide William Shatner as Kirk with a suitable B-plot intersected very nicely with the A-plot in a way that doesn’t allow Shatner to take away from Nimoy’s performance as Spock.  Kirk is preoccupied as captain with the delegates and later investigating the murder of the Tellarite ambassador, played by John Wheeler, which gets him critically injured and places Spock’s father, Sarek played by Mark Lenard, in the crossfires.  Kirk’s entire plot is investigate and get out of the way for drama which is a perfect use of the character in an episode like this.

 

From the moment they are introduced Sarek and his wife Amanda, played by Jane Wyatt, have this fascinating dynamic of people from two different worlds that have found each other despite all the odds being against them.  The love there is subtle and their personalities are completely different, Wyatt being the compassionate mother while Sarek is a distant but proud father of Spock, and these dynamics have estranged Spock from his parents.  Fontana covering a topic like being estranged from one’s parents in 1967 is a bold move, and she firmly comes down on it being Sarek’s fault for pushing Spock away and when Sarek is out of commission due to a heart commission it becomes the breakthrough he needed in the end was for Spock to save him.  The actual conflict came from Spock enlisting in Starfleet and not becoming a purely Vulcan scientist, a fascinating conflict and look at Vulcan isolationism reflecting intergenerational conflicts of the era and reflecting down to today in a fascinating way.  Spock as a man is tied to his duty, coming up with the logical solution to save his father before initially being unable to donate his blood due to being in command of the Enterprise.  Leonard Nimoy’s performance is once again subtle but the range of emotion is there from the start, with some incredibly uncomfortable body language as Sarek and Amanda arrive, to several of his quips being made more wry by the episode, and even in the final moments when Sarek is saved and Spock and Kirk are out of commission.  Jane Wyatt as Amanda also brings the emotional center of the episode to the forefront, she’s a human that charmed a Vulcan and perhaps because she is a maternal figure is allowed to have a fuller sense of characterization than many of Star Trek’s female guest stars.  DeForrest Kelley and Majel Barrett as McCoy and Nurse Chapel also have some very good moments, McCoy’s ending quip of the episode and reaction to Spock’s parents are both priceless and really sell the relationship while Barrett’s few lines are given such a cold delivery that really sells the severity of the situation.

 

Overall, “Journey to Babel” is an episode that knocks it out of the park from start to finish, taking the limitations of its lower budget to explore an avenue of the Enterprise as facilitator of peace in a way that is surprising it took until the second season of the show to really do.  D.C. Fontana’s script is on top form and Joseph Pevney gets some of the best performances possible out of his actors, while our principal trio each have their part to play in another brilliant Spock centered episode.  9/10.