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76			    JOURNEY TO BABEL
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WRITER: Dorothy Fontana

GUESTS: Jane Wyatt (Amanda)
	Mark Lenard (Sarek)
	William O'Connell
	Reggie Nalder
	John Wheeler
	James X. Mitchell

AIRED:  November 17, 1967

HACK-MAN rating: .670
Usenet rating:   .766

QUOTES:
=======
 - "Offense is a human emotion" --Sarek.
 - "Threats are illogical and payments are usually expensive" --Sarek.
 - "Worry is a human emotion" --Spock.
 - "Indeed...  I  would  estimate  the  odds..." --Spock    "Please don't."
   --Amanda
 - "Shut up!" -McCoy to Spock
 - "What do you know... I finally got the last word in." --McCoy


			    JOURNEY TO BABEL

PLOT:
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Crisis piles atop crisis when the Enterprise is in charge of transporting a
volatile cargo  of  Federation  diplomats  (114  delegates,  many  of  them
admirals), including Spock's parents (Sarek and  Amanda).   Sarek is having
problems with his heart, though he hasn't told his wife about it.

First, Spock uses illogic to say that  the death  of the  two outweighs the
death of  the one.   Amanda  argues (logically)  that "why  should you both
die?"  Kirk gets injured and cannot command the ship (confined  to sick bay
or he'll  bleed a  lot).   Now (reversing  her logicity)  Amanda says Spock
should do the transfusion.

The intruder is signaling to a small kamikaze scout ship which  is going at
warp 10.    Andorians  are  blue  aliens  with  antennae.    Telleroids are
snout-nosed aliens, hot to pick  a fight  with Sarek  over his  vote in the
upcoming vote of whether or not to let some dilithium-rich  planet into the
federation.

Sarek shows almost human pride according to Amanda.   Kirk  (not wanting to
let Spock  "commit  patricide"  although  he  "can't  condemn  him  for his
loyalty") pretends  to  be  okay  so  he can  take command  back, then give
command immediately  to  Scotty.    But  before  he  can  call  Scotty, the
Enterprise is under attack so he tells Scotty to forget it (even though the
battle seems to go on for a long time (plenty of time for Scotty to come up
and take over and let Kirk get back to sick bay)).

Spock figures out the answer, so naturally (instead of letting him save ALL
the lives on board) Nurse Chapel sedates him so there's a  CHANCE of saving
his father (who might  die along  with everyone  else now  that Spock can't
tell Kirk what he knows).

FACTS:
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 - Spock and Sarek haven't spoken in eighteen years.
 - Spock hasn't been to Vulcan in 4 years.
 - Sarek is 102.437 Earth years old (young for a Vulcan).
 - Sarek's blood type is T negative (rare even for a Vulcan). Spock's blood
   is the same type,  but has human elements mixed in with it (but they can
   be filtered out).
 - After  slapping  Spock,  Amanda  walks  to a door,  it opens,  she walks
   through,  and it closes.  Spock starts to follow,  walks up to the door,
   and it doesn't open.
 - Amanda mentions that Spock had a pet salek (selat?)  (a live,  fat teddy
   bear with six  inch fangs)  when he  was a child,  and McCoy  teases him
   about it.
 - Sarek  thinks  that  Amanda  embarrassed  Spock,  but  my guess  is that
   embarrassment is a human emotion.
 - Tal-shiah is the Vulcan art of neck-breaking.
 - Rigelian physiology is similar to Vulcan.
 - Sarek married Amanda because "at the time it seemed the logical thing to
   do."
 - Shatner pronounces it "bAY-bel".
 - A red shirt  discovers a dead  diplomat and hits a communications panel;
   the artificially  intelligent  comm panel KNOWS that he wants to talk to
   the bridge and connects him there without even saying anything.
 - When  Kirk  calls  Spock's  mother  "Mrs. Sarek"  she  says  to call her
   "Amanda" because the family name is too hard to pronounce  (although she
   has been able to after quite some time). Is Kirk's remark something like
   calling his wife "Mrs. Jim"?   McCoy continues to call her  "Mrs. Sarek"
   throughout  the show  (apparently  he prefers  being incorrect  to being
   familiar).
 - McCoy gets the last word in.
 - At the end of the show,  Uhura is the highest ranking officer left,  but
   since the writers (or whomever) couldn't stomach the idea of putting her
   in charge, Chekov takes the con.

OPINIONS:
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Pretty good episode.