journey is trek

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of trek

 (Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

Definition of trek  (Entry 2 of 2)

• peregrinate
• peregrination

Examples of trek in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'trek.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Afrikaans, from Dutch trecken to pull, haul, migrate; akin to Old High German trechan to pull

Afrikaans, from Dutch treck pull, haul, from trecken

1835, in the meaning defined at sense 2

1849, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near trek

Treitz's muscle

Cite this Entry

“Trek.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trek. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of trek.

Kids Definition of trek  (Entry 2 of 2)

from Afrikaans trek, "to travel by ox wagon," from Dutch trecken "to haul, pull"

More from Merriam-Webster on trek

Nglish: Translation of trek for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of trek for Arabic Speakers

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), absent letters that are heard anyway, popular in wordplay, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 12 more bird names that sound like insults (and sometimes are), 8 uncommon words related to love, 9 superb owl words, 15 words that used to mean something different, games & quizzes.

• Vocabulary exercises help you to learn synonyms, collocations and idioms.
• Intermediate and Advanced level grammar practice with progress tests.
• Listening and pronunciation, exam preparation and more!

More results

Explore topics

• Citizenship

Journey to Babel (episode)

• View history

As the Enterprise comes under attack on the way to a diplomatic conference on Babel, one of the alien dignitaries is murdered, and Spock's estranged father Sarek is the prime suspect – but he is also deathly ill, and only Spock can save him.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Story and script
• 4.2 Makeup and costumes
• 4.3 Effects
• 4.6 Continuity and trivia
• 4.7 Reception
• 4.8 Apocrypha
• 4.9 Remastered information
• 4.10 Production timeline
• 4.11 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Guest stars
• 5.4 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

The USS Enterprise arrives in orbit around the planet Vulcan , picking up the last delegation of Vulcans to add to an assortment of 114 ambassadors and dignitaries aboard (including Andorians and Tellarites ). The delegates will be attending a conference on the neutral planetoid named Babel to decide the admission of the planet Coridan to the Federation , which is rich in dilithium but is poorly defended. In the captain's quarters, Dr. McCoy laments to Captain Kirk about how uncomfortable his dress uniform is. Kirk assures the doctor that they can relax once they bring the Vulcan delegation aboard. On their way, McCoy explains the tension of the assignment while Spock arrives to meet them. As the Vulcan delegation arrive on the shuttle Galileo, the three officers and an honor guard of security personnel greet the Vulcan ambassador to Earth , Sarek , and his Human wife Amanda . Welcoming the ambassador aboard, Kirk offers to have Spock take him and his wife on a tour of the ship, but Sarek coldly asks that someone else give it. Sensing unpleasantness between the two Vulcans, Kirk suggests to Spock that, with two hours before the ship leaves orbit, he should beam down to the planet and visit his parents. But Spock says that would be unnecessary, because Ambassador Sarek and his wife are his parents.

Act One [ ]

As Kirk conducts a tour of the ship for the ambassador and his wife, he seeks out the roots of estrangement between Spock and his parents once they pass by Spock in Engineering. The rift seemingly sprang from Spock's election to attend Starfleet Academy over his fathers' choice of the Vulcan Science Academy as Sarek followed his father's teachings. Kirk voices support of Spock's choices and notes that he has a personal friendship with Spock to his mother Amanda, who appreciates the sentiment but also warns that the estrangement between father and son may be permanent, since it has been 18 years.

The delegates meet at a reception on the Enterprise . McCoy asked Sarek if he considered retirement at his age of 102. Sarek replied he had other concerns. The Tellarite ambassador, Gav , confronts Sarek asking about his vote on Coridan's admission, to which he replies that it would be known at the conference. Gav demands he knows know where the he stands where the Andorian ambassador, Shras , asks why. The Tellarite ambassador replies his vote carries others and he would know where he stands and why. Sarek insults Gav by stating that Tellarites simply argue for no reason. Kirk interjects and reminds everyone that they won't solve their issues on the Enterprise , drawing apologies from Shras and Sarek, while Gav excuses himself from the reception.

Kirk and Sarek move on to other guests while McCoy discovers a hint of Spock's childhood from Amanda, that he had a pet sehlat , " a fat teddy bear , " as Amanda says, delighting the doctor. Spock corrects his mother's sentiment, saying that on Vulcan, the "teddy bears" are alive and have six-inch long fangs.

Kirk also learns the Enterprise is being tailed by a mysterious unidentified vessel. On the bridge, they determine that the vessel is an unknown configuration, unauthorized, and not responding to hails. Kirk orders an intercept to take a closer look.

Meanwhile, Amanda speaks with her husband against their son's estrangement in their quarters , but Sarek resists, saying that Spock is due respect for his own achievements, not for feelings of pride. Amanda believes Sarek feels pride in Spock despite his disapproval of Starfleet but won't show it.

The unidentified vessel makes a pass at the Enterprise at warp 10 without firing.

Later, Sarek is again confronted by Gav at the reception area, and Sarek reveals that he would vote in favor of admission, citing that Coridan needs the Federation's protection against illegal dilithium mining, which alludes to illegal Tellarite mining operations on Coridan. A brief struggle between the two ambassadors ensues, broken up by Kirk who just arrived. The captain sternly reminds both ambassadors that there will be order as long as he is in command of the ship. They both agree and Gav excuses himself once again.

Gav found murdered

A few hours later, Gav's lifeless body is found stuffed up a Jefferies tube on deck 11 by security officer Lt. Josephs .

Act Two [ ]

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy investigate Gav's murder . McCoy explains his neck was broken in a very precise manner, leading Spock to conclude it can only be a Vulcan execution technique called tal-shaya . Kirk then deduces that Sarek is logically the prime suspect, but when he is confronted by Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, it is revealed that Sarek is becoming increasingly ill with a cardiac defect, and claims he could not have committed the murder, as he was in solitude at the time of Gav's death on the Enterprise 's observation deck . McCoy takes him to sickbay.

Kirk and Spock go to the bridge and rule out the Romulans and Klingons. Uhura additionally finds that the communication signal is being received inside the ship, but not pinpointed.

It falls on McCoy to attempt to heal the ambassador with heart surgery, but the doctor has reservations, what with his own limited surgical experience on Vulcan physiology and the requirement of large amounts of a rare Vulcan blood type, T-negative . Spock elects to take the role of blood donor, risking his own life by taking a dangerous stimulant only tested on Rigelians to induce blood cell production despite Amanda's objections. They debate this for a while.

However, Kirk is suddenly stabbed by the Andorian delegate Thelev . He subdues Thelev in a corridor on deck five just outside his quarters and alerts Spock on the bridge through an intercom panel just before passing out in the corridor.

Thelev fighting Kirk

Act Three [ ]

Thelev is placed into custody in the Enterprise 's brig . Kirk has survived the assassination attempt, but now Spock refuses to participate in the procedure while his commanding officer is lying in sickbay , stating his first duty is to the ship, and cannot relinquish command due to "personal privilege."

He goes to the brig and questions Thelev. However, even under a verifier scan and truth drug, he does not answer. The lead Andorian doesn't know him that well, and can't help other than to say the Andorians have no quarrel with Kirk.

Amanda comes to Spock's quarters to convince him to help Sarek, appealing to his duty to his father, saying any competent officer can take command. Spock agrees that is true in normal circumstances, but says he cannot relinquish command as the situation is not normal and what would his father say if he risked the ship, over 100 valuable Federation passengers and interplanetary war for one life? She makes an emotional appeal to his human half, saying if he allows his father to die she will hate him for the rest of her life. But Spock's decision is unchanged. She slaps him and leaves. He puts a hand out towards her after the door closes.

Kirk comes to consciousness and finds McCoy is not in surgery, to which he explains Spock's decision. Despite objections from McCoy, Kirk goes to the bridge and assumes command before he is fully healed, and sends Spock to surgery, with the intent of handing command over to Scotty while Spock is undergoing the blood transfusion and recover in his quarters. After Spock and McCoy leave the bridge he is about to call Scotty; however, the alien vessel comes closer and Uhura picks up a signal and determines that it's being received in the brig. Kirk orders red alert and security to search Thelev.

Thelev in the brig

As McCoy takes blood from Spock and begins to operate on Sarek, Thelev attempts to escape from his cell while being searched, and the security officers use their phasers to stun him. As Thelev falls to the floor unconscious, his antenna breaks — revealing a transmitter used to communicate with the intruder vessel.

The intruder ship begins to open fire on the Enterprise . The smaller vessel makes unbelievably quick passes and phaser strikes against the larger starship, too fast for Enterprise to return fire effectively, missing with a phaser attack. Despite being faster than the Enterprise , their weapons only consist of standard phasers according to Ensign Chekov , indicating to Kirk they don't have superior firepower. The Enterprise continues to fight a battle against the smaller and faster ship, shuddering with each successive hit and suffering power losses. McCoy fears he may lose both his patients if the ship continues to take a pounding.

Act Four [ ]

As Enterprise struggles against the unknown vessel, missing with a full spread of photon torpedoes , Thelev is brought to the bridge, where Kirk confronts him as to his true identity as a spy. Thelev is uncooperative, preferring to taunt Kirk and enjoy the view of his fellow ship succeeding over the larger Enterprise . As the power goes out in sickbay, Sarek goes into cardiac arrest. McCoy and Nurse Christine Chapel try to make do with portable resuscitation equipment in an attempt to restart his heart again.

" Got him! "

Meanwhile, Kirk, fed up with Thelev's taunts and the other ship's apparently superior tactical ability, does the unthinkable. He drops the shields, then systematically fakes losing all power to lure the other ship in. The Enterprise appears dead in space. The enemy ship appears to hesitate, then slowly closes in for the kill. As soon as it is in range, Kirk delivers phaser fire that cripples the vessel, to the observing Thelev's disappointment. The mystery ship then self-destructs to avoid capture, and Thelev dies of an apparent suicide via slow poison.

Dr. McCoy happy at finally getting the last word

In sickbay, Kirk discovers that Sarek's surgery was a success, and not only are he and Spock recovering well, but they are also talking again as father and son. They even tease Amanda together, Sarek explaining that despite her rampant emotions a marriage to Amanda seemed at the time the only logical thing to do. When Kirk orders McCoy to perform an autopsy on Thelev to determine his true identity, Spock surmises Thelev and the attackers in the enemy ship were Orions , who had much to gain from disrupting the Babel conference so they could continue to loot Coridan of its dilithium. Kirk then slumps, finally too exhausted and in too much pain to continue, but he continues to protest as he is led to another empty bed in the ward by McCoy and Nurse Chapel. McCoy, exercising his rightful medical authority over his patients, is eventually successful in telling Kirk and Spock to lie still and be quiet, finally and gleefully getting "the last word".

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2268

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I feel like my neck's in a sling. "

" That hurts worse than the uniform. "

" Vulcans believe that peace should not depend on force. "

" Isn't it unusual for a Vulcan to retire at your age? After all, You're only 102. " " 102.437 precisely, doctor. Measured in your years. I… had… other concerns. "

" Tellarites do not argue for reasons. They simply argue. "

" On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive. And they have six-inch fangs. "

" You're showing almost Human pride in your son. "

" It does not require pride to ask that Spock be given the respect which is his due…not as my son, but as Spock. "

" Threats are illogical. And payment is usually expensive. "

" Vulcans do not approve of violence. "

" Perhaps you should forget logic and devote yourself to motivations of passion or gain. Those are reasons for murder. "

" You're Human, too. Let that part of you come through. "

" My patients don't walk out in the middle of an operation. "

" It's… important… " " So is your father's life. "

" Logic! Logic! I'm sick to death of logic! "

" Emotional, isn't she? " " She has always been that way. " " Indeed. Why did you marry her? " " At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do. "

" Well, what do you know? I finally got the last word. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• D.C. Fontana 's writing of this episode was inspired by several references to Spock's parents that had been littered throughout the previous installments of TOS. Fontana later admitted, " 'Journey to Babel' grew out of previous writing […] There were all these little things that were running around in my brain. " [1] One of the past references, dialogue said in " This Side of Paradise " (which Fontana had previously worked on as a writer), was especially influential to the story. Explained Fontana, " The idea really came out of the line toward the end of 'This Side of Paradise', where Spock says, 'My mother was a school teacher, my father was an ambassador.' " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , pp. 84-85)
• Fontana presented Gene Roddenberry with the idea of featuring Spock's parents in an episode. She reflected, " I was kicking around stories and I finally went in to Gene […] and said, 'I want to do something about Spock's mother and father […] Let's explore that relationship.' " [2] " I said to Gene, 'We've talked about them, let's show them,' " Fontana continued. " He told me to do it, and I came up with 'Journey to Babel'. " ( Starlog issue #118, p. 18)
• Another influence on the episode was an extreme interest in exploring Spock's parentage. " We needed to see the family background that Spock was raised in, what's going on with him truly personally, " Fontana related. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , pp. 84-85) Furthermore, she was interested in not only who Spock's parents were but also how they had shaped his identity. [3]
• After D.C. Fontana chose to feature Spock's family in the episode, she began to formulate some of their backstory. Said Fontana, " I made some notes about what was going on with them. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , p. 85) She elaborated, " I sat down and created two characters, emphasizing the triangular relationship – the rift between Sarek and Spock, with Amanda positioned in the middle. " ( Starlog issue #118, p. 18) It was Fontana who named Spock's mother "Amanda"; she chose that name because it means "worthy of being loved." ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 217)
• D.C. Fontana was interested in making the aforementioned rift multi-dimensional. She remembered, " One of the points I […] wanted to make believable in 'Babel' was that both Spock and Sarek were right – as their own convictions applied to themselves – and wrong – as their convictions applied to each other. " ( Babel #5; Enterprise Incidents , number 11, p. 27) This interpersonal friction, despite being between a full-blooded Vulcan and his half-Vulcan son, enabled Fontana to somewhat humanize the story. She observed, " It was really about the generation gap which […] can be either a wall or, you know, something warm and lovely. And in this case, it was a wall, as far as between the father and son. " [4] Fontana also reckoned that the family dynamic of having the hybrid Spock biologically between the extremities of the two others was "bound to create a lot of character problems." ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 57) Gene Roddenberry approved of taking the opportunity to center the episode on the conflict between Sarek and Spock. [5] The multi-faceted character dynamics within the family propelled Fontana to write the story and script. " This was the first mention [in 'Journey to Babel'] that [Spock] and his father had been estranged. Well, why? " she wondered. " What's with his mother, what feelings does she have in this particular triangle between husband and son? And what kind of a woman was she to marry a Vulcan, go to Vulcan, live like a Vulcan, raise a half-Vulcan son? What was that all about?' " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , pp. 84-85)
• The storyline concerning intrigue between the various ambassadors on board the Enterprise was subsequently added to the plot. With an indirect reference to the narrative about Spock's parents, D.C. Fontana stated, " I wrapped it up in a mystery, and in an adventure. " [6]
• The multiple minor differences between this episode's first draft and its ultimate embodiment include a brief discussion between Amanda and Spock in which she tried to persuade him to talk to his father. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 29 , p. 28)
• In the first draft script, Sarek and Amanda had been married for thirty-eight years, Sarek had been an astrophysicist before embarking on a career in politics, and his father (Spock's grandfather) was Shariel, a famous Vulcan ambassador. ( The Star Trek Compendium , p. 89)
• In an early draft, D.C. Fontana planned for a Vulcan city to be shown in the episode's teaser, when Spock meets up with his parents. She explained, " The cost of doing a 'matte,' or painting of the city, was prohibitive. " ( Babel #5; Enterprise Incidents , number 11, p. 26) Hence, the shot was removed. [7]
• Fontana was not concerned, while writing this episode, about how costly producing the story's variety of aliens would be, since she was aware that – because the installment is set entirely aboard the Enterprise with no extra planetary or ship sets needed – the finances could be spent wholly on the costumes and makeup. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, p. 46)
• In the original script, Sarek and his company were beamed aboard the Enterprise , but after going over budget with the expensive Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite make-up as well as the outer space footage of the Orion ship, there was no money left for the transporter effect. The Vulcans' transportation to the ship by shuttlecraft was decided upon because it could be done completely via the use of stock footage from " The Galileo Seven ". ( The Star Trek Compendium , p. 89)
• In D.C. Fontana's opinion, not much was altered between how she envisioned this episode and the way in which it turned out. " It was shot pretty much as I wrote it – only a couple of things were changed, " related Fontana. " One scene was added in which Amanda talks to Kirk about Sarek's relationship with his son. It seemed to me that that would have been inappropriate, and that she would not have blurted out all this information to Kirk. I did not have anything to do with that scene, and I think Gene Roddenberry rewrote it. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 26 , p. 25)

Makeup and costumes [ ]

• Actor John Wheeler , in character as Gav, had so much trouble seeing through the prosthetics over his eyes that he was forced to raise his head to see his castmates. This added to the early mythos that all Tellarites were arrogant as well as belligerent and aggressive. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 220)
• William Blackburn , in an unused make-up scheme for the Tellarites from a make-up test, can be seen in the end credits of " The Deadly Years " and " A Private Little War ".
• Andorian make-up was very expensive. Three different sets had to be created, for William O'Connell , for Reggie Nalder , and for Jim Shepherd, the stuntman doubling for O'Connell. ( citation needed • edit )
• Many of the costumes worn by extras in the hallway and reception room scenes were recycled from several first season episodes, including the outfits worn by Galactic High Commissioner Ferris in " The Galileo Seven " and by Lazarus in " The Alternative Factor ". A female extra ( Jeannie Malone ) can be seen wearing a faux fur dress worn by Lenore Karidian in " The Conscience of the King ", complete with other recycled costume pieces. Another female alien is wearing Areel Shaw 's civilian dress from " Court Martial ", and a third one is wearing a costume left over from " Wolf in the Fold ". Scotty 's dress uniform was also reused on an extra playing a Starfleet delegate.
• The vests worn by the Andorian delegates were recycled from the 1956 RKO film The Conqueror . Reggie Nalder ' vest was worn by John Wayne in the film and had been auditioned off by Heritage Auctions in 2018. [8]

Effects [ ]

• The completed episode was very well-liked by NBC . The network urged the production staff to finish post-production of "Journey to Babel" quickly, so that it could be scheduled for the earliest possible airdate. As a result, the visual effect shots of the Orion scoutship were not ready when the trailer for the episode was assembled, hence the trailer features a different (much more primitive) effect depicting the vessel. For the same reason, the Enterprise fires purple phasers in the trailer, while phasers are blue in color in the episode itself. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )
• The matte shot of Uhura appearing on the screen in engineering is one of the smallest mattes ever used in the series, until the view discs in " All Our Yesterdays ".
• For some unknown reason, during the fight between Thelev and Kirk, just after Kirk's failed wall kick, the comical sound effect of a coconut conk can be heard. This may have been meant to indicate Thelev's head hitting the floor. In the remastered edition of this episode, this effect has been removed from the fight.
• The noise of the coded message sent by Thelev is also used in " Miri ".
• The Orion ship was recycled as the missile in " Patterns of Force ".
• The Tantalus field controls used in " Mirror, Mirror " can be seen behind McCoy while Amanda is inquiring about Sarek's condition. The couch from Kirk's Starbase 11 quarters in " Court Martial " can also be seen in McCoy's office. ( The Star Trek Compendium , p. 89)
• The Tellarite ambassador is found dead in "Deck 11, section A3" which, according to Matt Jefferies ' original internal schematics, is at the bottom of the main interconnecting dorsal. ( citation needed • edit ) The "slanting wall tube" that the Tellarite is found sprawled in is also identified as " Engineering Circuit Bay " by the wall plaque in another episode. ( citation needed • edit )
• Leonard Nimoy regarded this episode's depiction of Spock's relationship with his parents as a very worthy allegory for the difficulty many teenagers encounter with their own parents. [9]
• When Mark Lenard was cast as Sarek for this episode, he was forty-three, only seven years older than Leonard Nimoy. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 218)
• Before he was cast as Sarek, Lenard played the first major Romulan character seen on Star Trek , the Romulan Commander in the episode " Balance of Terror ".
• When she was offered the part of Amanda, Jane Wyatt had never heard of Star Trek before, and thought of it as a comedy. She expected to have a week of laughing on the set, but upon arriving for her first day of working on the episode, she was very surprised by how seriously everyone was taking the show. [10] As a tribute to her long and distinguished career, Wyatt is called "Miss Jane Wyatt" in the episode's closing credits.
• D.C. Fontana was uninvolved in the casting of Mark Lenard as Sarek and Jane Wyatt as Amanda but ultimately approved of the selections of those two guest stars. " [They] were brilliant together […] The two of them together looked superb, " Fontana enthused. " They were just wonderful and they carried it off so well, even the Vulcanisms that we had to put in. " [11]
• Leonard Nimoy once recalled that Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt came to him for advice on Vulcan culture. Nimoy replied that he had come to believe Vulcans placed great importance on their hands and hand gestures, and suggested Lenard and Wyatt find a way to demonstrate that, when on screen. The actors then created the finger-touching gesture seen in the episode. ("To Boldly Go…": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• James Doohan ( Scott ) and George Takei ( Sulu ) do not appear in this episode, although Scott is mentioned.
• Frank da Vinci plays one of Sarek's aides. Russ Peek , who plays the other aide, also appeared as mirror Spock 's Vulcan bodyguard in " Mirror, Mirror ".

Continuity and trivia [ ]

• Sarek appears on screen for the first and only time on TOS. He was not seen again until Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , seventeen years later.
• This episode introduces the Andorians and the Tellarites. Later episodes established that, along with Humans and Vulcans, they are two of the four founding members of the United Federation of Planets .
• The gathering of aliens in this episode is of notable continuity. D.C. Fontana stated about the installment, " It was the first show we had done with a number of different aliens all together in one place with some goal in mind. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , p. 85)
• This episode marks the first mention of Starfleet Intelligence in Star Trek production history.
• This episode is also the first mention of a pet sehlat that Spock owned in his youth. This animal appears in D.C. Fontana's Star Trek: The Animated Series first season episode " Yesteryear ", which also establishes the creature's name as I-Chaya .
• Shras' suggestion that Spock forget logic and consider motivations of passion when investigating Gav's murder and Kirk's stabbing foreshadow the Vulcan-Andorian conflicts seen a century earlier, throughout Star Trek: Enterprise .
• The door to Spock's quarters does not work as expected. It opens to allow his mother, Amanda, to leave and closes behind her as normal. Then Spock walks to the door and places his hand on it, but it does not open, despite his proximity.
• The conclusion of this episode involves a rare breaking of the fourth wall . ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 219) McCoy was looking slightly to the right of the screen and appeared to be speaking to Amanda and Nurse Chapel when he expresses delight at finally having the last word. However, a more direct breaking of the fourth wall occurred in "The Changeling" as Uhura, attempting to read the word "blue" on her viewscreen, turns directly to the camera and the viewers as she mispronounces the word as "blu-ee."
• Spock's decision to join Starfleet rather than attend the Vulcan Science Academy is seen in the film Star Trek , wherein he makes the choice after being told by the head of the VSA admissions board that his academic accomplishments were all the more impressive given the "disadvantage" of having a Human parent. While this occurs after Nero 's incursion changes the timeline , screenwriter Roberto Orci stated that this took place in the prime timeline as well. ( citation needed • edit )
• Tellarites were seen in two Season 3 episodes, with greatly modified masks: " The Lights of Zetar " and " Whom Gods Destroy ".
• Manny Coto originally pushed to have the short, gold-skinned species from this episode attend the Coalition of Planets conference in " Terra Prime ", but it proved too expensive. He named the species Ithenite , a name that is mentioned in " Azati Prime " by time traveler Daniels . ( citation needed • edit )
• Spock reports that he gets readings of " trititanium " in the Orion ship's hull. It is not clear if the entire hull is made of it or parts of it. Trititanium is the material that the Enterprise 's hull is made of, as Gene Roddenberry says in the novel Star Trek: The Motion Picture . It is not clear whether it is the same material as " tritanium " which is reported to be "twenty times as hard as diamond" in TOS : " Obsession ".
• In DIS : " Light and Shadows ", which is set in 2257 , eleven years prior to this episode, Sarek and Spock share a scene together on Vulcan . Although this might seem to contradict Amanda's statement to Kirk in this episode that Spock and Sarek have not spoken "as father and son for eighteen years", her wording is still technically correct, since Spock was not in a proper state of mind in that episode, and Sarek does not directly address his son.

Reception [ ]

• D.C. Fontana has repeatedly named this episode her favorite out of all the Star Trek episodes she wrote. ("To Boldly Go…": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features; Star Trek Magazine  issue 128 , p. 46; et al ) She noted, " It went into the Vulcan relationships between families. I think that's a story that's universal and timeless – that communication between parents and children. And that to me was the big story. The rest of it was an adventure, it was a spy story, it was a mystery, it was an action story – but all in all it was really about the parents and the child… There had still been a vast lack of communication between them and they needed to find each other as parent and child. " ("To Boldly Go…": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features) Generally, Fontana enjoyed the writing of this episode. " 'Journey to Babel' was a very happy experience, " she noted. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 26 , p. 25) She also remarked, " Bringing in the whole murder and the whole political background was a lot of fun. That was the main story, but personally I was more involved, in terms of interest as a writer, with the personal story of Spock and Sarek and Amanda. " Fontana also commented that, despite the fact that the family-centered storyline "takes up very little room," it turned out to be the memorable aspect of the episode. " That's the part of the story that everyone remembers, " Fontana concluded. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , p. 85)
• Leonard Nimoy enthused, " Mark had a real sense of the dignity and the authority that the character needed. Jane was very Human – which is exactly what that character needed. They were terrific together. " ("To Boldly Go…": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• Director Joseph Pevney was selective with his opinion of how successful this episode was, though he was especially impressed by makeup supervisor Fred Phillips ' work on the outing. " That was a good show in certain ways, " remarked Pevney. " I thought the greatest contributor to it was the makeup artist. He did a fabulous job of bringing alien humanoids on board. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 57)
• While Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was often deluged with fan mail on a regular basis, this trend was outdone following the broadcast of "Journey to Babel". Indeed, the fan mail poured into the studio at an incredible rate, only this time addressed to Mark Lenard, who for two weeks, topped those coming in for Nimoy. ( The World of Star Trek )
• The reference book Star Trek 101 (p. 18), by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block , counts this episode as one of the "Ten Essential Episodes" from Star Trek: The Original Series .
• In the unofficial reference book Trek Navigator: The Ultimate Guide to the Entire Trek Saga (p. 123), both Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross (the book's co-writers) individually rate this episode 4 out of 5 stars (defined as "Classic!").
• The unauthorized reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 32) comments on this outing, stating, " [An] episode that is rich with color and texture. The relationship between Spock and Sarek is done extremely well, with Amanda's concern and disappointment adding an absent emotional context that makes the father-son relationship seem more tragic. "
• In the souvenir magazine Star Trek 30 Years , (pp. 89 & 90) the magazine's makers included this installment as one of their all-time favorite episodes from the original Star Trek series and described it as "an enjoyable romp with a heartfelt ending." They went on to say, " Mark Lenard is appropriately stiff as Spock's Vulcan father, Sarek, and Jane Wyatt is endearing as his Earth-born mother, Amanda. "
• TV Guide ranked this as the fifth best Star Trek episode for their celebration of the franchise's 30th anniversary. ( TV Guide August 24, 1996 issue)
• In the magazine Cinefantastique , writer Sue Uram rated this episode 4 out of 4 stars and commented, " 'Journey to Babel' marks a high point in D.C. Fontana's remarkable association with Star Trek […] Clearly, 'Journey to Babel' is important from the Federation historical perspective of attempting to form a United Nations sort of body […] However, it is the inner conflict of Mr. Spock with his father and the remarkable insights we are given into his unhappy childhood which make this show unique […] Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard put in sterling performances as Spock's parents. It almost breaks my heart when Amanda, loving her husband and her son, must use the ultimate emotion to force Spock to face his duty – that of guilt. " The same issue of Cinefantastique also included the installment among " Trek 's Top Ten." ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, pp. 75, 76 & 103)

Apocrypha [ ]

• This episode was used wholesale in the Star Trek Online expansion Agents of Yesterday . In the mission "Return to Babel", the player character is sent back to the event to prevent the Na'kuhl from disrupting it. Gav's death and Kirk's stabbing were perpetrated by the Na'kuhl and the mystery ship was a collaboration between the Orions and the Na'kuhl, its destruction not a self-destruct, but the player character planting a bomb that was meant for the Enterprise in the ship itself.
• A cat version of "Journey to Babel" was featured in Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats .

Remastered information [ ]

• The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication the weekend of 3 February 2007 and featured several notably altered effects. The Enterprise shuttlebay and landing sequence was completely redone digitally, featuring a number of background actors visible within the viewing galleries. Also revamped were shots of Vulcan (now more closely resembling its appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise ) and the battle between the Enterprise and the Orion ship, now more featuring an identifiable design.

Production timeline [ ]

A sound stage blueprint featuring revamp and filming date locations for "Journey to Babel"

• Story outline by D.C. Fontana : 23 June 1967
• First draft teleplay: 8 August 1967
• Second draft teleplay: 22 August 1967
• Final draft teleplay by Gene L. Coon : late- August 1967
• Revised final draft: 31 August 1967
• Revised final draft script – 14 September 1967
• Second revised final draft by Gene Roddenberry : 19 September 1967
• Additional revisions: 20 September 1967 , 21 September 1967 , 26 September 1967 , 27 September 1967
• Day 1 – 21 September 1967 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Kirk's quarters , Bridge
• Day 2 – 22 September 1967 , Friday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge , Corridors , Brig
• Day 3 – 25 September 1967 , Monday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Corridors , Recreation room (redress of Briefing room)
• Day 4 – 26 September 1967 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Hangar deck , Engineering , Sarek's quarters
• Day 5 – 27 September 1967 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Sickbay (Lab, Doctor's Office, Exam Room)
• Day 6 – 28 September 1967 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Sickbay , Spock's quarters
• Original airdate: 17 November 1967
• Rerun airdate: 5 July 1968
• First UK airdate: 22 June 1970
• Remastered episode airdate: 3 February 2007

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• US RCA CED Videodisc release (1982)
• Original US Betamax release: 1986
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 23 , catalog number VHR 2358, 2 April 1990
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.5, 5 May 1997
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 22, 24 April 2001
• As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of the TOS-R Season 2 DVD and TOS Season 2 Blu-ray collections

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Guest stars [ ]

• Miss Jane Wyatt as Amanda
• Mark Lenard as Sarek

Featuring [ ]

• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• William O'Connell as Thelev
• Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel
• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• John Wheeler as Gav
• James X. Mitchell as Josephs
• Reggie Nalder as Shras

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Tellarite aide
• John Blower as Babel conference officer
• Jerry Catron as Montgomery
• Billy Curtis as Copper-skinned alien 1
• Frank da Vinci as Sarek's aide 2
• Steve Hershon as security guard
• Jeannie Malone as Purple-skinned alien
• Jerry Maren as Copper-skinned alien 2
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Russ Peek as Sarek's aide 1
• Kai J. Wong as medical technician
• Shuttle pilots
• Engineering technician
• Human delegate 2
• Sciences crew woman
• Security guard 2
• Security lieutenants 1 , 2 , and 3
• Human delegate 1
• Brown-skinned aliens 1 and 2
• Big-hair aliens 1 and 2
• Cross-dress alien 1 and 2
• Female delegates 1 , 2 , and 3

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Paul Baxley as stunt double for William Shatner
• Jim Sheppard as stunt double for William O'Connell

References [ ]

2165 ; 2235 ; 2250 ; 2264 ; accusation ; " after a fashion "; aide ; alert status four ; alternative ; ambassador ; ambassador's party ; amount ; analysis ; anatomical type ; answer ; antenna ; antidote ; antimatter pile ; Andorian ; area ; argument ; attempted murder ; autopsy ; auxiliary power ; Babel ; Babel Conference ; Babel sector ; bait ; bearing ; benjisidrine ; blood ; blood bank ; blood donor ; blood plasma ; blood pressure ; blood reproduction rate ; blood test ; blood transfusion ; blood type ; body ; " Bones "; brig ; cardio-stimulator ; cardio-stimulate ; cardiovascular system ; career ; centimeter ; children ; choice ; chronological age ; circumstantial evidence ; civilization ; cloak ; code ; Columbus ; commission ; computer ; computer component ; computer records ; computer science ; computer statistics ; conclusion ; Constitution -class decks ; contact ; control computers ; Coridan ; Coridan system ; Coridanite ; council ; council chamber ; council session (aka council meeting ); course (aka heading ); curiosity ; critical level ; crying ; cyrogenic open-heart procedure ; damage control procedure ; damage report ; data ; day ; death ; delegate ; density ; dilithium crystal ; directional locator ; distance ; donor ; duty personnel ; Earthmen ; efficiency ; emergency back-up system ; emotion ; engineering section ; estimate ; evening ; execution ; experience ; expert ; fact ; family doctor ; fang ; Federation ; Federation law ; Federation planets ; fire control ; frequency ; friend ; Galileo ; general quarters ; guide ; habit ; hail (aka hailing frequency ); hangar deck ; head ; heart ; heart attack ; heartbeat ; heart valve ; high warp speed ; home base ; honor guard ; hour ; hull ; Human (aka Earthman ); Human factors ; hundred ; I-Chaya ; identification ; information ; instruction ; Ithenite ; intercept course ; intercom ; interplanetary conference ; interplanetary war ; interrogation (aka questioning); intruder ; K-2 factor ; kilometer ; Klingon ; knowledge ; liver ; location ; logic ; loyalty ; lung ; madam ; main control ; malfunction ; marriage ; medical record ; meditation ; mind ; mining ; mining operation ; minute ; mission ; missus ; motivation ; murder ; name ; nature ; neck ; oath ; observation deck ; offense ; opportunity ; organ ; Orion ; Orion (planet); Orion scout ship ; parallel course ; parent ; passenger ; patient ; patricide ; payment ; peace ; percent ; personal receiver ; pet ; petition ; phasers ; phaser bank ; phaser range ; photon torpedo ; physical examination ; physician (aka doctor ); physiology ; planetoid ; plot ; plot ; poison ; port ; power ; power utilization curve ; prescription ; pride ; prime suspect ; prisoner ; probability ; pronunciation ; puncture ; quadrant ; quarterly physical ; race ; reader tube ; reception ; recorder ; red alert ; respect ; retirement ; Rigel V ; Rigelians ; Rigelian test subjects ; risk ; Romulans ; Sarek's physician ; Saurian brandy ; science station ; scientist ; Scott, Montgomery ; scout ship ; search ; security team ; self-destruct ; sehlat ; sensor ; sensor locator ; sensor probe ; shadow ; shield ; sickbay system ; " sick to death of "; signal ; size ; Skon ; slander ; slap ; sledgehammer ; sling ; smile ; smuggler ; speculation ; speed ; spy ; " spit and polish "; spleen ; stamina ; starboard ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Command ; Starfleet dress uniform ; Starfleet Intelligence ; Starfleet regulations ; sterile field ; stimulant ; stubborn ; sublight ; suicide ; suicide mission ; surgeon ; surgery (aka operation); surgically altered ; surgical support frame ; surgically altered ; surrender ; suspect ; suspicion ; symbol ; T-negative ; tag ; tal-shaya ; teddy bear ; Tellarite ; Tellarite ship ; terror ; test subject ; " the last word "; thief ; thing ; thousand ; threat ; tour ; training ; transceiver ; translator broadcast ; transmission ; tri-tritanium ; truth drug ; universal translator ; universe ; verifier scan ; volunteering ; vote ; Vulcan ; Vulcan (planet) ; Vulcan High Command ; Vulcan philosophy ; Vulcan salute ; Vulcan Science Academy ; way of life ; weapon ; wealth ; week ; witness ; worry ; wound ; year ; yellow alert ; youth

External links [ ]

• "Journey to Babel" at StarTrek.com
• " Journey to Babel " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Journey to Babel " at Wikipedia
• " Journey to Babel " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Ancient humanoid

"Star Trek: Discovery" makes a case for Michael Burnham as the last great Starfleet captain

Our "discovery" protagonist was never going to have it easy. the start of her last run solidifies her greatness, by melanie mcfarland.

Michael Burnham's " Star Trek " journey was destined to be among the franchise's toughest and most complex. Some of us knew this from the moment Sonequa Martin-Green was cast to play her, especially Black women who are sci-fi geeks. We have never been few, but until recently, we were far less visible than we are now.

To some, this visibility symbolizes everything that has supposedly gone wrong with this franchise and others. The reach of " Star Trek: Discovery " goes even further by assembling a truly inclusive cast that blew apart the original series' longstanding heteronormativity.

All this further angered culture war trolls and self-appointed arbiters of what is so-called "real" "Star Trek." These people have a vested interest in downvoting any such divergences from what has gone before.

Mainly it was — as it continues to be — the purists who wrote off "Discovery" as "not Trek" during  its first season in 2017 . Looking back from its final season — and from the perspective of Burnham's 900-year journey — we can say that despite how its thematic shading looked to us then , "Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism . It has simply evolved its interpretation.

In the first season, not even Burnham would believe this to hold true. A human raised on Vulcan by Spock's  father, Sarek, and as his sister, Burnham earns her first officer role through superior conduct and logic, divorcing herself from sentiment.

Burnham's smug sense of rectitude gets her superior officer killed. She is charged with mutiny, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison.

From there, she stops a rogue galactic A.I. from annihilating the Federation and leaps nine centuries into the future (thereby largely freeing herself and the show from restrictive canon) to find a universe where Starfleet as it used to be is a dream, and the Federation and its ideals are broken.

"Discovery's" swansong season finds Burnham in the year 3191, with enough of the Federation's trust to take on a highly classified mission alongside Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), who has already earned the same commendations as Kirk and Picard. His reputation precedes him, in other words. Their quest relates to a Picard-era discovery that Starfleet fears can be used to eradicate all humanoid life in the universe.

"Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism. It has simply evolved its interpretation. 

Their success should place her on par with the greats, an honor that showrunner Michelle Paradise and the show's co-creator Alex Kurtzman have been driving toward all this time.

Some indicators of that goal aren't as obvious as others, like the sequence in which Rayner defies Burnham during an away mission, trusting in his overconfidence instead of her strategic acumen. His snap judgment endangers a planet's civilian population, leaving her to fix the crisis he has created.

Women watching this — especially Black women, I would wager — might have experienced a slight rage triggering in their soul that was mollified by Burnham pulling the very Obama-esque move of asking Rayner to replace her trusted friend Saru (Doug Jones) as her first officer. (The job was coming open, anyway; Saru is shifting into diplomacy mode and getting married.)

This is the move of a great leader. Then again, like Kate Mulgrew's long underappreciated Captain Janeway, it may not be appreciated by the fandom for many, many years.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male, though if that were the extent of what differentiates her from the rest, it would barely be worth mentioning.

Records of their histories come to us as snippets of dialogue from secondary characters or contextualizing conversations from what the official logs have to say about past missions. We hear about who served under whom, granting legitimacy to the likes of, say, Christopher Pike to claim the captain's chair long before Anson Mount made us ecstatic to see that happen.

Burnham's path to the helm's command begins with what should be a life- and career-ending mistake. It's constantly defined by humility and doubt. No one is harder on Burnham than she is on herself — and nobody takes as many risks with their career or reputation to keep their crew alive. Her optimism is one guided by the hope that all obstacles can be overcome and all outcomes are possible, including for herself.

Despite all of this, it will take a lot of convincing for some people to consider Burnham among the top ranks of Starfleet captains in those occasional fan polls that tend to place Jean-Luc Picard or James T. Kirk in the top positions, though Captain Pike has offered stiff competition since "Strange New Worlds" first aired.

But our relatively newfound love of Pike and that show wouldn't be possible without "Discovery" venturing into the unmapped asteroid field that is the public's willingness to boldly go back to a dormant franchise in a wildly disunified era.

This doesn't merely refer to the role of "Discovery" introducing Mount's Pike, in addition to launching every other new "Trek" spinoff along with the streaming service currently known as Paramount+ . It did all this along with shouldering the more precarious mission of serving as the franchise's vanguard in a cynical age.

If you love "Lower Decks" and "Strange New Worlds," this is in part due to the producers' listening to the fandom's programming desires accordingly. Notice, for example, how unlike the first season of "Picard"  is from the third . Initially, "Picard" tried to do something different with the beloved character. It ended his adventures by reassembling the band for the spectacular last ride their films denied them. The new "Star Trek" series have a goal of delivering something for everyone, including kids. "Discovery" helped its custodians figure that out.

We need your help to stay independent

And if you love "Discovery," its devotion to showcasing those who long felt unseen in this franchise may kindle that affection. "Discovery" gave us an Asian woman as a Starship captain in Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou and a happily married duo to root for in Wilson Cruz's Dr. Hugh Culber in Anthony Rapp's Paul Stamets.

It introduced Tig Notaro in its second season as Jett Reno, a decision for which everyone should be grateful. The third gave us the franchise's first transgender and non-binary characters in Ian Alexander's Trill Gray and Blu del Barrio's Adira Tal.

Through it all, we have also entirely fallen for Mary Wiseman's Sylvia Tilly, a woman who also knew a few things about self-doubt and, therefore, values being understood.

What some would cite as humanizing traits, others might write off as maudlin, along with the fact that Burnham was able to experience a fully realized love affair that began with a partnership of equals with a courier named Booker (David Ajala).

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

It's only one of the many ways that "Discovery" is consciously disparate from "Star Trek" as we have long known it, daring to change everything from the look of the Klingons to its star character's role in igniting a war between them and the United Federation of Planets.

That was then. Hundreds of years after that moment, Captain Burnham has figured herself out, proving to the many who doubted her that she deserves to be there.

She has traveled the longest road through imposter syndrome of any Starfleet captain — most of a millennium, actually — and we have witnessed every major moment that forged her. Burnham may never win the major "Star Trek" popularity contests for favorite captains, but without a doubt, she's the last great one we may ride with in this universe.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream Thursdays on Paramount +.

stories about "Star Trek"

• "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" considers the weight of Khan's wrathful legacy
• How "Strange New Worlds" uses Rebecca Romijn's Number One to place prejudice on trial
• "Pike made jambalaya": How "Strange New Worlds" Captain Pike expresses care and diplomacy with food

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Related articles.

Why 'Star Trek: Discovery' deserves more credit as a barrier-breaking series

Starship Discovery will soon be ending its mission, and what a journey it's been.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” which premiered in 2017, is entering its fifth and final season Thursday on Paramount+. And you’ll need the Captain’s Log to remember all the twists, turns and transformations the show has gone through since it began.

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the hate the series has received from some Trek fans. (“Discovery” has an overall audience score of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, a stark difference from the 87% critic rating.)

While the show is far from free of legitimate criticism, many of the complaints seem unfairly – though perhaps tellingly – placed on the show’s focus on a Black woman commander, its LGBTQ+ stars and allies and its inclusive storylines. “Woke agenda” and other dog whistles frequently surface on Reddit and social media posts about the series.

That so much of the negativity is rooted in a backlash against inclusivity raises questions. After all, the "Star Trek" franchise has long emphasized and celebrated culture, diversity and humanity coming together and preserving the integrity of beings they meet across the galaxy.

"It doesn't make any sense, because (these fans) say they love this franchise," series star Sonequa Martin-Green says in an interview. The show “has always been about breaking those boundaries. It's always been about diversity and equality. And our world has changed since the last iteration of 'Trek.' We have a responsibility to push that needle forward and to stay true to that."

More: Issa Rae says Hollywood needs to be accountable. Here's why diverse shows are so important

The series is originally set before the events of NBC's original “Star Trek: The Original Series” (later jumping to the future) and follows Michael Burnham (Martin-Green), who became the starship’s captain, and the rest of the crew of the USS Discovery: first officer Saru (Doug Jones), chief engineer Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), lieutenant and now Starfleet Academy teacher Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), medical officer Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), courier and Burnham’s love interest Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala) and ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio).

Many more characters have stood on the bridge, battled with Burnham, or otherwise make up the world of "Discovery." The series had some trouble finding the right footing, but it’s always had heart, especially in its recurring theme of redemption. And it deserves more support for what it has meant for the entire "Star Trek" franchise.

Here’s why “Star Trek: Discovery” deserves more credit:

Prioritizing diversity and inclusivity

A Vulcan philosophy (and one espoused by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry) is IDIC, or “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” and many of the related series, movies and books underscore this belief. “Discovery” also has diversity at its core: the show focuses on a Black woman who becomes captain. Stamets and Culber are an openly gay couple, and engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) is a lesbian. And the show introduced a few franchise firsts: Adira Tal as the first nonbinary character in "Star Trek ," and their boyfriend, Gray ( Ian Alexander ), is the first transgender character , both introduced in Season 3.

More: 'Star Trek' documentary unveils star Nichelle Nichols' impactful NASA connection

Starting a new age of Star Trek

“Discovery” helped launch the CBS All Access streaming platform, a CBS subscription service that would eventually become Paramount+, as well as a new era of "Star Trek" series including “Lower Decks” and “Picard.” Before “Discovery,” the last Trek series was “Star Trek: Enterprise,” which ended in 2005.

Exploring strange new worlds

The second season of “Discovery” also served as a launching pad for the well-received spinoff, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” which resurfaced popular characters from the original series including Spock (Ethan Peck), Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn).

Finding time for the simple things

In a few scenes scattered throughout "Discovery," we see characters like Culber and Stamets sharing a meal or talking about their day while brushing their teeth. It’s almost mundane, but there’s also something so lovely about watching LGBTQ+ characters who rarely are the focus in movies or television simply living their lives, being their whole selves. Burnham rocking braids at the beginning of Season 3 speaks cultural volumes. The subtle amid the big battles and overarching plots do have meaning, especially for those whose voices often go unheard.

Going boldly

The first season of “Discovery” went out of its way to highlight its connections to the original series: Burnham is Spock’s adopted sister, and there's a brief appearance by Spock’s father, Sarek. But it wasn’t always so neatly woven, sometimes seeming more like it was using franchise lore as a crutch. But “Discovery” wasn’t afraid to try new things, turning itself around after an overcomplicated first season and again after a very “TOS”-inspired second, slowly building up its own universe without relying too heavily on the old. 

The first episodes of Season 5 are a little rocky before it settles into a comfortable speed. 

"This time around, we wanted to bring in some levity," Martin-Green says. "But there's a grand sort of epicness to Season 5, even though we didn't know it was our last season when we were shooting it. I think looking back on it, and when we share it with the world, it'll seem that way because the season is so big. So people can expect a lot of fun. They can expect it to go really fast." 

It will be interesting to see if “Discovery” sticks the landing through the remainder of the season.

“The good outweighs the bad,” Burnham says in an upcoming episode about a mission, and that’s also true of “Discovery."

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" (two episodes now streaming, then weekly on Thursdays) streams on Paramount+.

• April 11, 2024 | Paramount Pictures Officially Confirms Star Trek Origin Movie For Its Upcoming Film Slate
• April 11, 2024 | Japan’s Prime Minister Invokes Star Trek In White House State Dinner Toast
• April 11, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Tries Too Many Connections In “Jinaal”
• April 10, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Preview Offers Intriguing Clues And The Return To [SPOILERS]
• April 10, 2024 | Mary Wiseman Really Doesn’t Want To Talk About Tilly Returning On ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’

Review: “Journey To Babel” Remastered

| February 5, 2007 | By: Jeff Bond 38 comments so far

While its space action was ambitious, requiring the creation of an Orion adversary for the Enterprise, the resulting original effects were simple, low key shots of a spinning yellow animation, oddly similar to the photon torpedo effects in the later Star Trek films. “Babel” features an opening shuttlecraft landing as well as the shots of the Orion ship attacking and ultimately exploding. The shuttlecraft shots were mostly cribbed from “The Galileo Seven,” and the CBS Digital crew has the challenge here of recreating what was for the original series a quite ambitious miniature set of the Enterprise hangar bay some six feet deep with a two foot shuttlecraft miniature operated to land in the bay via a wire rig, and then spun on a turntable to represent a hangar bay elevator. While the landing itself bears the hallmarks of bluescreen photography, the turntable shot is a relatively flaw-free visual effect that very effectively creates the illusion of a cavernous hangar bay deck.

CBS Digital one-ups the original by showing the shuttlecraft approaching the Enterprise stern (a multi-element shot never within the original show’s capabilities) and landing inside the hangar deck with far more dynamic motion than would have been possible with a wire rig. I was glad to see that the CBS crew kept the shuttle approach within the methodical moves established by the original photography, and that adds verisimilitude to the shot that more flamboyant motion would have erased. A nice added touch is the visible crewmen and, presumably, ambassadors in the viewing galleries above the shuttle and the reflection of the shuttle on the viewing gallery glass, as well as an additional shuttlecraft on the pad as the diplomatic shuttle enters (this echoes a great shot from the animated series showing the shuttlebay filled with different kinds of shuttlecraft, another view outside the original show’s budget). The camera angle is much closer to the shuttle bay doors than the original shot and that does reduce some of the expansiveness of the shot; having Vulcan in the background adds a lot of value however. There’s a lot of care and texturing here but in reproducing a large artificial environment with no “natural” lighting cues there’s still a bit of a CG look to this shot (and an angle of the shuttle approaching from outside the ship, included in the teaser, is cut for time here).

Mike Okuda provides a fascinating solution to the replacement of the whirling animation effect from the original show with a hammerhead Orion ship design that features a spinning, illuminated engine apparatus dominating the rear part of the ship. This maintains the kinetic feeling of the original animation that so well matched the show’s tracked music score and editing, and also provides one of the most unusual spacecraft designs yet seen in the franchise. There’s a great “over-the-shoulder” shot of the Enterprise firing a futile phaser volley at the hyper-maneuverable Orion vessel, and an ambitious shot of the alien ship breaking apart under phaser fire (although the decision to not show an explosion as the ship breaks apart drains a little of the impact of this shot). The original episode’s firecracker explosion as the Orion ship self-destructs is replaced with a far more satisfying blast as well.

The syndication editing of “Journey to Babel” is about as erratic as any episode I’ve seen so far and in addition to the early exterior shuttlecraft approach I’m guessing there are at least a few seconds more of effects shots edited out of this version. Nevertheless CBS Digital’s work here is exciting and in keeping with the intent of the episode—we get our first look at CG Vulcan here, a Mars-like world with few clouds, and the individual shots of the Enterprise—including a sleek angle of the ship at rest as it lures the Orion ship in—are up to the team’s usual high standards. It’s interesting that the digital team chose to do “Babel” back to back with the daunting “The Doomsday Machine” as both episodes feature elaborate space shots. And it’s amazing to realize that new shots are being done for every episode, even if they’re slight variations on previous angles—this is something that would have been unthinkable for the original show’s budget and technology. Now the question will be whether the team can keep doing this work and deliver the rest of the season one episodes for a DVD release this fall. I don’t envy them…  

Another excellent review Jeff. With all your reviews I learn something new. I think you are spot on about how the changes in effects is in harmony with the \’original intent\’. And isnt interesting on how much of the debate on the show falls into the “original intent” v “strict constructionist” arguments often seen in Constitutional debates. I am surprised some havent screamed “activist animators!” This episode shows how Star Trek is not fixed in stone but is a living breathing franchise. [note: dont turn this thread into a political debate…but there are parallels in trek fandom between differing \’sides\’]

This TOS-R episode really (as many things do) gets me thinking of Star Trek XI. This ep. is the perfect balance of a character story, a big plot story and action sequences. you get a Kirk fight scene (sadly no torn shirt…but some blood) and space battles. And now CBS-D show how these things can get a modern update that makes the show even work better.

This is the kind of balance and modernization that I hope we can get in Star Trek XI…lets learn more about our charcters and our Trek universe…and have some great action with cool effects

is that so much to ask?

Go slow CBS-D. We’re loving it, and we’re patient. Trekkies have been getting our favorite treat slowly for 40 years. If you need an extra six months to get it right, then get it right. Thank you for the work so far.

Nice review. Always one of my favorite episodes and I think CBS digital did a great job on this one, particularly with the shuttle bay and the Orion ship. I always thought the Andorian make-up was great and even though the Tellarite makeup is pretty crude, it fit the characters adequately. I mentioned how much I enjoy Reggie Nalder as Shras in another thread, but since you mention him here, I also think William O’Connell was great in his role. A lot going on in this episode and it flies by as you watch it.

Great review! I agree on all points. It was interesting to rediscover just how much Trek cannon comes from this episode. Much of the continuing dynamics in Enterprise comes from here. The Tellarites, Andorians the Orions (They aren’t just green woman sex slaves after all).

One thing I noticed with the new effects was when the Orion ship self-destructed, the explosion on screen (while very nice) didn’t match with the blinding flash the actors reacted to. Just a minor nit.

#1 Anthony- Yes, if there ever was a classic episode that should serve as a template for STXI, it’s this one. The writing and tone is dead on. This is what JJ & Co. should aspire to- not the TNG era sensibility. (And please, the red photon torpedos smack too much of that era as well. They shouldn’t have changed them, IMHO.) Best review yet, Jeff.

The new effects in this episode are simply awsome. However, I thought the same of the original hangar sequence was awsome too because I know how ambitous that was to do at the time and it looked pretty damn good to me. It’s like CBC digital knew they had to add more to it to make it a worthwhile and satisfying improvement. The extra details they have added would have been there if resources were there in the first place, and I like how DBD-D has stayed true to this since the beginning.

I can’t wait form Doomsday!

Red photorps make me think of TWOK: TNG just nicked ’em!! ;)

Great review. Looking forward to seeing these shows in hi def here in the UK eventually!!!

Classic Trek’s and Trumbull/Dykstra’s TMP Fed torps were white and should have stayed that way- if not for ILM… (Guess I need a life…)

#1, it’s not a living and breathing “document”. Maybe Modern Trek is, but not Star Trek. You want “living and breathing” go watch the various versions of Star Wars that change with Lucas’ mood. There have been no radical changes made to the actual stories in each episode because of what the effects team has done. Your use of a political allusion shouldn’t have been used if you didn’t want to turn this into a political debate.

I love Jeff’s reviews, whether I agree with them or not. His writing is intelligent, insightful and professional, and delightfully devoid of the snarky, sarcastic, hipper-than-the-material-being-reviewed tone that is present in so much entertainment journalism these days. And his book on Star Trek music is terrific. Kudos all around, Jeff. I wish this site had three or four more of you.

Great review and about the casting that really always struck me as being spot on. Even when I saw this show at a young age and did not think about things like production crew, casting, etc. I really liked the actors and the job they did as the characters. The interplay was also great with the emotional beats. Spock really was a deeply private character in many respects, even to his best friends! Yes I hope the new film gets some of the atmosphere of these early still revelant and great episodes.

Anthony is 100% correct that Trek (ALL Trek) is a “living, breathing franchise”. This would be so even if Remastered weren’t happening. Art is never static. It’s always interpreted differently depending on the ever changing perspective of the audience. Audiences far removed from 1960’s politics and society will react very differently to episodes such as “Let that be Your Last Battlefield” than those at the time. I really object to the “film as untouchable historical document” argument. Even worse is the “collective ownership” myth that fans are the true “owners” of the franchise. Sadly, Mike Okuda helped perpetuate this falsehood in his recent Trek.com article.

#9, there were no radical changes to the stories of Star Wars either despite some fans insistence there were. And I’d argue that Lucas, as the writer, creator, owner and creative decision-making force behind the franchise, has far MORE right to update his work than the current corporate owners of the Trek copyright.

Great review. A+. Excellent CGI. A. Lousy syndication edits. D+

Great thoughtful review! I also thought the casting was great… When a character is well written and the actor owns it, you just accept the performance as genuine; you feel it, and you don’t analyze it. :-)

Now that’s a good review! As billy (#10) says: (the review was) “devoid of the snarky, sarcastic, hipper-than-the-material-being-reviewed tone that is present in so much entertainment journalism these days.” There have been some flippant, “I’m so much cooler than Star Trek” reviews which is just, in my opinion, just about taking easy pot shots without adding anything relevant. We need more reviews like this one! Excellent review!

great review as always Jeff :)

Another well-written, insightful and appreciative review. And Mr. Bond is so right to consider “Journey To Babel” one of the series very finest episodes.

For Star Trek XI lets hope Mr. Abrams and company look to the few best episodes of Star Trek to determine which carry the essence of the saga best. For no other reason than that I’m wasting time, here are my choices for “The Dozen TOS Episodes That Matter” in order of importance. As far as I’m concerned the rest can be dispensed with as inconsequential to developing the characters and ignored when developing any new stories.

Of course there’s no reason for anyone to care what I think. But, well, here I go.

1. Amok Time For explaining Spock’s ambivalent relationship with Vulcan society and fierce loyalty to Kirk and McCoy.

2. Journey To Babel For how it hinted at the scope of the Federation and its politics. For the insight into Spock’s family background. And for shoving a lot of story into an episode.

3. City on the Edge of Forever For putting genuine emotion into a science fiction series that could have simply been about broad parables and heavy handed moralism.

4. The Doomsday Machine It had a great villain but an even better, utterly tragic anti-hero in Decker. Also, William Windom’s performance showed that hiring a top notch actor is always the best special effect.

5. The Ultimate Computer It’s a story all about character and living with one’s own legacy. Probably a good parable for anyone writing a new version of a 40 year-old classic.

6. Space Seed Because great stories always depend on character with unreasonable ambitions.

7. The Trouble With Tribbles Because if Star Trek doesn’t have humor, it’s pretty much just another soap opera.

8. A Piece of the Action Because our culture goes into space with us and is likely to pollute the Universe in entertaining ways. And a story that, while played for laughs, did a great job of showing how the Kirk-Spock relationship functions. Plus, I think Fizzbin could be a pretty cool game.

9. The Cage Spock’s behavior in “The Menagerie” is too bizarre to be believed. But the original “The Cage” is a top notch story about how no matter where we go, the greatest threat is what we believe in our minds. That makes for more complex characters right there.

10. Bread and Circuses This episodes wicked parody of modern culture is Star Trek sermonizing at its most entertaining level. And Merrick is one of the most underrated characters in Star Trek lore — the man who wanted to be Kirk and wasn’t capable of it.

11. Mirror, Mirror Throwing characters out of context is always a great way to find out more about them. And the Mirror Universe is plain fun.

12. Patterns of Force If “A Piece of the Action” is a fun way to see our culture polluting the Universe, this is the flip side. A bit heavy-handed to be sure, but still a solid story with interesting characters.

great list!

Good review, great episode!

This episode has always been a favorite of mine, and now it’s more so because of the great work CBS Digital did on the FX. It seems to me that the slight inconsistencies in their work that pop up from episode to episode may have something to do with inspiration. When dynamic FX are needed, their work excels; when the FX are more cut-and-dry, their grip slips a bit. Here’s hoping they see “The Doomsday Machine” as much as a high water mark as we do.

One of my favorite moments in this episode is the fight between Kirk and Telev. Both actors seem very worn out by the fight, which is one, long continuous shot (no stuntmen this time!), and Kirk actually gets shivved! When I saw that for the first time as a kid, I was dumbfounded. This wasn’t a flesh wound or a bloody lip, Kirk was stabbed solid in the back! Yikes! That really upped the tension in an already intense episode. It was great TV then, and it’s still great now.

And a quick aside to cbspock: You certainly CAN make a political allusion (as in “comparison”) without inciting politcal debate. Comparisons (especially astute ones like the one made by Anthony above) can easily be made because his intent was clear and he wasn’t stating an opinion about either side of the comparison. He was engaging in insight, not punditry. And just to be clear myself, I’m not trying to goad you into debate either. I’m simply remarking that Anthony’s use of comparison was correct in this context.

always loved that fight scene too but what was with that crazy “bounce off the wall” kick Kirk tried…?!?!?!

The casting comments are right on. However, while watching this episode I actually gasped when I realized what modern actor is a dead-ringer for Mark Lenard: it’s Victor Garber! Lenard’s character in this episode has several line readings that are almost identical to Victor Garber’s character in “Alias.”

So, J.J. Abrams, it’s time to cast Victor Garber as a Vulcan! He’s got the ears for it.

The Doomsday Machine was always my favorite. The effects were good and the score was excellent. I have seen earlier attempts to play with the effects. A good deal of work must go into it and I hope the TOS:R gang puts the time in – I agree with an earlier commenter – take your time if needed, no rush to get things right.

Great review of JTB! I learned new things, agreed with the rest, a good read in classic trekmovie.com style.

Victor Garber – yes, an effective Vulcan. Now Jennifer Garner, throw her in too as a kick *ss person :)

I always enjoy Jeff’s reviews – insightful and often entertaining. One non-Trek related criticism:

“D’Agosta ingeniously cast “America’s Mom” Jane Wyatt from Father Knows Best as Amanda, adding a universal, warm maternal element to the otherwise alien family unit.”

I hate the expression “family unit.” It’s ‘family.’ Period. (Re-read it without the word ‘unit.’ It’s fine, isn’t it?) “Family unit” comes from the Department of Redundancy Department.

Kirk’s “wall bounce” kick added impact to his kick by having the wall to shove off of. Another of his inventions….

Can you stand some praise one more time, Jeff? Great review of what has long been my favorite second season episode. Especially the well-deserved nod to Joe D’Agosta and his casting skills. By the time of the later Trek incarnations, almost anyone could be cast to play any kind of alien, but I always liked how the original Trek largely kept a certain look for the various alien types. Some might say that “stereotyping” races was something that came easily to folks back in the bad old days, but I would argue that picking certain “types” to play Klingons or Vulcans was a necessary shorthand to help overcome the budgetary inability to put all the guest aliens in fancy prosthetics.

As for your list, JPH (#17), nice job. I don’t know what I’d bump from your list to include it, but I think The Naked Time deserves a place. It dramatically utilized a very real peril of space exploration, exotic infection, to introduce us to the inner life of some of Trek’s characters.

Scott B. out.

Superb Review Mr. Bond. Well Done . . .

The Dykstra torpedoes in TMP were red, not white.

I just went back and looked at that kick again and noticed the Telev’s knife looks alot like the one used in Wolf In The Fold. There’s a budget saver for you – LOL!

sorry- the Klingons were red, the Feds were blue.

#1 Has there ever been a scene where Kirk’s GREEN command shirt or dress uniform shirt was torn? I think it was always and only the gold command shirt. It might have something to do with the colar and shoulder hem lines on the gold command shirt. Just an observation.

It rocked and now bring on the “Doomsdays!!!”

# 28- The KLINGON photorps were red in TMP, the Federation’s were white- check the wormhole scene. (Also, this was stated in to be the intention in Cinefex and other interviews back then.)

#1 – re: the fight scene, with blood.

You know, one of the little details that always seemed off to me when I was a nitpicking teenager a couple of decades ago was that in this fight scene, Kirk is stabbed in the back and then pitches Thelev over his shoulder. During the Thelev throw, you get a brief but clear glimpse of Kirk’s uninjured back.

Would’ve been fun — but by no means necessary — to insert a little knife wound into that shot. Sure, it would’ve taken work to make it track with his rapidly moving back, but it would’ve been fewer than 24 frames to deal with. I know it would’ve made me smile.

But this is NOT an actual criticism of CBS-D’s work (there were far more important details to tend to, which they did admirably). The fight scene as is is one of Trek’s best. Just a little thought.

“always loved that fight scene too but what was with that crazy “bounce off the wall” kick Kirk tried…?!?!?! ”

Don’t you remember? Kirk worked as a professional wrestler to earn money to put himself through college.

Thanks for all the comments. I love the Kirk fight scene too–I think that MAY be the only one Shatner performed completely himself, at least as far as major Trek fight scenes go, and it’s quite notable for that (the other performer was a stunt man, not O’Connell–Shatner often did fight scenes this way where he’d do a lot of the stunt work himself as Kirk but play off a stunt man). Also, JPH, good list–one of the great unsung episodes I think is “Bread and Circuses”–it’s always lumped in with other “parallel Earth” type episodes as an illustration of how cheap the original show was, but as a satire it was cutting edge for the time, the story is a great drama, the Proconsul is perhaps Trek’s most vicious and unlikeable villain, and there are a number of classic Trek scenes in there, especially the jail cell scene with Spock and McCoy.

“Pull down this network’s ratings, Flavius, and we’ll do a ‘special’ on you!”

Pure Gene L. Coon gold.

Re: TMP Photons. Klingons = red. Enterprise = blue. They changed to red in TWOK, probably because the red Klingon photons had more impact with the audience.

Easy way to remember this…for TMP, all Enterprise warp lighting effects are blue. The ribbing inside the warp engines glows blue when the ship goes into warp. The defelctor dish shifts from amber (sublight) to blue (warp speed), and the photon torpedoes (which are matter/antimatter yield explosives) are blue. Well, they’re bluish-white, but they definitely are NOT red in TMP.

The quantum torpedoes used in the later TNG era films were bright white.

• The Inventory

'Journey to Babel' Is Everything Perfect About Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series has a lot of great episodes, running the gamut from the emotionally devastating (“The City on the Edge of Forever”) to the comedic (“The Trouble With Tribbles”). And yet, for my money, no episode is a better example of everything the Original Series got right than “Journey to Babel.”

Related Content

Some great Trek episodes, like “The City on the Edge of Forever,” don’t necessarily need to be Star Trek in order to be good. Certainly, they are enriched by taking place in an established universe with characters we already know and sympathize with, but the core of the story could be told anywhere. Everything in “Journey to Babel,” however—regardless of the characterization, the drama, the world-building, and the humor—could only belong to Star Trek .

The plot revolves around a bunch of dignitaries being shuttled by the Enterprise to a meeting to vote on a planet’s entry to the Federation; the Vulcan ambassador and his wife happen to be Spock’s parents. Meanwhile, there’s a mystery vessel following the Enterprise .

The first plot point means getting a better look at Federation politics, which includes introducing the Andorians and the Tellarites. It’s strongly implied that the Tellarites are against the planet’s admission because they can only exploit its resources if it’s not protected by Starfleet. It’s such a small thing, but it reminds us that what we see on the Enterprise isn’t going on everywhere in the universe, and that the Federation is a coalition of many planets and not just a home for humans. (Later installments... forgot this.)

The second element of the episode, Spock’s parents, focuses on the personal. Spock’s Vulcan father Sarek has a heart problem that flares up while he’s on the Enterprise . He needs Spock’s blood to get the operation, but, for some reason, Spock’s contribution to this surgery would require him to be put under. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, but someone just tried to kill Kirk and he’s incapacitated; given the delicate situation, Spock doesn’t see the logic in saving one man and endangering the mission. (Everyone acts like putting Scotty in charge would doom everyone. Possible, but still, harsh.)

The scenes with Spock’s parents are perfect Trek . Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard deserve so much praise for their portrayals of human Amanda and Sarek the Vulcan. The tension between Sarek and Spock is evident, even though they aren’t technically acting emotionally. And Amanda’s tearful recounting of her half-Vulcan son being bullied as a child is beautifully done, as is her slap after Spock chooses to take command of the Enterprise instead of saving his endangered father.

It took all of J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek movie to do with Spock’s character what this episode accomplished in just a few scenes. You understand implicitly that Spock is very much like his father, even though he made decisions that Sarek really, truly felt were wrong.

The third bit, the mystery ship, gives us Kirk in all his glory. Nothing is more Kirk than him pretending to be healthy enough to command the ship so that his friend can save his father’s life. That’s how the plot with Sarek needing surgery gets resolved: Kirk intends to fake health just long enough for Spock to go to sickbay. It gets extra Kirk-y when the mystery ship attacks just as he hauls his nearly collapsing ass into the captain’s chair.

The final act of “Journey to Babel” should be shown to anyone trying to write Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Even in bad shape, Kirk manages to save the day. Spock figures out a plot to sabotage the vote right as he’s about to be sedated. And McCoy just wants everyone to stop running around and talking so they can heal.

My version of heaven is this scene, on a loop. And it doesn’t even include to the part earlier in the episode where Amanda embarrasses Spock by telling his friends about his childhood pet.

If D.C. Fontana had just done this episode, she’d have made an invaluable contribution. But she was also the story editor on the series, rewrote episodes, and wrote her own. While be a young woman working in the ‘60s. You can tell from this episode just how invaluable her understanding of this universe was. While there are episodes of the Original Series that are better examples of the science fiction allegory the show became famous for, this is the best example of why Trek itself, as a universe, is worth watching.

'Star Trek: Voyager's' triumphant creation stars in crowdfunded documentary 'To the Journey'

Engage this new teaser for the upcoming doc project "To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager."

These are grand times to be a "Star Trek" fan, as the rising tide of new "Trek" TV series, classic show anniversaries, concept art books, tie-in novels, video games and comics set in the Starfleet sphere are all contributing to a blossoming renaissance of interest.

Riding that surging swell is an upcoming documentary on the making of one of the most popular "Star Trek: The Next Generation" spinoffs, "Star Trek: Voyager." 

A new teaser video for "To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager" was recently released to give followers of the pioneering series a hint of what's to come. The show, which ran from 1995 to 2001 on UPN, lasted for 172 episodes over seven seasons and depicted the USS Voyager's endeavors while traversing the galaxy's remote Delta Quadrant. 

You can check out our Star Trek streaming guide to see where to watch "Star Trek: Voyager" and any other Trek series that may catch your fancy. That includes " Star Trek: Discovery, " " Star T rek: Picard " and a preview for the May 5 release of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. "

• Want to try Paramount Plus? Here's a free one-month trial
• Subscribe to Paramount Plus for $5.99/month

"Voyager" represented milestones in "Star Trek" lore as it became the first series to feature a female commander, with Kate Mulgrew 's solid performance as Capt. Kathryn Janeway , as well as the only Asian male co-starring as a series regular at the time, with Garrett Wang (Ensign Kim). The new making-of retrospective highlights that "Voyager's" unique cast chemistry remains intact after 20 years.

Packed with fresh interview snippets with cast members Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Beltran, Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ, Robert Picardo and Kate Mulgrew, in addition to "Voyager" executive producers Jeri Taylor and Rick Berman, this project's preview promises a definitive exploration of how this successful spinoff was created and has endured.

"To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager" has been years in the making, as producer/director David Zappone first announced back in early 2020 that shooting would start aboard Star Trek: The Cruise. The COVID-19 pandemic put a swift but temporary halt to those plans, and filming picked up in late 2020. 

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

— Kirk vs Picard: Who is the best Star Trek captain?

— Could we really build Star Trek's USS Enterprise?

 — Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best

A crowdfunding effort provided more momentum in March 2021, when the campaign blasted through its goal of $150,000 less than a day after it launched, eventually collecting over $1.3 million — the most money ever pledged for a crowdfunded documentary.

"To the Journey" is currently moving into the final stages of production, and the documentary is slated to start appearing at fan events and on streaming services, and will become available for purchase in late 2022.

For more "Voyager" goodness, dive into our guide to the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager !

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

'Beacon 23' series returns to MGM+ on April 7 with glowing blue rocks and alien artifacts

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 105 — Apoc-eclipse 2024!

Satellite views of solar eclipse 2024: See the moon's shadow race across North America (video, photos)

Most Popular

By Daisy Dobrijevic April 08, 2024

By Alexander Cox April 08, 2024

By Monisha Ravisetti April 08, 2024

By Tariq Malik April 08, 2024

By Kimberly H. Breuer April 07, 2024

By Pedro Braganca April 07, 2024

By Mike Wall April 07, 2024

By Jeff Spry April 07, 2024

By Sharmila Kuthunur April 07, 2024

• 2 Total solar eclipse 2024: Live updates
• 3 These solar eclipse 2024 photos from our readers are absolutely amazing (images, video)
• 4 I proposed to my fiancée under the diamond ring of the 2024 total solar eclipse. (She said 'Yes!')
• 5 'Heavy' history: ULA launches final Delta rocket after 64 years (video, photos)

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Sep 8, 2022

Staying Present in the Journey: The Lessons of Strange New Worlds

A fan considers 'live long and prosper' in the age of hustle and grind culture.

StarTrek.com

Live long and prosper .

I dare anyone to find a fellow geek, nerd, or overall pop culture enthusiast who hasn’t heard these words echo throughout their arts-consuming life at one time or another. Iconic doesn’t even begin to do them justice. Four words, one idea; however, they are still just that — four words . So, let’s break them down for a moment.

I’d wager that not only do we all understand the first two words, but most of us probably actually want to accomplish the feat it describes. Now that we’ve got that down. What about those remaining two words?

And prosper . And… prosper .

If you’re anything like me whatsoever, this is probably the part of the infamous Vulcan phrase that makes you raise an inquisitive eyebrow (not unlike that of Spock when he utters this wish of good fortune). What does it mean? What does it actually mean to “ prosper ”? It’s a question that’s been on my mind for years; both within the context of Star Trek , and in terms of the world which Trek reflects and converses with.

That said, that world is changing. Our world is changing. To “prosper” now as an idea feels almost inherently intertwined with goals. Goals, checkmarks, lists, and easily quantifiable milestones that we can boil down into bullet points for our job applications or our social media presence. This is the age of “hustle and grind culture.” It’s an era that not only gives me pause, but one that quite frankly poisons my body and mind with looming anxiety (I know I’m not alone in that). Thankfully, this era that constantly makes us feel inadequate, and consistently makes us feel like we’re behind, is not without its beacons of light.

Thankfully…it’s not without Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

The work done on this show by Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, and their entire writing staff, cast, and crew can be described not only as a balm for the soul, but as a tonic for the times. Strange New Worlds is a refutation of grind culture. It’s a treatise standing proudly against internet discourse questions, like “Can they stick the landing?” It’s a show that is proudly, loudly, and colorfully telling us all to live in the moment. To “prosper” in every instance, big or small, warm or weird, triumphant or devastating.

To see this beautiful work for all that it is, I ask that you first look at the owner of the best head of hair to ever grace the cosmos — Captain Christopher Pike , as impeccably played by Anson Mount. Pike is a man living on borrowed time. He’s a man boldly going many places, yes, but he’s also slowly approaching a devastating personal doom. He’s seen it, he’s felt it, and it IS coming, without a doubt. Much of the inaugural season of Strange New Worlds centers around how he comes to some measure of peace with the haunting fact — he will not prosper. At least not in the way that aligns with the objective-oriented definition of “prosper.”

In our current landscape, to have your life and career cut off, and to lose all ability to function in the way you once did, would absolutely be considered a tragedy. That doesn’t mean he won't have a life worth living still. Once Pike reaches the climactic face-to-face with his older, alternate-timeline self in “ A Quality of Mercy ,” it finally dawns on him that his value isn’t determined by the ending. He’s able to process what value he still has, and what his relationships and deeds have imbued into his story. His life isn’t defined by the fact that tragedy awaits him seven years down the road, but rather by his refusal to trade a friend like Spock to avoid his own downfall. His life is defined by the love that still remains strong even in an alternate timeline. Moments like Pike and Spock acknowledging their powerful bond cement his realization, and it’s the many interactions with the crew of the Enterprise throughout the season that helped ferry him to this moment of peace.

Everyone circles around these core ideas. Look at the journey of the show’s younger, cadet-rank Nyota Uhura . Celia Rose Gooding plays moments throughout her season-long arc with an anxiety that’s so emblematic of youth, and those fears gradually transform into surety. When Pike asks her about where she sees herself years down the road in “ Children of the Comet ,” she expresses that she doesn’t really know what she envisions for herself. She doesn’t have a set plan yet, and she’s far from becoming the icon that we all know and love. But what I love about this scene is the crew’s reaction. Sure, they’re surprised to hear to her honesty, as it isn’t a typical Starfleet response, but there’s no shame. There’s no judgment. There’s an air of acceptance and curiosity, which I really appreciated. It’s so valuable for kids to see a young person have that kind of experience in a time where they might feel defined by grades, or by plans. The show presents an environment that opens itself to those filled with both determination and doubt. It’s an environment that highlights the steps along the way, and every kind of choice that inform later moments. And with that environment also comes a compassion that helps other crew members and their families.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - 37 Languages

Yes, my friends. It’s time to talk about Dr. M’Benga and his daughter Rukiya. A tragedy in some aspects, undoubtedly. But it’s really a story of hope. It’s a story that says that effort in the face of an impossible situation does matter, and that it can be rewarded, even if the “goal” itself is never achieved. Dr. M’Benga never finds the cure for Rukiya’s condition (even with the knowledge provided by medical advancements on Majalis). In today’s achievement-obsessed culture, that might be considered “a failure.” But the soul of " The Elysian Kingdom " is about exploring the love he gave Rukiya along the way. Because of the emotional experiences he imbued into her life, even in the smallest of storybook moments, she was able to ascend to higher heights. She became something more, something free, something divine, all because of the tiny in-betweens. Cure or no cure, M’Benga’s journey is one that was important the entire time, and he was finally able to realize that when conversing with the newly grown cosmic Rukiya. What a moment for families everywhere.

And what does “the journey” mean for a pairing like Christine Chapel and the aforementioned Mr. Spock? That particular situation evolves the idea of goals and destinations by actually using the Trek audience’s knowledge of in-universe canon. Much like Pike with his own fate, we’re aware of Spock and Chapel's fate. By the time of The Original Series , Nurse Chapel and Spock aren’t together, but it doesn’t mean their signature “will they, won’t they” dynamic isn’t without value. Though it ultimately won’t end up a fully-realized romantic relationship, both parties still grow through their interactions. Chapel is able to form a bond of trust in the midst of her new adventure aboard the Enterprise . With her abilities to listen and communicate on glorious display, she’s able to find a truthful connection that maybe she’d been missing up until this point (as evidenced by what we hear of her dating history). And as for Spock’s personal gains, we can witness him beginning the journey toward balance with his humanity in every action with Christine. The end point classification of “not a couple” doesn’t matter. But their shared spark and deep friendship were absolutely essential (and Ethan Peck and Jess Bush captured the essence perfectly).

So look at this crew. Look at just some of these fascinating people. This is a group of individuals taken in a series of chapters. Each one of them is a product of every experience, and not just their planetary discoveries or their triumphs over evil.

And as fans, we remember them, not for their lists of accolades and stats, but because of the laughs and tears we shared with them across the stars. That’s the stuff we can’t quantify, and that’s the stuff that’s, quite frankly, more powerful than the relentless grind of hustle culture . That purity of presence within all of life’s steps is more powerful than any force that would make someone feel like their journey isn’t paying off. It is all paying off, now and every day.

You’re prospering now . Like Captain Pike, you’re writing and defining your story every day.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds knew this, and it made sure to remind us for ten incredible episodes. I love this show, and I’m so heartened by the fact that it gave us a timely, necessary perspective.

Get Updates By Email

Alden Diaz (he/him) is a Puerto Rican broadcaster, producer, & writer living in Florida with his First Officer, Mando (who is a small dog). He is best known for his time at iHeartRadio, and for his show, Ahch-To Radio: A Star Wars Podcast. You can also find him commentating on The One & Done Film Club, and discussing fantasy series on Casterly Talk. He's on Twitter & Instagram @ThatAldenDiaz.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

• Buy the Book…
• Reviews Hub

the m0vie blog

Following Us

• Adding Our RSS Feed to Your Gmail
• Following our Feed in Internet Explorer
• Millennium (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Enterprise (Reviews)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Reviews)
• Star Trek: The Original Series (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Voyager (Reviews)
• The X-Files (Reviews)
• X-Files Fandom Poll Form

Check out the Archives

Awards & Nominations

Star Trek – Journey to Babel (Review)

The first Star Trek pilot, The Cage , was produced in 1964. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, this December we are reviewing the second season of the original Star Trek show. You can check out our first season reviews here . Check back daily for the latest review.

Journey to Babel is pretty influential, as episodes of Star Trek go. It is an episode that really cements idea of the Federation that came to be at the heart of the franchise, suggesting that the organisation really is a diverse intergalactic alliance of diverse alien species, rather than a union between Earth and Vulcan. More than that, the episode suggests that the individual members of the Federation might not exist in perfect harmony with one another, but may each operate with their own agenda and motivations.

However, what is really remarkable about Journey to Babel is how much of this unfolds in the background. All this world-building and -embellishing is very much a secondary concern for writer D.C. Fontana. Despite its scale and its scope, Journey to Babel is a decidedly personal story about a family in crisis. It works remarkably well, offering viewers a bit more insight into Spock as a character and where he came from.

Party on, Gav…

In an interview with Emmy TV Legends , D.C. Fontana explains that the idea for Journey to Babel came from a variety of sources, building off lots of little bits and pieces seeded throughout earlier episodes:

That’s my favourite. That was in the second season, I was kicking around stories and I finally went into Gene – I always went into Gene because that was the man you told the stories to first. I said, “I want to do something about Spock’s mother and father.” Because we had hinted in The Naked Time a little bit about his mother, and a little bit in This Side of Paradise about his mother and his father, and I said, “Let’s explore that relationship.” And it was really about the generation gap – we don’t call it that any more, but it still exists, the distance between parents and children – and how it can be a wall or something warm and lovely. And, in this case, it was a wall between father and son. And then I wrapped it up in a mystery and an adventure.

It is an interesting approach to continuity, one that suggests strands suggested earlier on can be fashioned together to make a more compelling whole. It suggests that continuity is not something that arrives fully formed, but one that it built up over time.

All the best Vulcans have daddy issues…

While sixties television did not feature the same sorts of narrative continuity that modern viewers take for granted, it was still there. Although episodes of prime time television show were generally episodic in nature, little bits of character history could be build up over time, allowing the show to sketch a portrait of those characters over an extended run. This is an approach that tends to involve building more continuity on top of existing continuity, as if building from the ground up. Star Trek favoured this approach.

Very little of that continuity was pre-planned or baked into the show. It is interesting to read the writers’ bible for Star Trek , to get a sense of how the day-to-day continuity was something quite apart from the back story baked into the scripts. There are a few differences between the details in the guide and what would be established – for example, prospective writers are informed that the Enterprise is “official designation ‘starship class'” , although the show would designate it Constitution Class.

Dressed to impress…

There are also details that were subsequently fleshed-out and developed on the show – while there is a reference to Spock’s “half-breed” status and his Vulcan father and human mother in the bible, the relationship is left vague. In contrast, there are also aspects of continuity that never made it to screen on the show itself – McCoy’s divorce and his daughter Joanna were never mentioned in the live-action show, despite featuring heavily in the bible.

Continuity on Star Trek tends to develop this way, with various writers building on what came before and pushing something that had been established a little bit further or a little more forcefully. The characters of Sarek and Amanda were not fully-formed when The Man Trap aired. Instead, Fontana fashioned them from references made in later episodes, crafting characters to fill a hole with a rough outline established by snippets of dialogue from the first season.

A cutting retort…

Discussing the episode at Vaka Rangi , Josh Marsfelder argues that there are two approaches for character (and continuity) development, and that Journey to Babel demonstrates which way D.C. Fontana approaches such development:

The first takes a character who has a specific worldview and personality borne out of a specific positionality and is predominantly interested in seeing how they respond to a given situation, be it widespread event, an interaction with another character or so on and so forth. The second is more interested in constructing a meticulous fictional biography of the character based on, among other things, throwaway lines in other episodes, and using that to construct a comprehensive profile and life history of this character as a person. To put it another way, the first approach can be summarised as “What is this character like and how do they react to the story of the week?” while the latter can be summarised as “Why does this character think the things they think and act the way they do?”. Journey to Babel is very much in the latter style, and I have a feeling this is the style D.C. Fontana prefers on the whole, at least at this stage in her career. It’s also the style that is most clearly identifiable with Star Trek.

This approach toward characterisation also applies to the development of the wider Star Trek universe itself. Reverse engineering rather than planned design. Klingon culture developed largely as needed. On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the Breen were an entire species cobbled together from off-hand references in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

“Strange, I still feel a sharp stabbing pain…”

It is an approach that tends to harness negative space created by earlier scripts to create character and continuity. It relies on earlier episodes to provide outlines and shadows that the writer may later fill in. It is not an approach that suggests the existence fully-formed universe before production begins. It suggests a continuity that is still forming and crystalising, rather than one that has been fully thought-through before the show entered production.

In modern television, it is not uncommon for showrunners to boast about extended plans for their shows. Bryan Fuller, for example, has mapped out six or seven seasons of Hannibal . David S. Goyer claimed to have a five-year plan for Flashfoward , which was cancelled after its first season. Even in feature films, Marvel Studios maps out their production slate five years in advance . There is an increasing tendency to work from a continuity blueprint, rather than to develop organically.

“Wait… ANOTHER Nimoy episode?”

As a rule, Star Trek doesn’t do this. It tends to make things up as it goes along. This arguably contributes to some of the franchise’s awkward continuity hiccups. After all, Starfleet could not be mentioned early in the first season of Star Trek , because it didn’t exist until Court Martial . The level of biological similarity between Vulcans and Romulans depended on plot necessity. Sisko’s father seemed to be dead in the early seasons of Deep Space Nine , until it turned out that he wasn’t.

However, this lack of a clearly structured and defined continuity could be a boon sometimes. J. Michael Straczynski’s well-planned and -plotted Babylon5 was frequently knocked off course by inconvenient off-screen developments, while Deep Space Nine was more flexible and prone to experiment. Much like Journey to Babel was fashioned from stitching together various preexisting references into a cohesive picture, Deep Space Nine was able to deliver a massive twist on the character of Julian Bashir based solely on a throwaway line in Homefront .

He can protest his associate’s innocence until he’s blue in the face…

As a whole, Journey to Babel is perhaps the best example of this “snowball” approach to continuity and development. It’s an episode that takes a lot of what has been suggested and implied by earlier episodes, only to crystalise it. We finally get to see members of the Federation beyond humans and Vulcans. We finally get to meet Spock’s parents. These are two core parts of the mythos, and – although suggested in earlier scripts – they are finally presented here.

Sarek and Amanda would go on to become a key part of the Star Trek mythos. Portrayed by Jane Wyatt, Amanda would reappear in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , helping Spock to get in touch with his human side. However, the character would pass away during the long gap between the original Star Trek and the launch of The Next Generation . Sarek would become something a fixture in the Star Trek franchise, appearing in half of the films featuring the original cast and appearing twice on The Next Generation .

The mother of all messed up families…

Mark Lenard was cast as Spock’s father. Lenard made quite an impression as the anonymous Romulan commander in Balance of Terror , but he would become primarily associated with the role of Sarek. Lenard gives Sarek a quiet dignity, very cleverly crafting his performance to mirror the more detached aspects of Spock’s personality. Sarek’s posture and mannerisms are very much like those of Spock, but Lenard deals back even the faintest trace of emotion.

Sarek is a fascinating character. Journey to Babel explicitly confirms that the Vulcan ambassador disapproved of his son’s decision to join Starfleet. It was clear that Sarek had a future mapped out for his son and heir. Discussing Spock with Kirk, Sarek matter-of-factly observes, “He chose to devote his knowledge to Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.” This makes it clear that Sarek had very clearly delineated plans for Spock, much like parents who intend their children to attend particularly schools or enter particular professions.

The four-finger salute…

As Fontana concedes, the relationship between Spock and Sarek touches on the generation gap that was very much a part of sixties culture. In this respect, Fontana had her finger on the pulse. Produced in late 1967 and aired in early 1968, it captured the mood of the moment, as outlined by Alan Sica in the introduction to The Disobedient Generation :

But between April and the fall of 1968, the focus shifted to “The Generation Gap”, not least because many of the general magazine subscribers were upper middle-class professional men and their homemaker wives, whose very children had become the avant-garde of “The Movement.” Life magazine went so far as to run a cover story called “The Generation Gap”, which featured a heartfelt, almost unbelievably earnest dialogue between a forty-two-year-old uncle (Ernest Fladell) and his twenty-year-old nephew (Richard Lorber), by whose kindness the latter was able to attend Columbia University while living in the elder’s home in Manhattan.

Teenagers and young adults were growing up in lives of material comfort and peace, children of parents who had fought in the Second World War and endured the Great Depression to makes such things possible. A divide was inevitable as parents found themselves coping with choices made by their children that were never available when they were younger.

Suit up…

That said, although the “generation gap” is a core part of sixties culture, is not a phenomenon unique to the sixties. As Caroline Hoefferle notes in British Student Activism in the Long Sixties , there was a turbulent generation gap only a decade or so earlier:

More recently, however, historians of the post-war period have found that so-called permissive trends and worries about youth rebellion date back to the 1940s, a generation before the baby-boomers. Historian Nick Thomas points to a number of studies which have demonstrated the existence of rising rates of juvenile delinquency in the 1940s, and a rising tide of public hysteria in reaction to it dating to the 1950s. Social commentators and the news media in the fifties worried about youth rebellion and blamed the lax discipline associated with the banning of flogging and birching in 1948.

The generation gap remains a pressing issue. Recent studies suggest that the current gap is as wide as it has been since the sixties .

He’s not all there…

This divide between Sarek and Spock is another example of what made Spock such a fascinating counter-cultural figure. While Kirk was the lead of the show, it was Spock who seemed to strike a chord with the younger viewers. Episodes like  The Naked Time , This Side of Paradise and Amok Time portrayed Spock as a character struggling with social mores and his own repression – trying to find a balance between what he needed and what society expected from him. It is telling that Spock is the character most sympathetic to the space hippies in The Way to Eden .

Spock’s disagreement with his father resonated with younger viewers dealing the expectations of their parents. Just as Starfleet offered Spock a chance to see “new worlds and new civilisations” , the young people of the sixties were presented with more opportunities than their parents had known. While it may have been safer to follow the path laid out for them by concerned parents, many decided to find their own way in the world. In the summer of 1967, many of these young people had taken to San Fransisco to express themselves and enjoy those freedoms and potential.

“Hey, look, at least the next script’s about me, right?

D.C. Fontana is probably the best character writer to work on the original Star Trek . More than any other member of the creative team, Fontana understood the characters inhabiting the Enterprise. In fifty minutes, Fontana is able to present viewers with a fully-realised portrait of a dysfunctional Vulcan family, suggesting the cracks in the facade, the shared history and the unspoken understandings.

For all that Spock takes pride in his work and his willingness to forge his own identity, it is clear that he still yearns for his father’s approval. After all, Spock desperately seeks to assert his Vulcan identity. While he offers all manner of justifications for his refusal to assist his father, Spock seems concerned about what Sarek might think of such sentimentality. “Can you imagine what my father would say if I were to agree?” he asks his mother. “If I were to give up command of this vessel, jeopardise hundreds of lives, risk interplanetary war, all for the life of one person?”

Closed off…

For his part, Sarek might hide his emotions better than Spock, but he is still a proud man. Early on, he excuses himself from a diplomatic function. “Excuse me, Doctor,” he states. “It has been a rather long day for my wife. Captain.” Never mind that Amanda seems to be enjoying the conversation. It seems more likely that Sarek was trying to save face and manage his own debilitating physical condition. Even when accused of murder, Sarek tries to conceal the illness from his son and from Kirk, a lie enabled by Amanda – acutely aware of her husband’s weakness.

Sarek is also – like most Vulcans on Star Trek who are not Spock – quite remarkably rude. When the Tellarites hassle him about his preference on the matter of Coridan, he refuses to be drawn. While the Tellarites claim to have legitimate concerns – and certainly have a legitimate reason for wanting to know Sarek’s position – Sarek is incredibly dismissive. “Tellarites do not argue for reasons,” he states in a crowded room packed with assembled dignitaries. “They simply argue.”

“He’s dead, Captain…”

It does seem a little strange that Sarek’s dismissal of the Tellarite position becomes the entire basis for their culture when the Tellarites reappear on Star Trek: Enterprise . It is an example of that creeping continuity mentioned earlier, but it is also a demonstration of one of the impulses in fandom. Like the fan outrage over the rude Vulcans on Enterprise , this is a demonstration of how certain fan beliefs can end up enshrining themselves in continuity, leading to some strange storytelling decisions to preserve fandom’s perspective.

The Vulcans on Star Trek were hardly polite and friendly. The franchise has never presented any Vulcan except for Spock as particularly “nice.” In Amok Time , Spock’s betrothed conspired to dissolve their union in a plot that would have killed either Kirk or Spock. Nobody on the planet bothered to point out to Kirk that he would be fighting to the death. Once that piece of information was revealed, T’Pau would not let him opt out. Even Tuvok’s defining moments in the first season of Star Trek: Voyager emphasise how disconnected he is from his colleagues.

Sadly, the episode doesn’t opt for a slow Kubrick-esque pull-back…

Here, it is suggested Vulcans politely disapprove of Starfleet. Discussing Spock’s decision to enter the Academy, Amanda offers, “My husband has nothing against Starfleet. But Vulcans believe that peace should not depend on force.” Although phrased much more delicately than the Vulcan position in Enterprise , it is not inconsistent with it. However, prompted by fandom’s shared memory of Vulcans and ignoring fairly consistent characterisation from as early as Amok Time , Enterprise felt the need to account for the perceived mischaracterisation.

It is perhaps a testament to the franchise’s rose-tinted glasses that Sarek’s incredibly impolitic public remark would become the defining racial characteristic of Tellarites when they reappeared decades later. Even bearing that in mind, Sarek’s declaration still seems rather rude. In the context of the episode, it is presented as one of the indicators that something is not quite right – red herrings that provide circumstantial evidence that Sarek may be a killer, but also a suggestions that Sarek may be under some strain.

Sometimes a captain likes to look his best…

As with Spock, Fontana cleverly suggests that Sarek is not emotionless – he is just well-versed in concealing his emotions. Although he would never say it to Spock’s face, it is clear that he is proud of his son. When Amanda tells the story about Spock’s pet “teddy bear” , Sarek quietly rebukes her. “You embarrassed Spock this evening. Not even a mother may do that. He is a Vulcan.” He adds, “He is in Starfleet. He must command respect if he is to function.” Amanda replies, “Sarek, you’re proud of him, aren’t you? You’re showing almost human pride in your son.”

Journey to Babel is so well constructed that even the medical drama plays out as a metaphorical extension of the plot. Of course Sarek’s heart is the problem – while it may not be working as expected, the medical crisis proves that it is there. The key is to fix Sarek’s heart. Discussing treatment options, McCoy muses, “On a Vulcan, an ordinary operation’s out of the question.” Sarek clarifies, “Because of the construction of the Vulcan heart.” The Vulcan heart is a most unique and distinct organ, very different from the human equivalent.

Quality father-son time…

Even Spock’s involvement with the treatment plays into the metaphor. “We’ve run a number of blood tests on Mister Spock,” Nurse Chapel observes. “It isn’t true Vulcan blood either. It has human blood elements in it.” As ever, Spock’s human half prevents him from being the Vulcan that his father wants (and needs) him to be. Naturally, it is Spock who proposes a solution. “It should be possible to filter out the human factors.” You could argue that Spock has been doing that all his life.

D.C. Fontana’s influence on Spock’s development is so strong that her work can be identified as a core part of JJ Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek . While the films contain countless nods to the work of other writers, there is a clear thematic throughline from D.C. Fontana’s characterisation of Spock, to the point where the film actually features the story that Amanda relates here about her son’s tortured childhood as a major character moment for Spock.

A bolt from the blue…

In an absolutely beautiful moment between Jane Wyatt and Leonard Nimoy, Amanda recalls, “When you were five years old and came home stiff-lipped, anguished, because the other boys tormented you saying that you weren’t really Vulcan, I watched you, knowing that inside that the human part of you was crying and I cried, too.” Beyond the fact that it reinforces the recurring “Vulcans are not nice people” motif that runs through Star Trek , the reboot actually made a point to introduce us to the Vulcan bullies.

That’s a testament to Fontana’s writing. While Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman had to effective fashion an origin for James T. Kirk from whole cloth, all that they needed to do to make Spock an appealing and engaging character was to actually show the back story from Journey to Babel , right down to a line of dialogue about the Vulcans who used to pick on Spock as a child. The writing holds up after more than forty years. That’s pretty phenomenal.

From Andoria with love…

That said, Journey to Babel also provides another example of just how much Vulcan iconography came from Leonard Nimoy himself. In I Am Spock , the actor explains that he came up with the idea of Sarek and Amanda affectionately brushing fingers:

Mark was very curious about Vulcans and wanted to know as much as he could about them, so we discussed this at length on the set. “I have this notion that Vulcan society emphasizes tactile contact,” I told him, “and I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to use the hands and fingers, as a symbol, a benchmark of the race.” I talked about the Vulcan mind meld, and demonstrated the salute–which, fortunately, came easily to Mark.

It is the little touches like that which make Journey to Babel so fascinating. Like Amok Time , it suggests a world so much larger than the audience actually seeing. After all, all of Journey to Babel takes place on the Enterprise.

“Bring your parents to work day” was a massive success…

Even outside the wonderful work with Spock’s family, Journey to Babel is notable for its development of the wider Star Trek universe. It features a wealth of alien characters from a number of different races – many of which captured the imagination of fandom. Andorians and Tellarites popped up in the background of the various feature films. Both developed something of a cult following, before turning up as major players in Enterprise with revised and reworked makeup.

And yet, despite that, Fontana leaves the details sketchy. We know that the dispute involves mining rights on Coridan, and that the planet is being exploited. We learn that the Tellarites are profiting from lax regulations. However, we learn little else. We get no back story on the Federation’s history with Coridan. “The issues of the council are politically complex,” Kirk offers by way of explanation, “the passengers explosive.” We’re told that there are territorial claims and “strong personal reasons” motivating various actors, but with little elaboration on either.

Going for gold…

We never learn where the Andorians stand on the issue. We never even learn the name or species of all of the delegates – to the point that Manny Coto was able to name the short gold aliens for the first time as the “Ithenites” in the script for Terra Prime , almost four decades later. Journey to Babel never gets bogged down in its world-building. Instead, it just throws a whole host of concepts and characters out there, knowing that fans will inevitably have great fun trying to piece it all together.

This is perhaps the best approach that could be taken to the material. Given that Fonatana built Journey to Babel out of little bits and pieces suggested in earlier episodes, she appreciates that the best developments happen organically. It is much more fun to speculate about possibilities than it is to be told outright. Just as Fontana found the core of Spock’s character in a line about his mother from The Naked Time , maybe a small detail in Journey to Babel might inspire some future writer to develop a story based on some implication made here.

“So, the Andorian says to the Tellarite…”

Journey to Babel features some absolutely astounding makeup work from Fred Phillips. Phillips creates all manner of fantastic creatures, and D.C. Fontana confessed in These Are the Voyages that Journey to Babel was written as a bottle show on standing sets to free up budget for other aspects of the production:

“They put some money into that, to the tune of the costumes, the makeup, masks… the food spred out that was dyed all different colours… and so on. You always did trade-offs in that sense. If you went on location, you had to give away your costume and makeup. If you stayed on the ship, you could do more.”

Indeed, Journey to Babel had originally featured an introductory scene set on Vulcan that had to be cut . However, Fontana would get to revisit Vulcan – and Spock’s family history – when she worked on Star Trek: The Animated Series . Yesteryear is something of a continuation of Fontana’s development of Spock and Vulcan.

When the other delegates told Gav to get stuffed, they didn’t mean inside a Jefferies Tube…

Even more than Sarek, perhaps the greatest legacy of Journey to Babel is that it introduced the “ferrying the diplomats” plot, which quickly became a Star Trek standard. Earlier episodes of the series had featured Kirk ferrying Federation officials and scientists back and forth, but that was generally so that there could be some conflict when the Enterprise inevitably ran into trouble. Ambassador Fox provides the impetus for the plot of A Taste of Armageddon , Stocker provides conflict in The Deadly Years .

While Charlie X and Space Seed had both done the “Enterprise takes on passengers who proceed to make life difficult for Kirk and his crew” , Journey to Babel really hits on the idea that you can bring outside forces on to standing sets in order to generate conflict. There are entire stretches of The Next Generation where it seems like Picard does nothing but chaperone various parties who are hitching a ride to the same diplomatic conference, or just want to host a diplomatic conference on the Enterprise.

The heart of the matter…

Journey to Babel is the story that clearly inspired episodes as diverse as Lonely Among Us , The Price , Violations , Data’s Day ,  The Perfect Mate , The Forsaken , Remember and many others. It’s a story structure that is ideally suited to Star Trek , acknowledging the budget limitations on the franchise. If you can avoid location shooting by setting most of the action on the ship, and can come up with a way to bring in sources of conflict in order to create drama, you are all set.

“Crew ferry a bunch of diplomats” is such a core piece of Star Trek storytelling that it’s hard to believe we’re only really seeing for the first time it half way through the run of the classic Star Trek . While the first season of Star Trek developed a world over the course of a year, introducing many of the elements that would come to be taken for granted when discussing the franchise, the second season did a lot to shape and refine that world.

“Sensors pick up the plot point scattered across the franchise…”

It is perhaps appropriate, then, that Journey to Babel comes towards the end of Gene L. Coon’s tenure as producer. So near the end, in fact, that his successor – John Meredyth Lucas – was listed in the closing credits. According to Marc Cushman in These Are The Voyages , this was a simple mistake:

John Meredyth Lucas received his first Star Trek producing credit with this episode. It was a mistake; Geen Coon was the actual producer. However, by the time production had ended and credits were added, Coon had left Star Trek. The name of Lucas, Coon’s replacement, was inserted by the post-production crew because of this staffing change. The error has never been corrected.

Still, Journey to Babel very much feels like a script produced by Gene L. Coon. It hits on quite a few of the writer’s pet themes; most notable, it supports the idea that the simple relationships between people are ultimately more important than larger political issues playing out in the background. Spock and Sarek are more important than Coridan or Babel.

“Keep your antennae close to the ground…”

Journey to Babel is a classic piece of Star Trek . Its influence is still being felt, even as the franchise approaches its fiftieth anniversary. Almost a quarter of the final season of Enterprise could be argued to be a prequel to Journey to Babel in one form or another. The version of Spock presented in the JJ Abrams’  Star Trek films owes a considerable debt to Journey to Babel . The episode was so effective that the fanon assumption that the races featured in Journey to Babel were the founding Federation members is all but taken as fact.

However, perhaps the strongest aspect of Journey to Babel is the fact that it still holds up as a superb piece of television, almost five decades later.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the second season of the classic Star Trek :

• Supplemental: (Gold Key) #1 – The Planet of No Return!
• Supplemental: (Marvel Comics, 1980) #4-5 – The Haunting of Thallus!/The Haunting of the Enterprise!
• Metamorphosis
• Friday’s Child
• Who Mourns for Adonais?
• Supplemental: Spock’s World by Diane Duane
• Supplemental: New Visions #3 – Cry Vengeance
• Wolf in the Fold
• The Changeling
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #43-45 – The Return of the Serpent!
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2009) #13 – The Red Shirt’s Tale
• Supplemental: Deep Space Nine – Crossover
• Supplemental: New Visions #1 – The Mirror, Cracked
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #9-16 – New Frontiers (The Mirror Universe Saga)
• Supplemental: Mirror Images
• Supplemental: Mirror Universe – The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2009) #15-16 – Mirrored
• The Deadly Years
• Supplemental: (Gold Key) #61 – Operation Con Game
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1984) #39-40 – The Return of Mudd
• Supplemental: The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold
• Supplemental: Alien Spotlight – Tribbles
• Bread and Circuses
• Journey to Babel
• A Private Little War
• The Gamesters of Triskelion
• The Immunity Syndrome
• A Piece of the Action
• By Any Other Name
• Return to Tomorrow
• Patterns of Force
• The Ultimate Computer
• The Omega Glory
• Supplemental: Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox
• Supplemental: (DC Comics, 1989) #49-50 – The Peacekeepers
• Supplemental: (IDW, 2008) Assignment: Earth

Share this:

Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Amanda , amanda grayson , andorians , Babel , characters , continuity , coridan , D. C. Fontana , diplomacy , diplomats , family , Federation , Fontana , kirk , orion pirates , orion syndicate , Sarek , spock , star trek , star trek: the original series , tellarites , the original series , tos , world-building |

10 Responses

Interesting review! I totally adore this episode, and I’m amazed at what Dorothy Fontana has accomplished here. She packs so MUCH into the episode, yet it doesn’t feel rushed or cluttered or incomprehensible. It’s really an impressive writing job. I wish they had HER writing the reboot movies!

This is my second-favorite TOS episode (after “Amok Time”), and I think it’s brilliant on so many levels. The scene in Spock’s quarters, where Amanda slaps him — god, Spock’s courage gets me every time. Regardless of whether one thinks he’s making the right decision there, one has to appreciate that this decision is COSTING him, big time, but he will do what he thinks is the right thing, regardless of how much it breaks his heart, because that’s who Spock is. He’s a man and a half, and that scene simultaneously breaks my heart and gives me so much respect for Spock.

But even though it’s a Spock-centric episode, Kirk still has a chance to shine. Getting out of bed with a knife wound and pretending he’s fine so that Spock’s doing his duty DOESN’T cost him both his father’s life and his mother’s love, that’s a wonderful testament to Kirk’s character. And then his ability to fake out the Orion captain while on the verge of passing out from a knife wound — that’s our Kirk, all right.

Can you imagine how surprised Mark Lenard must have been to get a call to be in “The Search for Spock” SEVENTEEN YEARS after he did a one-week guest star stint in a TV show that had been cancelled fifteen years before? 🙂

I’ve always seen the actress who played Amanda listed as JANE Wyatt, but you have her as Jean. Is this a typo on your part, or did she prefer to be called “Jean”?

Oh, and I love your pointing out the metaphor behind there being something wrong with Sarek’s heart and the way that Spock has been “filtering out the human factors” all of his life. That’s a great point, and one I haven’t seen anyone else make. As always, you add depth to episodes I think I’ve already thought about as much as is humanly possible, only to have you show me a new way to think about them. 😉

Thanks for the kind words! As you point out, there’s been an awful lot written about these episodes, so there’s really very little I can add – except to meticulously source and research them. That said, I’m kinda looking forward to doing Enterprise and The Animated Series, because those are relatively under-explored pieces of the Star Trek canon.

Good spot, it’s Jane Wyatt! I suspect I typoed the first time and just went with it, like turning into a skid. That’s what you’re meant to do, right? 🙂

Very interesting review.

I know I’ve harped on about Spock loudly burying his human side as creepy and problematic (because it IS creepy and problematic and a huge stumbling block for me liking that character given how lionised he is) but I do find the Spock family dynamic intriguing.

Also Andorians! I will forgive ‘Enterprise’ (the show) almost everything for delving into this species.

Andorians are freakin’ awesome. It’s a shame that (I believe) Rick Berman banned them from the twenty-fourth century shows, because that design is just beautiful and should be one of the iconic Star Trek designs imprinted on the collective consciousness, as opposed to simply a fan favourite. (Much like everybody knows what a Klingon or a Vulcan looks like.)

Great post. I used to be checking continuously this weblog and I am inspired! Extremely helpful information specially the ultimate section 🙂 I handle such information much. I was looking for this certain information for a very long time. Thanks and good luck.

Just saw this episode, def. now among my favorite episodes in the entire franchise, and interesting to see the backstory (or forestory I guess) of the Babel three parter in Enterprise. Though it’d have been nice to visit Babel here or in that three parter.

I like Babel being a place we’re always traveling towards, but never arriving at.

But Journey to Babel is a stone cold classic. Leonard Nimoy and Mark Leonard are phenomenal in it.

Yeah it’s an excellent episode all around, love how it basically cemented the Federation into Star Trek

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Recent Posts

• 371. Poor Things (#246)
• 370. Dune: Part Two (#12)
• 369. Memento (#57)
• 368. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (#154)
• 367. Star Trek: Generations (#—)

Recently tweeted…

• "I Simply Am Not There": The Existential Horror of Eighties Excess in "American Psycho"...
• Star Trek: Voyager (Reviews)
• Adding Our RSS Feed to Your Gmail
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Reviews)

Available at…

Blogs Well Worth Your Time

• 1001 Must See Films
• Andrew at the Movies
• Anomalous Material
• Cut the Crap Movie Reviews
• Encore Entertainment
• Fandango Groovers
• FlixChatter
• Four of Them
• It Rains… You get Wet…
• Jameson Cult Film Blog
• Jar Watches Films
• Let's Go To The Movies
• M. Carter at the Movies
• Marshall and the Movies
• Movie News First
• Musings from a Man Lost in La Mancha
• Never Mind Pop Film
• Paragraph Film Reviews
• Roger Ebert's Journal
• Ross v. Ross
• Scannain.com
• Screenwriter (Donald Clarke, Irish Times)
• Strange Culture
• The Film Cynics
• The Pompous Film Snob
• The Projection Booth
• Things That Don't Suck
• Too Busy Thinking About My Comics
• Undy a Hundy

Film Nerd Resources

• CinemaBlend (News)
• Internet Movie Database
• Rope of Silicon
• The Guardian Film Blog
• James Berardinelli
• Roger Ebert

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Sign me up!

Blog at WordPress.com. WP Designer.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

'Star Trek: Voyager' cast spills all the tea in new documentary trailer

From Kate Mulgrew to Garrett Wang, cast members reveal behind-the-scenes secrets of this iconic  Trek  series.

Credit: CBS via Getty Images

Star Trek: Voyager  is getting the documentary treatment and, if the first trailer for  To the Journey   is any indication, fans will be getting a very candid peek behind the curtain of the classic  Trek  series. 

The extended trailer made its debut on TrekMovie.com this week, with nearly seven minutes of cast and crew interviews that provide a glimpse into the creative struggles and Hollywood headaches that surrounded Voyager 's seven-season run from January 1995 to May 2001. Captain Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew , offers a blunt recollection of her early days in the role, acting on set under the judgmental eyes of Paramount and then-UPN TV brass following the infamous departure of the show's original Janeway, French actor Geneviève Bujold.

Garrett Wong, who played Ensign Harry Kim, reveals that he was "the only Asian male series regular" on television at the time. Of any TV show. (And TV still has a long way to go to bridge that representation gap).

Other highlights include: Executive producers Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga, and Rick Berman discussing the origins of the show and actor Robert Beltran, who played a member of the terrorist group the Maquis before becoming Janeway's first officer, shares insights into when former cast mate Jennifer Lien (who played Kes) was fired from the show. 

To the Journey is set for release later in 2022. Watch the trailer below. 

Watch Resident Alien

• Kate Mulgrew
• Star Trek: Voyager

Related Stories

Speak No Evil Trailer Teases a Terrifying James McAvoy

The Definitive Guide to The Munsters Adaptations

Abigail Play With Her Food in Bloody New Trailer

Did Marty Die (Twice?) in Back to the Future?

Monkey Man Drops Action-Packed Second Trailer - Watch Now

Were Back to the Future and Goonies Set on the Same Day?

Chucky Is “Going for the Nukes” in Season 3, Part 2 Trailer

New Trailer for The Fall Guy Drops After SXSW Premiere

Everything to Know About The Cancelled Miniseries Sequel to The Thing

The Wild Robot: First Trailer for New DreamWorks Animation Film

Nope VFX Supervisor Dishes on Film's Creature Design

How Roland Emmerich Made Up Conspiracy Theory For Moonfall

Recommended for you.

Linda Hamilton on Resident Alien Role: "I'm Not the Funny Girl, I'm the Straight Man"

The Classic Twilight Zone Episode That Inspired Jordan Peele's Us

Resident Alien's Alan Tudyk on Harry's New Love Interest, Edi Patterson's Blue Avian

Filed under:

• Dungeons & Dragons

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is D&D’s answer to Star Trek

Discover new civilizations through 13 episodic adventures

If you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement .

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is D&D’s answer to Star Trek

Dungeons & Dragons is a game firmly rooted in Western culture, one invented and traditionally written almost exclusively by white men . While the franchise has at various times tried to step outside itself, many of its attempts to delve into other cultures have stumbled, falling victim to tokenism and orientalism while also giving in to damaging stereotypes . Now, for the first time, Wizards of the Coast has brought together a group of Black and brown writers for a book of adventures called Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel . The result is an epic anthology that feels as progressive and inviting as classic Star Trek.

Using the same format as the critically acclaimed Candlekeep Mysteries , Radiant Citadel contains 13 short adventures for parties levels 1-14. The fabric that ties them together is the titular Radiant Citadel, a mysterious city floating in the Ethereal Plane with an esoteric backstory all its own. It’s a cosmopolitan and utopian realm that welcomes refugees, while at the same time deploying heroes known as Shieldbearers to places in crisis to defend those in danger.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch .

The setting is simply dripping with a Gene Roddenberry-inspired feel. It invites players to venture on episodic adventures to new realms where they’ll get to know different peoples and cultures. And, as in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight , players can often solve problems through diplomacy and information gathering rather than straightforward combat.

The tone and the stakes of these missions are as wildly varied as the cultures they represent. The starting adventure, “ Salted Legacy ,” has players trying to stop a feud between merchants in a Thai-inspired night market, which requires earning renown by participating in a hot pepper-eating contest and a cooking challenge. The second adventure, “ Written in Blood ,” is a ghost story inspired by the Black experience in the American South. In a high-level Chinese-inspired adventure, the agent of a dying emperor will send players to explore the tomb of his predecessor, who was obsessed with achieving immortality. Few of the book’s antagonists are truly evil, with most villains driven by guilt, fear, and trauma.

I was particularly impressed with how many of the adventures provide respectful ways for players to enjoy classic adventure tropes and settings, while simultaneously creating action-packed storylines and fully developed characters. Along with the run-of-the-mill tomb raiding, there’s a lovely chase scene through a Middle Eastern-inspired bazaar that does interesting things with the well-worn concept of a magic carpet. Additionally there are adventures set during in-fiction celebrations inspired by Mexico’s Day of the Dead and Carnival . Stories are filled with surprising and charming characters like a friendly skeleton who runs a bar and a djinn who just wants to sightsee and catch up with his cousin.

Having writers from historically marginalized groups also means the adventures avoid the tropes of more traditional D&D adventures. Rather than simply taking a job from the local feudal lord, in “The Fiend of the Hollow Mine” players will work to help a revolutionary bandit locked in battle against a corrupt, demon-worshiping politician. In “Shadow of the Sun,” players must choose between helping a stifling angelic theocracy maintain its rule or aiding a group of secular artists in their fight against isolationism. Along with its emphasis on racial and cultural diversity, Radiant Citadel also features queer romance, numerous nonbinary characters, and a prominent NPC with a prosthetic arm.

For those who might be intimidated running an adventure that’s a little outside their wheelhouse, know that Wizards has included lots of guidance for would-be Dungeon Masters. Every adventure opens with a pronunciation guide of the relevant places and characters and ends with a brief gazetteer providing hooks for players who want to come from that civilization and additional details about the culture’s food, dress, and values. The book also opens with advice on describing characters in ways other than skin tone, and a warning against offensive costuming and accents. Every culture even gets a section on names with masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral options.

Radiant Citadel ’s writers have created a good balance between making things easy on starting characters and keeping things challenging for high-level ones. That begins with a magical diamond at the center of the Radiant Citadel that removes the expensive material cost for restoration and resurrection spells while maximizing healing. It allows players a hand-wavey way to quickly recover between sessions and get ready for their next adventure. Individual adventures have been thoughtfully tweaked as well to reward alternate play styles. The tomb in “Buried Dynasty,” for instance, is warded to prevent teleportation and then filled with fragile artifacts, making explosive spells a particularly bad idea. It basically forces powerful casters to come up with other solutions to the problems they face.

D&D is a multiverse, but the civilizations connected to the Radiant Citadel aren’t other planes of existence. Instead, they are city-states and individual settlements of varying sizes. While being deployed as Shieldbearers might make players feel like the crew of a Federation starship, these aren’t meant to be isolated or alien worlds but places that could just as easily be slid into an established campaign setting. There are ideas for having PCs come from each civilization as well as suggestions for where on the map they might be if you want to add them to Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, and even Mystara, which hasn’t received much attention since 3rd edition.

Not all of the civilizations tied to the Radiant Citadel get their own adventures. The book features several lost civilizations that will give DMs room to add their own connected societies to the game — or even loop in established D&D locations. The book ends with brief descriptions of two recently rediscovered settings with plenty of promise: the war-torn Tayyib Empire and Umizu, a Japanese-inspired setting filled with corrupt samurai, a thriving crime syndicate, and pickle-loving tritons.

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel shows the kind of explosive creativity that can come by bringing new voices to the game. Hopefully Wizards of the Coast will continue to embrace the creators it united for this project and let them bring fresh perspectives to future adventures and sourcebooks.

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel arrives on July 19. A special alternate art cover designed by Sija Hong is only available at your friendly local game store , while the standard edition is available at major retailers including Amazon . Digital versions are available for the D&D Beyond toolset , Roll20 , and Fantasy Grounds .

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel was reviewed with a pre-release copy of the book provided by Wizards of the Coast. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here .

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

Prices taken at time of publishing.

• $33 at Amazon

After Barbie tackled the patriarchy, Margot Robbie’s Monopoly movie could take a shot at capitalism next

The thing board game gives you too many sad, cold, and lonely ways to die, one author thinks your d&d party should get out more and socialize... in-character.

282 episodes

To The Journey is a Trek.fm podcast dedicated to Star Trek: Voyager. Not an episode review show, To The Journey explores specific elements with host Zachary Fruhling and guests.

To The Journey: A Star Trek Voyager Podcast TFM

• TV & Film
• 4.8 • 243 Ratings
• JUL 16, 2020

Chakotay’s Floppy Disk

After 282 episodes, To The Journey is set for another transition as the current hosts disembark. In this special episode of To The Journey, hosts Liam Smart and Suzanne Williamson aimlessly talk about things to do with Star Trek Voyager. We talk about Voyager toys, hot aliens, and a bit of fanfic. Chapters Intro (00:00:00) It's Gonna Smell Terrible (00:04:04) It's Their Eyes (00:13:03) Divine!!! (00:16:21) Harry Dances With a Cow (00:20:29) Closing (00:38:19)  Hosts Liam Smart and Suzanne Williamson Production Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Liam Smart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• JUL 2, 2020

Seska Space Dinosaur

With over 160 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, you could be forgiven for thinking a few can go on the ‘meh’ pile. There are also a lot of episodes that rise to the top when it comes to thinking of the best of the best. But it is almost impossible to choose just one episode from each series that is not to be missed.  In this episode of To The Journey, hosts Liam Smart and Suzanne Williamson attempt to whittle down each season to just ONE episode that embodies Voyager. Of course they do not agree... Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Season 1 (00:07:40) Season 2 (00:12:58) Season 3(00:17:43) Season 4 (00:21:47) Season 5 (00:27:20) Season 6 (00:32:06) Season 7 (00:36:53) Closing (00:40:30)   Hosts Liam Smart and Suzanne Williamson  Production Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Liam Smart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• JUN 18, 2020

Chakotay's Sex Toy

One of the many, many (did we say many?) episodes of Star Trek: Voyager to feature the Borg, Season 6’s Survival Instinct focuses on members of Seven of Nine’s Unimatrix that crash landed with her on a random planet a few years prior to the events of the episode. These now ex-Borg are desperate to find a way of delinking themselves from the mini-collective they were forced to form by Seven, and now require Seven to help them undo it.  In this episode of To The Journey, hosts Suzanne Williamson and Liam Smart are joined by Christopher D Littlefield for a commentary on Season 6 Episode 2, Survival Instinct.  Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Commentary (00:11:55) Closing (00:55:38)   Hosts Liam Smart, and Suzanne Williamson Guest Christopher D. Littlefield Production Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Liam Smart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Joo Kim (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• 1 hr 11 min
• JUN 4, 2020

Dead Man on the Green Mile

Farewells in Voyager and Farewell to Zachary.  Star Trek: Voyager had its fair share of farewells, from the departure of Kes and Neelix to some emotional farewells between the Voyager crew and their alien love interests of the week. In this episode of To The Journey, we discuss the many farewells in Voyager—even one goodbye that's more of a "good riddance" than a farewell! And, in this special episode of To The Journey, hosts Suzanne Williamson and Liam Smart say their farewells to fellow host Zachary Fruhling, departing the show for the next leg of the journey, in podcasting and in life.   Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Good Riddance or FU? (00:08:07) Star Trek Men in Black (00:10:06) What Juicy Lungs You Have (00:22:47) Space Hemlock (00:35:29) Why Not All Three? (00:45:32) I Can Whittle You a Bath (00:56:10) To The Google! (01:02:28) Closing (01:14:16)  Hosts Zachary Fruhling, Suzanne Williamson, and Liam Smart  Production Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) Liam Smart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• 1 hr 26 min
• MAY 21, 2020

Tom/Tuvok Moments.  In this episode of To The Journey, hosts Liam Smart and Zachary Fruhling are joined by TTJ associate producer Patrick Carlin to discuss their favorite Tom/Tuvok moments in Star Trek: Voyager.   Chapters Intro (00:00:00) News (00:08:27) Our Picks (00:12:34) Closing (00:38:14)   Hosts Liam Smart and Zachary Fruhling   Guest  Patrick Carlin   Production Liam Smart (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• MAY 7, 2020

Hunky Borg Dudes

Borg Collective Set, Part 2.  In this episode of To The Journey, hosts Liam Smart, Suzanne Williamson and Zachary Fruhling are joined by Amy Nelson and Joe Keegan of Earl Grey, our sister podcast on Trek.fm dedicated to Star Trek: The Next Generation, for part two of our discussion of the Star Trek Fan Collective Borg episodes. Together with Amy and Joe, we discuss the following Borg episodes from Star Trek: Voyager: "Scorpion" (Parts  1 and 2), "Drone," "Dark Frontier" (Parts 1 and 2) "Unimatrix Zero" (Parts 1 and 2), and the series finale, "Engame."  For part 1 of our Borg Fan Collective discussion, don't miss Earl Grey episode 323: Greebling the Borg.   Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Solar Powered Ocampa (00:06:14) There's Something About One (00:22:57) He's Got a Tiny Little Crown (00:34:36) This is Voyager's Descent (00:51:43) Time-Wimey Stuff Going On (00:59:44) Take it to the Next Level (01:10:10) Closing (01:18:54)  Hosts Liam Smart, Suzanne Williamson, and Zachary Fruhling  Guests Amy Nelson and Joe Keegan  Production Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) Liam Smart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)

• 1 hr 28 min
• © Trek.fm and Stellar Debris, Ltd.

Customer Reviews

243 Ratings

At this time of listening, I am 114 episodes in. When I started I listened to a recent episode and I just had to start at the beginning. I have enjoyed listening to Tristan and Char and have really enjoyed their takes on a favorite show. I only wish I would’ve found this podcast sooner!

Thank You For More Shows

Last year the show went on what felt like an extended hiatus. I think they only did 6 shows the entire year and I was confused why they cut back. Well, in 2020 it feels like the show got Rejuvinated, and I think Liam Smart being there is helping. I also loved the new series they started where they rewrite each season of the show featuring a prominant alien from the season. They've only done season 1, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this series develops. In Voyager's 25th anniversary, it feels like TTJ has come back with a vengeance. Keep up the great work all.

Kale for Breakfast

Chakotay’s spirit animal is a snake according to the Star Trek Voyager book Pathways. We know that Tom Paris was knowledgeable about 20th century cars in The 37s, Season 2, Episode 1.

Top Podcasts In TV & Film

You might also like, more by trek.fm.

Embarking on an Adventure: Kamri Noel McKnight’s Journey to Mt. Everest Base Camp with Zenni Frames

• BY Alyssa Buchanan
• Apr 12, 2024

@kamrinoel Travel with me to Mt Everest base camp ft my Zennis! Stay tuned for more videos in Kathmandu and the beginning of our trekking journey in EyeQLenz! @Zenni #ZenniPartner ♬ original sound – Kamri Noel McKnight

Are you ready for an adventure of a lifetime? Join Kamri Noel McKnight, renowned adventurer and content creator, as she embarks on the ultimate trek to the Everest Base Camp Trek. Follow along as Kamri conquers rugged terrains, braves high altitudes, and embraces the spirit of exploration—all with the help of Zenni frames and the new EyeQLenz !

Equipped for the Journey: Zenni Frames to the Rescue

When it comes to embarking on epic adventures, having the right gear is essential. That’s why Kamri chose Zenni frames to accompany her on her journey. Discover how the EyeQLenz is providing Kamri with clear vision and unparalleled comfort offering her complete eye protection throughout her journey.

EyeQLenz: The Ultimate Lens for Complete Eye Protection

Blocking uv light.

Protecting your eyes from UV radiation is crucial for maintaining long-term eye health, as UV exposure can lead to various eye conditions, including cataracts, macular degeneration, and photokeratitis. By wearing UV-blocking sunglasses and hats, you can minimize UV-related eye damage and preserve your vision for years to come. EyeQLenz offers comprehensive protection by blocking 100% of UVA and UVB rays, ensuring you can engage in outdoor activities confidently, knowing your eyes are shielded from harmful UV radiation.

Adaptive Protection for Your Eyes

EyeQLenz also features advanced photochromic properties that adapt to changing light conditions, providing continuous protection and comfort. These lenses darken in response to UV exposure outdoors, shielding the eyes from harmful rays, and swiftly transition back to a clear state indoors. This seamless adjustment ensures optimal visual clarity in various environments without the need for multiple pairs of glasses. With EyeQLenz, you can enjoy clear vision and UV protection wherever your day takes you.

Shop these frames

Filtering Infrared Radiation

Filtering out infrared light is important for safeguarding eye health and preventing potential damage. Prolonged exposure to infrared radiation can lead to long-term damage to your skin and increase the risk of cataract formation. By incorporating infrared filtering technology into eyewear, such as lenses with infrared-blocking properties, individuals can have an additional layer of defense against this invisible threat, ensuring comprehensive eye health and safety for the long term.

Filtering High-Energy Blue Light

High-energy blue light, emitted by digital screens and artificial lighting, is associated with digital eye strain and disruptions in circadian rhythm. EyeQLenz filters out a significant portion of blue light, reducing eye strain and fatigue for those with extended screen time. With EyeQLenz, enjoy enhanced visual comfort and productivity without compromising eye health.

Inspired by Kamri’s unforgettable journey? Whether you’re planning your next outdoor expedition or simply seeking stylish eyewear for everyday life, Zenni has you covered. With a wide range of durable, adventure-ready frames , Zenni empowers you to embark on your own adventure and see the world in a whole new light! Be sure to tune in as Kamri continues her journey to the Everest Base Camp Trek!

Alyssa Buchanan

Dr. Alyssa Buchanan is an optometrist based in Lubbock, Texas. She received her doctorate from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, and has practiced in various settings including Fort Cavazos where she provided eye care for deploying soldiers. Dr. Buchanan has since received her Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration and continues to strive to provide top-notch eyecare and make a meaningful impact in the eyecare industry.

Related Posts

Screen Rant

Voyager is why star trek is replacing discovery’s spore drive.

Starfleet is abandoning the spore drive in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, having found a better form of warp travel thanks to the USS Voyager.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive"

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 bids farewell to the spore drive, as USS Voyager's pathway drive takes over in the 32nd century.
• Commander Stamets reveals Starfleet's decision to halt spore drive development, making Discovery unique in the Star Trek franchise.
• The USS Voyager-J's pathway drive paves the way for safer and sustainable warp travel in Star Trek's future.

The 32nd century's version of the USS Voyager is the reason that Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is abandoning Starfleet's revolutionary spore drive technology. Since they arrived in the 32nd century in season 3, the USS Discovery crew's one-of-a-kind spore drive has represented a potential replacement for dilithium-reliant warp travel in Star Trek 's future . However, various obstacles, most notably rogue Risan scientist Dr. Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) and his theft of the only working prototype have prevented the spore drive from being rolled out.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1 , "Red Directive", Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) reveals that Starfleet has shuttered further development on the spore drive . Starfleet's decision means that the USS Discovery will remain one-of-a-kind, making season 5 the last outing for Starfleet's spore drive. Instead of taking Discovery's spore drive further, Starfleet are instead forging ahead with the new pathway drive, first trialed by the USS Voyager-J in Star Trek: Discovery season 4 .

Star Trek Is Ditching Discovery's Spore Drive - And That's Good!

Uss voyager is why star trek is quitting discovery’s spore drive, voyager has a history of scientific advancement in starfleet..

In Star Trek: Discovery 's season 4 premiere, "Kobayashi Maru", it was revealed that the USS Voyager-J had been newly fitted with a protoype pathway drive . Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) was looking for the right captain to command the ship and test out this new technology. Now, Discovery 's season 5 premiere, "Red Directive" reveals that those tests were successful, leading to the pathway drive being the new standard for future Starfleet ships. The rollout is still in the early stages, however, as Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) states that his ship, the USS Antares, doesn't have a pathway drive fitted.

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) was under consideration to command the USS Voyager-J, but President Rillak didn't believe that she was ready.

It feels appropriate that the USS Voyager is responsible for replacing Star Trek: Discovery 's spore drive, given its namesake's impact on warp travel centuries earlier . Star Trek: Prodigy revealed that, after returning to the Alpha Quadrant, much of the technology the USS Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant was adapted by Starfleet. For example, the USS Dauntless, commanded by Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) had a quantum slipstream drive fitted, first encountered in Star Trek: Voyager 's season 4 finale, "Hope and Fear".

10 Ways USS Voyager Changed In Star Trek’s Delta Quadrant

When will we see star trek: discovery's pathway drive in action.

As the USS Discovery is in the middle of a vitally important mission to find the Progenitors' technology to create life, it doesn't seem like there will be much time for a refit. Therefore, it's unlikely that Discovery will be using the pathway drive at any point in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. It's certainly possible that Captain Burnham could receive assistance from a starship like the USS Voyager-J at some later point in Discovery season 5, but it's also possible that the pathway drive was just a tease of things to come in the now- canceled Star Trek: Discovery season 6 .

As it will focus on a batch of new recruits, the Starfleet Academy show feels like an ideal way to reveal more about the pathway drive.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will pick up the baton in the 32nd century, however, making it the most likely candidate for a pathway drive demonstration . As it will focus on a batch of new recruits, the Starfleet Academy show feels like an ideal way to reveal more about the pathway drive. As the cadets learn how a pathway drive works, and how it differs from a more traditional warp drive, so too will Star Trek fans who tune into the YA-oriented show. Starfleet Academy leading the way with a new warp drive replacement would be a fitting way to continue the legacy of Star Trek: Discovery and its spore drive.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is looking to begin production in late summer 2024.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

After being closed for over a hundred years, Starfleet Academy is reopening its doors to those who wish to pursue a career as Starfleet Officers. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will follow a new group of cadets as they come of age, and build friendships, rivalries, and romantic relationships while being threatened by a new adversary that could destroy the Academy and the Federation itself.

Why Star Trek Keeping Standard Warp Travel Is Best

The specifics of how the pathway drive works are still a mystery in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, but it's presumably rooted in traditional warp travel. The spore drive was an incredibly complicated method of travel that required specific calculations and a willing host to navigate the mycelial network . In "Red Directive", Stamets states that, with more time, he could have worked out the issues with navigation, but never got the chance. The grisly fate of the USS Glenn in Discovery season 1 revealed that the slightest miscalculation in spore drive navigation could have devastating consequences for the crew.

Presumably, the pathway drive is a means to achieve warp travel while using less dilithium, to reduce the Federation's reliance on it following the scarcity caused by the Burn. This is therefore a less risky proposition, which will be why Starfleet are now rolling it out following the USS Voyager-J's successful trial. While it may be disappointing for Stamets in Star Trek: Discovery , the pathway drive's potential to make warp travel safer and more sustainable should be something to celebrate.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 1 is streaming on Netflix.

Star Trek: Discovery

*Availability in US

Not available

Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek Voyager

The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before.

Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek: Prodigy is the first TV series in the Star Trek franchise marketed toward children, and one of the few animated series in the franchise. The story follows a group of young aliens who find a stolen Starfleet ship and use it to escape from the Tars Lamora prison colony where they are all held captive. Working together with the help of a holographic Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the new crew of the USS Protostar must find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation of the deadly threat that is pursuing them.

Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

• ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Getting Bloody, Live-Action Film ‘The Last Ronin’ 22 hours ago
• Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series 1 week ago
• ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Star Sonequa Martin-Green on the Show’s Unexpected Final Season, the ‘Pressure’ of Representation and Taking the ‘Trek’ Cruise 1 week ago

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 5, Episode 1 of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” now streaming on Paramount+.

Popular on Variety

Kovich’s explanation evokes the classic “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” episode “The Chase” from 1993 in which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — along with teams of Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians — learn that all humanoid life in the galaxy was created by a single species that existed billions of years earlier, and seeded thousands of planets with the DNA to pass along their legacy. (Along with presenting a profound vision of the origins of life, the episode also provided an imaginative explanation for why almost all the aliens in “Star Trek” basically look like humans with different kinds of forehead ridges.)

Kovich tells Burnham that the Romulan scientist was part of a team sent to discover exactly how these aliens — whom they call the Progenitors — made this happen; the object they’re seeking winds up being one part of a brand new “chase,” this time in the 32nd century, to find the Progenitors’ technology before it can fall into the wrong hands. 

“I remember watching that episode and at the end of it just being blown away that there was this huge idea where we all come from,” Paradise says. “And then they’re going to have another mission the next week. I found myself wondering, ‘Well, then what? What happened? What do we do with this information? What does it mean?’”

Originally, Paradise says the “Discovery” writers’ room discussed evoking the Progenitors in Season 4, when the Discovery meets an alien species, the 10-C, who live outside of the galaxy and are as radically different from humans as one could imagine. “As we dug deeper into the season itself, we realized that it was too much to try and get in,” Paradise says.

Instead, they made the Progenitors the engine for Season 5. “Burnham and some of our other characters are on this quest for personal meaning,” Paradise says. Searching for the origins of life itself, she adds, “feels like a big thematic idea that fits right in with what we’re exploring over the course of the season, and what our characters are going through.”

That meant that Paradise finally got to help come up with the answers to the questions about “The Chase” that had preoccupied her when she was younger. “We had a lot of fun talking about what might’ve happened when [Picard] called back to headquarters and had to say, ‘Here’s what happened today,’” she says. “We just built the story out from there.”

More From Our Brands

Ryan gosling initially turned down ‘i’m just ken’ oscars performance ask before unleashing inner pop star, an ultra-rare patek philippe set leads sotheby’s $1.3 million ‘gender-free’ watch auction, spirit of st. louis: ufl’s battlehawks are proof of league’s concept, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, is new ghosts lingo too ribald who was mia at curb trial does s.w.a.t. retirement track would abbott’s barbara know chatgpt and more qs, verify it's you, please log in.

To The Journey

A star trek voyager podcast.

To The Journey is a Trek.fm podcast dedicated to Star Trek: Voyager . Not an episode review show, To The Journey explores specific elements of Voyager with host Zachary Fruhling and guests. TTJ is known for its honest approach to Voyager that mixes praise and constructive criticism . And after you listen, share your thoughts with us and fellow listeners in The Babel Conference on Facebook!

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Sneak Peek: Saru Has Issue With Engagement Announcement (VIDEO)

Would you like swooon in your inbox signup for our swooon newsletter.

With an engagement comes a slew of requirements and responsibilities, as we’ll be seeing on Star Trek: Discovery  for Saru ( Doug Jones ) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) in the April 11 episode, and TV Insider has an exclusive sneak peek. 

Saru is the one to bring up that he has something he wishes to discuss of a personal nature, regarding their engagement announcement, with T’Rina. “I reviewed the draft and there is one phrase which I believe may warrant reconsideration: the handsome and erudite Captain Saru,” he explains. “If it embarrasses you, we will remove it,” T’Rina says, adding, “but it is accurate to say that you are both.” Is there anything else he’d like to change? Otherwise, she’ll send it out within the day. Watch the full video above for his answer.

The couple may be going strong, but they will have political matters to navigate looking ahead. In this next episode, his first day as ambassador—he shared a sweet goodbye with Captain Michael Burnham in Episode 2, one both Jones and Sonequa Martin-Green recalled fondly to us they enjoyed filming since both love that relationship—is complicated by his engagement to T’Rina.

But Jones told us that he thinks it’s harder for T’Rina to navigate the challenges that they’ll be facing because “she has more at stake diplomatically and politically because of her position as president of her planet and how things will look, how will her people respond to her relationship to an outsider, which I am in her culture. And so how is that going to affect her diplomacy?”

Wilson Cruz on Learning About 'Star Trek Discovery' Ending & Culber's 'Epic' Journey

Also coming up in the next episode, the third of the final season, titled “Jinaal,” on Trill, Captain Burnham, Book ( David Ajala ), and Culber ( Wilson Cruz ) must pass a dangerous test to prove themselves worthy of the next clue. Plus, Adira ( Blu del Barrio ) reconnects with Gray (Ian Alexander).

Star Trek: Discovery , Thursdays, Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery where to stream

Star Trek: Discovery

• Cast & crew

To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995). The documentary explores the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

• David Zappone
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Gene Roddenberry
• Dwayne Johnson
• Grace Lee Whitney
• Brad Dourif

• (archive footage)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Connections Follows What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2018)
• When was To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager released? Powered by Alexa
• Will this documentary include HD transfers of footage from "Star Trek: Voyager?"
• United States
• Official site
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Related news, contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed