Podcast Enterprise: S2E10 Journey to Babel

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, you have the USS Enterprise orbiting the planet Vulcan. This is where Spock also grew up. they’re waiting for a Vulcan ambassador Sarek to board the Enterprise. There are already 114 delegates on board and this is to take them to a third planet.Where they want the United Federation of Planets to gather and decide whether they want to admit a planet called Coridan into the Federation.

Coridan is a planet with a lot of dilithium crystals, vital for space travel, and they have a lot of it giving them Federation membership will allow them to have protection, Keeping these di lithiums crystal safe.However, it also throws a wrench into the plans of smugglers.

Sarek the Vulcan boards the Enterprise. He has a human wife called Amanda, and it is revealed that he is actually Spock’s estranged father. His mother, Amanda is a sweet woman . However, she is having a bit of trouble dealing with Vulcan logic and emotionless behavior. Spock apparently joined Starfleet, which his father did not want him to do. His father wanted him to continue the tradition of remaining on Vulcan and focusing on Vulcan science instead Spock chose otherwise, and that is partly what has caused this estrangement.

And as the delegates are now all on the ship, they find that there is some sort of attack coming in from outside from a ship moving at warp 10, which means it is much too fast for the Enterprise to pursue or fire at it moves too quickly and none of the phases hit this particular ship. So as that is happening, You also have all the delegates come to the common room of the Enterprise and they’re having food and you find a lot of alien races there. One particular alien race, the Tellarites, two of them, the Tellarite ambassador approach the Vulcan Sarek and try to get into an altercation with him.Regarding the planet Coridan, it doesn’t work out that well. And you are also introduced to a rather martial and savage alien race called the Andorans. They are blue with antennas on their heads. They are also not particularly friendly. Now, as all of this is happening, you find that something is going wrong within the Enterprise, because it seems that there are signals coming from within the Enterprise that are communicating with that fast moving ship outside.And then, you have the tension between the delegates. And while all this is happening, Kirk finds that he’s stabbed by the Andoran.

There are two of them, the ambassador and his associate. The associate attacks Kirk and he’s injured. And then it also turns out that the Vulcan Sarek has something wrong with him.Basically there is something wrong with his cardiovascular system and he gets equivalents of heart attacks continuously. Now the only way to save him is for Spock to give blood to him. Captain Kirk has also been injured. There is some intrigue about the ship. They are being attacked by this outsider ship and Spock has to assume command.

He refuses to give a blood transfusion, which his father so desperately means because duty comes first. And he holds on to that belief, he holds on to that belief so strongly that he becomes unreasonable, holding Vulcan logic over everything else, and his mother is infuriated with him.And what happens is, now, if the Vulcan ambassador dies, it will be a problem. Also on a personal level for Spock, in spite of him pretending that it has no effect on him. Kirk decides to get up, go to the brig, and pretend that he’s okay so Spock relinquishes command and gives his father the blood transfusion he needs.The enemy ship pursuing them starts to attack, they have to play dead and try to disable the ship.

They find out that one of the Andorans, the one that had attacked Kirk, is actually not an Andoran.He’s some sort of an interloper or some sort of an impersonator. And the ship has been communicating with him the whole time. One of his antennas is fake. Maybe both of his antennas are fake.And there is a receiver in one of those antennas. They bring him to the brig for Kirk to deal with him. They find that he is part of a smuggling ring. Now the issue is how to stop that alien ship and bring some sort of peace so that Corridan can be admitted into the Federation peacefully.Kirk decides to have the Enterprise play dead so that the smuggler ship slows down, which it does, and then they fire at it and disable it.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Acknowledgements

1. Intro music: Music from anchor.fm
2. Shotcut for editing the podcast
3. References: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/