Remastered “Journey To Babel” Looking Very Sharp

The critically acclaimed Star Trek TOS episode “Journey to Babel” will air this weekend on February 3rd. The enhanced look to one of the best TOS episodes ever done only adds to its never dying appeal

The Starship Enterprise hosts an explosive gathering of interstellar diplomats in “Journey to Babel,” an episode of Star Trek Remastered, premiering nationwide in the U.S. during the weekend of February 3, 2007. “Journey to Babel” is regarded by many fans as a pivotal episode of the series, introducing Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father, and Jane Wyatt as Amanda, Spock’s human mother.

In the episode, an alien spy nearly kills Captain Kirk (William Shatner), putting Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in temporary command of the Starship Enterprise while the ship comes under deadly attack. The situation pits Spock’s logical duty to his ship against his all-too-human desire to reconnect with his dying father.

Although most of the episode takes place on the Starship Enterprise, D.C. Fontana’s script afforded the visual effects artists at CBS Digital the opportunity to show off the Enterprise’s shuttlecraft hangar deck with an all-new shuttle landing sequence. They also reimagined the mysterious alien raider ship. In the original 1967 version of the episode, budget limitations forced the show’s effects team to use a simple spinning wheel of light to represent the attacking spacecraft. For the 2007 remastered edition, digital artists remained faithful to the original effect, but embellished it by creating an ingenious ship design that used the spinning lights as a powerful alien propulsion system. Finally, this episode offered one of the original show’s only glimpses of Spock’s homeworld, Vulcan, as seen from space.

Mark Lenard’s character of Sarek proved a favorite among Star Trek’s fans, so much so that Lenard later reprised his role in three Star Trek movies and two episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The versatile Lenard had previously played the Romulan Commander in “Balance of Terror” during Star Trek’s first season, and he also played a Klingon captain in the first Star Trek movie. Lenard is known to genre fans for his numerous roles in science fiction productions, including the regular role of Urko in the television version of Planet of the Apes. Jane Wyatt also reprised her role of Spock’s mother in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.” Wyatt won three Emmy Awards for her performance as Margaret Anderson in the beloved sitcom, “Father Knows Best.”

The newly-remastered version of “Journey to Babel” will premiere nationwide during the weekend of February 3, 2007, starring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, with DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy. The original episode was first aired in November, 1967 and was written by series story editor D.C. Fontana and directed by Joseph Pevney. Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek Remastered is distributed in syndication by CBS Paramount Television.

For lots more on the remastered Star Trek original series visit StarTrek.com.

[The attached images are copyright, © 2007 by CBS Studios Inc. All rights reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc]