Star Trek TNG Sarek

Okay, this one makes me tear up a little.  After going through the third season growing pains of reliving Vietnam and all of the sixties causes with improvement over the first two seasons, they finally do an episode dealing with an issue that almost everyone can relate to: deteriorated aging in relatives, mentors, leaders, etc. who are looked up to and revered.

They couldn't work too many people in from the old cast and they didn't have the technology to insert themselves into an old episode at this time (like Trials and Tribble-ations, DS9) but they did have the Vulcan characters who live to be very old.  The Enterprises is functioning as it is intended as a diplomatic flagship and they bring Ambassador Sarek on board to negotiate a treaty with a race called the Legarans with whom he has had a close working relationship making him the only option for this negotiation. His character is built up as it should be with Picard carrying on about how he'd always admired him and felt inadequate around him, citing his many accomplishments.  And then his hopes to visit with and get to know this great man are put on hold when one of his handlers insists that he be left alone to rest.

Sarek is very independent though and insists first on inspecting the meeting area where the negotiations would be taking place.  As an aside, I loved the tanks that they had to set up for the Lagarans who are never shown.  Tanks full of red liquid and a room with dim and strange lighting.  It fires the imagination as to what exactly these things are.  Obviously something so different they couldn't be worked into the budget, but it's just as well.  The main thing that the audience notices is that Sarek seems agitated and overly critical of the arrangements.  He then accepts the offer to attend a Mozart concert.  That's when the audience sees that something is definitely wrong with Sarek as he sheds a tear during a particularly moving moment in the piece. 

Meanwhile tempers are running high on the ship for no apparent reason.  These negotiations are critical but it's certainly not the worst situation the crew had faced.  Geordi and Wesley start fighting.  Beverly slaps Wesley, which I probably enjoyed a little too much since he really didn't do anything to deserve it.  In fact, the more annoying aspect was the way Beverly was lamenting about how she'd never laid a hand on Wesley.  Ugh.  Sorry, it just doesn't sway with me.

 But it's an all out brawl in Ten Forward that makes them start to take notice of the fact that all of these general feelings of anger and rage started when Sarek came aboard.  Data also notes that Sakketh is asking whether Troi or Picard are qualified diplomats. That's where it starts to get sad.  Sometimes Vulcans over 200 years old lose their perfect control on their emotions.  So, using this character, Star Trek creates an Alzheimer's situation in reverse.  They try to be delicate about the situation and not intrude on Sarek's privacy. The dialogue turns to opining on how we're all subject to the ravages of old age no matter how far we've come technologically.

Of course it's nearly impossible for Picard to pin Sarek down to confront him about the possible situation because he's so guarded by his advisors and wife but he eventually gets through to see him privately.

He lays out their theory that he's suffering from this Bendii syndrome and that Sakketh has been helping him hold his mind together but that the strain of this mission is too great and as a consequence, Sarek is telepathically projecting his primal emotions onto everyone in the ship.  After he's forced to face the truth, he's still faced with the fact that the Legarans will accept no other mediator for this treaty than Sarek and that they may have to call the whole thing off.  It's this slow build up and discovery of Sarek's condition that affected me so emotionally, not so much the final scenes although they were very powerful as well.

Picard volunteers to mind meld with him and keep the brutal, Vulcan emotions within his own mind while Sarek negotiates with the Legarans. It is, of course something that needs to be monitored by the doctor since Vulcan emotions are nearly unbearably strong.  It's a great Picard moment since you don't see Picard lose control much either even though he's only human. A great way for Stewart to stretch his acting legs.  All around great scenes.

And if it seems familiar, it's because it was made to mirror Spock's emotional meltdown in The Naked Time.  Beverly is there to talk to him and comfort him like Nurse Chapel was for Spock. See, this is the kind of homages that are beautifully thought out and executed, not the direct copying and ripping of TOS scripts that they'd originally partaken in.  Picard suffers while Sarek preforms one last negotiation before he retires. 

For all the emotion, it is a happy ending.  Sakketh can control Sarek's mind for him much easier now that the negotiations are over and they leave with great appreciation and respect.  Sarek's wife Perrin doesn't need the reassurance that Picard gives her that Sarek loves her very much, and that's a nice touch too.  This was an excellent episode that has my heart.  Five stars.