Journey to Babel

Drat!  I Knew I Should’ve Taken Extra Target Practice Last Week.

 

19)  “Journey to Babel”  Original Airdate: (11/17/67)  Remaster Airdate: (02/03/07)

 

Evaluation:

A generous amount of FX fixes were required to modernize the visuals in “Babel” and, fortunately, the RM team was up to the challenge.  First up is the excellent starboard pass of the Enterprise in orbit of Vulcan—the desert world now has a large polar ice cap in its northern hemisphere.  Question: if Vulcan is as hot as we’re led to believe, wouldn’t its polar caps have long since melted?  So then, despite the fact that it makes a striking visual, isn’t a continent sized arctic zone on the desert world a bit, well…illogical?  The new shuttlecraft landing shots are truly stunning.  The original show featured shots of a shuttlecraft cruising in space, landing on the hangar deck with empty space in the background and closing clamshell doors behind it, and rotating 180 degrees on a circular recessed turntable that functions like a gigantic Lazy Susan.  The RM shots reveal a more realistic shuttle landing with Vulcan in the background and the nose of the shuttlecraft Columbus visible to the right of the screen.  The revolving dais shot features better markings on the floor of the hangar deck, a high angle vantage of the Columbus and visible people standing inside the observation galleries above the shuttles.  The shot of the Enterprise leaving Vulcan is similar to other “breaking orbit” shots we’ve seen in the RM series, except this time the ship peels off to starboard instead of heading straight out into space.  In the RM “Arena” the team animated several blinks for the formerly lidless Gorn.  Although a completely different ocular challenge, why didn’t the RM team give the Tellarites  more realistic eyes (i.e., CG animate humanoid eyes in order to remain consistent with the species’ later appearances in the TV and movie series’)?  As is, the Tellarites’ recessed eyes inside the mask are embarrassingly arcane.  The bulk of the FX shots in the episode involve the Orion ship.  In the original episode, the alacritous Orion vessel was purposely left indistinct due to budgetary constraints…just a tiny, orange-tinged spinning star.  When headed straight toward the Enterprise, the RM Orion craft is a rapidly spinning ring with what appear to be four engines and a central fuselage inside its circumference.  The vessel’s design is effective since we only get to see it for a few seconds at a time, but the downside here is the repetition of shots where the Orion craft conducts strafing runs on alternating sides of the Enterprise (plus, we never get to see any of the enemy ship’s salvos).  By updating the phaser beam and photon torpedo effects, the RM team has added urgency and zest to the space battle sequences.  Speaking of phasers, this episode’s FX gold star goes to the shot where phasers track, and never quite catch up to, the speedy Orion ship.  The climactic shots of phaser beams slicing into the Orion ship and separating the still-spinning disc from the disbursing flotsam are brilliantly conceived and executed visuals.  Moments later, the Orion ship explodes on the ship’s main viewer, effectively replacing the crude pyrotechnics of the original with a CG eruption of blue, pink and white matter.  Not quite the spectacle of the Death Star exploding, but it works well enough for the small screen.  Sadly, we never get to see planet Babel, but just remember, it’s not the destination that’s important…it’s the journey.

 

Money Shot:  The Enterprise’s phasers tracking behind the speedy, shifty Orion craft.

 

Wish List:  Less repetition of the Orion vessel’s strafing runs and the addition of humanoid eyes for the Tellarites.

 

Remaster Grade:  A

 

Screencaps:

 

Original                                                                             Remastered