journey to babble

Gotta love late-night Star Trek reruns. Specifically, "Journey to Babel," one of my favorite episodes. It's got everything: action, intrigue, wit, love, logic, gratuitous shirtless Kirk — and Ambassador Sarek repelling Gav the Tellarite with what looks to me like Upward Split & Push, a T'ai Chi technique I was practicing myself earlier this wee. And let's not forget Jane Wyatt swanning about beneath an Anne Boleyn hair sculpture.

Call me crazy, but I like this ep even better than the much-lauded "City on the Edge of Forever." Sarek is crazy hot. Kirk's laughable martial arts skills nearly get him killed. McCoy is extra doctory, Checkov extra Russian. ("Keptin! Eet's en ellien wessel!") Spock carries the show, and he was always my favorite.

Next time you see "Babel," watch the bandage around Kirk's torso creep steadily northward. He gets stabbed in the lower back, yet the wrap starts around mid-chest and ends up as a tube top. Then toward the end, Kirk is clutching himself in pain, but he's clutching his left upper arm, while he was stabbed above his right hip. And then he marches into the turbolift and keeps on going, apparently right off the set, even though he should have stopped in the small elevator space.

God, I love this show. And did you know it's now available on iTunes?