Sarek (TNG episode)

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Sarek"
"Sarek".
Episode no.	71
Prod. code	171
Airdate	May 14, 1990
Writer(s)	Peter S. Beagle
Director	Les Landau
Guest star(s)	Mark Lenard Joanna Miles Colm Meaney Rocco Sisto William Denis
Year	2366
Stardate	43917.4
Episode chronology
Previous	"The Most Toys"
Next	"Ménage à Troi"

"Sarek" is the title of an episode from the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode features Sarek, the famous Vulcan Ambassador (first seen in the classic Star Trek episode Journey to Babel).

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sarek has come as part of a diplomatic mission to establish relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Legarans, his last mission before retiring.

Sarek quickly retires to his room, and one of Sarek's aides explains to Captain Picard that Sarek tires easily, due to his advanced age, and so requests the official welcoming ceremonies be dispensed with.

Deciding to continue with a classical concert that had been planned, Picard extends an invitation to Sarek's wife, Perrin. When Picard leaves the ambassodorial quarters, Perrin enters Sarek's room to find the Vulcan annoyed by an inability to meditate. His annoyance is quite out of character for Sarek, and indeed any Vulcan.

That evening, Sarek, his wife and his aides attend the concert. Picard is shocked when he notices Ambassador crying - the music moved him to tears.

Ever since Sarek came aboard the Enterprise, sporadic bursts of anger have been occurring amongst the crew. Wesley and Geordi start arguing with each other, Dr. Crusher slaps Wesley for no reason, and a fistfight breaks out in Ten-Forward.

Troi and Crusher are able to formulate a theory that Sarek himself may be the cause of the disturbances. They postulate that Ambassador Sarek may be suffering from Bendii syndrome, a rare condition among Vulcans, characterized by a gradual erosion of emotional control. A kind of side effect is broadcast empathy; Sarek's long-suppressed emotions are transmitted to other people, who mistake his anger and grief for their own. One of Sarek's aides, Sakkath, admits that he has been using his telepathic abilities to shore up Sarek's emotional control, with only partial success.

Since Sarek's condition could jeopardize the treaty negotiations, Picard decides the time has come to confront Sarek with the findings. Picard informs Riker of his reluctance to do so, something Riker is not pleased about. Picard responds angrily to Riker's protests, both men start yelling at each other, but stop when they realize that Sarek had just influenced them as well.

When Picard tells the Ambassador what the crew suspects, Sarek is so upset that he has an outburst of anger, which confirms that he really does have the condition.

In order to preserve the important conference, Picard suggests that he and Sarek engage in a Vulcan mind-meld, and establish a telepathic link. Sarek agrees, and the melding of minds begins. While Sarek, drawing from Picard's emotional control leaves to begin the negotiations, Picard in the meantime suffers through a whirlwind of the Ambassador's emotions unleashed in his mind.

At the end of the episode, Sarek leaves, and it is a melancholy parting. His mission has been a success, but his emotional control is continuing to erode.

[edit] Trivia

Picard's mindmeld with Sarek would be explored in the episode "Unification." Picard would later allow Spock to perform a mind-meld in order to share what the two men experienced.
This episode marks the first of three times that Picard cries on screen. The other two times are following his rescue from the Borg in the episode "Family", and after the deaths of his brother and nephew in Star Trek: Generations.
This episode is featured on the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Jean-Luc Picard Collection DVD set for Region 1 only. It is the second of seven episodes featured, on disc 1 of the two-disc set.
Sarek's mindmeld with Captain Picard would mark the second time on screen that a Captain of the Enterprise had performed a mind meld with Sarek. The first was during The Search For Spock when Sarek melded with James Kirk to determine if Spock's katra was present within Kirk's mind.
Some fans complain that while this is a wonderful tour de force acting performance by Patrick Stewart as Picard, it focuses audience attention on Stewart rather than on guest-star Mark Lenard^{[citation needed]}.
Episode author Peter S. Beagle is writing a complete memoir of his experience working on Sarek, including all the different treatments and drafts (with annotations), called Writing Sarek.^[1]