First introduced in “Journey to Babel,” Sarek of Vulcan is one of the best known characters from The Original Series, perhaps due primarily to his role in The Search for Spock and subsequent TOS films. Following McCoy’s cameo in “Encounter at Farpoint,” it took a while for familiar faces from Star Trek's past to return to the screen. Finally, in the TNG's third season, the wall between past and present began to come down as Spock's father came aboard Picard's Enterprise. Seeing Sarek shed tears at a musical performance and lose control of his emotions was a major advancement in making Vulcans more than just "logical," but making this happen wasn't as straightforward as one would think.

In this episode of The Ready Room, we're joined by Matthew Rushing, Larry Nemecek, and John Champion to discuss the episode "Sarek," how the evolution of the story showed continuing reservations on the part of Gene Roddenberry about connecting TOS and TNG even near the end of TNG's third season, as well as Sarek's place within the Star Trek universe and the battle to speak Spock's name on screen.

In our news segment, we debate which series deserved an additional season, io9's list of the Top 100 episodes, and play with Larami's classic Star Trek: The Motion Picture tie-in toys from 1979.

Originally published as The Ready Room 161: An Homage with a Capital H.