"Sarek" marks the beginning in the TNG era opening up to the original show's roots. Not by redoing some stories or blatantly following them up, but by just acknowledging that the original series actually existed. After "The Naked Now" there seemed to be a huge shift in ensuring that no mention of the original series, it's characters or even situations would ever be brought up ever again. Thankfully during the writing phase of Season 3, someone came up with an idea that allowed for a major TOS element to be used for a TNG story.
The idea behind this episode was the crew dealing with an important character who was having issues with aging. Since the story needed a "scifi" element, the writers decided to explore the telepathic abilities of Vulcans and see what would happen when a Vulcan gets a disease that affects them on a telepathic level. And who should this Vulcan be? Everyone pointed at Sarek, even though he was from TOS and was featured prominently in the movies. Gene even asked the writer to write two scripts with one featuring Sarek and another featuring a different Vulcan. For all the big fuss I give to Gene, I'm very thankful that he decided to let Sarek be featured in this episode. Mark Leonard not only brings back the wise Sarek we're all accustomed to, but his performance when things get bad is simply astounding. Even the chemistry that Sarek and Picard have are one of the biggest dramatic highlights of the whole series.
Seeing this episode late in my run of TNG was quite a treat. I remember thinking how old Vulcans can get and how a character from the original Star Trek series was a great fun. One thing I respect a lot from this episode is how it treated Sarek in general. He's a troubled character, but he's still without a doubt the good guy. A lot of the writers even mentioned how this was a more personal story for them as well, since Sarek was made at the time when Gene Roddenberry's health was in decline. Here was a man of legend in the entertainment business who some thought was out of his mind in his direction for TNG, but there was always a level of respect everyone had for him, even when his health was failing.
Even though this episode brings back a major TOS character, the direction of TNG keeping it's distance away from TOS is still felt in this episode. Since Sarek is Spock's father, everyone knew that Spock would have to be mentioned one way or the other, and despite the fact that THE SAREK IS IN THE EPISDE, the higher ups stated that Spock's name should not be said aloud under any circumstances. So when discussing Sarek's history with the Federation, we get lines like this.
Picard: I met him once, many years ago, very briefly at his son's wedding.
It's kind of open to interpretation on whether this son is indeed Spock since by the time we see him in Unification, no mention of a wedding or spouse is ever brought up. Thankfully when Ira Steven Behr and Ron Moore did a re-write of the story, Behr was able to throw Spock's name in during Picard's intense emotional ride when he linked with Sarek. I for one am glad that one name drop made it in since it will be touched on in the end of Unification, Part II.
CONCLUSION:
At this point in the series run, "Sarek" officially made TNG a very good show. Mark Leonard's performance as an aged Sarek is a career highlight and knowing that the story doesn't end here makes this story even more important in the long run. While I certainly praise this episode for it's dramatic presentation, I would like to give the writers credit for constantly lashing out at Wesley and this particular moment.
STINGER:
