Sarek
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| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Vulcan |
| Affiliation: | United Federation of Planets |
| Occupation: | Vulcan ambassador to Earth |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Born: | 2165 |
| Died: | 2368 |
| Father: | Skon |
| Marital Status: | Widower/Remarried |
| Spouse(s): | Amanda Grayson (deceased); Perrin (widowed) |
| Children: | At least three sons, Sybok (with a Vulcan princess), Spock (with Amanda), and a clone of Spock. |
| Blood type: | T-negative |
| Other Relative(s): | Solkar (forefather); Selek, T'Pel and Sasak (cousins) |
| Played by: | Mark Lenard (primarily); Jonathan Simpson (flashback) |
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- For additional meanings of "Sarek", please see Sarek.
- For the alternate reality counterpart, please see Sarek (alternate reality).
Sarek of Vulcan spent most of his life in service of the Vulcan people, as an ambassador and representative on the Federation Council. He was also well known as the father of noted Starfleet officer (and fellow diplomat) Spock and the former husband of the Earth woman Amanda Grayson.
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Diplomatic life
Edit
Sarek's accomplishments as an ambassador of the Federation included the Coridan admission debate of 2268 before the Federation Council, early treaties with the Klingon Empire (Treaty of Alliance), Alpha Cygnus IX, and his incredible effort to bring about a Federation-Legaran treaty, which was initiated in 2273. (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; TNG: "Sarek")
In an alternate timeline created by the death of Spock at an early age, Sarek had been Federation ambassador to seventeen different planets between 2237 and 2269. (TAS: "Yesteryear")
Personal lifeEdit
Sarek was born in 2165, the son of Skon. (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; TNG: "Sarek") During his childhood, he had a pet Sehlat named I-Chaya. I-Chaya was later given to Sarek's own son, Spock (TAS: "Yesteryear").
Sarek's first child, Sybok, was born to a Vulcan princess. After his mother died, Sybok and Spock were raised as brothers. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
Sometime later, while serving as Ambassador to Earth, Sarek wed a Human female named Amanda Grayson, who gave birth to his second son, Spock, three years later. Sarek remarked that the newborn Spock was "so Human." (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; TAS: "Yesteryear"; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) In later years, in describing his parents' relationship, Spock stated that his mother "considered herself a very fortunate Earth woman." (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
Around 2250, Sarek broke off his relationship with Spock, when the latter decided to apply to Starfleet Academy instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.
In the interim, Spock had likened Balok as being reminiscent of his father, even stating – at one point early in the first contact between the First Federation and the Enterprise – that he regretted not having learned more about Balok. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
The two didn't speak again until the Coridan debate of 2268 (en route to the Babel Conference), when Sarek survived a series of heart attacks and surgery, only after a transfusion of rare T-negative blood from his son. (TOS: "Journey to Babel")
Sarek and Spock remained on good terms as the Klingon détente bloomed in the 2280s. In 2285, however, Spock was left for dead on the Genesis Planet after sacrificing his life to save the USS Enterprise. Sarek traveled to Earth, where he convinced Admiral James T. Kirk to retrieve his son's body and pushed for a fal-tor-pan fusion of Spock's katra and body; although aware of the dangers and complications of the ritual, Sarek stated that his logic was uncertain where his son was concerned. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
Three months later, Sarek finally apologized to Spock for his original opposition to Spock's decision to join Starfleet, recognizing Spock's friends as people of good character. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
In 2293, Sarek suggested that Spock initiate negotiations for a proposed Federation-Klingon Alliance with Chancellor Gorkon, hoping to bring together the two life-long enemies after the destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis. That almost didn't happen, for Gorkon was assassinated. Captain Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy were arrested by the Klingons, having been framed for the chancellor's murder. Sarek was present in the Federation President's office when several attempts to stop Kirk and McCoy being tried in Klingon territory were outlined, but he had to concede that the Klingons were within their legal rights and that the Federation could not interfere in their due process. Kirk and McCoy, with Spock's assistance, eventually escaped from imprisonment on Rura Penthe, and they arrived at the Khitomer Conference in time to prevent the assassination of the Federation President. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) Afterwards, Sarek was involved with the Khitomer Accords, and further helped the Federation and Klingon Empire establish their almost one-hundred-year peaceful co-existence. (TNG: "Sarek")
Sometime after the Khitomer Conference, Spock left Starfleet and became an ambassador and representative of the Vulcans to the Federation. It is suspected he and Sarek were involved in few diplomatic missions. The two, however, split again over the Cardassian issue of the 24th century. Sarek was also dismissive of Spock's friendship with Romulan Senator Pardek, who he had met at Khitomer, and the prospects for a lasting Federation-Romulan peace. (TNG: "Unification I") By that time, Amanda had died, and Sarek had married another Human woman, named Perrin. Sarek was present at his son's wedding before they again stopped speaking to each other; it was at that event that Sarek first met Jean-Luc Picard. (TNG: "Sarek")
In 2366, Sarek was diagnosed with Bendii Syndrome. He was meanwhile negotiating a treaty with the Legarans. As his emotional control was incredibly weak, he mind-melded with Captain Picard at the suggestion of his wife, Perrin. Sarek was then stable enough to conclude the negotiations, which had taken ninety-three years. He told Picard, "We shall always retain the best part of the other inside us." (TNG: "Sarek")
In 2368, Sarek died at the age of 203, in his home on Vulcan. (TNG: "Unification I") When meeting with Ambassador Spock on Romulus, Picard learned that Spock and his father had never mind-melded, and offered Spock the chance to share what Sarek had shared with him. The meld passed along Sarek's true feelings of love and admiration for his son that he had never allowed himself to convey in life. (TNG: "Unification II")
In 2370, after Julian Bashir told Elim Garak, "Before you can be loyal to another, you must be loyal to yourself," the Cardassian attributed the quote to Sarek, but it was actually Bashir's own. (DS9: "Profit and Loss")
The 24th century starship USS Sarek was presumably named in honor of Ambassador Sarek. (DS9: "Favor the Bold")
AppendicesEdit
AppearancesEdit
Additional referencesEdit
BackgroundEdit
The script of "Journey to Babel" includes the following description of Sarek: "Because of Vulcan longevity, it is impossible to tell Sarek's age. He appears no more than late forties. He is actually one hundred two – middle age for a Vulcan [....] Sarek's speech is almost without inflection." (Star Trek Magazine issue 155, p. 40) A scene cut from the same episode's final-draft script would have established that Sarek's father was himself a well-renowned Vulcan ambassador named Shariel. (The Star Trek Compendium, p. 89)
Mark Lenard, the actor who primarily played Sarek, was forty-three when he was cast for the part in "Journey to Babel". (Star Trek: The Original Series 365, p. 218) In a 1987 interview, Lenard mused over Sarek's personality and his reaction to Spock opting to join Starfleet rather than the Vulcan Science Academy. Lenard commented, "Sarek, like many people of strength and societal importance, believes in the superiority of the Vulcan way [....] And the fact that Sarek's son, whom he nurtured and taught, the one who expresses the best that is the Vulcan society, should go off and share all this knowledge with others hurt him deeply, I think." (Starlog issue #117, p. 46)
The fan response to Sarek was immediate and, for two weeks after the initial telecast of "Journey to Babel", Mark Lenard's fan mail was even more numerous than that being sent to Spock actor Leonard Nimoy. (The World of Star Trek, 3rd ed., p. 146) Nimoy himself also approved of how Lenard portrayed Sarek in the original series, later stating, "Mark had a real sense of the dignity and authority the character needed." ("To Boldly Go... Season Two", TOS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray)
In a deleted scene filmed for "Elaan of Troyius", it was revealed that Sarek was an accomplished musician. He placed first in an all-Vulcan music competition; second place was awarded to Spock. (The Star Trek Compendium, p. 197; [1])
In the script of "Yesteryear", Sarek is described as "distinguished looking". Before Mark Lenard was available for that animated episode, James Doohan recorded the character's lines of dialogue for the installment. It was intended that his voice would serve as Sarek's in the episode, though Lenard's voice was thereafter looped over Doohan's recordings. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 78)
In a story that was written by Jon Povill and was proposed to become the first Star Trek film, a societal upheaval on Vulcan included one of the Vulcans arguing that Sarek should be confined. (Lost Voyages of Trek and the Next Generation, p. 11) Sarek was also to have been mentioned by name during the Kolinahr scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and was included in the shooting script for that movie, though not in the film's final version. [2]
Sarek's inclusion in Star Trek III was arranged by Harve Bennett. (Starlog issue #117, p. 49) In an early story outline that Bennett wrote for the film, Sarek was a prime minister on Vulcan during a politically critical situation, as a Vulcan faction had reverted to the primitive behavior of their ancestors. Upon the Enterprise visiting the planet, Sarek told Kirk that many Vulcans were unhappy with the Federation having such a powerful weapon as the Genesis Device. It was also at this point, rather than on Earth, that Sarek admonished Kirk for not returning Spock's body to Vulcan and inquired as to how Kirk had known Spock had not been in a transcendental state. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 29) According to the unofficial reference book Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies (p. 82), Sarek even expressed anger in this scene, over Spock's body not having been returned to him. Although Sarek additionally appears in the film's conclusion, this was not true of the outline. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 30; Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies, p. 84) Mark Lenard was very happy to reprise his role in the movie. He later reminisced, "I was given a wonderful part in the film [....] [As director, Leonard Nimoy] really gave me some great opportunities to bring my character to life; I got to play an equal part in giving ideas for Sarek." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 137, p. 48)
One exception to Mark Lenard appearing as Sarek was in Star Trek V, wherein young Sarek was played by Jonathan Simpson, though voiced by Lenard. The back story concerning Sybok and Sarek's marriage to a Vulcan princess in that film has long been considered apocryphal by some sources, which included Gene Roddenberry. The episode "Sarek" states that Sarek's first wife was from Earth; clearly, this was intended to be a reference to Amanda and that Sarek was not married to a Vulcan princess. Admittedly, Star Trek V never explicitly says that Sarek ever married the princess, only that she was Sybok's mother.
For Michael Piller and others working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, there were parallels between the ailing Sarek of the episode "Sarek" and Gene Roddenberry at the time of the episode's making, which Piller described as "what I remember most about that episode." He went on to relate the similarities between Roddenberry and the character; "Gene was beginning to go into decline. Not that he was uncommunicative, but it was clear that he was not the same man that he had been. We all respected him so much, and he had been such an important, strong leader of the franchise and everything it stood for. But here is this great man–and I've only known him for less than a year at this point–here is this great man going into decline, and I immediately felt a very strong connection to the premise of 'Sarek' [....] If you go back and look at 'Sarek' closely, what that character is, is Gene Roddenberry." (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, p. 119) Piller also noted that this was the intention at the time the episode was written. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 66)
The makeup for Sarek in the episode of the same name was much as it had been in the previously-produced films. "Because Vulcans have an extreme longevity, the years between Sarek's appearance in the motion [pictures] and his first appearance on TNG didn't present us with any problems in designing his makeup," commented TNG makeup supervisor Michael Westmore. "We decided not to age him, and the studio agreed, suggesting that we use the natural lines of his face as contours." (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p. 78)
For Sarek's makeup in Star Trek VI, Jerry Quist, a makeup artist from TNG, agreed to join the film's makeup team – since the series was on hiatus while the film was in preproduction – and he alone concentrated on the character's prosthetics for the film. Makeup supervisor Michael J. Mills recollected, "I just let Jerry take care of that, and he came up with an intermediate look for Sarek – something between what we'd seen in the previous features and what people would be seeing him as on TV." (Cinefex No. 49, p. 45) Also in Star Trek VI, a painting of Ambassador Sarek was hung in the USS Enterprise-A's dining room.
The writing of Sarek's death in "Unification I" was inspired by the fact that, while the episode was being written, the writers were aware that Gene Roddenberry didn't have long to live. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 8, p. 66) Ronald D. Moore commented that killing Sarek off took courage and, despite liking the character's final scene, he stated, "It wasn't pretty." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 23, No. 2/3, p. 54) Concerning Sarek's final canonical appearance, Michael Westmore explained, "We had to show the effects of the degenerative illness that had afflicted him. We again used the basic design and lines of Mark Lenard's face, but this time we aged him and showed him looking gaunt and drained. We used deeper shadows and placed rubber stretching around his eyes to show fatigue." (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, pp. 78-79)
Ultimately, the role of Sarek was highly important in Mark Lenard's life. Mere months before he died in 1996, Lenard commented, "I suspect that even though I've died on the screen, I will live and die as Sarek of Vulcan. There's no getting away from it anymore." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 137, p. 48)
In a deleted scene from 2009's Star Trek, showing the birth of Spock, this character was portrayed by Ben Cross, who also played Sarek's alternate counterpart in the film; the scene in question takes place before Nero's incursion (dated, on screen, as 2230), thereby making the scene's depiction of Sarek, in fact, "this" character. Cross also partly based his performance as the alternate reality Sarek on Mark Lenard's portrayal of the role, a sampling of which Cross was supplied with (from Paramount) to prepare him for his own take on the character. (Star Trek Magazine issue 145, p. 67)
ApocryphaEdit
In the Thirteenth UK Story Arc, Spock had a cousin named Horek. This implies that Sarek had a sibling, one of Horek's parents.
In the comic story "Perchance to Dream," the crew of the USS Enterprise-D was attacked by a telepathic weapon called the Chova, which forced its victims to experience dreams and hallucinations focused on their personal failures. However, it was discovered that people with multiple personalities could render the Chova inert (since the Chova could only attack one personality at a time). Picard was deliberately infected with the Chova, since his mind-meld with Sarek, the probe that gave him the memories of Kamin, and the remnants of his memories as Locutus of Borg still in his mind all gave him the makings of a multiple personality disorder. The four defeated the Chova, but Locutus then attempted to regain control of Picard's body, nearly 'killing' Kamin and Sarek before Picard gathered the mental strength to stop Locutus.
The novel Avenger revealed Sarek's "Bendii condition" to be actually caused by a poison or special pathogen used by members of the Symmetricists, a Vulcan terrorist group, to murder him without causing suspicion. Spock was also poisoned in this way.
In the novel Engines of Destiny, Sarek became the leader of a resistance fighting the Borg in an alternate timeline where the Borg conquered the Alpha Quadrant during the events of Star Trek: First Contact. However, Sarek retained some memories of the original timeline, which allowed him to recognize Kirk and Scotty when they arrived in 'his' timeline; even having never met them, he knew that he could trust the two of them. In the end, Sarek sacrificed himself to buy time for the temporally-relocated Enterprise-D to return Kirk to the Nexus, as Kirk's presence was required for Picard to survive in order to defeat the Borg's time-traveling experiment.
In the Myriad Universes short story A Less Perfect Union, in which Terra Prime was successful and the Federation-like Interstellar Coalition was formed without an isolationist Earth, Sarek was kidnapped by the Romulans before a conference discussing Earth joining the Coalition, and replaced by Keras (Mark Lenard's Romulan character from "Balance of Terror") – who, being so similar in appearance that this required no cosmetic alterations of any kind, concluded that the two likely shared a common ancestor from before the Vulcan-Romulan schism.
External linksEdit
- Sarek at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
- Sarek at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Sarek at Wikipedia
