Two months after Star Trek fans first got to see Spocks home world, they met his parents when Journey to Babel aired on November 17, 1967. Spocks father, the full-blooded Vulcan ambassador, Sarek, and mother, the human Amanda, beam aboard the Enterprise to take part in diplomatic negotiations. The relationship between Spock and his father is strained due to Spocks choice to serve in Starfleet. When both Sarek and Captain Kirk are incapacitated by medical issues (Sarek is ill and needs Spocks blood to survive, and Kirk is stabbed by a member of the Andorian party), Spock is torn between his responsibility to command the Enterprise in Kirks absence and his familial duty to save Sareks life.