Next Generation, it was decided that Sarek's first wife, Amanda Grayson, would have died by the time of the events of "Sarek". As such, the character of Perrin was created as a second human wife for Sarek. Perrin was played by Joanna Miles in her first Star Trek appearance. Both Miles and Lenard would return in the same roles for the first part of the fifth season episode "Unification". The writers and producers were nervous about mentioning Spock in "Sarek", with an early version of the script only calling for a reference by Picard to Sarek's son's wedding. The third season had seen a relaxation in Roddenberry's previous direction that The Next Generation could not touch on aspects of The Original Series. This was especially seen at the end of "Sarek", in which Picard mentions Spock by name during the mind meld. Piller later described this one act as "the breakthrough which allowed us to open the doors, that allowed us to begin to embrace our past". The episode features several works of classical music at a concert meant to feature music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. While the first is Mozart's String Quartet No. 19 in C-Major, the second piece is String Sextet No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. The rest of the episode was scored by Dennis McCarthy; "Sarek" was one of several episodes on which he worked. Story editor Ronald D. Moore thought that "Sarek" was better than "Journey to Babel", and it allowed Lenard to do some "solid acting". Director Les Landau also praised Lenard's performance, saying that a moment when a tear rolls down Sarek's face was portrayed as "something special". He added that the dynamics in the mind meld scene reached "a level that I think is classic in Star Trek history", describing Stewart's performance as "truly spectacular". The mind meld scene was shot in a single take. Release and reception Broadcast "Sarek" aired in broadcast syndication during the week commencing May 12, 1990. It received Nielsen ratings of 10.6, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. This was the highest ratings received by the series since "Captain's Holiday" six weeks earlier. No episodes of The Next Generation received higher ratings until the second part of "The Best of Both Worlds" which opened the fourth season. Critical reception Mark Jones and Lance Parkin, in their book Beyond the Final Frontier: An