the episode was an intentional reference to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Journey to Babel". The three part story was intended to represent a precursor to the Romulan Wars which had been referenced in "Balance of Terror" and "The Defector". Casting and make-up The guest cast included a number of Star Trek alumni. Jeffrey Combs returned to his recurring role of Shran, for his second appearance during season four. Joining him as a returning Andorian was Molly Brink, who had previously appeared as Talas in the episode "Proving Ground". Brian Thompson played the Romulan Valdore, having previously appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as well as the film Star Trek Generations. Another Deep Space Nine actor who portrayed a new character in this episode was Lee Arenberg. He had previously appeared in a variety of roles across the franchise, three times as a Ferengi in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine (including one, coincidentally also named Gral, no relation to the Tellarite Gral he plays here). He also appeared as a Malon, Pelk, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Juggernaut". The guest cast required a variety of levels of make-up to portray their alien characters. Combs' make-up took around three and a half hours each day, as did the Tellarite prosthetics. The Andorian female cast members took around four and a half hour each day to get into make-up and costume, but on the first day Brink required further make-up time as that day's shoot required her to appear in-character in her underwear. This meant that after the normal make-up schedule, she was sprayed blue from head to toe. At the end of that day's filming, the shower facilities at the studio's executive gym were used to remove the paint. Meanwhile, the Romulan make-up took three hours to apply, with all the relevant scenes completed in a single day. Reception "Babel One" was first aired in the United States on UPN on January 28, 2005. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 1.7/3 percent. This means that it was seen by 1.7 percent of all households, and 3 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. This was an increase in ratings compared to the previous week's episode, but saw a lower overall number of viewers. "Babel One" was watched by 2.53 million viewers, the