Title: Tomorrow Is Yesterday
Airdate: 01/26/1967
Plot Summary
After an accident, the Enterprise ends up in 1967 earth. Kirk and crew must figure out a way to get back to their own time. But with an accidental exposure of the future to a fighter pilot, they must make a crucial decision that could destroy their own time.
Risk is our Business
Kirk does a helluva job fighting three military trained Air Force men. He also does a great job in throwing them off the scent when they rightly want to know where Sulu is.
He has a lot of good moments trying to decide how to deal with this situation, showing a ton of sympathy towards Christopher, even though he has to punch him in the mouth to keep him from escaping.
When they finally figure out the solution and Christopher has to get on the transporter, Kirk winkingly says “you only got about 15 years so you better hurry.”
Logical
Spock replies “neither have I” when Christopher mentions he has never believed in little green men. This is somewhat more amusing when you realize that Spock has green blood which does tend to give him a green tinge.
Spock makes a mistake in not taking into account Christopher’s offspring. In truth, there is a butterfly effect here that he should’ve been more attuned to than just “I googled Christopher, he didn’t do nuttin.”
He’s Dead Jim
McCoy on the other hand is just tickled pink he got to be there when he found out Spock made a mistake. Spock gets the last laugh when McCoy asks if should be working on his time calculations to which Spock simply replies “I am.”
McCoy also rightly identifies that one man going back with some possible information isn’t anything close to the damage 430 future people could do to the past.
Canon Maker
We find out that there are only 12 constitution type ships in the fleet. Kirk mentions they are part of the United Earth Space Probe Agency. It’s unclear if this is an early name for “Starfleet” or a larger branch of the Federation. Since the show has mentioned Starfleet many times, I tend to think it was a clumsy attempt at naming the Federation.
Canon Breaker
The transporter apparently can take a guy from a jet in the sitting position and put him in the standing position. This will be mostly contradicted throughout Trek, even a few episodes ago when they needed to bend down to deal with the cramped space.
The Air Force Colonel says he’ll lock up Kirk for about 200 years. Kirk wryly says that should be just about right. But that would only put him in Enterprise’s time period instead of the 2200’s of Kirk’s time.
Starfleet identifies itself as “Starfleet control” rather than “Starfleet Command” that will become the norm.
Technobabble
A black star is apparently enough to get a ship to go back in time. While I’m not clear on what they meant on by a “black star,” perhaps a black hole or a neutron star. It does however establish that doing a high warp slingshot around a large gravitational body will allow time travel, to be used effectively in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Granted this was sort of established in The Naked Time but this pretty much cemented it.
Apparently you can give a computer a personality and in this case, the recording computer in Kirk’s cabin was given a female one. As expected, it’s annoying as hell.
Scotty does a great job bringing back up the Enterprise’s systems. Twice it’s mentioned “Mr. Scott is still with us.” He also correctly states that he can repair the engines but to go where in this time period?
Man It Feels Bad To Be A Redshirt
No Deaths!
I know that guy:
Roger Perry plays Captain Christopher with equal parts likeability and competence. I liked how he was able to deal with the situation a lot better than the poor guard. This makes a ton of sense as he’s an Air Force Pilot and his mental fortitude would be a lot more resilient than a common airman.
Perry had a regular role in Harrigan and Son as the titular son. The rest of his career was mostly guest stars in various 60’s and 70’s shows.
John Winston plays Kyle and would play the background role a lot in Trek. He even makes an appearance in Star Trek II as a member of Reliant’s crew. He’s already appeared here and there but has his own scene making soup for his guest.
Hal Lynch plays the Sergeant and Ed Peck plays the Colonel.
What it means to be human – Review
Man so much is terrible here. And yet it’s a great episode. So let’s get the wrong out of the way first.
First of all, how the hell does beaming them back into themselves at the exact moment they were taken wipe their memory? And why does the Enterprise disappear? Wouldn’t it be like a Back To The Future II situation?
If you’re going down to the base, put on a period specific uniform. The idea that you can just pluck a guy out of time, even if he didn’t have a famous son, strains credulity. It’s all pretty poorly thought out.
And I really wish this had been a part 2 to The Naked Time but oh well. That’s just my peeve. The female sex computer added nothing to the story.
And yet….
So much to love about this episode. When Kirk and Sulu go down to get the film and recordings, their delighted reactions to being back in their own history is charming. Christopher mentioning he never thought he would get into space. These tiny little touches are great.
The discussions of the complexities of time travel and what can happen. People torn between doing their duties, both Christopher and Kirk and the choices they have to make. And the knowledge of the future, both as a species and Christopher’s personal future in having a son. It at once shows big picture and personal stakes.
The humor is great too. The airman ending up on the transporter pad unexpectedly is just priceless. I also love when Spock and company go to rescue Kirk, they simply knock on the door of the office. The airman opens it to see Spock just standing there. That probably loaded his shorts.
Bringing in the slingshot time travel into lore is a nice touch as well.
I want to give it a 5 star but I can’t quite get past the solution they came up with as noted above. This was the strength of Trek though. Even though it falls apart under scrutiny, the character and story beats are so good that it overcomes it.
