0019
The Original Series (1967)
Season 1: Episode 19: “Tomorrow is Yesterday"
Stardate: 3113.2 (2266/02/10 - 07:37:53)
Written by: D.C. Fontana
Directed by: Michael O'Herlihy
Season 1: Episode 19: “Tomorrow is Yesterday"
Stardate: 3113.2 (2266/02/10 - 07:37:53)
Written by: D.C. Fontana
Directed by: Michael O'Herlihy
PLOT INTRODUCTION
Transported back in time to 20th century Earth, Kirk rescues the pilot of a destroyed fighter plane, and contemplates the problem of how to return the man without altering Earth's future.
REVIEW
"Computed and recorded, dear."
"Computed and recorded, dear."
This is history in the making folks: Star Trek’s first of many, many, time-travel episodes where they always seem to go back to the 20th century. Now I’m a sucker for time-travel, I love the entire concept and I buy into it every time, but it sure does make my head hurt. Aside from this however, ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ serves as a well intended and executed story that implements good sci-fi with plenty of farce.
Regarding time travel in Star Trek in particular, I always enjoy it when humans from our time period, meet and interact with the crew and Enterprise, fully aware of what it is going on. What I love about this is that it allows me as a viewer, to really connect with someone on board this wonderfully futuristic spaceship. Usually we have characters that treat everything that’s going on aboard the Enterprise, as everyday business- nothing to be shocked or amazed about. With these episodes however, we have a direct link to someone who is just like us when we watch this show: amazed. In ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, many characters interact with the ship and its crew for the fist time, and in a way, so do we as viewers.
Although working on pixie dust rather than real science, the episode does at least acknowledge some grounding rules for time travel. Early on, Spock affirms and details to Kirk that their unintentional visitor, Captain John Christopher (Roger Perry) cannot simply be returned to Earth without the future as we know it, being changed. It’s a shame that this logic also works against the episode on many occasions, but I’m glad that it was taken seriously and actually used as the main source of drama for the episode.
The eventual solution to the problem of contaminating history is a logically dumb one and without any real scientific reasoning, but it nevertheless works for TV. And let me stress that for ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, an episode which doesn’t work as good TV for the first twenty minutes, really needed something redeeming at this point. Thankfully it works and leads to some brilliant action and comedic scenes that are brilliant to watch, working a whole lot better on screen than the very talky first half of the episode. Perhaps one of the most amusing moments occurs when Kirk is being interrogated by security. The script is superbly written, featuring delightful dialogue that suits all characters very well. Shatner gives a great performance, conveying Kirk’s ever-so gradual decline into acceptance of the completely absurd situation caused by his undeniable bad luck. Indeed Fontana is a well known writer involved with Trek and if there was one key strength that she had whilst writing for TOS, it was her knowledge of the characters. How she uses them in ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ is mostly for comedic effect, brining out the lighter sides of their personality. Scenes of particular notice aside from the one mentioned above are Kirk’s ‘faulty’ computer moments and the ever amusing banter between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock.
Fontana also knows how to build tension well, and she layers incident upon incident here to create a very rich story that grows as it goes on. My one problem with this is that the first twenty minutes move along at a very slow pace with very few interesting moments. So it eventually pays off by the time you reach the final key scenes, but there is no doubting that the episode is clearly uneven, saving a lot of the action for last.
As contrived and logically insane as the final Deus Ex Machina is, for the most part, it works well for exciting science fiction TV. If you can turn off the logical side of the brain and simply watch for the artistic nature of it, it pays off well thanks to some dramatic lighting and a great sense of movement aboard the bridge (I just wish they didn’t cut to those terribly boring Enterprise shots).
In conclusion, ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ is definitely an ambitious episode for Star Trek and an important one too, but it is in no way perfect. Perhaps with a little more balance and refinement to the script, I could have enjoyed it more- but for what it is, it makes for an original break in narrative for the show and has a good deal of great comedy, action and characterisation that make it good fun to watch.
Regarding time travel in Star Trek in particular, I always enjoy it when humans from our time period, meet and interact with the crew and Enterprise, fully aware of what it is going on. What I love about this is that it allows me as a viewer, to really connect with someone on board this wonderfully futuristic spaceship. Usually we have characters that treat everything that’s going on aboard the Enterprise, as everyday business- nothing to be shocked or amazed about. With these episodes however, we have a direct link to someone who is just like us when we watch this show: amazed. In ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, many characters interact with the ship and its crew for the fist time, and in a way, so do we as viewers.
Although working on pixie dust rather than real science, the episode does at least acknowledge some grounding rules for time travel. Early on, Spock affirms and details to Kirk that their unintentional visitor, Captain John Christopher (Roger Perry) cannot simply be returned to Earth without the future as we know it, being changed. It’s a shame that this logic also works against the episode on many occasions, but I’m glad that it was taken seriously and actually used as the main source of drama for the episode.
The eventual solution to the problem of contaminating history is a logically dumb one and without any real scientific reasoning, but it nevertheless works for TV. And let me stress that for ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, an episode which doesn’t work as good TV for the first twenty minutes, really needed something redeeming at this point. Thankfully it works and leads to some brilliant action and comedic scenes that are brilliant to watch, working a whole lot better on screen than the very talky first half of the episode. Perhaps one of the most amusing moments occurs when Kirk is being interrogated by security. The script is superbly written, featuring delightful dialogue that suits all characters very well. Shatner gives a great performance, conveying Kirk’s ever-so gradual decline into acceptance of the completely absurd situation caused by his undeniable bad luck. Indeed Fontana is a well known writer involved with Trek and if there was one key strength that she had whilst writing for TOS, it was her knowledge of the characters. How she uses them in ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ is mostly for comedic effect, brining out the lighter sides of their personality. Scenes of particular notice aside from the one mentioned above are Kirk’s ‘faulty’ computer moments and the ever amusing banter between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock.
Fontana also knows how to build tension well, and she layers incident upon incident here to create a very rich story that grows as it goes on. My one problem with this is that the first twenty minutes move along at a very slow pace with very few interesting moments. So it eventually pays off by the time you reach the final key scenes, but there is no doubting that the episode is clearly uneven, saving a lot of the action for last.
As contrived and logically insane as the final Deus Ex Machina is, for the most part, it works well for exciting science fiction TV. If you can turn off the logical side of the brain and simply watch for the artistic nature of it, it pays off well thanks to some dramatic lighting and a great sense of movement aboard the bridge (I just wish they didn’t cut to those terribly boring Enterprise shots).
In conclusion, ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ is definitely an ambitious episode for Star Trek and an important one too, but it is in no way perfect. Perhaps with a little more balance and refinement to the script, I could have enjoyed it more- but for what it is, it makes for an original break in narrative for the show and has a good deal of great comedy, action and characterisation that make it good fun to watch.
Written by Jamie Robert Ward, 10/11/2007.
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