Episode of the Week : Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Another '8' from me. Strong story, though it has a few head scratching moments. But it wouldn't be Star Trek if it didn't!

 

I love this episode!

The only thing that I didn't follow the last time I saw it was why Captain Christopher and the security guard forgot what they saw. (I think I missed something.)

My favorite moment in this episode is right after the fight. It's subtle, but you can tell Spock realizes they're about to held up by Captain Christopher and slyly dodges into the next room. And then after Captain Christopher does point the gun, you see Spock standing behind him ready to nerve pinch.

OOOH!!!!! I LOVE THAT!!!

You guys need to watch that again.

 

This is the elephant in the room that Kirk and Spock never explained to Captain Christopher.

At the end of the episode, when the Enterprise returns to Earth after its time-traveling trip around the sun, there are now two Christophers. The one who never got aboard the Enterprise will live on, but the one who met Kirk and Spock will be beamed to his death. When the transporter system finds that Christopher is already at the designated re-materialization point (in the fighter cockpit), it says "Okay, the job I'm doing is finished, so now I quit and wipe the pattern buffer." The Christopher that Kirk knew ceases to exist.

That would be a tough sell, as this version of him really is dying, and thus Christopher was kept in the dark about it.

That is good. My favorite moment is when Kirk is being interrogated by Air Force security. Colonel Felini tosses Kirk's phaser to the man standing behind, and you can see Kirk snap his eyes shut in case the weapon discharges. It was one of Shatner's best little moments in the entire series.

 

Actually, that whole fight was really well done. The Airmen fought but they didn't come off as incompetent, and I like how the Colonel laid there to grab Kirk while the others were still fighting with him.

I voted 8. Great episode.


I just wonder how it would have been if this could have stayed a 2 parter from Naked Time. I don't think it hurt either episode, but the incidence of being thrown backwards in time started to get used more and more, especially later on. But then with time warping engines that may just be a hazzard.

Is this Kyle's first appearance? I have to watch it again.

 

Who knows? One of those things you just have to write off because it makes no sense any way you try to slice it. I've tried to over the years.

 

What is the difference in "ceasing to exist" or forgetting?

I prefer to think of it that the transporter reassembled Cpt. Christopher to match his destination, (not how they usually work, true) and those neurons or brain folds or whatever holds a human's memory were back to the days just before he "experienced" it.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy these threads so much, after watching that show so many times, I never thought of it the way you did and I like seeing the different interpretations.

However, I will not buy your theory for a dollar and will not be sending you a buck.

 

I've always thought it was pretty lucky for Spock that the room he ducked into had another exit into the hallway. But maybe Christopher briefed them on that before beaming down, or right before the knock on the door.

I've always favored something like this. The Enterprise might be moving "outside of time", and when Christopher and the Sergeant are returned, somehow real time begins overwriting any prior accumulated memories after re-integration.

 

Time travel brought Christopher and the sergeant back to a point where they already existed. So there were two of each of them. After Kirk beams his guests into oblivion, there is only one of each.

Kirk did exactly the right thing, however painful: having used time travel to undo a problem caused by time travel, Kirk got rid of the "extra copies" of two men who now had no business existing.

He might lay awake at night thinking about that, but the only other solution would be to kidnap Christopher and the Air Police sergeant into the 23rd century and assure them that another version of themselves lived on in the 1960s.

 

One of my favorites. An easy 10.

 

What I really love is that Shatner does the entire fight himself. No double at all; every jump, fall, swing and dance is all Bill Shatner doing is best Kirk-Fu. So refreshing compared to Court-Martial, Space Seed and Operation -- Annihilate.

 

Damn, that's dark! I am now imagining the false sincerity behind Kirk's eyes as he says his final quip to Captain Christopher - the torment behind that forced smile - brrrrrrrrr!

However, although it does eliminate the nonsense behind beaming into oneself (or are the 2 men now twice as heavy as they were before?) the main problem still remains - the presence of the Enterprise in the first place! Granted, the ship vanishes just after Capt Christopher beams in (either during or shortly after, depending on whether you watch TOS-R or TOS). But why does it vanish and why only at that point? Does it merge with it's later self and yet somehow allow the crew to retain memories of things which didn't happen anymore? We are approaching the Realm of Silliness again.

The crucial point is that the appearance of the Enterprise is what triggered Christopher's launch in the first place, so it must have been there for at least a limited time as the plane is still skybourne when he beamed back in. It can't be a case of the "objects can only occupy one instance of themselves in a single timestream" theory because if a massive Starship can suddenly be transplanted and merged along with all the crew, why not Capt Christopher and the guardsman?

The ending of this episode is the biggest letdown for me, as it sidesteps the key issue and basically makes all the crew's adventures this week pointless. Do they get to keep the stolen tapes, I wonder?

 

Well, I'm not trying to argue, the magical transporter is impossible to truly understand, but I don't think Christoper or the Sarge were killed anymore than Eeevil Kirk was when they put Kirk back together in Enemy Within. And Kirk didn't weigh almost 400 pounds until Generations* , so I don't think these guys would be heavier, either.


* I should talk, I think he's in better shape than I am and he's about 40 years older.

 

The science makes no sense at all, but what a fun episode.

Best opening of any episode of TOS.

If only they hadnt added the female computer personality, that part is just embarassing.

 

I liked the way Captain Christopher and Uhura had a little spark going there. It was just for a second or two, but I enjoyed it.

 

Some favorite lines:

Christopher: I never have believed in little green men.
Spock: Neither have I.
---
Kirk: All right, Colonel. The truth is, I'm a little green man from Alpha Centauri, a beautiful place, you ought to see it.
Felini: I am going to lock you up for two hundred years.
Kirk: That ought to be just about right.
---
Christopher: I never thought I'd make it into space. I was in line to be chosen for the space program, but I didn't qualify.
Kirk: Take a good look around, Captain. You made it here ahead of all of them.

 

At 1 minute 20 seconds, I believe it's the shortest pre-credit teaser of any TOS episode. Nobody wanted viewers to think they'd tuned to the wrong channel, or that Star Trek had been pre-empted by some sort of military program!

Even back in 1967, that "seductive" computer voice made me cringe. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

Bob Justman, who came up with the story outline for this classic show, was asked whether it was connected in any way to "Naked Time", and he was emphatic that it wasn't. He pointed out that it would have been too dangerous to try a two parter given that the episodes were barely making their airdates due to delays in the optical effects. You can read Justman's story outline in Inside Star Trek (Solow and Justman), and there is no reference to a two part episode.

On the other hand, Dave Eversole at the brilliant Unseen Elements of TOS website, has unearthed draft called "Naked Time Part 1". So who knows?

Yes it is. I always enjoyed his appearances.

Justman agreed with you. From one of his memos :

 

Hmm. I think we can claim the "first" Enterprise would always vanish at that point, moments after the tractor beam debacle. Thanks to Scotty getting his act together, the starship would simply outfly the interceptor; the moment's confusion from the second Enterprise interfering and disrupting the original beaming process would make Christopher miss the moment the UFO accelerated out of his sight at those typical hundreds of gees and engaged those famous radar-defeating shields of hers.

So, no instantaneous disappearance as such, just the poor pilot failing to properly comprehend what's happening. Not quite "blink and you miss it", but well within the "shake your head and do three double-takes and you miss it" realm. Note that the audience never got to see what happened to the starship at that point the first time around, as the camera followed indoors action only.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I just watched this episode again tonight. It gets the "Teaser most unlike the actual series it is a part of" award.

Ed Peck, who played Col. Felini in this episode, also played Sheriff ... Kirk in Happy Days.