Another great episode – I almost wish it had been the last so the season ended this strongly, but the best is not yet to come, I'm afraid. And according the stardates, it actually is last – the airing order was a little different, though. But at least this episode is pretty darn good. Super Nova, time travel, world history, politics, a love story, Spock going wild, witchcraft, McCoy standing up to Spock and winning, Kirk in dire trouble, and the clock ticking down to the end of the world. What's not to like?
Well, a few things, anyway. First, I highly doubt one can count down to the nearest minute when a Super Nova is going to occur. Some time this century might be a pretty good guess. And even if they can, these are pretty close margins – a few hours to unravel a mystery. But warning the population? To what end? Hey, you've got 3 hours to get off the planet – we can take maybe 400 if we double up but the rest of you got to find your own ride. It's stupid if that's what they were thinking. But maybe it was just the mystery. Where is everyone? I mean, they were going to die, regardless, and we sort of wanted to see that for ourselves, but it is curious - no?
It's even luck they managed to be there at this exact time, but to then go exploring like that when time is so short – it's almost reckless. True, the ship is fine and one should be able to negotiate an uninhabited planet and beam back and warp away quickly enough – if everything goes as planned, but you are looking into a mystery, so you're not that certain of your facts to be that confident everything will go as planned. And it doesn't.
Mr. Atoz – what a hoot of a name for a librarian, right? A to Z. Decades later and I still think it's funny.
Ian Wolfe returns to Trek, this time as Atoz, but last time as Septimus (
Bread and Circuses).
And it almost really is a wonderful concept of a doomed population escaping into the past, but with so many, how do they ensure not one of them changes the past and destroys the future where it is even possible to travel into the past?
I just wish it wasn't so obvious they were almost trying to not ask pertinent questions or get straight answers.
The technology is old, and how it was first used by some tyrants becomes apparent – still, a far kinder way to get rid of your political enemies than mass murder, but again, only assuming they can't change the past in some way to screw your future. Isolation works, apparently. And one way trips, unless not prepared; so short excursions into history must have been a real treat for historians at some point in this planet's . . . history.
Doubtless, however it is managed, they don't appear to be able to change the past, so whatever they do has always been part of their collective history - maybe even anything alien visitors might do.
A few questions remain, like why going into the past renders some equipment inoperative, or culturally reverts Spock to behavior his ancestors engaged in 5,000 years ago. Perhaps if first prepared by the Atavachron it might make sense, but he wasn't, so I'm not sure why unless the portal does more than time travel – like deactivating advanced tech, or at least weapon's tech so as to not alter the balance of power – though the tricorder remains functional. And maybe Spock's behavior is just a coincidence it mirrors his ancestor's of 5,000 years ago due to some other factor.
But, as usual, they get into trouble.
Curses, foiled again.
Cold logic won't help us here.
And while Zarabeth might have lied, or just have been mistaken and hopeful, she eventually confesses she only knows she can't get back. Luckily, they might.
No one that hot would lie. It must be an inadvertent mistake.
But thanks to threat and more pertinent questions, the Quaker Oats man reveals what Spock missed – without preparation by the Atavachron they can only survive a few hours in the past, and Kirk gets back on his own without help from his two buddies.
But Spock and McCoy are eventually on the right track, and with Kirk ensuring Mr. Atoz's help, they find them and all get back in time. Even nicer, Atoz makes his escape and can spend the rest of his life with his family.
And the Enterprise trio beam up and escape as the sun explodes, which is pretty cool in the remastered version, and they solved the mystery to boot. All is well.
And while it is only implied in
TOS, some non-canon fiction went there, and the suggestion Spock had sex with Zarabeth and left her with child was nice – to end Zarabeth's loneliness, and the kid, not having been "prepared," I suppose, found his way to some future point through the portal – probably the one Zarabeth came from. But that's all just non-canon fiction – but I like it.
Anyway, this was a pretty good story, some fine acting, and never forget, despite the frigid temperatures outside, a volcanically heated cave can get hot enough so that this clothing is appropriate. Realism!
Yeah, I'm hot. That's why I'd dress this way, FYI.
And so Mariette Hartley plays Zarabeth, our beauty of the day.
Some remastered effects are pretty nice and certainly better.
Side-by-Side Comparison.
Escaping at maximum warp sounds pretty dramatic, but anything higher than warp 1 would suffice.
I don't really see much difference in part 2, but . . .
Despite its problems and mistakes, I think this is a very good episode and I'd have given it an 8 but for those nitpicks, which should be important, but don't really take you out of the moment, so a solid 7 out of 10.
