All Our Yesterdays
- Thread starter Falconer
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murder by cart shoving into time door XD
That's an interesting thought; I always looked at Doctor Who's "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" to be the first gratuitously self-aware episode, if not "Carnival of Monsters" but CoM is far more subtle about it, and All Our Yesterdays seems even more subtle. It is one heck of an analogy placed on one heck of an episode. (I still don't get how Spock devolves but McCoy doesn't - the Atavacron not processing them beforehand being a partial reason but then it'd happen to both, or neither... it's ultimately a mild nitpick; the episode's strengths are as numerous as they are robust. Especially for latter season 3, it's a solid entry.)
I wonder if there were any interviews with Jean Lisette Aroeste and what inspired her to write that episode. And if that mindset was part of her envisioning that episode.
I wonder if there were any interviews with Jean Lisette Aroeste and what inspired her to write that episode. And if that mindset was part of her envisioning that episode.
No. It's made clear that Atoz prepares Kirk while the latter is unconscious.
It's one of the best episodes of the season, but I doubt seriously if anybody was thinking like that. The traditional belief was that you needed 100 episodes for a syndication package that would have real staying power. I'm pretty sure the producers expected Star Trek to fade away like My Mother the Car or Man From Atlantis.
He says "I'll see you get to safety," which would be a weird thing to say to someone you were about to murder. Moreover, all he had to do to kill Kirk was lock him in a closet, since the entire system was about to be destroyed. Sending Kirk back through the portal wasn't necessary unless he was trying to help.
The dialogue makes it perfectly clear if you stay in the past without being prepared you will soon die. But people who have been sent to the Past who have been prepared cannot return to the present because they will die. Therefore if Kirk had been prepared to go into some past that the librarian was sending him to and failed then Kirk would die in the present because his body was prepared for the past if he hadn't been prepared for the past he would have died in the past that he was being sent to. So either somebody was misinformed or lied or the librarian was just taking his chance that Kirk might survive in the past without being prepared. I didn't mean literally trying to murder him I simply was being facetious I meant he was sending him to his death if he hadn't been prepared. And if he had been prepared and didn't end up in the past then he apparently died shortly after returning to the Enterprise which he didn't so some of the information we were given in the episode was wrong one way or the other. Zarabeth says she can't return to the present with Spock and McCoy because she would die after having been prepared.
Maybe it depends on how far back you send someone. Like you don't need to be prepared if you're going back less than 100 years. So Atoz tried to send Kirk back one year. And Atoz sent himself a rock with a note tied to it, sent it back a year and a day. It says to expect this suicidal maniac tomorrow and be ready for him with the police.
Spock reverts to his primitive self from 5000 years earlier but McCoy stays exactly exactly the same. The phaser doesn't work because they're in the past but the medical scanner works no problem. The entire episode is pretty much the first example of fanfiction. Written by a woman who finds a technicality so that Spock can be a passionate character and literally have his hands around the throat of anybody who might get between him and his woman.
But Spock hasn't been prepared so why does he revert to his time appropriate ancient Vulcan self?
But Spock hasn't been prepared so why does he revert to his time appropriate ancient Vulcan self?
Martin Balsam has a line in Breakfast at Tiffany's that goes something like, "She's a phony, but she's a real phony. Because she really believes in all that phony stuff she believes in." He means he takes a forgiving view of Audrey Hepburn's silliness because she's so charming.
And that's how "All Our Yesterdays" gets a pass. It's a fun outing that goes to three interesting places, if you count the Library, and puts our guys into subplots that excite the imagination.
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No doubt despite any number of flaws it's a fun episode to watch. Zarabeth is a tragic character for sure. One of the few times in the later seasons when they had the courage to have an unhappy ending.
Mariette Hartley was only 28 when she filmed the episode and to think that she probably ended up living alone for the rest of her days is unbelievably sad especially after experiencing possible love and friendship very briefly
Mariette Hartley was only 28 when she filmed the episode and to think that she probably ended up living alone for the rest of her days is unbelievably sad especially after experiencing possible love and friendship very briefly
"All Our Yesterdays" has flaws, of course it does
But it's one of my Top 20
But it's one of my Top 20
The outline and scripts for this episode went through some significant changes as they wrestled with the logic of the story, e.g., how the time travel worked and how (and why) the past affected Spock and McCoy. IMHO, they simply hit the production wall and ran out of tweaking time. The revised final draft (the shooting script) was dated 12/17/68 (with change pages dated 12/18/68) and shooting started on 12/20/68.
There's no mention of Atoz preparing Kirk in the script and I think this is an error of omission. This scene, and the ones supporting it, were in the first draft and didn't change much throughout the revisions. However, as initially conceived, the Atavachron didn't "prepare" anyone for time travel -- it was simply a time travel device that could open two-way doors. The preparation feature of the machine wasn't added until the final draft and, IMHO, they forgot to update the scene and show Atoz preparing Kirk.
The personalities of Atoz and his replicates are fairly consistent throughout all the revisions.
The reason for Spock falling for Zarabeth changed throughout the revisions, and it looks like they really struggled with it. In an early version of the story, Zarabeth was attracted to Spock, and Spock resisted her. McCoy tried to convince him that, since they were stranded, he should just embrace his human side and go with it. This contemplation caused Spock to hallucinate a romantic encounter with Zarabeth.
I agree with you -- this is one of my favorite episodes.
In one version of the story, Zarabeth returned to the library with Spock and McCoy and she blew up the Atavachron. Before doing so, she told Spock that she was radioactive and, consequently, could never touch another person.
The Atavachron was one of the coolest Trek computers.
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