Star Trek-RM: Tomorrow is Yesterday… Grading/Discussion

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered episode for the weekend of 12/22/07.

Tomorrow is Yesterday

When the U.S.S. Enterprise is thrown into a time warp by a black star, Kirk and crew find themselves orbiting Earth in the mid 20th century. But before the captain can safely return his ship to the present, the Enterprise is detected by Omaha Air Base which dispatches a fighter plane to intercept the lost starship. The Captain, in an attempt to keep from altering Earth’s history, inadvertently destroys the fragile plane with a tractor beam and must transport the airman onboard. Now the Captain must find a way to return the pilot, Captain John Christopher a man crucial to history, without any knowledge of the ship or risk altering history forever.


Official Website for Star Trek


(I am aware that this is a rerun but this episode has not had the discussion thread treatment yet. I will also be doing next week’s rerun as well.)

Happy Holidays!
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[cooleddie74]

The episode gets a solid A. One of classic Season One's ten best. The Remastering? Well. A few nitpicky issues I don't want to go into right now, but minor. Above average I'd say. I especially like the slingshot effect and the Enterprise's journey through our solar system at the end.

 

[Kryton]

I'm glad you mentioned this was a rerun 'cause I was pretty sure we'd seen this one a year or so ago.

A classic, yes...Trek's first REAL time-travel excursion ("The Naked Time" doesn't count 'cause they only went back 3 days and it wasn't a relative problem like "meddling in the past" gets to be). A shame they didn't stop there.

 

[Kryton]

BTW...upon rewatching (and I don't recall if we discussed this last year), it's a shame they didn't put some clouds behind Capt. Christopher in the cockpit. The 1701 was in a LOT of clouds...how odd that everything behind the captain was pure blue?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have to laugh every time I hear Majel do the "Computing and recording...dear" voice. It's a Lwaxana Troi prequel.

 

[Nebusj]

You know, Kirk's really not on his ``A'' game right after recovering from the time travel hallucinations. Trying to keep Christopher's ship under tractor beam is defensible, beaming him aboard harder to justify -- if he has to be beamed out of his disintegrating airplane, why not just beam him to the ground with nothing but a really tough mystery from the UFO? -- and showing him enough of the ship for a genetically engineered despot to take the place over is nuts.

And I really would like some explanation of how the resolution is supposed to make sense.

Still, it's an exciting episode and a good deal of fun. It's a lucky thing that after being flung dozens of light-years by breaking away that the ship didn't stop another five miles farther, though, or there'd have been this huge explosion right by the Missile Reserve Farm at a time the world was getting ready to load up on orbital bombs, for better and more impractical global brinksmanship strategy.

It's struck me and me alone as interesting that the Sun's magnetism is apparently quite important to the slingshot method, while its gravity is either irrelevant or so unimportant as to not be worth mention.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Not one of Trek's better time travel episodes. I thought it was underwhelming and a little dull. It amounts to the crew getting thrown back, beaming up the pilot, he doesn't seem too fazed by it all, Spock learns he'll have a descendant who is important, Kirk & Sulu muck around, Kirk foolishy instead of going back into the room with Sulu slams the door and gets into a struggle with base security.

It all felt decidedly routine. C.

 

[AstroSmurf]

The time travel and solution was very muddled and confusing but I have to give this one an A for effort. The plot holes are big enough to drive a bus through but the episode has style and is a rather fun romp. I am willing to overlook things because I enjoy it so.

As for the remastering... There are a few things that could/should have been fixed but the things they did do were wonderful. Seeing the Enterprise flying through the upper atmosphere was really amazing and beautiful. I gave it an above average. (If they had fixed the remaining cockpit shots I would have given them and excellent.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Had the concept of the 'mind meld' not been used on the show when this episode was made? (Spock could have mind melded with Christopher and removed all of his memories of the ship. Ditto with the air police sergeant)

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kirks fight with the APs was interesting. Especially the doorway kick. Odd, but in keeping with Kirk's eclectic martial arts style.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Yeah, I had no idea it was possible to render somebody instantly unconscious by simply giving them a karate chop.

 

[Nebusj]

Babaganoosh said:
Had the concept of the 'mind meld' not been used on the show when this episode was made? (Spock could have mind melded with Christopher and removed all of his memories of the ship. Ditto with the air police sergeant)

Mind melds had been introduced, in ``Dagger of the Mind'', although that seemed to be used more as a kind of therapy for the most damaged minds. I don't think it would be suggested that they could wipe away memories until, well, ``Requiem for Methuselah'', although ``Spectre of the Gun'' might imply it.

 

[cooleddie74]

Babaganoosh said:
^ Yeah, I had no idea it was possible to render somebody instantly unconscious by simply giving them a karate chop.

What can we say?

Kirk's da man. ALL man. 100%, grade-A, FDA-approved man with fists and balls of fury.

 

[John Picard]

startrekwatcher said:
Not one of Trek's better time travel episodes. I thought it was underwhelming and a little dull. It amounts to the crew getting thrown back, beaming up the pilot, he doesn't seem too fazed by it all, Spock learns he'll have a descendant who is important, Kirk & Sulu muck around, Kirk foolishy instead of going back into the room with Sulu slams the door and gets into a struggle with base security.

It all felt decidedly routine. C.

I did not understand how beaming the pilot and AP to the moment in time when either almost interacted with people from the Enterprise would make them forget the events that had occurred.

 

[Noname Given]

Jolly_St_Picard said:

startrekwatcher said:
Not one of Trek's better time travel episodes. I thought it was underwhelming and a little dull. It amounts to the crew getting thrown back, beaming up the pilot, he doesn't seem too fazed by it all, Spock learns he'll have a descendant who is important, Kirk & Sulu muck around, Kirk foolishy instead of going back into the room with Sulu slams the door and gets into a struggle with base security.

It all felt decidedly routine. C.

I did not understand how beaming the pilot and AP to the moment in time when either almost interacted with people from the Enterprise would make them forget the events that had occurred.

I want to know where the extra body mass went as well (They beamed the 'later' version into the 'earlier' version)

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, the whole "automatic memory wipe" thing when they beamed Christopher and the sergeant back into themselves at the right moments never made much sense. In the rest of TREK, resetting a timeline still leaves most of the subjects with memories of the altered history.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Tomorrow is Yesterday… Grading/Discussion

It's reall the only flaw in an otherwise very good episode. ^

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

cooleddie74 said:

Babaganoosh said:
^ Yeah, I had no idea it was possible to render somebody instantly unconscious by simply giving them a karate chop.

What can we say?

Kirk's da man. ALL man. 100%, grade-A, FDA-approved man with fists and balls of fury.

If by "Kirk" you mean "Sisko", I would agree.

 

[cooleddie74]

Babaganoosh said:

cooleddie74 said:

Babaganoosh said:
^ Yeah, I had no idea it was possible to render somebody instantly unconscious by simply giving them a karate chop.

What can we say?

Kirk's da man. ALL man. 100%, grade-A, FDA-approved man with fists and balls of fury.

If by "Kirk" you mean "Sisko", I would agree.

No, that's a BALD HEAD of fury.

"Solid."

 

[Timo]

Yeah, the whole "automatic memory wipe" thing when they beamed Christopher and the sergeant back into themselves at the right moments never made much sense.

I thought it was the perfect solution to the problem at hand...

The ship has two people who are not wanted aboard, and who have dangerous knowledge. The ship intends to return to a timeline where the doubles of those people are alive and well and possess no dangerous memories. The desirable outcome, then, is to have the two knowledgeable people erased from existence.

Two ways to get that done. One: arrange for a firing squad on the hangar deck. Two: feed the two some gobbledigook about how everything is going to be all right, then kill them with the transporter. The latter is more humane for the victims, I'd think.

Note the initial "huh?" on Scotty's face as Spock begins to sprout his garbage, then the dawning comprehension that culminates in compassionate smiles from everybody involved, until Christopher is fully calmed and ready to accept his fate...

Timo Saloniemi