Star Trek TOS S01E19 – Tomorrow is Yesterday

Dir. Michael O’Herlihy, Wri. D.C. Fontana

The Summary: The Enterprise ends up back in the ’60s, where it’s detected as a UFO, and must attempt to erase all evidence of its presence.

The Good: The beginning has some cute dialogue, Major Christopher (Roger Perry) is a really good guest character. He’s got charisma to spare and is fun to watch. The captain can even make his own computer a Kirkasexual. No one is immune to the manly charms of James Tiberius Kirk. There’s a good moral dilemma at the core of the episode, and the conflict around it is engaging. The heist idea to erase the info is pretty cool, and gives us a kind of ‘Ocean’s Three’ setup. Kirk just beating the heck out of like three air force commanders for next to no reason is great, as is his incredibly condescending and smarmy attitude toward his interrogators. As a nice bonus, this one is pretty well plotted for the most part, and doesn’t feel too short or too long.

The Bad: OK, how does Captain Christopher know karate? It makes very little sense for his character. I find it frustrating that he finally decided to help them just because they said he was going to have a son one day. I know that Trek is a product of its time, but I feel like all of the other reasons could have been presented as having some impact on him. Kirk and Sulu letting some rando get the jump on them like chumps is an obvious contrivance so that the plot can continue to play out for a little longer, and that’s disappointing. I think I would have liked this episode better with a little less comic relief, actually. I rarely say that about Trek, but this episode feels like it could have taken itself a little more seriously. The scientific mumbo-jumbo that fixes the problem is totally absurd crap (like even more than usual on Trek). I don’t mind techno-babble, but only when it feels authentic or is set up in an interesting way, and this absolutely is not.

The Review: Overall, this episode is a lot better than I remember. It doesn’t dawdle or rush its plot, and since pacing is usually such an issue in TOS, that alone makes it worthy of at least some note. If I was one of those “journey is more important than destination” reviewers I might give it still higher marks. The majority of the runtime of this episode is a pleasant time spent with enjoyable characters doing interesting things. The core conflict of the episode is an actually interesting one, and leads to some legitimately tricky moral ground, where Trek almost always shines. When characters are debating what course to take in an unprecedented situation, there’s time for interesting character development and thought. In addition, the complications that arise are natural for the most part. The situation escalates in a way that makes sense and (mostly) doesn’t feel like it’s simply stalling to hit its fifty minute mark. As a pleasant bonus, this episode has a lot of really funny (and rightfully beloved) comic moments throughout, led of course by the Enterprise’s computer picking up a virus that causes it to fall in love with the captain. There’s also some really good material mined from the crew being completely out of place in the past that feels like a mild precursor to some of the better jokes in Star Trek IV. It is definitely undermined by having a monumentally stupid ending that makes no sense in a variety of levels, but the journey is well worth it for the character moments and the fun fish out of water stuff.

The Score: