Tomorrow Is Yesterday : TOS Episode 19 Production 21 Original Air Date 1/26/1967 Stardate 3113.2

Tomorrow Is Yesterday - Star Trek TV Episode [ Synopsis | Editorial Reviews ]
Production # 21 Episode # 19
Air Date: 1/26/1967
Stardate: 3113.2

When the U.S.S. Enterprise is thrown into a time warp by a black star, it ends up orbiting Earth in the 20th century. Omaha Air Base detects a peculiar UFO and sends a fighter plane, manned by Captain John Christopher, to investigate.

The starship accidentally destroys the plane, caught in their tractor beam, so the pilot is beamed aboard. The problem now, of course, is to prevent Captain Christopher from returning to tell others on Earth. In order not to change history, in which Christopher's son will prove important, Kirk must return the captain to Earth without knowledge of the ship.

In an attempt to remove all records of the U.S.S. Enterprise sighting, Kirk and Sulu beam down to the air base. Kirk is almost immediately captured by the Air Police, though Sulu manages to escape and gets the stolen records to the U.S.S. Enterprise. Spock and Captain Christopher beam down to help get Kirk away from the Air Police. At the same time, an Air Police sergeant has been accidentally caught in the U.S.S. Enterprise's transporter beam and is reeling as he finds himself on a 23rd-century starship.

Spock and Scotty manage to recreate the conditions of the time warp that brought them to this time, with a slingshot effect around the Sun. The confused Air Police sergeant is returned to Earth a second before he was transported to the Enterprise, so he will remember nothing of his astounding experience, and the starship returns to the 23rd century.

This time, the pilot sees nothing and the Air Force concludes that the sighting was a mistake ... a UFO. In effect, everything that had happened, never happened.

Volume 11 in the classic Star Trek series on DVD contains the delightful episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," a time-travel story with an infectious blend of suspense and humor. After dropping into a black hole, the Enterprise ends up orbiting the Earth in the late 1960s, and is spotted by U.S. Air Force Captain Christopher (Roger Perry), who happens to be flying by in his jet. Inadvertently giving poor Christopher an unwanted glimpse into the future, and wrecking his jet with an overpowering tractor beam, Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), not having a good day, beams him aboard the Federation starship. The collision of sensibilities and reference points between characters born several centuries apart has a fresh, urgent tone that subsequent Star Trek series have never captured (though Deep Space Nine came close with its dazzling episode "Trials and Tribble-ations"). The problem, of course, is what to do about Christopher now that he knows what he knows, and history demands that he stay put in his own world: the pilot's unborn son, it seems, will one day make a space flight of historic importance. Terrifically entertaining and something of a precedent-setter for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the theatrical feature set in contemporary San Francisco), "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is Trek at its best.

Also on this disc is "Return of the Archons," a cautionary story about mind control written by Gene Roddenberry. The tale begins when Ensign Sulu (George Takei) is taken hostage on an Earth-like planet with a primitive culture. Zapped by a weapon that leaves him under the control of someone or something named Landru, Sulu is then pursued by Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who discover that Landru has the same grip on everyone else. Once Landru becomes aware of efforts by the captain and first officer to interfere with its bidding, Kirk and Spock become the target of a massive hunt by locals. A minor episode with a somewhat obvious scenario, "Return of the Archons" does have novel appeal in its heightened role for the ever-charming Sulu, and in Roddenberry's characteristically humane interest in elements that make people (and intelligent aliens) everywhere free to fulfill their destinies. The solution to the who-is-Landru mystery won't surprise anyone, but it may strike you as a prototype of several future episodes, from all the Trek series, involving centralized caretaking on various planets. --Tom Keogh