Return To Tomorrow

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Return To Tomorrow)

Good character acting, a clever conclusion, and the debut role of Diana Muldaur in the Trek realm... so what could make this not quite up to the usual standard?

I thought this would be something to do with time travel, then when I read the synopsis I thought they'd land on a planet and discover some bodies falling apart (as seen in some of the end credits of recent episodes), who hijack their minds. But in a good way it was nothing like expected.

I did guess several things, once I realised there were two others of these beings, one the wife of the main guy, and another a male. He was sure to turn out bad, when Sargon was such a kindly chap. Nimoy gets to be the baddie, but he wasn't as effective as other out of character turns from the past, maybe because he wasn't in it so much. I also guessed that Chapel had Spock running round her head when she leaves sickbay, and that she would disable Spock's body. The episode was too talky, with too many romance scenes, but there was the excuse for a rousing speech from Kirk to convince McCoy they should go through with the process. Even that seemed a little out of the norm, and I wondered if Kirk was still possessed, as usually he'd simply decide something despite McCoy's protestations.

Poor old Nurse Chapel again, she was so happy to get Spock's conciousness in her head and she loves the bit where Sargon kisses his wife for the last time, eyeing Spock coyly as she speaks, maybe expecting him to do the same to her? At one point I thought the being who had taken over Spock's body was going to do that in emulation of Kirk/Sargon.

Sargon/Kirk really seemed like he was experiencing life in a body again after thousands of years, and Shatner did a great job, but overall the episode fell a little short with the slow resolution. No Chekov, but Sulu is back at last, worked sparingly into the story. But it's good to have him back! The ending almost made the rest of the episode worthwhile, with it's clever twists, and sad end, but not quite.

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