Tomorrow Is Yesterday

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Tomorrow Is Yesterday)

The template for the atypical, and for the time travel, episodes of Trek. It could be credited with the template for comical, except for the facts we'd already had 'Shore Leave' and 'The Squire of Gothos.' Yet the stakes are much lower in the immediate sense than the mystery of the Amusement Park Planet, with the sinister turn, or the foppish, but deadly Squire Trelane, which added an edge to the farce of those. Here, the position is awkward, though not grim. They talk of being trapped in time, with nowhere, least of all the Earth to go - if they don't want to risk contaminating the timeline by allowing Captain Christopher (no, not Christopher Pike, Captain John Christopher), to return to his wife and children, even less can they afford four hundred and thirty crewmen to descend on an unsuspecting homeworld (couldn't they have gone to Vulcan?). It made me think of 'First Contact' where the Enterprise-E is evacuated with orders to find a quiet place and make new lives for themselves, except Picard is confident they won't alter the correct stream of events. The worst that can happen is that they live on in the 20th Century, but live they would, rather than being killed by rampaging Medieval Knights or a petulant alien child. So we can excuse a little of the levity with which this situation is greeted, Kirk in particular finding it a great wheeze to see the shocked expression of Christopher at being beamed aboard, seeing this large space-going vessel and hearing such a cock and bull story as future humans, time travel, and aliens.

He never believed in little green men (he must have been too young when Quark, Rom and Nog crashed at Roswell in 1947!), something agreed by Spock, and even Kirk mentions he's a 'little green man' when captured by base security. It's funny to think that only twenty years previous, Ferengi had visited, but as Kirk leaves open to interpretation (and gap-filling), aliens weren't known of in this time, or at least not publicly, leaving the door open for such things as the Roswell incident to be confirmed or denied depending on history. Not, I'm sure, that the writers thought much about the future believability of this series. They'd have had to be fools to think that this particular one would outlast the majority, and still, fifty years later, would be beloved by so many and watched even then. I expect they'd have wondered at the lack of development and speed of advancement in the world, since with the evidence at hand they would probably have assumed the space program would have advanced greatly, with citizens trips to the Moon, manned missions beyond it, and so on, which never happened. So to think we'd still be enjoying our space kicks by watching this old relic… well, they'd probably have been both delighted and dismayed had they not lived into future decades. They got one thing right, though: the contemporary military computers, bulky reel to reel models, would be museum fodder, not just by Kirk's time, but by our present day!

Kirk enjoys his sojourn into the past, even though it was only the second experience of time travel (after 'The Naked Time'), and the first to a specific period on Earth, the beginning of many more such adventures throughout Trek lore. One of the interesting choices (besides having them go to the contemporary time of the series' production, something that every series would do in one form or another), was to have a cold start with no cast from the series, completely set on Earth, with only the glimpse of the Enterprise sailing majestically through the clouds to give us the clue that this was, indeed, 'Star Trek.' We open with the sight of jets taxiing from an airfield in search of a 'UFO,' and it's quite a change from the usual opening (later inspiring such diverse fare as '11:59' from 'Voyager' and 'Carpenter Street' from 'Enterprise,' among others), which continues as we get a Captain's Log, post credits, that explains what's happened, and we see the aftermath of their interaction with a black star and its 'breakaway' that sent them hurtling through time. It's one of the least scientific aspects of Trek (the 'fi' much more ascendant than the 'sci' in this particular episode), but the slingshot effect is just one of those trademarks that we accept as being a genuine route to travelling through time so we can enjoy the speculative possibilities of such an adventure without worrying about how exactly that would work (in the same category as Superman spinning the globe in reverse to somehow turn back time, which was even more ridiculous!).

Kirk tends to go back and forth, at first enjoying the situation and the chance to show off his ship to an ancestor, but also understanding the gravity of the situation, the necessity of retrieving the photographs Christopher took of the Enterprise which could be in sufficient detail to alter the timeline, long before the tiresome notion of infinite timelines which split off with every decision, thus making one set timeline a falsity, but also destroying any sort of attraction to real historical events and cheapening all existence into the bargain - especially when we've seen Trek develop a detailed future history through five decades, taking it for granted that the one we see is The Timeline, which must be preserved or else changes will occur, much more dramatic than an 'anything goes' mentality of the kind comic books continuity embraces to its detriment. Spock isn't exactly playing by the temporal rulebook, himself, as both times when a past human sees him, he makes no attempt to hide himself, not backward in coming forward, boldly striding into the limelight as if proud to show off his alien nature! Naturally this creates amusement, but it's not what you'd expect from Starfleet officers taking the time stream seriously, especially a Vulcan! It's a bit like 'Who Watches The Watchers' where they tried to keep too much knowledge from an unfortunate visitor. 'The Neutral Zone' is another episode that may have taken inspiration from this, as we have 20th Century humans waking up and having to deal with this wondrous, impossible starship and crew that they could never have imagined (assuming they never watched Trek back in the day!).

It's played for laughs, especially the airman that finds Kirk and Sulu in the records room and gets beamed up for his trouble. Couldn't they have held him in the Transporter beam until they were ready to go, then it would have merely looked like he saw the intruders vanish before his eyes and he'd be unable to account for the extra hours he missed? The same could have been done to Christopher so they didn't need to have him come aboard at all, or they might even have beamed him directly from the wreckage of his fighter plane (the tractor beam must be rougher on ships than we thought if it rips apart this plane!), to the ground and he'd have been none the wiser, the timeline uncorrupted. It could be that Transporters of this era weren't as reliable, but the main reason against it is that it would have denied us the experience of guests on the Enterprise from another time, and you don't want to avoid drama, you want to bring it on and deal with it. Even if, in this case, they dealt with it in a supremely odd way. They travel further back in time because of their speed (or something), and beam both Christopher and the airman into their own bodies! Which somehow makes them forget because they're sent back to a time before they came aboard… I'm having a little trouble understanding that, or how you can beam someone into an earlier version of themselves, but I can't deny the effect looked good and was an elegant solution compared with what I thought was going to be McCoy wiping their short term memories.

One effect that wasn't looking so good was the Enterprise in the sky. Some shots were fine, with it sailing through the cloudscape, but one in particular where it bounces up and down from cloud to cloud on a horizontal plane (like the bikes in old Commodore 64 game, 'Kikstart,' or the original 'Excitebike' from Nintendo), looked appallingly laughable. It wasn't much better when we see the ship hanging there rocking up and down! It's sad to see the limits of their model work at this time because it could have been a perfect showcase for the ship, so rare was it to see it in anything other than the darkness of space. No doubt the Remastered version took full advantage, but that was the way things were at the time. Yet I can't help but think they could have done something slightly more in tune with the series and how we've seen the ship, easily the most embarrassing effects of the model so far. The crew inside were subjected to several bouts of being flung around - the first scenes aboard her even start with Uhura and Leslie lying on the deck and having to be helped up by the Captain and First Officer (anyone looking for some evidence of gentleness and care from Spock towards Uhura, to in some way support the Kelvin Timeline's insistence on their romantic attachment, would be surprised to see how roughly he pulls her up and pushes her around like a piece of meat!).

A notable addition to the crew lineup is Mr. Kyle, the Transporter Chief who was in a number of episodes and regarded well enough that they brought him back for 'Star Trek II.' The protocols for having unexpected visitors aboard ship either aren't followed or are very strange: the poor, shocked airman that finds himself in the Transporter Room confronted by a guy with a bowl cut, pointy ears and makeup above the eyes is left to stand stunned - we see him hanging around the Transporter Room later, with Kyle the only occupant. Being a genial sort he asks what food the guy would like and from the food slots in the rear of the room punches in an order for chicken soup. Shouldn't he be taken under guard to some quarters, or the brig? At least give the dazed fellow a chair to sit in after his shock! Mind you, Captain Christopher isn't treated much better with Spock openly declaring to all and sundry that he never made any relevant contribution to history so it doesn't matter if he never returns! Even Tuvok was more sensitive than that, and he was a full Vulcan - he didn't let on to the Romulan who was only a few decades in the past that he was going to die (in 'Eye of The Needle'), but Spock is completely uncaring for either the guy or the timeline! It turns around later when he gets the good news he's going to have a boy who'll be integral to the future space programme (something to do with Saturn, but he'd better hurry up as he must be getting on a bit by now!). Spock wasn't at his best - he really felt the need to call up Kirk while he was greeting Christopher in the Transporter Room, and ask if they should turn off the tractor beam now the jet's been dismantled by it? He's the First Officer! He does redeem himself somewhat when he sneaks round behind Christopher during the mission on the base, nerve-pinching him successfully.

I did like the fact they talk of a manned moon shot, since this was made in 1966, three years before such a thing actually happened, but it must have been in the air that NASA was approaching such an objective. There are also some great facts let loose over the course of the episode, such as the Enterprise being one of only twelve of its kind in the fleet (and they make contact with 'Starfleet Control' in the final scene). I can't remember how many starships were on the chart in 'Court Martial,' but even if there were more than twelve we can assume they weren't all Constitution-class (I don't think the class has even been mentioned yet). Kirk also claims his authority comes from the United Earth Space Probe Agency, something touched on in the last episodes of 'Enterprise' where it was obviously a pre-Federation organisation in the same way Starfleet was. The Communicator has a special emergency signal which can be interpreted as a request for beam out, and without Kirk's Communicator they can't beam him aboard or even locate him (presumably because he's among so many humans). We get to see the black belt upon which it rests, separately for the first time when Kirk and Sulu hand them over to the airman (they look so much better and more expensive than the previous brown ones). It also seems pretty clear the Enterprise has but one Transporter Room, since Kirk orders a guard posted outside of it in case Christopher tries to escape. And once again, Spock usurps Uhura's earpiece for his own use. Maybe everyone has one?

The humour isn't too silly, whether it's Kirk's slightly comical fight against three airmen that find him, but I like the relish with which he goes into it and the resolve on his face as he closes the door in a way that says no one's going through there, giving Sulu time to beam away. His lighthearted reaction to be being caught and interrogated doesn't go too far, he's never arrogant, knowing how important this situation is, but also knowing he has the power just out of range to escape. Though he must have been speaking generally when he responds to the officer's threat to lock him up for two hundred years, saying that that would be about right (if he was going to be living into the 22nd Century!). But things are a little bizarre when they throw in the computer talking in a kittenish female voice on the Enterprise, ostensibly altered by a race dominated by women that they'd stopped at for repairs, whom had replaced the monotone with personality. The episode was going for a lighter tone, but it was just so odd, especially as that could have been the idea for a whole episode in itself, and had the impression of being something from an earlier draft of the script that had been left in, but not developed. Once again we see a clip from a future episode: this time it's Spock being hit by the spores from 'This Side of Paradise,' but they were showing these things out of production order, so maybe that episode had already been seen?

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