Yesteryear

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series S1 (Yesteryear)

The most famous of all 'TAS' episodes, written by D.C. Fontana, continuing her exploration of Vulcan culture begun in 'TOS,' and I had high hopes this would be the one to stand out. But it's early days and I haven't yet got into the series, the one Trek show I don't know back to front, and side to side. It was another functional story, one I did vaguely remember, though it's the most talked about, too, so that's no guarantee of anything.

Interest comes from the timeline changing thanks to… I can't remember, but they were fiddling about with the old Guardian of Forever, an odd-looking survey team, whom I assume isn't Starfleet, or at least a separate division from starship operations since they don't wear Starfleet uniforms (but then, according to 'Discovery,' uniforms varied in this sort of era), and one is a giant bird, slightly reminiscent of one of the fantastical aliens kept by the Talosians. We get an Andorian First Officer, who replaced Spock in the altered time stream, though he's grey for some unknown reason!

Kirk notes that the 'wardrobe section' will sort out Spock's necessary accoutrements for travelling into the past to set things right, so I guess 'DSC' adds legitimacy to 'TAS' not being canon since Burnham was able to magically synthesise her uniform, no problem, with no need for a department to be consulted. Personally I prefer that they had stores of this kind, as it makes the period different to the later, and more advanced 'TNG' time, so for once I wouldn't mind if this was canon (though I think such things may have been mentioned on 'TOS' anyway).

Lovely to see and hear Sarek, voiced again by Mark Lenard, and not the last time he was to provide voice only for the character as we see a younger version on 'Star Trek V' whose line was spoken by Lenard, though Majel Barrett's distinctive voice fills in for Amanda on this occasion. 'Enterprise' took a few things from this episode when making it's Vulcan trilogy in Season 4, and as always, I'm happy for other branches to canonise certain aspects of what is on show in 'TAS,' when it makes sense.

But there are still things that feel out of place, like the tiger creature that attacks I-Chaya, mortally wounding it: it looks more like something out of 'He-Man' than Trek, though I can imagine the Abrams films taking this as guidance for when they went in for creating ridiculous chase sequences against monster beasts.

The main story becomes more about whether the boy Spock can condone euthanasia for his pet, than take the taunts from his peers, so things take a different turn than I expected. I don't think it's suggesting that human euthanasia is acceptable, I do think it was about animal suffering, which makes sense as they can't decide things for themselves and only understand the immediate sensation of pain, so it was a courageous thing for young Spock to let his much-loved pet go.

I wonder what the science lovers made of Spock senior claiming the reason for his visit was to pay homage to the family shrine of their gods! I don't think Vulcan mysticism had been explored on the series, at least not in these terms, though of course the films would delve into such things much more.

So one for Spock, mainly - I wonder how he got back from his time trip, was he in direct communion with the Guardian and could tell it when he was ready to return?

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