The first time travel episode! This is another classic episode that I have no memory of seeing before tonight. I was aware that the Kirk and Spock had figured out that time travel was possible by warping around a star in The Voyage Home. Time warp occurs first in TOS on The Naked Time, but it is hardly used to full effect in that episode. Tomorrow is Yesterday is a much better introduction to how time warp works from here forward in Trek and I am sad to have missed out on it for so long!
The episode opens with what looks a whole lot like stock footage of jets from the 60's doing jet stuff. Back on the Enterprise the bridge is in disarray, the ship was pulled in towards a, "black star," (I assume they mean black hole) and when they escaped they flew soooooo fast they ended up back in time! And of course if you are going to be propelled at hypervelocity in a random direction of course you would end up in the atmosphere of earth over America. Speaking of, the air force has taken notice and is scrambling fighters to intercept.
Sulu tries to get away, but the ship is slow to respond and one fighter gets close enough Spock is worried it may launch a nuclear missile (yes, that was a thing back then) and cripple the ship. Kirk locks a tractor beam for some reason, but the primitive jet can't take the stress and breaks a part, but just in time (hah) the pilot is beamed aboard. This is where we learn that no one in Starfleet ever thought time travel would happen so there is no protocol and the pilot is invited to the bridge by Kirk. Spock suggests this may not be a good idea since now they can't send him home without threatening the future.
Fortunately for them it turns out the pilot has a unborn (and unconceived) son who is important to man's journey towards the stars so they have to send him back. Luckily for them he turns out to be a cool dude and agrees to help them erase any evidence. This goes horribly and while Sulu gets the records Kirk ends up arrested and guard from base ends up on the Enterprise. Again luck is in their favor since the guard is some sort of idiot who can't comprehend anything. Finally they wrap things up extremely quickly by launching into time warp in just such a way as they can beam the pilot and guard back just when they left (apparently not dooming the pilot, so maybe a little earlier) while warping through time and then going back to the future! This all works perfectly and all is same at end of episode.
Revu: First season of TOS just keeps delivering on the good episodes! This one has solid scifi, social commentary, a bit of time travel humor, and a strange gag about the ships computer being rewired to be more feminine. Ok, that last bit was kinda odd, but the rest sums up to a worth introduction of time travel into trek lore. Also they traveled back to the 1960's without a hippie to be seen, well done.
8 out of 10
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