This episode features something we don't see as far as I know again until DS9. Officially sanctioned time travel. And not to one of the many duplicate earths that seem to litter the cosmos, to our earth. The Enterprise is apparently here to watch the most critical time in our history. What time is that? When the show was being produced of course! Now to be fair that was at the height of the cold war when things were probably as close as they have ever been to destruction. Also, maybe this proves that the Enterprise isn't from our earth at all and is in fact from one of the many alternate earths and this is where their history deviated from our own. I guess them messing with it leads to the eugenics wars.
As mentioned above the episode opens with the Enterprise in orbit around 1968 earth. They are somehow hidden by their deflector shields even though they are close enough you would be able to see something that big visually at night. The ship is rocked for some reason by a powerful transporter beam. And not from earth, from a distant star system. In the transporter room a man and his cat appear on the pad and he seems as confused as they are. He tells them he is from a planet of kidnapped humans trained to help earth through the difficult times it is going through. Kirk doesn't believe him and throws him in the brig. Agent Seven easily escapes with his magic pen and beams down to his New York office.
Seven learns his agents haven't checked in for several days. A woman appears and rather than being one of his agents she is the representative from the past, Roberta. She is reporting for work as a secretary and is told way more than he intends to when he thinks she is an agent. She is convinced by his fake CIA badge and agrees to help. Kirk and Spock appear and get into a fight with Roberta while Seven escapes using his transporter closet. Kirk and Spock end up beaming aboard with two police officers who are beamed back down with confused looks on their faces.
Seven has learned his agents were killed in a car crash so he has to finish their mission. He is at the site of a nuclear missile test that he is determined to sabotage. After subduing a guard and hiding in a trunk he makes his way to the launch gantry and starts pulling out wires on the rocket. Kirk and Spock beam down and are immediately caught by security. Scotty finds Seven and tries to beam him aboard but he instead is intercepted and ends up back at his office where he tries to use the computer to sabotage the missile. Roberta has figured out he isn't CIA and stops him at a critical point where the missile is armed and falling towards Europe. Kirk and Spock manage to beam to his apartment as well and have to decide if they trust Seven. Kirk does and Seven manages to detonate the bomb just in time to not start a nuclear war, but enough to scare the humans away from mutually assured destruction.
Time to look back: Not having lived through the 60's it is hard for me to say how good a take on the times this episode portrays. The tension of not knowing of Seven is evil or not really keeps this one going. Not sure how I missed it before, but this is a good one.
8 out of 10
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