Trek Review: “Tomorrow is Yesterday”

If you will recall, at the end of “The Naked Time,” the Enterprise traveled back in time 71 hours escaping the situation that they were in.  That was not the original way that episode was supposed to end, however.  As has been documented in countless books and documentaries, the original ending was for our heroes to end up in 1969 instead.  Well, that part two didn’t happen there, but the idea of it didn’t go away.  It was made later in the season and became Star Trek’s first foray into the past, which is almost the present, in the all-time classic “Tomorrow is Yesterday.”

Roger Perry plays Captain Christopher, an Air Force pilot who ends up on the Enterprise, which has been placed in 1969 by way of an accident after trying to escape the pull of a black hole.

All of the drama and a little hilarity that ensues is top notch Trek.  I always loved the scenes on Earth in the Air Force base.  Especially, the “What was that?”, “What was what?” (which was coyly brought up again in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home during a similar situation.)

One minor thing however, is during all of the attempt at the end of the episode to get back to their present time is that if you’re not paying attention, you probably will get lost.  There are a lot of moving parts and pieces to what’s going on, what with having to go back in time, then forward in time involving the magnetic pull of the sun.  It’s actually interesting to me, and I wonder if the theory would actually be true, or is it truly science fiction?  I probably won’t be alive if we ever achieve any level of star flight to be able to test that theory, but still, I wonder…

This episode has always been one of my top 10 favorites. That will never change.

If only it was that Part Two… if only….

Next week, Kirk is in trouble, and there is a few plot holes here and there to boot…