Wanderlust

3.23 — “All Our Yesterdays”

3.23 — “All Our Yesterdays”

Plot: A rescue mission to the planet Sarpeidon, hours before its sun goes supernova, inspires Kirk, Spock, and McCoy ‘s visit to a strange library. Among the stacks they meet Mr. Atoz (A to Z, get it? He’s a librarian). Atoz and his helpers are startled to see them, but keen to rush the travelers through time portals into the planet’s past, before they are caught in the imminent apocalypse. Kirk is trapped in time separately from Spock and McCoy. The loyal officers soon find that the stress of the time displacement produces strange effects on Mr. Spock.

Thoughts: It’s near! All good things come to an end. Here we have a fine episode spotlighting the best supporting cast on television, who have been criminally underused in recent episodes (especially McCoy). The Spock/McCoy relationship has been barely explored since second season, when it seemed to be the focus of almost every script, but now Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley get one last chance to shine (until the films!).

Some of McCoy’s best scenes all season (despite “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” and “The Empath”) come as he tells Spock repeatedly to leave him, and Spock won’t listen. He stands out, despite Spock’s own great moments. “I don’t like that. I don’t think I ever did!” What a scene–it should be on a poster! Wait, it is: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/57561701460317245/

Another highlight for me is when we learn that Spock, like everyone in the future, is a vegetarian. I knew it! Trek also anticipates data storage discs in this episode.

I love the way Spock and McCoy charge right after Kirk through the time doorway, without heeding Atoz’s protests. They know where their duty lies. And, as Spock says, Kirk is their friend.

A running theme at the end of the series seems to be Spock’s sadness, as he tentatively reaches out, seeking support and a richer emotional life than he has known before. Is it Kirk and McCoy’s friendship that allows him to do this? Spock gets one more love story, following the events of 1.24 “This Side of Paradise;” and 3.2 “The Enterprise Incident,” and one more kiss (the flirtation from “The Cloud Minders” doesn’t count). There is a lot of earned sadness in his line “Yes, it happened. But that was five thousand years ago. And she is dead now. Dead and buried. Long ago.“

And I am sad. I am sad because I soon will have no more opportunities to watch new episodes of TOS. Onwards to the animated series–and to next week’s series finale.

4 out of 5 skimpy outfits–that’s how you dress on an ice planet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Our_Yesterdays_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)

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9 responses to “3.23 — “All Our Yesterdays””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Yes, I do love this episode!  And the fact that I mostly love different things about it just shows how much it has to offer.

    Loved: the recursive planet looping back in on itself like a Moebius strip.  What a neat solution to overpopulation and the limited nature of time!

    Loved: that McCoy figures out more than Spock for a change, although the logic behind Spock’s regression kind of escapes me.

    Loved: that crazy accent of the female in the time that Kirk jumps to.  Really believable!  Great actress!  (Kind of crazy that Kirk would leap to the aid of a female in distress without figuring out first what he is leaping into… and he doesn’t even have the excuse of the cordrazine like McCoy did in COTEEF…)

    Loved: that Spock might have a child with Zarabeth, and very curious what became of that child!  I think there may have been a novel about that actually:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday's_Son

    Loved:  Spock’s dilemma of whether to stay or go.  I felt in a way that the whole “have to go through together” thing cheated him out of a really tough choice which would have been interesting to see him play out.  Although I am guessing in his primitive state he might well have chosen to stay with Zarabeth.  I do think if Spock truly loved her once back to his old self though, he could have tried a bit harder to reunite with her.  My take on his sadness is that he never really expected that he could have love anyhow so he’ s not fighting for her the way he would for the life of his Captain.  Sad.

    Overall: 4 out of 5 portly magistrates.  In THE LIBRARY.

    Reply
  2. Katharine Bond Avatar
    Katharine Bond

    I also really liked this one entirely due to Spock and McCoy. I also agree with Randi that the logic behind Spock ‘ s regression is not particularly strong. I mean, why wouldn’t McCoy have also regressed? Are we really saying that human nature hasn’t changed in the past 5,000 years? That’s not very hopeful.

    Reply
  3. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    The big 3 beam down to check in on a planet whose sun is about to go supernova, but no one is home.  Well, no one except the LIBRARIAN.  He’s just a kindly old man, yet this librarian is awesomely creepy by simply being everywhere at once.

    Kirk goes through a portal that hasn’t been prepared, and is transported to a random place with seemingly no way to return.  Spock and McCoy inexcusably rush after him (that’s not duty, that’s a complete lack of cautionary logic unbecoming of Spock), into a different time period, where they seem to be stuck in an ice age. 

    Spock\Bones: “Doctor McCoy, we are going to need to share body heat.”

    McCoy and Spock are saved by a befurred humanoid!  Bet there’s an attractive woman under that coat… and there is!  And she’s dressed up like a castmember of 1,000,000 years B.C.!  And… she’s gone into hysterics for no apparent reason.  Now, why does the medical equipment work, but not the phaser?  That’s a little plot convenience central to no purpose, like Spock can’t tell whether Bones is alive without the machine.

    I like that Spock has the attractive female companion, while Kirk has the accusatory harridan.

    I don’t like that Spock, even Spock reverting to his emotional past, is confounded by the problem of being needed by two different people at once.

    I don’t like that Spock immediately repeats Zarabeth’s explanation of how the time displacement portal works.

    This would be a holodeck episode in ST:TNG.

    Reply
  4. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Watching TNG 1.24, “We’ll Always Have Paris,” made me think about this episode–the last Star Trek romance. My review of the TNG episode may be “I liked it, but it was no ‘All Our Yesterdays.’”

    Reply
  5. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Cool, I like that theory and as you point out, it is consistent with other events in the Star Trek universe.  Although, the collective consciousness of Vulcan must have been appalled during “This Side of Paradise”.  🙂

    Reply
  6. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    This theory would also have implications for the alternate timeline world of nuTrek, where the planet Vulcan is destroyed. Maybe that’s why Zachary Quinto lacks Leonard Nimoy’s composure…

    Reply
  7. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Hmmm… If the paradise folks are like hippies and the Borg are like bees, what are Vulcans like? A parallel processing computer?

    Reply
  8. Robert Balmer Avatar
    Robert Balmer

    Wow, what a pleasant surprise! Chalk this up as another one I didn’t really know about before (like I mentioned in my Cloud Minders comment). I love the concept of escaping a catastrophe by fleeing temporally, rather than spatially. I also loved the cute little low-budget nova effect at the end as the Enterprise flies away (I watched the original non-remastered version).

    Actually I think my two favorite episodes in the “hadn’t already absorbed some prior knowledge of the episode through osmosis” category both came from season 3: this one, and “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”.

    Reply
  9. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Those are definitely two of my Season Three favorites–I have to go look, but I think Is There In Truth No Beauty? was my favorite. It’s easier to remember and appreciate the ones that YOU like that aren’t the same as the ones EVERYONE likes.

    Reply

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