Tomorrow Is Yesterday

"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is the nineteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by D. C. Fontana and directed by Michael O'Herlihy, it first aired on January 26, 1967. It was the first Star Trek episode to be written solely by a woman (Dorothy Fontana had previously written the teleplay for the episode “Charlie X” but the story was credited to Gene Roddenberry).

In the episode, the ''Enterprise'' is thrown back to Earth in the 1960s where the US Air Force detects it so the crew must find a way to correct the damage to the timeline.

Plot

The USS ''Enterprise'' is thrown back in time to Earth during the 1960s by the effects of a high-gravity " black star". ''Enterprise'' ends up in Earth's upper atmosphere, and is picked up as a UFO on military radar.

A U.S. Air Force F-104 interceptor piloted by Captain John Christopher (Roger Perry), is scrambled to identify the craft. Fearing an attack, Captain Kirk orders a tractor beam to be used on the jet, which tears the plane apart. The pilot is transported aboard the ''Enterprise''.

Fearing Christopher could disrupt the timeline if returned to Earth, Kirk at first decides that the pilot must stay with the ''Enterprise''. When Science Officer Spock later discovers that the pilot's as-yet-unborn son will play an important role in a future mission to Saturn, Kirk realizes he must return Christopher to Earth after all.

After learning of the existence of film taken of the ''Enterprise'' by Christopher's wing cameras, Kirk and Lt. Sulu beam down to the airbase to recover the film and any other evidence of their visit. They are caught by an Air Policeman, who accidentally activates an emergency signal on Kirk's communicator and is immediately beamed aboard. Kirk and Sulu continue their search, after which Kirk is captured again and Sulu escapes.

Spock, Sulu, and Christopher, who knows the base's layout, beam down to recover Kirk. After Kirk's guards are subdued, Christopher grabs one of their guns and demands to be left behind. Spock, having anticipated Christopher would make such an attempt, appears behind Christopher and disables him with a Vulcan nerve pinch.

After they return to the ship, Spock and Chief Engineer Scott inform Kirk of a possible escape method by slingshotting around the Sun to break away and return to their time. The maneuver is risky, since even a small miscalculation could destroy the ship, or make them miss their own era.

Kirk okays the maneuver, and time on board the ''Enterprise'' moves backwards. Christopher is beamed back to his fighter jet at the instant he first encountered the ''Enterprise'', preventing any film evidence of the ship being produced, and erasing his memory of his time on the ''Enterprise''. The same is done with the Air Policeman. ''Enterprise'' then successfully returns to the 23rd century.

Production

The episode was originally conceived as part two to an earlier episode, "The Naked Time"; when the ending to that episode was revised, "Tomorrow is Yesterday" was reworked as a stand-alone story.
Associate producer Robert Justman devised the original idea for the story, and it was handed to Dorothy Fontana to create a teleplay. Justman received neither credit nor payment for doing so, whereas Roddenberry's agent charged the studio up to $3,000 for his own stories and rewrites.

Reference in further ''Star Trek'' stories

The method of time travel in this episode was used subsequently to send the ''Enterprise'' back to the year 1968 in the second season episode " Assignment: Earth." It is presumed the same technique was used to return the ship to her proper time after the episode ended.

The second issue of IDW Publishing's comic book series ''Assignment: Earth'' (a continuation of the episode of the same name, drawing on the episode's status as a failed backdoor pilot for a spin-off television series) shows the protagonists, Gary Seven and his assistant Roberta Lincoln, becoming peripherally involved in the events of "Tomorrow is Yesterday", acting on their own to prevent the ''Enterprise''s presence from affecting history. Due to peculiarities of time travel, the ''Enterprise'' crewmembers have not yet met Seven and Lincoln at this point, but it is Seven's and Lincoln's second encounter with them (though they are careful to avoid direct contact, so as not to alter the proper course of events).

The "slingshot maneuver" was employed a third time by the crew in the motion picture '' Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'', this time to travel back to the year 1986, and to return the Klingon Bird of Prey the command crew had captured at the end of '' Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' to the 23rd century.

The ''Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual'' is described, in two forewords to the manual proper, as having had its contents accidentally downloaded into the main computer of a United States Air Force facility located in Omaha during the accidental time trip the ''Enterprise'' took in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"—specifically Offutt Air Force Base, headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, referred to as the Omaha Installation in the script.

Reception

In 2009, Tor.com rated it 5 out 6, noting that it depicted a sort of "hope and optimism and excitement about the new frontier" at a time before the first lunar landing mission. The day after the first airing of this episode saw the Apollo 1 disaster.

Zack Handlen of ''The A.V. Club'' gave the episode a 'B−' rating, describing it as "so-so" and "passable".

SyFy ranked "Tomorrow is Yesterday" as the 11th best time travel plot in ''Star Trek'', in 2016.

In 2018, CBR ranked this one of the top-twenty time travel themed episodes of all ''Star Trek'' series.

In 2018, BuzzFeed listed this as example of an episode of a TV series that would serve as a better introduction to the series than the pilot. They point out that the franchise can be overwhelming to newcomers, and praised this episode as "beautiful, witty, and really makes you think".

In 2019, ''Nerdist'' ranked "Tomorrow is Yesterday" the sixth best time travel episode of all ''Star Trek''.

References

External links

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"Tomorrow is Yesterday"
Review of the remastered version at TrekMovie.com
"Tomorrow Is Yesterday"
screenshots before and after remastering

{{Star Trek time travel episodes

Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) episodes
1967 American television episodes
Star Trek time travel episodes
Television episodes written by D. C. Fontana
Fiction set in 1969
Television episodes set in the 1960s