Tomorrow Is Yesterday
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"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is the nineteenth episode of the first season of the American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
''. Written by
D. C. Fontana Dorothy Catherine Fontana (March 25, 1939 – December 2, 2019) was an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original '' Star Trek'' franchise and several Western television series. After a shor ...
and directed by
Michael O'Herlihy Michael O'Herlihy (1 April 1929 – 16 June 1997) was an Irish television producer and director who directed shows like ''Gunsmoke'' (1955), ''Maverick'' (1957), ''Star Trek'' (1965), ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968), ''M*A*S*H'' (1972) and ''The A-T ...
, 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 Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
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 An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
on military
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
. A
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
F-104 interceptor piloted by Captain John Christopher (
Roger Perry Roger Perry (May 7, 1933 – July 12, 2018) was an American film and television actor whose career began in the late 1950s. He served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force during the early 1950s. Career Television In th ...
), is scrambled to identify the craft. Fearing an attack,
Captain Kirk James Tiberius Kirk is a fictional character in the '' Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in '' Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as captain. Kirk lea ...
orders a
tractor beam A tractor-beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor-beam") in his novel ''Spacehounds of IPC'' (19 ...
to be used on the jet, which tears the plane apart. The pilot is
transported ''Transported'' is an Australian convict melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is considered a lost film. Plot In England, Jessie Grey is about to marry Leonard Lincoln but the evil Harold Hawk tries to force her to marry him and she w ...
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 Spock is a Character (arts), fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterprise ...
later discovers that the pilot's as-yet-unborn son will play an important role in a future mission to
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, 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 In the fictional ''Star Trek'' universe, the Vulcan nerve pinch is a technique used mainly by Vulcans to render unconsciousness by pinching a pressure point at the base of the victim's neck. Origin The script for " The Enemy Within" stated tha ...
. After they return to the ship, Spock and Chief Engineer Scott inform Kirk of a possible escape method by slingshotting around the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
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 "The Naked Time" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by John D. F. Black and directed by Marc Daniels, it first aired on September 29, 1966. In the episode, a strang ...
"; when the ending to that episode was revised, "Tomorrow is Yesterday" was reworked as a stand-alone story. Associate producer
Robert Justman Robert Harris "Bob" Justman (July 13, 1926 – May 28, 2008) was an American television producer, TV director, director, and Unit production manager, production manager. He worked on many American TV series including ''Lassie (1954 TV series), ...
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
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's
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
series ''Assignment: Earth'' (a continuation of the episode of the same name, drawing on the episode's status as a failed
backdoor pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...
for a spin-off television series) shows the protagonists,
Gary Seven Gary Seven is the major character in the last episode of the second season of the original ''Star Trek'' television series, " Assignment: Earth". He is portrayed by Robert Lansing. "Assignment: Earth" The episode " Assignment: Earth" was origi ...
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 The ''Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual'' (, Ballantine Books 1975, reprinted 1986, 1996, 2006) is a fiction reference book by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt, about the workings of Starfleet, a military, exploratory, and diplomatic organization f ...
'' 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 The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
facility located in
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
during the accidental time trip the ''Enterprise'' took in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"—specifically
Offutt Air Force Base Offutt Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the Air ...
, headquarters of the
Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...
, referred to as the Omaha Installation in the script.


Reception

In 2009,
Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...
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 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
disaster. Zack Handlen of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' gave the episode a 'B−' rating, describing it as "so-so" and "passable".
SyFy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
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 BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
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 Nerdist Industries, LLC is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast (The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium conte ...
'' ranked "Tomorrow is Yesterday" the sixth best time travel episode of all ''Star Trek''.


References


External links

*
"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