THE PLOT
The planet Sarpeidon, home to a thriving civilization, has a sun that's about to go nova. When the Enterprise arrives, there is no sign of life on the planet. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to The Library in hopes of learning what happened to the population.
They are met by Atoz (Ian Wolfe), the librarian, who fusses that the three are "very late" and must make their "selection" as quickly as possible. He directs them to viewers with different data tapes showing different parts of the planet's history. Kirk is viewing a tape set in the equivalent of American colonial times when he hears a woman scream. Not thinking, he runs out, following the scream...
...And finds himself in the very scene shown in the viewer. Spock and McCoy run after him. But McCoy was viewing a tape showing the planet's ice age, and he and Spock find themselves in a mountainous region in sub-zero temperatures. They have all been propelled into the planet's past, with no apparent way back. With Kirk accused of witchcraft, and Spock and McCoy in the middle of a blizzard, the first challenge they face is their own survival!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: Very much the decisive man of action - which is what gets the crew into trouble in the first place! Kirk's impulsive run through the portal feels like a plot contrivance, necessary to get the action started. Kirk takes charge in his new surroundings efficiently, escaping from imprisonment and gaining the information needed to get back to the Library, and eventually to get Spock and McCoy back as well.
Spock: Through the power of Plot Contrivance, going back into the past unwinds Spock's Vulcan reserve. Step by step, he is returned to the savagery of his ancestors. This doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, but it does give Leonard Nimoy his best episode since The Tholian Web. At first, there's just an unusual harshness in his voice. He becomes more "human" in his gestures and postures. All of this builds to the point at which he lashes out at McCoy, responding to one of McCoy's typical barbs with a violent, "I don't like that. I don't think I ever did!"
Dr. McCoy: After Spock's violent outburst, it doesn't take him long to figure out what is happening. He takes a considerable personal risk to provoke Spock in order to snap him out of it. I'm assuming that his overt hostility to Zarabeth is more an approach to directly provoke Spock than honest outrage, given that he is quite charming to her in their only previous scene. Either way, he does have enough insight to realize that she may not be telling them the whole truth.
Hot Alien Space Babe of the WeeK: Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley) is the lovely exile, a victim of a brutal regime from a point in the planet's history at which time travel was already a possibility. She has been alone for what must have been years, and latches onto Spock with desperation. Apparently, among the necessities of survival she was allowed were a complete cosmetics set and a salon - but given that Mariette Hartley, circa 1969, was nothing short of stunning, I'm certainly not going to complain that she looks too good for her situation. Hartley, a consistently reliable actress, manages to invest more in Zarabeth than is there on the page, and her presence alone elevates this episode.
THOUGHTS
As was the case with Requiem for Methuselah, it's immediately apparent that more care has gone into the making of this episode than has been the case with most of the late Season Three offerings. The setup in the teaser is both intriguing and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the library is run, with duplicate librarians alternating between anxious hand-wringing and offers of assistance. "Reference services are available at the desk," an Atoz duplicate tells the three when they ask for recent history. The way in which this is phrased and delivered makes me think that the writer spent a fair amount of time at a large library.
Production values are very much above average, particularly for Season Three. The mountains on which Spock and McCoy find themselves are an obvious set, but not a bad one. The fake snow is well-used, and goes a long way toward selling it. The cave in which they take shelter is one of the series' most convincing cave sets, and some thought has gone into the lighting of it.
There are two main strands, one following Kirk's adventures in the 17th century, the other following Spock and McCoy. The Kirk strand is entertaining, and William Shatner gives one of his better recent performances. But the Spock/McCoy material is the real focus of interest, with Leonard Nimoy giving his best performance of the season. Spock's regression creates a genuinely strong dramatic situation, and Zarabeth's plight - a hopeless injustice which is refreshingly allowed to remain hopeless - is effective.
If everything came together, this would be the best episode of the season and might even be the only Season Three episode to win full marks from me. Unfortunately, there are some ragged bits of scriptwriting. Kirk's impulsive dash through the portal can be excused, though Kirk normally isn't that stupidly rash. I can even twist my brain to justify that his jail just happens to be run by someone who's been through the portal, even if that seems overly convenient and dramatically unnecessary.
There are a couple of big issues that I can't overlook, though, simply because they are so central to the episode. First, there's Mr. Atoz. Exactly why, if everyone on the planet has already gone through the portal, is he still there? Wouldn't he have made his escape already? The episode would work just as well if the real Atoz had already escaped, and all that remained were the robot duplicates. In fact, it would make more sense of Atoz's refusal to listen to Kirk in the second half of the episode. A real person should pick up, from Kirk talking to Scotty about "warping out of there," that the captain just might not be from around these here parts, but a robot would simply follow its programming.
The other issue that keeps this from being a "great" episode is one that's central to the show's best material: Why does Spock regress? If traveling so far back in time by this method should have this effect, then shouldn't McCoy be jumping around making chimp noises while trying to pick fleas off Spock? The answer is, of course, that it's good drama for Spock to lose his Vulcan logic while McCoy is the same as he usually is. But it simply isn't justified in the script. It doesn't stop me from enjoying some excellent scenes. But I wish at least some attempt was made to address this fairly obvious issue.
Even with these problems, All Our Yesterdays is a very good episode, a reminder of the quality this series used to regularly turn out. A part of me wishes this had been the series finale, as I have a feeling it would be a far more fitting finish than Turnabout Intruder is likely to provide.
Rating: 8/10.
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