"Star Trek" All Our Yesterdays (1969)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Marvin J. Chomsky

Writers:

Jean Lisette Aroeste (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

14 March 1969 (Season 3, Episode 23)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

When the planet Sarpeidon is about to be destroyed by its star Beta Niobe becoming a supernova, Kirk...

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Mariette Hartley	...	Zarabeth
Ian Wolfe	...	Mr. Atoz
Kermit Murdock	...	The Prosecutor
Ed Bakey	...	The First Fop
James Doohan	...	Scott (voice)
Anna Karen	...	Woman
Albert Cavens	...	Second Fop (as Al Cavens)
Stan Barrett	...	The Jailor
Johnny Haymer	...	The Constable

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Toronto City Hall - 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

There were two highly successful sequel books, Yesterday's Son, and Time for Yesterday, both by A.C. Crispin.

Quotes:

The Prosecutor: Where are you from?
Captain James T. Kirk: An island.
The Prosecutor: What is this island?
Captain James T. Kirk: It's called 'Earth'.
The Prosecutor: I know no... island Earth. No matter, continue.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Trek: The Counter-Clock Incident (#2.6)" (1974)

a very good episode of season 3

The penultimate episode of Star Trek's third season is excellent and a highlight of the much maligned final season. Essentially, Spock, McCoy and Kirk beam down to Sarpeidon to find the planet's population completely missing except for the presence of a giant library and Mr. Atoz, the librarian. All 3 Trek characters soon accidentally walk into a time travel machine into different periods of Sarpeidon's past. Spock gives a convincing performance as an Ice Age Vulcan who falls in love for Zarabeth while Kirk reprises his unhappy experience with time travel--see the 'City on the Edge of Forever'--when he is accused of witchcraft and jailed before escaping and finding the doorway back in time to Sarpeidon's present. In the end, all 3 Trek characters are saved mere minutes before the Beta Niobe star around Sarpeidon goes supernova. The Enterprise warps away just as the star explodes.

Ironically, as William Shatner notes in his book "Star Trek Memories," this show was the source of some dispute since Leonard Nimoy noticed that no reason was given in Lisette's script for the reason why Spock was behaving in such an emotional way. Nimoy relayed his misgivings here directly to the show's executive producer, Fred Freiberger, that Vulcans weren't supposed to fall in love. (p.272) However, Freiberger reasoned, the ice age setting allowed Spock to experience emotions since this was a time when Vulcans still had not evolved into their completely logical present state. This was a great example of improvisation on Freiberger's part to save a script which was far above average for this particular episode. While Shatner notes that the decline in script quality for the third season hurt Spock artistically since his character was forced to bray like a donkey in "Plato's Stepchildren," play music with Hippies in "the Way to Eden" or sometimes display emotion, the script here was more believable. Spock's acting here was excellent as Freiberger candidly admitted to Shatner. (p.272) The only obvious plot hole is the fact that since both Spock and McCoy travelled thousands of years back in time, McCoy too should have reverted to a more primitive human state, not just Spock. But this is a forgivable error considering the poor quality of many other season 3 shows, the brilliant Spock/McCoy performance and the originality of this script. Who could have imagined that the present inhabitants of Sarpeidon would escape their doomed planet's fate by travelling into their past? This is certainly what we came to expect from the best of 'Classic Trek'--a genuinely inspired story.

Shatner, in 'Memories', named some of his best "unusual and high quality shows" of season 3 as The Enterprise Incident, Day of the Dove, Is there in Truth no Beauty, The Tholian Web, And the children Shall Lead and The Paradise Syndrome. (p.273) While my personal opinion is that 'And the children Shall Lead' is a very poor episode while 'Is there in Truth no Beauty' is problematic, "All Our Yesterdays" certainly belongs on the list of top season three Star Trek TOS films. I give a 9 out of 10 for 'All Our Yesterdays.'