Kirk, Spock and McCoy visit planet blah, blah, blah that is about to be destroyed by its sun going nova. The whole population has used a time machine to escape into the past. But one librarian is sticking around to handle any late arrivals. He tries to convince the Enterprise crew to use the time machine to escape. Kirk accidentally goes through the portal and ends up in an analog of 17th century England. And McCoy and Spock follow him and end up in an Ice Age hellhole.
Kirk is accused of witchcraft when he is heard talking to Spock and McCoy when they are in a different time through the portal. He finds a fellow time traveler and convinces him to help him escape back to the future. When he gets back, he has to violently convince the librarian to help him find Spock and McCoy.
Meanwhile Spock and McCoy are found by another time traveler. It is a woman named Zarabeth who has been sentenced to the Ice Age prison by an evil dictator. But because they are now 5,000 years in the past, Spock reverts to the emotional condition his ancestors existed in at that time. He becomes quite belligerent when McCoy calls him a pointy eared Vulcan. And, of course, he falls in love with the pretty woman (played by very pretty and very young Mariette Hartley) in the skimpy cavegirl outfit. When McCoy accuses Zarabeth of lying about whether McCoy and Spock can get back to the future Spock becomes enraged and starts choking McCoy. McCoy brings this to Spock’s attention and he realizes that he is acting like a primitive. Zarabeth clarifies that she knows she can never return to the future alive but she doesn’t know whether Spock and McCoy can.
The two men decide to try to find the way back and with just minutes to go before nova Kirk has the librarian open the path to the Ice Age time portal. After Spock paws at Zarabeth for a few moments Kirk successfully urges the two men to return. McCoy talks to Spock about how he feels about leaving Zarabeth in the past and Spock says some Vulcan jazz about her being dead and buried but it sounds more like bitterness than lack of emotion. The librarian quickly makes his escape to his own time destination and the Enterprise beams the landing party back just in time to escape the nova.
This is a pretty good episode. Sure, it’s silly and set up as a thriller with the clock running out on the nova. But the story moves along and watching Leonard Nimoy act almost like a human being is amusing. I especially liked when he had McCoy by the windpipe. Even Kirk avoided his usual histrionics. And the funny little bald librarian provides some humor to the proceedings with his bureaucratic fussiness. And Mariette Hartley is a charming looking woman and did the best she could do with the lines she was given.
With the series all but over and faced with the reality of transgender Kirk in the final episode I feel extremely generous. I’m going to award this episode with a 8 // 2.