In this episode the Enterprise is inexplicably sent back in time by getting too close to a \u201cblack star.\u201d\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s supposed to be a black hole.\u00a0 They find themselves in Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere above Cape Kennedy right before the first moon shot.\u00a0 A jet fighter is sent up to investigate the \u201cUFO.\u201d\u00a0 The Enterprise locates the fighter jet, and fearing that it might have a nuclear weapon, grabs it with a tractor beam.\u00a0 But this destroys the plane and the pilot is beamed aboard the Enterprise to save his life.<\/p>\n
Spock informs Kirk that the pilot cannot be released back to Earth because his knowledge of the Enterprise would alter history.\u00a0 But then Spock discovers that the pilot\u2019s yet-to-be-born son will be an important man in the future of space exploration.\u00a0 Therefore, the pilot must be returned or that would change history.<\/p>\n
After that Kirk and Sulu beam down to an Air Force base to retrieve evidence from the wreckage of the jet that would prove the Enterprise was a real UFO.\u00a0 This leads to another man being beamed aboard the Enterprise.\u00a0 At this point the writers put the plot mercifully to bed.\u00a0 The Enterprise would fly very fast toward the sun ending up even farther back in the past and then \u201cslingshot\u201d back out and start going forward in time.\u00a0 Somehow, when they reached the time where each of the men captured from the past had been affected by the Enterprise they would be beamed into the spot where their bodies were.\u00a0 So, we see the pilot in his plane and suddenly we see the appearance of someone being beamed into his location.\u00a0 But somehow after the beaming occurs the pilot no longer remembers anything about the Enterprise and goes about his mission and returns to Earth.<\/p>\n
And the Enterprise hurtles into the future at faster than Warp Factor 8 and in order to prevent overshooting their \u201cpresent,\u201d Scotty puts on the brakes and the crew pitches back and forth in their chairs.\u00a0 They\u2019ve made it home and everyone is happy.<\/p>\n
So, this is the first-time travel episode.\u00a0 So that\u2019s something.\u00a0 But it\u2019s kind of meh.\u00a0 The pretense of a rationale for how they went back in time and the even flimsier logic for how they retuned wouldn\u2019t convince the lowliest of geeks.\u00a0 Spock and Bones bickering about the fate of Kirk during his burglary is kind of contrived and silly.<\/p>\n
As for Shatner mockery points, he does get a scene where he has a fist fight with three or four Air Force servicemen.\u00a0 He gets to roll around a bit and throw some pretty phony looking punches.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also nothing to write home about.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in the nostalgia of seeing the Enterprise interact with 1960s Americans, I could throw an extra point in and call this a six.\u00a0 Put that together with the Shatner score and I\u2019ll call this a 6 \/\/ 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this episode the Enterprise is inexplicably sent back in time by getting too close to a \u201cblack star.\u201d\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s supposed to be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,2149,240],"tags":[2150,38,1355,44,309,265,1691,293,2325,154,1692,837],"class_list":["post-9863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-star-trek","category-tv-reviews","tag-gene-roddenberry","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-star-trek","tag-tomorrow-is-yesterday","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-william-shatner"],"yoast_head":"\n