STAR TREK
Return to Tomorrow

From Wikipedia:

"Return to Tomorrow" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast February 9, 1968 and repeated August 2, 1968. It is episode #49, production #51, written by John T. Dugan, under the pen-name "John Kingsbridge", and directed by Ralph Senensky.

Overview: Telepathic aliens take control of Kirk's and Spock's bodies.

More here.

Okay, I'm going to try something a bit different this time. I feel like, for the moment, I've said everything I have to say about Star Trek, conceptually speaking. So I'm going to strip these Trek posts down a bit, avoiding full blown reviews, and simply posting the notes I take when I watch. And the pics, too. Pics are still important. So important, in fact, that I'm going to try posting them directly on the page, instead of simply linking to them. At any rate, this all may change depending on how the rest of the run moves me. For now, however, let's see how the new format works.

First, go watch the episode.

Now, read my notes.

* The Enterprise is "hundreds of light years" beyond any known human exploration. It takes "three weeks" for a subspace message to reach Starfleet. The episode establishes right away that they are way the fuck out there.

* James Doohan, who plays Scotty, is the voice of the disembodied Sargon. I totally recognize it now, but had to have somebody point it out to me when I was a teenager--that is, Doohan was a damned fine voice actor.

* Diana Muldaur as Dr. Ann Mulhall, this episode's guest star, who plays another role in an episode in the third season, and gets yet another role years later in the Next Generation series, is totally beautiful, with a fabulous voice.



* Spock says, regarding Sargon, "Pure energy, matter without form." Was this the line that was sampled for that 80s techno dance tune? Or was it from another episode, say, the first season's "Errand of Mercy"?


Sargon's ball.

* The narrative goes through great pain to establish just how advanced beyond the Federation Sargon's people are--they had a "primitive" nuclear era.

* Very nice monologue Shatner has the first time he's possessed by Sargon. His big physical Shakespearean style works well for a space god.







* Music, sets, and overall story do a good job of creating a nice sense of sci-fi wonder.

* There's a great cut, from the scene where Sargon suggests temporarily possessing Kirk, Spock, and Mulhall, to a shot of Scotty saying "You're going to what?!?"


You're going to what?!?

* Kirk's "risk is our business" speech. He's totally at home with this overblown semi-poetic rhetoric.



* This episode makes gratuitous use of the zoom-in. It's interesting, but I don't know if I like it, or what it might add to getting the story across.

* Nice purple light on faces for the consciousness trading moments.



* Yeah, that's right. Kirk-as-Sargon gets to make out with Mulhall. Twice. No surprise there.



* Nimoy, as Spock, is great, as usual. But he's sublime when possessed by Henoch. I fucking love his smirky smile.



* Why robots? Why not build actual biological bodies via genetic engineering? I mean, these entities are super advanced. Maybe this is something of a cultural bias of the era in which the episode was produced. Genetics and cloning were simply not part of the popular imagination at that point.

How many years was this before The Boys from Brazil came out?


Robots.

* Oh, I get it. Sargon is Adam, or Yahweh, whatever. Thalassa is Eve. And Henoch is Lucifer. But this time they beat him. Fuck you and your fruit from the tree of knowledge. Or something. Works for me.

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