Stardate: 5943.7
The
Enterprise enters the Beta Niobe star system, where the star is about to go
supernova in a few hours.
The
starship approaches Sarpeidon, a class-M planet in the system, and Captain Kirk
(William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley)
beam down to investigate a technological center
They
enter a library building, and find a most unusual librarian, Mr. Atoz (Ian Wolfe),
who tends to a machine called “the
Atavachron” and insists that they select “verism tapes;” discs in the library which showcase different
historical eras of Sarpeidon.
After
accessing one tape -- of a time period resembling 17th century
England on Earth -- Captain Kirk hears a woman’s scream, and races through a
doorway that is actually a time portal. Dr. McCoy and Spock race after him, but
because McCoy was studying a tape of the Sarpeidon ice age, end up in a frozen
wasteland.
Trapped
in different time periods, the Starfleet officers must find their way back to
the library, as the clock ticks down towards supernova.
In
the ice age, Spock and McCoy encounter a lonely woman, Zarabeth (Mariette
Hartley), who was exiled there by a tyrannical leader. Spock, who is becoming more like the Vulcans
of Zarabeth’s time period, 5000 years in the past, experiences a strong
emotional connection to the woman. They fall in love.
However,
Zarabeth can never return home to her time period, because of preparation
through the Atavachron. She is doomed to spend the rest of her days in this frigid, frozen world.
Meanwhile,
Kirk makes his way out of a prison, after being accused of witchcraft, and
returns to the library. There he grapples with Mr. Atoz, who desperately wants
to prepare Kirk, and then escape to his own “yesterday.”
“All
Our Yesterdays” is a beautiful and successful Star Trek love story,
from a season featuring too many weak love stories (“For the World is Hollow and I
Have Touched the Sky,” “Requiem for Methuselah,” and “The Lights of Zetar.”)
The fact that this episode succeeds so ably
is even more surprising considering that the character who falls in love is the
unemotional Mr. Spock. Spock love stories are difficult to write well, and yet this story, from Jean Lisette Aroeste, is elegant and haunting.
Fortunately,
a "logical" reason is given for Spock’s unusual emotional attachment. Upon returning to
the past, he begins to act in the emotional, savage manner of Vulcans of the
time period; pre-Surak. This idea is a wonderful addition to canon, and augments the already-established suggestion
that Vulcans can sense each other over long distances, in the form of light
telepathic contact (a factor also made evident in “The Immunity Syndrome,” and
recently in Star Trek: Discovery’s [2017] “The Battle of the Binary Stars.”)
Given this mental connection to the Vulcans of 5,000 years in the past,
it is natural and makes sense that Spock begins to behave in a different
fashion, showing signs of emotion, falling in love, and eating animal flesh. I
only wish there were as strong an explanation for Kirk’s behavior with Rayna in “Requiem
for Methuselah,” or Scotty’s out-of-character actions in “The Lights of Zetar.”
Spock
himself makes note of the changes in his character, and at one point nearly even
kills the argumentative McCoy. When McCoy calls him a name, Spock nearly strangles him, saying he doesn't like it, and never did.
Despite
the outside forces working on the beloved character, the love between Spock and
Zarabeth nonetheless feels absolutely authentic (again, something that can’t be said of
the love stories in the other episodes I mentioned). Zarabeth is intelligent
and strong, and alone. These are qualities that Spock might very “logically”
feel himself drawn to. After all, he is an outsider among other humans, very much alone in some important ways.
The
love story is made all the more touching by two factors at the end of the
tale. First, Spock must leave Zarabeth, if McCoy is to go home. So, Spock must deliberately act
against his desire and will to remain with Zarabeth, in essence stranding her
alone all over again.
And secondly, after he steps through the time portal,
Spock returns to normal, and shows no sign of his previous attachment to
Zarabeth. He is his "cool" unaffected self again.
Of
course, we know Spock better than that. There is no doubt he remembers and
still feels something powerful for Zarabeth. It is just that, in the present, he is
better able to suppress his emotions.
For me, this haunting ending, with Spock coldly disavowing his former
emotional state, ranks right up with the codas of “City on
the Edge of Forever” (Kirk’s “Let’s get
the Hell out of here”) and “This Side of Paradise” (Spock’s “For the first time in my life…I was happy.”)
The
tragic nature of this story is beautifully depicted by both Leonard Nimoy, as
the confused and befuddled Spock, and Mariette Hartley as the lonely, desperate
Zarabeth. It is a testament to both
performances that this love story feels so real, and so, well...star-crossed.
If
Spock’s story in “All Our Yesterdays” feels powerful and authentic, Kirk’s
story proves markedly less interesting. He must battle accusations of
witchcraft, and win over the trust and aid of the local prosecutor (Kermit
Murdock), who is also a time traveler. The tale isn’t particularly interesting,
but matters for Kirk grow even more intense upon his return to the library, and
his battle of wills against Mr. Atoz and his duplicates.
Indeed,
Kirk’s story becomes increasingly tense as the supernova event nears, and he must
desperately attempt to locate Spock and McCoy…somewhere, in all of the planet’s
history. At one point, Atoz gets the jump on Kirk, “prepares” him through the
Atavachron, and nearly dooms Kirk to a life spent in the past. These moments are very suspenseful.
The
Zarabeth-Spock love story, however, ultimately became so beloved by Star Trek fans that A.C.
Crispin continued the tale of their affair (and its aftermath: a child) in the
novels Yesterday’s Son, and Time for Yesterday.
Less
remarked upon, but no less interesting is the sci-fi idea put forward cleverly by this episode,
that to travel through time -- and survive in another age -- a person must be
physiologically prepared for their new home. Their cells, essentially, must be altered.
I rather like this detail in "All Our Yesterdays," as it would
preclude time travelers from moving, en masse into previous ages, and polluting a time-line. I would love
to see Star Trek pick up this idea on a more recurring basis, since it suggests that time travelers
can only exist for a matter of days in another era, before exposure to that age
(and that age’s diseases?) kills them. So, the events of many movies and episodes could still occur, but there would be regular danger for time travelers, if they overstayed their welcome.
Er, a correction you might want to make -- the title of this episode is "All OUR Yesterdays," not "All YOUR Yesterdays."
ReplyDeleteAccording to Leonard Nimoy, the "5000 years in the past" explanation wasn't in the original script, because the guys in charge of the 3rd season understood Spock so little that they didn't realize that falling in love was out of character for him. Mr. Nimoy objected, and while there wasn't time to give the script much of a rewrite, they did insert that line about being 5000 years in the past. Thank heavens for that, because not only does it rescue the episode from absurdity, but it also adds an interesting feature to Vulcan telepathy...