All Our Yesterdays
All Our Yesterdays (Netflix; Memory Alpha) finds the crew of our favorite starship beaming down to a planet whose star is about to nova and whose inhabitants have vanished. There, in a library, they find an old man who seems to teleport around the room. As one does.
It quickly becomes apparent that the people of the Sarpeidon have invented a time travel device they call the Atavachron. They’ve used it to travel back in time to escape the impending nova, and are all hiding out in the past. Leaving aside the inherent problems with changing the past and just plain fitting that many people into the population of the past (language barrier?), this makes for a very neat little plot device.
Begin Spoilers
Kirk gets separated and does a little jail time, but this is a Spock-and-Bones episode. Those two get transported into a desolate ice age and meet the lovely Zarabeth, who has been exiled there. Spock succumbs to despair (emotion!) and falls for Zarabeth (she is pretty hot), but Bones keeps up the fight and they all get home alright.
There’s some silliness in Spock “reverting” to his ancestral ways thrown in there that’s a little hand-wavy (he wasn’t Prepared; why should he be changed?), but if you can ignore that this is a great twist: it gives Bones a leading role (he’s so often the comic relief or the doomsayer), while putting Spock into a position where Nimoy can do some acting and flex the character in new ways.
End Spoilers
I liked this episode a ton. There’s a few great scenes and a few great lines, there’s an interesting set up and a good delivery of it, and there’s enough sideline mysteries that you’re left wondering a bit at the end.
Best Bit of Dialog
Kirk: Spock, are you in the library?
Spock: Indeed not; we are in a wilderness of arctic characteristics.
Bones: He means it’s cold!
Grade
B+; would be higher if not for the slight hand-waving all over the plot.
