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Old 03-14-2019, 12:48 PM
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I seem to have skipped "That Which Survives" back on January 24th. Oops. I'll have to do that one later.

March 14th, 1969, "All Our Yesterdays"

Fiver (by Marc)
Script
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Captain's log, Stardate 5943.7. We have calculated that Beta Niobe will go nova in approximately three and a half hours. Its only satellite, Sarpeidon, is a Class M planet, which at last report was inhabited by a civilised humanoid species. Now our instruments show that no intelligent life remains on the planet.

One, it'll be mentioned later that these people have no space travel, so where's at least a token mention of the Prime Directive? Meaningless aside, there's at least one novel that has an alien race that perfected antimatter reactors and otherwise have everything necessary to make a warp ship, but never actually invented one. The question arises, is this enough to initiate First Contact?

Two, I would never want to be anywhere near a star that is about to go nova, no matter how confident Spock is in his figures.

Three, if the sensors say nobody's down there and the sun is about to blow, leave! I don't care if it's three and a half hours or three and a half days! Scientific curiosities are not worth risking the lives of the crew!

And once again, the problem could be eliminated through dialogue WITHOUT SPENDING A CENT! Aside for Mr. Atoz, there's no reason why the sun can't go nova a few weeks from now. The ship would still want to rescue the crew, and they'd still want to get out of here ASAP just in case.

ATOZ: You, sir, what is your particular field of interest?
KIRK: What about recent history?
ATOZ: Really? Oh, that's too bad. We have so little on recent history. There was no demand for it.

Ugh. I haven't seen a library yet that doesn't keep a set of recent newspapers around just in case.

KIRK: How long till nova?
SPOCK: Three hours, thirteen minutes.

Spock is precise, so this is the time until nova. However, you have to factor in the travel time for the energy wave or whatever to reach the planet, etc. Furthermore, why isn't Spock pointing out that it would be logical to leave now that we know everyone is safe?

KIRK [OC]: Spock, are you in the library?
SPOCK: Indeed not. We're in a wilderness of arctic characteristics.
MCCOY: He means it's cold.

This joke seems a bit forced. Spock can be verbose, but this time it seems like the writer turned up the obtuseness a bit too far.

ZARABETH: It was not enough that he execute my kinsmen. Zor Kahn determined to destroy our entire family. He used the atavachron to send us places no one could ever find us.

And this is easier than simply executing her family?

JUDGE: We can never go back. We must live out our lives here in the past. The atavachron has prepared our cell structure and our brain patterns to make life natural here. To return to the future would mean instant death.
KIRK: Prepared? I was not prepared. Your Mister Atoz did not prepare me in any way.
JUDGE: Then you must get back at once! If you were not transformed, you can only survive for a few hours here in the past. Come. Hurry. Hurry.

This "preparation" bit confuses me. You're sending people to other points in history, what's there to prepare? Off the top of my head the only thing that springs to mind is altering the physiology to cope with the natural diseases of the time period, but it stands to reason that Federation medical science is advanced enough to immunize Starfleet officers to avoid this problem on alien planets already.

If the idea is instead just to install a killswitch in the body to prevent a return trip, I don't understand the "if you're unprepared and you stay, you die" bit.

KIRK: How much time before the sun blows up?
SCOTT [OC]: Seventeen minutes. You three had better come back right away.

For the sake of argument let's say that the atavachron is one of those "spend X minutes in the past, come back X minutes later than when you left" time machines. Yeah, this doesn't work given the chronology of events given so far. But of course the real question is why Mr. Atoz hung around an empty planet for over two hours when he had a chance to escape.

ZARABETH: Yes. He gave me weapons, a shelter, food. Everything I needed to live except companionship. He did not want it said that he had me killed. But to send me here alone, if that is not death, what is? A very inventive mind, that man.

Exactly, this place is a fate worse than death. And why is Zor Kahnso obsessed with his public image? I kinda thought that tyrants had lots of guns to avoid issues like that.

SPOCK: You are beautiful. More beautiful than any dream of beauty I've ever known.
(He lays her down and .... sets the scene for many fan-fictions)

We'll be covering their kid later.

MCCOY: Spock, you're reverting into your ancestors five thousand years before you were born!

Absurd science, moving on...

The Fiver

Spock: This planet's star will explode in approximately three and a half hours.
Kirk: All right -- then we'll stay on the planet for precisely three and a half hours.
McCoy: Jim, can I explain something about the word "approximately"?

Exactly!

Atoz: I sent them all to safety, one by one, in a race against time.
Kirk: How?
Atoz: In alphabetical order, of course.
McCoy: I bet that all your zekes and Zeldas were thrilled with that policy.

"Race against time" sounds like a reference to something, too bad there are a lot of things named "Race Against Time". I was also reminded of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged by this scene.

Atoz: Wait! You're not prepared!
(FZONK!)
McCoy: Jim! Spock, let's go after him!
Atoz: I said wait!
(FZONK-FZONK!)

Where did "FZONK" come from?

McCoy: Where the heck are we?
Spock: This icy wasteland resembles Rura Penthe.
McCoy: Never heard of it.
Spock: Count yourself fortunate.

I didn't know that Archer went to Rura Penthe, I also didn't know that the name is a reference to the Disney version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. The Kelvinverse won't be mentioned in detail since it were made after the fiver.

McCoy: That's a woman? How can you tell?
Spock Because I feel the stirring of my Vulcan blood.

Ew. One wonders if the pon farr was created after the age of Surak.

Kirk: Mr. Atoz's Atavachron didn't prepare me before I came here.
Prosecutor: Oh no! Then you must get back to the library immediately!
Kirk: Gladly -- but why the rush?
Prosecutor: Think "substantial fines imposed for late returns."

I'm a fan of library humor.

McCoy: I didn't know you ate chicken, Spock.
Spock: Normally not, but in the absence of steak tartare it will have to do.

So if Spock has to eat meat, he'd rather eat raw meat? I'd imagine that the ancient Vulcans would've seen the logic of cooking their meat faster than humans did.

McCoy: Spock, I'm very sorry about Zarabeth. Are you back to your usual logical self?
Spock: Of course. After all, she has been dead and buried for five thousand years.
McCoy: That's what you call logic? Buried by whom?
Spock: Uh...good question.

Zar buried her, of course.

Memory Alpha

* No appearance by Sulu, Chekov, or Uhura, and Scotty is just a voiceover. I don't like this. Frankly I would've dropped the inane Kirk-in-the-Middle-Ages plot and had the rest of the cast search for Spock and McCoy a la Past Tense. There's no reason for Mr. Atoz to stay after sending the three back, so the crew would find and use the empty library to look for Spock and McCoy.
* No interior shots of the Enterprise. Ugh.
* As SF Debris pointed out, this episode has the latest stardate in TOS.
* Only appearance of time travel affecting the mental state of time travelers. The destruction of the Intrepid is brought up. It's a somewhat terrifying thought: all Vulcans are subconsciously connected via a telepathic network and can affect each other.
* If the time portal turned off the phaser, how come McCoy's medical equipment still works?

Memory Beta

Okay, time to bring up Zar, son of Spock and Zarabeth. He appears in the novels "Yesterday's Son" and "Time For Yesterday." I won't reveal too many details as you should read the books for yourselves, but a summary: Spock uses the Guardian of Forever to go back for him, but Zar eventually goes back, albeit to the populated part of the planet. Eventually Zar becomes a benevolent sort of warlord, attempting to introduce technology and knowledge from the Enterprise to improve the lives of the people. Oh, and Spock will eventually be a grandfather!

Nitpicker's Guide

Why does Zarabeth look like this if she expected to be alone for the rest of her life?
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