Time travel Trek adventure proves as it often did that these stories where Kirk and the Enterprise find themselves in the past with some sort of extraordinary situation needing fixing. This time, the starship is slingshot, thanks to a black star, to 1960s Earth, found by the Air Force in the sky, considering the Enterprise a UFO. Sighted by a pilot, Captain Christopher (Roger Perry), with his plane taking pictures and recordings of the Enterprise, Kirk has no alternative but to beam him on board. A tractor beam on the plane disintegrated, so beaming Christopher on the Enterprise was his only alternative. Even worse, Kirk will need to retrieve the footage of proof of the Enterprise, and Christopher's help might be of importance. The footage is on a base. But also of importance: getting back to their own time! The Enterprise suffered damage, which Scotty will need to repair. Kirk and Sulu (nice seeing Sulu involved in the action of the plot on a planet, especially Earth) beam down to the base to get the evidence, encounter a security guard who tinkers with a communicator and is also beamed to the Enterprise! So two 1960s Earth men on board the Enterprise are privy to the future, 200 years after them! Christopher must be returned to his own Earth due to an unborn son who will be key to how the future develops, significant due to space travel.
This is fun if just because we see Kirk constantly trying to avert one time disaster after another. The Enterprise spotted, two military men seeing how the future looks like, Christopher attempting to free himself from the Enterprise, and somehow those who have proof must be returned to the time *before* they met the crew on the starship from the 23rd century. This slingshot might can be repeated using the Earth's sun, reversing what happened, but Scotty warned of possible risks if the engines react with malfunction. I reckon students of science might look at the episode with close scrutiny and balk at some of the time travel "corrections" (beaming the two Earth men who witnessed the wonders of the 23rd century exactly at specific moments before ever experiencing Kirk and company or a trip on board their ship), but I just can't resist these kinds of plots, and Trek rarely lets me down. Just the reactions of Christopher and the security guard (the soup scene for the guard seeing how the future brings food almost immediately, and Spock's comment on how he was frozen in shock are both quite funny) when seeing Spock for the first time is priceless. Nifty opening grabs you with the crew on the Bridge recovering from the slingshot which left the Enterprise with only impulse engines, having to recuperate after such a rough ride. The later effects work seeing the Enterprise in the sky of Earth is gnarly. Perry is really good, adapting to his surroundings the best he can, but determined to get back to his family and own time. Kirk contemplating "keeping" Perry on the ship, only to be undermined by Spock who informs him that doing so would be a time catastrophe, is quite a development...thankfully there is always a Trek solution when Kirk and Spock are involved.
This is fun if just because we see Kirk constantly trying to avert one time disaster after another. The Enterprise spotted, two military men seeing how the future looks like, Christopher attempting to free himself from the Enterprise, and somehow those who have proof must be returned to the time *before* they met the crew on the starship from the 23rd century. This slingshot might can be repeated using the Earth's sun, reversing what happened, but Scotty warned of possible risks if the engines react with malfunction. I reckon students of science might look at the episode with close scrutiny and balk at some of the time travel "corrections" (beaming the two Earth men who witnessed the wonders of the 23rd century exactly at specific moments before ever experiencing Kirk and company or a trip on board their ship), but I just can't resist these kinds of plots, and Trek rarely lets me down. Just the reactions of Christopher and the security guard (the soup scene for the guard seeing how the future brings food almost immediately, and Spock's comment on how he was frozen in shock are both quite funny) when seeing Spock for the first time is priceless. Nifty opening grabs you with the crew on the Bridge recovering from the slingshot which left the Enterprise with only impulse engines, having to recuperate after such a rough ride. The later effects work seeing the Enterprise in the sky of Earth is gnarly. Perry is really good, adapting to his surroundings the best he can, but determined to get back to his family and own time. Kirk contemplating "keeping" Perry on the ship, only to be undermined by Spock who informs him that doing so would be a time catastrophe, is quite a development...thankfully there is always a Trek solution when Kirk and Spock are involved.