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Episode
049
Return to Tomorrow
Kirk lends his body to a half-a-million-year-old being. He just wants to walk around, breathe, kiss his wife and build himself a robot body. But the half-a-million-year-old being borrowing Spock’s body has other plans. Find out what happens when we put Return to Tomorrow in the Mission Log.
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This was an episode that didn’t grab me, I think because for the most part, the action wasn’t dictated by the main characters, but rather the energy beings inhabiting them. And yes, it gave the actors a chance to flex their acting muscles, but it still felt like for the majority of the story, it was out of their characters’ metaphorical hands.
I had assumed that the android bodies they were creating, which didn’t seem all that advanced for such God like beings to conceive of, was because of what they had to work with on the Enterprise (like trying to create an IPod in a medieval workshop). But couldn’t they just upgrade themselves as and when they desired, or would they have been locked into their Version 1s forever?
(I know, I know, if they could, there’s be no story :-))
They said they’d keep making new bodies when the old ones wore out, so you’d think they could upgrade. You’d also think touch-sensors wouldn’t be so hard to make for beings as advanced as they are. But yeah, you have to buy it or there’s no story, as you say.
I found this one quite a bit out of character for Kirk… I just don’t see him allowing this to happen to his body, let alone being so excited about it. I assumed at first that he was under some influence and kept waiting for that reveal… nope. He was just really into an alien piggy-backing his body with no assurances or proof that it could or should be done safely.
One of Kirk’s strengths is his ability to read people. He actually had a mind-sharing moment while exchanging bodies with Sargon which further assured him of Sargon’s trustworthiness.
The thing that really impressed me about this episode was that it allowed them to have “guest stars” without having actual guest actors. Well, apart from the Woman of the Week. But after watching the episode, I really felt like I’d seen three extra characters, even though two of them were played by regular cast members.
By the way, where was Nurse Chapel’s consciousness while Spock’s consciousness was in her body??
They both shared her body, so Spock really was all up in it.