CAPTAIN KIRK GIVES HIS BEST SPEECH AND AN ALIEN USES HIS BODY AS A TAXI

 

Episode Title:  Return to Tomorrow

Air Date: 2/9/1968

Written by John T. Dugan and Gene Roddenberry  

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Sargon    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock and Henoch             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” and the Voice of Sargon       Diana Muldaur as Dr. Ann Mulhall and  Thalassa                  George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Mike Howden as Lieutenant Rowe        Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley      Cindy Lou as unnamed Nurse       Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Jeannie Malone as unnamed Nurse       Eddie Paskey as unnamed security guard                

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Sargon’s unnamed Homeworld

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has received a strange message from an unknown source compelling them to head to a particular set of coordinates in space.  The information they needed was already entered into their systems without any of the bridge crew having to touch anything.  The whole thing is making the Captain quite a bit nervous.   As they arrive at their destination Mr. Spock observes that they have come across a planet that was once like Earth but its atmosphere was stripped away in nuclear war. 

At this point a booming voice is heard on the bridge.  According to Lt. Uhura it is not coming from any of the communication frequencies.  The voice identified himself as Sargon.  He explains that he is thousands of years old and has been waiting for someone to come along who he could communicate with.  He asks the Captain to come see him on the planet and gives the Enterprise coordinates that, according to Mr. Spock’s readings, is an underground cavern with air that humans could survive in.  Given their primary mission is exploring the unknown Kirk decides to lead a team but wants Spock to stay behind because he does not want to risk both of them.  (This is odd because that concern never stopped them before.)  However as soon as Kirk turns to leave the power of the ship goes out causing Kirk to reconsider this position and have Spock come along.  With that the power has been restored.

Kirk trying to explain the experience!

As Kirk and Spock enter the transporter room Mr. Scott and Dr. McCoy are waiting for them with the rest of the landing party.  The rest of the team consists of Dr. Mulhall and two security guards.  Dr. Mulhall doesn’t realize how she was assigned to the landing party just that she was, which Spock assumes is also the work Sargon.  Kirk doesn’t even know who Mulhall is.  (That is odd and I will talk about that more in the additional thoughts section.)  Scotty is not happy about a transporter seeming to program itself.  McCoy is naturally apprehensive as he doesn’t like transporters under normal circumstances.   The two red shirts are among the luckiest to wear that color because the transporter run by Sargon doesn’t take them at all.  

The four that made it down are fine and they find out that Sargon, who earlier claim to have been dead, is a bodiless consciousness whose entire essence is contained in an orb.  He explains that his species seeded the galaxy long ago and that they are Sargon’s people’s descendants.  Kirk and Mulhall somewhat doubt this and Sargon acknowledges he could be wrong but they should just agree to disagree.  Myself, I think gives a good explanation to why we keep finding duplicate Earths everywhere they go.  Kirk also points out that unlike Sargon’s people Earth never wiped itself out with nuclear weapons.  Sargon says they survived their early nuclear age as well but started to fight amongst themselves when they assumed the power of gods.

Kirk taken

Kirk’s body suddenly jerks and when he speaks he is speaking with an amplified voice like Sargon.  It becomes very apparent that it is now Sargon controlling Kirk’s body.  This causes McCoy to freak out and threaten Sargon/Kirk with a phaser.  Spock points out to him the uselessness of that action.   Sargon explains that it is now Kirk’s consciousness in the orb but Kirk’s mind hasn’t the power to communicate out.  He then leads them to a room with two more functioning orbs and a bunch of broken ones.  Sargon explains that these are the survivors of the final conflict 500,000 years ago.  Members of the both sides of the conflict were preserved but only two survivors besides himself.  The additional survivors are Sargon’s wife and a member of the other side.  Her name is Thalassa and his is Henoch.

Sargon explains that they just need to borrow three bodies for a temporary period of time while they use them to build android bodies that would act as more permanent vessels.  The three individuals Kirk, Spock, and Mulhall were selected because they are the most compatible.  However Sargon needs to get Kirk back into his body because McCoy points out to him that he is overheating Kirk’s physical self. When Kirk is restored he is rather philosophic about the whole experience which he thought was beautiful.  McCoy thinks that response is insane considering how Sargon pulled his mind out his body and placed it into a bottle while he used Kirk’s body and almost destroyed it.  However Kirk is fully convinced of Sargon’s sincerity and wants to help him.

Survivors of a forgotten war!

Kirk holds a senior officers meeting onboard ship and Scotty is just as much against this as Dr. McCoy.   The three people who are most in favor are the three selectees.  That is I suppose a good thing since it is going be their bodies.  Kirk announces that he doesn’t want to order he wants consensus.  So Kirk then gives the speech of his career that will be played on most Star Trek reunion shows, on Star Trek fan webpages, and few times on YouTube.  With Kirk’s great speech given it is decided to go ahead. To sweeten the deal Sargon will give Starfleet access to their technology that will cause them to leap frog ahead hundreds of thousands of years. 

They undergo the procedure which is quite painless.  Henoch wakes up in Spock’s body and immediately hits on Nurse Chapel, which must have made her very happy.  Thalassa wakes up and starts looking for Sargon who calls over to her in the body of Captain Kirk.   Henoch starts gloating about how awesome Spock’s body is with all its Vulcan abilities and wonders why the Vulcans haven’t conquered the humans long ago.  McCoy tells Henoch that the Vulcans are a people of peace.  Henoch brushes McCoy off and suggests to Sargon that he get to work on the sermon that will allow them to use these bodies for a longer period of time.  As the human bodies start to overheat again, Sargon agrees and Henoch gets to work with Nurse Chapel assisting him. 

Same old married couple with two new bodies

When Henoch prepares the hyprosprays with the formula to allow the entities to use the host bodies for a prolonged period of time, he hands each hyprospray to Nurse Chapel with instructions on who each was for.  Chapel notices that the one meant for Kirk/Sargon is the exact opposite of what he should be getting.  That is when Henoch pronounces that he has no intention of surrendering Spock’s body back to him and his attention to kill Kirk/Sargon.   Before Chapel can protest Henoch takes control of her using Spock’s mind meld abilities combined with his own powers.

Sargon and Thalassa are now back in their host bodies and getting to work.  Thalassa begins work on the artificial bodies they plan to live in and Scotty tries to pick her brain about their technology but is chased off when Henoch enters the room.  He teases her about how their new bodies would not be able to feel and he suggests to her that they should appeal to keep these bodies as a price for how they will advance the Federation’s technologically.  She rejects him but is clearly tempted. 

He is a bad man!

Sargon is more thinking in a half-glass full fashion.  Despite bodies that can’t feel they however are able to move among the living and that is something to look forward to.  While they are working he starts to feel sick as Henoch’s sabotaged formula is actually making him weaker.  Sargon tries to work through it but he collapses.  McCoy comes in only to find that the Captain has died and he no Jim to tell.  The Doctor does manage to revive the body however it is now seemingly mindless and they have no idea how to get Kirk back into it.   

An attempt of seduction 

Back in the lab Henoch torments Thalassa by showing her the android body that she will occupy.  The body is genderless but Henoch lets her know that they can add feminine features to the body once they get it working.  This causes Thalassa to snap and she comes to the conclusion that she wants to keep the body that she is in.  She confronts Dr. McCoy about it and tries to argue that she should be allowed to keep the body given all that she will do to help humanity.  McCoy, correctly guessing that Thalassa is trying to get him to give her his approval so she can relieve herself of some of the burden of stealing the form, proclaims to Thalassa that he doesn’t “pedal in flesh.”

Sargon?

Upon receiving McCoy’s objection Thalassa reacts with anger and uses her powers to cause pain on Dr. McCoy.  However she quickly feels guilty, relents, and asks for McCoy’s forgiveness as she lets him go.  With that she hears Sargon’s voice, he explains that he has developed powers that Henoch is not aware of.  He left Kirk's body and went into the Enterprise itself! He wanted to be sure that Thalassa would not give in to Henoch’s offer, seeing as they have been disembodied for so long he understood her temptation. 

Thalassa summons Nurse Chapel and dismisses Dr. McCoy letting him know that Sargon has a plan.  An explosion occurs in sick bay causing McCoy to come running back only to find Nurse Chapel leaving looking very determined.  When he enters he finds that the orbs have been destroyed and Kirk and Mulhall have been restored to their bodies.  McCoy then asks about Spock to which Kirk informs him that he is dead.  Now they have to kill Henoch in Spock’s body and Kirk orders Dr. McCoy’s whip up a batch of enough poison in one hyprospray to kill ten Vulcans. 

Powers are useful to cover up evil

As they enter the bridge Henochis now seems virtually unstoppable.  He shuts Kirk and McCoy down with his powers quickly but ignores Chapel assuming she is under his control.  She isn’t and she hits him with the hyprospray.  Henoch is angry and tries to escape from Spock’s body and into another but his escapes attempt is foiled by Sargon.  Henoch is now completely defeated and vanishes into oblivion. 

Seemingly unbeatable

It turns out it wasn’t poison but they were all tricked into thinking it was so Henoch wouldn’t read their minds and know that Spock’s body wasn’t dying and have no need to abandon it.  Spock’s consciousness was in Nurse Chapel’s body with her.  With Henoch chased out Spock is now himself again.  Sargon and Thalassa have decided to embrace oblivion but ask for one last moment together physically.  Kirk and Mulhall lend their bodies for the moment.  They then seem shocked when they discover themselves embracing when they wake up.  So ends a conflict that started 500,000 years before any of the crew of the Enterprise were born. 

All good in the end!

Additional thoughts: Last week we meet the Kelvans, advanced aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy that could freeze people in place with a touch of a button.  They claim to be our complete superiors but their ship broke up entering the Milky Way so they need to take ours so they can get home.  Today we meet Sargon and his people, who claim to be completely superior with powers we can barely comprehend.  However they can’t put things together in their present state so in order to build themselves a new home they need to borrow our bodies for a little while.  Last week the Enterprise needs to provide the taxi service and this week human and Vulcan bodies do.  What is it with aliens who think they are so damn superior but they always need to try to hitch a ride?  I think they should be a little more humble. 

We are superior! Can we have a lift? 

I don’t really why they needed the bodies to begin with.  If they can reprogram a transporter at will and give hypnotic suggestions to people light years away why can’t they find a way to use their powers to construct what they needed?  Maybe there is just some fine toning that requires a real steady hand and they don’t trust anyone but themselves?

It seems that the actual moral of this story is: “if you are in a nuclear war don’t invite anyone from the other side in to your survival chamber.”  Sargon says Henoch was one of those from “the other side” and look who turns out to be the bad guy!  In a half million years he still hasn’t learned anything.  If you are going to destroy your whole planet in a nasty war going out of your way to include those from the other side in your survival chamber seems to miss the point of the war to begin with.  Next time remember to be a little more selfish. 

So if they were unsatisfied with the artificial bodies that they are about to build seeing as they won’t be aesthetically pleasing and will lack ability to feel, why don’t Sargon and friends have the Enterprise bring them to the planet Mudd.   The androids there are remarkably good at building android bodies that can not only house a natural intelligence that are also beautiful and can experience the full spectrum of human senses.   They are also more practical with Sargon and company can only build an android to last a thousand years, while the androids of planet Mudd can go on for 500,000 years.  That is 499 less times you need to build a new body to transfer your intelligence into.  Now to be fair we only hear the three talk about their android building skills with themselves, so it might have been possible that the crew Enterprise was not aware of how much Sargon’s android-making skills suck in comparisons with those of planet Mudd.  Therefor they would have no reason to tell the strangers.  I had little bit of a hard time watching realizing that such an obvious solution was staring them right in the face.

Not that good at making androids!

We are good!

How did Kirk not know who Mulhall was?  I realize it’s a big ship and it’s unlikely that he has every single crew member memorized especially if they just joined at the last starbase.  However she is a lieutenant commander.  The same rank held by McCoy and Scotty.  That alone puts her very high on the ship’s hierarchy.  I thought it was odd when he didn’t know who Ensign Garrovick was but such a high ranking officer I find very improbable.  As Hitchcock says it is easier to believe the impossible than the improbable.     

Speaking of Mulhall what is the purpose of her character?  The show has plenty of characters who aren’t being over used.  Wouldn’t have been better to have the character’s actions be done by Lt. Uhura?  I find it odd when we get to meet members of the crew who are some cases are really interesting in other cases they are there to fill out a story plot point, but then we never see them again.  There was Dr. Helen Noel from interesting character from Dagger of the Mind that I wish we got to see more of.  Then there were characters such as Ensign Garrovick from Obsession, who has such a personal connection to Captain Kirk but then we never get to see him again.  Wouldn’t it have been better if instead of creating the character of Ensign Garrovick we learn instead that Kirk had served under Chekov’s father?  Then the regular actor that you already have in Ensign Chekov will have that personal connection to Captain Kirk that is ongoing.  In this episode you can have given the Mulhall role to Uhrua and give Nichelle Nichols something more interesting to do.  The interracial kiss could have come one year earlier and with a better reason. 

This has to be the best McCoy episode yet.  Deforest Kelley always said McCoy’s role was to be the normal person on the ship.  In this episode we see it.  I love how he needs to slap some sense into Captain Kirk and explain that “No, it’s not a good thing that an alien mind took of your body and nearly killed you."  His sarcastic “happens every day” to Kirk explaining what a normal thing mind transference is was priceless.

 FINAL GRADE  4 of 5