Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 21: Tomorrow Is Yesterday [VHS]
The delightful episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is a time-travel story with an infectious blend of suspense and humor. After dropping into a black hole, theEnterpriseends up orbiting the Earth in the late 1960s and is spotted by U.S. Air Force captain Christopher (Roger Perry), who happens to be flying by in his jet. Inadvertently giving poor Christopher an unwanted glimpse into the future, and wrecking his jet with an overpowering tractor beam, Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), not having a good day, beams him aboard the Federation starship. The collision of sensibilities and reference points between characters born several centuries apart has a fresh, urgent tone that subsequentStar Trekseries have never captured (thoughDeep Space Ninecame close with its dazzling episode "Trials and Tribble-ations"). The problem, of course, is what to do about Christopher now that he knows what he knows, and history demands that he stay put in his own world: the pilot's unborn son, it seems, will one day make a space flight of historic importance. Terrifically entertaining and something of a precedent-setter forStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home(the theatrical feature set in contemporary San Francisco), "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" isTrekat its best.--Tom Keogh