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Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E26 S6E1 "Time's Arrow" » Recap

Original air date: June 15, 1992 (Part I), September 21, 1992 (Part II)

The Enterprise is called back to Earth to investigate an unusual artifact in San Francisco, an ancient pocket watch and Data's head, apparently left untouched for five centuries. While examining it, Geordi notes that it has a microscopic life form on it native only to the planet of Devidia II. Picard sets a course to investigate. On the way there, the crew grapple with the apparent revelation that Data will at some point travel back in time to the 19th century and die. Data, however, is comforted that his life will have a conclusion, like any other life form.

At Devidia II, Picard orders an away team down to investigate some temporal disturbances. Troi detects invisible human life forms in the caverns. In spite of Picard's best efforts to exclude him, Data is needed to complete the survey. Data uses some Applied Phlebotinum to phase himself to where the humans are. He describes reptilian aliens feeding on the humans' energy near a trapped "ophidian" (a snake). But then Data gets caught in a temporal distortion opened by the aliens and stops communicating.

Data awakens in 19th century San Francisco, which is in the midst of a cholera outbreak. Convincing the locals that he is a Frenchman to excuse his strange outfit and mannerisms, he quickly sets about building a temporal device using the money he earns from playing poker. He spots Guinan's picture in the paper and rushes to meet her at an event she's attending with Samuel Clemens. Data assumes that she's traveled back to meet him, but she's actually just her 500-year-younger self. As they discuss the future, they realize that Clemens has been listening to their entire conversation, blowing Data's cover. Meanwhile, on the Enterprise , the crew prepare to use their own phlebotinum to jump back in time to rescue Data. Guinan tells Picard in no uncertain terms that he must go back in time as well, or else he and she will never meet.

At the beginning of part 2, we have Clemens trying to spread word about time travelers in their midst as Data and Guinan go about their temporal business. Meanwhile, two Devidians are lurking in the neighborhood sucking the life force from the vulnerable population. The Enterprise away team has established themselves as an acting troupe as they look for signs of Data and the Devidians. They quickly deduce that the Devidians are using the cholera outbreak as a cover for their life-sucking.

The Devidians arrive at the hospital where Crusher is staking out, and she summons the crew back for a big brawl. They drive off the Devidians and steal their snake-topped cane, which is some sort of temporal device. The brawl attracts the police, and they're chased away, but the temporal disturbances have alerted Data, and he arrives just in time to spirit them to safety. Guinan meets Picard for the first time, and he assures her that they will become "more than friends." The united group studies the cane and realizes that it can return them to their time if they get back to the temporally anomalous cave. They all depart, not realizing that Clemens is in hot pursuit.

In the caverns, Clemens tries to arrest the group for interfering with the timeline, but the Devidians arrive and attack. Data and a Devidian fight over the cane, which emits a blast of energy that blows Data's head off. A temporal gate back to Devidia II opens, through which one of the Devidian escapes. The crew follows, along with Clemens, leaving Picard behind with the unconscious Guinan, one injured Devidian, and Data's head. Picard questions the Devidian and learns that if the crew attacks their cavern in the 24th century, it will destroy the Earth through the temporal connection. Picard uses an iron filing to adjust Data's positronic brain to send a message into the future.

Clemens arrives in the 24th century and reclaims his pocket watch. When he's beamed aboard the Enterprise , he's amazed but horrified, assuming that militarism and the enslavement of other species now reign, while simple pleasures like cigars and chivalry are forgotten. Troi explains how the 24th century is actually pretty amazing, which eases Clemens's concerns. Meanwhile, Geordi tries to reattach Data's 500-year-old head to his body but has trouble. Eventually he finds and removed the iron filing from Data's head. When Data comes back online, he relates Picard's message to not attack the Devidians. Geordi has Riker call off their impending attack just in time.

• Accidental Misnaming : Mrs. Carmichael calls Picard "Mr. Pick-erd".
• Apologetic Attacker : Riker tells the suspicious policeman he has the utmost respect for the law, then lays him out with a haymaker.
• Jack London never worked as a bellhop, Samuel Clemens was actually touring Europe during the time the story takes place, and there's isn't any evidence that the two men ever met each other.
• Dr. Crusher declares that a large-scale cholera outbreak is unlikely on the grounds that the disease "just isn't that virulent." While person-to-person transmission is rare, cholera has historically been transmitted by contaminated drinking water caused by inadequate, unsanitary water infrastructure; large-scale but fairly-localized outbreaks were common (including in late nineteenth-century San Francisco). Perhaps they were all caused by the aliens?
• The writers also seem to be thinking of cholera as a respiratory disease. When Jack the bellboy clears his throat because Data hasn't given him a tip yet, Data advises him to watch his cough because of the epidemic. However, coughing isn't a symptom of cholera, which is an intestinal disease and more likely to cause diarrhea and vomiting. The symptoms are actually closer to tuberculosis.
• Bad "Bad Acting" : The landlady stumbles through a line as Titania, which the crew hails as acting genius to get into her good graces.
• Bilingual Bonus : When Data says he's French, one of the gamblers speaks to him in it, and Data replies. Both of their dialogue is left untranslated. What the gambler says is his parents came from Burgundy, while he was born in New Orleans. Data then comments that they're almost brothers, and also he is new in town.
• Bluff the Eavesdropper : Data says that one of his components is toxic when in contact with human skin, causing Twain, who nicked the component and was hiding in the wardrobe, to reveal himself — though in this case, Data probably wasn't lying and didn't know Twain was hiding there.
• Twain attempts this on Data. He fails.
• Likewise when Data pretends to be a Frenchman, one of the gamblers talks to him in French. Presumably because of his Omniscient Database , Data can speak it fluently.
• Book Ends : The two-parter begins with the discovery of Data's dismembered head in the present. And the two-parter ends with a shot of Data's dismembered head in the past.
• Guinan had earlier stated that a bald man was kind to her once. Here the camera brings special attention to Picard taking off his hat after he saves her.
• When Guinan asks if they're friends in the future, Picard says that what they have goes beyond friendship .
• When Clemens follows the crew to the future and onto the ship, Riker calls security. Clemens asks if Riker's afraid he'll go around stealing things. The last time traveler they hosted did precisely that.
• Data's definition of friendship, as quoted by Troi to Riker, is drawn verbatim from the episode " Legacy " (although Troi wasn't present in the scene where he said it, we can assume he must have said the same thing to the counselor at some point).
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject : Lampshaded by Data, who says people have a habit of changing their conversations when he enters a room after finding about his "death" — just as Riker and Troi just did. If he had his emotion chip installed, one would get the impression he was getting annoyed at it. Troi certainly gets that impression, and apologizes for being rude.
• Chekhov's Skill : Data puts all of his "poker night" skills to good use.
• Cliffhanger : Season 5 ends with Picard leading the rest of the crew through the time vortex.
• Cool Shades : Geordi has to switch his VISOR out for a pair of these as part of his nineteenth-century disguise. They even have decorative elements on the frames that conceal the blinking red lights on his temples.
• Conqueror from the Future : Mark Twain believes Data is this trope.
• Dark World : The Devidians' 'out of temporal phase' state is treated like this.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance : Due to some Politically Correct History , the only acknowledgement of racism in the 19th century is when the police officer takes the ophidian cane from Geordi and suspiciously notes that it's a "gentleman's" cane.
• Didn't See That Coming : After seeing the photo of Guinan in the newspaper, Data sought her out under the belief she had also traveled back in time somehow. He never expected her past self to have previously visited Earth.
• Discovering Your Own Dead Body / Eerily Out-of-Place Object : The plot is kicked off by finding Data's 500 years deceased head in San Francisco, but he's not actually upset by this — his prior uncertainty over how or even if he would die was apparently concerning to him, and he finds comfort in knowing that he won't simply keep outliving his friends for eternity .
• Disposable Vagrant : The Devidians travel to 19th century San Francisco because the cholera outbreak makes it easy to pick off a number of people without arousing any suspicion. The drunk that Data encountered shortly after arriving is the first example we see.
• "Eureka!" Moment : Since Data has no money and the hotel doesn't need anyone to perform odd jobs, Jack tells him he can't stay. At that moment, a man passes by, and Jack remarks the guy's been losing at poker for weeks. Data immediately realizes how he can get a hotel room.
• Evil Gloating : When Picard tells the injured Devidian that his people will destroy their habitat in the future to protect Earth, she tells him — with obvious relish — that they will simply destroy their own world by doing so. This backfires, though, as Picard is able to send the crew a warning via Data's head.
• Fish out of Temporal Water : Data and the rest of the crew acclimates pretty quickly to the 19th century. Data uses his poker earnings to establish a headquarters and begin building advanced technology. The rest of the crew manage to pass themselves off as locals, though they're reduced to some chicanery to make up for their lack of cash.
• Fling a Light into the Future : Picard encodes a message on Data's head using an iron filing to tap it out in binary code.
• Foreshadowing : Early on, when Geordi tells Guinan about Data's head being found in the cavern, her reaction hints that she knows more about this than she's letting on. As Geordi leaves, she murmurs to herself, " Full circle. "
• Funny Foreigner : Data is assumed to be a Frenchman due to his odd appearance, despite having no accent. He decides to run with it. A policeman also calls him albino due to his very pale skin.
• Genre Savvy : The senior crew not falling for the usual Fish out of Temporal Water obstacles unlike their predecessors or contemporaries is quite refreshing.
• Grandfather Paradox : The Enterprise almost unleashes one until Data stops it—Riker was planning to destroy the Devidian base with photon torpedoes, unaware that the explosion would propagate through the time portal and end up destroying 19th-century Earth.
• Have We Met Yet? : Picard and Guinan. This is the ultimate outcome of some Foreshadowing in an earlier episode where Guinan said she had known Picard for a long time.
• Historical Hero Upgrade : The young Jack London does not display the racist attitudes that the real Jack London would be known for later in life.
• In 1893, while putting up monitors in gaslights, Picard tells a guard it's to proof them against earthquakes. The guard scoffs at the notion of an earthquake in San Francisco — since the last one hit almost 30 years prior — but 13 years later...
• A brief one when Clemens is brought up to the Enterprise and asks if they've ever spotted Halley's Comet. Clemens was in fact born exactly two weeks after the comet appeared in the sky in 1835. He wrote in his autobiography that he hoped to die the next time it was sighted, and did so in 1910, the day after the comet passed by Earth once again.
• Bellhop Jack London mentions going to Alaska.
• Hope Spot : Picard asks if the severed head is somehow Lore's, but Data rules this out immediately.
• How They Treat the Help : While it takes some prompting for Data to understand, as he's from an era where money has been made obsolete, he pays a dollar as a tip to Jack, which is like tipping $100 today. He also lets him keep the change when buying the materials he needs.
• Hustling the Mark : Jack chuckles at Data "pretending" to be a French moron and hustling three of the biggest card sharks in San Francisco. Of course, the poor sharks had no idea they were dealing with someone who can count cards better than any organic being, has the ultimate poker face, and can stack a deck without anyone realizing it. Riker might be able to win against Data consistently (and in fairness, Data doesn't cheat when playing friends), but for these Old West hustlers, Data represents an Outside-Context Problem .
• I Am One of Those, Too : In the past, Riker poses as a policeman. He tries to bluff a real policeman by saying he just transferred from downtown, only to learn that the cop actually works downtown.
• In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous : Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain ) gets involved, and the hotel bellboy turns out to be Jack London .
• Inflation Negation : Data tips Jack $1. In 2019 money, Data gave Jack almost $30. No wonder Jack immediately offers his services to anything Data wanted.
• It Will Never Catch On : At one point, Jack asks Data if he thinks there's really money in "horseless carriages."
• Just One Second Out of Sync : The Devidians in the present exist slightly out of sync with the rest of reality — mere fractions of a second — which is enough to completely conceal them from everyone else. The psychic residue of the humans they've been harvesting bleeds through, however, and the crew techs up a device to shift themselves.
• The Main Characters Do Everything : While Data getting sent to the past was an accident, it's the rest of the senior staff (save Worf) who willingly go back. It's just as well, as Twain's reaction to seeing Worf is to exclaim "Werewolf!" Meanwhile, Guinan instructs Picard to go to maintain a Stable Time Loop .
• Mayfly–December Friendship : When Data's head is found among 20th century relics on Earth, the crew attempt to comfort him about his destruction. Rather than being morose about this, Data is delighted that he will have a "death," as his expected longevity means that so many of his friends in Starfleet will have lived and died that he will be unable to remember them all properly; whereas having only a limited few close friends means that Data can cherish them much more dearly.
• Newspaper Dating : Data does this to tell both where and when he is.
• Of Corset Hurts : It's never explicitly brought up, but in a subtle touch, Troi and Crusher both uncomfortably feel their sides while dressed in period costume.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome : Data sits down at a poker table with the most disreputable-looking bunch of 19th-Century gamblers you've ever seen, trades his communicator for a three-dollar entry fee, and starts dealing. Data's next scene is returning to his room with period-appropriate clothing and a briefcase full of cash, with young bellhop Jack in tow, gazing at him in admiration. It's worth noting that Data can stack the deck faster than the eye can see , and they did let him deal. Under the circumstances, it's plain to see how the mark became the hustler .
• Oireland : Mrs. Carmichael has a nice, thick Oirish accent.
• Politically Correct History : Guinan (a Human Alien who is played by Whoopi Goldberg and thus is indistinguishable from a human of African descent) is depicted as a wealthy and popular socialite in 1893 who goes to parties with white people who don't seem to have a single problem with her. Her fond interactions with Mark Twain make more sense, as he was a huge backer of Civil Rights for women and African-Americans. In addition, San Francisco was more tolerant than the rest of the United States... of everyone except Asians. Furthermore, Guinan, an El-Aurian, may be using More than Mind Control to assuage any prejudices towards her, too.
• Ragnarök Proofing : Data's head is found to still be in working condition after about half a millennium underground, with a postmortem-programmed message still recorded and intact inside. Which was programmed using an iron filing. Not only was the head still working, it was returned to service and seems none the worse for its advanced age, throughout the remainder of the series and movies!
• Really 700 Years Old : Guinan looks no different in 1893 than she does in 2368. However, she does act like a teenager who used her parents' car without permission when she thinks Data is sent from her father.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness : Data has trouble communicating with Jack the bellhop because of his unnecessarily complicated language. He repeatedly refers to the snake creature as an "ophidian."
• Sharp-Dressed Man : Data looks rather spiffing in 19th Century threads.
• Data explains his odd appearance and behavior by claiming to be French, which is also the excuse of the Coneheads .
• Picard tells their landlady in the past that they are a theater troupe working on a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream , which is appropriate since that play has a subplot about a poor, sketchy theater troupe working on a play.
• Clemens notes that he's familiar with time travel and has written a novel about it, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court . He suspects that the time travelers are up to as much mischief as his own character.
• Sickbed Slaying : The two Devidians are disguised as a doctor and a nurse, allowing them to claim victims laid up in hospitals in addition to those they find in isolated areas outside. Beverly interrupting one such attempt is what leads to the crew claiming the cane.
• Picard leaves the watch behind, along with the other artifacts they discovered at the start of the episode.
• Clemens is about to take his watch with him, but after realizing it was found in the cave hundreds of years later, he puts it back down. The way he acts about it has the air of someone leaving a souvenir for newly made friends.
• The crew also leave Data's head behind. Data now wears his original head, five centuries older than the rest of him. Guinan: (looking at Data's head) What's that? Picard: (knowing smile) It's history... fulfilling itself.
• Guinan instructs Picard to go on the away mission before all of this. She even smiles and murmurs, "Full circle" when finding out about the mission.
• Data's head stays hidden in the mine for five hundred years.
• Picard's farewell to Guinan. She says "See you in a few hundred years", and Picard muses for him it'll only be a few minutes.
• Stock Footage : An establishing shot of Starfleet Academy is recycled from " The First Duty ".
• True Companions : The two-parter focuses a good bit on Picard and Guinan's friendship, and Data's with the rest of the Enterprise crew.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting : Geordi predicts that the Devidians are shapeshifters, and he's correct. They pass themselves off as severe-looking humans in San Francisco.
• Surprisingly, Data doesn't, though for two good reasons. One, he doesn't want to outlive his friends, and two, mortality brings him closer to his goal of being human. He does mention how some people would think that Living Forever Is Awesome .
• When Picard wishes he had time to talk more with Twain, Twain smiles and tells him to read his books - everything he is is in them (hinting at Twain's "immortality").
• Wild Card Excuse : The answer to any question about Data's strange appearance is that he's a Frenchman. Everyone immediately understands (it helps that he can speak French as fluently as English). This may double as a Shout-Out to The Coneheads .
• Write What You Know : In-Universe , Jack pesters Mark Twain to collaborate on a writing project. He then mentions he's going to Alaska, and Mark quickly gives him this advice, though mostly to get Jack off his back (Jack takes his advice ).
• You Can't Fight Fate : Data tells this to Picard. Regardless, Picard still wants to give it a try. It goes about as well as you'd expect .
• Young Future Famous People : The bellhop turns out to be Jack London . Samuel Clemens ( Mark Twain ), however, is already famous at the time.

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Data finds out the date.

After a temporal distortion causes Data to wake up on an unexpected street he finds a newspaper to confirm when and where he's traveled.

Example of: Newspaper Dating

• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E25 "The Inner Light"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E2 "Realm of Fear"

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How Did Data Die On Star Trek & How Did He Return?

The character of Data, played by Brent Spiner, is one of the most beloved in the "Star Trek" franchise. Fans adored the android and his constant confusion with the behavior of organic lifeforms. His plotlines spanned the gamut from hilarious to deeply philosophical, which is why it was so heartbreaking when he met his end with a heroic sacrifice in "Star Trek: Nemesis." Shockingly, the character appeared to return in "Star Trek: Picard," with Spiner returning for all three seasons. But the truth of Data's return is much more complicated than it seems.

As mentioned, Data's first demise came at the end of 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis." With a Romulan praetor, Shinzon ( Tom Hardy ) about to unleash a doomsday weapon on the Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) boarded his ship, the Scimitar, to destroy the generator powering it. Meanwhile, because the transporters were damaged, Data physically leapt from the Enterprise to the Scimitar and made his way to the room where Picard and Shinzon were fighting, arriving just in time to find Shinzon impaled by a spiky beam from the ship's walls. Knowing that the destruction of the generator would blow up the Scimitar, Data pinned an emergency transporter to Picard's lapel and sent him back to the Enterprise, then fired at the generator, sacrificing himself.

For eighteen years, Data remained canonically deceased. Then, in 2020, Brent Spiner returned as the character for "Star Trek: Picard," but it took him all three seasons of the series to finally return to the physical world once more.

Data's Nemesis death was undone with a twisty Picard plot

Brent Spiner returned to "Star Trek" for all three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard," but Data's return was a complicated one. During the events of "Star Trek: Nemesis," the prototype android B-4 was discovered — the third of Noonian Soong's (Brent Spiner) prototypes along with Data's evil brother Lore — and Data copied his consciousness into its positronic net, though the transfer was unsuccessful. Some years after the events of that film, a catastrophic attack by unknown synthetic lifeforms caused the Federation to issue a total ban on synthetic life, as we learn in the pilot episode of "Picard." Unknown to anyone, Data's consciousness lived on in B-4, which was stored at the Daystrom Institute.

Picard died in the two-part finale of "Picard" Season 1, and his own consciousness was transferred to a synthetic body. In the process of being uploaded, Picard encountered Data's consciousness, which still survived inside the remains of B-4. Data asked his old friend to terminate the program and kill him for good, which Picard did. However, Noonian Soong's son, Altan (Brent Spiner) soon began work on a new android that would combine the traits of Data and Lore. The nefarious Section 31 confiscated the prototype and stored it at Daystrom Station. When Picard and his friends boarded the station in "Picard" Season 3, they found the prototype and discovered the Data and Lore sides of it were in conflict. Data ultimately defeated Lore, warring inside the positronic net, and was himself once more, but this time with the emotions he'd always wanted. He returned to the Enterprise to serve again.

Spiner may not return to the "Star Trek" universe again, but he and fans can both rest assured that Data lives on.

Screen Rant

Why data is so important to picard (despite not being close on tng).

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34 Years Later, Star Trek's Most Disappointing TNG Character Exit Still Hurts

Why star trek: the next generation's enterprise had a rarely-seen second bridge, recasting star trek: the next generation for a movie reboot.

Commander Data (Brent Spiner) is a pivotal figure in Star Trek: Picard , and here's why Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) feels so close to the late android, despite how different their relationship was in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Some Trekkers take issue with the way the CBS All-Access series portrays Picard and Data's past relationship; after all, they didn't seem that close in  TNG , so it comes off as confusing (or even as a retcon) that Star Trek: Picard portrays Data as so influential in Jean-Luc's life that the  retired Admiral even dreams about the android. However, there are a lot of aspects regarding Data and Picard's relationship - and how close the two Starfleet heroes grew during the TNG movies - that explain Jean-Luc's love of Data in Star Trek: Picard.

It's true that on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Picard and Data weren't best buddies. In those early years aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Captain Picard was an aloof figure who held himself apart from his senior staff, despite his trust in and fondness for all of them. While the rest of the bridge crew spent time together (usually with regular poker games), the Captain preferred solitude with a book and a cup of hot earl grey tea. On TNG , Picard was often exasperated with Data's verbosity, despite his obvious respect for the android. Jean-Luc certainly relied upon Data and he helped secure the android's individual rights in the classic TNG episode "Measure of a Man". For his part, Data regarded Picard as a mentor and respected him as his commanding officer, but they weren't best friends like Data was with Commander Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton). So it's understandable if Trekkers feel confused by how Star Trek: Picard paints Data as someone the former Admiral has mourned for 20 years.

Related: Star Trek: Picard's Big TNG Twist Explained

However, things changed and relationships evolved between the TNG  characters , especially during their four movies from 1994 to 2002. It's worth remembering that Star Trek: The Next Generation 's TV voyages lasted 7 years, but the crew was together for 15 years total. That means that after the Enterprise-D was destroyed in Star Trek Generations , the TNG crew was on the Enterprise-E for 8 years - even longer than fans saw on TV. But since Trekkers only saw TNG 's cast four times during those eight years, we missed how their relationships shifted since much of it is presumed to have happened off-screen. In the movies, Picard's character also changed; the Captain became a more proactive hero (to suit being the hero of a movie franchise) and Data essentially became the second lead character so the TNG movies could replicate the Kirk/Spock dynamic. So, both on-screen and off, Data and Picard got a lot closer during the TNG movies.

The key moments that redefined Picard's relationship with Data happened in Star Trek: First Contact and in Star Trek: Nemesis . In their time-travel adventure against the Borg, Picard and Data teamed up to kill the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) and this shared crisis they overcame together sparked a new dynamic between them. Jean-Luc then risked his life without hesitation to stop Data from going rogue at the start of Star Trek Insurrection . By Star Trek: Nemesis , the new dynamic between Captain and android was crystalized and Picard handpicked Data to be his new Number One when Captain Riker (Jonathan Frakes) left to take command of the U.S.S. Titan. And, of course, Data sacrificed his life to save Picard and the Enterprise from Shinzon (Tom Hardy) at the end of Nemesis . Naturally, Picard never recovered from the loss of the android, whom he had come to love as a true friend.

Once fans remember that Data and Picard's relationship goes back over 35 years and the loyal android literally gave up his life for his captain, it's easy to understand the aged Jean-Luc's deep affection for Data, whom he described to Data's 'daughter' Dahj (Isa Briones) as "all courage" . So it's not accurate or beneficial to only judge Data and Picard's friendship based on their TV voyages. Rather,  Star Trek: Picard draws upon the whole scope of the decades-long relationship between Picard and Data, especially the bond they forged in the TNG movies.

Next: Star Trek: Picard Debunks B-4 Theory (But Could Data Return?)

Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.

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Published Jan 18, 2014

Remembering "Datalore" 26 Years Later

Do you remember where you were on January 18, 1988? If you were a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan at the time, odds are you were watching the debut of “ Datalore ,” season one’s 13th episode. It was a vital TNG hour, and for several reasons. It, of course, introduced the character of Lore, Data’s “evil twin,” with Brent Spiner doing double duty as both Data and Lore. It was the last episode written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. It was the fourth of 13 TNG episodes directed by Rob Bowman and is considered both one of his best efforts and one of the show’s most memorable outings.

StarTrek.com caught up with Spiner and Bowman recently for separate “Datalore”-specific interviews. Spiner provided some intriguing insight, but cited the passage of time – and the fact that he may never have actually seen the finished episode – for any foggy memories. Bowman, who was scouting a location for an upcoming episode of Castle when we caught up with him, was almost savant-like in offering details, anecdotes and context. Here’s what they had to say beginning with Brent Spiner.

How important to you and the evolution of Data was the introduction of Lore?

SPINER: I enjoyed the opportunity to play a different character. I always enjoyed playing Lore because it gave me the chance to cut loose a bit. I would've loved to do a Lore episode where he didn't even come into contact with the Enterprise and Data. Just to see what the heck he was doing when he wasn't wreaking havoc on his brother. What went on in an ordinary day in the life of Lore?

The "evil twin" idea for this episode was reportedly your suggestion. Had you taken the idea to Gene Roddenberry? To Rick Berman? And was it in response to a script draft you didn't like, or just an idea you'd wanted to see realized for a while?

SPINER: The idea wasn't mine. Maybe someone is confusing that with my desire to play Dr. Soong after the character was already written. They originally thought of Keye Luke for the role, but I talked Rick into using me instead. Lore was completely Gene's idea as far as I remember. And, being that it was 26 years ago, I'm not sure of anything.

What do you remember most about the challenges of playing both roles, especially when you were supposed to be interacting with yourself?

SPINER: Really the challenges were mostly technical, (such as) trying to imagine where the other "me" was in the frame. But, as I've said before, it gave me the opportunity to work with my favorite actor.

What kind of input did you get from Rob Bowman?

SPINER: Rob was very helpful in every way. He's a very creative and skilled director and he came to us with loads of enthusiasm. That was very surprising for a director who still had grape punch around his mouth. I mean, after all, he was about nine when he directed this episode. I joke, but he was our youngest director. We called him, "the kid.”

When was the last time you saw the episode, and how well do you feel it holds up?

SPINER: I honestly can't be sure I ever watched the episode. Maybe I did. But, it was 26 years ago. And, I'd have to watch it now to tell you whether it holds up. And I intend to. Right after I watch all of Breaking Bad .

Rob, y ou were not supposed to direct this episode. At the time, how disappointed were you that you didn't wind up helming " The Big Goodbye "?

BOWMAN: I wanted “The Big Goodbye” because Rick had told me that world was coming up in a script and I was a very big fan of the genre as a young film student. And it was such a departure that I thought it would be fun. I thought it would have something to add and offer to the series, but they told me that it wasn’t ready, but that “Datalore” was. So I went the other way with it. I went to Brent and I said, “Look, they’re giving this to us, and it feels like we’re getting second-tier material, but let’s show ‘em.” I remember making a pact with Brent that we were going to make it a great show, that we were going to try very hard and not deliver less than the very best we could. I know that’s what everybody was expecting anyway. And, by the way, I thought Joe Scanlon did a fantastic with “The Big Goodbye.” I was very impressed, me being a young director, with a lot of the things he did there. I thought, “Wow, that’s really sophisticated and smart, and I don’t know if I would have done that.” So, in the end, both shows ended up with the right guy. And, luckily, “Datalore” has hung around as one of the favorites.

It’s why we’re on the phone now. How far along was the script by the time you got on the episode?

BOWMAN: It was a work in progress. And, if memory serves, it was too long, but what it didn’t have in it was the attitude that Brent was going to bring to Lore, which added a lot of dynamics to it. That was one of the concerns with the episode, would it be compelling and interesting and dramatic and dynamic? The first time I saw Brent play Lore, I knew we had it. I asked him during prep, while he was shooting the show before it, if he had a “Lore face.” He showed me his Lore face and I sort of put that in my pocket, thinking, “Oh, nobody knows how great this is going to be.”

The TNG Companion says that the "evil twin" idea was Brent’s. Brent, however, said it was Gene Roddenberry’s. Do you know where the idea came from?

BOWMAN: No. I don’t know.

The evil twin device has been used a million times in films and shows. So, in what ways did you think you could use that would be fresh and new?

BOWMAN: Data is very reliant, reliable, dependable and predictable, and he also operates within very strict parameters, particularly behavioral parameters. So when you have somebody (like Lore) who is behaviorally unlocked and unrestricted, and petulant and very enigmatic, you don’t know what’s going to happen. So you’ve got the complete polar opposites, predictability and reliability and completely unpredictability and unreliability, untrustworthy. And, all embodied within the same external visage, it’s very creepy to see some version of Data behave almost willfully antagonistic, which is not something we’d ever expect from Data. Lore had none of Data’s very positive character attributes. He was completely narcissistic, which is a dangerous attribute and not at all like Data. So it created a lot of conflict.

Give us an anecdote about Brent differentiating Data and Lore.

BOWMAN: You had to ask, even when Lore is being sincere, can you trust him? Does he have an agenda? Can you trust his word? No, you never could. And I remember there was a shot at the end of some scene where somebody winds up on the floor. The last shot of the scene is a slight Dutch angle where Lore stands up, in close-up. I was looking for just a scent of wickedness to convey to the audience, a privileged point of view that would not be to the other characters in the scene as they were walking out the room, that Lore was up to something, again, narcissistically. I ended up using a piece (of footage shot) right after I said “Cut,” because Brent had just finished having so much fun playing Lore that his glee, relishing what he had done, was in his eyes. That’s the shot that’s in the show. That was after “Cut.” You could see that it was Brent thinking, “That was a lot of fun to play,” and it was so much different than the very rigid, compliant Data.

This was the last episode Roddenberry was credited with having a hand in writing. Did you get any input from him?

BOWMAN: No, certainly not that I recall. My very first episode, earlier that season, which was “ Where No Man Has Gone Before ,” he came down on my second or third day and was very pleased with what he was seeing. From that point on I didn’t see him too much for the rest of the show. They’d go find him in his office now and then, but he certainly left me alone, which I took as a compliment.

At the end of the day, in what ways did the introduction of Lore help develop/humanize Data?

BOWMAN: Well, because of Lore’s unpredictability and narcissism – as I think back to my own thoughts at the time – it created a question in Data about who he was. And the question was, “Is there any of that in me?” To me, it almost brought a degree of increased humility into Data because he knew a part of him was in Lore and vice versa. The fear of becoming that kind of person, instead of being pristine and perfect, which I believe Data thought he was before, without him being egotistical about it, gave him something to think about. He might have some internal flaws that hadn’t surfaced yet or some behavioral characteristics genetically, and I think that was a humbling thing for Data -- and for Brent deciding who the two were. It was interesting in that Data didn’t want to be like Lore, but he loved his brother in spite of his flaws. That’s what I remember of thinking about in terms of how Lore affects Data from this point forward.

How does the episode hold up all this time later?

BOWMAN: I haven’t seen it in a long time. Brent’s performance will hold up forever.

Last question: Do you have a photographic memory? If someone 26 years from now comes to you from the official Castle site and asks you to remember details from season four, episode 16, do you think you’ll be able to do it?

BOWMAN: (laughs). I might.

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10 Forgotten Star Trek Characters Who Deserve A Comeback

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Star Trek began in 1966 as a humble new sci-fi television drama and has since spawned a full fictional universe of spin-offs, including films, live-action series, and even cartoons . The beloved franchise is also a favorite topic for authors, having inspired almost 900 novels. For a show that was nearly canceled before it premiered, the expansiveness of Star Trek' s media empire is astounding.

While the shows and films feature ingenious technology, sleekly crafted spaceships, and thrilling battles, the heart of the franchise and the ultimate key to its longevity is its character-based storytelling . Star Trek features a broad range of diverse characters whose personalities, backgrounds, and relationships with each other can be endlessly explored.

Most of Star Trek 's main players have received above average character development, with each adventure slowly revealing layered backstories and intricate personality traits over time. However, several strong characters seem to have never received their due. Some had their runs unexpectedly cut short, while others simply never received the recognition and screen time they deserved.

Along with simple flashbacks, the Trek universe has the convenient ability to employ time travel and alternate universes, which would be a perfect way to spotlight these 10 Star Trek characters who deserve a comeback.

10 Natasha Yar

Originally played by denise crosby.

Lieutenant Natasha Yar (known by her fans and comrades as "Tasha") is a central character in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As chief of security on Enterprise-D, Tasha is spunky, tomboyish, and fearless in her tactical role. In the show's third episode, Tasha instigates a romantic encounter with her android colleague, Lieutenant Commander Data when the crew is struck by an intoxicating virus.

Fans have theorized that Tasha had a growing attraction to Data which was revealed when the virus lowered her inhibitions, inspiring her to act on a deeply hidden desire. Likewise, Data seemed to harbor a special affection for Tasha, whose feisty nature made her a fan favorite. Many were understandably devastated when Tasha Yar was pointlessly killed 22 episodes into the show by the infamous "oil slick" monster during a mission to the planet Vagra II in "Skin of Evil."

Natasha Yar Deserves a Comeback So She Can Reignite Her Unfinished Robotic Romance with Lieutenant Commander Data

Tasha's futile death was remedied in an alternate timeline when she was granted a more heroic one in "Yesterday's Enterprise." However, her unfinished romance with Lieutenant Commander Data was never wrapped up and is a topic well worthy of further exploration. While Brent Spiner reprised his role as Data for appearances in the recent series Star Trek: Picard , Tasha was disappointingly absent .

A Tasha comeback and onscreen reunion with Data could offer fascinating introspection into the dynamics of a human/AI relationship, as Tasha and Data shared an intangible chemistry which made for enthralling television. While Data is theoretically void of emotions, it appears that he can develop fondness based on pattern recognition in his circuitry. A study on Tasha and Data's relationship would be an exciting test of Tasha's ability to bring out this capability and break Data's robotic boundaries, bringing him closer to the human experience of romantic love.

Originally Played by Tim Russ

Tuvok is a main crew member and security officer on the U.S.S. Voyager in television's fourth iteration of Star Trek . Tuvok's identity as a Vulcan is perhaps the biggest key to his character. Vulcans customarily suppress their emotions, at times making them appear almost as robot-like as an android. As a teen, Tuvok was prone to lashing out emotionally, which caused him to be placed in isolation so he could learn the Vulcan way of logic and self-control.

Later in an alternate timeline, Tuvok is confined to a mental hospital due to a degenerative brain disease. Because of his brave struggles, Tuvok has been dubbed a champion for mental health.

Tuvok Deserves a Comeback So His Mental Health Journey Can Offer Futuristic Hope About the State of Mental Healthcare

Thus far, the entertainment industry's extensive use of mental hospitals has largely been as a plot device for drama and sensationalism. While the mainstream media has at least acknowledged the extreme brutality of old-fashioned asylums, it has largely ignored the ethical conflicts occurring in mental health hospitals today. Most people, unless they've had a brush with it themselves, are unaware that the modern mental healthcare system tends to prioritize profits over patients, often abusing them and even unjustly confining sane people for money.

In accordance with Star Trek's optimistic view of the future where human evils on Earth have been largely eradicated, a demonstration of how the 24th century has eradicated psychiatric financial corruption and adapted to treat people truly in need of confinement more humanely would be highly fitting.

8 Lieutenant Saavik

Originally played by kirstie alley.

Saavik is a junior lieutenant who first appears in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which features the crew of the original series . She is a Vulcan who was mentored by Spock during her days at Starfleet Academy and later became a navigator under Admiral Kirk. Saavik is generally seen by fans as a strong, smart, and capable female character who represents a refreshing shift in the way female cinema characters are portrayed.

Although she was played by Kirstie Alley , a ubiquitous sex symbol at the time, her Star Trek role humanized her beyond her looks by treating her beauty as incidental rather than a plot device.

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Lieutenant Saavik Deserves a Comeback So Her Mysterious Romulan Backstory Can Be Officially Revealed

Saavik's backstory, although extensively fleshed out in comics and novels, is not revealed in any official Star Trek productions. A deleted line from The Wrath of Khan script stated that Saavik, presumed to be a typical Vulcan, was actually half Romulan and was born on an abandoned Romulan colony called Hellguard. It is unclear why the line was deleted, but the small hint at Saavik's backstory was savored by fans and seems to be something the film was hinting at all along.

Alley's portrayal of Saavik has been noted for its emotional overtones, such as when she cries at Spock's memorial. It seems implausible for Saavik to be a full Vulcan, since the species is known for its strict stoicism, and for one to cry would be very unusual. Fans have always been hungry to see more of Saavik's history, and a revival of the half Romulan plot would be both an exciting story and a nice tribute to the late Kirstie Alley's well-received Star Trek performance.

Originally Played by Robert Beltran

Chakatoy is a main crew member and First Officer on Captain Janeway's ship in Star Trek: Voyager, who later goes on to become a Starfleet captain in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy. Chakatoy started out as a Starfleet officer but left to join the Maquis, a rogue faction of freedom fighters. His journey with Janeway on the U.S.S. Voyager begins when a catastrophe flings both the Maquis ship and Starfleet's Voyager deep into the Delta Quadrant where the two groups must merge and cooperate to find a way home.

Chakatoy is appointed First Officer because he is seen as a link that can connect the two crews. In his personal life, Chakatoy was given a romance with crew mate Seven of Nine which was criticized by some fans as being rushed and lacking in chemistry.

Chakatoy Deserves a Comeback So He Can Receive a More Respectful and Culturally Accurate Characterization

Chakatoy was a promising character who was undeservedly saddled as the "token" Native American. Although he was the second-highest ranking officer on the ship, the script failed to strongly develop him, instead portraying him as a stereotyped peacemaker with a habit of reciting seemingly random philosophical quotes. While Star Trek's efforts at inclusion and diversity are admirable, the Chakatoy fiasco was a time when it missed the mark.

Chakatoy is plagued by poorly researched and inaccurate Native American content, making him perhaps the most mishandled Star Trek character ever. The errors were in fact so egregious as to include the accidental hiring of a fraudulent Native American "expert" who was later exposed as having no Native American heritage or ties. More than any other character, Chakatoy is owed a do-over. A modern interpretation should be supported by accurate consulting and include personality traits independent of his heritage.

Originally Played by Iggy Pop

Yelgrun is a guest character played by rock musician Iggy Pop on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in 1997. Iggy Pop is not only a prolific musician who has received many tribute performances and much popularity, but also a solid actor who shines in his role as a Vorta clone working for a faction of Villains called The Dominion. Yelgrun is known for his dry, deadpan humor and casual attitude towards his rather serious predicament. In his single Star Trek appearance, Yelgrun is caught in a prisoner exchange where he becomes a hostage of Starfleet.

Yelgrun Deserves a Comeback So Fans Can Find Out if He Ever Escapes from Starfleet and Reunites with Ishka

Yelgrun's fate as a character is left unclear. "The Magnificent Ferengi" sees him survive the confrontation with enemies, but end up a prisoner of the Dominion War. As he is taken away, the beginnings of a friendship with Ishka, a feminist Ferengi character who is fighting for female equality on Feringinar, are hinted at. These loose ends leave potential plot points to be explored, and an opening for Iggy Pop to reprise his brief but memorable role.

5 Janice Rand

Originally played by grace lee whitney.

Janice Rand is a worthy but underdeveloped character who was gone too soon. Rand is a "yeoman" (essentially an assistant to the captain) in the original Star Trek series of 1966. She stands out for her competency and compassion, but the show's story places more focus on her attractive looks and status as an object of male desire. Several plots feature Rand being harassed and nearly assaulted, which casts light on an important issue, but at the same time seems to shoehorn her as a perpetual victim.

Janice Rand Deserves a Comeback Because She Is a Vibrant Character Who Was Removed for an Unfair Reason

Yeoman Janice Rand was often seen as having a somewhat romantic tension with Captain Kirk. Because of this, network bosses pressured the showrunners to write her out so the captain, portrayed as a dashing ladies' man, could be free for "romance of the week" endeavors. Rand should have been kept on because she is a likable and charismatic character whose inspiring optimism adds balance to the crew's dynamic.

Captain Picard's chemistry with Dr. Beverly Crusher, which quietly simmers throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation and is revisited in Star Trek: Picard , proves that such a dynamic can work between two members of a Starfleet crew without necessarily ruining those characters' potential for interesting romances with other people.

4 Ensign Gomez

Originally played by lycia naff.

Ensign Gomez is an awkward engineering recruit on the Enterprise-D who appears in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was originally written as a recurring character, but her storyline was canceled after she had appeared in only two episodes. She is later revealed in the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, which features a great collection of episodes spotlighting unsung junior officers , to have gone on to become a captain.

Ensign Gomez Deserves a Comeback So Fans Can Witness Her Rise to the Rank of Captain

Ensign Sonya Gomez starts off as a nervous, chattering misfit who gets off on the wrong foot by clumsily spilling a hot beverage on Captain Picard at their first meeting. Despite her rough beginning, Gomez rose through the ranks impressively fast, taking just 16 years to become a captain. A look at Gomez's transformation would make for an interesting and inspirational story of personal growth. Fans deserve to witness the details of Sonya's unforeseen glow-up.

3 Legate Damar

Originally played by casey biggs.

Legate Damar is a leader of the Cardassians, an imposing and intimidating species in the franchise's highly creative assortment of diverse aliens . In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Damar stars in a tragic arc that takes him from antagonist to hero. Legate Damar has achieved the highest rank in the Cardassian military, which is a part of The Dominion villain superpower group.

In the episode "The Changing Face of Evil," Damar betrays the Cardassian army in the name of his newly found ethical convictions. In revenge, the Cardassians kill almost his entire family, leaving only a single surviving nephew. As a result, Damar is seen by fans as an honorable and sympathetic character.

Legate Damar Deserves a Comeback So He Can Learn That His Sacrifice Made a Difference

Damar turns against The Dominion and leads an assault against them during the ongoing war, during which he is fatally shot. Damar sadly dies believing that his home planet of Cardassia is forever lost to the control of the villains. Because of his immense growth and transformation from evil to good, Damar deserves a comeback in which he can receive a meaningful death. An alternate timeline plot where he can die a hero, similar to what occurred with Tasha Yar in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," would be a great way to soften the blow of Damar's devastating demise.

2 Ensign Harry Kim

Originally played by garrett wang.

Ensign Harry Kim, a main character in Star Trek: Voyager is best known, and has been hilariously memed by fans as, the "forever ensign." Kim started his journey as a seldom-used operations specialist who was given more to do when Garrett Wang , who portrays him onscreen, requested better story lines for his character. However, Harry Kim was inexplicably never promoted above the rank of ensign, which is the lowest rank for a fully commissioned Starfleet officer.

Ensign Harry Kim Deserves a Comeback So Trekkies Can See Him Finally Receive a Promotion

Ensign Kim remained at the same rank throughout the entire seven years of Voyager, a rather long time for a Starfleet officer. He should have a comeback so viewers can see the backstory about why he failed to receive any promotions, and hopefully see him finally get his shining moment to advance. One non-canon novel paints him as a commander of a space station, which would be an interesting idea for the franchise to explore.

Originally Played by Max Grodenchik

Played by the entertaining Max Grodenchik , Rom is a Ferengi character who makes several appearances over the course of the series in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Because he lacks the business acumen so deeply valued by the Ferengi species, he is an outcast with little confidence or ambition. His eventual realization of his mechanical and engineering talents helps him harness his potential to be a force for good and accomplish more than any of the peers who once mocked him.

Rom Deserves a Comeback Because He Is Star Trek's Most Exquisite Example of Character Growth

Rom is a premiere example of how Deep Space Nine's story is driven forward by its brilliant characters. Rom starts as a stereotypical follower and Ferengi henchman. With time, he slowly gains the depth and confidence to become a good father, husband, and Ferengi leader. One particularly compelling scene is when Rom announces that he has decided to quit his job at his brother's bar.

Fans have praised him for the poignantly delivered line "And I don't want you to die," referencing the fact that the only current way for Rom to advance in life is if he inherits the bar. This turning point, and his subsequent upward trajectory throughout the rest of the series, displays how Rom has one of the show's most powerful character evolutions.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Time Squared

• Episode aired Apr 1, 1989

The Enterprise comes across its own shuttlecraft adrift in space - a duplicate - with an unconscious duplicate Capt. Picard inside. The Enterprise comes across its own shuttlecraft adrift in space - a duplicate - with an unconscious duplicate Capt. Picard inside. The Enterprise comes across its own shuttlecraft adrift in space - a duplicate - with an unconscious duplicate Capt. Picard inside.

• Joseph L. Scanlan
• Gene Roddenberry
• Maurice Hurley
• Kurt Michael Bensmiller
• Patrick Stewart
• Jonathan Frakes
• LeVar Burton
• 21 User reviews
• 9 Critic reviews

Top cast 11

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard

• Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

• Lieutenant Geordi La Forge

• Lieutenant Worf

• Counselor Deanna Troi

• Lieutenant Commander Data

• Wesley Crusher
• (credit only)

• Doctor Katherine Pulaski

• Chief Miles O'Brien
• Crewman Nelson
• (uncredited)
• Operations Division Officer
• Maurice Hurley (showrunner)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Picard admits he has trouble with waiting patiently and Riker says that it's Picard's "Persian Flaw." In traditional Persian carpet weaving, it was standard practice to deliberately put in a few mistakes, because attempting perfection might offend God.
• Goofs At one point, Picard-A gives Troi a direct order to remain with Picard-B. Only a moment later, after a brief discussion with Dr. Pulaski, Troi walks out.

[Future Picard is restrained to a biobed by a force field]

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Release him.

Dr. Kate Pulaski : Do you know what you're doing?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : No. Release him.

• Connections Edited into Star Trek: The Next Generation: Descent (1993)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 21

• planktonrules
• Nov 13, 2014
• April 1, 1989 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 45 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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How One Star Trek Episode Scarily Predicted the Modern Era

Can we still get to a happy Federation future?

Although the Star Trek franchise is lauded for its optimism and inclusive messaging, the backstory for this so-called utopian future is ridiculously bleak. Hinted at in The Original Series — and made clear in The Next Generation , First Contact , and the debut episode of Strange New Worlds — a massive global conflict decimated a huge portion of Earth’s population before humanity rose from the ashes and reached for the stars. Chillingly, all the it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better moments in Star Trek’s timeline are still in our future — with one notable exception.

On January 8, 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine began a two-part time travel episode called “Past Tense,” that sent Sisko, Bashir, and Dax back in time to the year 2024. And what they found is, sadly, not too different from the 2024 of today.

Deep Space Nine’s depiction of a fictional social upheaval called The Bell Riots begins on August 31, 2024 (aka, last Saturday) with the movement’s leader, Gabriel Bell, murdered several days later on September 3, 2024 (aka, today). Of course, none of this actually happened in the real world, but with The Bell Riots, Star Trek presents a microcosm of how social science fiction doesn’t have to be perfectly predictive to be still eerily accurate.

Deep Space Nine’s 2024

Sisko and Bashir are strangers in a strange land — our present.

Here’s a recap of the Star Trek episode in question...

Thanks to a transporter accident, Sisko (Avery Brooks), Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and Dax (Terry Farrell) don’t beam down to 24th Century San Francisco for a cozy time at Starfleet Headquarters, but instead end up in 2024. Sisko and Bashir are quickly identified as homeless people and stuck in a state-run Sanctuary District; essentially an open-air prison for the unhoused. Socioeconomic gulfs have caused these places to exist throughout North America, while the rich live without having to witness homelessness on the streets.

“Past Tense” was barely science fiction in 1995, and it’s essentially real life today. Huge wage gaps and a crumbling economy have caused homelessness to skyrocket in recent years. In real life, from 2019 to 2023, homelessness increased by 23% in the US alone. In essence, the spike in economic despair that Deep Space Nine predicted has happened, and then some. Penned by core DS9 writers Ira Steven Behr, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and René Echevarria, this two-parter drew inspiration not just from the writers’ own experiences with homelessness in California, but also the Attica Prison riot in 1971 when prisoners tried to advocate for better living conditions.

Watching “Past Tense” today makes any of its 1990s or 1970s inspirations feel irrelevant. Sure, the details about phones and computers in 2024 are off, but everything about society’s feeble response to homelessness is essentially the exact world in which we live.

What are the Bell Riots?

Gabriel Bell (John Lendale Bennett) — a pivotal historical figure in Star Trek’s timeline.

When conditions in a San Francisco Sanctuary District get too unbearable, several people living there storm the city’s offices and take several workers hostage. In the original timeline — which we never see — Sisko explains to Bashir that one man, Gabriel Bell (John Lendale Bennett), ensured that the hostages weren’t hurt, which helped turn public opinion in favor of more social activism. In essence, the Bell Riots resulted in a nonviolent solution to a massive social movement. However, in the altered timeline, plenty of people perish, which results in one of Star Trek’s grimmer endings: Bashir and Sisko watching as the bodies are tallied and promises are made to never let it happen again.

The overwhelmingly nonviolent Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 are interesting real-world parallel here, which, it should be noted, is a movement Star Trek fans largely supported and organized around. But in the DS9 situation, there’s a time travel wrinkle: Gabriel Bell is slain early , before he can protect the hostages, which means Star Trek history, is, briefly, changed. To set things right, Sisko has to adopt the identity of Gabriel Bell and, in essence, paradoxically bootstrap the entirety of Star Trek's future history by pretending to be a man from 2024.

A Glimmer of Hope in the Darkness

Sisko changes the past, but saves the future.

The paradoxical nature of “Past Tense” isn’t as extreme as other Star Trek time travel jaunts. Essentially, Sisko fixes the timeline by pretending to be a historical figure. The episode doesn’t bother to make us wonder if this was a predestination paradox or not mostly because we saw the real Gabriel Bell in the first part of the story. Bashir notes that the historical database now has an image of Sisko as Bell, to which Sisko rolls eyes and grumbles about not wanting to “explain this to Starfleet Command.” Bottomline, for nerdy purists, the Star Trek timeline hasn’t been altered enough for us to worry about it

Instead, Sisko assuming the identity of a slain 21st-century civil rights leader is more impactful as an analogy. At the start of the story, Bashir is appalled that 21st-century humans “don’t give a damn” what happens to their neighbors. Sisko counters with nuance, saying, “It’s not that they don’t give a damn. They’ve just given up. The social problems they face seem too enormous to deal with.”

But in the story of “Past Tense” we’re still made to understand that without the intercession of Sisko — a man from an idealistic future — the broken past can’t be fixed. The episode takes some aspirational swings by its conclusion too: a guard who was coded as a racist becomes the first guy who has the revelation that society is broken.

And yet, by the end of the episode, Sisko faces the same question that launched the episode: How could we let things get so bad? At the time, this felt like an edgy cautionary tale. Today, it serves as a reminder that without serious change in the next few decades, we might end up crumbling into the dark wasteland of Star Trek’s backstory, without hope for living to see the rebirth.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine streams on Paramount+.

• Science Fiction

Tomorrow is Yesterday (episode)

The Enterprise is hurled back in time to the year 1969, where the US Air Force sights it as a UFO. The crew must find a way to erase evidence of their visit before trying to get back to their future home.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Production timeline
• 4.3 Props and costumes
• 4.4 Effects
• 4.5 Continuity
• 4.6 Remastered information
• 4.7 Video and DVD releases
• 4.8 Apocrypha
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 References
• 5.7 External links

Summary [ ]

The Omaha base captain ordering a plane to take a look at their "UFO"

At an Air Force base in 1969 , a technician by the name of Webb detects something on his RADAR . At first, his commanding officer believes it to be an enemy aircraft. The signal is over the base near Omaha , Nebraska , but the strange part is that it just appeared. It is as if it simply dropped out of the sky.

Interested by the strange appearance of this aircraft, Webb's commanding officer orders someone to go up there and take a look. He believes they may have a real UFO on their hands. Outside, an F-104 Starfighter is launched. In the sky, the starship USS Enterprise is gliding through the clouds.

Act One [ ]

Except for secondary systems, everything is operational and they are heading on impulse power. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott brings on auxiliary power from engineering , and Captain James T. Kirk asks all departments to report damage and casualties to First Officer Spock . Kirk asks Uhura to contact Starfleet Control , to advise them of the black star's close proximity to Starbase 9 . Casualty reports show nothing more than minor injuries. Scott reports that warp engines are offline, and he is holding them at impulse in orbit over Earth . The breakaway from the star threw the ship to Earth. They are, however, in a low orbit, and Kirk orders Sulu to use impulse to rise to a higher orbit. Sulu reports that the helm is answering but is a little sluggish.

Uhura reports that there is no response on any standard Starfleet channels; however, she is getting something on another frequency. A radio broadcast states that the first manned moon shot is to take place on Wednesday . Kirk recalls that the first manned moon shot took place in the late 1960s . Spock concludes that the Enterprise is also in the 1960s, having been thrown backward in time by the black star's whiplash.

Captain Christopher approaches the Enterprise

Uhura reports that she is picking up ground-to-air transmissions. A military craft is approaching the Enterprise , fast. The craft, designated Bluejay 4 , is gaining on the UFO ( Enterprise ). Kirk orders Sulu to gain altitude faster. Bluejay 4 states that the UFO is climbing, and he will go in closer. As he raises altitude, Blackjack (the Omaha base) states that Bluejay 4 should be close enough for visual contact. Bluejay 4 spots the Enterprise , which is climbing in the sky, amazed at its size. He starts to describe the UFO, and tries to determine what purpose the cylindrical projections might serve. Blackjack states that backup forces should rendezvous in about two minutes, but Bluejay 4 remarks that the UFO is not going to be there by then. Blackjack gives order to shoot down the UFO, or at least disable it. Spock concludes that the aircraft may be armed with nuclear warheads , which in the Enterprise 's severe condition, could possibly cause serious damage to the hull . Kirk orders Scott to lock on with a tractor beam , but Spock advises against it. Scott locks on, regardless, and the aircraft begins to break up. Kirk orders the pilot beamed aboard. He goes to the transporter room to meet the pilot, and welcomes him aboard. The pilot is surprised to learn that Kirk speaks English , and gives his identification as Captain John Christopher of the United States Air Force , service number 4857932. Kirk remarks that the captain is among friends, and introduces himself. Captain Christopher asks Kirk who they are, and what happened. Kirk states that all will be revealed in good time, but Captain Christopher is understandably impatient.

The Enterprise being pursued

On the bridge, Spock reports that the aircraft has broken up. They turn off the tractor beam, and Kirk takes Christopher to the bridge . Christopher seems surprised to see a woman in the halls. Christopher admires the size and complexity of the ship, and as Kirk explains that the ship is one of twelve like it in service of the United Earth Space Probe Agency . He freely admits that he is from the future. On the bridge, Christopher (after joking about "little green men") is taken aback by Spock's skin tone. As Kirk allows Christopher to look around the bridge, Spock expresses his concerns about their guest to Kirk privately.

Captain Christopher visits the bridge

As Christopher looks around, Spock reports that most main systems have been restored, including the main deflector, which will prevent them from being detected again. Spock also expresses concern for Christopher's presence. He states that Christopher cannot return to Earth, as this could alter the course of history. Kirk states that this is an annoying conclusion, but accepts the truth. He asks Spock to get Captain Christopher some more comfortable clothes, and to bring Christopher to his ready room.

In his quarters, Kirk makes a computer recording.

Kirk also gets annoyed by the computer's frequent references to him as "dear". Kirk asks Spock to fix the computer's affection. Spock explains that the computer had recently been overhauled on the female-dominated planet Cygnet XIV (who thought the computer needed a personality). Christopher, who is now wearing a Starfleet uniform in place of his orange pilot's flight suit, finds the computer system amusing, and would love to see how the dilemma works out. It is at this point, that Kirk breaks the news to Christopher that he cannot be sent back with information he now knows from the future. Christopher asks about his disappearance, but Spock says that Captain Christopher made no relevant contribution to history. Christopher says that this is an outrage, having a wife and children back on Earth, something which seems to catch Spock's attention. He says it is his duty to report what he has seen, but Kirk says that the risk is impossible. Kirk offers his heartfelt apology.

Scott calls to tell Kirk that the engines will be operational in about four hours, but they have nowhere to go in this time. Kirk understands. Christopher finds some comfort in the fact that Kirk and his crew cannot go home themselves.

Act Two [ ]

Finally getting fed up with the computer, Kirk asks it to record that it either be repaired, or scrapped, which seems to take care of the computer problem. Spock calls Kirk, stating that he has new information regarding Christopher. Kirk orders Spock to report to his quarters, and that he will call Captain Christopher. However, Christopher does not respond to Kirk's hails. Kirk orders a security alert, noting that Captain Christopher is not in his assigned quarters. Kirk hypothesizes that he may be trying to escape, and goes to find him.

Captain Christopher (USAF) wants to beam down to Earth

Christopher is indeed trying to escape, but runs into security officer Bobby on his way to the transporter room. He knocks out the security officer, and acquires his phaser. Entering the transporter room and pointing his phaser at Kyle, Christopher tells Kyle that he wants to be transported to the surface immediately, but before he can complete his escape, Kirk comes, disarms Christopher, and knocks him out. In sickbay , Dr. McCoy reports that the injuries are superficial, and Kirk sympathizes about Christopher's want to escape. It is at this time that Dr. McCoy says that they too are just as stuck as Christopher. They can't beam down the entire crew, as it would be too great a disturbance in the timeline. Kirk however, says that Enterprise is not at that situation yet, but even if they do get back to their time, Christopher would be useless, archaic. McCoy says that he may be able to be retrained, but Christopher says that he cannot forget his family. He remarks that he is feeling fine, and Spock comes to sickbay. They cannot keep Christopher aboard, because his son, Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher , did make an historic contribution, heading the first Earth-Saturn Mission. Christopher remarks that he has no son, only two daughters to which McCoy responds "yet". Kirk realizes that they must find a way to return Captain Christopher, and Christopher himself muses of the fact that he someday will have a son.

Kirk and Sulu attempt to retrieve the tapes

In orbit of Earth, Spock states that the biggest problem they must deal with is that Christopher's plane wreckage landed in open land ("an open section of Southern Nebraska"), so search parties will know that he wasn't on the plane. Also, Captain Christopher informs them that his radio conversation was recorded, and that his wing cameras were recording the Enterprise . Kirk remarks that these UFO sightings were usually taken for explainable things, but Spock remarks that their tractor beam destroyed the plane, making them nothing else but a genuine UFO. Kirk then asks about returning them to their own time. Spock has a theory, albeit complicated, which may work. Kirk then makes a plan; they need to destroy the hard evidence of their presence, so that if Christopher reports, there is nothing to support his claims, and he simply joins the ranks of one of thousands who has seen a UFO. Christopher then offers his help, and he sketches out a layout of the base on a PADD .

At the base, Kirk and Sulu beam down, Sulu with a bag for the tapes. They are a bit disoriented at first, but soon find the correct room. They force the door open with little difficulty using their technology. Upon entry, Kirk starts to look for what they need, and soon finds the audio tapes. On the Enterprise in the transporter room, Dr. McCoy is getting nervous, but Spock reassures him, noting that stealth missions are much more complicated than others. McCoy starts to get annoyed, and asks Spock whether he should be working on his time warp calculations, to which he calmly responds, " I am. " Back at the base, Kirk and Sulu finish getting the tapes, when a Security Police staff sergeant enters. He orders them to give him the belts and the bag, with the tapes inside. On the ship, Spock now agrees with McCoy and starts to think it has been too long, so he calls the captain. The security officer opens one of the communicators , transmitting an emergency signal. Spock orders an immediate beam-up, only to find that they beamed up the wrong man. They now have two undesired passengers aboard, and the sergeant is frozen out of both surprise and fear. Kirk calls Spock, reporting that they now clearly have another problem.

Act Three [ ]

The Enterprise in orbit of Earth

Kirk informs Enterprise about their "surprise package", and asks them to keep him in the transporter room. After finishing up in the audio tape section, both Kirk and Sulu go to retrieve the photographs of the Enterprise . They find a darkroom containing freshly developed 16mm movie film of the Enterprise , but set off a silent alarm. They finish collecting the film, but after a small brawl with some security officers, Kirk gets caught. Sulu however, seems to have disappeared. He managed to beam up, with the tapes and film, and Kirk calmly explains to the curious guard that it was only he who was prowling about.

Fellini questions Kirk

On the Enterprise , Scott reports that warp engines are ready for re-firing. Spock orders them to be, so that they can have full power. Down on the surface, Kirk is being interrogated by the guards who caught him. Kirk jokingly references that he got in to the base by popping in out of thin air. Lieutenant Colonel Fellini picks up Kirk's phaser, mistaking it for a radio transmitter. Then he wonders about Kirk's uniform and he starts to list Kirk's offenses, threatening to lock him up for two hundred years. Kirk ruefully comments that that ought to be just about right (to return him to his own era).

" Don't you find that painful, Captain? " " Yes, I do. "

Back in orbit, Spock and Christopher hypothesize in the Enterprise 's briefing room as to the captain's most probable situation, as they are planning a rescue operation. However, Christopher insists on coming down with them, to which Spock reluctantly agrees. He issues phasers only to himself and Sulu, set on maximum stun. They beam down, as the security policeman who beamed up earlier is amazed. Kyle offers the guard some chicken soup from a food synthesizer to satisfy his hunger, which only amazes him more. On the surface, Spock takes out the two guards holding Kirk, and frees him. However, while Kirk and Sulu talk, Christopher gets one of the security guard's guns. He holds it to Kirk, refusing to be beamed back up.

Act Four [ ]

The Enterprise approaches the sun for the time-warp

Kirk tries to talk Christopher out of it, but he doesn't listen. He asks Spock to come out of Colonel Fellini's office, but as he moves towards Kirk, Spock comes up from behind, and administers a nerve pinch . He had suspected Christopher's actions, and had beamed into location for incapacitating Christopher. Sulu then beams up all four officers.

Mr. Spock says that the best possible course of action is to use a slingshot effect like the one they used to arrive in the first place. Theoretically, the whiplash from the sun's gravity would send them into another time warp. At this point, Christopher asks what they will be doing about him and the guard. Spock states that for a moment, they will go into the relative past, and transport both the captain and the guard to points before they were beamed up. The events, though still in their minds, will not have occurred, so there would be nothing for them to report. Scott now brings up one problem. The Enterprise may not have enough braking control to stop in their own time . They may overshoot their century, or be torn apart. In other words, it won't be an easy ride.

The Enterprise skims over the sun in a time warp

Everyone assumes stations, as the Enterprise prepares for the time-warp. They leave Earth, and head towards the sun at warp factor 3. Christopher, at this point, tells Kirk how he always wanted to make it into space, and Kirk tells him that he made it farther than anyone in his century. As the Enterprise heads towards the sun, their warp factor increases, and the chronometers have started to move backwards. Christopher goes to put on his flight gear, and reports to the transporter room. As they approach the breakaway point, Sulu engages engines, and the ship is severely thrown. All power is just barely enough, but they do break free of the pull. As they head away from the sun, they gain speed, and the chronometers begin to move forward. Christopher prepares to beam back to Earth, and thanks Kirk for the look ahead. As they approach Earth, they energize, beaming Christopher back into the plane cockpit where he merges with his earlier self. However, there is no longer any Enterprise in the sky. Christopher reports to Black Jack, marking down the Enterprise as another UFO. They then beam down the guard and, as with Christopher, he merges with his earlier self patrolling the base. The guard finds no unusual activity in the film library and.resumes his patrol.

As they approach their century, they have to begin braking, despite some risks. Kirk, being annoyed by Spock's countdown, asks him to just never mind. They begin braking, but the ship is thrown violently. Scott reports from engineering that the engines are buckling, but they manage to make a safe and complete stop. They hear the friendly voice of Starfleet control, and Kirk reports that the Enterprise is home.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I never have believed in little green men. " " Neither have I. "

" Don't touch anything, but I think you'll find it interesting. " " Interesting is a word and a half for it, Captain. "

" Maybe I can't go home, but neither can you. You're as much a prisoner in time as I am. "

" Now you're sounding like Spock. " " If you're going to get nasty, I'm going to leave. "

" I made an error in my computations. " " Oh? This could be an historic occasion. "

" Wait a minute. I don't have a son . " " You mean yet. "

" It is a fact, Doctor, that prowling by stealth is more time-consuming than a direct approach. "

" How did you get in? " " I popped in out of thin air. "

" What is that? Is that a uniform of some kind? " " This little thing? Just something I slipped on. "

" I am going to lock you up for two hundred YEARS! " " That ought to be just about right. "

" Blast your theories and observations, Mr. Spock! What about Jim? He's down there alone, probably under arrest! He doesn't have a communicator and we can't locate him or beam him back aboard without one! " " I am aware of that, Doctor. "

" Anyway we do it, it means a mighty rough ride. "

" Well gentlemen, we all have to take a chance… especially if one is all you have. "

Background information [ ]

Production timeline [ ].

• One-page synopsis by Robert H. Justman : 12 April 1966
• Story outline by D.C. Fontana : 3 October 1966
• Revised story outline: 13 October 1966
• First draft teleplay by Fontana: 31 October 1966
• Second draft teleplay: 9 November 1966
• Final draft teleplay by Gene L. Coon : 21 November 1966
• Additional revisions: 22 November 1966 , 1 December 1966
• Day 1 – 28 November 1966 , Monday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge
• Day 2 – 29 November 1966 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge, Transporter room
• Day 3 – 30 November 1966 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Corridors , Turbolift , Sickbay , Kirk's quarters
• Day 4 – 1 December 1966 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Kirk's quarters, Briefing room , Engineering
• Day 5 – 2 December 1966 , Friday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Air base corridor, Records section, Security office
• Day 6 – 5 December 1966 , Monday – Desilu Stage 10: Int. Jet cockpit , Photo lab, Dark room, Radar room
• Original airdate: 26 January 1967
• Rerun airdate: 13 July 1967
• First UK airdate (on BBC1 ): 16 August 1969
• First UK airdate (on ITV ): 10 January 1982
• Remastered airdate: 5 May 2007
• The episode originated from a one-page story synopsis associate producer Robert H. Justman submitted to Gene Roddenberry for possible consideration. almost beat for beat the same as the final episode. Roddenberry never acknowledged Justman as the source or paid any royalties to him for the idea. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 133-137)
• This episode was originally going to be the second part of a two part story that would have begun in " The Naked Time ". In an earlier draft of the script, when Kirk ordered a hyperbolic course, he wanted the direction to be " Doesn't matter… the way we came… toward Earth. " [1]

Props and costumes [ ]

• Matt Jefferies designed the trophy with the soaring jet aircraft, seen in the case on the air base. ( citation needed • edit )
• The small scanning device that Kirk uses to unlock the Omaha base computer-room door appears to be the same one used by Scott and Joe Tormolen in " The Naked Time ", and by Richard Daystrom in " The Ultimate Computer ".
• Actor Roger Perry liked his Starfleet uniform so much, he asked DeForest Kelley if he could take the shirt home. Kelley replied, " Well, they frown upon that. But you could possibly just stick it into your bag, and nobody's going to say anything. " Perry decided not to do that, but after seeing the eventual success and legacy of Star Trek , he regretted he didn't take the shirt home. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , p. 428)

Effects [ ]

Close up of Lieutenant Sulu

• The opening screenshot was actually taken at Georges Air Force Base California. It shows F-104C Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 57-0914, 435 TFS, 1965. This aircraft was deployed to Ubon RTAFB, Thailand in 1966 and assigned to 8 TFW. It crashed due to engine failure over Thailand on 16 January 1967. ( citation needed • edit )
• Footage of the Earth (going closer and further, inside the atmosphere) on the Enterprise viewscreen is reused from " Miri ".
• The music played as Christopher observes the ears on Spock, heard in its entirety in " The City on the Edge of Forever ", was written by composer Joseph Mullendore during his scoring for " The Conscience of the King ", but it went unused at that time. It is an uptempo version of the closing theme for the show. Mullendore had also arranged the "lounge" version of the theme for the same episode, also heard in " Court Martial ". ( citation needed • edit )
• This is the only episode to end on a close up of George Takei before the final Enterprise flyaway.

Continuity [ ]

• This is the first episode where the Enterprise visits Earth during its five-year mission .
• Kirk's assertion that there are only twelve starships like the Enterprise in the fleet is contradicted in The Making of Star Trek , p. 165, by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield , which lists the names of fourteen starships, though on the same page the starship USS Farragut is described as destroyed, and its fate would already be known at this point in the series. This leaves Kirk's statement technically correct with the Enterprise and the other twelve like it still in service (The fate of the USS Valiant would not be revealed to Starfleet for another two episodes).
• Except for the 6 am launch time for Apollo 11 , which actually was 9:32 am on Wednesday July 16, 1969, the writer of this episode, D.C. Fontana, correctly predicted the day of the week.
• The events of this episode, which take place in 1969 , occurred over a year after those of " Assignment: Earth ", which take place in 1968 .
• This is the last episode in which Spock's rank is stated as lieutenant commander .
• Though Spock tells Sulu to issue phasers for both himself and Spock when they return to the Air Force base to retrieve Kirk, only Sulu is shown armed with a phaser in the transporter room.
• This episode establishes the presence of a quartermaster on board the Enterprise . Kirk said to Spock (referring to Captain Christopher), " Why don't you have the quartermaster issue him something more suitable? "
• Kirk tells Captain Christopher that the Enterprise operates under the authority of the "United Earth Space Probe Agency," which Kirk describes as a "combined service" when Christopher presumes that the Enterprise is operated by the navy. Along with Kirk's log entry reference to "UESPA" in " Charlie X ", this is the only time in the original series that this authority is mentioned. In the Star Trek Concordance [ page number? • edit ] , author Bjo Trimble suggests that it is a fictional name, designed to keep Capt. Christopher in the dark about the true nature of the Federation. The name would be established canonically as being the agency under whose authority the United Earth Starfleet operated under in Star Trek: Enterprise .
• This episode is the first of two episodes to have a food synthesizer in the transporter room . According to D.C. Fontana , budgetary restrictions precluded taking the security police sergeant to a dining facility or having another actor in the scene bring him food, so Kyle was employed to provide the sergeant's chicken soup from the dispenser. ( The World of Star Trek , 3rd ed., p. 40)
• This is one of many episodes to contribute to the ambiguous future timeframe of the Original Series . When Fellini threatens to lock Kirk up for two hundred years, Kirk lightly notes that " That should be just about right. " Two hundred years from that point would be 2169, the mid to late 22nd century. The original series is established to be set in the late 2260s.
• VOY : " Relativity " would later establish a process of " reintegration " of multiple copies of a person created by time travel, with all sets of alternative memories left intact. The exact details were not specified, but the temporal transporter 's existence potentially implies that Spock's transporter technique from this episode had been improved and standardized by the 29th century.

Remastered information [ ]

The remastered version of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 5 May 2007 . The episode was heavy in new effects, with revamped CG shots of Earth from orbit – based on NASA space shuttle photographs – as well as new CGI shots of Captain Christopher's jet fighter, the Enterprise falling into Earth's atmosphere , and an all-new sequence depicting the slingshot around the sun. [2]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original US Betamax release: 1985
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 12 , catalog number VHR 2305, release date unknown
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.8, 2 December 1996
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 11, 23 May 2000
• As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Time Travel DVD collection
• As part of the TOS Season 1 HD DVD collection
• As part of the TOS Season 1 Blu-ray collection

Apocrypha [ ]

• This episode (or more accurately its stardate of 3113) was used as the basis for the "origin" of material that was published as the Star Fleet Technical Manual ; the first pages of this manual explain how this occurred.
• The second issue of John Byrne 's Assignment: Earth series, " Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ", tells the story of Gary Seven 's role in the events of this episode.
• Before Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set a different canonical direction for how TOS characters acquired and used knowledge of time travel, the novel Forgotten History depicted the Enterprise crew being debriefed by Starfleet Command after the events of this episode and how they were eventually lead into the events of TOS : " Assignment: Earth ". Meanwhile, the novel From History's Shadow depicted Roberta Lincoln 's reaction to the events of this episode, which also led into her follow-up to the events of "Assignment: Earth". The novel Assignment: Eternity also depicts Seven and Lincoln's next mission taking place soon after this episode.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Kirk
• Leonard Nimoy as Spock

Also starring [ ]

• Roger Perry as Major [ sic ] Christopher

Featuring [ ]

• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
• Hal Lynch as Air Police Sergeant
• Richard Merrifield as Technician
• John Winston as Transporter Chief
• Ed Peck as Colonel Fellini
• James Doohan as Scott
• George Takei as Sulu
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Mark Dempsey as Air Force Captain
• Jim Spencer as Air Policeman
• Sherri Townsend as Crew Woman

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice
• William Blackburn as Hadley
• John Burnside as Air policeman #2
• Frank da Vinci as Brent
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Radio announcer (voice)
• US 498th Airbase personnel
• Enterprise lieutenant/navigator
• Enterprise security chief (voice)
• Air Force guard

References [ ]

1954 ; 1968 ; 1969 ; 2217 ; .38 police special ; US 498th Airbase Group ; accident ; ADC Control ; address ; aircraft ; Air Defense Command ; airman (aka airman basic ); Air Police ; alarm ; all decks alert ; " all right "; " all the time "; Alpha Centauri ; altitude ; AM ; answer ; Apollo 11 ; area ; arrest ; astronaut ; atmosphere ; audio ; authority ; automatic helm setting ; auxiliary power ; B-52 Stratofortress ; bag ; belt ; blackjack ; black star ; blip ; Bluejay 4 ; braking control ; braking power ; buckling ; burglary ; calculation ; camera ; Cape Kennedy ; " carry on "; casualty report ; chance ; choice ; chicken soup ; Christopher, Shaun Geoffrey ; Christopher's wife and daughters ; chronometer ; cloud cover ; cockpit ; computer ; computer check ; computer system ; coordinates ; countdown ; Cygnet XIV ; cylindrical ; damage control party ; darkroom ; deck ; demonstration ; department ; drawing ; duty bound ; Earth ; Earth-Saturn probe ; Eastern Standard Time ; emergency signal ; Engineering Officer ; English language ; error ; escape velocity ; espionage ; evidence ; F-104 Starfighter ; F-105 Thunderchief ; fact ; film (material) ; flight suit ; fool ; friend ; g ; girlfriend ; guest ; hand ; historical tape ; horse ; hour ; idea ; identification ; impulse power ; " in case "; industry ; injury ; interceptor ; interrogation room ; jet ; joke ; jury rig ; landing party ; liar ; little green man ; logic ; Luna ; magnetic tape ; maintenance ; maintenance note ; March, M. ; matriarchy ; Mercury ; mind ; minute ; mirage ; missile ; museum ; name ; NASA ; nation ; Nebraska ; nuclear warhead ; Omaha ; orbit ; " over my dead body "; passenger ; personality ; photography ; photo lab ; physical training ; place ; plane ; Pluto ; power ; prisoner ; problem ; progress report ; quartermaster ; RADAR ; radio ; record computer ; record section ; risk ; rubber band ; sabotage ; Saturn ; search party ; second ; secondary system ; sector ; section ; security section ; signal ; sky ; slingshot effect ; Sol ; space ; speed ; serial number ; staff sergeant ; starbase ; Starbase 9 ; Starfleet channel ; Starfleet Control ; Statistical services division ; Strategic Air Command ; stock ; sun dog ; thing ; theory ; thousand ; time warp ; time zone ; tractor beam ; transmission ; transporter ; transporter chief ; transporter room ; truck ; unauthorized entry ; " under arrest "; uniform ; United Earth ; United Earth Space Probe Agency ; UFO ; USAF ; US Navy ; variable ; visual contact ; Vulcan neck pinch ; warp power ; weather balloon ; Wednesday ; week ; wing ; word

External links [ ]

• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at Wikipedia
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at MissionLogPodcast.com
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Bell Riots
• 2 Obi Ndefo
• 3 Gabriel Bell