Tomorrow is Yesterday - episode #21

TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY (1st season; episode #21)
Directed by Michael O'Herlihy / writer: DC. Fontana    Air Date: 01/26/67

This was the first time travel episode on TOS - the first episode in which the Enterprise crew travel back to 20th-century Earth.  The trip is accidental: the ship experiences what Kirk describes as a rubber band effect; for whatever reason, the ship got too close to a black hole (or, a "black star" as described); breaking away from the severe gravitational pull, the ship was snapped all the way back to the 1960's. Oh, and, the Enterprise just happens to end up in orbit around mother Earth. We never got to see Earth in the 23rd century during TOS (budget constraints, I would wager); so, the first time the crew visits Earth on the show, it's in the 20th century. Typical.
Anyway, the next thing we know, the Enterprise is being chased by a typical Air Force pilot, aiming to snag himself a U.F.O. - or nuke it. These scenes at the very start employ some nice stock footage at the air base. Kirk then orders the pilot be beamed aboard after the Enterprise's tractor beam wrecks the fragile jet. The episode strikes an agreeable balance between comedy and sci-fi adventure. Some of this is among the handful of Trek episodes which were intentional comedies, throwing in such amusing concepts as the female-voiced computer which Kirk is saddled with. There's further amusement in the pilot's introduction to Spock and Kirk's slapstick fight with three military officers. Oh, and, Kirk's interrogation is a laugh riot; Ed Peck plays the lead interrogator and he's quite amusing. (See Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home-1986, when it's Chekov's turn).
On the side of drama and adventure, we have the 20th-century pilot (guest star Roger Perry in a fine performance), a sixties military version of Kirk, being told that he can never go home again to his family due to what he knows of the future. Well, we may well wonder, if Kirk is so concerned about this, why did he give the pilot a guided tour of the ship? There is a case to be made that Kirk was instantly fascinated by this (to him) archaic version of what will eventually be Starfleet in about 200 years. He just couldn't resist getting to know this representative of a historic, even mythical age. The pilot is what Kirk would have been if he'd grown up in the 20th century.
Likewise, the pilot is fascinated by this glimpse into the future, especially in meeting Spock; he's not repelled as we might expect, overcoming any phobia with the grace that great training and an open mind brings. It's all a playful, colorful adventure - which completely falls apart in the final act when they start transporting/beaming people into themselves - this portion makes absolutely no sense at all and lowers the scoring of this episode a bit. The Enterprise and crew followed up on this accidental adventure by purposely going back to 20th-century Earth in the 2nd season's Assignment:Earth. Because of the scenes in outer space of the Enterprise whipping around the sun, there was a lot of revised footage in the remastered version with new computer FX.
Extra Trek Trivia: this episode was originally intended as the 2nd part to the 2-part episode which began as The Naked Time; at the end of that episode, the Enterprise & crew travel backwards in time, but just 3 days in the final version. When plans for a 2-parter were canceled, Tomorrow is Yesterday was reworked as a stand-alone episode. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
remastered trailer for:
TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY
Parody / Gag Reel version: