Review of All Our Yesterdays

The writers finally managed to let their imaginations go. When a star is about to nova, the big three arrive on the planet, hoping to help evacuate the population. They beam down to a library, watched over by a rather abrasive Mr. Atos, a librarian who also has several holographic duplicates. He tells the boys that he is the last one left on the planet and he is leaving soon. All the others have used a device that reads discs and can send people back in time to a place they will enjoy being. Unfortunately for Kirk, he hears a screaming woman and rushes through a kind of portal and finds himself in a time lack that of the Three Musketeers. He is subdued and kept in prison, accused of being a witch. Simultaneously, Spock and McCoy make their ways through the portal, but find they have inadvertently used a disc putting them in the ice age. Nearly freezing to death, they are rescued by a beautiful woman in animal skins, played by Mariette Hartley. She had a magical quality as an actress. In a cave, over a hot spring, the twosome is given shelter. McCoy is practically frozen and Spock and the girl cover him to keep him warm. During this time, Spock, being 5000 years in the past, begins to revert to his primitive self. He and Mariette begin a bit of a relationship. His emotions, the emotions that the Vulcans avoided when they evolved, are back and he nearly kills McCoy. All principles have been told that they may never go back through the portal because they will die if they try. Kirk finds an ally as a judge from the time is also a time traveler.

This is a highly creative episode that sets up conditions under which the characters must function. The plot ebbs and flows and keeps one involved. There are similarities to "City on the Edge of Forever," my favorite, but it can stand on its own.