Return to Tomorrow
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 9 February 1968
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- 4768.3
- DIRECTED BY
- Ralph Senensky
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 51
WRITTEN BYWritten by John Kingsbridge
“John Kingsbridge” is a pen name for John T. Dugan, who used it because Gene Roddenberry changed his ending.
A voice from a dead world lures the Enterprise to a buried vault, where the last survivors of an ancient race ask Kirk, Spock and Dr Mulhall to lend them their bodies.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Drawn by a mysterious call, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and astrosciences officer Dr Ann Mulhall beam deep below the surface of a lifeless planet. There they meet Sargon, whose mind survives in a glowing sphere with those of his wife Thalassa and the rival Henoch, half a million years after their civilisation destroyed itself. They ask to borrow three bodies while they build android hosts. Kirk persuades his officers that the risk is worth taking, and Sargon enters Kirk, Thalassa enters Mulhall and Henoch enters Spock. Henoch secretly plans to keep Spock's body, poisons Kirk's medicine, and Thalassa is tempted to keep hers. With Sargon's help, Kirk and Mulhall are restored and Spock's mind is hidden in Nurse Chapel. Henoch is tricked into abandoning Spock's body. Sargon and Thalassa give up their plan, borrow Kirk and Mulhall for a last embrace, and depart into oblivion together.
- 01Diana Muldaur's first Star Trek role. She later played Dr Miranda Jones in the third season and Dr Katherine Pulaski in The Next Generation's second season.
- 02The episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award.
- 03The planet's name in production material, Arret, is “Terra” spelled backwards, but it is never spoken on screen.