Basically, the Enterprise is faced with a dilemma: they are forced to beam up an American pilot (Captain Christopher), who learns too much about the future; but they have to return him because his son will play a key role in the nascent space program. Both returning him, and failing to return him, threaten to alter the future.
This episode appears to have been an attempt to see how contemporary humans would view the Enterprise, if it were to somehow go back in time. Much of it appears to have been intended to be humorous, although the extent to which it succeeds in that respect is questionable.
Because this series originally ran during the mid-1960's, while the Cold War was still going strong, there is still a definite sense of paranoia and fear of the unknown that permeates the Americans. It is also almost quaint how Captain Christopher reacts to women in the military as a totally foreign notion. These things are understandable enough given the time that this series was made but offer a striking contrast with the current political milieu, while at the same time being not entirely unfamiliar in a post-911 world.
The writing and acting were done competently enough, but, given the resolution that was almost "required", the story just doesn't amount to much.
MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS:
The entire episode feels kind of irrelevant by the end, because the Enterprise is able, by some technical mumbo jumbo, to return Captain Christopher to the moment just before the Enterprise beamed him aboard, with no memory of the subsequent events. In other words, the Enterprise neither polluted the time stream, nor interacted with it in any way at all (except for being briefly glimpsed by Earth radar and by Captain Christopher, before it just fades away).
I appreciate that D.C. Fontana was apparently trying to give the viewer a sense of drama portraying the Enterprise as viewed through (then) contemporary sensibilities. But what was the point since nothing that happened in this episode was remembered or "mattered"?
This episode appears to have been an attempt to see how contemporary humans would view the Enterprise, if it were to somehow go back in time. Much of it appears to have been intended to be humorous, although the extent to which it succeeds in that respect is questionable.
Because this series originally ran during the mid-1960's, while the Cold War was still going strong, there is still a definite sense of paranoia and fear of the unknown that permeates the Americans. It is also almost quaint how Captain Christopher reacts to women in the military as a totally foreign notion. These things are understandable enough given the time that this series was made but offer a striking contrast with the current political milieu, while at the same time being not entirely unfamiliar in a post-911 world.
The writing and acting were done competently enough, but, given the resolution that was almost "required", the story just doesn't amount to much.
MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS:
The entire episode feels kind of irrelevant by the end, because the Enterprise is able, by some technical mumbo jumbo, to return Captain Christopher to the moment just before the Enterprise beamed him aboard, with no memory of the subsequent events. In other words, the Enterprise neither polluted the time stream, nor interacted with it in any way at all (except for being briefly glimpsed by Earth radar and by Captain Christopher, before it just fades away).
I appreciate that D.C. Fontana was apparently trying to give the viewer a sense of drama portraying the Enterprise as viewed through (then) contemporary sensibilities. But what was the point since nothing that happened in this episode was remembered or "mattered"?