Trek Review: Arena & Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Arena

The Enterprise arrives at Cestus III after receiving an invitation from Commodore Travers. Upon arrival, the crew discover the Cestus III outpost has been destroyed and the invitation was a ruse.

Kirk and his landing party come under attack on the surface while the Enterprise is attacked in orbit by an unknown ship. Kirk's landing party are able to overcome the planetside forces and beam to the ship and pursue the attacking vessel, stretching the capabilities of the warp engines in the pursuit.

Eventually, the unknown ship comes to a complete stop and Kirk attempts to seize the opportunity to destroy them. Unfortunately, the Enterprise also comes to a dead stop and the crew of both ships are contacted by a mysterious alien race, calling themselves the Metrons.

Kirk and the alien captain are transported to a planet where they are to engage in battle against each other. The captain that survives will leave with their ship intact, the losing party will see their ship destroyed.

The duel gets underway and the alien, identified as a Gorn (pictured) soon takes the advantage with his strength. Kirk makes a slow start, but soon begins to recall his history and training and fashions together a weapon with which he significantly wounds his opponent. Instead of killing him, Kirk lets him live and impresses the Metrons with his actions. The Metrons let both ships go at the request of Kirk.

An interesting and probably one of the most popular TOS episodes, with some of the corniest fight sequences between Kirk and the Gorn. What makes this interesting is that we believe the Gorn are the enemy all throughout until we realise that the Gorn may have actually been retaliating against a Federation invasion with the Cestus III outpost built in their space.

Uhura has a scene in this episode which continues from The Galileo Seven with the women screaming at something out of the ordinary (when Kirk disappears) and of course it's all too convenient that the elements Kirk was looking for a just lying out in the open, but the Metrons did say they would find everything they needed for the duel.

The blu-ray remaster again is great. The Gorn gets eyelids that blink and the colours and sounds are once again splendid. The re-touch of Cestus III is flawless and the shots of the Enterprise firing her weapons are well done.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

The Enterprise finds itself in a low orbit around Earth after an encounter with a black star. The crew soon realise they have also been propelled through time and are 200 years in the past. A USAF jet fighter on an intercept course is perceived as a threat and Kirk orders the tractor beam be used to keep the aircraft away.

The aircraft breaks up under the strain of the tractor beam and the pilot is beamed aboard the Enterprise to save his life. Kirk goes to meet their guest, Captain John Christopher and introduces him to the ship and provides a look into Earth's future.

Kirk and the crew soon face a problem, with what Capt. Christopher knows, he can't be returned to Earth. Spock's initial findings suggest that Christopher won't be missed as he "made no relevant contribution to history." In error, Spock soon finds out that Christopher's son will man the first Earth-Saturn mission and so he must be returned to Earth. Complicating matters further are the record tapes from Christopher's jet fighter which would have been recovered from the plane's wreckage.

Kirk and Sulu beam down to the compound to retrieve the tapes, they are caught by security, who is soon beamed aboard the Enterprise after Spock becomes concerned with how long Kirk and Sulu have been planetside. The security guard is kept in the transporter room, but Kirk and Sulu trigger an alarm in the compound. Sulu is able to escape quickly but Kirk is interrogated.

Spock and Capt. Christopher form a rescue plan for Kirk along with Sulu.

With everyone back aboard the Enterprise, the matter of returning their guests arises. Using a slingshot effect around the Sun, the Enterprise will travel back through time, with precise use of the transporters allowing both Christopher and the security guard to return to the time and place they went missing. The Enterprise would then continue accelerating forward in time and with precise braking of the warp engines, should return to the 23rd century.

Again, this is one of the first Original Series episodes I remember watching and it's an entertaining one as we return to Earth in the 20th century. One of many episodes (and a movie) that would do this throughout all the Star Trek series! There's an amount of fun in the episode with doses of comedy and the feeling of family among the Enterprise crew. Spock had a cold during this episode and the computer had an upgrade to give it some personality which was a little odd, but overall, the episode is worth watching.

The remastered version turns things up even more with great special effects for the slingshot effect which far outdo the original version's Enterprise shaking about on a piece of string. The only 'lacking' scenes were the stock footage of the Air Force fighter jets at the beginning of the episode.

Overall Rating: 8/10