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Originally conceived as a two-parter back during the first season of Star Trek, this edit finally brings together the two episodes 'The Naked Time' and 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'. This edit now concludes 'The Naked Time’ with a cliffhanger leading directly into ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, and the crew becomes trapped in orbit of 1960s Earth, after using an untested formula to escape destruction from the planet Psi 2000. Initially, I decided to keep the edit as a two-parter, but I then decided to attempt to bridge the end of ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ somehow with ‘Assignment: Earth’, the only other 1960s Earth-set episode of the original series. The finished edit actually turns out rather plausible, with the Enterprise intercepting Gary Seven’s transporter beam after having dropped off two unfortunate passengers from the previous episode. Sure, Chekhov is in the latter episode, but not the former two, but 400 crewmen are rather a lot to man a starship!
The Bridging of Episodes
Part I
‘The Naked Time’ is bridged with ‘Tomorrow Is Yesterday’ during the breakaway from Psi 2000 and subsequent time warp sequence. Kirk asks for a 'hyberbolic' course, after which the navigator requests a direction. Kirk replies, 'It doesn't matter. The way we came', after which in my edit he adds 'Earth', thereby explaining why the time jump has led the ship to Earth. The formula is fed into Engineering and the Enterprise leaves orbit; moments after, the ship violently rocks (courtesy of footage from 'Balance of Terror', 'The Changeling' and 'The Immunity Syndrome'). We fade out and into the teaser from ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’, ending the episode with the Enterprise seen flying in the sky. I used the caption ‘To Be Continued Next Week’; a slightly re-working of the one from ‘The Menagerie, Part I’. Because my intention is to emulate the original 1960s episodes, I wanted to re-create what would probably have been projected on screen, rather than the modern, simple ‘To Be Continued…’.
Part II
We open with the ship flying low in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The teaser for this episode ends on a reaction shot of Kirk, having been informed by Spock that, like the news broadcast they are hearing, they are in the late 1960s.
Act I opens with shots of the Enterprise in a low orbit and accompanying credits.
During the ‘sling shot’ sequence, as the Enterprise approaches the Sun, bridge sequences have been tinted a progressively deeper orange, along with screenshots of the Sun (‘Operation: Annihilate'), which are matched for consistency in Part III.
Because ‘Assignment: Earth’ opens with Scott and Spock in the transporter room, once the Enterprise has swung away from the Sun I cut away to an ‘Enterprise approaching Earth’ shot, to give the impression that both men are now ready in the transporter room. With careful editing, through use of appropriate transporter shots, Scott and Spock are both now in the transporter room, sending Christopher and the security guard back to Earth. As the Enterprise once again is leaving Earth’s orbit, the ship is violently rocked – the Enterprise has intercepted Gary Seven’s transporter beam!
Merging ‘Assignment: Earth’s’ teaser and opening of Act I together, the cliffhanger to Part II occurs when Spock remarks to Kirk that he has a difficult decision to make regarding Gary Seven.
Part III
We open with Kirk’s Captain’s Log from Act I of ‘Assignment: Earth’, albeit with some cuts. Seven is now implied to have been escorted to the brig, because the previous fight sequence in the transporter has been cut as I wanted to open this episode with a fresh scene and Captain’s Log.
The teaser for this episode is the original end of Act I, with Gary transporting himself down to Earth.
Act I opens with the original opening shot from ‘Assignment: Earth’s’ teaser, before moving into the panning shot of the city below, all with accompanying credits. Because no other Original Series episode in its original run (and thus neither of the first two episodes) has a ‘Guest Star’ (due to ‘Assignment: Earth’ being a backdoor pilot), Gary Seven has been credited in the opening rather than during the end credits. However, to avoid confusion, I have re-credited him as ‘Special Guest Star’, since I am using the original end credits for all three episodes, because re-creating all end credits from scratch is another time-consuming and unnecessary addition.
Because we now have an act missing, I created an end of Act for Act II when Gary is moving up the rocket’s elevator. (My first viewing of ‘Assignment: Earth’ was an edited UK version which removed the commercial fade in/out breaks. Ironically, I figured that the elevator sequence was a commercial break due to the abrupt music change. I later discovered this wasn’t a break at all; for my edit, I have created what I always envisioned was the break. Not only is this an appropriate place to do so, but it is also needed to tally up the number of Acts to four.) This works out fine, because Act IV is increased in length (see directly below).
Cutting out the final few moments of the episode and subsequent beam up to the ship in order to remove the light-heartedness of the situation, I then cut to the Enterprise leaving Earth’s orbit again. A newly edited sequence follows, with the ship once again approaching and breaking away from the Sun (the space shots are unavoidably the same, although this does not matter, since the ship was following the same path as before). New reactions shots from various other episodes are used to avoid obvious recycling from ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’. We finally return to the ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ sequence, as Spock counts down the ship’s return to it’s own time. During the turbulence, in order to emphasise the ship’s crossing of the barriers of time itself, I plucked shots of the Enterprise in the galactic barrier from ‘By Any Other Name’. This sequence is supported by some familiar and dramatic music from ‘The Doomsday Machine’, which I think works really well; both the galactic barrier sequence, and Sol Kaplan’s score, compliment each other nicely.
After Kirk informs Starfleet Command that the ship is home, we cut to a flyby shot, before the final newly-edited sequence that ends the episode (see below).
Creating a suitable ending
I could have left the original ending for 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' in tact at the end of Part III, however being an epic three-parter, with a crew who've had quite an adventure, I felt I wanted to bring in one of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy type of scene at the story's conclusion. After much thought on how to end this three-part story, and after some editing experimenting and fine tooth-picking to find appropriate material, I came up with a short sequence, borrowing clips from the endings of ‘A Taste of Armageddon’ and ‘Spectre of the Gun’ to create a small, end-of-episode Kirk/Spock/McCoy sequence that so often accompanied Original Series episodes. Here Scotty and Uhura are present as well. In my opinion, the joining of dialogue works pretty well and is a reflective afterthought of the events they have experienced, and the state of mankind during the 1960s. It doesn’t add much new content to the story, but the borrowed dialogue is relevant to the story, and helps to end the episode on an evocative, emotive, reflective mood, something that was often done in the Original Series episodes with the three leads.
At the end of Part III, after the end credits, I edited together a very short scene, which I think is kinda sweet and rounds the story off in a different, perhaps poignant angle. If you want to know what it is, you'll have to watch the edit!
A summary of the most prominent cuts/alterations is as follows:
‘The Naked Time’
All in-episode credits have been re-created and are now placed after the opening credits.
The end bridge sequence has been re-edited to avoid Kirk's uniform being ripped open, using clips from 'This Side of Paradise', 'The Changeling', 'Spock's Brain', 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' 'The Lights of Zetar', and 'Turnabout Intruder'.
The closing moments have been cut; instead the ship violently rocks, courtesy of footage from ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Balance of Terror’.
Several music additions and alterations.
This edit removes a nitpick - removing Act II's Captain’s Log and replacing it with new music. In the original episode Kirk refers to a "new and unusual disease" being unknowingly brought aboard...if it is unknown to the crew, Kirk should not mention said disease in his log!
'Tomorrow is Yesterday’
All in-episode credits have been re-created and are now placed after the opening credits.
The first Captain’s Log and subsequent references to the ‘black star’, including Kirk’s orders to Uhura during the opening scene.
Kirk and Christopher walking through a corridor after the latter has beamed aboard, with Christopher subsequently surprised at a woman being on board. This was purely a cut of personal taste.
All references to the female computer voice. Whilst cute, these moments could potentially create continuity problems in that the computer’s unusual behaviour isn’t referenced in either bookend episode.
An adjustment has been made to the comic moment when Capt. Christopher is intrigued by Spock’s ears; the new music frames the scene in a slightly more poignant tone.
A panning shot revealing McCoy on the bridge as the ship leaves Earth’s orbit, replaced by reaction shots of Kirk and Spock ('By Any Other Name'). This was to avoid any possible continuity problems.
The closing moments of the episode.
Several music additions and alterations, including the removal of several Captain’s Logs.
‘Assignment: Earth’
All in-episode credits have been re-created and are now placed after the opening credits.
The opening Captain’s Log.
Seven and Isis attacking the crew in the transporter room, and Seven being knocked out. Kirk’s following Log has thus been modified to account for its removal.
Several music additions and alterations, including the removal of several Captain’s Logs.
The ending has been modified, so that the Enterprise once again orbits and breaks from the sun to travel forward in time, this time successfully returning to it’s own time.
Footage sourced from:
TOS-R
Additionally sourced sfx from:
‘Star Trek: Sound Effects’
‘Spectre of the Gun’
Additional music from:
Star Trek: The Complete Soundtrack Collection
Running time: 3 x 50 min approx episodes
Format: MP4/AVI
Audio: AAC (MP4)/Stereo
