“Good news, kids — there’s a Star Trek cartoon show! And the TV Guide says this week’s episode is
about Spock going back in time to meet himself as a child on Vulcan! Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Thirty minutes later: “Why are you crying?”
This is a review of my favorite episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series,
“Yesteryear.” If you have not seen this episode,
and you don’t want to know what happens in it, be warned: spoilers beyond this point!
“Yesteryear” is not only my favorite episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series — it seems
to be just about everybody’s. I don’t care about what is and isn’t considered canon, personally,
but I do think it’s telling that back when the canonicity of The Animated Series was in question,
one of the only episodes that the producers of subsequent Star Trek shows definitely
considered canon was this one. “Yesteryear” established a bunch of stuff about Vulcan,
and about Spock’s backstory, that stuck around and became permanent parts of the fiction:
the desert known as the Forge; Spock’s pet sehlat — which is first mentioned in The
Original Series, but not actually seen on screen until “Yesteryear,”
and when a sehlat is seen in an episode of Enterprise decades later, it looks more or
less the same as the one we see in “Yesteryear”; the scene of Spock being bullied by other kids for
his human heritage — that scene is adapted with only a few changes for the 2009 Star Trek film.
And the question that we, as thoughtful and critical fans of Star Trek, should ask is: why?
Why has “Yesteryear” been the one episode of The Animated Series to
be universally accepted as canon even when the rest of it wasn’t?
There’s a practical answer — this episode tells us things about Vulcan and about Spock’s character
history, so when the creators of later shows in the franchise had a need to refer to those things,
they pulled from The Animated Series, because why not? But I think it goes beyond that — because,
as I’m always saying, Star Trek is made up, it’s not a documentary, which means writers of stories
that came after “Yesteryear” didn’t have to treat it as though it “actually happened” — they could
have just made up their own stuff about Vulcan, or Spock’s childhood, or whatever.
I think the true reason why “Yesteryear” was treated as canon by other Star Trek
writers even when the rest of The Animated Series wasn’t, is that it’s just an excellent episode.
What jumped out at me as I watched it this time is how much of that excellence is carried by
the script. There are multiple barriers that could potentially keep an audience,
especially an adult audience, from engaging with this story. These barriers are a result of the
nature of the series — by today’s standards, the animation is low budget and relatively simplistic;
the voice acting is stilted at best and at worst, as in the case of the child actor
providing the voice of young Spock, pretty awful — but somehow, by the end, none of that matters,
because the script is so good that it’s able to smash through those barriers.
The story is simple: Kirk and Spock return to the present after a research trip into the
past through the Guardian of Forever, and find that no one other than Kirk recognizes Spock.
The Enterprise’s first officer is now an Andorian named Thelin. They do some checking in the records
and discover that the timeline has been changed, that Spock died as a child, and that his parents
separated following his death and his mother was ultimately killed in a shuttle accident.
Spock remembers a time when he was seven years old and his cousin Selek saved his
life in the desert. After talking it over with Kirk, Spock realizes that his cousin Selek,
who he never saw again after that, was actually himself as an adult,
meaning that he was destined to travel back in time to meet himself as a child. The timeline
was changed when some historians used the Guardian to observe Vulcan history while Spock was in the
past with Kirk. Since adult Spock was unable to be there to save himself, he died at age seven.
So, Spock uses the Guardian of Forever to go back in time, meets his father Sarek,
passes himself off as cousin Selek, and follows his younger self out onto the Forge
when seven-year-old Spock runs away determined to prove himself. Young Spock’s pet sehlat, I-Chaya,
comes along. Adult Spock is able to intervene and rescue his younger self when a Vulcan cougar that
looks like Battle Kat and sounds like Godzilla attacks, but unfortunately I-Chaya is injured
by the creature’s poisonous claws. Young Spock races back across the desert to the
city to bring a healer, but by the time the healer arrives, it’s too late — I-Chaya cannot be saved.
ass The healer gives
Young Spock a choice: allow his pet to live on in pain, or give him a peaceful death now. Young
Spock chooses to euthanize I-Chaya, wanting his beloved pet to die with dignity. They return home,
Sarek is impressed with how Young Spock handled himself in the desert, Sarek bids farewell to who
he thinks is cousin Selek, and adult Spock says, “Do me a favor: try to understand your son. And,
when he’s eight years old, if he happens to set fire to the living room rug . . . go easy on him.”
Adult Spock returns to the present, everything is back the way it was before, Kirk says “How’d it
go?” Spock says, “Fine, except my pet died.” Kirk says, “A pet? Well, that wouldn’t mean much in the
course of time.” And Spock is like, “It might, to some — you monster! I thought you were my friend!”
And that’s pretty much it. This episode makes an excellent case for the half-hour format being well
suited to Star Trek. A lot happens in “Yesteryear” — it never feels rushed thanks to the skillful
pacing, and thanks to the half-hour running time, it never drags. And in between hitting
its major plot beats, the story still finds time for meaningful moments with these characters.
There’s a show of respect between Spock and his temporary replacement Thelin,
where Thelin realizes that if Spock succeeds in his mission to the past, Thelin’s time as
the first officer of the Enterprise will be erased from history. Thelin’s not mad, though — he gets
it — Spock is trying to save his own life, and the life of his mother. Thelin wishes him luck.
There’s a scene between Sarek and Young Spock where we see the pressure that Sarek
is putting on his son, and how much Young Spock feels he has to live up to. And,
there’s a similar scene between Adult Spock and Young Spock when they’re out in the desert,
where Adult Spock assures his younger self that his human heritage is nothing
to be ashamed of or worried about, and that the Vulcan way of living through logic and
emotional control is a path to serenity that few humans will ever experience.
And then, of course, there’s the scene where Young Spock is confronted with the death of I-Chaya,
and forced to choose. Does he make the selfish choice,
to keep his pet around a little longer even though I-Chaya will be in pain?
Or does he make the selfless choice, and release his pet from suffering?
The euthanasia of I-Chaya is the focal point of a lot of discussion about this episode,
because it’s unusual for a kid’s show, especially a kid’s show in the 1970s,
to deal with such a heavy topic. And I agree, the episode does deserve to be complimented for that,
and for how well it handles that subject matter. But, what I really appreciate about it from a
storytelling point of view is how it manages to both fulfill and subvert our expectations.
Young Spock is nervous about a coming-of-age ritual he’ll have to undergo soon, so he runs
away to the desert to prove that he’s tough enough to meet this challenge, just like the
full-blooded Vulcan kids who are always picking on him. We expect Young Spock will have to prove
himself by surviving the elements, or through an act of courage, or something like that. The
episode sets us up for a test of Young Spock’s physical endurance and maturity. But instead,
we get the death of I-Chaya, and the crucial test becomes not a physical one, but an emotional one.
It’s a bit of a slide, it’s very well done, and it pays off the “Young Spock must prove
himself” set up perfectly, and in a way we don’t necessarily expect.
This episode is written by D.C. Fontana, arguably the most important writer who worked on Star Trek:
The Original Series. Though she served as story editor for the entire series,
“Yesteryear” is the only episode of The Animated Series she actually wrote
herself. And it shows — I have a soft spot for The Animated Series, I enjoy it a lot,
“Yesteryear” is certainly not the only good episode, but it’s a cut above the rest,
and that’s because of the script. Fontana understands these characters,
understands this world, and tells a story that is meaningful, has real emotional weight,
is able to transcend the technical and aesthetic limitations of the show, and is accessible to
both children and grown-ups without feeling like it panders to either demographic. It’s not just
a good animated Star Trek story, or a good Star Trek story — it’s a good story, period.
Those are my thoughts on “Yesteryear,” my favorite episode of Star Trek:
The Animated Series. What’s your favorite Animated Series episode? Please share it with
me in the comments. If you’d like to support this channel — and I sure wish you would,
if you can afford it — you can do so by becoming a patron at patreon.com/steveshives,
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Don’t forget to watch for my review of the sixth episode of season three of Star Trek:
Picard. I’m teaming up with my best friend and podcast co-host Jason Harding to review this
final season of Picard. Our next review will be a little late — we typically do them on Saturday,
but we won’t be able to do this one until Monday due to Jason’s work schedule — it’s all Jason’s
fault, I take no responsibility. So, look for that on Monday. And please join me again at
this time next week for another retro review. I’ll be starting a new batch of these, looking
at episodes that feature guest stars from previous Trek series! And I’m beginning with the two-part
TNG episode that had the heroes of Star Trek: The Next Generation meet Spock: “Unification”!
I’ll see you then. Thanks for watching and take care, everybody!