I spent five years as a pupil librarian at school, but I never encountered one that acted like Mr Atoz.
This post contains spoilers for Strange New Worlds.
In the penultimate episode of the original series, the main trio arrive on a planet whose star is about to go "nova" - I think they mean supernova - to warn the inhabitants. They're cutting it rather fine - they have just over three hours - and the fact that the civilisation doesn't seem to have space travel, thus causing Prime Directive issues, isn't mentioned. Then again, the Prime Directive is the stretchiest directive Starfleet has.
There they discover the sole remaining inhabitant is a librarian and a bunch of his replicas. All the inhabitants bar him have decided to evacuate into their planet's past via a time portal system, causality not being a concern it seems.
Then, after hearing a scream, Kirk ends up going back in time. Spock and McCoy follow... then end up in another part of the history, namely its ice age.
This is one of two episodes written by a librarian who didn't give up the day job and indeed never sold another script after this. Not wishing to disrespect a fellow librarian, but this isn't exactly the best episode, although perhaps it got heavily changed during production.
I would mention here that only the three leads appear on camera. Scotty gets a few communicator lines, but everyone else, along with the Enterprise set is absent.
Kirk ends up in a 17th century type era, where he rescues a woman thief from a male mob and then gets arrested himself, being accused of witchcraft after Spock and McCoy's voices come through the portal. This one allows the studio to break out the vintage costumes, while also resulting in a very violent assault on the Irish accent. This is arguably the better of the two plots.
Now Spock has been a bit of a player in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds lately, having broken up with Nurse Chapel and rebounded, as of the most recent episode, onto security officer La'an Noonien-Singh. Yet, in this episode, it is implied that Spock is doing what he does her for the first time.
Falling in love with the Sexy Lady of the Week.
As Spock and McCoy are freezing to death in what looks like the standard rock set sprayed with snow,, McCoy starts getting frostbite - and then a mysterious figure in a fur cloak rescues them. My notes comments words to the effect of "That's one big Jawa". Then I remember the episode image from Netflix and realise, yep, it's a sexy redhead. She takes her hood off, takes them to her personal cave, then reveals that she is Zarabeth, a political dissident exiled to this Ice Age. Played by Mariette Hartley, who would later go on to get an Emmy and four further nominations, she is very well coiffured for a banished person.
Then she takes her cloak off and I wonder if William Ware Theiss had decided to go for broke as the series was going to be cancelled anyway.
(This aired 14 March 1969; the final installment, "Turnabout Intruder" would not air until 1 June)
As outfits go, this is seriously skimpy. I am not sure this woman is wearing any underwear; the outfit is definitely backless. In HD, her nipples are getting rather noticeable. Yet, her navel is duly covered up, just as NBC mandated. In an age where navel gazing is a prominent part of a female-loving person's formative TV experiences (I thought you said we'd done all the double entendres - Ed.), getting hung up on this seems rather strange. I can see multiple midriffs just walking down my High Street. Anyway, I checked to see if I am done with Theiss and his controversial approach to costuming, but no, he does the first season of The Next Generation.
Anyway, even with her cloak on, Zarabeth would still be in danger of hypothermia. Some explanation is given for the warm cave and other resources, but not a fully convincing one.
Anyway, Spock falls in love with this lady, they get smoochy and also the climate starts getting to Spock. Increasingly tired and emotional, not in the alcohol-related meaning of the term, he reacts to another one of McCoy's anti-Vulcan insults by getting physical. McCoy seems to make a rather quick frostbite recovery considering this episode is only supposed to take a few hours of time.
Anyway, Kirk manages to get back to the library and by destroying all the replicas, followed-up by a half-Nelson, persuade Atoz to help bring the other two back, but Zarabeth is unable to return due to some alteration to her body as part of the time-travel process. Spock sadly leaves her behind and decides to go all James Bond in Casino Royale over her because of her death long in the past. They beam out and the Enterprise warps out just as the sun goes up, taking the planet and its entire history with it.
Roll credits.
Conclusion
A distinctly mediocre episode that is yet another case of a good idea, but a bad execution.
5/10
Just one more to go now.
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