Return to Tomorrow

"Return to Tomorrow" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast February 9, 1968. It is episode #51, written by John Kingsbridge, and directed by Ralph Senensky.

Quick Overview: Telepathic aliens take control of Kirk and Spock's bodies.

On stardate 4768.3, the starship USS Enterprise picks up a curious distress call from a distant planet that was presumed uninhabited, the victim of an ancient global disaster. Upon their arrival, the crew makes contact with a telepathic being who speaks through their minds. The being identifies himself as Sargon, and requests Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock to come down to the planet.

Spock locates a remote power source deep within the planet, barely within sensor range, and Sargon indicates that is where he can be found. At first, Captain Kirk says he will go alone, but Sargon shuts the ship's power down. It comes back on only when he agrees to take Spock with him. Kirk and Spock go to the transporter room and find Dr. McCoy and Dr. Ann Mulhall waiting for them. The two have also been "summoned" by Sargon.

The four enter the transporter, accompanied by two armed security officers, but when the transports begins, only the requested four beam away leaving behind the bewildered security guards on their transporter pads. The landing party materializes in a deep subterranean vault, where they find a glowing sphere sitting on a pedestal. The sphere indicates that it is Sargon. He and two other spheres hold the last of the greatest surviving minds of his ancient people, stored here after a world war that devastated the planet half a million years ago. Sargon explains that they once had physical bodies, but they now exist as beings of pure thought, trapped inside the spheres like the one they see before them.

Sargon then takes control of Kirk, transferring his mind into Kirk's body and trapping Kirk's mind in the sphere. As Sargon adjusts to his new form, Dr. McCoy scans him, realizing Kirk's body is already rejecting Sargon's presence, and causing Kirk's metabolism and temperature to rise to dangerous levels. Sargon refuses to leave Kirk's body and insists his control will only be temporary – just long enough for he and his companions to construct artificial bodies they will later occupy. He indicates he will need Mr. Spock, and Dr. Mulhall's bodies for his remaining companions.

Sargon leads the party to another room where more spheres are found. Only two of them are glowing, the others are dark and cold. Sargon indicates the two active spheres hold the minds of Thalassa, his wife, and Henoch, a former enemy of his. Sargon explains that this is how they stored their minds after the war, and have been laying in wait for someone to find them. Kirk's body becomes too drained, so Sargon returns to the sphere and Kirk pops back into his body. Kirk is annoyed but agrees to help Sargon. The team gathers the active spheres and returns to the Enterprise.

Kirk, Spock and Dr. Mulhall take the spheres to sickbay where Dr. McCoy closely monitors the transfer of minds. Sargon returns to Kirk's body, while Henloch enters Spock, and Thalassa enters Mulhall. The three awaken and look over their new bodies, happy to finally be able to touch and feel again. Henloch prepares three hypospray injectors with a serum to ease their metabolic increases, but Nurse Chapel notices Sargon's injector looks different. Henloch senses her awareness and uses mind control to force her to ignore the fact.

The three aliens begin to manufacture their artificial bodies, but Sargon weakens and returns for another hypo injector. When he leaves, Henloch tries to persuade Thalassa that they should keep their living bodies, since the artificial ones will be unable to have physical sensations. While Thalassa considers, Henloch destroys his sphere which contained the mind of Spock.

Later the three aliens meet in the briefing room and make a case to keep their living bodies, but Sargon is far to weak and falls unconscious. McCoy rushes over to find Kirk's body near death. His body is moved to sickbay, where McCoy is able to keep him alive, but Kirk's mind is still trapped inside Sargon's sphere.

Henoch has completed an artificial body for Thalassa, but she refuses to transfer her consciousness into it, and instead offers to save Kirk, but only if she can keep Mulhall's body. McCoy refuses the deal, and Thalassa tries to invade his mind, but realizes what she is doing and stops. Suddenly Sargon's mental voice returns, and he claims he has taken refuge in the 'ship's computer. He indicates he has a plan to save Kirk, and Thalassa tells Dr. McCoy to leave the room.

McCoy leaves and moments later he feels the ship tremble, then sees Nurse Chapel as she exits sickbay in a daze. McCoy rushes in to see all three spheres have been destroyed and that Kirk and Dr. Mulhall have their original personalities back. Meanwhile, Henloch has fled to the bridge and taken control of the ship. Kirk has McCoy prepare a lethal injection for Henloch who is still in Spock's body, since the sphere that contained Spock's mind is now destroyed.

McCoy rushes to the bridge and tries to inject Henloch, but Henloch knocks him back. Henoch orders Nurse Chapel to inject McCoy with the deadly compound, but when she picks up the hypo she slams it into Spock's body. Henloch panics and tries desperately to possess someone else as Spock's body begins to collapse, but Thalassa and Sargon, (now both occupying the ship's computer), manage to keep him inside Spock where he dies.

Nurse Chapel leans over Spock's lifeless body and shudders for a moment, then moves back as Spock pops to life. McCoy is shocked and then Spock reveals he never transferred his mind to the sphere, instead he transferred to Nurse Chapel. They kept the secret from Dr. McCoy since Henloch would have discovered Spock's plan if he read McCoy's mind. Chapel informs McCoy, that she had also switched the lethal hypo for one with a fast acting sedative which would trick Henloch into thinking Spock's body was dying.

Meanwhile, Sargon and Thalassa decide to leave the Enterprise, but before they depart, they request to occupy Kirk and Mulhall one last time, so they can enjoy a final kiss before they die.

External Links