Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 20 - "Return to Tomorrow"

Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

Roddenberry Entertainment

Star, Tv & Film, Science, Ethics, Trek, Meaning, Analysis, Fiction, Morals, Arts, Commentary, Performing Arts, Scifi, Messages, Tv Reviews, Roddenberry, Philosophy

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2013

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Return to Tomorrow," Kirk lends his body to a half-a-million-year-old being. He just wants to walk around, breathe, kiss his wife and build himself a robot body. But the half-a-million-year-old being borrowing Spock's body has other plans.

Hosted by John Champion & Ken Ray

Welcome to Mission Log, a Roddenberry Entertainment podcast where we explore the Star Trek universe one episode at a time. Each week, Mission Log examines a single episode of Star Trek, diving into its ethical subtext, metaphors, and cultural significance. From the show's most iconic moments to its hidden gems, we analyze what makes Star Trek one of the greatest science fiction sagas of all time...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Now entering nerdist.com.
0:05.4	Mission Log, a Rodenberry Star Trek podcast, episode 49.
0:10.5	Return to tomorrow. Welcome to another episode of Mission Log, a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast. In this receptacle, I am the thought energy of John Champion.
0:36.0	And in this receptacle, I am the thought energy of Ken Ray.
0:39.6	Each week, we join our consciousness with an episode of Star Trek to see if we can determine the morals, messages, and meanings.
0:46.4	And then we'll figure out if they stand the test of time, just like our robot bodies well in the future.
0:53.9	Ken, for some reason, I picture you've already got a robot body in the works in the garage.
0:59.3	Grow the nanobots, dude.
1:00.9	I am absolutely, no.
1:02.8	No, I got plans.
1:04.3	I mean, don't misunderstand.
1:05.6	I'm sure I've got drawings.
1:07.1	I mean, and sure, I am saving up for a 3D printer.
1:10.4	But no, it's not like I've got a robot body waiting.
1:13.7	Otherwise, it wouldn't be waiting.
1:17.6	You'd already be there.
1:19.2	I picture the plans of the robot body.
1:21.2	It's like, here's a drawing of Ken.
1:23.1	And then you have, on the other end of the wall, you have the drawing of the robot body with the, you know, gears, levers, eyeballs, all that stuff. And then in the middle, you've seen that far side cartoon. And then a miracle happens. Well, it's not the far side. Yeah, that is what you're talking about. I will say. It wasn't the far side. No, I can't. It's just sort of a, it's one of those. It's not the far side. I do know that. But I also know what you're talking about.
1:47.8	No, gears and levers, though, those are completely inefficient, dude.
1:52.0	I'm building mine out of jelly, just like the good people in return to tomorrow.
2:03.0	And that is the episode that we're talking about in which the disembodied consciousnesses of free aliens decide to spend a little time inside our enterprise crew as they're building those robot bodies out of jelly and gears.
	...

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