I don’t claim to be an authority on the matter, but it seems like in the original “Star Trek” series, the Starship Enterprise went back to Earth like every other week. But mostly it was the crew encountering worlds that, for whatever reasons, developed into parallels of different periods of Earth’s history. So we got replica-Earths populated by plague-resistant children, Kirk and Spock battling Nazis, and Vic Tayback as a gangster in pinstripes.

But the first time the Enterprise went back to 20th century Earth for REAL (don’t worry, I know it’s fiction) was in the first season episode “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” (1967). Not to spoil anything, but this is the episode that introduces the “slingshot effect,” a convenient physics loophole later exploited in the movies.

Roy and I will attempt to perform the maneuver, in order to erase your memory of our original plan to cover “The Day After Tomorrow” (1975) – Gerry Anderson’s TV pilot that went nowhere – and to give the illusion that we are thorough, thoughtful programmers. Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be a lot easier just to employ a Jedi mind trick?

Be that as it may, we’re changing the program and moving it to a different night this week. I hope you’ll join us in the comments section for a discussion of “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We’ll still be screwed up from the time-change, when we livestream on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, this SUNDAY EVENING AT 7:00 EST!

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PHOTO: Who needs Jedi, when you’ve got crafty Kirk to play mind games?