Rating: 
Summary: Good N' Plenty
Review: "Savage Curtain" An alien decides to test Kirk & Spock on their concepts of "good" & "evil" by creating duplicates of Abraham Lincoln & Surak."All Our Yesterdays" Kirk, Spock & McCoy are lost somewhere in the past. How will they get back? NOTE: Shatner, Nimoy, & De Kelley are the only 3 people from the original cast to be in this story! There are no shots of the inside of the Enterprise whatsoever!
Rating: 
Summary: Spock thaws out in the ice age.
Review: "All Our Yesterdays (1966)"
Getting a chance to check out a sun getting ready to go nova, the Enterprise goes to a planet called Sarpeidon. There is no one there to receive them. So they naturally go to the library to find out why the people seem to be missing. The librarian of course mistakes them for locals. Everyone was evacuated to the past (pre-nova). You know Kirk; he hears a woman in distress and rushes to the rescue, not realizing that he went though the atavacron that sends you back in time. Then there are his crewmates; they goof up trying to rescue Kirk and end up in the ice age. Spock eats meat and gets the hots for Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley.) You will have to watch the film to see how they get out of this one.
This is not one of my favorite and I do not keep it with the 20' history episodes. The best of them is Episode 28, The City on the Edge of Forever (1967) ASIN: 6305910529. But be sure to read the book first. ISBN: 1565049640
Rating: 
Summary: "It Was the Best of Treks, It Was the Worst of Treks..."
Review: I suppose you could get sillier and more childishly simplistic than to find an unbelievable lava-rock monster pitting Abraham Lincoln against Genghis Khan on an arena planet (with Kirk and Spock aiding the centuries-dead ex-president) to see whether good is stronger than evil, but - come to think of it, no you couldn't. That's "The Savage Curtain," probably the worst-ever episode of the series. "All Our Yesterdays" is one of the best-ever. Kirk, Spock and McCoy try to evacuate the inhabitants of a planet about to be devastated by a supernova, only to find that they've already found their own way out via the Atavachron, a time-machine that sends people back into the past, out of harm's way. Kindly Mr. Atoz (Ian Wolfe) and his numerous clones mistake the Enterprise personnel for people needing to be evacuated - so, Kirk soon finds himself accused of being a witch in a 17th century setting to which he is sent against his will, and Spock and McCoy are sent back to the planet's Ice Age. The sole human resident in that Ice Age is the fetching Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley), a sad and tragic forgotten prisoner who falls madly in love with Spock (and he with her) and will do anything to keep him with her - even if it's possible to send the misplaced pair back to the place from whence they came. This is a great episode, owing largely to Hartley's moving performance as the doomed beauty, Zarabeth. Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley really shine in this story, McCoy going crazy and Spock succumbing to his atavistically violent Vulcan lusts. Shatner does pretty well too, but this is really Nimoy and Kelley's time to show what they've got.
Rating:
Summary: Okay I guess.
Review: If you ignore the cheesy love story in All our Yesterdays, and just focus on the Savage Curtain, you see a pretty good story of the Captain and Mr. Spock meeting some of their childhood heroes, some good acting by the guest stars, and what emerged as the last really good episode produced on the original Trek series.
Rating:
Summary: Great Quality Triumphs for Trek
Review: Savage Curtain and All Our Yesterdays are 2 of my favorite episodes of the classic series. Although, Savage borders on the rediculous and is laughable at times, it is never-the-less entertaining. I didn't know Klingons were such great impersonators..."Help me Spock! Now can you cry like Lincoln...Help me KIRK!" Now can you do Durante...Ah cha cha cha! All Our Yesterdays is a great love story episode for Spock and introduces the intriguing "Atavachron" device, transporting people to different time periods. Paramount's attention to quality with color and sound has been excellent, although the DVD releases have not been perfect(Doomsday Machine had missing music cues). Both episodes are fun and if you've been collecting the dvd's, you might as well purchase this one!
Rating:
Summary: Spock encounters Surak and falls in love with Zarabeth
Review: Spock has to deal with primitive circumstances on two separate occasions on Volume 39 of the Star Trek DVD series. First up is "The Savage Curtain," which finds the Enterprise surveying the planet Excalbia when Abraham Lincoln appears on the viewscreen and is quickly beamed aboard. Lincoln invites Kirk and Spock to the planet, where they encounter Surak, father of Vulcan philosophy. Then a rock creature named Yarnek comes alive and explains its race has no conception of good or evil and wants to find out which is stronger. These four good beings will have to fight four evil figures from history: Genghis Khan, Colonel Green (leader of a genocidal war on Earth in the 21st century), Kahless the Unforgettable and Zora (who experimented with the body chemistry of subject tribes on Tiburon). So, on the one hand we have your standard superior alien tests the crew of the Enterprise to render some sort of inane judgments, but on the other hand we have Kirk and Spock meeting Lincoln and Surak. There is something to be said for meeting a figure you admire from history, which makes Kirk's willingness to treat "Lincoln" as being "real" so believable. Or, as Surak says, "Whatever I am, Spock, would it harm you to give response?" Everyone is forced to fight with sticks and stones, which does not prove much to my way of thinking, which makes "The Savage Curtain" an average episode of Star Trek at best. But any episode with Abraham Lincoln in it cannot be all bad, even on "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone." "All Our Yesterdays" finds the Enterprise visiting the planet Sarpeidon, three hours before its sun goes nova. Apparently all of the inhabitants have disappared. Kirk, Spock and McCoy discover a library run by Mr. Atoz, where a time portal has been used to send the inhabitants to the planet's past, where they can live out their lives. Assuming the trio are Sarpeidonians, Mr. Atoz urges them to make their selections. However, Kirk hears a woman screams and jumps through a portal, only to find himself in a time of swashbucklers. Spock and McCoy follow only to find themselves 5,000 years in the past during the last Sarpeidonian Ice Age. There they encounter Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley), a young woman imprisoned there. Spock, reverting to the savage, emotional beings Vulcans were during this time, falls in love with Zarabeth. This last element makes "All Our Yesterdays" quite reminiscent of "This Side of Paradise" from the first season of Star Trek. So, on the one hand we have Spock falling in love, with the lovely and talented Mariette Hartley decked out in white fur no less, but on the other hand we have seen Spock be "happy for a while" before. That necessarily lessens the impact of this episode. The idea of saving the population by sending them to the past is certainly interesting, although the temporal ramifications would be infinite, but I really do not understand how sending Spock to the past makes him regress. Obviously this is just one of those creative indulgences that writers come up with to connect the dots and since some interesting things come from this flight of fancy, allowances can be made. Still, this is another average Star Trek episode.
Rating:
Summary: Spock encounters Surak and falls in love with Zarabeth
Review: Spock has to deal with primitive circumstances on two separate occasions on Volume 39 of the Star Trek DVD series. First up is "The Savage Curtain," which finds the Enterprise surveying the planet Excalbia when Abraham Lincoln appears on the viewscreen and is quickly beamed aboard. Lincoln invites Kirk and Spock to the planet, where they encounter Surak, father of Vulcan philosophy. Then a rock creature named Yarnek comes alive and explains its race has no conception of good or evil and wants to find out which is stronger. These four good beings will have to fight four evil figures from history: Genghis Khan, Colonel Green (leader of a genocidal war on Earth in the 21st century), Kahless the Unforgettable and Zora (who experimented with the body chemistry of subject tribes on Tiburon). So, on the one hand we have your standard superior alien tests the crew of the Enterprise to render some sort of inane judgments, but on the other hand we have Kirk and Spock meeting Lincoln and Surak. There is something to be said for meeting a figure you admire from history, which makes Kirk's willingness to treat "Lincoln" as being "real" so believable. Or, as Surak says, "Whatever I am, Spock, would it harm you to give response?" Everyone is forced to fight with sticks and stones, which does not prove much to my way of thinking, which makes "The Savage Curtain" an average episode of Star Trek at best. But any episode with Abraham Lincoln in it cannot be all bad, even on "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone." "All Our Yesterdays" finds the Enterprise visiting the planet Sarpeidon, three hours before its sun goes nova. Apparently all of the inhabitants have disappared. Kirk, Spock and McCoy discover a library run by Mr. Atoz, where a time portal has been used to send the inhabitants to the planet's past, where they can live out their lives. Assuming the trio are Sarpeidonians, Mr. Atoz urges them to make their selections. However, Kirk hears a woman screams and jumps through a portal, only to find himself in a time of swashbucklers. Spock and McCoy follow only to find themselves 5,000 years in the past during the last Sarpeidonian Ice Age. There they encounter Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley), a young woman imprisoned there. Spock, reverting to the savage, emotional beings Vulcans were during this time, falls in love with Zarabeth. This last element makes "All Our Yesterdays" quite reminiscent of "This Side of Paradise" from the first season of Star Trek. So, on the one hand we have Spock falling in love, with the lovely and talented Mariette Hartley decked out in white fur no less, but on the other hand we have seen Spock be "happy for a while" before. That necessarily lessens the impact of this episode. The idea of saving the population by sending them to the past is certainly interesting, although the temporal ramifications would be infinite, but I really do not understand how sending Spock to the past makes him regress. Obviously this is just one of those creative indulgences that writers come up with to connect the dots and since some interesting things come from this flight of fancy, allowances can be made. Still, this is another average Star Trek episode.
Rating:
Summary: Ying And Yang
Review: The Savage Curtain is one of the strangest and most absurd episodes of the 3rd seaon. While providing some more background on Vulcan it parades through a lengthy battle scene that is sure to put the most dovish people to sleep. I'm not advocating violence for violence sake but it wouldn't have hurt here. All Our Yesterdays has its share of stupidity as well. Kirk and Spock haven't learned anything from all their previous voyages by they way they act in this story. 'Leap before you Look' is the theme here. Maybe Spock's behavior is poorly explained but this story led to one of my favorite Trek novels Yesterday's Son and its follow up Time For Yesterday. 4 stars on that alone.
Rating:
Summary: Ying And Yang
Review: The Savage Curtain is one of the strangest and most absurd episodes of the 3rd seaon. While providing some more background on Vulcan it parades through a lengthy battle scene that is sure to put the most dovish people to sleep. I'm not advocating violence for violence sake but it wouldn't have hurt here. All Our Yesterdays has its share of stupidity as well. Kirk and Spock haven't learned anything from all their previous voyages by they way they act in this story. 'Leap before you Look' is the theme here. Maybe Spock's behavior is poorly explained but this story led to one of my favorite Trek novels Yesterday's Son and its follow up Time For Yesterday. 4 stars on that alone.
Rating:
Summary: Star Trek on its last legs
Review: The Savage Curtain-Another real tanker, this one is a sort of celebrity death match in which Lincoln and the good guys throw down with Genghis and the bad company. Everything about this episode feels dark and pessimistic, including the lighting. Even
the scenes with Lincoln are oddly cold and foreboding. Once on the planet, things become even more frightful. The rock aliens are some of the creepier and crueler of Star Trek creatures, particularly given their specious reasons for wanting to watch a battle between good and evil. The episode's dream-like feel makes the threats seem real, even though the plot is laughably simple. The episode is classic 3rd season in never even attempting to reach a firm conclusion about the philosophical question it poses as well. Tidbit: Another gaffe occurs here. Not only is the negative reversed in one shot of Kirk and Spock during the fight sequence, but there seems to be an unintentional speed change of some sort. Very bizarre. (2 stars) All Our Yesterdays-This Salem witch trial/ ice age time travel episode fares pretty well in comparison with its neighbors (although not its projenitor, City on the Edge of Forever). Which is to say, there is some drama and some semblance of a plot. In that inimitable 3rd season way, even the first minute of the teaser is somehow menacing. We sense that something is a little off, and that the Triumvirate is in for trouble, even before we meet the extra librarians. Part of it is the dramatic music played at the very start of all these late 3rd season shows. Part of it is that they were relying almost exclusively on early introduction of the "Kirk/ Enterprise in danger" crutch at this point in the show's run. In any event, Kirk, like a curious and courageous dog, bolts off into the great unknown, triggering a cascade of misfortune. By this point in the show, the stars were often no wiser than the guest characters; why did they ignore Mr. Atoz in the first place? As the Triumverate grows colder, less idealistic, dumber, and less faithful to their characters, we care less about their fates (see That Which Survives, Whom Gods Destroy, The Way to Eden, and Requiem for Methuselah for nearby examples). But back to the episode. While the library idea is interesting, much more could have been done with it. Both time travels end up being pretty banal. And the rationale for Spock's personality change is weak at best. On the other hand, its an interesting change from his normal behavior. The conclusion of this episode, with the enterprise outpacing the fireball, has the now characteristic rushed feel, as though the bags were packed for the next flight even before the director said, 'that's a wrap'. Gone are the short little wrap-ups on the bridge; oh well, they were often hokey anyway. Tid bit: The librarian's name is Mr. Atoz (A to Z) (3 stars)
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