Even if you’ve never watched an episode of The Animated Series, odds are, you’ve heard mention of the events that take place in “Yesteryear,” even if you are unfamiliar with the episode title. Written by D.C. Fontana, it is perhaps the best of the animated episodes and one of the most influential. Star Trek 2009 borrowed from it extensively, and I’d argue that some of the portrayals of Vulcans in Enterprise owe a debt to Fontana’s conception of the Shi’Kahr of Spock’s youth. However, at its heart, “Yesteryear” is about a choice made and how that choice becomes a watershed moment in Spock’s life.
Plot Ahoy!
In “Yesteryear,” the Enterprise has returned to the Guardian of Forever to allow Spock and Kirk to watch the dawn of the Orion civilization for reasons that never get explained. While Spock and Kirk are gallivanting around Orion, a team of Federation historians use the Guardian to review recent Vulcan history. When Spock and Kirk return to their appropriate time, they discover that no one recognizes Spock and that the position of First Officer has been filled by an Andorian named Thalen. After some investigation, they discover that both Spock and his human mother Amanda have died, meaning that Spock obviously never made it into Starfleet. They go over everything they possibly could have done to change the timeline and can only conclude that the changes are somehow tied to the historians’ quick peek at Vulcan history.
Conveniently, Spock remembers being rescued in the desert by a mysterious cousin Selek on the same day he allegedly died in the kahs-wan, which is the ritual of maturity for young Vulcan males. Typically of Vulcans, the ritual is extremely extra and involves spending ten days in Vulcan’s most inhospitable desert without food or water. Spock and Kirk determine that this “Selek” must be Spock having returned to the past in order to save his own life. Spock steps into the persona of Selek and has the Guardian transport him back to his own youth.
Spock, having now assumed the identity of Selek, has weirdly little trouble convincing Sarek that he’s a cousin of a cadet branch of Sarek’s house, and Sarek invites him to stay with the family. Spock agrees and mulls over the discrepancy in his memory and with what seems to be going on in the house. Meanwhile, younger Spock, fresh off of a scolding from his father for lashing out at the bullies accusing him of being human, decides to head out early in order to test himself. The older Spock remembers that he snuck out in order to prove to himself in his ability to survive, and he follows his younger self into the desert. However, he isn’t the only one following young Spock. Young Spock’s pet sehlat named I-Chaya follows him, and when a le-matya corners the boy, I-Chaya launches himself at the beast, giving Selek enough time to neutralize the le-matya.
As it happens, le-matya have poisonous claws, and I-Chaya sustained a wound from one of these, meaning that the enormous beast is now dying. Selek offers to race across the desert to bring a healer, but young Spock decides that it is his duty to bring the healer. Resolved, the boy heads out on his mission. When he returns, it is too late for I-Chaya, and young Spock must make the decision to release his beloved pet from its suffering.
They return to Sarek’s house, and Selek departs back to his own time, where he finds the timeline restored and McCoy as irascible as ever.
Analysis
Spock gets the opportunity here basically to go back and relive this incredible, watershed moment in his life, and he gets to watch his younger self make the choice as to which path he’ll tread for the rest of this life. As a young boy, Spock finds himself torn between two cultures—his mother’s and his father’s. Sarek puts incredible pressure on his son to be the perfect Vulcan, chastising him for his behavior rather than validating the boy’s understandable upset at being bullied. We see very little of Amanda’s parenting style and mostly only hear what both Spocks say about their mother. She apparently encourages Spock to follow in his father’s traditions while still remaining as emotional as any human would be.
Spock finds it difficult to process this dichotomy, and that’s going to be an issue that will haunt him for most of his life. Spock as “Selek” gets the opportunity to offer his younger self not only advice but an understanding that his parents cannot offer him. He is therefore the perfect individual to stand with the boy as he makes the decision to euthanize I-Chaya. The old sehlat serves as a metaphor for Spock’s childhood, as even though this ordeal isn’t the official kahs-wan, it’s more important because Spock needs to prove himself in his own way on his own terms.
He returns to his home and announces to his parents that he has chosen the Vulcan way, to Sarek’s approval and to Amanda’s rapidly concealed disappointment, but what’s interesting here is that Spock tells both Sarek and the viewer that his Vulcan way will not entirely be the one embraced by his father. “Selek” teaches his younger self the Vulcan neck pinch, and Spock immediately determines that he’s going to give his bullies a practical demonstration of his skills. I don’t really know that one can make an argument that revenge is logical, but that’s exactly what the younger Spock plans.
This is that first glimpse of the Spock that will defy his father by joining Starfleet. Young Spock makes an off-hand comment that I-Chaya belonged to his father before he belonged to Spock, and that statement is more important than its seemingly throw-away nature would imply. Spock’s decision to allow the healer to euthanize I-Chaya is therefore not just a metaphor for the death of childhood, but it’s also, in part, a rejection of Sarek’s vision for Spock. Because he had to rush across the desert to save his beloved pet, Spock now knows that he’s capable, so he doesn’t need his father’s approval. Upon returning home, Spock doesn’t seek approval from Sarek for his decision to throw himself into this ordeal that cost the sehlat its life. He asserts that doing so was necessary, and Sarek’s opinion is not required.
Sarek’s terrible parenting merits a column by itself, but “Yesteryear” portrays the root of his conflict with his son. In the episode, Spock really comes into his own, and that version of Spock is never going to meet his father’s expectations, which we see in TOS episode “Journey to Babel.” This history renders Sarek’s promise to honor Selek’s request to try and understand his son all the more painful. As Spock observes, there’s a lot of significance to the death of this particular pet.
Rating:
Four cups of Vulcan tea
Stray Thoughts From Behind the Couch
- No, I do not know why Vulcan children apparently dress as though they’re extras from Zardoz.
- Lady Amanda’s weirdly sexy pose during her discussion with Spock makes absolutely no sense.
- Yes, that is Mark Lenard’s voice we hear as Sarek.
- Sarek is a terrible, terrible parent, and I will die on this hill.
- Vulcans apparently have a long history of being “logically” racist.