an unusual take on time travel represent instead of travel to earth past and the main trio get stick in the past history of another planet . they beam down to this planet and whose sun be schedule to go nova in 3 or 4 hour ( that cut it close . ) . in some kind of futuristic library and they meet mr. atoz ( a to z and get it . ha ha ) and his duplicate . it turn out and instead of escape their planet destruction via space travel and the usual way and the inhabitant have all escape into their planet various past time era . mr. atoz use a time machine to send people on their way after they make a selection ( check out the disc we see here and another trek prognostication of cd and dvd . ) . when mr. atoz prepare the machine ( the atavachron what si ) and gallant kirk hear a woman scream and run into the planet version of earth 17th century and where he get into a sword fight and be arrest for witchery . there an eccentric but good performance here by the actress play a female of ill repute in this time and use phrasing of the time ( . youre a bully fine coo . witch . witch . they will burn ye . ) . spock and mccoy follow kirk and but end up in an ice age and 5000 year earlier . kirk manages to get back to the library first . the real story here be spock reversion to the barbaric tendency of his ancestor and the warlike vulcan of 5000 year ago . this doesn not really make sense and except that maybe this time machine be responsible for the change ( even so and spock and mccoy weren not prepare by atoz oh and well while it also seem to me spock be affect by the transition almost immediately he mention be from amillions of light year away and instead of the correct hundred or thousand a gross error for a logical vulcan ) . in any case and spock really show his nasty side here forget day of the dove and remember this side of paradise mccoy quickly find out that his vulcan buddy will not stand for any of his usual baiting and nearly get his face rearrange . spock also get it on with zarabeth and a comely female who have be exile to this cold past a punishment ( a couple of trek novel be write about spock son and the result of this union ) . all these scene be eye opener and a reminder of just how much spock conceals or hold in . it also ironic that and only a few episode earlier ( requiem for methuselah ) and mccoy be point out to spock how he would never know the pain of love and now all this happen . kirk and meanwhile and tussle with the elderly atoz and who insist that kirk head back to some past era ( you be evidently a suicidal maniac great stuff from actor wolfe and last see in bread and circus ) . it all work out in the end and but and like i mention earlier and they cut it very close . a neat little trek adventure and with a definite cosmic slant .