“Yesteryear,” something of a follow-up to The City on the Edge of Forever, is a surprisingly rich episode. We get to see quite a bit of Spock’s childhood and there is classic mindfuck time-travel issues. (As with many time-travel shows, though, there is plenty of “but, waitaminute, that doesn’t make sense!”. . .but this is a cartoon and damned if I am going to worry about it or even print the contradictions here!!!) Again, it seems the humor and natural interactions between the characters has been sacrificed for plot — but maybe that is just the nature of the Filmation style of production. And who is playing young Spock? Jake Lloyd’s retarded cousin?!? Still, I won’t lie to you — I actually enjoyed watching this. I even (sigh of guilt and admission) watched it twice. (But not in a row!! And only because Ann wanted to see it!!!!)
This is arguably the best of the animated episodes.