# Return to Tomorrow (TOS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342 "2019-06-10T23:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/1 "2019-06-10T23:32:09Z")
What does that title even mean? Damn, Ms. Muldaur is fine. I think thats the ep I’ve seen the fewest times. It was fun. Nimoy is great. I’m gonna headcanon that the android tech they left behind was used eventually by Noonian Singh. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/2 "2019-06-11T02:50:48Z")
It means whoever came up with episode titles wasn’t very deep. Return to Tomorrow is All Our Yesterdays’s Enterprise. 🙂 I always thought it was referring to Sargon et al returning to the society they had which was beyond ours, hence “tomorrow”. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/3 "2019-06-11T05:27:27Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Return to Tomorrow is All Our Yesterdays’s Enterprise. It did give us my favorite Shatner outtake: “Have no fear … \*\*Sargon \*\*is here!” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/4 "2019-06-11T10:05:29Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > What does that title even mean? The three minds have been dormant for a long time. They are returning, and from their point of view it is the future, or tomorrow. > [@](#): > > I’m gonna headcanon that the android tech they left behind was used eventually by Noonian Singh. Soong. [Noonien Singh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh) was a different guy. And it’s spelt with an e. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/5 "2019-06-11T14:33:37Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The three minds have been dormant for a long time. They are returning, and from their point of view it is the future, or tomorrow. > > Soong. > > [Noonien Singh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh) was a different guy. > > And it’s spelt with an e. I bet Khan could have figgered it out too!!! Also I enjoyed: Kirk (to a FULL FUCKING LIEUTENANT COMMANDER): “Who are you??” I guess Kirk just gave up even pretending to not remember peoples names. No 'snapping his finger and saying “Uhm…Yeoman…?” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/6 "2019-06-11T14:47:32Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I bet Khan could have figgered it out too!!! > > Also I enjoyed: > > Kirk (to a FULL FUCKING LIEUTENANT COMMANDER): “Who are you??” The response is even better: “I was ordered to report here for landing party duty.” “By whom?” “Strange, I’m not sure.” Duh! Maybe she should have tried to find out? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/7 "2019-06-11T15:06:30Z")
But then, Mulhall gets promoted to **Carrier Of The Suitcase Containing The Ugliest Ambassador In The Whole Universe**. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/8 "2019-06-11T16:07:26Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > But then, Mulhall gets promoted to **Carrier Of The Suitcase Containing The Ugliest Ambassador In The Whole Universe**. After which, she gets promoted to **Doctor With the Worst Bedside Manner in History**. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/9 "2019-06-11T16:22:03Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > After which, she gets promoted to **Doctor With the Worst Bedside Manner in History**. She calls Data “Datta” and can’t figure out why that upsets him. Wish she’d fallen down a turbolift shaft. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/10 "2019-06-11T16:23:16Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Soong. > > [Noonien Singh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh) was a different guy. > > And it’s spelt with an e. A minor hijack, but the lack of imagination in naming characters was disappointing. I was confused when I first heard Data’s [”father”](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Noonian_Soong)’s name because I suspected he was somehow connected to the long-deceased [villain](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh). :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/11 "2019-06-11T17:39:54Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > She calls Data “Datta” and can’t figure out why that upsets him. Well, strictly speaking, that \*is \*correct: one datum, two or more data (both with short “a”). It’s a Latin word. “Data” (with long “a”) is an English corruption. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/12 "2019-06-11T17:46:48Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Well, strictly speaking, that \*is \*correct: one datum, two or more data (both with short “a”). > > It’s a Latin word. “Data” (with long “a”) is an English corruption. One is his name, the other is not. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/13 "2019-06-11T18:53:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > One is his name, the other is not. This is true. Dr Soong should have known better. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/14 "2019-06-11T18:57:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > She calls Data “Datta” and can’t figure out why that upsets him. > > Wish she’d fallen down a turbolift shaft. I saw what you did there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/15 "2019-06-11T19:54:27Z")
> [@Mars\_Horizon](#): > > A minor hijack, but the lack of imagination in naming characters was disappointing. I was confused when I first heard Data’s [”father”](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Noonian_Soong)’s name because I suspected he was somehow connected to the long-deceased [villain](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh). :rolleyes: I’m not sure if it was the TNG writers’ intent to make the connection when they named Soong, but given that the Augments and Soong’s androids approach the same idea from different angles, I suspect they did. Enterprise eventually put in a connection between the two - Soong’s great-grandfather, Arik, was a supporter of the Augments, although not really a fan of Khan or his faction. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/16 "2019-06-11T20:47:58Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I’m not sure if it was the TNG writers’ intent to make the connection when they named Soong… [They were both named after a friend of Gene Roddenberry.](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=C-tNsbAhFiIC&lpg=PP1&dq=The+Name%27s+Familiar:+Mr.+Leotard,+Barbie,+and+Chef+Boy-Ar-Dee&pg=PP1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Singh&f=false) Although why he named a \*villain \*after his friend is unknown. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/17 "2019-06-11T20:56:51Z")
When DC comics got the license for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ back in the late 1980s, they tested the water with a six-issue miniseries first. Rereading it now, it’s pretty awful, but jammed into the last issue like a socket wrench in a souffle is Data describing how his creator, Noonien Soong, had felt guilty about attracting the crystalline entity that had destroyed the colony Soong was on (adapting elements from the episode “Datelore”). Data: But I do know now that Soong’s research of that Crystalline energy-being is what led it directly to Soong’s lab colony. Which ultimately led all his assistants and colonists to their deaths at that creature’s hand. It is like finding out one’s own father was Khan Noonien Singh himself. Even when I was reading it originally in 1988, I thought “Bwuh? That’s an unlikely reference to him to make.” I figure the writer, Mike Carlin, thought the similarity of the names had some kind of in-universe significance. According to wiki, though, both character names are actually based on that of Noonien Wang, a wartime acquaintance of Gene Roddenberry. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/18 "2019-06-11T21:04:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > According to wiki, though, both character names are actually based on that of Noonien Wang, a wartime acquaintance of Gene Roddenberry. Tap. Tap. Is this thing on? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/19 "2019-06-11T21:29:55Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [They were both named after a friend of Gene Roddenberry.](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=C-tNsbAhFiIC&lpg=PP1&dq=The+Name%27s+Familiar:+Mr.+Leotard,+Barbie,+and+Chef+Boy-Ar-Dee&pg=PP1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Singh&f=false) > > Although why he named a \*villain \*after his friend is unknown. Eh, he named a whole race of nasties after a fellow police officer, Wilbur Clingan. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342/20 "2019-06-11T21:59:24Z")
^ Zefram, time for your nap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-to-tomorrow-tos/835342.md?page=2)