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In Star Trek, why does Capt. Christopher lose his memory when the Enterprise beams him into his fighter jet?


In the Star Trek episode, "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the USS Enterprise is thrown back in time to the 20th Century of Earth. The crew saves the life of an Air Force pilot, Captain John Christopher, by beaming him aboard.


Fearing Christopher could disrupt the timeline if returned to Earth after glimpsing the future, Kirk decides Christopher must stay with the Enterprise. After Science Officer Spock later discovers that the pilot's own as-yet-unborn son will play an important role in a future space mission to Saturn, Kirk realizes he must return Christopher to Earth, but without any knowledge of Enterprise or other future events.


When the Enterprise moves forward in time again, it beams Christopher back into his F-104 fighter jet at the very instant after he was beamed off his jet. When Christopher returns to his fighter, he has no memory of being aboard the Enterprise.


Why does he have no memory of events aboard the Enterprise?


This seems like a plot hole to me. (Or a plot device made up by scriptwriters who didn't want an Air Force pilot knowing about the future.)



Answer



From the episode's script, it seems that the writers tried to address this problem, but their explanation is, in my opinion, very unsatisfactory:



CHRISTOPHER: Slingshot effects are fine for you people. How do you propose to return the Sergeant and me?



SPOCK: Logically, as we move faster and faster toward the sun, we'll begin to move backward in time. We'll actually go back beyond yesterday, beyond the point when we first appeared in the sky. Then, breaking free will shoot us forward in time, and we'll transport you back before any of this happened.


KIRK: You won't have anything to remember, because it never would have happened.



No, it doesn't make any sense. But that's the canon explanation: going back in time erased Christopher's memories of everything that happened since the point he was sent back to.


The only piece of in-universe explanation I can speculate on is this: since nobody onboard the Enterprise lost their memories, it must have had something to do with being beamed off of the ship while it was undergoing the slingshot. The transporter bypassed the ship's warp field's temporal normalization actuators, or something like that. Technobabble is the best answer I think we could expect in this instance.


Time travel in Star Trek is hopelessly inconsistent: exhibit A.


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