In 1955, Dr. McCoy from the Starship Enterprise was stationed in the Arctic, where he assisted a telepath on a terrestrial rescue mission. Well, almost. In the 1955 episode of Science Fiction Theatre called “Y-O-R-D,” actor DeForest Kelley, later famous for playing Bones on the original Star Trek, appeared in one episode of a sci-fi anthology series that is now, almost totally forgotten. “Y-O-R-D” was the second episode of Science Fiction Theatre filmed, and the fourth aired. But the first episode, “Beyond” — all about a test pilot who spots a UFO — debuted on April 9, 1955.
Seventy years later, Science Fiction Theatre is largely remembered as a punchline from Back to the Future; George McFly (Crispin Glover) tells Marty (Michael J. Fox) that he can’t attend a dance (on November 12, 1955) because it’s the same night that a new episode of Science Fiction Theatre airs. But was George McFly missing anything? Does Science Fiction Theatre hold up all these years later?
