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Going through a TOS rewatch and have found that the second season really spent some good moments on building the friendship between Spock and McCoy. I hadn't realized on my first few watches how successful they had been in pairing the two of them and placing them against each other until they became more of a bickering old married couple (often ...
Admiral Kirk's defeat of Khan and the creation of the Genesis planet are empty victories. Spock is dead and McCoy is inexplicably being driven insane. Then a surprise visit from Sarek, Spock's father, provides a startling revelation.
Sep 14, 2023 · In the original Star Trek series, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy represent a trio of contrasting personalities on the USS Enterprise. Their relationship is often characterized by camaraderie, mutual respect, but sometimes conflict.
- Overview
- Summary
- Log entries
- Memorable quotes
- Background information
- Links and references
Kirk and Spock go back in time to save McCoy – and their own universe.
Teaser
In orbit around an unexplored planet, the USS Enterprise is on red alert as it passes through violent time distortions surrounding the planet. As the ship plots its orbit, Montgomery Scott warns that the control circuits are threatening to overload. No sooner does Captain Kirk acknowledge the report, the helm console on the bridge explodes, and Lieutenant Sulu is injured. Scott takes the helm as Doctor McCoy is called to the bridge for emergency first aid. Scott questions if the ship should break orbit, but Spock advises against it – the ship is literally passing through ripples in time and it is of great scientific importance that they remain and investigate. Kirk agrees and orders Uhura to broadcast to Starfleet Command his past week's log entries, detailing the unusual readings on the instruments that has diverted the Enterprise to this planet. McCoy arrives and diagnoses Sulu with a heart flutter. He prepares a hypo of cordrazine, warned by Kirk that it is "tricky stuff." Fortunately, the two drops administered by McCoy successfully revives Sulu. Scott reports that the Enterprise is nearly clear of the time ripples, which Spock confirms, with one heavy displacement directly ahead. The Enterprise shudders violently as it collides with it, causing Dr. McCoy to slip on the helm console and inject the loaded hypospray into his abdomen, emptying all its contents into his bloodstream. Kirk and Spock rush to his aid, but McCoy darts up in a panic. Raving and screaming about "killers" and "assassins", McCoy breaks free from the concerned bridge crew and flees the bridge via the turbolift. Kirk orders a security alert.
Act One
"Captain's log, supplemental entry. Two drops of cordrazine can save a man's life. A hundred times that amount has just accidentally been pumped into Dr. McCoy's body. In his strange and wild frenzy, he has fled the ship's bridge. All connecting decks have been placed on alert. We have no way of knowing if the madness is permanent or temporary, or what direction it will drive McCoy." Dr. McCoy evades the security teams and enters the transporter room where he attacks the transporter chief Lieutenant Kyle from behind, steals his phaser and energizes the transporter. On the bridge, Kirk has returned from sickbay, where the ship's medical department in uncertain of what McCoy's condition will do to him. Spock, having consulted the library computer, discovers that patients exposed to such a level of cordrazine would fail to recognize acquaintances and become hysterically convinced they were in mortal danger, becoming extremely dangerous to himself or anyone else nearby. Suddenly, the transporter room calls the bridge and informs Kirk that McCoy has transported himself down to the planet, with the transporter at the time being focused on the center of the time disruptions on the surface. Kirk orders a landing party to be set up to retrieve Dr. McCoy. Kirk, Spock, Scott, Uhura, Galloway, and a security officer beam down and discover a ruined city with an unusual looking portal in the midst. As Uhura and Scott's teams search for Dr. McCoy, Kirk and Spock investigate the object. Spock reports that it is indeed the center of all the time disruptions, although he cannot explain how it is possible. The object, though it appears inert, is in fact generating powerful enough waves of displacement that the Enterprise could detect it millions of miles away. Kirk asks what it is and a loud, booming voice intones from the object, saying: "A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question." The object identifies itself as the Guardian of Forever, explaining that is both machine and being, while also being neither. Spock deduces that the Guardian is a time portal – a gateway to other times and dimensions, which the Guardian confirms is correct and activates its portal, offering Kirk and Spock a gateway into Earth's past. Suddenly, McCoy cries out – he has been cornered by the search parties. Still madly convinced they are killers and assassins, he tries to escape, but is subdued by a Vulcan nerve pinch, courtesy of Spock. Kirk ponders if they could use the Guardian of Forever to take McCoy backwards a day in time to make certain that his accident never happens. However, the portal's speed is moving fairly quickly, jumping from century to century. Spock suddenly realizes that his tricorder is capable of recording images at the same speed, and activates it just as McCoy regains consciousness. As the landing party is transfixed on the Guardian and the images it is showing, McCoy hears the Guardian explain that this portal will allow people to go anywhere in time. With the landing party momentarily distracted, McCoy jumps up and runs towards the portal until it is too late to stop him. The doctor jumps through it and the portal shuts down. When Kirk wonders where he went, the voice of the Guardian explains "He has passed into… what was…" Uhura suddenly discovers that she has completely lost contact with the Enterprise. Scott finds nothing wrong with the communicators, but the Guardian further explains that "Your vessel, your beginning, all that you knew… is gone." Kirk makes the horrible realization that McCoy has somehow changed history, stranding the landing party on the planet with no past and no future. Uhura admits to Kirk that she is frightened, but Kirk is equally as disturbed. "Earth's not there… at least, not the Earth we know. We're totally alone."
Act Two
"Captain's log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist. McCoy, back somewhere in the past, has effected a change in the course of time. All Earth history has been changed. There is no starship Enterprise. We have only one chance – we have asked the Guardian to show us Earth's history again, Spock and I will go back into time ourselves and attempt to set right whatever it was that McCoy changed." The tricorder scans Spock took just as McCoy left reveal that he jumped back to the early 20th century and can approximate when they should jump through the portal, putting them possibly a month or a week prior to McCoy's arrival. Kirk wonders how they will return to the their own time, but the Guardian tells him that if he is successful in mending the timeline, they will all be returned, as if none of them had gone. Scott and Uhura are skeptical about their chances, but Spock logically states that there is no alternative. Kirk, however, out of concern for his officers, tells the landing party to jump through the portal if they feel like they've waited long enough for him and Spock to return, allowing them to make new lives for themselves in Earth's past rather than be stranded on the Guardian's planet should he and Spock fail to find the time date McCoy jumped to. Scott and Uhura bid them good luck as Kirk and Spock simultaneously jump through the portal, backwards through time. The pair arrive in New York City, circa 1930. Kirk recognizes the period from old photographs, which Spock clarifies that an economic upheaval had occurred at this point in time. As passersby scrutinize Kirk and Spock's unusual appearance, they make for a back alley to get out of sight. Kirk notices some contemporary clothes on a fire escape and elects to steal them, as their Starfleet uniforms are not suited for the time period. However, they are approached by a police officer, and they get caught red-handed. Kirk awkwardly tries to explain Spock's Vulcan ears, saying that Spock is Chinese and that he got his head caught in a "mechanical rice picker," and the policeman prepares to arrest them. However, Spock disables the officer with a nerve pinch and the pair escape to the basement of what they soon learn is the 21st Street Mission. After changing clothes, Spock laments that locked in his tricorder are the images of how McCoy will change history. Unfortunately, he would need to tie it into the Enterprise computer to access the information. Kirk wonders if he could build a computer aid using contemporary materials, but, Spock is dubious as to its success. As their voices carry, they are discovered by the proprietor of the mission, Edith Keeler. Kirk apologizes for their intrusion and tells her the truth as to why they came down there: they had stolen their clothes because they had no money and were being chased by a policeman. Believing them to be victims of the poor economy due to the Great Depression, Edith offers them jobs at the mission doing chores at fifteen cents an hour for ten hours a day. Kirk and Spock agree and set to cleaning up the basement. Hours later, they are eating their complimentary dinner of soup and bread with the other poverty-stricken citizens, when Keeler takes the stage and gives a motivational speech about how she believes the days ahead are worth living for, theorizing that one day soon, man will be able to harness the power of the atom, which could ultimately propel them into outer space, where they will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world, to cure their diseases, and give mankind hope and a common future. Kirk is impressed with her foresight into the future, while Spock believes it to be merely intuition. Afterwards, Edith compliments Kirk on his and Spock's work in the basement and offers them further work and sets them up with a "flop" (an apartment) in the building where she lives. Several days later, Spock is hard at work attempting to build the computer aid to access the information in his tricorder, but he laments the speed at which the work is progressing as the technology of the 20th century is barely adequate for his needs. The next day, Spock observes a man using tools for finely detailed work and steals them from the mission's toolbox using his sensitive Vulcan ears to break the combination. Edith quickly discovers the theft and is very upset that Spock did it, but Kirk is able to convince her that Spock meant no ill-will and would return the tools when he was finished. Edith agrees, as she has become fascinated by Kirk, and asks him to walk her home. The two become close as Edith questions where Kirk comes from and how he sees the world the same way that she does. As they walk away, Spock looks concerned. After a few more days, Spock is finally able to access the information in the tricorder, where he discovers Edith Keeler's 1930 obituary: her death as the result of a traffic accident. As Kirk enters, Spock attempts to replay it for him, but another image appears: a newspaper article from 1936, detailing a meeting Edith Keeler has with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, the strain on the computer aid overloads it, requiring extensive repair work before it can be used again. Kirk believes within six years, Edith will become nationally famous, but Spock tells Kirk their caretaker will die this year. Spock tells Kirk of the 1930 obituary for Edith, and that she is the focal point in time that both they and Dr. McCoy will be drawn to. Kirk ponders what the correct course of history is, if she lives or dies and what role McCoy, especially in his cordrazine-induced condition will play in it — does he kill her or prevent her from being killed? Spock asks Kirk the most pressing question of all: suppose they discover that to set history right, Edith Keeler must die? Kirk cannot answer and he wrestles with his growing affection for her and the role she will ultimately play in history.
•Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267
"Killers! Assassins! I won't let you! I'll kill you first! I won't let you! You won't get me! Murderers! Killers!"
- McCoy, after an accidental injection of cordrazine
"A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."
- Guardian of Forever, to Kirk
"Are you machine or being?"
"I am both and neither. I am my own beginning. My own ending."
Production timeline
•Treatment is assigned: 16 March 1966 •Story outline by Harlan Ellison: 21 March 1966 •Revised story outline: 1 May 1966 •Second revised story outline: 13 May 1966 •First draft teleplay by Ellison: 3 June 1966 •Revised first draft teleplay: 13 June 1966 •Final draft teleplay: 12 August 1966 •First draft teleplay by Steven W. Carabatsos: October 1966 •Second revised final draft by Ellison: 1 December 1966 •Story outline by Gene L. Coon: 29 December 1966 •Rewrite first draft teleplay by Coon: 9 January 1967 •Rewrite second draft teleplay by D.C. Fontana: 18 January 1967 •Rewrite revised second draft teleplay: 23 January 1967 •Revised teleplay ("Shooting script") by Coon: 27 January 1967 •Additional revisions: 30 January 1967 •Rewrite final draft teleplay by Gene Roddenberry: 1 February 1967 •Additional revisions by Coon and Roddenberry: 2 February 1967, 3 February 1967, 8 February 1967, 9 February 1967 •Filmed: 3 February 1967 – 14 February 1967 •Day 1 – 3 February 1967, Friday – 40 Acres ("Mayberry" backlot): Ext. New York City (Streets, Alleyway, 21st Street Mission exterior) •Day 2 – 6 February 1967, Monday – Desilu Stage 11: Int. Mission kitchen, Bedroom •Day 3 – 7 February 1967, Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10: Int. Mission basement, Kirk's and Spock's apartment •Day 4 – 8 February 1967, Wednesday – Desilu Stage 10: Int. Kirk and Spock's apartment, Edith Keeler's apartment; Alleyway behind Stage 10: Ext. Street (McCoy's arrival) •Day 5 – 9 February 1967, Thursday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge •Day 6 – 10 February 1967, Friday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Corridors, Transporter room; Desilu Stage 10: Ext.Time planet surface •Day 7 – 13 February 1967, Monday – Desilu Stage 10: Ext.Time planet surface •Day 8 – 14 February 1967, Tuesday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 10: Ext.Time planet surface •Score recording: 24 March 1967 •Premiere airdate: 6 April 1967 •First rerun: 31 August 1967 •First UK airdate (on BBC1): 26 July 1969 •First UK airdate (on ITV): 14 March 1982 •Wins Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation: Presented 3 September 1968 •"Yesteryear", featuring the Guardian of Forever, premieres: 15 September 1973 •Six Science Fiction Plays, edited by Roger Elwood, includes the teleplay (albeit a slightly different version than Ellison published in 1995): 1976 •Star Trek Fotonovel #1: 1977 •Yesterday's Son, a novel featuring the Guardian of Forever: August 1983 •The City on the Edge of Forever limited edition hardcover: September 1993 •Entertainment Weekly ranks it as the #1 TOS episode: Fall 1994 •"Look Back in Anger", an essay by Harlan Ellison, appears in the TV Guide magazine special "Star Trek: Four Generations": Spring 1995 •Ranked #68 in TV Guide's 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History: 1 July 1995 •The City on the Edge of Forever trade paperback: 1 July 1996 •Kirk and Spock action figures (Playmates Warp Factor series 5): 1998 •Remastered airdate: 7 October 2006
Story
•The title of this episode refers to both the dead city on the time planet and New York itself, where the timeline will either be restored or disrupted. In Ellison's original script, Kirk, upon first seeing the city sparkling like a jewel on a high mountaintop, reverently says it looks like "a city on the edge of forever". In Ellison's first treatment for this episode, the city they travelled back in time to was Chicago. •When asked in a February 26, 1992 interview whether the makers of this episode consciously intended it to have the contemporaneous anti-Vietnam-war movement as subtext, associate producer Robert H. Justman replied, "Of course we did." •In The Star Trek Compendium, Allan Asherman suggests that the name "Keeler" is derived from the "keel" of a ship, the longitudinal element of a vessel that keeps it held together – much as Keeler herself keeps the time continuum from coming apart. It also could be interpreted as a hybrid of "killer" and "healer" – a reference to her dual role as the focal point of the time flow. However, in Ellison's first treatment for this episode, Edith's last name was Koestler. •Ellison's original story outline and first draft script did not feature Dr. McCoy, but an Enterprise crewman named Beckwith, who was dealing drugs among the crew. Beckwith murdered a fellow crewman named LeBeque, who was on the verge of turning him in, escaped to the planet the ship was orbiting. There, he went through the Time Vortex, operated by a mysterious, ancient race called "the Guardians", and changed history. As a result, the Enterprise was gone, and a savage pirate ship called the Condor was in its place, full of renegade Humans. Kirk and Spock follow Beckwith through the time portal to 1930 Chicago, where Kirk falls in love with young social worker Edith Koestler. Finally, with the help of a legless World War I veteran called Trooper (who dies during the episode's action), they find Beckwith. In the end, Kirk does not stop him from saving Edith: he freezes at the crucial moment and Spock prevents her rescue instead. In a brief epilogue, Spock visits a grieving Kirk in his quarters and attempts to console him, saying that "No other woman was offered the universe for love." (The Star Trek Compendium), •In Ellison's very first story outline, Beckwith was sentenced to death after he murdered LeBeque, and Kirk ordered his execution to take place on the next deserted planet the Enterprise comes across. Hence, they beam down with Beckwith and a firing squad to the Guardian Planet. This was very soon eliminated from the story. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One). In the revised script by Ellison, Beckwith escapes from Spock and jumps into the Time Vortex again; however he ends up trapped in a super nova time loop which kills him over and over again. •Ellison also wrote scenes in which the regular characters acted very much unlike their usual selves. For example, Kirk and Spock got into a heavy argument when Spock, witnessing a street speaker calling out against foreign immigrants, called the Human race barbaric. Kirk then claims he should've just left Spock to be lynched by the mob. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One) •Ellison's script was deemed unusable for the series for many different reasons. Gene Roddenberry objected to the idea that drug usage would still be a problem in the 23rd century, and even present among starship crews. Also, the production staff was heavily against Kirk's final inactivity, claiming that if Kirk was unable to decide and act, viewers would never be able to accept him as a strong leader figure in later episodes. Certain elements of the script, such as the Guardians and the Condor and its crew, were simply impossible to create on the series' budget. (The Star Trek Compendium), •Notably, the element of drug abuse would be incorporated into later series in the franchise after the death of Gene Roddenberry, perhaps most notably Raffi Musiker's struggle with drug and alcohol addiction in the first season of Star Trek: Picard. •Originally, then-story editor Steven W. Carabatsos got the job to rewrite Ellison's script, but his draft was not used. Instead, Ellison agreed to make a rewrite himself, which was again deemed unsuitable. Producer Gene L. Coon also got himself into the rewriting. Finally, the new story editor, D.C. Fontana got the assignment to rewrite Ellison's script and make it suitable for the series. Fontana's draft was then slightly rewritten by Roddenberry to become the final shooting draft. Much of the finished episode is the product of Fontana, who went uncredited (as did all the other writers) for her contribution. Only two lines from Ellison's original teleplay survive in the final episode, both spoken by the Guardian: "Since before your sun burned hot in space, since before your race was born," and "Time has resumed its shape." (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story) •Coon is mainly responsible for the small comical elements of the story, including the famous "rice picker" scene, which Ellison reportedly hated. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One) •Ellison was dismayed with the changes Roddenberry and Fontana made to his story, so much so, that he wished his credit to read "written by Cordwainer Bird", a request Roddenberry denied. Though Ellison had the final right to have his pseudonym attached, he claims that Roddenberry made veiled threats that if he did so he would be "blackballed" in the television and motion picture industry. Despite this feud, Roddenberry listed this as one of his top ten favorite episodes in an issue of TV Guide celebrating the 25th anniversary of Star Trek. In his own defense, Ellison stated he had no real problem with D.C. Fontana rewriting him, but rather with the extent and number of unpaid rewrites the studio and network got out of him, to say nothing of exaggeration-prone Gene Roddenberry telling fans that Ellison's script showed "Scotty selling drugs" (the script did not feature Scott at all). (Star Trek: Four Generations) •Roddenberry apparently denied Ellison's pseudonym request because he knew everyone in the science fiction community was aware that the "Cordwainer Bird" credit was Ellison's way of signaling his dissatisfaction with the way production people treated what he wrote. It would have meant that Star Trek was no different than all the other "science fiction" shows in mistreating quality writers, and could have resulted in prose science fiction writers avoiding contributing to the program. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story)
Cast and characters
•Joan Collins credits her then-four-year-old daughter Tara for her decision to appear in Star Trek. Having never heard of the show before, she told her children, Tara and Alexander, about the offer. Tara enthusiastically encouraged her to appear.
Starring
•William Shatner as Capt. Kirk
Also starring
•Leonard Nimoy as "Mr. Spock"
Guest star
•Joan Collins as "Sister Edith Keeler"
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