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The City on the Edge of Forever

What rating would you give "The City on the Edge of Forever"?  

15 members have voted

  1. 1. What rating would you give "The City on the Edge of Forever"?

    • 5. It's great, I loved it!
      13
    • 4. It's good
      2
    • 3. It's average
      0
    • 2. It's not that good
      0
    • 1. I hated it!
      0


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Season: 1

Production No: 28

Episode Name: The City on the Edge of Forever

 

Director: Joseph Pevney

Written By: Harlan Ellison

 

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While the Enterprise is investigating the origins of strange ripples in time and space, Dr McCoy stumbles injecting himself with an overdose of cordrazine, making him exhibit signs of extreme paranoia and psychosis. The delirious McCoy storms off the bridge and beams down to a planet that would appear to be the focal point of the disturbances.

 

Kirk, leading a landing party after the doctor is unable to stop him leaping into Earth’s history through a sentient time machine known as "The Guardian of Forever." As a result the U.S.S. Enterprise has ceased to exist and the landing party is stranded on a desolate planet. The Guardian explains that McCoy has somehow interfered with the past, thus changing the future. Kirk and Spock go through the Guardian in an attempt to correct the alteration.

 

Kirk and Spock find themselves in Depression-era America where they encounter social worker Edith Keeler, a missionary and a visionary who, while living in a time of economic and political discord is able to imagine better world yet to come. As Kirk comes to realise that he has fallen in love with Edith, Spock completes work to access his tricorder memory circuits, discovering that in order to repair history Edith Keeler must die in an automobile accident. If they allow McCoy to save her — as he did before — she will start an effective pacifist movement that will delay the United States' entrance into World War II, allowing Nazi Germany to develop the atomic bomb before the Allies.

 

post-58-1080868210.jpgpost-58-1080868357.jpg

 

Cast:

William Shatner as James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy as Spock

DeForest Kelley as Leonard H. McCoy

James Doohan as Montgomery Scott

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura

George Takei as Hikaru Sulu

 

Guest Cast:

Joan Collins as Edith Keeler

John Harmon as Rodent

Hal Baylor as Policeman

Bart La Rue as Guardian of Forever Voice

John Winston as Transporter Chief

David L. Ross as Lt. Galloway

 

Show Notes: Writer Harlan Ellison's script went through many revisions by Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana before reaching the final broadcast version, resulting in much resentment from the writer. In the original screenplay, there were two guardians, in the form of statues flanking the time portal, McCoy's part was taken up by the drug addict and dealer crewman Beckwith, and Captain Kirk’s actions in the story climax were somewhat different.

 

Ellison's original script for "The City on the Edge of Forever" won the 1966-67 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Teleplay. The final aired version of the episode won the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

 

Star Notes: Joan Collins’ role as visionary Edith Keeler was in sharp contrast to her stint as Alexis Carrington Colby on Dynasty.

 

Memorable quotations:

Edith: "I think that one day they’re going to take all the money that they spend now on war and death..."

Kirk: "...and make them spend it on life?"

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EASILY a 5! Stellar. This episode had it all: humor, suspense, moral dilemma, setup, follow-through, great writing, great acting....I could go on!! LOVED this episode. The only issue I have with it....why does Bones gotta be the one to be screwed up? Seriously.... absorbed into Landru's body, overpowered by spores (though that happened to everyone, even Kirk), "killed" on that imagination planet, and now he gets stirred up on the drug, albeit accidentally, and it's his fault that there's no Enterprise. I mean, so far I think he's only been a hero in The Man Trap (where he only did the right thing after seeing the creatures true form), and Devil In The Dark (though the focus is much more on Spock). I like Bones. I hope he's not typecast for this kind of scenario in Seasons 2 and 3. P.S. the Blockbuster DVD didn't have Operation Annihilate, so I'm hoping it'll be on the first Disc of Season 2 (though I doubt it).

 

Still I loved this episode. 5

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Truly one of the classic TOS episodes. Superbly written and acted. This episode is usually in the top 2 of any poll conducted on best TOS episodes. An interesting tidbit about this episode was that Harlan Ellison was so angry at the re-write done on his story, he actually asked that his name be taken off the credits. I'd be curious to see Ellison's original script.

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I gave it a 5. It was amazing; I loved it. If nothing else, the title is amazing...The city on the edge of forever....It just sounds so romantic and mystical.

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A five for me. One of my favorite episodes. Note that Ellison's original script was set in Chicago!

 

Here's some City on the Edge of Forever trivia and info on the controversy from Wikipedia

 

The City on the Edge of Forever

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Writer(s) D. C. Fontana, Harlan Ellison (see text)

The teleplay is credited to Harlan Ellison, but was controversially rewritten by several hands before filming : see Controversy. It was directed by Joseph Pevney. It guest-stars Joan Collins as Edith Keeler.

 

When the episode was remastered in 2006, the scene of the bum vaporizing himself with McCoy's phaser was not shown in the new syndicated print. The scene abruptly cuts from McCoy collapsing with the man standing over him, to McCoy wandering into Edith's mission house. The edit does remove a potential on-screen goof, where the bum's death could have altered the course of history due to McCoy's presence.

 

Controversy

The script was commissioned in early 1966 from Harlan Ellison. Justman and Solow's book Inside Star Trek recalls that the script was delivered late.

 

His original script was considered to be an excellent script by production staff (Bob Justman wrote a memo saying "This is the best and most beautifully written screenplay we have gotten to date ... If you tell this to Harlan, I'll kill you"), but they were concerned that it would be too expensive to stage, and that it was "not Star Trek" - they were troubled by certain story elements, such as the inclusion of narcotics dealing, and the ending, in which Kirk freezes at a critical moment. Ellison did a number of rewrites himself, delivering his Second Revised Final Draft in December 1966. The story was still considered too expensive to shoot as written and was instead rewritten internally, variously by Steve Carabatsos, Gene L. Coon, D. C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry himself. Ellison was unhappy with the rewrites, and considered disowning the script by putting his "Cordwainer Bird" pseudonym on it.

 

Roddenberry would later repeatedly claim that Ellison's original script had Scotty dealing drugs, but Scotty does not even appear in the script. Ellison set out his side of the story in a 1995 book containing his draft teleplay and the his second revised draft from December 1966.

 

The episode finally started shooting on February 3, 1967, and finished on February 14, 1967. It took seven and a half days to film, more than was typical for an episode, and according to Inside Star Trek came in at $250,000, compared to the weekly average of around $185,000.

 

The ancient ruins were the result of someone mis-reading Harlan Ellison's description in the script of the city as "covered with runes."

 

Harlan Ellison's original version won a Writers Guild of America award for best dramatic hour-long script.

 

Original script

In the original script, Lieutenant Richard Beckwith, a drug dealer selling the illegal "Jewels of Sound," kills Lieutenant LeBeque after he threatens to expose Beckwith's activities. After escaping to the planet's surface, with Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Yeoman Rand and six Security guards close on his heels, he enters a Time Vortex, watched over by the Guardians of Forever, to escape. The time changes he effects cause the Enterprise to become a pirate vessel.

 

The rest of the show is roughly the same (with Keeler being the focus of the time travel, Kirk's growing love for her), but with more emphasis on Kirk and Spock spying on Keeler, waiting for Beckwith to find her.

 

The ending has Beckwith being captured, and Edith Keeler being hit by a truck in a fatal vehicle accident. But in this version, Beckwith attempts to save Edith, and Spock must tackle and stop him. Captain Kirk, knowing she must die, but wanting her to live, as he has fallen completely in love with her, is frozen in indecision and does nothing.

 

With the timeline set right, Beckwith attempts to escape again, but the Guardians of Forever have set a trap for him—he finds himself in an exploding supernova, and just before he dies a fiery death, is pulled backwards in time and forced to relive his agonizing death again and again for all eternity.

 

The very last scene was a quiet one between Kirk and Spock, where Spock treats his captain compassionately, telling him that "no other woman was ever offered the universe for love." (In his adaptation of the story in Star Trek 2, James Blish explained to readers that he tried to preserve the best elements of both Ellison's original script and the final rewrite. In Blish's version, Kirk allows Edith to die, with the result that Spock tells him, "No other woman was ever almost offered the universe for love"--a far less poetic observation.)

 

The Second Revised Final Draft had McCoy bitten by a toxic animal, which caused him to go insane and beam down to the Guardian's planet.

 

Ellison's original story outline had the action set in Chicago instead of New York, and the Slum Angel's name was Sister Edith Koestler, not Keeler.

 

Revisiting the Guardian

the portal is revisited in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Yesteryear", and numerous books, including Peter David's novel Imzadi.

 

Notes

In her autobiography, Joan Collins incorrectly recalls the part of Edith Keeler as being a fascist sympathizer, one who was in love with Adolf Hitler.

When Kirk and Spock first appear on a street in Depression-era New York, a poster promoting a boxing match at Madison Square Garden appears on a door behind them. The poster was later duplicated and adapted for use in a Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode set in San Francisco around the same time.

With the exception of some stock footage of New York City used on this episode (in which the Brooklyn Bridge may be seen as well as a street in front of the apartment Kirk and Spock live in), all the exterior shots were filmed on "the back forty", Desilu Studios' film backlot in Culver City, California. Previous episodes that shot there were "Miri" and "The Return of the Archons". The 21st Street Mission was part of the back forty set known as Main Street and was referred to originally on The Andy Griffith Show as the Grand Theatre. Look also for an appearance of "Floyd's Barber Shop" in the scene with Kirk and Keeler holding hands in the street!

Actor Eddie Paskey, William Shatner's lighting stand-in and a frequent supporting actor and extra on Star Trek, drove the truck that killed Edith.

 

Harlan Ellison's book The City on the Edge of Forever, which contains the various scripts and a lengthy essay about their writing and revisions.

Edited by trekz

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I gave it a 4. Really liked it.

 

Recently read Crucible: McCoy which continues the story. Very interesting.

Edited by athena28

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I gave it a 4. Really liked it.

 

Recently read Crucible: McCoy which continues the story. Very interesting.

So did I. It was interesting and others may enjoy it.

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I gave it a 4. Really liked it.

 

Recently read Crucible: McCoy which continues the story. Very interesting.

So did I. It was interesting and others may enjoy it.

 

Just got the 2d book in the trilogy from the library. Anyone read it yet?

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This one is the undisputed Uber trek- cosmic themes,such as one man making a difference still resonate today and lest i forget, the accidental phasering of that poor bum is still entertaining if not comical. Kirk must have felt lonely when he was forced to watch the woman he loved die so that history would be restored. I don't believe i could have done that, but after all there is only one Captain Kirk. :)

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Definitely a classic from Classic. Powerful drama. Who can forget the ending...the aftermath of it, Jim's emotional coming to terms, was dealt with as part of a framing story in one of the novels. And, as referenced, figured in other novels...such as ''Federation'' which again has Kirk and the Guardian together once more, a framing element. It is linked to the enigmatic 'Preservers' in the book of the same name. I am fascinated by the machine-being, who may have created it, etc....it's also interesting to see some of the original elements of the Ellison script. But I don't blame Gene and co. for writing the 'drug part' out of the final draft. It might play better in this age, to be honest, though, when for good or ill, controversial subjects, and material has often been a part of tv, in one venue or another.

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