The City on the Edge of Forever

1x28 The Alternative Factor Operation -- Annihilate! Star Trek: The Original SeriesSeason 1

 WRITTEN BY

Harlan Ellison

 DIRECTED BY

Joseph Pevney

 AIRED ON

April 6, 1967

 RUNTIME

50 minutes

 STARRING

 VIEWS

337

 LAST UPDATE

2024-09-18 20:56:43

 PAGE VERSION

Version 7

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 BEHIND THE SCENES

• Harlan Ellison’s Original Script: The episode was written by famed science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, but his original draft was heavily revised. Ellison’s version was darker and more complex, involving drug dealing crew members and a more tragic ending. Disputes over these changes led to long-standing tensions between Ellison and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
• Award-Winning Episode: Despite the controversies over the rewrites, "The City on the Edge of Forever" became one of the most celebrated Star Trek episodes. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1968 and is often regarded as one of the best science fiction TV episodes ever made.
• Budget Constraints: The episode faced severe budget constraints, which led to various compromises in the production. For instance, Spock was originally supposed to build a makeshift device using 1930s technology to help him figure out the timeline, but the costs forced them to simplify his scenes.
• Joan Collins as Edith Keeler: Joan Collins, who would later become famous for her role in Dynasty, portrayed Edith Keeler, a central figure in the episode. Her performance as the kind-hearted social worker who unknowingly holds the fate of the future was praised.
• Time Portal – The Guardian of Forever: The time-travel device, known as the Guardian of Forever, became a significant element in Star Trek lore. The Guardian was later referenced in other Star Trek media, including the animated series and later episodes.
• Ellison’s Lawsuit: Decades later, Harlan Ellison sued Paramount over unpaid royalties for merchandising and spin-offs related to his original script. The case was settled out of court in 2009, with Ellison receiving a payout.
• Gene Roddenberry's "Myth": Gene Roddenberry often told the story that Ellison’s original script included Scotty dealing drugs, but Ellison vehemently denied this. He was vocal about his frustration with the rewrites, and in later years, he published his original draft as a book, allowing fans to compare it with the aired version.
• Captain Kirk's Heartbreak: The episode is notable for showing Captain Kirk in a vulnerable emotional state. His love for Edith Keeler and the necessity of allowing her to die for the sake of history showed a side of Kirk rarely seen in the series.
• Unproduced Sequels: Ellison had plans for a sequel featuring the Guardian of Forever, but it never came to fruition. However, the Guardian did make a return in the animated series in the episode "Yesteryear" and has been referenced in Star Trek: Discovery.
• Historical Paradoxes: The story hinges on a classic time travel paradox: If Edith Keeler survives, she starts a peace movement that delays U.S. entry into World War II, which allows Nazi Germany to win the war. This paradox highlights the theme of sacrifice for the greater good.
• Influence on Star Trek's Time Travel Stories: This episode became a template for future time travel stories in Star Trek and is often cited as the definitive time travel story within the franchise. Its success ensured time travel would remain a key element in subsequent Star Trek series and films.
• Filming Locations: The New York scenes were filmed on the backlot of Desilu Studios (now Paramount Studios) in Los Angeles, which was redressed to resemble 1930s New York.
• The Episode’s Ending: The haunting final line of the episode, "Let's get the hell out of here," delivered by Kirk after Edith Keeler’s death, was unusually blunt for 1960s television. It emphasized the emotional weight of the story.
• Reception: When it aired, the episode was critically acclaimed for its depth and emotional complexity, with TV Guide and fans alike ranking it among the top Star Trek episodes. It is consistently lauded in fan polls and critic reviews as one of the best.
• Restoration and Blu-ray Releases: "The City on the Edge of Forever" was remastered for the Blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Original Series. The remastering included updated visual effects for the Guardian of Forever and other scenes, but the story itself remained unchanged.
• Comic Book Adaptation: Ellison’s original script was adapted into a five-issue comic book series by IDW Publishing in 2014. This version presented Ellison's vision of the episode, complete with the elements that were cut or altered from the televised version.
• Time Travel Continuity: Despite being a standalone episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever" played a role in establishing the loose continuity of time travel rules within the Star Trek universe, influencing later episodes like "Yesterday’s Enterprise" and the movie First Contact.

 MYTHOLOGY

One of the most iconic time travel episodes, where Kirk and Spock must correct the timeline after McCoy changes history.
Introduces the Guardian of Forever, a sentient time portal that allows travel to any point in history.
Explores themes of sacrifice, destiny, and the impact of individual actions on history.

 PLAYLIST

"Goodnight, Sweetheart" (1931): This classic song by Ray Noble, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly is played in the background during a scene where Captain Kirk and Edith Keeler are together in her mission. The romantic, nostalgic tone of the song reflects Kirk’s growing affection for Edith. "Goodnight, Sweetheart" was a popular song during the era in which the episode is set, and its inclusion helps reinforce the time period of 1930.
"He’s Gone Away" (American Folk Song): This is the song played while Kirk and Edith Keeler are walking together through the streets of New York. It’s a haunting and wistful melody that fits the emotional tone of the episode, particularly the growing bond between Kirk and Edith. The song is an old American folk song that enhances the setting of the 1930s and adds to the poignant and reflective atmosphere of their scenes together.

 QUOTES

Spock: This is of great scientific importance, Captain. We're actually passing through ripples in time.

Guardian: A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question.
Kirk: What are you?
Guardian: I am the Guardian of Forever.
Kirk: Are you machine or being?
Guardian: I am both and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending.
Spock: I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles.
Guardian: I answer as simply as your level of understanding makes possible.

Spock: A time portal, Captain. A gateway to other times and dimensions, if I'm correct.
Guardian: As correct as possible for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive.
Spock: Really?
Kirk: Annoyed, Spock?

Kirk: Bones, no!
(McCoy leaps through the time portal and the pictures stop. He's gone.)
Kirk: Where is he?
Guardian: He has passed into what was.

Guardian: Your vessel, your beginning, all that you knew is gone.
Kirk: McCoy has somehow changed history.
Scott: You mean we're stranded down here?
Spock: With no past, no future.
Uhura: Captain, I'm frightened.
Kirk: Earth's not there. At least, not the Earth we know. We're totally alone.

Kirk: Scotty, when you think you've waited long enough. Each of you will have to try it. Even if you fail, at least you'll be alive in some past world somewhere.
Scott: Aye.
Spock: Seconds now, sir. Stand by.
Scott: Good luck, gentlemen.
Uhura: Happiness at least, sir.
Spock: And... now!

Spock: Theft, Captain?
Kirk: Well, we'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor... later.

Kirk: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
Spock: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child.
Kirk: The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life.

Kirk: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
Spock: In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?
Kirk: Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mr. Spock. Excuse me. I sometimes expect too much of you.

Edith: Who's there?
Kirk: Excuse us, miss. We didn't mean to trespass. It's cold outside.
Edith: A lie is a poor way to say hello. It isn't that cold.

Kirk: We have a flop.
Spock: We have a what, Captain?
Kirk: A place to sleep.
Spock: One might have said so in the first place.

Edith: What? What on Earth is that?
Spock: I am endeavouring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.

Spock: Captain, suppose we discover that in order to set things straight again, Edith Keeler must die?

Kirk: I must know whether she lives or dies, Spock. I must know what to do.

Spock: With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them, Germany captured the world.

Kirk: Spock, I believe I'm in love with Edith Keeler.
Spock: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.

McCoy: The most common question to ask would be, where am I? I don't think I'll ask it.

Kirk: Edith.
Edith: Are you following me, sir?
Kirk: With ulterior motives. Does that please you?

Spock: Save her, do as your heart tells you to do, and millions will die who did not die before.

McCoy: You deliberately stopped me, Jim. I could have saved her. Do you know what you just did?
Spock: He knows, Doctor. He knows.

Scott: What happened, sir? You only left a moment ago.
Spock: We were successful.
Guardian: Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before. Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway.
Uhura: Captain, the Enterprise is up there. They're asking if we want to beam up.
Kirk: Let's get the hell out of here.

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 REVIEWS

The gate of forever

Written by Pike on 2019-04-27
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A TRUE CITY
The City on the Edge of Forever is a very peculiar episode of Star Trek and, to me, the best episode of the first season, if not of the entire show. Most Star Trek episodes take place either in Space or on some unknown or strange planet, with strange sets and sometimes ridiculous outfits. Here, most of the action takes place in... the New York City from 1930's, a raw and realistic place where, suddenly, everything feels truer.

TIME TRAVEL
The story is a classic time travel story, with Kirk and Spock going back in time in order to save Dr. McCoy, who jumped into a time portal on a strange planet.
Who doesn't like time travel stories? Except for their hugely vast classic loopholes, those stories are always a delight to experience. This episode is clearly working great.

QUANTUM LEAP
In a way, this episode is almost like a pilot for Quantum Leap. A character (in this case, two), sent back in time to put right what once went wrong.

FUNNY
The episode is also quite funny. Especially the scenes in which Kirk and Spock are living their new life.

SETS
The sets of this episode are also wonderful. Of course, they are on a budget of a sci-fi series that had a staggering 30 episodes in its first season (if you count the originally unaired pilot with Captain Pike). But still, this really works great and I almost felt that it was much more difficult to recreate the mid-1930's than to create a science fiction imaginary world.
But that's great, because we don't have a story with Klingons or any wild character. Here, the story is very simple, set in our own world and therefore very relatable and enjoyable to watch. Also, the character of Kirk and Spock feel vulnerable, since they are stuck in time and not only no longer having access to any technology, but even wearing regular clothes.

BONES
Also, this episode marks the first time that actor DeForest Kelley, portraying Dr. McCoy, is able to provide a much more dramatic performance. The actor was always great when portraying a natural comforting side, so it is truly terrific to see him as a violent person for a short time. He really performed it great.

SOUNDTRACK
The soundtrack of this episode is brilliant. It reminded me of a classic soundtrack from Charlie Chaplin's movies. Pure emotions. Also, the way Star Trek shows the beautiful women is sublime. In a way, this show is like a black and white old classic film. Everything is pure and the emotions are real, until a climax that's as fast as it is poignant.

RELATIONSHIP
The relationship between Kirk and Edith Keller is really working great. It was totally believable and this only built up great tension until the climax.
For once, Kirk is not acting like the big boss, commanding everyone. He is showing his incredibly charming side and just having the camera on his face is enough to make some scenes great, with the excellent music.

RESOLUTION
The resolution of the episode is brilliant. The direction and editing were also top notch. The price that Kirk had to pay in order to restore time and peace was simply perfect. This concludes a wonderful episode in the best of ways.

LOOPHOLE
As mentioned earlier in this review, there are definitely some loopholes. The characters could have simply revealed the truth to Edith, or tried to find a young Robert J. Oppenheimer, who was 26 at the time (in 1930) and told him about the creation of the atomic bomb and give the edge to the American scientists. But of course, the sidenote is that the writer could have mentioned that any other attempt might have triggered other events, etc. I simply wanted to mention this in passing.

FINAL SCENE
Also, the end of the episode is so strong and so emotional, that there is nothing to say anymore. Out of respect for the characters, Kirk is simply let with his emotions and simply says "Let's get the hell out of here." His friends' faces say it all. There is nothing more to say. The end.

VERDICT
This is simply put the best episode of the first season from Star Trek, along with Space Seed. I give it 5 out 5. Superb.

 TRANSCRIPT

[Bridge]
(Enterprise is at Red Alert as she orbits a muddy looking planet. Every so often the ship shakes.)
KIRK: Stay on top of it, Mister Sulu.
SULU: We're holding orbit, sir. The helm is sluggish.
SCOTT: Control circuits threatening to overload, Captain.
KIRK: Understood, Engineer. Mister Spock? We can't avoid these areas of turbulence.
SPOCK: I believe we'll have them plotted in a few more orbits, Captain.
(Sulu's console explodes and he is thrown to the floor, unconscious.)
KIRK: Sickbay. To the Bridge.
SCOTT: Switching to manual, Captain. Do we maintain this orbit?
KIRK: Spock?
SPOCK: This is of great scientific importance, Captain. We're actually passing through ripples in time.
KIRK: Maintain orbit. Open the channel to Starfleet Command. Precautionary measure, Lieutenant. Broadcast to Starfleet Command my past week's log entries, starting with the unusual readings we had on the instruments and how they led us here. Inform Starfleet Command that apparently something or someone down on this planet
(McCoy enters)
KIRK: (pointing to Sulu) Bones. Can effect changes in time, causing turbulent waves of space displacement.
MCCOY: Some heart flutter. Better risk a few drops of cordrazine.
KIRK: Tricky stuff. Are you sure you want to risk
(The hypo is administered and Sulu opens his eyes.)
MCCOY: You were about to make a medical comment, Jim?
KIRK: Who, me, Doctor?
SCOTT: (at the helm) We're guiding around most of the time ripples now.
KIRK: Mister Spock?
SPOCK: All plotted but one, Captain. Coming up on it now. Seems to be fairly heavy displacement.
(And they hit it just as McCoy still has the hypo in his hand, and the jolt results in him injecting it into his own stomach.)
KIRK: Bones! Get back to your positions.
SPOCK: The hypo, Captain.
KIRK: It was set for cordrazine.
SPOCK: Empty.
KIRK: Communications, emergency medical team.
MCCOY: (screams) Killers! Assassins! I won't let you! I'll kill you first! I won't let you! You won't get me! Murderers! Killers!
(He dashes into the turbolift.)
KIRK: Security alert.

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 Doctor McCoy's body. In a strange, 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 in what direction it will drive McCoy.

[Transporter room]

(McCoy enters, knocks out the Chief very quickly and scientifically, then beams himself away.)

[Bridge]

KIRK: Continue alert, decks four through eleven. The medical department knows as little as we do. In dosages approaching this, there's some record of wild paranoia.
SPOCK: Confirmed by the library record tapes, Captain. Subjects failed to recognise acquaintances, became hysterically convinced that they were in mortal danger, and were seeking escape at any cost. Extremely dangerous to himself or to anyone else who might
GALLOWAY [OC]: Bridge, Security. Alert, alert!
KIRK: Bridge here. Go ahead.

[Transporter room]

GALLOWAY: Security 054, sir. We just found the transport chief injured.

[Bridge]

CHIEF [OC]: Captain, Doctor McCoy has beamed himself down to the planet.
SPOCK: And the transporter at that time, Captain, was focused on the centre of the time disturbance.
KIRK: So whatever's down there, McCoy is in the heart of it. Set up a landing party. Let's go get him. Kirk out.

[Planet surface]

(The landing party is Kirk, Spock, Scott, Uhura and two security guards. Among remains of fluted columns and fragments of Greek-style buildings is an irregular dough-nut shaped object with lights in it.)
KIRK: These ruins extend to the horizon. Begin recording.
UHURA: Recording, sir.
SPOCK: And of considerable age. On the order of ten thousand centuries old.
KIRK: Detail, fan out. What is this thing, Mister Spock? It seems to be pulsating with power of some kind. Analysis, please.
SPOCK: Unbelievable, Captain.
KIRK: That's funny.
SPOCK: This single object is the source of all the time displacement.
KIRK: Explain.
SPOCK: I can't. For this to do what it does is impossible by any science I understand. It is operating even now. Putting out waves and waves of time displacement, which we picked up millions of miles away.
UHURA: Landing party to Enterprise. No sign of Doctor McCoy. Search progressing.
(And he pops up from behind a rock after she and her security guard have passed by.)
SPOCK: Incredible power. It can't be a machine as we understand mechanics.
KIRK: Then what is it?
GUARDIAN: (The doughnut pulses bright in time with the words) A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question.
KIRK: What are you?
GUARDIAN: I am the Guardian of Forever.
KIRK: Are you machine or being?
GUARDIAN: I am both and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending.
SPOCK: I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles.
GUARDIAN: I answer as simply as your level of understanding makes possible.
SPOCK: A time portal, Captain. A gateway to other times and dimensions, if I'm correct.
GUARDIAN: As correct as possible for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive.
SPOCK: Really.
KIRK: Annoyed, Spock?
GUARDIAN: Behold. A gateway to your own past, if you wish.
(A camel train passing a pyramid, ancient Rome - images appear inside the doughnut.)
MCCOY: Killers! Killers! I won't let you get me! I'll kill you first! I won't let you get me! Assassins! Murderers! Killers!
(Scott and a guard manage to grab McCoy, and Spock neck-pinches him. An army of lancers charge across the doughnut.)
KIRK: Spock! If that is a doorway back through time, could we somehow take Bones back a day in time, then
SPOCK: Relive the accident. This time be certain that the hypo accident is avoided. Look at the speed with which the centuries are passing, Captain. To step through on precisely the day we wish
KIRK: Guardian. Can you change the speed at which yesterday passes?
GUARDIAN: I was made to offer the past in this manner. I cannot change.
(The US cavalry charges.)
KIRK: Strangely compelling, isn't it? To step through there and lose oneself in another world.
SPOCK: I am a fool. My tricorder is capable of recording even at this speed. I've missed taping centuries of living history which no man before has ever
(But McCoy has woken up, and dashes towards the Guardian.)
SCOTT: Doctor McCoy!
KIRK: Bones, no!
(McCoy leaps through the doughnut and the pictures stop. He's gone.)
KIRK: Where is he?
GUARDIAN: He has passed into what was.
UHURA: Captain, I've lost contact with the ship. I was talking to them. Suddenly, it went dead. No static, just nothing.
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise. Scotty.
SCOTT: Nothing wrong with the communicator, sir.
GUARDIAN: Your vessel, your beginning, all that you knew is gone.
KIRK: McCoy has somehow changed history.
SCOTT: You mean we're stranded down here?
SPOCK: With no past, no future.
UHURA: Captain, I'm frightened.
KIRK: Earth's not there. At least, not the Earth we know. We're totally alone.

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 what ever it was that McCoy changed.

SPOCK: I was recording images at the time McCoy left. A rather barbaric period in your American history. I believe I can approximate just when to jump. Perhaps within a month of the correct time. A week, if we're fortunate.
KIRK: Make sure we arrive before McCoy got there. It's vital we stop him before he does whatever it was that changed all history. Guardian, if we are successful
GUARDIAN: Then you will be returned. It will be as though none of you had gone.
UHURA: Captain, it seems impossible. Even if you were able to find the right date
SCOTT: Then even finding McCoy would be a miracle.
SPOCK: There is no alternative.
KIRK: Scotty, when you think you've waited long enough. Each of you will have to try it. Even if you fail, at least you'll be alive in some past world somewhere.
SCOTT: Aye.
SPOCK: Seconds now, sir. Stand by.
SCOTT: Good luck, gentlemen.
UHURA: Happiness at least, sir.
(First World War images.)
SPOCK: And now.

[Street]

(They leap through a wall with a poster for boxing at Madison Square Gardens. Welcome to the Depression.)
KIRK: I've seen old photographs of this period. An economic upheaval had occurred.
SPOCK: It was called Depression, circa 1930. Quite barbaric.
(Two women give then curious looks, and Spock hides his ears with his hands.)
KIRK: We seem to be costumed a little out of step with the time.
SPOCK: I'm afraid I'm going to be difficult to explain in any case, Captain.
KIRK: Well, Mister Spock, if we can't disguise you, we'll find some way of explaining you.
SPOCK: That should prove interesting.
KIRK: Let's get out of here.
(They are nearly run down crossing the street.)
SPOCK: Fascinating.
DRIVER: Look out, will you? Why don't you watch where you're going?
(They head into an alley with washing hanging out on the fire escape.)
SPOCK: Theft, Captain?
KIRK: Well, we'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor later. I think I'm going to like this century. Simple, easier to manage. We're not going to have any difficulty explaining
(Then he sees the policeman.)
POLICEMAN: Well?
KIRK: You're a police officer. I recognise the traditional accoutrements.
SPOCK: You were saying you'll have no trouble explaining it.
KIRK: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
(A crowd is gathering.)
SPOCK: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child.
KIRK: The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life.
POLICEMAN: All right, all right. Drop those bundles and put your hands on that wall there! Come on!
KIRK: Oh, how careless of your wife to let you go out that way.
POLICEMAN: What? Where?
SPOCK: Oh, yes, it's quite untidy. Here, let me help you.
(And a quick neck pinch in front of witnesses, then they grab the clothes and run off. With whistles blowing, they duck down the alley beside the 21st Street Mission and down the stairs to the cellar.)

[Cellar]

KIRK: You were actually enjoying my predicament back there. At times, you seem quite human.
SPOCK: Captain, I hardly believe that insults are within your prerogative as my commanding officer.
KIRK: Sorry.
(They get changed into jeans and shirts.)
KIRK: Time we faced the unpleasant facts.
SPOCK: First, I believe we have about a week before McCoy arrives, but we can't be certain.
KIRK: Arrives where? Honolulu, Boise, San Diego? Why not Outer Mongolia, for that matter?
SPOCK: There is a theory. There could be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.
KIRK: And the same currents that swept McCoy to a certain time and place might sweep us there, too.
SPOCK: Unless that is true, Captain, we have no hope. Frustrating. Locked in here is the place and moment of his arrival, even the images of what he did. If only I could tie this tricorder in with the ship's computers for just a few moments.
KIRK: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
SPOCK: In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?
KIRK: Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mister Spock. Excuse me. I sometimes expect too much of you.
(The lights come on.)
EDITH: Who's there?
(Spock puts on a woolen hat that was conveniently amongst the clothes Kirk stole. A young woman wearing an apron comes down the stairs.)
KIRK: Excuse us, miss. We didn't mean to trespass. It's cold outside.
EDITH: A lie is a poor way to say hello. It isn't that cold.
KIRK: No. We were being chased by a policeman.
EDITH: Why?
KIRK: These clothes. We stole them. We didn't have any money.
EDITH: Well, I could do with some help around here. Doing dishes, sweeping, general cleaning.
SPOCK: At what rate of payment? I need radio tubes and so forth. My hobby.
EDITH: Fifteen cents an hour for ten hours a day. What are your names?
KIRK: Mine is Jim Kirk. His is Spock.
EDITH: I'm Edith Keeler. You can start by cleaning up down here.
KIRK: Excuse me, Miss. Where are we?
EDITH: You're in the 21st Street Mission.
KIRK: Do you run this place?
EDITH: Indeed I do, Mister Kirk.
(She leaves them.)
KIRK: Radio tubes and so on. I approve of hobbies, Mister Spock.

[Canteen]

(Kirk and Spock collect their bowls of soup and pieces of bread, and sit at one of the long tables.)
EDITH: Good evening.
(She steps up onto a small stage with a piano.)
MAN: You'll be sorry.
KIRK: Why?
MAN: You expect to eat for free or something? You got to listen to Goody Two-shoes.
EDITH: Now, as I'm sure somebody out there has said, it's time to pay for the soup.
MAN: Not that she's a bad-looking broad, but if she really wanted to help out a fella in need
KIRK: Shut up. Shut up. I want to hear what she has to say.
SPOCK: Yes, of course, Captain.
EDITH: Now, let's start by getting one thing straight. I'm not a do-gooder. If you're a bum, if you can't break off of the booze or whatever it is that makes you a bad risk, then get out. Now I don't pretend to tell you how to find happiness and love when every day is just a struggle to survive, but I do insist that you do survive because the days and the years ahead are worth living for. One day soon man is going to be able to harness incredible energies, maybe even the atom. Energies that could ultimately hurl us to other worlds in some sort of spaceship. And the men that reach out into space will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world and to cure their diseases. They will be able to find a way to give each man hope and a common future, and those are the days worth living for. Our deserts will bloom. (She continues under the dialogue.)
KIRK: Development of atomic power is years away, and space flight years after that.
SPOCK: Speculation. Gifted insight.
KIRK: I find her most uncommon, Mister Spock.
EDITH: Prepare for tomorrow. Get ready. Don't give up.
(Later, when the bowls are being handed in, Edith calls after Kirk.)
EDITH: Mister Kirk. You are uncommon workmen. That basement looks like it's been scrubbed and polished.
KIRK: Then we can report back for other work?
EDITH: Yes. Seven o'clock in the morning. Do you have a flop for the night?
KIRK: A what?
EDITH: You really are new at this, aren't you? A flop is a place to sleep.
KIRK: Oh.
EDITH: There's a vacant room at the place where I live for two dollars a week. If you want to I'll take you there.
KIRK: Thank you.
EDITH: Good.
(She goes to get her coat.)
KIRK: We have a flop.
SPOCK: We have a what, Captain?
KIRK: A place to sleep.
SPOCK: One might have said so in the first place.

[Room]

(It must be some days later, because Spock has already built a 50's horror movie contraption, complete with static electricity running between two vertical wires. Kirk enters with groceries and turns the whining thing off.)
SPOCK: Captain, I must have some platinum. A small block would be sufficient, five or six pounds. By passing certain circuits through there to be used as a duodynetic field core...
KIRK: Mister Spock, I've brought you some assorted vegetables, baloney in a hard roll for myself, and I've spent the other nine tenths of our combined salaries for the last three days on filling this order for you. Mister Spock, this bag does not contain platinum, silver or gold, nor is it likely to in the near future.
SPOCK: Captain, you're asking me to work with equipment which hardly very far ahead of stone knives and bearskins.
KIRK: McCoy'll be along in a few days, perhaps sooner. There's no guarantee that these currents in time will bring us together. This has to work.
SPOCK: Captain. Captain, in three weeks at this rate, possibly a month, I might reach the first mnemonic memory circuits.
(There's a knock at the door.)
KIRK: Your hat.
EDITH: If you can leave immediately, I can get you five hours work at twenty two cents an hour. What? What on Earth is that?
SPOCK: I am endeavouring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.

[Canteen]

(Kirk and Spock are sweeping the floor, with the chairs stacked on the tables, and two men repairing clocks.)
SPOCK: Captain. Tools for finely detailed work.
(Later, a combination padlock is being opened by someone with very sensitive ears.)

[Cellar]

(Spock is stoking the boiler when Edith comes in to confront them.)
EDITH: That toolbox was locked with a combination lock and you opened it like a real pro. Why did you do it?
SPOCK: I needed the fine tools for my radio work. They'd have been returned in the morning.
EDITH: I'm sorry, I can't
KIRK: If Mister Spock says that he needs the tools and that they'll be returned tomorrow morning, you can bet your reputation on that, Miss Keeler.
EDITH: On one condition. Walk me home? I still have a few questions I'd like to ask about you two. Oh, and don't give me that questions about little old us? look. You know as well as I do how out of place you two are around here.
SPOCK: Interesting. Where would you estimate we belong, Miss Keeler?
EDITH: You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will. And you? You belong in another place. I don't know where or how. I'll figure it out eventually.
SPOCK: I'll finish with the furnace.
EDITH: Captain. Even when he doesn't say it, he does.

[Street]

(They are strolling along, hand in hand, as 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' carries in the air from a radio repair shop.)
EDITH: Why does Spock call you Captain? Were you in the war together?
KIRK: We served together.
EDITH: And you don't want to talk about it? Why? Did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something? Whatever it is, let me help.
KIRK: Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words even over I love you.
EDITH: Centuries from now? Who is he? Where does he come from er, where will he come from?
KIRK: Silly question. Want to hear a silly answer?
EDITH: Yes.
KIRK: A planet circling that far left star in Orion's belt. See?
(Not that you can actually see any stars in the night sky above the Brooklyn Bridge.)

[Room]

(Using the clock-mender's tools, Spock gets an image on his tricorder screen of a newspaper report. Edith Keeler, social worker from 21st Street Mission was killed today, it says. Kirk enters.)
KIRK: How are the stone knives and bearskins?
SPOCK: I may have found our focal point in time.
KIRK: I think you may also find you have a connection burning someplace.
SPOCK: Yes. I'm overloading those lines. I believe we'll have our answer on this screen, Captain.
KIRK: Good.
SPOCK: And, Captain, you may find this a bit distressing.
KIRK: Let's see what you have.
SPOCK: I've slowed down the recording we made from the time vortex.
KIRK: February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now. (reading below the headline FDR confers with slum area 'angel') The President and Edith Keeler conferred for some time today
(Then the whole thing goes up in flames.)
KIRK: How bad?
SPOCK: Bad enough.
KIRK: The President and Edith Keeler.
SPOCK: It would seem unlikely, Jim. A few moments ago, I read a 1930 newspaper article.
KIRK: We know her future. Within six years from now, she'll become very important. Nationally famous.
SPOCK: Or Captain, Edith Keeler will die this year. I saw her obituary. Some sort of traffic accident.
KIRK: You must be mistaken. They both can't be true.
SPOCK: Captain, Edith Keeler is the focal point in time we've been looking for, the point that both we and Doctor McCoy have been drawn to.
KIRK: She has two possible futures then, and depending on whether she lives or dies, all of history will be changed. And McCoy
SPOCK: Is the random element.
KIRK: In his condition, what does he do? Does he kill her?
SPOCK: Or perhaps he prevents her from being killed. We don't know which.
KIRK: Get this thing fixed. We must find out before McCoy arrives.
SPOCK: Captain, suppose we discover that in order to set things straight again, Edith Keeler must die?

[Street]

(The man from the canteen steals a milk bottle from a doorstep when McCoy leaps in through Singers Book Store window and starts shouting.)
MCCOY: Assassins! Murderers! Murderers! Assassins! You! What planet is this? (he drops the bottle) No! Don't run! I won't kill you! It's they who do the killing! Don't run! I won't kill you!

[Boarding house]

(Jim and Edith are climbing the stairs together.)
EDITH: Why? What is so funny about man reaching for the moon?
KIRK: How do you know?
EDITH: I just know, that's all. I feel it. And more, I think that one day they'll take all the money they spend now on war and death
KIRK: And make them spend it on life?
EDITH: Yes. You see the same things that I do. We speak the same language.
KIRK: The very same.
(They are outside room 33 when he leans in for the kiss.)

[Street]

(McCoy catches the down-and-out.)
MAN: No!
MCCOY: I'm glad you got away, too. Why do you think they want to kill us?
MAN: Look, fella, you take a sip too much of that old wood alky, and, and almost anything seems like it
MCCOY: Where? Where are we? Earth? The constellations seem right, but. Explain! Explain this trick.
MAN: I, I,
MCCOY: Biped. Small. Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry. Is that how you're able to fake all of this? Very good. Modern museum perfection. Right down to the cement beams. Very, very good. Oh, I'd give a lot to see the hospital. Probably needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!
(He passes out on the ground and his colour starts to improve. The man frisks him, finds his phaser and runs off a little way. Then he fiddles with the phaser, and disintegrates himself.)

[Room]

KIRK: How long before we get a full answer?
SPOCK: I'll need at least two more days before I dare make another attempt.
KIRK: McCoy could have been in the city a week now for all we know, and whatever he does that affects her and changes history could happen tonight or tomorrow morning.
SPOCK: Captain, our last bit of information was obtained at the expense of thirty hours work in fused and burned circuits.
KIRK: I must know whether she lives or dies, Spock. I must know what to do.

[Street]

(It's morning, apparently. Bums are still sleeping in shop doorways.)
CRIER [OC]: Extra! Extra! Get your morning paper! Get your paper. Read all about it!
(McCoy spots men going into the Mission and follows them.)

[Canteen]

(Edith is pouring cups of brown liquid.)
MCCOY: Oh, Miss. That coffee, it just smells wonderful.
EDITH: You look terrible! You'd better sit down. Come on.
MCCOY: I can't. I got to keep moving. I can't let them find me.
EDITH: There's a cot in the back room. They won't find you there. Come on.
(She helps him out just as Spock comes in and starts serving the drinks.

[Room]

SPOCK: This is how history went after McCoy changed it. Here, in the late 1930s. A growing pacifist movement whose influence delayed the United States' entry into the Second World War. While peace negotiations dragged on, Germany had time to complete its heavy-water experiments.
KIRK: Germany. Fascism. Hitler. They won the Second World War.
SPOCK: Because all this lets them develop the A-bomb first. There's no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Edith Keeler. Founder of the peace movement.
KIRK: But she was right. Peace was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but at the wrong time. With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them, Germany captured the world.
KIRK: No.
SPOCK: And all this because McCoy came back and somehow kept her from dying in a street accident as she was meant to. We must stop him, Jim.
KIRK: How did she die? What day?
SPOCK: We can estimate general happenings from these images, but I can't trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain. I'm sorry.
KIRK: Spock, I believe I'm in love with Edith Keeler.
SPOCK: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.

[Mission back room]

(McCoy stirs, dislodging the moist towel from his forehead.)
EDITH: Hey, now, come on. You're not ready to take on any tigers just yet. Lie down.
MCCOY: The most common question to ask would be, where am I? I don't think I'll ask it.
EDITH: Why not?
MCCOY: The only possible answer would conclusively prove that I'm either unconscious or demented. This looks like old Earth around 1920 or 25.
EDITH: Would you care to try for 30?
MCCOY: I am unconscious, or demented.
EDITH: I have a friend that talks about Earth the same way that you do. Would you like to meet him?
MCCOY: I'm a surgeon, not a psychiatrist. I am Leonard McCoy, Senior Medical Officer aboard the USS Enterprise.
EDITH: I don't mean to disbelieve you, but that's hardly a Navy uniform.
MCCOY: It's quite all right. It's quite all right dear, because I don't believe in you, either.
EDITH: Get some rest.

[Boarding house]

(Edith has just gone up a flight of stairs.)
KIRK: Edith.
EDITH: Are you following me, sir?
KIRK: With ulterior motives. Does that please you?
EDITH: I hope it means (she stumbles on the step and Kirk catches her, while Spock watches.) Oh! How stupid! I've been up and down those stairs a thousand times. I could have broken my neck.
(Spock goes back into room 21 as she kisses Jim, and re-emerges when Kirk comes down the stairs again.)
SPOCK: Captain, I did not plan to eavesdrop.
KIRK: No, of course you didn't.
SPOCK: I must point out that when she stumbled, she might have died right there, had you not caught her.
KIRK: It's not yet time. McCoy isn't here.
SPOCK: We're not that sure of our facts. Who's to say when the exact time will come? Save her, do as your heart tells you to do, and millions will die who did not die before.

[Mission back room]

(McCoy is out of bed.)
MCCOY: Come in.
EDITH: Well, you look just fine, Doctor.
MCCOY: Thank you.
EDITH: I thought you might like to see the evening paper.
MCCOY: No, not particularly. You know, I've convinced myself that this is all in a cordrazine hallucination, but I've decided you're not.
EDITH: That's reassuring.
MCCOY: But if you're not, what are you?
EDITH: A friend. When you showed up here, you looked like you could use one.
MCCOY: I don't doubt it. What about this place? Do you run it?
EDITH: I try to.
MCCOY: Why?
EDITH: It's necessary.
MCCOY: Well, it was for me, at least. You may have saved my life.
EDITH: Lots of people drink from the wrong bottle sometimes.
MCCOY: Not as wrong as the bottle I drank from. Allow me to show my gratitude. Perhaps there's something I can do around here to thank you.
EDITH: We can talk about that later. I have to go. My young man is taking me to a Clark Gable movie.
MCCOY: A who movie?
EDITH: A Clark Gable. Don't you know?
MCCOY: Well, I know what a movie is, but.
EDITH: That's very strange. You get some rest. I'll see you later.

[Street]

(Edith, Kirk and Spock leave the Mission together, then Spock heads off alone. Kirk and Edith dodge traffic to cross the street.)
EDITH: If we hurry, maybe we can catch the Clark Gable movie at the Orpheum.
KIRK: What?
EDITH: You know, Doctor McCoy said the same thing.
KIRK: McCoy! Leonard McCoy?
EDITH: Yes. He's in the Mission. He's
KIRK: Stay right here. Spock! Stay right there!
SPOCK: What is it?
KIRK: McCoy! He's in
(McCoy comes out and they greet each other enthusiastically. A truck is coming down the street as Edith starts to cross, not looking.)
SPOCK: No, Jim!
KIRK: Edith.
(McCoy dashes forward but Kirk grabs him and pulls him back onto the pavement just as Edith and the truck meet in in a squeal of brakes.)
MCCOY: You deliberately stopped me, Jim. I could have saved her. Do you know what you just did?
SPOCK: He knows, Doctor. He knows.

[Planet surface]

(Kirk and Spock leap back out of the Guardian.)
SCOTT: What happened, sir? You only left a moment ago.
(McCoy returns.)
SPOCK: We were successful.
GUARDIAN: Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before. Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway.
UHURA: Captain, the Enterprise is up there. They're asking if we want to beam up.
KIRK: Let's get the hell out of here.

 HISTORY

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