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STAR TREK: #28 The City on the Edge of Forever, 1967
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Writer: Harlan Ellison
Director: Joseph Pevney
Captain Kirk: William Shatner
Science Officer, First Officer, Cmdr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Dr. Leonard "Bones" Mc Coy: DeForest Kelly
Lt. Sulu: George Takei
Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott: James Doohan
Lieutenant Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Edith Keeler: Joan Collins
Rodent: John Harmon
Policeman: Hal Baylor
Lt. Galloway: David L. Ross
Transporter chief: John Winston
Voice of the Guardian of Forever: Bartell La Rue
Stardate 3134.0
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Lt. Sulu had a little accident on the
bridge and is treated by Dr. McCoy with cordrazine, while the Enterprise is
orbiting a planet where ripples in time have occurred.
By accident, McCoy injects himself with an overdose of the drug, which makes
him delirious. He beams down onto the planet, Kirk and Spock and a landing
party after him, as they became aware of it.
They find themselves in front of a donut shaped stone in the center of
which strange reflections of colors occur.
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They communicate with a machine
who calls itself the "The Guardian of Forever." Suddenly the doctor – still
under the influence of the drug – leaps forward, pushes them aside and
jumps into the hole in the stone, through the circle, and disappears.
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At that moment, the Enterprise ceases to exist and the landing party is
stranded. The Guardian explains that by McCoy action he went back into
Earth's history and changed it. In consequence their future has been changed.
To prevent this Kirk and Spock also need to leap through the hole. Spock measures
the times passing with the tricorder so that they arrive shortly before McCoy
arrives hoping they can prevent him from changing the future.
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Both arrive in New York during the Depression era.
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Spock just begins to wonder
how to explain his appearance and Kirk answers that this will be easy to explain,
and steals laundry to get them dressed in the style of the time, as they are
discovered by a policeman. He stares at Spock and Kirk with the stolen laundry
and at Spock's ears again as Spock answers that this is easy to explain. Kirk
finally comes up with the explanation: His friend had an accident, as a child – his head
was caught in a ricepicker in Asia ...
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The policeman doesn't buy the story and the two have to run. They find shelter in a basement, where they change in 20th century clothes (the stolen laundry). Spock muses that he has the very moment when the doctor will come recorded on his tricorder, but he can't get it out, without a computer and Kirk suggests him to build one. Spock protests that it is impossible with the poor technology of the time and Kirk teases him, telling that, maybe, he's asking too much and forgetting that Spock is also partly human. Spock is piqued.
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| To be my commanding officer does not give you right to offend |
Their fate changes as they meet a social worker, Edith Keeler. She offers
them accommodation and a job.
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Spock
asks how much she will pay them and explains to a bewildered Kirk that he needs
wires and instruments for his "hobby".
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Edith wonders how they managed
to sweep the room as clean as they did. Kirk and Spock serve soup to needy people
in Keeler's social work and Spock borrows some equipment like screwdrivers and
Edith finds out that he has taken them. She seems to believe Spock that he would
have brought them back.
Edith Keeler cares for many people in the street and has a considerable
impact on the society. Before the people eat their soup "they have to pay for it"
(as one man puts it) by listening to her sermon. She also shares her dreams about
traveling to the stars and a better world. Kirk is struck by her foresight.
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To
better substain themselves and to achieve the goal of building the device they
need, Kirk and Spock accept a new, better paid, job - the cleaning of a radio
repairing shop. There Spock "borrows" some equipment. Edith finds out
and confronts him, but accepts his explanation and the promise to return
everything in the morning. Edith and Kirk fall in love. He admires
her work and her cleverness. And she remarks that Spock belongs to his side and that
his "..., Captain," is heard even if he does not say it aloud.
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Meanwhile the time McCoy arrives has come. He also meets Edith and she cares for
the sick man, making an impression on him, too.
Spock has completed his computer as good a possible and finds out
that there are two versions of the future from here on. Either she will die in a
street accident or she will live. If Edith survives she will
become so influential that her social work would infiltrate all America and worldwide
alterations would be the consequence of her actions. America would not get involved
in World War II as quickly as it did which would cause Hitler to develop the atomic
bomb and conquer the world. She needs to die in order to preserve the events as
they are known to them.
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| Edith Keeler must die |
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Kirk is devastated.
He meets Edith again and she mentions McCoy.
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Kirk is astonished to hear that
he has already arrived and both Spock and Kirk see McCoy coming out of the house. The three
friends are happy to see each other and Edith is about to cross the road. She does not
see the lorry coming. The driver does not notice Edith either and does not slow down,
but McCoy sees the danger. He wants to jump forward to save Edith from being run over
by the lorry.
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Jim and Spock notice the situation, too.
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They know that Edith has to
die and realize that this is the moment McCoy would alter the future. Though
loving Edith, Jim gets into McCoy's way and prevents him to save her life.
"Do you know what you have done?" McCoy shouts at him as Kirk is still holding
him, not being able to watch what happened to Edith and Spock says: "Yes, he knows" –
aware of what his friends are going through.
Having prevented McCoy from changing the future they go back through the
Guardian of Forever into their time – which seems to the others as if the were gone
some moments only. The Enterprise is back again and they continue their voyage.
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Pictures courtesy of www.trek5.com
