"The City on the Edge of Forever" Line-by-line

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) Mr. 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: 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: (to Spock) 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. (In Kirk and Spock's room sometime later, Spock has already built some kind of contraption, complete with static electricity running between two vertical wires when Kirk enters with groceries) 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 rolls for myself, and I've spent 9/10 of our combined salaries for the past 3 days on filling this order for you. Mister Spock, this bag doesn't contain platinum, silver or gold, nor is it likely to in the near future.