50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
"The City on the Edge of Forever", Episode 28, April 6th
Tonight's Episode: Kirk and Spock have to track down a high as a kite McCoy through time in order to stop Scotty selling drugs in the future or something. We also find out that if Kirk settles down with one woman for too long, Hitler wins the war. Look both ways when you cross the street, children!
Tonight's Episode: Kirk and Spock have to track down a high as a kite McCoy through time in order to stop Scotty selling drugs in the future or something. We also find out that if Kirk settles down with one woman for too long, Hitler wins the war. Look both ways when you cross the street, children!
I am NOT correct. Disregard.
A true classic. If you never watch another episode of TOS, this is the one to watch. My review at this link.
Next week: the season finale with everyone's favorite pain inducing plastic creatures!
Next week: the season finale with everyone's favorite pain inducing plastic creatures!
What a contrast from last week!
The concept, events, and outcome of the story are by now all too familiar. What stood out for me this time were the great Kirk/Spock moments throughout the episode.
So can McCoy do that double-karate chop knockout thing when he's not hyped up on drugs?
Edith's yarns were wasted on the bums at the mission. She should have been writing sci fi.
I wonder, though, if one could really see stars in New York in 1930.
The concept, events, and outcome of the story are by now all too familiar. What stood out for me this time were the great Kirk/Spock moments throughout the episode.
So can McCoy do that double-karate chop knockout thing when he's not hyped up on drugs?
Edith's yarns were wasted on the bums at the mission. She should have been writing sci fi.
In my 50th anniversary viewings of various programs, I've noticed a few moon program references...usually from a contemporary perspective. Very sign o' the times.Edith Keeler said:
I wonder, though, if one could really see stars in New York in 1930.
Sounds like somebody was campaigning for a spin-off.The Guardian of Forever said:
Oddly quiet so far this week....
_______
Last week's other 50th Anniversary Viewings
_______
50 years ago this week and the following:
(The girl with the candy apple bears an uncanny resemblance to Ex-Mrs. Mixer....)
New on the U.S. charts in those weeks:
"Happy Jack," The Who
(#24 US; #3 UK)
"Groovin'," The Young Rascals
(#1 US the weeks of May 20 and 27 and June 17 and 24; #3 R&B; #8 UK)
And airing Thursday the 13th:
Star Trek
"Operation: Annihilate!"
Stardate 3287.2
_______
Last week's other 50th Anniversary Viewings
_______
50 years ago this week and the following:
Skipped this one in favor of another NASA doc when Lunar Orbiter came up a few months back:
(The girl with the candy apple bears an uncanny resemblance to Ex-Mrs. Mixer....)
New on the U.S. charts in those weeks:
"Happy Jack," The Who
(#24 US; #3 UK)
"Groovin'," The Young Rascals
(#1 US the weeks of May 20 and 27 and June 17 and 24; #3 R&B; #8 UK)
And airing Thursday the 13th:
Star Trek
"Operation: Annihilate!"
Stardate 3287.2
MeTV said:
Can't speak for the rest, but I've been a little busy lately, I've managed to watch it this Thursday, but I've only just now found a little time to write down some thoughts. Should be back on track next week for the finale
And that's another thing... what can one say that hasn't been said before.
I honestly can't remember the time I didn't know how this story unfolded, so this time I tried to pretend I didn't know how it ended and...
... while I've always found that speech kinda hokey("... build space ships, filled with astronauts on... on some kind of star trek
"), I think I see its purpose now. It isn't just to show how smart and intuitive and hopeful for humanity she is, when you watch it the first time you're not supposed to know she's supposed to die, that speech is there to make you think that maybe she's supposed to live and inspire the progress with the harnessing the energies of the atom and moon shots and stuff.And that's another thought that kinda unexpectedly jumped out this time.
The proper timeline was at stake, that's for sure, but is Earth's future really on the line?
I think this is a case of writers shortsightedness, the line of thought going: Nazis are evil, if evil won, the whole world would be evil and things would totally suck. And yeah, the '60s would undoubtedly suck if the Nazis won the war. But what would happen 300 years in the future?
Human history is filled with conquering arseholes who eventually either end up crumbling, or if they survive long enough, slowly reforming into somewhat acceptable arseholes. So even if the war ended differently and the Nazis "conquered the world", I can't really see them holding on to it for long, and who knows maybe a couple of decades of Nazi rule over the entire world would have made the world more dedicated to not repeating the same mistakes all over again, making Star Trek's optimistic future a reality sooner rather than later.
If you think about it, Star Trek is actually kinda contradicting itself here, because they've implied that we'd need a couple more global shitstorms like the Eugenic Wars, World War III(technically the same thing as of where we are now in the rewatch, to be retconned later into separate conflicts), basically bombing ourselves back to stone knives and bearskins before we got our heads out of our asses and united as a world. So if WWII had been an even bigger tragedy, maybe we wouldn't have needed those several next ones...
Funny thing is that lately I've still been writing but I haven't been able to watch. This week I watched City TWICE but haven't been able to write about it.
In the Blish story Spock says space travel never developed. I wonder what a planet bound 23rd century Earth would be like?
Roddenberry was a humanist but he never seemed to think we'd be able to figure it out without ETs.
In the Blish story Spock says space travel never developed. I wonder what a planet bound 23rd century Earth would be like?
Roddenberry was a humanist but he never seemed to think we'd be able to figure it out without ETs.
That's ironic, considering the origins of the technology and scientists for both the US and Soviet space programs...
Kinda like The Mark of Gideon?
Mark of Gideon's problems arose from there being no war, no disease, virtually no death, and lots and lots and lots of babies. We're lead to believe that a post Nazi (or never post Nazi) 23rd century wouldn't be like that.Kinda like The Mark of Gideon?
Either that or it's Mark of Gideon with a TON of blondes.
Yes, that was the subject of some of Justman's more amusing memos from The Making of Star Trek.
I might be opening a can of worms here, but I've always preferred the televised City to Ellison's original. (Except Edith yammering on about astronauts and space travel. That's a sour note.)
I can see the argument for Spock stopping McCoy vs. Kirk. I have no problem showing Our Heroes with very human weaknesses. OTOH I can see the argument for the way it went. The terrific thing is that either outcome is totally in character for both of them.
But there's a reason that last scene show's up in TV Guide's Greatest Moments in Television lists. It's one of Shatner AND Nimoy's greatest performances. Kirk has no dialog after calling "Edith!" until "Let's get the hell out of here." And Nimoy's delivery of the line "He knows, Doctor," is perfect. Totally Spock and yet totally empathetic.
I hate the "Hey! We can have a SEQUEL!" speech that the Guardian gives at the end. But it has a terrific purpose. The whole time the GoF is babbling, Kirk gets to telegraph to the audience "I JUST DON'T CARE." You also get to see Scotty and Uhura looking at the Captain with expressions of "What the hell happened to him?"
Nimoy is so good in this episode. I've felt for a long time now that the hallmark of TOS Spock is his pain. He's SO unhappy so much of the time. Sometimes he's just weary or frustrated. Other times he's angry. But there's always an air of a man making the best of a bad deal. In City he's miserable. He hates being in the 20th century. He finds no charm, no interest, and nothing to engage him there. Then he has an impossible job. And finally he has the one man he'd call friend 1) being set up for terrible pain himself and 2) the possibly that Kirk will "follow his heart" and strand Spock in that hellhole. "We're not that sure of our facts," might be my favorite line in the episode.
It's been a long time since I've read Ellison's original. And I know that even with the script as filmed that there is a lot that makes the episode work that isn't on the page. But there is a sparkle to the finished episode and a definition of the characters that we know that just isn't in HE's original.
It has always cracked me up that Ellison simultaneously derides the filmed episode and also crows about making that TV Guide list even though the scene that they lauded is the exact opposite of what he wrote.
I never read Ellison's original. Didn't even know it was available out there.
But from the snippets I've heard about it I think I'd still prefer the aired version. The original seems a bit overcluttered with stuff and places too much emphasis on guest stars, while some of the best stuff in this episode are Kirk/Spock interactions and McCoy coming out of it(who wasn't even in the original script if I recall correctly.)
The best episode of the series in my opinion. I love the McCoy karate chop. We usually do not see McCoy do any serious fighting, yet he's got some serious fighting skills in him. It is funny to hear McCoy yell to the bum "Don't run, I won't kill you! Seriously deranged. The Kirk, Spock and Edith Keeler dynamic is excellent as well. It is funny to see Kirk and Edith walk by Floyd's Barber Shop from the Andy Griffith Show. The ending is amazingly intense. I still get choked up about it.
Yeah, were the hell were these mad skillz in Bread and Circuses?"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a ninja!"
People can call it the best of the series, but it was never my favorite of the series.
Obviously. Journey to Babel is the best.
With regards to the discussion of "City", I am pretty sure Ellison only put the "space pirates" in (temporarily) at Roddenberry's insistence, as he felt there needed to be some "drama" up at the ship. I read Ellison's original teleplay and the introductory essay he published in 1996 many years ago, but as I recall, Ellison said that Roddenberry was also responsible for Edith's hokey dialog speculating about the future, which he abhorred.
I prefer the aired version, but there are parts of Ellison's original (if you can call it that...it evolved over time) I would have liked to have seen, including the WWI vet character "Trooper". Anyone who offers a preference should definitely read Ellison's version / introduction. I recall it being an eye opener, esp. the introduction. Pretty savage and also very funny, with some astute commentary about what was going on with Trek on TV and print at the time.
If you search for "Ellison + Trek + 1996" on Ebay, there are copies of it that can be had pretty cheap.
I prefer the aired version, but there are parts of Ellison's original (if you can call it that...it evolved over time) I would have liked to have seen, including the WWI vet character "Trooper". Anyone who offers a preference should definitely read Ellison's version / introduction. I recall it being an eye opener, esp. the introduction. Pretty savage and also very funny, with some astute commentary about what was going on with Trek on TV and print at the time.
If you search for "Ellison + Trek + 1996" on Ebay, there are copies of it that can be had pretty cheap.
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