City on the Edge of Forever
- Thread starter ElBurro
- Start date
Interesting, that this is not exactly the way it works now - well, okay, it's not exactly the way it worked in the 1990s. My impression is that the process is still much like it was when I was working, but I don't know that.
Basically, once a TV series paid you for your story they could cut you off at any point. Initial story money entitled them to a treatment and one free revised or second treatment - now, maybe they were required to offer the writer a second whack at the ball there, but that wasn't my impression. Once they accepted the treatment and paid you script money, though, - if you got that far - and you turned in your first draft you were done. At that point they could take the script and hand it off to another writer as they pleased. Or they could ask you for another draft, on the same dime.
What was required was that if anyone other than the writers from whom the script was purchased was given screen credit the whole shebang be submitted to WGA arbitration where a panel of reviewers would decide which of the folks who worked on various drafts were entitled to what credit.
The thing about "City" is that you don't have to know a thing about the characters or be interested in Star Trek or its putative "universe" in order for this to be a great hour of television - it would work almost as well as an episode of an anthology like The Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. That's a virtue.
I agree with this analysis. The episode is sheer brilliance. Some star trek since then has matched it, but none has exceeded it.
^^^Not at all. Come on, Todd, even though you may reasonably not like Ellison's original, it was in no way, form or fashion as clumsy and ill-thought out as the aired version of "Spock's Brain."
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
QFT
It’s hardly an original sentiment, but it bears repeating: Ellison’s original script would have worked as a stand-alone story, either a feature film or an episode of a TV anthology. But it wasn’t Star Trek. It had to be changed to fit the characters and background established for the show. Such is the nature of writing for series television.
^^^His book contains two treatments, dated 3-21-66 and 5-13-66, the first draft script (which differs slightly from the version of the first draft printed in the 1976 Roger Elwood-edited anthology "Six Science Fiction Plays") and the Teaser and Act One of the 2nd Revised Final Draft, dated 12-1-66.
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
Has anyone here come up with some theories about how they get to go back through the Guardian at the end? Clearly Kirk and Spock took the time to change out of their stolen clothes and back into their uniforms. After that... what did they do, stand near the original entry point and wait? Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to cover this in the episode. It would've been great if they had. Perhaps the Guardian sensing the correction, opens a portal back once they return to the general area where they came through.
I know it's a minor point relative to the story, but it's a rather noticeable gap at the end. It always throws me... well, at least until I gave it some more thought.
I know it's a minor point relative to the story, but it's a rather noticeable gap at the end. It always throws me... well, at least until I gave it some more thought.
Well, the Guardian did tell them they would be returned when they accomplished their mission so I just assumed that he just grabbed them and threw them back. I agree it could be a slight plot hole, but nothing major in my book. Maybe it's something that goes unnoticed on first viewing, but becomes a greater annoyance on repeated viewings?
A.V.I.A.F.
Captain
Clearly Kirk and Spock took the time to change out of their stolen clothes and back into their uniforms.
I remember reading in one of those "behind the scenes" books--I can't remember the title of it now--that apparently there was a scene that was deleted which showed Kirk closing a drawer to a bureau in Keeler's basement (where she later first discovers Kirk and Spock) containing their uniforms. This scene was cut for time and because it was deemed unnecessary as the audience was expected to assume that they had found a hiding place for their uniforms. We know that Keeler never finds them because of her reaction to McCoy's uniform (noting that it doesn't look like any naval uniform that she has ever seen). I suppose we are supposed to think that after Keeler's death, Kirk and Spock returned to that basement and changed their clothes and then returned to the street corner in front of a door with a now infamous boxing poster; where they were able to run back through the Guardian.
Question: what is to prevent an innocent bystander from jumping through that portal and finding himself/herself in another time?
Yeah Mike, it's no major plot hole... it was something I didn't pay attention to the first time; it came up in later viewings as there would be more time to think about various things about the episode.
I'd never heard about that scene, A.V.I.A.F. Very interesting... I wish they'd restored it when remastering the DVD's, but I guess it was lost long ago. I kind of envisioned it similar to what happened in "All Our Yesterdays". One wouldn't know the portal is there, unless you stepped through it. So, bystanders wouldn't notice. Someone might see Kirk, Spock, and McCoy vanish as they run into the wall... but that would be it.
I do like the touch of how Kirk & Spock come through first, followed by McCoy. Exact reversal of how they first went through.
I'd never heard about that scene, A.V.I.A.F. Very interesting... I wish they'd restored it when remastering the DVD's, but I guess it was lost long ago. I kind of envisioned it similar to what happened in "All Our Yesterdays". One wouldn't know the portal is there, unless you stepped through it. So, bystanders wouldn't notice. Someone might see Kirk, Spock, and McCoy vanish as they run into the wall... but that would be it.
I do like the touch of how Kirk & Spock come through first, followed by McCoy. Exact reversal of how they first went through.
I don't think there's an open "portal" there waiting for anyone to wander through. I think the Guardian re-opens it at the appropriate moment.
As to the uniforms, it's easy enough to assume they reclaimed them before returning...they are more things from the future that could in some tiny way affect the past, so getting them makes logical sense.
As to deleted scenes, I get the impression that there ARE no deleted scenes left because Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises chopped them up for sale through their catalog.
As to the uniforms, it's easy enough to assume they reclaimed them before returning...they are more things from the future that could in some tiny way affect the past, so getting them makes logical sense.
As to deleted scenes, I get the impression that there ARE no deleted scenes left because Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises chopped them up for sale through their catalog.
Or, after Kirk and Spock successfully changed the timeline back to its “normal” course, the Guardian could have simply snatched them up and magically changed their clothes. Hey, if it worked in The Time Tunnel . . .
Once Keeler died, the timeline was restored and the trio were brought back by the Guardian. No time had passed on Gateway (or just a short time, as (I think) Scotty notes when they get back).
That's the unfortunate name given to the planet by novels and fan films such as PII.
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