The City On The Edge Of Forever
The ship is at Red Alert, orbiting an uncharted world as it maps the temporal turbulence that drew it here. The shaking takes its toll on the ship and the crew, and a power surge injures Sulu when his console short circuits. McCoy is called to the bridge, and he is able to revive the helmsman with a shot of cordrazine. Unfortunately, as McCoy is putting the hypospray away, another burst of turbulence hits the ship, and the doctor is injected with the full vial of the drug, many times higher than the safe dose. Gripped by a feverish paranoia, the Doctor races from the bridge, and eludes security long enough to beam down to the heart of the disturbances. Kirk outfits a landing party and goes down to the surface of the ruined planet to look for the Doctor. But while the other four search, Kirk and Spock are fascinated by a prominent torus that seems to glow with contained energies, and as Spock surmises, is responsible for the disturbances that reach millions of miles into space. A random question from Kirk wakens the Guardian of Forever, whose enigmatic responses to their questions hint at its immense age and knowledge. When it demonstrates the ability to show images from the past, Spock realises that it is a time portal. Which is when McCoy reappears, still crazed and leaps through the portal. At that same instant, the Enterprise vanishes as if it had never existed. The landing party learn to their horror that McCoy has altered history, and they are now refugees, outcasts of history. The only option is to follow McCoy back through time and repair the damage he caused. Fortunately, there is enough information on Spock’s tricorder to estimate the correct time period, and soon Kirk and Spock appear on the streets of New York in 1930. It’s an inauspicious entrance, and the two are soon hiding from the authorities in a basement. It is the basement of the 21st Street Mission, and the person running the welfare institution isn’t too pleased to see two vagrants sheltering in her premises. Edith Keeler makes an instant impression on Kirk, and with an oddly placed honesty, he manages to convince her of their good intentions. In return for a days work, they earn a few dollars wages and manage to get a place to live, where Spock can work on building apparatus to access the tricorder. They need the information to discover exactly how history changed and when it is that McCoy will arrive. As Spock works, Kirk spends more and more time with the exceptional Edith Keeler, and they begin to get close. Unbeknownst to them, McCoy arrives, and in his feverish state, ends up in the very same 21st Street Mission where Edith nurses him back to health. Then the worst happens. Spock learns that it is Edith Keeler’s life that will determine the future, and that Kirk may be forced to make a most painful sacrifice.
Of all the episodes I have written about thus far, that has to be the longest summary yet. When I watch these episodes, I keep a pad of A4 nearby, to take the occasional note. Most episodes run to about half a page of notes, some exceptional ones may stretch as far as a full page. The City On The Edge Of Forever took up 2 pages of notes in my smallest writing. That’s just an indication of how exceptional this episode is, and just how much happens in it. Looking at it almost 40 years after it was made, it truly stands heads and shoulders above the rest of Trek, with a cinematic feel to it. I would even go as far as classing it as the first Trek movie, despite the running time, as everything, simply everything comes together to elevate it in my eyes. I don’t think there is one aspect I can fault, the editing, the lighting, the set design, the music, the actor performances or the direction; this is an episode where everyone is working at the top of their game. I think if I wrote ten thousand words about this episode, I would still only be scratching the surface.
Just look at the pre-credits sequence, there is so much packed into those few seconds of screen time. We get the exposition that establishes the ship’s jeopardy, the mission that it is following, and the nature of the disturbances that it is investigating. Add to that the development when Sulu gets injured necessitating McCoy coming to the bridge. In a clever character moment, where Kirk has to check himself from questioning his CMO’s judgement, we get an idea what a potent drug cordrazine is, and then there is the accident that sees McCoy injected with the drug. All of this before the credits have even rolled. This level of detail remains constant through the episode, the richness of this story never ceases to amaze. There is also something for everyone here, all the bases covered in terms of genre. Naturally the overarching theme is sci-fi but we begin with drama as McCoy evades security and escapes to the planet’s surface. The explorer in Kirk and the scientist in Spock really do prove to be their downfall, as they are distracted by the enigma that is the Guardian, while the rest of the landing party search for McCoy. For someone conditioned to embrace the unknown, it is an understandable diversion. I love the lighting on the planet’s surface, when you see the principals’ faces, they are half in shadow, the mood is oppressive, and with the ambient sound it makes for an effective world. They do manage to apprehend McCoy, but once again the Guardian takes their attention at a crucial moment, when they should have been beaming the Doctor back to the ship. The cordrazine in his system means he can shake off a nerve pinch and launch himself through the portal. It’s a chilling realisation when the Enterprise vanishes, and the landing party understand their predicament. When Uhura tells Kirk that she is frightened, you can see by their faces that she speaks for them all. In one of the most memorable scenes from the series, Kirk, bereft of his ship is left looking skywards, as the camera pans up to the empty stars. After 40 years, you can see the joins, but this viewer just doesn’t care, it is a perfectly measured, perfectly captured moment that accomplishes all it sets out to.
Then there is the comedy. Time Travel means culture clash and misunderstandings. As soon as Kirk and Spock make their entrance into New York of 1930, and Kirk has to explain his friend’s appearance, the mood lightens and the fun begins. In a moment that is echoed by Star Trek IV, Kirk and Spock have a problem crossing the road safely, but here that serves a purpose, setting up the end of the story. The two officers quickly find their feet in the society of the Depression, successfully recreated on screen with judicious use of sets and extras. Again in terms of production design, the quality here is not far off an expensive movie budget of the period. The comedy continues as Spock endeavours to construct a mnemonic computer tie in using stone knives and bearskins. As time passes Kirk begins to fall for Edith Keeler, and it is the best such portrayal of a romance in Star Trek. This is because it is actually two characters falling in love, the way that Edith is written you can see that she is attracted to Kirk and not just his charms. It is a meeting of equals that doesn’t occur as successfully again in the original series. Perhaps it is because Edith is portrayed as an intelligent, independent woman, one who perhaps ironically doesn’t need rescuing by Kirk. She is remarkably perceptive, her speech about space exploration seems out of place at the Mission, but when she comments on Spock’s place by Kirk’s side, she reveals a preternatural insight. This is truly an exceptional woman, and her effect on Kirk is telling. In a situation where falsehood would be advisable, Kirk finds himself telling her the truth.
Also a sign of the editing skill, there is no problem accepting that days or even weeks pass while our heroes wait for McCoy to arrive. He does do so eventually, still paranoid and fevered. He’s lucid enough to note his surroundings, and a good sign of the science is his noting of the constellations and realising that he must be on Earth. Of course his state of mind doesn’t allow him to accept his reality easy, and he frightens the first vagrant he sees out of his wits. It’s a great performance from Kelley, despite the fact that most of the episode focuses on Kirk and Spock.
Around this time, the comedy fades completely, especially as Spock gets the circuits working and realises the truth. Edith Keeler must die. I think in terms of Spock’s development as a character, the most important two words he says are spoke here, “I’m sorry” They are half mumbled, he’s reluctant to say them, indeed his Vulcan heritage would look down on any expression of remorse, any admission of empathy. Yet he understands that his words cause Kirk pain, he’s compelled to speak regardless of his upbringing. While we have seen that he holds some ideals above the discipline of the service, loyalty for instance. This is perhaps the strongest indication that we get that Kirk’s friendship means even more to him.
Spock’s pronouncement of the death sentence looms over the rest of the episode, and the elation of the officers’ reunion quickly turns into tragedy as their future is made to happen. I can’t even imagine how Kirk must have felt, knowing that he actively had to let someone die, someone he loved to allow the future to pass. Is someone who fails to act as culpable as someone who chooses to kill? Kirk must have felt that he had killed Edith Keeler, that grief and anguish is evident in Shatner’s performance, with McCoy’s accusations ringing in his ears. It’s no wonder that the last words that you hear in this story are “Let’s get the hell out of here!” Mild profanity by modern standards certainly, but the power behind those words certainly hasn’t diminished today. I’m not ashamed to say that I have a tear in my eye when this story ends.
This is probably not an original, or even rare observation, but since it occurred to me for the first time watching this last night, I feel no hesitation in sharing it. They had to be there! In the original history, Keeler dies in a traffic accident, McCoy changes it when he travels back in time, and Kirk and Spock have to go back and correct it. But the indications are there as soon as McCoy arrives. The vagrant steals McCoy’s phaser and vanishes in a blue flash of light. Maybe the vagrant would have had no effect on the future anyway, but the loss of a life is still a change to the timeline. But the evidence is conclusive as we see how Edith Keeler dies. When Kirk learns that McCoy is in the Mission, he crosses the street to meet him. Edith deliberately crosses after to join the men. If McCoy, Kirk or Spock hadn’t travelled back in time, there would have been no reason for her to walk in front of that truck. We can only assume that Fate or God or the Guardian of Forever had arranged events so that Kirk would end up back in 1930 New York, to avoid the creation of paradox. Or you could say that the disturbances around the Guardian’s world were caused by the incipient paradox, and the Enterprise investigating the disturbances, and the subsequent events was merely the universe restoring the balance. Whatever way you look at it, Kirk had to go through hell.
I’ve probably overlooked a significant fraction of this episode, but these are the points that resonated with me. The next time I watch it, I’ll most likely have something else to say. Either way, this is as good as Star Trek gets.
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