Title

The City on the Edge of Forever

Episode

Season 1
Episode 28

Air Date

April 6, 1967

Stardate

3134.0

Description

McCoy goes through a time portal and inadvertently changes history, obliterating the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock must go back in time, find McCoy, and set things right.

Personal Rating

I love the time travel episodes in general. But this one also has tension, as Kirk and Spock must locate Bones in a brief window of time, and as Kirk faces a serious dilemma when he realizes what he must do to restore time. It's also neat the way the episode speculates on alternative Earth histories.

The episode is also set in one of the most fascinating periods in human history: the 1930s, shortly before World War II.

Unfortunately, as with all time-travel plots, it's utterly implausible that they could restore history exactly as it was.

One of my chronic complaints about Star Trek episodes is how rapidly and how frequently members of the crew fall in love. In this episode both Kirk and McCoy fall in love with the same woman! McCoy falls in love again in For the World is Hollow And I have Touched the Sky, as does Kirk in The Paradise Syndrome.

The central character Edith Keeler is played by Joan Collins, who is probably most famous as Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan — jeez, how many times was this lady married? — on the old TV show Dynasty. However, she starred in at least one other science fiction venue, a movie titled Empire of the Ants.

Favorite Quotations

Kirk, after being apprehended by a policeman for stealing some clothes: "My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain."

Spock, helping out with the story: "Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child."

Kirk: "The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a, uh, skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life."

[Spock's use of the word perhaps is noteworthy. He's not supposed to lie or engage in deception. So prefixing a suggested explanation with the word perhaps shifts ultimate responsibility for the deception to Kirk.]


Kirk, suggesting a way to extract the data from Spock's tricorder: "Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?"

Spock: "In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?"

Kirk, cleverly goading Spock into action: "Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mr. Spock. Excuse me. I sometimes expect too much of you."


Ms. Keeler, inquiring about Spock's "science project": "What -- what on Earth is that?"

Spock: "I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins."


Bones, waking from his drug-induced stupor: "This looks like old Earth around 1920 or '25."

Ms. Keeler: "Would you care to try for '30?"

Bones: "I am unconscious or demented."

Ms. Keeler: "I have a friend that talks about Earth the same way that you do. Would you like to meet him?"

Bones: "I'm a surgeon, not a psychiatrist."