The City on the Edge of Forever (6 Apr. 1967)

When a temporarily maddened Dr. McCoy alters history and eliminates his time, Kirk and Spock follow him to prevent it, but the price to do so is high.

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Harlan Ellison, Gene Roddenberry (creator)

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Joan Collins

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Joan Collins	...	Sister Edith Keeler
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
John Harmon	...	Rodent
Hal Baylor	...	Policeman
David L. Ross	...	Lt. Galloway
John Winston	...	Transporter Chief
Bart La Rue	...	Guardian (voice) (as Bartell La Rue)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

When an accident causes Dr. McCoy to go temporarily insane, he escapes to a strange planet. There, the search party discovers a device left by a superior, vanished civilization, a time portal that plays the history of Earth for them - but then Bones jumps through it into the past, causing a change in history important enough to make the Enterprise vanish. Kirk and Spock, who fortunately made a tricorder recording, must attempt to go through to just before McCoy's arrival and stop him from changing history in the US during the Great Depression, where they have no advanced technology available.

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Plot Keywords:

time portal | 1930s | great depression | reference to orion the constellation | back in time | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 April 1967 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (flashbacks) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Keeler tells McCoy his blue uniform hardly looks like it's from the U.S. Navy. DeForest Kelley filmed naval training videos in real life.

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Goofs

As Kirk and Edith Keeler stroll through town, a radio plays "Goodnight, Sweetheart", a song from 1931, one year after the setting of this episode.

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Quotes

Edith Keeler: If you can leave right away, I can get you 5 hours of work at 22 cents an hour.
[seeing Spock's arcing and sparking tricorder adapter]
Edith Keeler: What... what on earth is that?
Spock: I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.

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Connections

Referenced in Frasier: Star Mitzvah (2002)

User Reviews

The Perfect Confluence

"City on the Edge of Forever" is usually considered one of the best (if not the best) of the series. The praise is well-deserved.

During a meteor storm, McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of cordrazine, which leads him to paranoid insanity. He beams himself down to the planet being orbited by the Enterprise, escapes through a time portal, resulting in the obliteration of the Enterprise's world. Kirk and Spock go back through the portal to try and intercept McCoy (who has interfered with the past), and land in the New York City of the 1930s. They are taken in by Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), a pacifistic social worker, and Kirk begins to fall in love.

As the summary indicates, this episode is the perfect confluence of superb science fiction writing (Harlan Ellison), well-honed directing (Joseph Pevney), and sensitive acting (Shatner and Nimoy in particular). The script is incredibly well-written by one of the best science fiction writers of all time, and uses modest humor (e.g., Spock's clueless insistence on securing platinum, Kirk's explanation of Spock's ears to a policeman, etc.) to keep the story from becoming overly maudlin. For those who believe that William Shatner could not act (i.e., those who had never seen him in his early TV days), his nuanced and sympathetic performance clearly shows how good of an actor he could be. Likewise, Joan Collins acquits herself quite well, and Nimoy is, as always, marvelous. Spock's final line in the 1930s world alone is worth the viewing.