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Memorable quotes for
"Star Trek" The City on the Edge of Forever (1967)

Capt. Kirk: "Let me help." A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words over "I love you."

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[after going back in time, Captain Kirk is forced to explain Spock's strange appearance]
Policeman: Well?
Capt. Kirk: You're a police officer. I recognize the traditional accoutrements.
Spock: You were saying you'd have no trouble explaining it.
[describing Spock]
Capt. Kirk: My friend... is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears; well, they're... easy to explain...
Spock: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child...
Capt. Kirk: ...the unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical... rice picker... but, fortunately, there was an American, uh, missionary living close by who was a, uh, skilled, uh, plastic surgeon in civilian life who -...
Policeman: All right, all right. Drop those bundles and put your hands on the wall.

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Dr. McCoy: You deliberately stopped me, Jim. I could have saved her. Do you know what you just did?
Spock: He knows, Doctor. He knows.

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Captain Kirk: Well, Mr. Spock, if we can't disguise you, we'll have to find some way of... explaining you.
Spock: That should prove interesting.

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Spock: Theft, captain?
Captain Kirk: Well, we'll... steal from the rich and give back to the poor... later.

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Spock: Save her, do as your heart tells you to do, and millions will die who did not die before.

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[after coming out of a faint]
Dr. McCoy: The most common question to ask would be "Where am I?" I don't think I'll ask it.
Edith Keeler: Why not?
Dr. McCoy: The only possible answer would conclusively prove that I'm either unconscious or demented.

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Dr. McCoy: You know, I've convinced myself that this is all in a cordrazine hallucination. But, I've decided you're not.

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Spock: Where would you estimate we belong, Miss Keeler?
Edith Keeler: You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will.

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Capt. Kirk: Spock... I believe... I'm in love with Edith Keeler.
Spock: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.

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Scott: [Kirk & Spock return from the past through the Guardian] What happened, sir? You only left a moment ago.
Spock: [McCoy returns through the Guardian] We were successful.
Guardian of Forever: TIME HAS RESUMED ITS SHAPE. ALL IS AS IT WAS BEFORE. MANY SUCH JOURNEYS ARE POSSIBLE. LET ME BE YOUR GATEWAY.
Lt. Uhura: Captain, the Enterprise is up there. They're asking if we want to beam up.
Capt. Kirk: [softly] Let's get the Hell out of here.

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Capt. Kirk: Is it a machine, or a living being?
Guardian of Forever: I AM BOTH... AND NEITHER... I AM MY OWN BEGINNING... MY OWN ENDING...
Spock: [archly] I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles.
Guardian of Forever: I ANSWER AS SIMPLY AS YOUR LEVEL OF COMPREHENSION PERMITS.

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Capt. Kirk: You were actually enjoying my predicament back there. At times, you seem quite human.
Spock: Captain, I hardly believe that insults are within your prerogative as my commanding officer.
Capt. Kirk: Sorry.

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Dr. McCoy: This looks like old Earth around 1920, '25.
Edith Keeler: Would you care to try for '30?
Dr. McCoy: I *am* unconscious or demented.
Edith Keeler: I have a friend that talks about Earth the same way that you do. Would you like to meet him?
Dr. McCoy: I'm a surgeon, not a psychiatrist. I am Leonard McCoy, Senior Medical Officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Edith Keeler: I don't mean to disbelieve you, but that's hardly a Navy uniform.
Dr. McCoy: That's quite all right. That's quite all right, dear, because I don't believe in you, either.

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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 bear skins.

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[It's night, and Kirk is escorting Edith Keeler home, at her request]
Edith Keeler: Why does Spock call you "Captain"? Were you in the war together?
Capt. Kirk: We... serve together.
Edith Keeler: And you, um, don't want to talk about it? Why?
[She stops Kirk on the sidewalk by putting her hand to his chest, and looks at him flirtatiously]
Edith Keeler: Oh. Did you, did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something?
[When he looks down at her, it's clear they're falling in love]
Edith Keeler: Whatever it is, let me help!
[She moves her hand to grasp his arm. Kirk looks into the middle distance, with a wry expression]
Capt. Kirk: "Let me help." A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words even over "I love you."

---

[Kirk and Spock have taken haven in the 21st Street Mission basement. After changing into stolen clothing, they discuss their predicament]
Capt. Kirk: Time we faced the unpleasant facts.
Spock: First, I believe we have about a week before McCoy arrives, but we can't be certain.
Capt. Kirk: Arrives where? Honolulu, Boise, San Diego? Why not Outer Mongolia, for that matter?
Spock: There is a theory. There could be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.
Capt. Kirk: And the same currents that swept McCoy to a certain time and place might sweep us there, too.
Spock: Unless that is true, Captain, we have no hope. Frustrating. Locked in here
[looking down at his tricorder]
Spock: is the exact place and moment of his arrival, even the images of what he did. If only I could tie this tricorder in with the ship's computers for just a few moments.
Capt. Kirk: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
Spock: [raising an eyebrow to show lofty disdain] In this zinc-plated, vacuum-tubed culture?
Capt. Kirk: [craftily] Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mister Spock.
[Spock raises an eyebrow as though recognizing an insult; Kirk turns away to crouch before the fire]
Capt. Kirk: Excuse me. I sometimes expect too much of you.
[Kirk's eyes dart back, then forward again, probably too quickly to see Spock's eyebrows raise in what can only be construed as outrage; logical outrage, of course]

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[repeated line]
Dr. McCoy: Murderers! Assassins!

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Dr. McCoy: [shouting like a madman] No! Don't run! I won't kill you! It's *they* who do the killing! Don't run! I won't kill you!

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Captain Kirk: You were actually enjoying that predicament back there. At times you seem quite human.
Spock: Captain, I hardly believe that insults are in your line as my commanding officer.

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Capt. Kirk: [narrating] Captain's log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist. McCoy, back somewhere in the past, has effected a change in the course of time. All Earth history has been changed. There is no starship Enterprise. We have only one chance. We have asked the Guardian to show us Earth's history again: Spock and I will go back into time ourselves, and attempt to set right whatever it was that McCoy changed.

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