DeForest Kelley also picked “City” as his favorite. “I thought it was the best ensemble piece of work and that it captured a certain flavor and mood,” he said. “I thought it was one of the most dramatic endings that I’d ever seen on a television show.” (98-1)
William Shatner went back and forth between this episode and “The Devil in the Dark” as his favorite. On one occasion, in 1991, he said, “‘City’ is my favorite of the original Star Trek series because of the fact that it is a beautiful love story, well told.” (156-10)
Leonard Nimoy picked “City” as one of his favorites.
Dorothy Fontana named it as one of her two favorite episodes (of the ones she was not the primary writer). The other was “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
In 1994, Entertainment Weekly named “City” as #1 of all Star Treks.
For its July 1, 1995, issue, TV Guide ranked “City” at #68 for their list of 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History.
“The City on the Edge of Forever” got the short story treatment by James Blish for the February 1968 publication of Star Trek 2. Ellison sent Blish his version of the script in hopes that it would be adapted for the book instead of the Roddenberry/Coon/Fontana version. Blish, however, with all due apologies to Mr. Ellison, chose the latter as being a better candidate for this Star Trek paperback. He did, however, work in some elements of the Ellison version.
The Guardian of Forever returned in 1973 for “Yesteryear,” an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, written by D.C. Fontana.
“Yesterday’s Son,” an original Star Trek novel by A.C. Crispin, which featured the Guardian of Forever, was published in 1983.
The Guardian returned again in a novel based on the characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Imzadi, by Peter David, was published in 1993.
The battle over the script for this episode was the subject of a book written by Harlan Ellison, called The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay That Became The Classic Star Trek Episode. It too was published in 1993.
From the Mailbag
Dear Sir: As corresponding secretary for the “New Box Canyon Indians,” I speak in their behalf. Our tribe now numbers 27, all of whom became immovable 8:30 and 9:30 on Thursday nights. Robin J.
And from Roddenberry to Shatner:
Dear Bill [Shatner]: “The City on the Edge of Forever” is likely to be one of our best films of the year. NBC was particularly thrilled when they saw the intermediate cut of it and we had a number of calls from the Network congratulating us and asking that we congratulate you on the performance. The love story comes off magnificently and you were never better! You played it quietly with a dimensional intensity that is going to have the audience loving and then agonizing with you as they seldom do with an actor in a television drama. Congratulations. Gene Roddenberry.
Memories
Harlan Ellison said, “I loved Bobby Justman. He was always kind to me and he was in the true sense of the word a gentleman. And so was John Black and so were most of the people there. They all treated the writers with respect, not like they were only day workers. But everyone walked around Gene like the whole room was made of egg shell. He was half-loaded most of the time and fully-loaded the rest of the time.” (58)
Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod, interviewed for this book in 2012, said, “Regardless of who is at fault there, I think that Harlan’s mannerisms and personality in handling these things resulted in me having no respect for him at all. If he was a polite guy who said, ‘You know what, Gene did this from my point of view, I disagree with it; it was his show, but I think he’s wrong, and I won’t forgive him for that.’ If he just had that sort of subtle tone about it, I could respect him. But the manner in which he has conducted himself, and still does 45 years later, is really disgusting to me.”
Dorothy Fontana said, “For 30 years I couldn’t tell Harlan that I was one of the people who worked on that script. I was scared to death of him.” (64-1)
Ellison said, “It was 20 years before I found out Dorothy did a lot of the rewriting. It practically broke my heart because I love Dorothy. And she was afraid to tell me she did that, with cause. Sometimes it’s good to know when to be afraid.” (50)
Joseph Pevney said, “It was a very honest episode and DeForest Kelly was so good in it. It was a pleasure working with the actors. They realized their full potential in that one.” (141-1)
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talk-show psychologist, author, and renowned Star Trek fan, said, “I remembered great moments like when Kirk goes back in time and has to let Edith Keeler die. I made my son watch ‘City on the Edge of Forever’ one night. He had never watched Star Trek, and I said ‘Watch this one.’ And, when it was over, he looked at me and said, ‘That’s powerful. He loved her. How did he have the courage to make that choice?’ It made you think about things.” (153)
DeForest Kelley said, “I had a feeling about that show. I knew it was going to be a winner, and I’m proud to have been a part of it. It’s one of the few times I wished that I had been playing Kirk’s role.” (98-3)
Jerry Finnerman said, “That was a wonderful show.... I thought I lit it well; I thought I had her [Joan Collins] looking good.... It was just good; it was a good script; it was good acting; Joan was a wonderful lady, very professional, and we enjoyed that... I enjoyed working with her.” (63-3)
Joan Collins, in 1996, said, “To this day, people still want to talk about that episode; some remember me for that more than anything else I’ve done. I am amazed at the enduring popularity of Star Trek and particularly of that episode.... At the time, none of us would have predicted the longevity of the show. I couldn’t be more pleased -- or more honored -- to be part of Star Trek history.” (33a)
In another interview, Harlan Ellison said, “I’ve never loved that Star Trek. It’s won awards and continues to be the most popular one ... my response is, ‘You should’a seen the original.” (58-1)
37
Episode 29: OPERATION: ANNIHILATE!
Written by Steven Carabatsos
(with Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon, uncredited)
Directed by Herschel Daugherty
Screen capture from “Operation: Annihilate!” (CBS Studios, Inc.)
NBC’s press release, issued March 22, 1967:
The USS Enterprise attempts to stem an epidemic of mass insanity that has already destroyed several planet colonies... in ‘Operation-Annihilate’ on the NBC Television Network’s Star Trek.... Arriving on the planet Deneva, which appears to be in the path of the spreading malady, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) find Kirk’s sister-in-law, Aurelan, and his nephew, Peter, in a near-crazed condition, and learns that his brother, a biologist, has already died. When Mr. Spock contracts the disease [sic], Kirk appears to have no alternative but to annihilate the entire colony to prevent infection of the galaxy.
The creatures seem indestructible except in one regard -- a Denevan, piloting his space craft into that system’s sun, was freed of the parasite seconds before he and his ship burned up. Something in the sun killed it, but tests with heat, radiation and gravity have been ineffective. Dr. McCoy believes light may be the answer -- light as bright as a sun. Spock, struggling against the creature that inhabits his body, is willing to be used as a guinea pig. The risk: the experiment could leave him blind.
Examined here: the human mind’s ability to manage pain, the burden of command, and the consequences of living with a tragically-bad decision.
SOUND BITES
- Spock: “I am a Vulcan.... Pain is a thing of the mind. The mind can be controlled.” Kirk: “You’re only half Vulcan. What about the human half of you?” Spock: “It is proving to be an inconvenience.”
- McCoy: “That man is sick! And don’t give me any of that damnable logic about him being the only one for the job!” Kirk: “I don’t have to, Bones. We both know he is.”
- Spock: “The creature within me is gone. I am free of it ... and the pain. I am also quite
blind. An equitable trade, Doctor. Thank you.”
ASSESSMENT
The direction and the look of “Operation: Annihilate!” are above average. Many unique camera angles, especially on the bridge, add freshness. In addition, with the high stakes and the great personal battles waged, the performances are surprisingly reined-in. Much credit goes to first-time Star Trek director Herschel Daugherty.
Among the concepts that work are how the parasitic creatures have the ability to inject living tissue into the body of the host, which then invades the human nervous system, allowing the parasite to control its host with intense pain; and how each of these creatures are individual brain cells, interconnected through thought transmission, creating a life form with great intellect, but with no hands for building. Their survival depends on human slaves, to construct spaceships and allow “it” to travel the universe in search of new food sources.
This episode is also disturbing. It opens with a suicide. Then Kirk discovers his brother dead. Then his sister-in-law dies in excruciating pain. Their son -- Kirk’s young nephew -- is near death and in a coma. Spock is in agony. Then he is blinded. Kirk blames McCoy. McCoy blames himself. Finally, Kirk must make a decision that may blind, or worse, kill a million people. Any of these elements could have carried a story. Combined, they leave this episode crowded and strangely unpleasant.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Script Timeline
Steven Carabatsos’ story outline, ST #42, “Operation: Destroy!”:
December 15, 1966.
Steven Carabatsos’ revised story outline: late December 1966.
Carabatsos’ 1st Draft teleplay: Early January 1967.
Carabatsos’ 2nd Draft teleplay (Mimeo Department Writer’s “Yellow Cover”
1st Draft teleplay, now “Operation: Annihilate!”): January 19, 1967.
D. C. Fontana’s script polish (Final Draft teleplay): January 24, 1967.
Gene Coon’s rewrite (Revised Final Draft teleplay): February 3, 1967.
Gene Roddenberry’s rewrite (2nd Revised Final Draft): February 13, 1967.
Additional page revisions by Coon: February 14, 15 & 22, 1967.
In August 1966, when Steven Carabatsos was hired to serve as Story Editor, his contract also called for him to deliver one script of his own. With all the rewriting, including “Court Martial” for which he received a co-writing credit, Carabatsos had little time to begin an original script -- until early December when he was released from the in-house staff and replaced by Dorothy Fontana.
“‘Operation: Annihilate!’ was not really my original idea,” Carabatsos later said. “Somebody gave me the idea -- Roddenberry, I believe.” (28-1)
Actually, the original idea, or ideas, can be traced to three different sources. Star Trek’s 29th episode is in many ways reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1951 novel, The Puppet Masters. In Heinlein’s story, people in the United States are being mentally-controlled by slug-like creatures that attach themselves to their hosts’ backs. These aliens communicate with one another through “direct conference,” whereby their hosts sit back-to-back and the slugs partially merge. The humans already inhabited by the aliens are being used to spread the invasion. Slugs are then sent through the mail, in search of more hosts.
The idea of controlling one’s mind through pain was used in Star Trek before. Shimon Wincelberg came up with the notion for “Dagger of the Mind.” What happens to Simon Van Gelder in that episode also happens to Aurelan Kirk here. McCoy talks to Kirk about his sister-in-law, Aurelan, saying, “When she answers questions -- any questions -- it’s as though she has to fight to get the answers out; as though something is exerting pain to stop her.” Just as it had been with Van Gelder.
The idea that these creatures are, in a sense, individual brain cells, all in communication with one another and combining to create a much larger entity, was taken from Jerry Sohl’s script, “The Way of the Spores.” Also in Sohl’s original story, but cut from that episode, Sulu beamed aboard the Enterprise and tried to commandeer the ship -- much in the way Spock does here. The writing staff was taking elements cut from other scripts and placing them here.
Carabatsos turned in his 19-page story outline on December 15, 1966. It was far darker than the filmed episode. The people of Deneva are on the verge of complete self-annihilation. Carabatsos wrote:
McCoy is concerned over the fact that the Denevans see death as the only escape from the pain incurred when taken over by the THINGS.
Even grimmer, the outline tells us:
The people of the Enterprise may be about to witness the mass suicide of an entire planet, unless something is done, some formula arrived at, some treatment discovered.
In this early version of the story, as in the one filmed, Spock is a reluctant host for one of the creatures. But here, Kirk and McCoy worry that he, too, may commit suicide.
Carabatsos had Kirk agonize over the burden of his decision -- to kill all the men, women, and children on Deneva in order to stop these “things” from traveling to other worlds. Other than Spock, he does not have a personal stake in this -- his brother, sister-in-law and young nephew are not yet in the story. The weight on his shoulders, then, is his inner-conflict as to what action to take -- whether or not to kill millions of people. A line in the outline reads, “Kirk is seen to be walking down a darkened, deserted corridor, wrestling with his conscience.” And then what would have been the most startling ending of any Star Trek episode -- Kirk uses the Enterprise’s weapons to destroy all life on Deneva. McCoy supports this, and tells the Captain, “It had to be done, Jim. Someone had to make the decision. You had no choice.” The outline ends, with Carabatsos writing, “And, as we fade out, we are left with the awful and vivid proportions involved in the terrible loneliness of command.”
In “The Conscience of the King,” Kirk had damned Karidian for coming to a decision such as this -- to kill some people so that others may live. The difference, of course, is that Karidian killed healthy people so that others could have food to eat; Kirk kills the inflected and suffering, all of whom will die anyway, to stop an invasion and keep this suffering from spreading beyond Deneva. Nonetheless, it was an ending that was not going to get approval from NBC ... or, for that matter, Gene Roddenberry, who suggested the premise to Carabatsos, sans the tragic ending.
Bob Justman was the first to respond, writing to Coon:
Well, here I am at the end of the Story Treatment and I have discovered that Kirk has made the one and only decision he could possibly make. He destroys the whole furschluggener planet. Has NBC read this Story Treatment yet? (RJ29-1)
The dark ending was taken out and replaced with something more in keeping with Star Trek. Kirk finds a way to destroy the creatures other than setting the surface of a populated planet ablaze with weapons fire. Regardless, in Carabatsos’ script, the new ending was still very different from that eventually filmed. There are differences throughout the story.
The script begins as the filmed episode did, with the Enterprise tracking an epidemic of planetary scale madness which has been moving across a portion of the galaxy, and then encountering, and trying to prevent, a Denevan ship from flying into that planet’s sun. Ship to ship contact is made. The Denevan pilot appears mad, but then proclaims that he is “free” before his ship burns up. In the last seconds of his life, he frantically searches for a way to save himself from his suicidal actions. On Deneva, Kirk and the landing party are attacked by a group of men with clubs, who shout at the Enterprise crew to get away, that they don’t wish to hurt them. Next, we hear a woman scream, and the landing party runs to her aid. She is in the “communications center” -- a type of radio transmitting room -- with an unconscious man, trying to keep “it” out. She is hysterical. McCoy sedates her, and then returns to the ship with both her and the man. When Spock is struck down by one of the creatures, described as a “gelatinous mass” about the size of a football, and reminiscent of a jellyfish, Kirk does not pull it off his bac
k. There is no need to. It has vanished on its own, as it penetrates Spock’s skin and enters his body.
Back on the Enterprise, Kirk questions the two Denevans who were brought aboard. The woman is Aurelan; the man is her father, Menen. The Denevan who flew his ship into the sun and perished was Noban, Menen’s son and brother of Aurelan. The father and daughter are the only two on Deneva who have not been taken over by the aliens. They were spared so that they will call for help, luring other ships to the planet so that the creatures could take over more humans and have more ships to use for further invasions throughout the universe.
Menen tells Kirk, “My son told me -- before he died -- that they need bodies the way we need tools. Arms and legs -- human beings. And once they take over, they can’t be resisted. The people who tried to kill you in the street didn’t want to hurt you. They wanted to help you. But the things ordered them to attack you, and they had no choice.”
Aurelan adds, “My brother, Noban.... The creatures had him. He almost went mad from the pain. But he told us that Deneva is just a way-station for them. They mean to spread out. You see ... their hosts become useless after a while. They go mad. And then they need new hosts. More people. Planet after planet. They come, and they leave madness, and they go to the next ...”
Menen asks Kirk if Spock is important to him. Kirk says that Spock is more than a valued officer, but also one of his closet friends. Menen says, “In that case, kill him.... Now. Quickly. Because only endless agony lies ahead for him; agony that will end in madness. If you are his friend, be merciful.”
Later, Spock, resisting the creature within, returns to the planet to capture a specimen and is attacked by a Denevan. Carabatsos’ script continues to be very different from the one eventually filmed. In the final version, this encounter is not only brief, but seems to serve no purpose other than providing an Act break. In the Carabatsos script, however, this attack takes the plot in a whole different direction. The attacker, named Kartan, is being forced to go after Spock with an axe. But he is also pleading that Spock kill him. He shouts, “Run! Run! If you don’t I’ll have to kill you! You have a phaser! Kill me! Please kill me! Shoot! Shoot!”
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 97
