The City on the Edge of Forever

by Harlan Ellison

As the Guardian speaks, movement within the fog, light, mist, the substance of “him,” changes, glows, dims, sparkles, changes color…whatever EFFECT has been opted for.

  GUARDIAN

  Because I am the last of my kind.

  KIRK

  The last?

  GUARDIAN

  The city is empty. Built to last even after I am gone.

  KIRK

  We followed some sort of radiation to this planet…it damaged our vessel—

  GUARDIAN

  You wandered into the time-flow. This world is the center of the Universe.

  KIRK

  The center? I don’t—?

  24 CLOSER SHOT—ON GUARDIAN

  as his form shimmers and pulses.

  GUARDIAN

  Only on this world do the million pulse-flows of time and space merge. Only here do the flux lines of Forever meet.

  (beat)

  Only here can exist the gateway to the past, where the Time Vortex of the Ancients can work.

  (beat)

  My race was set to watch the Time Vortex, so many hundred of centuries ago that even I do not have clear memories of it.

  KIRK

  The gateway to the past? A timemachine?

  GUARDIAN

  Not a machine. A creation, a vortex.

  Kirk is about to ask what he means but Spock logical—cuts in.

  25 ON SPOCK

  SPOCK

  Have you seen another man, dressed as we are?

  GUARDIAN

  What I see has already been, or is yet to be. No. No other like you.

  CUT TO:

  26 ROCKY NICHE—CLOSE PAST McCOY

  past him, hidden in a shadowy crevice, listening to Kirk and Spock talking to the Guardian. There is a flagrant madness in McCoy’s face. The feverish color of the poison coursing through his veins can be seen in his cheeks. He sweats. His eyes are bright and wild.

  He is a man totally out of his senses. He looks around himself, for a way out, but we see he is in a cul-de-sac. The only way out is past the Enterprise patrol. KIRK’S VOICE CARRIES.

  KIRK

  There are legends in space. About you. About this place.

  GUARDIAN

  You are the first visitors I have had in twice two hundred thousand years.

  27 ANGLE PAST KIRK IN F.G.

  to the Guardian, the mist rising, the light changing. Kirk approaches another step. We can see something in him we have never seen before: wonder, absolute all-consuming wonder. He has found a key to the secrets of the universe that compel him. He is being filled to the top with amazement, and he leans forward almost like a child.

  KIRK

  I always thought stories about time machines were the drunk-stuff of lab technicians when they’d had too much pure grain to drink.

  GUARDIAN

  The Vortex of Time is real. Look!

  Kirk looks and his eyes open wide; delight and amazement and confusion and belief there.

  28 THE TIME VORTEX—ESTABLISHING

  Set in a tall, narrow rocky crevice, it rises up, different to each who see it. A pillar of flame, a shaft of light, a roiling brightness of smoke, whatever wonder you care to make of it, the obvious aspects are light, height and insubstantiality. Construct it as you choose.

  GUARDIAN O.S.

  Pure matter. Built by a science man will not understand for a hundred thousand times the span of years he has already existed.

  29 PAST GUARDIANS TO KIRK

  and the others near him, wondering, listening.

  KIRK

  (awed)

  And it’s possible to go back…and forward…in time…?

  GUARDIAN

  All time, all space. They meet in this brightness, the Vortex.

  SPOCK

  (very scientific)

  Can you give us a demonstration? Is that possible?

  The Guardian’s answer is oddly tinged with weariness and pleasure.

  GUARDIAN

  Time is weary for the craftsman who cannot demonstrate his craft. It would give me pleasure to show you the past.

  KIRK

  Can you show us the past of any world?

  GUARDIAN

  I can even show you the past of your own planet…Old Earth.

  KIRK

  (softly)

  The past of Old Earth…please…

  The pillar of light blazes and as Kirk turns to look, the CAMERA SHOOTS PAST HIM. In a moment there is movement in the light…a thickening…a roiling like oil…like quicksilver mixed with smoke…and a scene begins to take FORM IN THE VORTEX. (NOTE: this, and other scenes in Vortex will be MATTE INSERTS.)

  30 CLOSE ON VORTEX—FEATURING MATTE INSERTS (STOCK)

  A scene of primordial times; great saurians; a woolly mammoth; steaming prehistoric jungle; reality!

  It FADES OUT to be replaced by:

  A scene in the days of the Clipper ships; something typical of the period; reality!

  It FADES OUT to be replaced by:

  A scene of NYC STREET in the time of the Depression, 1930-32.

  (NOTE: At Director’s discretion, INTERCUTS of the Earthmen marveling at this demonstration may be inserted.)

  NOTE: The indicated sequence of stock shots is merely offered as a pattern. Any stock will suffice, reeled in sequence so that shot 34 occurs at just the time when the Vortex is showing Old Earth in the Depression, 1930s. Facilitation is at the discretion of Production.

  31 PAST McCOY TO VORTEX

  as he watches in his madness with as much rapt attention as Kirk and his patrol. But the cunning is there, the arched brow and the faintly smiling mouth. The animal has sensed an avenue of escape, as we HEAR KIRK SAY:

  KIRK

  Could we go back to Old Earth?

  32 ANGLE ON GUARDIANS

  SHOT FROM TILT rising up, almost Messianic in tone, something reverential as they speak about their religion—time.

  GUARDIAN

  Yes, but it is not wise. If passage back is effected, the voyager may add a new factor to the past, and thus change time, alter everything that happened from that point to the present…all through the universe.

  33 SPOCK AND GUARDIAN PAST HIM

  fascinated by the concepts, not the magic of it all.

  SPOCK

  Then time is not a constant. It isn’t rigid?

  GUARDIAN

  Time is elastic. It will revert to its original shape when changes are minor. But when the change is life or death—when the sum of intelligence alters the balance—then the change can become permanent…and terrible.

  SPOCK

  Like changing the flow of a river.

  GUARDIAN

  A river, a wind, a flow, elastic. It makes no difference how you imagine it to yourself.

  KIRK

  How long has it been since anyone went—

  GUARDIAN

  For nine hundred thousand years no one has gone back.

  SPOCK

  (to Kirk)

  I understand now why our chronometers turned backwards.

  The Time Vortex has been running through dialogue, now draws near 1930. While CAMERA DOES NOT dwell on it, whatever shot we enter, we should see the scene of the Depression back there, to remind us it’s on.

  KIRK

  They’ve created a zone of no-time here.

  SPOCK

  But if this is true…if time does not move at its normal rate here…how long have you been here to get as old as you are…

  34 FULL SHOT—THE SCENE—HAND-HELD

  But they have no time to ponder an answer, for at that moment McCoy breaks from cover and makes a long run toward the Time Vortex. He is halfway there before they realize what is happening. Kirk and Spock plunge forward to stop him. Spock gets to him first but McCoy slams Spock across the jaw and keeps going. He grabs Yeoman Janice Rand as a shield and roughhouses her in front of him, ever closer to the Vortex. She half-turns and elbows him; he leaves her and Kirk reaches him just as he closes on the Vortex. Kirk sees he is goi
ng for the Vortex (from which the 1930s scene is gone, but which still flickers and glows so we know it is in operation) and makes a flying dive for him. But McCoy does a little dance-step of broken-field maneuvering and flings himself forward.

  35 ANGLE ON McCOY

  as he dives headfirst into the Vortex. There is the SOUND of a LOUD WHOOOOSH! as space rushes to fill the vacuum where he has been. Then the Vortex is as it was before. McCoy is gone. Into the past of Old Earth.

  FADE OUT

  END OF ACT ONE.

  AFTERWORDS

  Peter David

  D.C. Fontana

  David Gerrold

  DeForest Kelley

  Walter Koenig

  Leonard Nimoy

  Melinda Snodgrass

  George Takei

  WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE, AND WHY ARE THEY IN THIS BOOK,

  AND WHAT PIVOTAL ROLES DID THEY PLAY

  IN THIS CHAPTER OF THE BREATHTAKING STAR TREK SAGA?

  PETER DAVID is the author of more than two dozen novels (including Star Trek: The Next Generation titles such as Q-In-Law, Strike Zone, Vendetta, Rock And A Hard Place, and Imzadi). He was the writer on DC Comics’s Star Trek for years, but is now best known as the febrile intellect behind The Incredible Hulk and Aquaman and the weekly But I Digress column in Comics Buyer’s Guide.

  D. C. FONTANA started out as Gene Roddenberry’s secretary. When she began selling excellent scripts to such other shows as Bonanza, Roddenberry lured her back to pen such episodes of the original series as “Charlie X,” “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” and “Journey to Babel.” She became story editor on the original series, 1967 and 1968; Associate Producer of the Star Trek animated series, 1974; and Associate Producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation in its first year. She writes books, stories, essays, and award-winning teleplays. She is married to SFX wizard Dennis Skotack.

  DAVID GERROLD will be the first to tell you he got his start with Gene Roddenberry and the original ST series, and was both Gene’s and the show’s staunchest supporter for decades. He wrote two hooks about ST…The World of Star Trek and The Trouble With Tribbles. If the title of that latter volume sounds familiar, it is because the episode of the original series bearing it is the only neck-and-neck contender with “City” for Most Popular Episode. He has written movies, excellent novels, won a Hugo and a Nebula this year, and has been affiliated with virtually every incarnation of the ST concept. When you say Trek, you’re saying Gerrold.

  DEFOREST KELLEY was already an established feature film star when he was cast as Dr. “Bones” McCoy in the original series. He is a classically-trained actor, and among the films in which he appeared are Warlock and Johnny Reno. He is universally considered the nicest person of all the original cast members. Anyone who says less is automatically a jerk.

  WALTER KOENIG has been a novelist, screenwriter, noted acting coach, lecturer, and actor. His credits are extensive, but he appears here due to his assaying of the Chekov character on the original Trek. He appeared in all of the ST feature films and, most recently, created a mini-series for comics, Raver. He writes very well indeed.

  LEONARD NIMOY was Mr. Spock. Sometimes he says he was not Spock; and sometimes he says he was Spock. In either case, he has been a friend for thirty years, and the author of “City” owes him considerable weight of favors. He likes Indian cuisine.

  MELINDA M. SNODGRASS served as Executive Script Consultant on ST: The Next Generation. She adapted George R. R. Martin’s award-winning Sandkings for the new Outer Limits series. Screenwriter, novelist, short story expert, and asst. editor of the Wild Cards anthology series. She lived in the ST production cauldron.

  GEORGE TAKEI played Sulu on the original series. He has been a potent Los Angeles politico, having sat on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, having spearheaded numerous urban development programs, and having cleverly used his celebrity from Trek and many other series to better the condition of life for all Angelenos. He is held in much affection by other actors, by those who worked on the series, and by the rest of us who are privileged to know him.

  Peter David

  One grows up.

  It’s inevitable (unless you’re Peter Pan, or Jeffty) and as the years pass, you discover that the world is not as black and white as you once thought. That many things are possible. And that just because something is different doesn’t make it bad.

  I thought the original script for “City” sucked.

  I thought this because, the first time I learned of it, I was a snot-nosed kid whose entire view of the creative process behind Star Trek was predicated on the concept that if it was on the air, it was good, and if it wasn’t, then it must be bad because it wasn’t good enough to get on the air.

  So when I read about how “City” had undergone massive rewrites to make it good enough to ride the television waves, I thought, “Wow…it must really have sucked.” Furthermore, the publicized reasons as to what made it unacceptable were appalling. A Starfleet officer selling drugs? How ridiculous! Kirk ready to let the universe shift into an unfamiliar, parallel line, out of love for a woman? Preposterous!

  Boy oh boy oh boy. What a sucky, sucky script. The fact that it had won the Writers Guild and Hugo Awards merely confirmed for me that the rest of the world was composed of purblind nitwits who didn’t understand that if it wasn’t good enough to air on Star Trek in its original form, then it wasn’t good, period.

  And then, some years later, when I’d had a chance to grow up a bit, I happened to buy the Roger Elwood collection that featured the original script.

  And I understood.

  With a vengeance.

  In the words of Yogi Berra, “You can observe a lot by watching.” Watch the story, the original story of Sister Edith Keeler, unfolding, and you will observe a master craftsman at work, producing a story of infinitely deeper meanings, shadings and complexities than what aired.

  To a degree, we see a theme present in “City” that recurs in some of Ellison’s most renowned work, and yet it’s not exactly the happiest of themes: those who are the best, the brightest, the most vibrant and alive…they don’t survive. The perpetually unaging Jeffty—the embodiment of perpetual childhood—is battered, bruised and ultimately killed. The Harlequin, shouting defiance, is brainwashed into an obsequious supporter of The Way Things Are. Beth O’Neill, in order to survive life in the city, sacrifices her soul to become one of the grim, faceless beings who observe man’s inhumanity without lifting a finger to stop it.

  And Sister Edith Keeler, well, jeez…this woman doesn’t just have society or the unspoken dark gods hiding in the city’s shadows arrayed against her. Fate itself, the cogs of time, crush her in their unyielding motions. It’s a somewhat fatalistic view of the universe—this woman must die, is meant to die, has got to die, or else matters cannot proceed. “City” presents a paradox of what’s right and what’s wrong, and the answer we get is that it just…is.

  This is the core of the script, and it’s put forward far more forcefully in this version than in what aired. For example:

  Beckwith, the drug-pushing, murderous Starfleet officer.

  For all the claims that Star Trek is genuine, realistic science fiction, nowhere is this more brought into question than in the dismissal of the notion that a Starfleet officer would ever behave in the manner we see Beckwith engaging in.

  If we parallel Starfleet to the modern-day navy, well, let’s see what we’ve got: Can you envision a modern-day navy officer reshaping a society into Nazism? Or ordering his officers to fight and die, one at a time, in a gladiatorial arena? Or battling, mano a mano, another officer to defend his place in a society built upon a corrupted version of the Constitution?

  Suddenly Beckwith’s actions don’t seem too extraordinary at all. Not a whit, not a smidgen. But in a series which sought to explore infinite possibilities, Beckwith was just a tad too possible to make it on the air.

  With the loss of Beckwith, we also lose one of the most moral
ly complex and debatable aspects of the story. Here was a man who was a drug pusher and a murderer. Yet from Starfleet the worst he would have gotten was being tossed in the stockade, since the only thing you get executed for in the 23rd century is popping by Talos IV, the planet of the telepathic buttheads.

  Yet, indisputably, Beckwith’s greatest crime is that he altered history. You can argue that he got what he deserved because he’s a total shit, but good lord, this guy’s reincarnating in the heart of a sun forever. An infinity of torture with no hope of parole—it is, by design, living hell. The enormity of his punishment must be matched by the enormity of the crime. By interfering in the grand, fatalistic cosmic scheme of things—by getting out a magic marker and drawing a mustache on God’s grand design—we presume that that is the reason that he receives the extreme punishment of literally and figuratively burning forever, unto eternity.

  Except the deed that got him into this fix was the one selfless action we ever see him take. He was trying to save Edith Keeler. For a moment, the qualities that first made him an officer emerged, and that moment doomed him.

  Even when the guy tried to do something that, in some way, redeemed him, it turned out to be the greatest sin yet. Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t.