The City On The Edge of Forever

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The City On The Edge of Forever)

The trouble with high expectations is disappointment, 'familiarity breeds contempt,' they say, and none are more lauded than this famous 'greatest episode' of Trek which stands in the same sentence with 'The Best of Both Worlds' and 'In The Pale Moonlight' among the most popular and best regarded. My own feeling is that it is undeniably one of the finest of 'TOS,' though not my personal favourite, but the greatest of the later series' are a level above. Like most of the episodes I've been seeing again, it was in some ways almost a chore to have to deal with this one again because what can be written about greatness? It's easier to pick holes in the flawed stories or marvel at the wonders of the great, but beyond that, what's there to say? I felt I knew the story too well to be surprised, all the important moments stick in the mind, but the reality is with most of these episodes the in-between moments are fresh, and I found, just like watching 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,' there was a warm bubble of glowing joy experienced as the story plays out. From the moment Joan Collins appears on the stairs in the basement of the mission there's a lightning rod between her and William Shatner, and she embodies the purest form of the Trek vision: a dreamer who somehow sees the way forward to the peaceful, well-fed and looked-after future the Federation would preside over. The irony is heavy that it could only happen with her death.

Time travel always compels the imagination, and the approach this time is different to the previous uses of the staple sci-fi device in the series, an alien artefact of great age and unknown origin, The Guardian of Forever (any relation to The Vault of Tomorrow from 'The Devil in The Dark'? - it would be quite a twist to learn the Horta were its creators!), is a sweetshop of possibilities, ruined by McCoy's illness. Instead of the Landing Party being confronted with a universe of potential times and places to visit, a gateway to their own past if they so wish, Kirk and Spock must ensure they jump through at the correct time in which to prevent the Doctor from altering history, which has taken away not just the Enterprise and her crew, but theoretically the whole of existence as the Landing Party knew it. No wonder Uhura's frightened! The Guardian, for all its untold power, was miserably limited, unless that very limit was imposed as part of its design to stop any potential traveller from controlling time (can you imagine what would have happened if the Klingons or Romulans had gotten hold of it - or even renegade Vulcans, which is rumoured to have been the original idea for what became 'Star Trek Beyond,' a way to revert the timeline back to its original setting in those films). Whether a design flaw or feature, the fact that it can only show time in fast forward is a limiting factor for its usefulness, and only thanks to Spock's Tricorder is even a modicum of precision time-jumping possible.

Speaking of Spock, this isn't a very good episode for him in some ways: he calls himself out as a fool for not immediately thinking to record the passage of time flowing through the Stargate, er, I mean Iconian Gateway, er, I mean Guardian, and this just after it has put him in his place by calling his science primitive. Then when he and Kirk do jump (we might say 'leap'), backwards to Earth, 1930, he's a liability thanks to his mechanical rice-picker accident ears which were saved by a missionary in China (he's Chinese, obviously), who just happened to be a skilled plastic surgeon… Even knowing that was coming it still made me laugh, and that's the sign of quality: even when expecting the twist or the gag, this episode still gets a reaction. As does Spock. The other thing is, he's the third wheel around Kirk and Keeler, a constant reminder that the Captain must do his duty whatever his feelings - a great sentiment (if that word can be used in this context), and one we could all do with being reminded of, that emotion should be secondary to the rational mind. If Kirk had wanted, he could have saved Edith, but at the expense of millions of lives. And even though most of those lives were unknown to him and he could have argued that they never existed since the timeline was altered, he chose duty at the cost of a visionary, and one that shared the dream he was part of.

If Spock had his own trials in the episode, none of which were on the same level as Kirk's, he also provided vital intelligence by cobbling together a power source to run his Tricorder from stone knives and bear skins (which he was irritated enough about to pronounce it to Edith when she came to the door - irritation? Ah yes, one of your Earth emotions). It's not this that most stayed in my mind when I was done, however, it was the humble picture of Mr. Spock, the brainy Vulcan, First Officer on a starship, pouring tea at the counter of the 21st Street Mission for the homeless of the city. It's the epitome of servanthood and notwithstanding it was the logical thing to do to earn money with which to purchase the necessary items to rig up the Tricorder, it remains a surreal sight and a testament to his dutiful character. The same can be said of Kirk when he and Spock are given the chore of cleaning up the basement and Edith later thanks them for doing such a good job - it's all that Starfleet spit and polish, and it shows that even in the 23rd Century the people of Starfleet know about hard work and elbow grease, technology hasn't removed from them the ability to do manual labour when required. I just wish we could have seen it! It sounds strange, almost comical to think of the two stars of the show sweeping up or doing mundane menial work, and the avenues were there for much more direct humour.

If there's one thing I took from this episode it was its influence. Everyone knows about Harve Bennett's viewing of every 'TOS' episode while trying to decide on a direction to take for what became 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,' eventually selecting 'Space Seed' as ripe for a sequel, but I have to wonder if Leonard Nimoy did something of the same when he came to direct 'Star Trek IV.' There are so many parallels and it would make sense for him, the man who played Spock to know which episode had garnered the most praise and use it as a template. It would be the logical thing to do! Both 'IV' and this episode hinge on time travel and the saving of the future. Both feature a female character whom Kirk becomes close to and who is integral to the success of the mission. But where the film is more of a knockabout comedy, sometimes even straying into cartoony territory, the episode is much deeper and impacting. It has the same vein of comedy to draw upon, that of fish out of water, or men out of time, but it doesn't over play it, keeping it realistic - Kirk and Spock are still 'human' enough to fit in, even if their uniforms aren't. The contrast can be seen quite dramatically in an almost identical scene in both: a character crosses the road and gets honked at by a car that is forced to stop. In the film it's a chance to loose off some profanity, in the episode it's much more toned down (though you'd think Kirk would have remembered this experience and been more careful crossing in 'IV' - in fairness it's Spock that hangs around in the road on this occasion!).

I've often said that when done right, 'Star Trek' feels like Christmas. What I mean by that is its emanation of joy and goodness, its brightness in both tone and visuals, whether that be the fairy light glow on the dark DS9 station, the beaming Enterprise-D in space, or the optimistic ideal of good people solving problems, doing the right thing whatever it means for them personally. With this episode, that core of goodness is so strong, and excessive laughing at our characters for lacking the necessary understanding of the nuances of the time would have reduced them. The comedy is as much aimed at the contemporary people's reaction to these strange visitors as the reverse, and the episode is only enhanced by the characterisations of those we meet, the guest roles especially well acted, maybe because it was easier to grasp historical Earth than alien worlds. 'The Rodent' as he's titled in the credits, is important in his own way. He serves as commentary of that time's view on the hopeful ideology Keeler espouses, taking her charity, but thinking of her as a nut. More importantly he serves to show the difference between lives: Edith's, full of service and virtue, will make a huge difference on history whether she lives or dies, but the poor tramp who mistakenly blasts himself out of existence after stealing McCoy's Phaser, a selfish thief, apparently has no impact whatsoever. It's a very small moment in the episode, but that's what I read into it, a deeper lesson on choice and free will for right or wrong. It's sad because he brings great humour to the story, his terrified reaction to the rabid McCoy quite brilliant.

It's a wonder the wild Doctor wasn't locked up. Except McCoy is cunning, even when shot through with cordrazine, a drug powerful enough that a couple of drops brings the prone Sulu back to consciousness with a beaming grin on his face (unless he was just reacting to being cradled by the asian Yeoman who leapt to his aid when the Helm console blew a gasket - she seemed to be hanging around Kirk's chair just for this eventuality!). It struck me that he's a bit like Data - if he goes bad and still has his faculties he's much more dangerous to the ship than the average guy, and I always thought how cool it was that he could drop a man with a couple of carefully chosen chops to the back, poor Transporter Chief Kyle the one to get it (though still not credited as Kyle). If it wasn't for Edith and her kindness who knows what would have happened to the Doctor in the state he was in - he looked like the Salt Vampire had been finger-sucking his face. And this whole adventure was due to a bit of turbulence, which led him to accidentally inject himself with the drug that turned him into a hyperactive paranoid wild man, so opposite to his usual laid back nature. I sense he has a lot of anger in him at times, his crotchetiness coming out in mutterings and irritation, and it's like his inner personality comes out times a thousand, all the energy and rage rushing to the surface in violent action and voice. If he weren't such a good guy you wouldn't want to cross him!

Edith Keeler is the linchpin of the episode, and if they hadn't found someone to pull it off so startlingly it might not have gone down as such a classic. But Joan Collins is perfect in the role, at the height of her powers, the walking embodiment of the Trek future, with an angelic light about her. It doesn't matter how she has these strange convictions of life where all are fed and cared for, her otherworldly perceptiveness stretches even to Kirk and Spock, knowing they don't belong and seeing an identical soul in Kirk that shares exactly what she foresees. It's tragic that, unlike Gillian in 'Star Trek IV,' she will never be able to see it firsthand, denied the Promised Land for being in the wrong time. Actually, I wonder why they couldn't have simply whisked her off to the future where she couldn't do any harm, but The Guardian probably wouldn't have allowed it. I'm left to wonder how they even got back - was it like 'Quantum Leap' where once the good deed is done they leap to the next time, and they only returned to the correct period because unlike the computer in that series The Guardian isn't broken? It may not be broken, but it's certainly insensitive to the weighty experience endured by the Captain. It offers more adventures, they can go to any world or time, but it falls on deaf ears, the Landing Party paying no heed and Kirk so affected he's allowed to swear. Probably the shortest, most brutal end to an episode of 'TOS,' and though such a mild word by modern standards it was a big thing for the time and has an impact because of that, something lost in the films because the use of such language was common and everyday, no longer really an exclamation.

You can see how far the series had come in such a short time, and it shows that a concentrated machine of storytelling can smash out great work, art thriving on constraints, that gives the lie to the suggestion that TV needs to have a long time taken over it, to do less episodes and to keep the audience's interest by ensuring serialisation. Trouble is, unless the coalface of writing is kept hot, the ideas forced out by desperate time limits, most of the time lethargy and laziness, the natural condition of human nature, will mean that simpler, less expressive and impressive storytelling will be allowed to take control. That's when a production line mentality leads to loss in quality. But in the feverish early days of the series it had undoubtedly benefited from fever pitch, deadlines and budgetary constraint, towards the end these last few episodes showing what their creativity was capable of. They'd learnt many things from the process, such as banding Kirk and Spock together as much as friends as work colleagues - this was following directly from them being abandoned on a planet and having to deal with the Klingons without the support of ship or crew, and here it's the same. Kirk doesn't want to risk the rest of the Landing Party, his order to Scotty and the others that if they don't return eventually each of them will have to jump through where they'll at least be alive somewhere - reminds me of Picard's orders for his crew to settle down on some corner of 21st Century Earth in 'First Contact' when the Borg have taken over the Enterprise. The same air of finality and last resorts to keep the crew alive while the Captain does what he can to take care of the problem.

I see also this episode influenced the 'DS9' two-parter, 'Past Tense' (and not just because the same boxing poster that Kirk and Spock appear before was recreated for Kira and Bashir's time jump), going back to a period of depression in Earth history, doing something that will protect the timeline, knowing that a sacrifice will need to be made… Going back to Earth's past has always been an understandable draw for Trek, putting its characters right in the midst of a moral debate, a choice must be made without the certain knowledge such interference will have. Here at least Kirk knows what must be done, but it doesn't make it any easier. From the start his immediate reaction to Edith was honesty as far as she could understand, and I wonder a little why he didn't share the knowledge that he really is from the future. I think she would have believed him, her perceptive ability able to see through Kirk and Spock's friendship to a dutiful belonging to some organisation of rank. If Kirk had remained apart from her he'd have spared himself the pain of loss, but drawn to this hoping mind that sees his existence in the future he was compelled toward her. He could rationalise it that she was the key point to which the eddies of time had drawn him and Spock, and would McCoy, time itself described as a fluid, even The Guardian emanates waves of time displacement, but the timeline itself, for it to be as it should, and is known to be, must be protected at even the most personal cost, something that has rung down through the decades in all Trek that followed until needing to make money off the old names by redoing them with new faces led to the Kelvin Timeline films that rejected the premise. Guess which is the more dramatically satisfying?

The story, the setting, every aspect of the episode works. If there were a flaw it would be the city on the edge of forever is very 'produced,' clearly a set, especially after the large and impressive location sets used in preceding episode, 'Errand of Mercy.' But is that the city of the title, could it not be that Edith's city, holding her as this visionary on the cusp of changing history one way or the other, is the true city on the edge of forever? Even though The Guardian's environs look manufactured, they still work well, like an artistic interpretation - not as extreme as that of the facades of the Western town in 'Spectre of The Gun,' but still imaginative and with the impression of something larger. Helping the story at this point is seeing Scotty and Uhura as part of the Landing Party (Uhura gets to wear a black belt, not for any martial arts training, but so Phaser and Communicator will have something to affix to), especially pleasant to see the Communications officer beam down as she so rarely leaves the Bridge. They all get featured, even Sulu getting it in the face from his console, a moment that made me think of Chekov being injured on the Bridge in 'The Motion Picture' (though I'd have thought he'd need something for facial burns rather than a stimulant!), one of the earliest examples of a console exploding in Trek, as they were wont to do in times of danger! Even the much-parodied shaking on the Bridge was done expertly to sell the turbulence, small movements followed by sudden violent ones, well choreographed and coupled with sound and lighting that totally sells it.

As I said at the beginning, one thing about episodes that are considered greats is that you can go into them with the feeling of needing to be impressed, or worrying that it won't work any more, but the true greats always impress and never let you down, and so it is with this. Its position as one of the best is without doubt, giving out that joyful hopefulness that is Trek at its most potent, with events as simple as they are moving, and with a continuing attraction that says 'this is what we can do with Trek.' It definitely lived up to my memories of it, even with the heaped tablespoons of decades of accolade threatening to drown the cup into which Spock might be pouring strong tea for the homeless. With Collins at her best, Shatner at his, and Nimoy supporting his Captain as only he could it remains terrific, giving us a character that basically talks like she's reading the edict of Trek, and having a life-changing effect on the Captain. What I'm left with is a desire to read the 'Crucible' trilogy, books released for the 40th Anniversary that delved deeper into this very story, and that's the highest compliment when Trek books have so often underwhelmed. No such concern can be directed at this episode and like Christmas, it needs to be experienced again and again.

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