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A few days removed from the Alternative Factor, Clay and I return to discuss The City on the Edge of Forever, which is frequently cited as one of TOS’ best episodes. Kirk and Spock travel back in time, and Kirk is forced to make a decision that will determine the course of human history! What do we think about it all? Clay and I discuss weird first acts, using racism to justify crime and the needs of one versus the needs of the many!
The Wikipedia plot summary for “The City on the Edge of Forever”:
Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy is treating an injured Lt. Sulu when the USS Enterprise is rocked by a time distortion and McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of cordrazine; a dangerous drug. Delusional and paranoid, McCoy flees from the bridge to the transporter room, beaming himself down to a nearby planet. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) leads a landing party to look for McCoy, and they come across an ancient glowing stone archway, which turns out to be the cause of the time distortions. They discover the archway to be sentient, and this “Guardian of Forever” (voiced by Bartell LaRue) explains that it is a doorway to any time and place. While Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is recording historic images from the portal, McCoy escapes through it. The landing party suddenly loses contact with the Enterprise, and the Guardian informs them that McCoy has altered the past, and that the Enterprise, and all that they knew, was gone.
The Guardian permits Kirk and Spock to follow McCoy in an effort to repair the timeline. Spock times their passage so as to arrive where McCoy did ahead of when he will arrive, and they find themselves in New York City in 1930, during the Great Depression. After stealing clothes from a fire escape to blend in, they meet a woman named Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), who runs the 21st Street Mission. They are given a place to sleep, along with doing odd jobs to earn money. Spock works to devise a method of interfacing with his tricorder and analyze its recorded images to determine how McCoy has altered history. While they await his arrival, Kirk and Keeler spend time together, and Kirk begins to fall in love.
McCoy arrives, and stumbles into the mission, unnoticed by Kirk and Spock, and Keeler nurses him back to health. Spock completes his work and discovers Keeler was supposed to die that year in a traffic accident. In the altered timeline, Spock learns Dr. McCoy saved Keeler’s life, and when World War II started Keeler founded a pacifist movement. This caused the United States to delay its entrance into the war and allowing Nazi Germany time to develop nuclear weapons they launched in their V-2 rockets to bomb Allied targets and conquer the world. Kirk admits his love for Keeler, and Spock answers that Keeler must die in order to prevent billions of deaths and restore the future.
On her way with Kirk to see a movie, Keeler mentions McCoy. Kirk, shocked and excited, tells her to stay where she is and calls for Spock to tell him. The Starfleet trio reunite in front of the mission. Observing this and curious, Keeler crosses the street to join them, and she steps in front of a fast-moving truck. Kirk turns to save Keeler from the truck, but a shout from Spock freezes him in his tracks. Then Kirk blocks McCoy from saving her, and she is struck and killed. A stunned McCoy can’t believe Kirk knowingly stopped him. With history restored, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy return to the Guardian’s planet where the rest of the landing party is waiting. When the Guardian declares that “many such journeys are possible”, a brokenhearted Kirk simply states “Let’s get the hell out of here,” and the landing party beams off the planet back to the Enterprise.
You can find “The City on the Edge of Forever”, and every other episode of the show, at ThePenskyPodcast.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @ThatPenskyFile!