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THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER
STAR TREK, The Original TV Series
THIS IS ONE OF THE TEN BEST TREKS!
GUEST STARS...
Joan Collins
PLOT SUMMARY...
McCoy, Kirk, and Spock travel through a planet's
time portal back to New York in 1930.
QUICK SCAN...
This episode features Kirk's most credible love
affair in the series. Some Trekers consider this the best of the classic
"Trek" episodes. Kirk's love interest in this episode, Edith
Keeler, is played moving by Joan Collins ("Dynasty"). Surprisingly,
Dr. McCoy is out of his mind on drugs for most of the episodes. Harlan
Ellison's script won several awards.
SYNOPSIS...
When Dr. McCoy is accidentally injected with
a powerful drug, he goes mad and beams himself down to a planet. On
the planet, McCoy jumps through a time portal, vanishing from view.
Kirk and Spock who have beamed down to the planet, in pursuit of McCoy,
also enter the portal. They all end up in New York City, in 1930. They
can't find McCoy. Kirk falls in love with Edith Keeler. Spock builds
a tricorder out of odds and ends.
Spock determines that Kirk's new girlfriend must die in order that the
future not be horribly altered. Kirk lets his girlfriend get hit by
a car. A very unhappy Kirk beams back up to the Enterprise with his
crew.
Review...
Director Joseph Pevney's, "THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER,"
is considered by some Trekkers, to be the best classic "Star Trek"
episode. Pevney's other directing credits include: "Devil in the
Dark", "Amok Time", and "Journey to Babel".
Joan Collins ("Dynasty") is radiant as Edith Keeler, a woman
fervently committed to helping society. She is warm and beautiful, and
her romance with Captain Kirk provides the interplanetary playboy with
his best, most convincing love affair.
Harlan Ellison ("The Outer Limits" and "The NEW Twilight
Zone"), a well known Science-Fiction novelist, wrote the beautifully
realized teleplay. Although Ellison later claimed that Roddenberry wrecked
his script by re-writing it, the revised teleplay won the International
Hugo award, in 1968, a prestigious Science-Fiction honor.
The episode's primary FX involve a time portal, called "The Guardian
of Forever". Although the historical scenes we see projected on
the portal are just old, recycled movie scenes, slow motion shots of
McCoy, Kirk, and Spock passing through the portal are pretty decent.
This is one of the few classic "Star Trek" episodes in which
profanity was used. At the end of the episode, when the Enterprise crew
prepares to beam up from the planet, following the death of Edith Keeler,
in 1930's, New York, a grim faced Kirk barks the line, "Let's get
the hell out of here!"
"THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER" should be highly watchable
for most Sci-Fi viewers. Joan Collins fans will definitely dig this
episode. "The City on the Edge of Forever" is "Star Trek"
at its best! Trek on!
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