This episode is often mentioned as the best Star Trek episode of all time, and it is about to get a lot of mentions like that from me. It basically has it all: hard science fiction, personal drama and sacrifice, and stakes as high as the destruction (or rather removal from history) of the Federation itself. This was one of my favorite episodes as a kid, and it fully stands up to the test of time. Contrasting with last nights episode, this one doesn't waste any time. Every scene drives the plot forward and the pay off at the end makes it all come together perfectly. Harlan Ellison really wrote a winner with The City on the Edge of Forever (even the name is great!).
The episode opens with the Enterprise investigating waves of time distortion coming from the surface of a planet. The ship is rocked violently and Sulu's control panel explodes violently knocking him unconscious. McCoy arrives to help and gives him a dose of a scifi drug that Kirk doesn't seem to approve of, but it works perfectly and Sulu is miraculously better. Just then another wave of time distortion hits and McCoy falls on his hypo taking an overdose of the drug. He is driven mad and flees to the planets surface. Kirk beams down with Spock and a landing party to look for him.
They find the ruins of an ancient city with a portal that is emitting the waves of time distortion. It speaks to them and describes itself as the guardian of forever. It starts showing them earth's history when McCoy suddenly jumps through. Uhura suddenly realizes they can't talk to the Enterprise. The Guardians calmly tells them that is because their history is now gone and there is no Enterprise. Luckily Spock was recording the timestream and figures they can go through and try to stop McCoy from changing things. Kirk tells the away team to go through and try again if they fail before jumping through with Spock.
They find themselves on earth in the 1920's and don't exactly fit in. Kirk realizes this and attempts to steal clothes, but they are immediately caught by a policeman. Spock gives them the old neck pinch and the two of them flee into a basement. They are again caught immediately, but this time by Edith Keeler, the beautiful head of the mission they have stumbled into. She offers to give them work and finds them a place to stay. Spock starts work on a primitive computer to help him read the information on his tricorder to see if they can determine what McCoy changed. Meanwhile Kirk is falling in love with Edith. Spock gets things working and determines that either Edith will be important to history, or she will die that very year, but before he can find out which his computer overloads and burns.
Meanwhile McCoy arrives and after interrogating a bum who then kills himself accidentally with McCoy's phaser. McCoy finds himself in the mission and only misses seeing Spock by a few seconds before Edith rushes him to a back room to recover. McCoy doesn't realize he passed through the time portal and assumes he is hallucinating. Spock gets his computer working again and learns that if Edith Keeler doesn't die that year she will start a peace movement that delays the US getting into WWII and allows Germany to get the bomb first and win the war. Kirk is devastated by this news and he is now dating Edith. That very night he takes her to the movies, but after crossing the street in front of the mission Edith casually mentions that McCoy is at the mission. Kirk is extremely excited and darts back across the street just as McCoy emerges. They embrace and Edith walks back across the street towards them. McCoy seems a truck barreling towards her but Kirk has to stop him from saving her. Suddenly they are back on the planet and the Enterprise is back. The guardian offers to send them on many more adventures, but Kirk replies with, "lets get the hell out of here."
Critical discussion: This episode is better than most of the movies and feels downright cinematic in it's scope. It manages to tell a story of time travel without feeling at all campy. Even the goofy looking guardian of forever doesn't do anything to mar the quality of the episode. All the acting is fantastic. Not sure there is much more to say other than:
10 out of 10
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