The City on the Edge of Forever

by Harlan Ellison

  And they vanish.

  Kirk realizes he and Spock and the men must get back up to the Enterprise as quickly as possible, to see what has changed there. He sends the men up first, in translation shifts that leave only himself and Spock and the two officers for the final shift.

  For a moment they contemplate what alterations in time Beckwith’s jump-back could have caused, but as Spock points out, “Speculation at this point is senseless.”

  Not so senseless, however, when they translate up to the ship, materialize in the translation chamber and find that the control room they left as a USS exploratory vessel has altered drastically. As they stare about the room, the neatly-uniformed men are gone, and in their place Kirk and Spock find themselves staring at a motley horde of evil-looking, evil-smelling space pirates. A crew of deadly cutthroats with phasers leveled at them. The pirates are a strange and anachronistic blending of modern science and traditional Jolly Roger garb. The eleven men already sent up, eleven Enterprise-garbed men, are prisoners. And as one of the pirates steps forward to speak, a terrifying latter-day descendant of Edward Teach, Blackbeard, Kirk finds himself about to be gunned down mercilessly.

  “Welcome to the Condor,” the pirate Captain smirks, as we HOLD on Kirk’s expression of disbelief, and we FADE OUT!

  ACT TWO:

  Kirk and Spock realize what has happened: some strange turn in time has altered their ship into a buccaneer vessel. They leap out of the translation chamber and Kirk grapples with the Pirate Captain. It is the signal for the captive Enterprise men to overcome their captors. There is a bloody pitched battle in pilot country and finally the Enterprise men manage to empty the control room. But now there are not 530 men of the Enterprise on the other side of that triple-strength door. There are 530 killer vandals and their women, who are even at this moment readying weapons to blast through into the control room. Kirk and Spock know they must go back to the nameless planet and follow Beckwith into the pillar of light. They must bring him back from the past, to straighten out time.

  They enter the translation chamber, and leaving their twelve remaining living fellow crewmen to hold the ship, they begin to dissolve. The Scotch Engineering officer, watching them, urges, “Hurry back, Cap’n, or we might not be ’ere when y’ret—”

  But they are gone.

  The Guardians have returned. Kirk and Spock say they will go back. They ask the Guardians to send them to the same time Beckwith arrived in. The Guardians say there is a problem. Because of the internal stresses put upon the time-flow by the passage of Beckwith, they cannot send the two spacemen back to the precise time. Either earlier or later. Kirk says earlier, and they will wait for Beckwith, and grab him when he comes through.

  The Guardians warn Kirk and Spock of two things: first, Beckwith’s go-back has caused only a temporary temporal alteration. If they can bring him back, everything will go back the way it was, like a river following its natural course.

  But in each time-period there is a focal point, the Guardians warn them. Something or someone that is indispensable to the normal flow of time. Something that may be completely innocent or unimportant otherwise, but acts as a catalyst, and if tampered with, will change time permanently.

  They say that Beckwith will try to reach this focal point, and in some way alter it, so that time stays forever altered. Kirk wants to know how Beckwith knows what the focal point is. The Guardians assure him Beckwith doesn’t know, but that because of the stresses and fluxes of the time-flow, Beckwith will be inexorably drawn to this focal point, and will alter it, even without knowing he is doing so.

  “Then how can we stop him?” Kirk asks.

  The Guardians tell him the machines in their city, machines which probe and delve into the time-flow continuously, have isolated the focus point in the era Beckwith has invaded. They tell Kirk and Spock it is a girl, EDITH KOESTLER, who is scheduled to be run down and killed by a moving van at a specific time. Beckwith’s subliminal drive will take him to the path of this occurrence, and he will somehow prevent its happening thus fixing time permanently into the altered shape it has now assumed.

  They must capture Beckwith, and bring him back into the present, the now, before he can meet Edith Koestler, and alter her fate.

  They go into the pillar of light a week earlier than Beckwith, and when they appear in the past, they find themselves in Chicago of 1930, on Old Earth.

  It is, literally, the city on the edge of Forever…

  Linked to a tall-spire city on a frozen mountain peak across the stars and hundreds of years in the future, another city on the opposite edge of Forever, by the tenuous thread of life called Kirk and Spock and Beckwith.

  But now that they are here, in the past, they must learn to make their way, at least until Beckwith comes through the time machine. Yet imagine the circumstances—they are men out of time, out of joint with the world around them. They have trouble understanding the language (after all, even English alters to indistinguishability in three hundred years), they have no skills that can be put to use in this “regressive” age. Their clothes are peculiar. They have no place to live, no money (and don’t even understand the medium of exchange or have a way of earning money) and most obvious of all—

  Spock is an obvious extraterrestrial.

  This is brought forcibly home to them as they appear on a crowded Chicago street, directly in front of an old man selling apples and hot chestnuts from a Depression-style pushcart. The old man sees them!pop! into existence, and at the sight of Spock, he clutches at his heart and falls over. People in the crowd, seeing the old man writhing on the ground, and seeing Spock, immediately draw the conclusion Spock has harmed him. They start yelling for the cops. A policeman emerges from a shop down the street, at the noise, and fires at Spock and Kirk.

  They take off, down the street, around the corner, into an alley, over a fence, into a backyard and down another street till they come to ground in a basement of an apartment building.

  There they make the necessary adjustments to change their Translations into language-interpreting devices. “I can almost make out what they’re saying,” Kirk tells Spock. “But it’s odd, all run together, filled with words I know, many of them key sentence words. It’s English, all right, but as difficult for me as, say, the English of Shakespeare’s time would be for them. We’ll use the Translations till we’ve picked up the style of the language, and then perhaps we can make it without them.”

  They know they must find Edith Koestler. But to do that, they must be able to move freely in the city. Kirk cautions Spock to stay there, back in the end of that dirty basement, till he can find them lodgings, and clothes of the period. Spock agrees and Kirk goes off.

  But this is the year of the Depression. Work is scarce, money is almost impossible, even clothes are a problem. And Kirk, so much worse off than men familiar with the times, with ties to the period, with knowledge of how to do it and where and how much it costs, finds himself at a loss. He manages to steal some clothes off a clothesline and returns to the apartment house.

  He and Spock change, and they are about to leave, when the custodian of the building discovers them. He assumes they are bindlestiffs, just bums, sleeping in the basement, and though they think he is going to make a fight with them, he seems to be a good man; he asks them if they need work, and they say yes. He tells them they can sleep down in the basement till they find something better. “At least it’s warm near the furnace.” In exchange they will carry out the cinders and shovel the coal to keep the furnace stoked, and promise not to steal from any of the tenants.

  They thank him, and he says it’s only for a short time, till something happens for them.

  A short time…

  As the waters of Forever RIPPLE and WE FIND OURSELVES back on the changed Enterprise, in the control room with the doomed men, as the Pirate Captain readies a bank of destructive heat-beams, and trains them on the control room doors. As the doors glow red from the bombardment, and one of the younger office
rs in the besieged control country asks the Scotsman, “Where are they…what are they doing…are they coming to help us…?”

  And as We CLOSE TIGHT on the metal, turning to slag, we contemplate Kirk and Spock, back there…and we FADE OUT.

  ACT THREE:

  Kirk has a menial job. Spock has passed himself off as an oriental, he’s washing dishes in a beanery. They are existing in the grimy underside of Chicago life, while seeking the girl who is the focal point for this time-phase.

  Spock locates her and Kirk takes a room in the same building. Time is growing short. Beckwith will come through from the future in three days. Kirk meets Edith Koestler, and strangely, wonderfully, they communicate. Kirk, who has all his life been alone on ships in space, who has known casual liaisons with women in port cities and on pleasure planets, finds himself drawn to this girl, who seems to embody a simplicity, and a warmth, that he had only read about secretly in cheap novels.

  For three days they grow to know each other. Kirk is pleasured. Spock grows worried. He cautions Kirk against “going native.”

  But the time for worrying is past as the day of Beckwith’s appearance arrives. They wait at the appointed time in the pop-out place, and when Beckwith materializes, in the center of a crowd, they try to grab him but he once again manages, through dint of desperation, to escape them. They track him through the city, but he loses himself.

  And now, forewarned that they are trying to get him, Beckwith realizes that he cannot be safe, anywhere in time, unless he kills Kirk and Spock.

  So the hunted turns hunter. He stalks Spock first, and almost manages to assassinate him, but at the last moment Spock saves himself. And Beckwith vanishes again.

  They realize they must do something different to find him before he gets to the girl. Kirk stays with her, while Spock goes searching through the underworld, and finds a man who will hire himself out to locate Beckwith. But when Spock goes to get the man’s report, he finds him dead.

  Beckwith has developed cunning. Time is running out.

  ACT FOUR:

  Kirk and Spock take shifts staying with Edith Koestler. Spock takes his turns in hiding, for the girl knows nothing of him. But for Kirk, the hours spent with the young girl are the happiest of his life. And we see, we sense the growing dilemma for him. Kirk has fallen in love. He has come into the past to do a job, a simple job, but because he has found himself inextricably involved with his emotions, the situation has become perilous.

  Spock and Kirk discuss this. They enter into a heated argument. At least, on Kirk’s part. Spock is cool and analytical about the problem. Kirk has his choice: on one side, this girl and her life; this girl and her love. On the other, the men of the Enterprise who may even have already given their lives; and this universe.

  Kirk flees from Spock’s logic.

  We PLAY SCENES of Kirk’s deepening involvement with the girl, so that when Beckwith finally arrives on the scene, still unaware that he is moving inexorably toward this focus-point, this unknown girl who means nothing to him, yet means everything to him—we feel a total empathy for Kirk. The truck that is destined to run her down is lumbering through the street. Kirk sees Edith starting to cross. He sees Beckwith notice the girl and the truck, and start to move to save her. We CLOSE on EACH OF THE PRINCIPALS in SLOW MOTION SHOTS that prolong the agony of the moment. Edith moving into the streets. Beckwith starting toward her to save her. Kirk starting toward Beckwith to prevent his act. And Kirk not being able to do it!

  He cannot sacrifice her, even for the safety of the universe. But at that moment Spock, who has been out of sight, but nearby, fearing just such an eventuality, steps forward and freezes Beckwith in midstep. Edith keeps going and we QUICK CUT to Kirk as we HEAR the SOUND of a TRUCK SCREECHING TO A HALT. As Kirk’s face crumbles, we know what has happened. Destiny has resumed its normal course, the past has been set straight. RIPPLE-DISSOLVE to Enterprise in INTERCUT then back.

  Spock helps Kirk back to the location for return to the future. They materialize on the planet and receive the parting words of the Guardians, who tell them the past has been repaired. They ask one favor: leave Beckwith with them for punishment. Spock agrees, for Kirk is in no condition to make any decisions.

  They translate back up to the Enterprise, but for a moment we stay with Beckwith and the Guardians. “What are you going to do with me?” he asks fearfully.

  We are going to give you Forever as you wished, they tell him, and motion toward the pillar of light that waits. Beckwith smiles a smile of triumph. Somehow, he knows not how, he has won. He dashes to the pillar of light, and plunges into it…

  …and finds himself materializing in the heart of a sun. An execution that goes on forever and ever, for the Guardians have altered their machines so that Beckwith is caught in a time-Möbius. An interlocked time-phase that puts him into the heart of a blazing inferno just long enough to die, then snaps him out to a moment before he died, then puts him back then takes him out, over and over and over and over…

  Later, on the Enterprise, alone in his stateroom, Kirk receives a visit from Spock, and between them we see a depth of friendship that explains now how a man of deep feeling could be so close to an alien of cold logic. Kirk is felled by sadness, and Spock seems to understand. For the Captain, there is something irretrievably lost, but Spock makes sense when he says, “No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love.”

  And Kirk understands. FADE OUT on the stars once more. The stars, like Kirk’s love, eternal.

  May 13, 1966

  STAR TREK

  “The City on the Edge of Forever”

  written by Harlan Ellison

  PROLOGUE:

  FADE IN establishing shot USS Enterprise, somewhere out near the Rim, hanging suspended above a strange, silvery planet. OVER this shot and subsequent pantomime shots, we HEAR the VOICE of KIRK:

  KIRK’S VOICE OVER

  Ship’s Log: star-date 3134.6. Our chronometers still run backward. When it started, we followed the radiations, all the way to the Rim of the Galaxy. We have found the planet-source of the radiation, but something else is happening…

  (beat)

  When we left Earth, each of the 450 crewmembers of the Enterprise was checked out stable. But locked in this ship for two years, they have experienced the stresses of time and space. We have continuous psych-probes, but we know some have been altered. There may even be those who have gone sour. We can never know till the flaw shows up. And by then, it’s too late…

  Our OPENING SHOT has MOVED IN on the Enterprise THROUGH A DISSOLVE to a shot CLOSE on a small, isometrically-shaped metal container, as it is opened by hand. Kirk’s speech over is heard (after beat) as we HOLD CLOSE on the lid of the box, opening with tambour doors, so that the interior rises, and a strange dull light floods the frame. As the container opens, the black velvet interior slides up to reveal possibly half a dozen strange and wondrous glowing Jewels. Yet they are not jewels. They are the infamous and illegal Jillkan dream-narcotics, the Jewels of Sound. They are faceted solids, but not stone, more like a hardened jelly that burns pulsating with an inner light: gold, blue, crimson, orange.

  We HEAR a VOICE O.S., a voice that shakes slightly, trying to maintain a tenuous control. “Beckwith, give me one. Stop it, Beckwith” and as the CAMERA PULLS BACK we see one of the Enterprise’s officers LT/JG LeBEQUE, a French-Canadian with a strong face; but a face that is now beaded with sweat. And holding the Jewels of Sound is RICHARD BECKWITH, another officer, a man whose face shows intelligence and—something else. Cunning, perhaps, or even subdued cruelty. Cruelty kept rigidly in check, channeled to specific uses. Beckwith smiles as he stares with fascination at the Jewels of Sound.

  “How long have you been my man, Lieutenant?” Beckwith asks, softly. He isn’t taunting, merely interested. “How long have you been hooked on the Jewels?”

  The Lieutenant’s face tightens. He isn’t a toady, neither is he a weak man. But the Jewels of
Sound have been listed illegal throughout the Galaxy because only one exposure is needed to make a man a confirmed addict. Swallow one Jewel, experience the Circe call of the strange music and lights the Jewels offer, and you are lost forever. And so LeBeque will swallow his pride, and answer the man who holds the delight he needs so desperately. “You gave me my first taste on Karkow, that was a year ago. I need one, Beckwith, stop playing with me.”

  Beckwith extends one, a golden Jewel. But as the lieutenant reaches for it, he closes his fist over it, closing off the light, and LeBeque winces, as though the loss of light physically hurts him. “I want to know about that planet out there—and what the security log says about valuable commodities. I’ll want a landfall pass and I’ll want you to cover for me while I trade with the natives.”

  “After the slaughter on Harper Five, you’ll do it again? If Kirk finds out—”

  “He won’t find out, will he LeBeque? He won’t find out, or you’ll never hear these Jewels sing inside you again. Remember that. I’m coming back from this a rich man, and I’ll never have to go to space again. Nobody’s going to get in the way of that, LeBeque. I want to live an elegant life, but that takes resources.”

  LeBeque gropes for words. “So you cheat aliens, get them hooked on illegal dream-narcotics, and steal what they could trade for cultural advances.”

  “Hooked like you, LeBeque. Hooked like you.”

  “Yes, like me. And I’m already paying.”

  “But you’ll pay a little more. Do I get what I need?”

  LeBeque nods slowly. Beckwith gives him the Jewel and the Enterprise Lieutenant swallows it. CAMERA HOLDS past Beckwith smiling knowingly at LeBeque, and as a look of almost orgasmic pleasure crosses the lieutenant’s face, we REVERSE ANGLE from LeBeque’s POV and we see THRU HIS EYES as Beckwith’s face begins to shimmer with weird lights, like a Van deGraaf generator. Then we HEAR the incredible music of the Jewels—sounds from another time, another space, sounds that reach into LeBeque’s head and strum the synapses of his brain as the lights collide and merge and swivel and twirl and dance in patterns of no-pattern, and Beckwith’s face fades away with that damnable knowing smile, and for SEVERAL BEATS we SEE THRU the drug-drunken eyes of a man in the grip of an alien narcotic. Then, as we COME BACK INTO FOCUS we HEAR the VOICE of MR. SPOCK as he yells, “LeBeque! Damp that starboard unit, you’re running into the red! You’ll blow the entire drive! LeBeque!”