EPILOGUE
FADE IN:
118 INT. KIRK’S CABIN—ESTABLISHING
as Kirk stares out at the stars through a port. (If there is no port in the cabin, dammit, build one! This is absolutely essential to this scene, and the tone of the climax!) He is now dressed in Enterprise uniform.
SPOCK’S VOICE O.S.
Co-ordinates from the bridge, Captain.
Kirk does not turn around. Spock moves INTO FRAME behind him.
SPOCK
Jim…
Kirk holds a beat, then slowly turns. The deadness in his eyes there, then a small change in expression tells us he is startled.
KIRK
Mr. Spock…that’s the first time you’ve ever called me anything but Captain.
SPOCK
(gently)
On my world the nights are very long. The sound of the silver birds against the sky is very sweet. My people know there is always time enough for everything. You could come with me for a rest. You would feel comfortable there.
KIRK
(hopelessly)
All the time in the world…
SPOCK
And filled with tomorrows.
(beat)
But can you tell me something I need to understand? Something that defies all logic I know?
Kirk looks at him desolately.
SPOCK (CONT’D.)
I would not intrude, but it…troubles me…I believe that is the phrase…it troubles me deeply.
Kirk makes a motion with his hand that signifies, “Go ahead and ask.”
SPOCK (CONT’D.)
You could not stop Beckwith, I understand that.
(beat)
But…Beckwith…amoral, evil, a killer. Selfish and capable of anything. Why—
KIRK
(interrupts)
Why did he try to save her, at risk of his own life?
SPOCK
Yes.
Kirk is silent for several beats, then:
KIRK
We look at our race, this parade of men and women, and the unbelievable harm and cruelty they do.
(beat)
And we sigh, and we say, “Perhaps our time is past, let the sharks or the cockroaches take over.”
(beat)
And then, without knowing why, without even thinking of it, the worst among us does the great thing, the noble deed, that spark of impossible human godliness.
(beat)
And we say, “Perhaps the human race is entitled to a little more sufferance. Let them keep trying to reach the dream.”
SPOCK
(softly, understands)
Evil can come from Good, and Good from Evil.
(beat)
But the little man…Trooper…
KIRK
(a bitter smile)
He was negligible. He fought at Verdun, and he was negligible. And she…
SPOCK
No, she was not negligible.
KIRK
(simply; groping for understanding)
But…I loved her…
SPOCK
No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love.
Kirk looks at him. There is understanding in his face. A sadness he will never ever lose, because his loss is so great. But through friendship, caring, Spock has shown him understanding. His smile is in no way happy, but it shows resignation. He nods at Spock, and Spock goes. We HOLD several BEATS on Kirk staring out at the star-flecked distance as the SOUND of FULL-AHEAD ALARMS RINGS through the Enterprise and the CAMERA MOVES SMOOTHLY IN PAST KIRK to FULL FRAME on the stars.
DISSOLVE TO:
119 EXT. SPACE—USS ENTERPRISE (STOCK)
as the ship speeds off into the darkness and we HOLD on the stars once more. The stars, like Kirk’s love—eternal.
FADE TO BLACK:
and
FADE OUT.
THE END
APPENDIX
2nd Revised Final Draft 12/1/66
PROLOGUE
FADE IN:
1 ESTABLISHING SHOT—INT. McCOY’S LAB—ENTERPRISE
CLOSE ON ALIEN CREATURE. It is a small creature. It is silver-blue, with a lot of hair, with bright, beady little eyes, maybe even with antenna. Something like a Yorkshire Terrier with a big furry head and a scrawny hairless blue body. It looks alien, but not outlandish. (Cast it to suit yourself.) The hands of DOC McCOY are in the frame, taking a blood sample of the little dingo. We HEAR the VOICE OF CAPTAIN JAMES KIRK OVER:
VOICE OF KIRK (OVER)
Ship’s log: star-date 3134.6. What began as a routine mapping expedition has turned into the darkest enigma of all our flights.
CAMERA PULLS BACK to show McCoy with MR. SPOCK and two ENTERPRISE CREWMEMBERS (male and female optional). The dingo is wired in to the metabolic panel on the wall. They are all intent on what’s happening to it.
MCCOY
It’s growing younger. Little by little. Reversing the aging process.
The blood sample has been fed into whatever instrument McCoy utilizes for this purpose. The Crewmember hands it back.
MCCOY
There’s poison here. It wasn’t present when we took this pup for specimen on Spahfohn. The radiation’s doing it.
CUT TO:
2 INT. ENTERPRISE BRIDGE—CAPT KIRK—(MEASURE)
CLOSE ON KIRK as CAMERA PULLS BACK to show us WHAT HE SEES in the view-screen. A strange silvery planet under a wan and dying red ember of a sun.
VOICE OF KIRK (OVER)
The magnetic radiation that has drawn us here to this desolate Rim of the Galaxy…the radiation that has somehow set our chronometers to running backward…is having a strange effect on all of us…
There is an O.S. BLEEP from an intercom.
3 INTERCUT—THE INTERCOM
as it flashes for Kirk’s attention.
4 KIRK—MED. CLOSE
as he flips the switch and the face of Spock appears on the intercom screen by his control chair.
KIRK
Yes, Mr. Spock?
SPOCK
Dr. McCoy has taken samples from each of the zoological specimens. They are growing younger.
KIRK
Conclusion?
SPOCK
So are we.
Kirk pauses a beat in perplexity. Troubled, deeply troubled. Strange things are happening.
KIRK
What is it that can reverse machinery and human beings?
SPOCK
Was that rhetorical, Captain?
KIRK
Unless you have some facts for an answer.
SPOCK
Do you believe in magic, Captain? Alchemy? The power of the supernatural?
KIRK
No.
SPOCK
Then I have no answer. There aren’t any in science, not for this. It’s the radiation, of course, but more than that—
5 FULL SHOT—THE BRIDGE—TILT/ANGLE
as a HIGH KEENING WHINE erupts in the chamber, the very air is suffused with a crimson glow, the banks of equipment begin running wild, fire breaks out in a shower of sparks on one panel, the ship rocks and bucks and SOUND PHASES UP AND DOWN the sonic scale.
SULU
(from controls)
Radiation intensity just jumped, Captain! Bang, we’ve got overload!
KIRK
(sharply)
Mr. Sulu, lay-in that parking orbit! Let’s not get any deeper into this radiation…
6 thru 9 SERIES OF SHOTS—HAND-HELD & TILT/ANGLE
MED. CLOSE on Kirk even as he delivers the preceding line. The ship rocks and bucks so violently, suddenly, that Kirk is thrown out of his control chair.
SMASH-CUT TO:
ANGLE ON BRIDGE as other crewmembers are tossed around like loose peas. The SCENE GOES RED again, eerily.
SMASH-CUT TO:
TILT/ANGLE IN CORRIDOR as the ship heaves and people are dumped, crashing into one another. Red haze.
SMASH-CUT TO:
; INT. McCOY’S LAB as the shock wave hits and flasks shatter on the shelves, racks of equipment tumble and crash. McCoy and Spock are thrown against one another and both of them are thrown against the specimen table.
10 XTREME CLOSE SHOT—McCOY & BEAST
as the red effulgence fills the room with more of the radiation. McCoy is shoved against the little beast they were examining, and with the speed of a raccoon, the alien creature strikes, in panic. It sinks its tiny fangs into McCoy’s hand.
11 CLOSE UP ON McCOY
as he screams, his eyes squinch shut in pain, and he pulls his hand away from the creature, suddenly thrusting it against his mouth to stop the pain. But we see on the back of the hand, in that fleshy area just behind and between the thumb and first finger, three tiny flaming red dots where the beast has bitten.
MCCOY
(strangled)
The poison…
12 WIDER SHOT—FAVORING SPOCK
as the Enterprise stabilizes. The red glow is still there. McCoy stumbles, begins rocking back and forth as though he is in terrible anguish. Spock tries to help him, but McCoy turns away. His back is to us, and he is twisted over as though shot in the stomach. Then he straightens up sharply, and as Spock moves toward him again he suddenly grabs a long-necked retort from a table and swings it in a whistling arc, crashing it against Spock’s temple. Spock is hurled backward and goes slamming into a bulkhead, hits and falls face forward. The two Enterprise Crewmen, who have, for the most part stayed in the b.g. or moved to assist Spock, now go for McCoy. They grab him from either side, and with startling agility he pulls his arms free and clubs them together. They go down and McCoy turns SUDDENLY TO FACE CAMERA as CAMERA ZOOMS IN on his face:
He has been changed. Not Jekyll-Hyde. More subtle than that. Spots of color, flaming in his cheeks, his eyes quite mad, whirling discs dilated and dark. A very indefinable something wrong that tells us very simply and directly that the poison is in his system and he has gone berserk. He STARES INTO CAMERA several beats, to give us a good look, then PLUNGES INTO CAMERA and
FRAME TO BLACK:
13 ANGLE IN CORRIDOR—McCOY
as BLACK FRAME becomes McCoy RUNNING AWAY FROM CAMERA down the corridor. ALARMS SOUND OVER AND OVER.
14 REVERSE ANGLE—CORRIDOR—McCOY
as he comes DASHING TOWARD CAMERA and CAMERA PANS WITH him as he turns sharply and the door before him sighs open, and he rushes inside. We HEAR Sulu’s VOICE OVER intership comm system:
VOICE OF SULU
(filter)
Security Alert! Find and restrain Dr. McCoy at once. Security Alert!
(repeats this over and over
as action proceeds)
CAMERA HOLDS on the door through which McCoy has vanished as it sighs shut. Then CAMERA TILTS UP SLIGHTLY to read the plate near the door: TRANSPORTER CHAMBER. CAMERA HOLDS a beat on the plate and then very smoothly PANS LEFT to SHOOT DOWN CORRIDOR as we see, at the other end, Kirk and Spock and SEVERAL OTHER CREWMEMBERS of the Security Force as they plunge toward us. CAMERA PULLS BACK as they come abreast of the Transporter Chamber. One of the SECURITY MEN points to the door with anxious words ad lib that he has seen McCoy enter. The door slides open for them and they rush in as CAMERA FOLLOWS.
15 FULL SHOT—INT. TRANSPORTER CHAMBER
as we see the TRANSPORTER CHIEF lying unconscious by his machinery. And on the beaming stage, the last tell-tale flickers and sparkles of the TRANSPORTER EFFECT that tells us McCoy has gone. CAMERA IN CLOSE on Spock and Kirk in 2-SHOT.
KIRK
He’s beamed down…
(scared)
…there.
SPOCK
He’ll be dead in two hours.
CAMERA HOLDS CLOSE on their faces locked in horror as we
FADE OUT.
END OF PROLOGUE
ACT ONE
FADE IN:
16 EXT. PLANET—ESTABLISHING—DAY
CLOSE on booted tracks as CAMERA ANGLE WIDENS to show us a rocky defile, obviously on an alien world. The tracks lead out of the rocky defile. A burnt-out sun hangs dolorously in the cadaverous sky. A dead world, even from what little we see here…as if some cosmic god had flicked an ash and it had grown into a planet. We HOLD on the SCENE for a BEAT as we HEAR the VOICE of KIRK OVER:
KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)
Ship’s log: star-date 3134.6. The deadly radiation that drew us to this desolate Rim of the Galaxy, has thrown the Enterprise into chaos.
As these line are SPOKEN OVER we see the tell-tale shimmering of the TRANSPORTER EFFECT as Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Janice Rand and two enlisted crewmen appear. VOICE OVER CONTINUES:
KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)
Somewhere on this nameless ash of a world, Dr. McCoy is wandering, the poison in his blood giving him less than two hours to live. We are transporting down with an antidote.
(beat)
Can we track him down in time?
As the preceding lines are SPOKEN OVER we see Spock indicating tracks to Kirk, pointing in the direction they vanish. They move forward as VOICE OVER CONTINUES and we:
LAP-DISSOLVE THRU:
17 thru 19 FULL SHOTS—THE SCENES
the Patrol moving through random sets of alien terrain (whatever is most economical to convey feeling of covering distance on this planet, without exorbitant set-ups) as VOICE OVER CONTINUES as indicated above.
CONTINUE LAP-DISSOLVES
THRU TO:
20 EXT. PLANET—ANOTHER ANGLE—MED. CLOSE SHOT
PAST Yeoman Janice Rand in f.g. as she turns her head sharply to look just PAST CAMERA. A tricorder, a simple black case, hangs over her shoulder. A HUM grows stronger from tricorder.
RAND
Captain: there’s the source of the radiation.
CAMERA PULLS BACK RAPIDLY to show Kirk, Spock and the rest just behind her, and as CAMERA FILLS we see mountains that rise up into the sky, till they become vague and whispy.
SPOCK
The tracks…straight for the mountains.
CAMERA MOVES BACK IN and TO THE LEFT to come in CLOSER on Kirk, and past him, as if they were miniatures right over his shoulder, the mountains, with a strange glittering on one far, distant peak.
KIRK
(almost dreamily)
Mr. Spock: do you see a great city up there?
SPOCK’S VOICE O.S.
It is there, Captain.
KIRK
Like a city on the edge of forever.
CAMERA HOLD as Kirk moves away and the others move with him. CAMERA HOLD on the gleaming city, seen almost in opaque dimness as we
DISSOLVE TO:
21 PLATEAU OF THE GUARDIAN—LATER DAY—CLOSE SHOT
ON KIRK as he climbs up the last of what is obviously a mountain pass. The stones are a peculiar silvery material, with buried shimmers of light in them. As Kirk climbs up onto the plateau, CAMERA GOES WITH HIM as the ANGLE OPENS to show us bracing rock walls and niches all around us.
22 THE PLATEAU—ESTABLISHING SHOT—KIRK’S POV
PANNING SHOT from Kirk’s immediate right, around the bowl of the plateau. Gray sky past the rock prominences, light and eerie mist that gives the entire area an ethereal look, niches up in the rock walls, boulders of the same bright substance here and there, and on a higher peak but still quite far-off—the city, glittering like a hypersensitive’s dream. And as the CAMERA PANS AROUND we see, for the first time, THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER. The shot continues a beat and then CAMERA ZOOMS IN on “him.” For that beat, he had looked almost like another sparkling rock in the stone walls. But as CAMERA CLOSES in the ZOOM we see “he” is something quite different: The GUARDIAN OF FOREVER is pure thought. Resting in a shallow bowl on a pedestal, he looks like a globe of flickering light…like a shimmering handful of fog…like something totally alien and omnipresent. (Construction of the Guardian should combine a minimum of expense with a maximum of ingenuity.)
23 CLOSING SHOT—KIRK & SPOCK
as they move toward the Guardian. Spock moves in behind Kirk and the others
follow, fanning out. They move closer, awed (for it is an awesome presence).
SPOCK
(softly)
It’s alive.
KIRK
(with wonder)
The power, Mr. Spock. Can you feel the power coming from it?
There is the SOUND of a deep, sepulchral VOICE OVER. A voice that rings out in the rocky enclosure, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. It is the VOICE of the GUARDIAN.
GUARDIAN
(a voice of power)
I am the Guardian of Forever. Welcome.
KIRK
You live in the city?
GUARDIAN
Once. Before we became pure energy. A time before your sun burned hot in space. Before your race was born.
SPOCK
This place is dead, empty. Why do you stay?
The City on the Edge of Forever Page 19