"City On The Edge Of Forever" is classic Star Trek at its best

"These are the voyages of the Enterprise, its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, new civilizations to boldly go where no one has gone before" The iconic intro of Star Trek TOS which kickstarted Star Trek and is currently running for 55 years. Star Trek TOS is a show ahead of its time. It revolves around the crew of Enterprise put in sci-fi situations and deals with moral, social, societal issues throughout the show's 3 season run.

This show pulls a lot from the wealth of sci-fi elements from other mediums and has springboarded so many sci-fi shows and movies but it is omnipresent in the show. This show has a lot of great classic sci-fi episodes/stories but there is one crowning jewel amongst all "The City On The Edge Of Forever" episode.

Spoilers Below :-

City On The Edge Of Forever is my favorite Star Trek TOS episode. It has the sci-fi elements of Star TREK but tells an intimate and personal story from Kirk's perspective but also has high stakes throughout the episode. It is an episode full of great acting by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and by guest star Joan Collins who is the standout for me.

This episode starts off with The Enterprise facing time distortions and Scott telling to Kirk to stay out of the planet's orbit or else the circuits will overload. The helm console on the bridge explodes and Lt Sulu gets injured, Dr. Mc Coy is called for emergency and he prepares a hypo of cordazine to revive Lt Sulu. Scott says that the ship is clear of the time ripples except for one major displacement ahead. The Enterprise jerks on coming in contact with the heavy displacement and Dr. Mc Coy accidentally overdoses himself with Cordazine, he goes crazy and beams down to the planet.

Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and crew follow him down to the planet and on the planet, they meet the "Guardian Of Forever" who explains himself as the Guardian Of Time Events. Dr. Mc Coy in his madness appearing out of nowhere gets into the Guardian Of Forever, thus messing up history and it left for Kirk and Spock to rectify the timeline. It's a convoluted set up of a basic premise and the reason is due to behind the scene problems between the writer Aaron Ellison and Gene Roddenberry as Gene and Aaron's visions were polar opposite as one had an optimistic future where humanity has survived and one has a more grounded, darker vision for humanity where things aren't bright and born due to these colliding visions is this classic episode.

So Kirk and Spock enter the Guardian Of Forever and they come to the city of New York in the World War II era where in this city they have to locate Mc Coy and then they meet Edith Keeler who has an optimistic vision much like Captain Kirk's vision especially during her speech and Kirk falls in love with her. Spock tries to find the event which changes the timeline and finds out that Edith Keeler has to die to make sure that their timeline remains and she shouldn't be saved by Mc Coy. The second act deals with Kirk's love and dilemma which is the emotional focus of the episode.

I love the second act of this episode as it had great characterization and great personal stakes throughout which pays off in the final act in a satisfying manner. This proves for me that u don't need apocalyptic threats or doomsday machines to have big stakes but great writing and competent direction can make u feel for their characters and issues. The writing is highly impressive and the fact that Joan Collins, a pacifist who has an optimistic vision for the future had to die in order for that optimistic future to happen as her involvement in her pacifist ideas would contribute to the destruction of humanity, is, in my opinion, subtle yet nuanced writing .

The final act begins when we see Mc Coy and his antics due to his dose of Cordazine and he is unstable due to it. He makes u feel dread and pity for him at the same time. He is found by Joan Collins who heals him and the dialogue between them is well written by D.C. Fontana. It's a great scene between them and then we cut to Kirk and Joan Collins talking about going to the movie theatre and they make a plan regarding it and Dr. Mc Coy is cured and tries to find his friends Kirk and Spock. Dr. Mc Coy finds his friends at the roadway and calls for Kirk and Spock and they have a happy reunion but Joan tries to cross thr roadway and avoids the approaching vehicle and Kirk hesitates on saving her doing for the greater good and stops Dr.Mc Coy from saving her. On being angrily questioned by Dr.Mc Coy Spock has an emotional statement saying "He knows" and later exit the "Guardian Of Forever".

The final act is heartwrenching and a sad payoff for the inevitable doom set up wonderfully throughout the whole episode and it is a great character study for Cap.Kirk. It has huge emotional stakes . This is an unconventional Star Trek episode as it does not revolve around our crew going boldly where no one has gone before but yet it has the heart of Star Trek despite having darker undertones to it (due to Harlan Ellison's writing) . It is a classic episode which is beloved by so many Trekkies all around the world.

I would also recommend Harlan Ellison's original teleplay for the episode in book/comic format which is a supplementary work to the final episode.