Classic Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever

[originaldw]

btw, how come that this vid is not the video answer to any "back to the future" snippet on youtube? :)

[Emper0rH0rde]

FRACKING DEPRESSING!

[SimonStudioAnalysis]

someone should show this episode to Obama!

[Zynyster]

I'm watching this right now. Such a great one. I think a lot of people likes this episode because it has that style of music playing that older people enjoys and being on earth has a lot to do of why so many people love this one. It had a great plot too.

[yutu34]

This episode does indeed have an abundance of very profound moments. Kirk and Spock's interaction with the Guardian; the interchange between Kirk, Scotty and Uhura just before he and Spock depart; Edith's visionary speech, her selfless treatment of the homeless; Spock explaining the truth to Kirk; Kirk's hideously painful dilemma; and finally "Let's get the hell out of here."

And many many more moments that go up to make the most beloved Star Trek episode.

[Teraluna]

My favorite episode! 

[genericusername337]

an okay episode but why has EVERYONE rated it the best of TOS? makes no sense it was so average. I found Edith annoying, and the plot was just about Kirk "falling in love" again. the end where he chooses was nice, yes, but predictable. not bad at all... but the best? i don't get it

[jilliegirl1000]

0:18 Fascinating.

[Mr500characters]

The third alternative for Kirk is to fullfill his mission by going back to the Guardian to 1969 and change NBC's mind to complete his five year mission, then take the Enterprise back one last time to the Guardian to return to living Edith Keeler 1930(without McCoy and Spock), explain the auto accident to Edith (a keen woman who was ahead of her time "spoke the same language") and bring her back to see the future she envisioned, where she belongs, picking up Harlan Ellison as best man on the way.

[689321546]

@Mr500characters .that be too cool but as you know going back to the past and changeing one thing change;s everything in the present ....

[Mr500characters]

Unless Edith really was psychic (gifted insight?) and somehow knew, even subconsciously, that Clark Gable was going to be famous and was figuring on Kirk and McCoy knowing this already. But that just creates more questions. Both Kirk and McCoy are from earth's United States in the future, unless all records of early movies were destroyed, they should STILL have known someone as famous as Clark Gable would have become to film history. Even as we know who Chaplin was, if only from his movie clips.

[genericusername337]

@Mr500characters that's because it's been almost a century since clark gables and we're still big on movies. in this star trek, TV is obsolete and now it's been 4 centuries since him. he wasn't that big ... even the young people today scarcely know about him.

[Mr500characters]

Therefore, the only logical conclusion: someone else (Clark Gable?) was drawn to NYC using the same currents in time BEFORE McCoy got there, changing the course of history so Gable was famous in movies before 1931! Gable WAS in broadway up to the late 1920's as a stage actor. So he must have moved to California before Kirk arrived, earlier than actual history! Actually, his first role in a sound picture was as the villain in a low-budget William Boyd western called The Painted Desert (1931).

[Mr500characters]

"Would you like to try for 30?" Edith tells McCoy about her young man taking her to a "Clark Gable movie"; that it's very odd that McCoy doesn't know about Clark Gable in 1930. Then, later, she suggests to Kirk about maybe catching the "Clark Gable movie". This, the climax of the episode (maybe the whole series!): where Kirk realizes that McCoy is now here in NYC in 1930! Nothing on Star Trek is as important as this moment! Odd thing is, Gable was not a famous movie star by any means until 1931.

[powergirl901]

my two favorite moments was when Spock's 1930's tricorder shorts out, and when the bum engages the phaser overload circuit and creates quite a noise. Loved that!

[muskratist]

Well,the plot may have a few holes,like most time-travel ones do. [why did the Enterprise vanish in orbit while the landing party did not?] Still,I think it had the greatest temporary set-that glowing stone portal-the voice-howling wind,ancient ruins-considering the budget,excellent for the time.

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@muskratist The landing party was in close proximity to the Guardian, so were protected from the time mess-up thingy.

[Alekkkkkkkkk]

Hm, i somehow expected, more. The hype surrounding it raised my expectations a bit, it must've been really new and unseen back then.. good ep still, especially when compared to ENT time travel episodes (Carbon Creek).

[Franquay]

It was a standard length episode, but I always will remember this like a very memorable feature movie. Classic lines like "In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture? ... you're asking me to work with equipment which hardly very far ahead of stone knives and bearskins." Yet Vaccum Valves (Toobes) were all the rage then !!!

[hotwok19]

I recently saw Joan Collins interviewed here on You-Tube in which she admitted that she has been involved in a number of "clunkers" in her movie & TV career. That is inevitable given the volume of work she has done but she certainly got lucky when she guest starred on Star Trek. "The City on the Edge of Forever" is just about everybody's favourite episode & Joan's performance as social worker Edith Keeler was great.

[hork111]

I'm tired of people calling this the best episode. Can someone explain to me (in English, please) why it is considered so? I personally consider "The Menagerie Pts I and II" and "Where No Man..." and "Day of the Dove" superior.

[Franquay]

@hork111 It was perhaps the most Memorable Episode ???

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@hork111 As Robert Justman, one of the producers of the show said, this episode made them feel as if they truly were doing a science fiction.

Also, it is a very beautifully written and heart-rending story.

This is my favorite, tied with Amok Time with The Empath being a close second.

[hork111]

@StoneKnivesBearskins The Empath? Are you kidding me? To each his own I guess, but you can tell Empath was done on a soundstage or something. It feels like a college drama department production. Out of tje third season I find The Cloud Minders and Let that Be Your Last Battlefeld great dramas,but anything beats Empath. Even Requiem for Methuselah.

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@hork111 But the story is what counts.

It is a beautifully written and performed story of friendship and loyalty.

Plus, I found the black background to be a fitting metaphor of what they are going through. Everything seems dark and hopeless, but there is hope, in the form of the beautiful girl who never says a word.

The loyalty of the three is tested, and they pass that test with flying colors.

Cont

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@StoneKnivesBearskins Also, seeing Spock and McCoy, two people who pretend to hate each other, arguing over who gets to suffer horribly and then die or go insane, which for Spock, would be worse than death, is just heart-rending.

And then seeing how helpless Kirk and Spock feel when they find Bones...it brings tears to my eyes, or would if my tear ducts weren't broken.

Beautiful episode.

[hork111]

@StoneKnivesBearskins I guess I'll have to check it out again with your superb parsing as my guide.

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@hork111 You do that, and let me know via message if your opinion has changed. I'd love to know. :D

[hork111]

@StoneKnivesBearskins I'll get to it soon and get back to you. But I must say my eyes are already slightly glazed, the episode as you describe it sounds too cerebral for me. Isn't that why they canned the first pilot The Cage, for being overly high-brow? I like to see Kirk slugging it out with the Gorn rather musing over the meaning of life.

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@hork111 But Star Trek is essentially a cerebral show.

In this episode, they aren't sitting there musing over the meaning of life. Something horrible is happening to them, and they have no clue what that something is. Only at the end are they told why they are going through such horrible suffering.

Then, there's the humor at the end, where they say maybe the Vulcans should hear about the advanced aliens who value emotions above all else. LOL :D

[Xenoforge78]

@StoneKnivesBearskins Hahaha nice name. ;)

[Xenoforge78]

@hork111 I'd have to agree with you on your opinion of the best episode being the Menagerie pts I & II... They were amazing, although this episode was quite interesting. :)

[hork111]

@Xenoforge78 One reason I like it is because it shows a different Kirk than the old tomcatting roue we're used to. It also led me to The Cage, the original pilot that was rejected. So for me the Menagerie has depth and resonance. And, not least because I'm a Scorpio, I love it when the high and mighty leadership jump down each other's throats.

[Skittles658]

That was one of the best Trek episodes. Of all time!!

[AcePilot101]

Next Generation is gay (revisionist, fake, retrograde, archaic, obsolete, reactionary, sad, pornographic, stupid, not fit for human consumption, an insult to the intelligence).

And it's bad too!

[simplystreeptacular]

@AcePilot101 Um, no. It's really not. It's actually quite a good representation of what the original series could have been had they been given a proper budget and not been axed.

[sondano]

@simplystreeptacular no way. I like TNG but TOS had everything to make it excellent. More money wouldn't have made it better.

[saitokthx]

wait what? *makes me want to watch star treck*

[simplystreeptacular]

@saitokthx Watch it! Watch it!

[ROCROCROC1]

Joan Collins - underrated as an actress. Always beautiful but often typecast. But...we are left with this classic episode of Star Trek. None better. Terrific actors at their best!

[whataref]

how could you jim? you heartless bastard.

[flappospammo]

exc stuff

classic star trek rules

miles better than all the lame shyte that came after imo

[u2atomicbomb]

Agreed. But namely that awful new star trek 11 film.

[simplystreeptacular]

@u2atomicbomb Prepare to be hated.

And yes, I am a die-hard classic Trek fan.

[u2atomicbomb]

I can live with it

[slitheen]

I agree with whoever said the world needs more Edith Keelers If all people were like her, the world would be a much nicer place to live.

In fact Star Trek often points us in the direction of a better world.

[DawnOfTheDead991]

@slitheen That is the rub, most people aren't like her.

[sonrouge]

@slitheen More people who think there's no difference between a freedom-loving nation and a tyrant nation like Nazi Germany? More people who think that going to war to defend freedom is no different than going to war to conquer and enslave?

No bloody thanks.

[originaldw]

@slitheen Yes, i agree. And if the 1930's were the wrong time for the Edith Keelers, it's surely about time now!

[Talosmaster]

Perhaps the best episode from the original series!

[TheManiacOnWheelsUSA]

A contender for the greatest ever.

[StoneKnivesBearskins]

@Talosmaster No, this is the best episode of All of Star Trek.

[tootsiejoon]

@Talosmaster Yes, this is my favorite episode.

[atx23gurl]

This one episode has so many profound moments in it. That's why it's one of my favorites!

[ATVmidlands5581]

classic trek. ive the whole series on dvd. its never been equalled. thanks

[abomb123456789]

NO! I'm in love with Edith Keeler!! She was fantastic in Dynasty! What a witch!! Hahahaha

[robrob2]

She was so fine back in the day, even back in the 80's.

[soulstice99]

The world needs more Edith Keelers.

[jerryaltman]

I have the entire Star Trek TOS series on VHS. Great episode.

[rustyjetson]

That's what i was wondering , i'd love to see it !

[Supenmanu]

na Outer Limits is the best (-: