I would defy anyone to find a superior Star Trek episode from the original series. McCoy inadvertently injects himself with a drug that renders him temporarily insane. He beams down to the surface and finds himself in front of a cosmic gate that is a portal into all of time. Spock and Kirk see him pass through and follow him, hoping to return him. After they arrive in a big city, they realize that because McCoy entered at a different time, they have to remain occupied until he shows up. The try to do two things. Survive. And create a device that will help them locate their lost doctor. In the process, they make friends with a young woman who has designs on changing the world for the better, Edith Keeler. Spock, who is presented as Chinese (his ears have been damaged by a rice picker, one of the funniest statements ever) and Kirk get jobs at a soup kitchen run by Keeler. Because of the limited power and the lack of appropriate materials, their task is Herculean. Still, they persevere. They are conflicted by the whole business of immutability of time. This is the one issue that always confounds the time travel stories. When Ray Bradbury wrote his story, "The Sound of Thunder," where a man stepping off a path and crushing a butterfly, caused the entire destruction of what would have been a peaceful, benevolent society, he threw this out there. Going back in time requires incredible imagination for a storyteller. The charm of this story involves the rescue of McCoy versus the budding love affair of Kirk and Keeler. I've seen this episode so many times and still love to watch it again. Writing, acting, and production are wonderful and yet they manage to keep it consistent with the characters in the series.
Review of The City on the Edge of Forever
