The City on the Edge of Forever Read online

  LEBEQUE

  (horrified)

  T-two hours…oh god…

  He shakes his head as though to clear it, and then stumbles away, up the risers to the hatch which sighs open at his approach. He pauses for a beat at the portal, hand on the wall to steady himself as we HOLD PAST Spock who watches him with concern. He goes through the portal.

  5 INT. CORRIDOR—CAMERA WITH LeBEQUE—HAND-HELD

  as he passes down the passage, pausing for a moment to fight with himself, and the Arriflex camera SQUIBS ABOUT his FACE showing us the self-loathing, the torment. Then he makes a decision that is visible in his expression and goes away from us as we

  QUICK CUT TO:

  6 INT. BECKWITH’S CABIN—ANOTHER ANGLE THAN SCENE 2

  as LeBeque careens in through the portal. Beckwith looks up from some paperwork he’s doing at a desk on which dozens of disc-books in jewel-cases are held in place by bookends that are TWO HUGE FACETED BLOCKS OF BRILLIANT GREEN JADE, prominent in the ANGLE of the SHOT.

  LEBEQUE

  (shaking)

  I’m done. I almost disabled the ship. Whatever Kirk wants to do with me, I’ll deserve it; but I’m turning you in, Beckwith.

  He whirls to leave as Beckwith leaps up from the desk, reaching for one of the blocks of jade.

  7 INT. CORRIDOR—HAND-HELD

  CLOSE on LeBeque as he COMES TO CAMERA, hurrying. Beckwith seen over his shoulder, plunging after him, raising the block of jade as LeBeque passes out of FRAME and CAMERA HOLDS on Beckwith swinging the heavy weight. PAST HIM we see a PAIR OF CREWMEMBERS (man and woman) coming around the corner as the SOUND of a heavy weight hitting something soft is HEARD O.S. and CAMERA ZOOMS IN on the FACE of the FEMALE CREWMEMBER as she SCREAMS and we

  HARD CUT TO:

  8 LONG ANGLE DOWN ANOTHER CORRIDOR—OPEN ON BLACK FRAME

  as the BLACK FRAME becomes Beckwith dashing away from CAMERA IN PERSPECTIVE toward the Transporter Chamber. There is a GUARD on the portal, but Beckwith rushes INTO FRAME at such a breakneck pace—full out, dammit!—that he is on the Guard, grabs his phaser rifle and smashes the man to the deck with the butt of it, before the man can raise a hand to stop him. CAMERA WITH him as he plunges through the hatch and it closes behind him as CAMERA WHIP-PANS back down the corridor in the direction from which Beckwith came. Around the bend in the corridor boils a throng of Enterprise personnel—led by CAPTAIN JAMES KIRK, Spock, YEOMAN JANICE RAND and DR. McCOY—all ad-libbing “He came this way…” “Down there, the guard…” “The Transporter chamber…” “It’s Beckwith…” etcetera.

  They dash TOWARD CAMERA and FRAME BLACK as HAND-HELD CAMERA GOES WITH and FRAME OUT OF BLACK as they dash away from us. McCoy drops to one knee, to aid the Guard, who lies twisted at an odd angle, possibly dead. Kirk and Spock try the hatch. Sealed from the other side. Yeoman Rand moves in between them with a phaser and begins to puddle the sealtite as we HEAR the SOUND of the SHIP’S TRANSPORTER.

  9 INT. TRANSPORTER CHAMBER—FULL SHOT

  as they burst through the hatch. The Transporter is still glowing. On the floor the TRANSPORTER CHIEF, half-conscious, struggles to sit up. He points to the machine.

  TRANSPORTER CHIEF

  (mumbling)

  B-Beckwith…he went down…

  KIRK

  (tight, to Spock)

  Fit out a patrol! Jump!

  CAMERA HOLDS on Kirk as the crew rushes everywhichway to equip a patrol to transport down after the killer. Kirk turns to stare at the still-glowing Transporter with its EERIE HUMMING and we see his concern as we

  FADE TO BLACK

  and

  FADE OUT.

  END PROLOGUE

  ACT ONE

  FADE IN:

  10 EXT. PLANET—ESTABLISHING—DAY

  CLOSE on booted tracks as CAMERA ANGLE WIDENS to show us the desolate face of the barren world. Silver-gray sands that take a good impression of the Beckwith tracks receding toward the horizon. Nothing else. No rise, no hill, no foliage, no break or relief from the sheer flat desolation of the terrain. As though some cosmic god had flicked an ash and it had grown into a world. A burnt-out ember of a sun hanging dolorously in the cadaverous sky. As we HOLD a beat on the empty panorama, we HEAR the VOICE of KIRK OVER:

  KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)

  Ship’s Log: star-date 3134.8.This cinder, this empty death of a world.

  As these lines are SPOKEN OVER we see the tell-tale shimmering and coalescing that means crewmembers from the Enterprise are materializing from the Transporter. As Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Rand and THREE ENLISTED CREW appear, VOICE OVER CONTINUES:

  KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)

  This is the source of the strange radiation that had our clocks running backward. How odd that Beckwith should choose this ghost of a world for his escape. I am transporting two shifts for patrol—Rand, Spock, myself, and six enlisted crew. We’ll find him.

  As these lines are SPOKEN OVER we see Spock indicating the tracks to Kirk, and pointing in the direction they vanish; we see Kirk deploying his crew-patrol in a search-pattern as they move forward. VOICE OVER CONTINUES as we

  LAP-DISSOLVE THRU:

  11 LONG SHOT—THE SCENE

  The patrol (now comprising nine people: we have not seen the last three materialize, but Kirk has told us about it), moving across the wide empty face of the planet as VOICE OVER CONTINUES:

  KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)

  But something more important has us nervous. A world with a dying sun such as this…it should be frigid, without atmosphere…

  (beat)

  CONTINUOUS

  LAP-DISSOLVE THRU:

  12 MED. SHOT—THE TERRAIN—ON THE PATROL

  CAMERA MOVES IN SLOWLY as VOICE OVER CONTINUES and: (NOTE: we should see 3 scenes overlapping.)

  KIRK’S VOICE (OVER)

  (after beat)

  But we aren’t cold…and we can breathe.

  CONTINUOUS

  SLOW LAP-DISSOLVE TO:

  13 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 console is strapped on her, just below the bosom, and dials dot the face of the machine. A HUM grows stronger from machine.

  RAND

  (into camera)

  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 the full landscape. Mountains on the horizon. Mountains that rise up into the sky, till they become vague and wispy. Rising straight out of the flat terrain like pilasters.

  SPOCK

  The tracks…straight for the mountains.

  CAMERA DOLLIES BACK IN and PANS 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 the city up there? Do you see it, too?

  SPOCK’S VOICE O.S.

  It is there, Captain. It is illogical, but it is apparently real.

  KIRK

  (in awe)

  Like a city on the edge of forever.

  CAMERA HOLDS as Kirk moves away toward the horizon and the others move with him. CAMERA HOLDS on the far distant view of that gleaming city, seen in almost opaque dimness as we

  DISSOLVE TO:

  14 PLATEAU OF THE GUARDIANS—LATER DAY—CLOSE SHOT

  ON KIRK as he climbs up the last of what is obviously a rocky defile. 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.

  15 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 t
he same bright substance here and there, on a higher peak—but still quite far-off—the city, glittering like a hyper-sensitive’s dream. And as the CAMERA PANS AROUND we see, for the first time, THE GUARDIANS OF FOREVER. The shot continues a beat and then CAMERA ZOOMS IN on them who, for that beat, had looked almost like part of the stone walls. But as CAMERA CLOSES in the ZOOM, we see they are men. But such men as have never before been seen:

  The instant impression is age. Old, terribly old, as old as time itself, as old as the dying sun overhead. Nine feet tall, gray-silver in tone, shapeless beneath the long white robes that reach to the mist-laden ground. They seem incredibly tall, not merely because they are a motionless nine feet in height, but because of their hair which rises up like mitered headpieces, because of the beards that hang down from their silent and ancient faces. Though only their heads show, they seem almost religious in tone; there is a vast dignity, an immense holiness about them. They do not move ever, and for a beat we suspect they may be stone.

  16 CLOSING SHOT—WITH KIRK

  as he moves toward them. They wait and watch, silently. Spock moves in behind, then the others, fanning out. One of the crewmen hefts his phaser, but without seemingly seeing him, Kirk makes a gentle motion with his hand, to lower the weapon. They move closer. Finally, after many beats:

  KIRK

  (with wonder)

  Who are you?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  (a voice of power)

  We are the Guardians of Forever.

  KIRK

  You live in that city?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Since before your sun burned hot in space. Before your race was born.

  SPOCK

  This place is dead, empty. Why do you stay?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Only on this world do the million pulse-flows of time and space merge. Only here do the flux lines of Forever meet.

  (beat)

  Only here can exist the gateway to the past, where the Time Vortex of the Ancients can work. Only here.

  (beat)

  And we were set to watch the Time Vortex, so many hundreds of centuries ago that even we do not have clear memories of it.

  KIRK

  The gateway to the past? A time machine?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Not a machine. A creation, a Vortex. Kirk is about to ask what they mean, but Spock—logical—cuts in.

  17 ON SPOCK

  SPOCK

  Have you seen another man, dressed as we are?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  What we see has already been, or is yet to be. No. No other like you.

  18 ROCKY NICHE—CLOSE PAST BECKWITH

  past him hidden in a shadowy crevice, the phaser aimed at Kirk, listening. He looks around himself, trying to find a way out, but we see it is a cul-de-sac. The only escape route is past the Enterprise crewmen. He looks desperate but vicious, far from finished. KIRK’S VOICE CARRIES.

  KIRK

  There are legends in space. About you.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  You are the first visitors we have had for twice two hundred thousand years.

  19 ANGLE PAST KIRK IN F.G.

  to the Guardians, the mist rising, the light changing. Kirk approaches another step. We can see something in him we have never seen before: wonder, absolute all-consuming wonder. He has found a key to the secrets of the universe that compel him. He is being filled to the top with amazement, and he leans forward almost like a child.

  KIRK

  I always thought stories about time machines were the drunk-stuff of lab technicians when they’d had too much pure grain to drink.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  That which is…is.

  And he turns his head only infinitesimally. Kirk looks in the direction the Guardian has indicated, and his eyes open wide, delight and amazement and confusion and belief there.

  20 THE TIME VORTEX—ESTABLISHING

  Set in a tall, narrow rocky defile, it rises up, different to each who see it. A pillar of flame, a shaft of light, a roiling brightness of smoke, whatever wonder you care to make of it, the obvious aspects are light, height and insubstantiality. Construct it as you choose.

  1ST GUARDIAN O.S.

  Pure matter. Built by a science man will not understand for a hundred thousand times the span of years he has already existed.

  21 PAST GUARDIANS TO KIRK

  and the others near him, wondering, listening.

  KIRK

  (awed)

  And it’s possible to go back…and forward…in time…?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  All time, all space. They meet in this brightness, the Vortex.

  SPOCK

  (very scientific)

  Can you give us a demonstration? Is that possible?

  The Guardian’s answer is oddly tinged with weariness and pleasure.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Time is weary for the craftsman who cannot demonstrate his craft. We have nothing to do but desire to show you. The past.

  KIRK

  Can you show us the past of any world? There is the faintest possible nod of: Yes, we can.

  KIRK

  (softly)

  The past of Old Earth…please…

  The Guardians look toward the pillar of light and as Kirk does so, the CAMERA SHOOTS PAST HIM. At first there is no change, but in a moment there is movement in the light…a thickening…a roiling like oil…like quicksilver mixed with smoke…and a scene begins to take FORM IN THE VORTEX. (NOTE: this, and other scenes in Vortex will be MATTE INSERTS.)

  22 CLOSE ON VORTEX—FEATURING MATTE INSERTS (STOCK)

  A scene of primordial times; great saurians; a woolly mammoth; steaming prehistoric jungle; reality!

  It FADES OUT to be replaced by:

  A scene in the days of the Clipper ships; something typical of the period; reality!

  It FADES OUT to be replaced by:

  A scene of New York City in the time of the Depression, 1930-32.

  (NOTE: At Director’s discretion, INTERCUTS of the Earthmen marveling at this demonstration may be inserted.)

  23 PAST BECKWITH TO VORTEX

  as he watches with as much rapt attention as Kirk and his patrol. But the cunning is there, the arched brow and the faintly smiling mouth. The animal has sensed an avenue of escape, as we HEAR KIRK SAY:

  KIRK

  Could we go back, any of us…say, to this time, 1930 of Old Earth?

  Beckwith strains for the answer.

  24 UP-ANGLE ON GUARDIANS

  SHOT FROM TILT they look immense, rising up, almost Messianic in tone, something reverential as they speak about their religion—time.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Yes, but it is not wise. Man and non-Man must live in their present or their future. But never in their past, save to learn lessons from it. Time can be dangerous. If passage back is effected, the voyager may add a new factor to the past, and thus change time, alter everything that happened from that point to the present…all through the universe.

  25 SPOCK AND GUARDIANS PAST HIM

  fascinated by the concepts, not the magic of it all.

  SPOCK

  Then time is not a constant. It is not

  rigid?

  1ST GUARDIAN

  Time is elastic. It will revert to its original shape when changes are minor. But when the change is life or death—when the sum of intelligence alters the balance—then the change can become permanent…and terrible.

  SPOCK

  Like changing the flow of a river.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  A river, a wind, a flow, elastic. It makes no difference how you imagine it to yourself.

  KIRK

  How long has it been since anyone went—

  1ST GUARDIAN

  We do not go back. We guard. For one hundred thousand years no one has gone back.

  SPOCK

  (to Kirk)

  Captain, I understand now why we can breathe here, and why our chronometers turned backwards.

  The Time V
ortex has been left set at 1930. While CAMERA DOES NOT dwell on it, whatever shot we enter, we should see the scene of the Depression back there, to remind us it’s on.

  KIRK

  They’ve created a zone of no-time here.

  SPOCK

  Within the sphere of influence of the Vortex, time does not move. All through the rest of the universe it flows at its normal rate, but here—

  KIRK

  (softly)

  If they can control time, how much simpler it must be for them to control the atmosphere.

  1ST GUARDIAN

  There is wisdom that lesser species have not grasped. Perhaps you who call yourselves “men” will be next to guard all of time.

  SPOCK

  But if this is true…how old you are…if time does not move at its normal rate here…how long have you been here to get as old as you are…

  26 FULL SHOT—THE SCENE—HAND-HELD

  But they have no time to ponder an answer, for at that moment Beckwith breaks from cover and makes a long run toward the Time Vortex. He is halfway there before they realize what is happening. Kirk and Spock plunge forward to stop him. Spock gets to him first, and knocks the phaser out of Beckwith’s hands, but Beckwith slams Spock across the jaw and keeps going. He grabs Yeoman Janice Rand as a shield and roughhouses her in front of him, ever closer to the Vortex. She half-turns and elbows him; he leaves her and Kirk reaches him just as he closes on the Vortex. Kirk sees he is going for the Vortex (from which the 1930s scene is gone, but which still flickers and glows so we know it is in operation) and makes a flying dive for him. But Beckwith does a little dance-step of broken-field maneuvering and flings himself forward. CAMERA WITH HIM as he dives headfirst into the Vortex. There is the SOUND of a LOUD WHOOOOSH! as space rushes to fill the vacuum where he has been, even as Kirk grabs up the phaser lying near him on the ground and fires at the Vortex. A blast of coruscating energy hits the light pillar, but does nothing. The Vortex is empty. Beckwith is gone.