Chapter 10
“Let’s Get The Hell Out Of Here”
Franchise: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 28: “The City On The Edge of Forever”
To legions of old-school fans, this is the definitive Trek episode, the standard by which all others are judged.
It’s got time travel.
It’s got humor.
It’s got suspense.
It’s got Joan Collins, for crying out loud!
… AND it’s got a powerful lesson, one to never be forgotten or overlooked:
The most important choice you make is usually the toughest.
And it’s going to cost you.
Onward …
In orbit around a new planet, the Enterprise encounters unusual and extreme turbulence, which Spock describes thusly:
Captain, this is of great scientific importance: we are actually passing through ripples in time.
A sudden electrical accident injures the ship’s helmsman, Lt. Hikaru Sulu, prompting a call from the bridge for Dr. McCoy. He arrives and, seeing Sulu’s condition, administers a small dose of a powerful heart drug called cordrazine; it immediately revives Sulu and returns him to health.
Another turbulent jolt rocks the bridge, causing “Bones” to accidentally inject himself with over 100 times the small amount that revived Sulu, sending him into a wild, paranoid mania.
He flees the bridges, eludes a security search, and manages to transport himself down to the planet’s surface. Kirk, along with Spock, Scott, Uhura, and a security detail follow him down.
Once there, Kirk and Spock discover the source of the waves of time displacement: The Guardian of Forever, an ancient yet highly advanced object which has the ability to “replay” all of history for display to the viewer.
McCoy is captured and subdued; meanwhile, Kirk and Spock suddenly consider the possibility of “turning back time” to just before the incident on the bridge, in hopes of avoiding McCoy’s hypo accident.
Suddenly, however, Bones awakes, slips through their grasp, and leaps into the Guardian. At that moment, the landing party loses all contact with the Enterprise. The Guardian informs them that because McCoy has somehow changed history,
Your ship, your world – all that you knew is gone.
Kirk and Spock decide to go back in time as well, in an attempt to set right whatever McCoy had changed. Their “leap back” lands them in 1930’s Depression-era New York City, where they end up in the 21st Street Mission and encounter its administrator, Sister Edith Keeler (yes, you guessed it: the beauteous Joan Collins). Of course, Kirk is smitten almost immediately, but there’s something he doesn’t yet know.
Kirk and Spock have been using Spock’s tricorder (an advanced analysis and recording device) to try to pinpoint the “focal point in time” – that is, the thing that McCoy changed that seems to have altered all history. Spock finally uncovers the truth:
Edith Keeler IS the focal point.
What soon becomes clear is that in order to set things right, what must happen is the unthinkable:
KIRK: Spock, I believe I’m in love with Edith Keeler.
SPOCK: Jim, Edith Keeler … must die.
Spock informs Kirk from his research of history that Edith Keeler will be killed in some sort of traffic accident – and the moment of truth soon arrives.
Kirk and Spock finally find McCoy, and there is a moment’s joyful reunion. But then Edith approaches to meet them – walking across a crowded street – and Kirk knows. It’s time.
McCoy sees the car speeding toward Edith and he tries to dash into the street to save her – and Kirk STOPS him.
MCCOY: You deliberately stopped me, Jim. I could have saved her. Do you know what you just did??!
SPOCK: He knows, Doctor. He knows.
And in that moment, the pain, the torment on Kirk’s face tells the story.
He has saved the galaxy. He has righted all of human history.
And … he has sacrificed his love to do it.
The three are instantly transported back to the Guardian’s planet to rejoin the landing party. All is well. The Enterprise signals, ready to beam them back up.
And in response to their query, Kirk, for the first and only time in the entire Original Series, utters something close to an obscenity:
Let’s get the hell out of here.
Lesson You Can Use:
Be prepared. No great achievement comes easily, or without cost.
You probably won’t have to leave someone to die … but you may need to let go of a longstanding relationship that no longer serves you, or a job that no longer supports your career goals, or a company that has fallen out of integrity, but where you’ve built a network of colleagues and friends.
The cost, at the time, may seem high; indeed, it may BE high. But I believe that the long-term benefit and growth awaiting you on the other side of that choice will far outweigh the temporary loss.
The key is, do YOU believe it?