The Best of 'Star Trek' - 'The City on the Edge of Forever'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

The beauty of being the first television show in a franchise that wants to try new things, is that you have nothing to lose. If it doesn't work out you've tried your best and that's really all anyone can ask for. Such an experiment can either provide us with television that leaves us shaking our heads wondering what happened, or it can leave us in awe. 

It is the latter of these two options that came in to play for the original Star Trek when a simple episode revolving around time travel, and saving a friend, ended up being one of the most thought provoking and stunning episodes of the series with 'The City on the Edge of Forever'.

In this episode, the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters time distortions that rock the ship as they orbit an unexplored planet. In the resulting chaos, Doctor McCoy is accidentally injected with a powerful drug.  He seems to have the effects under control when he and an away team beam down to the planet's surface where they encounter the Guardian of Forever, a being/gate that can transport them anywhere in time. As they communicate with the creature, McCoy becomes lurid from the effects of the drug and steps through the gate and disappears, forcing Kirk and Spock to follow him to the year 1930, where Kirk will be faced with one of the hardest decisions of his life. Save the life of a woman he is falling in love with and let earth's history change for the worse...or let her die.

Hands down, this is the best episode of the original Star Trek series simply because of its sheer brilliance. To put Kirk in this position, where he must let a woman that has completely and utterly stolen his heart die to save billions of lives and let a future of peace arrive centuries from now is nothing short of incredible. In fact this episode features some of the finest acting and science fiction writing I have ever seen on television because it encompasses so much in one hour of television, and every second of it manages to captivate your attention and imagination, all while tugging at your feels.  

This is another must see episode when it comes to this storied franchise and the beauty of it, is that it works as a stand alone episode. There is no story arc that needs to be followed, nor do you need to know Star Trek inside and out. It's simply incredible storytelling that will leave you with your jaw dropped when the ending arrives. If you have Netflix, check this one out, you won't be disappointed.  

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