The City on the Edge of Forever (Star Trek TOS - S1E29)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

Widely regarded as the highest-rated episode of The Original Series, The City on the Edge of Forever shows Star Trek at its absolute peak.

In this episode, we break down why this story stands above the rest; combining time travel, emotional depth, and one of the most devastating choices ever faced by James T. Kirk. Alongside him, Spock navigates a situation where logic can’t fully prepare you for what’s at stake... and McCoy is just trying to get that monkey off his back.

It’s not just a fan favorite: it’s a benchmark for what Star Trek can be when everything comes together... but will our hosts rank it at the very top too?

[End Transmission]

Transcript

Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hailing Frequencies Open and welcome aboard Treks and Tangents. I'm your co-host Brian.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm the Star Trek movie who trecks off on tangents.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode, and this week we watched Star Trek, the original series, season one, episode 28. The City on the Edge of Forever.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Welcome back to another episode. Thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you, everyone who's been liking and subscribing and commenting on the episodes. We really appreciate your support.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And definitely share everything. The Patreon and our Instagram. It's super fun.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Yes. But we'll start this week briefly by revisiting last week's Turbo Lift Tees. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And Jackie, without any other information or context, tried to guess the plot. So computer, what was Jackie's TurboLift Tees last week?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Jackie's Turbo Lift Tease last week was while delivering supplies to another city, we find a new world that is kind of stuck in time. But it is just glorious, beautiful everywhere. And do we want to stay here, or do we want to go back onto the Enterprise to finish our mission?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your guess was? It was terrible. I don't think it was that terrible. I think if you pull some of the pieces apart, so they find a new world that is kind of stuck in time, and it's glorious and beautiful. I mean, that could imply either way. They talk a little bit about the planet where they find the guardian, the time traveling portal, and they do comment that it's while in ruin, it is the ruin of a glorious civilization. And do they want to stay or do they want to go back to the Enterprise? I don't know. I don't think they wanted to stay, but I definitely think Kirk wouldn't have thought it the end of the world if they ended up stuck in that place in time.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Kirk did tell them to wait some time, like there's no given time. And then each one would need to make the decision and go through the portal that the guardian is, so that they don't have to be stuck in a place with no past or future.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Right. No resources, no need to starve to death. They would at least be alive at some point in history.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Which would have mean that Spock and Kirk would have been stuck in 1930s. I think it was Chicago. They don't really talk about it, but I wouldn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I just and we didn't really get the 30s until McCoy gets the idea from Edith.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, that's kind of narrowed down to the 30s. There's I think commentary from Spock when they first arrive talking about the time period. They're able to narrow it down within a decade, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yes, through the Great Depression. Right. He called it barbaric.

Initial Impressions

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yes. Ultimately, what did you think? What are your initial impressions?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

I really enjoyed this episode. I think that the actor that plays McCoy was able to go farther in his portrayal of McCoy instead of just being a regular old country doctor. He was able to be fast and on his feet when he was taking care of Sulu. And then when he was playing this crazy, for lack of better word, crazy person, because of his injection of the medicine, he was able to, you know, be wild and show it off. I just think it was great. And then we got to see his knowledge, McCoy's knowledge, about just everything and how to he measured about human skulls. I don't know, he was just great. And then of course we saw Kirk and Spock do their own thing. Although I always find it funny that they're always alone. But anyways, I'm going off on another tangent here.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, I mean it's kind of an interesting choice for them not to bring a security officer through. But then again, from a time travel standpoint, less when your goal is to not interfere with the normal flow of things, maybe less people is better.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, what happens if one of those security people went in the wrong spot?

SPEAKER_02 4:58

And I agree. Yeah, the plot point of allowing McCoy to have this manic paranoid episode because he was overdosed with the medicine accidentally lets us see a slightly different side of McCoy than what we're used to. And I ultimately like this episode as well. We'll put it at the top of the episode here just so that it can be used in context. This is the highest ranked episode for the original series, and it continually gets ranked as the top episode. It was ranked the top episode when in the 60s, when the original three seasons of the original series concluded and there was no more episodes all the way through until just 10 years ago at the 50th anniversary fan convention, it again was ranked by the fans in attendance as the best original series episode of all time. And so I'm in agreement with them that it is probably, I don't know if I personally if it's gonna be the best episode of the original series. It is going to be the best episode that we've seen so far. True, for sure. And it is a very strong episode. It's also interesting that it's an episode that doesn't have a whole lot of science fiction to it. I keep thinking back as I watched the episode and as I was going through it again, if you take out the first 10, 13 minutes of this episode after they go through The Guardian and they travel back in time, and then if you kind of just cut out the little bit of science fiction that we have with Spock and his rudimentary computer as he's trying to read the timelines and figure out a couple things. This really is just a drama episode. This is kind of a uh a romantic drama between Miss Keller and Kirk and those feelings, because we don't have aliens beaming down to attack them, we don't have random phaser firing, we don't have a lot of those firefights, we don't have huge machines that they have to contend with.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

I do have to ask you though, um when we see McCoy finally and he meets the milkman thief, the milkman thief finds a gadget.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

He finds his phaser? He finds his phaser.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

So he pushes a button and turns blue. So where does he go?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

He dies.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

So blue is dead?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

He caused the phaser to overload. If you think all the all the way back to the cage, do you remember at the very end when Pike bluffs the big brain people by saying we're gonna put our phasers into overload and they will cause an explosion? In this particular case, it didn't cause an explosion, but he in fiddling with the phaser causes the phaser to overload.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Got it. That was a weird addition.

Treking Through the Episode

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Right. Ultimately, I think this is a great episode. There's lots of details to get into. So, Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Well, we're starting on the bridge, and they're going through an orbit that has tons of turbulence, and we learn that along with the turbulence, they're going through ripples of time.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

I like this opening. It's I I've commented before in the past, it's an opening that doesn't give away the entire episode or the entire plot. It just kind of draws us in slowly with little teases, as opposed to fully explaining the premise of why we're there. Because we don't know in this moment, in the opening, why they're in orbit around the planet, why these pockets of turbulence are being caused by these time ripples. We don't know any of this. So I like I just I like these openings where it's it draws us in and gives us kind of a a fun little tease to the episode without explaining too much.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Well then all of a sudden, Sulu's station explodes and he falls to the ground. And of course, we call for McCoy to come as fast as he can at his little, you know, medical bag. And then we're waiting for that, Kurt goes to Yahara and asks her to start sending all of his logs from the past week to Starfleet Command.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Right. And why does he ask her to do that?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

It was kind of like a way of making sure everything was safe in case there's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Right, in case they end up because up until that moment they had seemed to have the turbulence, the pockets of turbulence, either able to ride them out or mapped out so that they can avoid them. I think Sulu's little console exploding was the first sign that these could pose a real danger to the ship. So yeah, they're sending all the data back in the event that they have to leave. They explode. Whatever. The data at least is safe.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

And of course, Spock, while all this is happening, he's excited because he's getting more data himself. So he's like fixed on his computer. McCoy comes and he's like, I'm gonna give Sulu two points of this cordiasine because his heart is fluttering. I don't know why he didn't just like give him an epi or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

It's their version of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Oh. And Kirk comments how tricky it is. And then he at the moment that McCoy has given his two milligrams lead however they measure medicine there.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah, they were talking drops. I think they they refer to it as two drops. So let's pretend a drop is a milliliter.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Oh, well, why don't they have a little dropper? It'd be easier than a needle.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

I well, because it's a it's a it's well, it's a hypo, so it's their version of an injection. So when they say that they're injecting two milliliters, it's the it's programmed into the hypospray. When they spray it, or when they inject the person with it, the syringe, the hypo, knows exactly how much of the medicine to inject. And it could be mixing it with saline as another example as a delivery agent.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

So magically, Sulu wakes up and he's smiling, and you can really tell everyone is wearing makeup because Sulu has perfect dark eyeshadow on.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

He has perfect dark eyeshadow on. Spock's makeup throughout the episode fluctuates.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

He's green at sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yes, definitely. It seems like different people were working in the makeup department this episode.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

I thought that was funny. And then they go through another another turbulence, and Kirk runs over to check on Spock. He's checking everybody, but as he turns around, McCoy has injected the rest of the medication that he brought into his own body. And now we're like, uh oh, what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_02 12:35

He injected himself on accident because Yes, because the turbulence knocked him around.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

That's why he he injected himself accidentally. So Kirk then calls for an emergency medical team. I didn't know they had one, so that's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I think McCoy was the initial emergency medical team to come up to deal with Sulu, and now that McCoy's out of commission, he's just calling for another emergency team. I would imagine that they have several because at any time they could have multiple things happen across the ship that would need that attention.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Totally. So this person comes up and McCoy is running around the bridge yelling, murderers, killers, he's very scared of them. When the door opens to the turbolift, he takes that option, pops in, and the medical person comes out, and now McCoy is loose on the Enterprise. And then, of course, we have a supplemental log from Kirk just telling what happened, and then all decks are on alert. And how long is this going to last and what's gonna happen to McCoy slash his friend? You know, he's worried. We see McCoy hiding, and then the secu uh two security team members just walk right past him. Like they're not really looking, it's like they're talking to each other, and then McCoy heads to the transportation room and sees a lone crewman, and he magically he's pretty strong and capable, like two hits, and the crew member is on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Weird that someone would enter the transporter room and would just be ignored by the transporter chief, doesn't even look around to see who enters the room.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Even in the past, we never really hear like a doorbell or a sliding of the door. Maybe they should get like a a ding-dong, like a ding when someone comes in.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

They add a doorbell to quarters, because we've made comments about that in the past where it seems like no one knocks. Everyone just seems to walk into their quarters, but they do add that. You do hear the door. There is that distinctive hiss when the doors open and close. It becomes more prominent later in series, of course, as production value goes up, but you do hear it in this instance when McCoy walks in.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Oh, I must have been focusing on like, what are you doing, my friend? And so after he knocks out that crewman, McCoy just pushes all of the buttons up and turns on the telepad, and then he hops on and beams himself to who knows where. Now we jump to the bridge and Kirk is continuing his rounds. He's going to Spock asking about any knowledge that he has about this medicine. Kirk has found that there is little knowledge on what happens when someone has too much, but initially the what they have found is that the person they're violent, they think other people are going to harm them, even people that they know. It's like blank. They are just scared that they're in trouble. So they're running around. And this happens to be what McCoy is doing. The transport room has called to the bridge, they have found their crewman on the ground, injured, and now they are presuming that yes, McCoy has left the Enterprise and he's on the planet. So Kurt calls for a landing party and runs off the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Little interesting that there's no alert that the transporter is activated when McCoy transports himself down to the planet. We see that in later Star Trek series, whenever the transporter goes off and it's not expected, they get an alert all the way up on the bridge automatically. So it's interesting that they don't have that.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I mean, that would make complete sense. Kind of like when you open the door and it goes beep beep. So we have the landing party come to life, you know, their little molecules coming back together on the planet, and it's a party of six. So we have Kirk, Spock, Yahara, Scotty, and then two security crewmen that sadly we never really get their names.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

One is Galloway. Keen-eyed viewers can recognize him from past episodes.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

So we have one without a name.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Poor guy. And on this planet, it's just empty, but we have ruins, and those ruins are beautiful, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

To go back quickly, why is Ihura as part of the Way team?

SPEAKER_01 17:36

I was wondering that myself. All she is doing is like talking and recording things.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

I guess she's serving in place of a yeoman. Oh. Because we see away teams before where there's a yeoman as kind of a assistant to the other officers of the away team. So maybe she's serving as an assistant in this case, but it seems really weird to send the communications officer down on the away team when there's not really a role that the communication officer would deal with instead of just sending a yeoman, if that's what's needed.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Perhaps she and McCoy have like a special friendship and she can calm him down.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Maybe you're reaching to justify paying her her day rate. So again, I don't know why. Just a thought I had. Anyway, they're on the surface of the planet, and they find the time traveling donut gateway.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

With lights in it. At first I was like, are we at SG1?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

It's not SG1.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

We we did some episodes on that, so you should go check that on the Patreon. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Jackie's referring to when we were doing test episodes to flesh out the script and kind of practice for the podcast. We used SG1 as the show. So all those test episodes are over for our crew members at Patreon. Patreon.com slash Treks and Tangents.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

So we're walking around this these ruins, and we are seeing what they are. Spock has determined that this is the object that's playing with the time ripples. Like it's having fun messing around. Right. And then it starts talking. Because Kirk asked a special question of what is it? And it's like it wakes up like one of those Furbies, and it says, machine or bean, I am both. And then it keeps talking in riddles, and Spock is annoyed at this. He's like, Can you just say what's up like straight? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Spock just tries to well, Spock in I think directly inquires to if we haven't identified it yet. This is self-identified as the guardian of forever. So that is when we say the guardian, we refer to this object. And Spock directly poses to it, can you just give us a straight answer? And I think specifically he just says, Is there a reason why you're answering questions and giving out information in riddles? And he responds, he, the guardian, has a male voice. It's a masculine voice. The guardian responds back with, I'm not trying to answer in riddles, I'm just trying to give answers and information that is simple enough for you to perceive. So it's like, I'm not trying to be a riddler, you're just stupid.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

And while all that is happening, we see that McCoy is hiding. Like he's there, but he's hiding from them. And Yahara and Scotty, along with Galloway and the other security man, they're all looking for McCoy, along with what's happening. Like they're looking for McCoy, and Spock and Kirk are figuring out what this guardian is. And then Spock then realized that this is also a time portal, and the Guardian confirms it. But then he says, I'm glad you finally figured it out with your primitive knowledge.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yeah, again, being super condescending in not intentional way, but No, Spock was not happy with that.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

And so then the Guardian starts to show Earth's, like what's happening on Earth really, really fast in all the centuries in the past.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Right. It starts pull back the curtain. They're playing clips from Paramount movies.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Yeah. That's where they get that's where they get the footage because the network has the rights to that footage. So they said, yeah, go ahead, use it because we're the network the TV show's playing off of. But it's flashing through scenes that are centuries apart. And so it's quickly deduced by Spock, I think. That if you were to as as a time portal, if you were to jump through the time portal, it would take you to that period of time, but it's an incredibly inaccurate way to try to jump back into time. So it would display a scene from World War One. And if they stepped through the Time Portal, they would be in the time period of World War One, but exactly when, exactly where, not exactly what they see portrayed in the time portal. In the Guardian.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

So Kirk asks the Guardian if he can slow the visuals down. And the Guardian says, No, what you see is what you get. And then this also is when McCoy pops out of his hiding spot and he's yelling at them again how they're murderers and they're gonna kill him. And everyone kind of like tackles him. And of course, Spock gives him the little Vulcan pinch, and he's now on the ground. But nobody stays with him to make sure he stays there.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Right. A little bit interesting because you've got Spock who apparently should be able to control, at least we've seen evidence of this in the past where he can use different, I I guess either pinch different nerves or apply different strength of pressure, but he can somewhat control how much that pinch affects someone, how long they're gonna be unconscious, and so forth. And so interesting that Spock wouldn't just knock him out more completely. Maybe we can explain it away that McCoy is still high on this drug that is basically acting as an adrenaline.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, and the pinch he tried to do, he's like, he's my friend, but it didn't really affect him beyond like two minutes.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Right. But then as they're still pondering what's going on, Kirk comes up with the idea that maybe they can use the Guardian to jump back in time before McCoy injected himself, because it's not really known if McCoy's going to survive this overdose. They hope he will, but they can't guarantee it. So they want to go back in time to kind of prevent it from happening. As they're debating the merits of this, McCoy wakes up, he in his paranoid state, jumps through the Guardian time portal and puts himself into prohibition, let's call it, Great Depression era of Earth's timeline. And that's when we get the realization that the Enterprise is gone, they no longer can communicate with the Enterprise, it is vanished. The Guardian confirms McCoy changed the timeline. Because again, we're time traveling, so you gotta give it some leeway. Something McCoy does after he travels back in time, changes the timeline and erases who knows, Starfleet. Maybe Earth no longer exists, it's no longer populated, the entire civilization is wiped out. Who knows? But they can't get a hold of the Enterprise. Time is drastically changed for them. Now Kirk is faced with the idea that they have to follow McCoy in order to right the wrong.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Spock believes that he can use his tricorder and enable it to make it possible that Kirk and Spock can jump through the Guardian at the exact point to ensure that they get to the spot that McCoy is at. They're hoping within the month and they're crossing their fingers within the week. Like they're trying to get there before he does whatever he does. And then Kirk though turns to the other crew that are just waiting, they don't know what to do. Yahara is frightened, and uh he tells Scotty, You're in charge, but wait a few wait some time, and if you don't hear from us, you guys should probably jump through the portal too. Otherwise, you're stuck here. Like we don't have a way for you to be safe. But you don't have a future, you're just here.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Right. And it's also a directive from Kirk to them that no, don't just jump through so that you can survive, jump through so that you can try to follow in our footsteps and affect the change that we failed to do. So it's a two-part mission. Try to try to fix the wrong if we can't, but if you guys fail, at least you're somewhere safe and not stuck here on this planet.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

So now Kirk and Spock are on Earth, and of course they are in their space uniforms, and in the Depression era, we have seen the pictures in our history books and from our grandparents' pictures. We have old-time cars. It's very, you know, kind of sad. Lots of people just wandering. So, and also the people that are passing by, Kirk and Spock, are just like, hmm, they seem weird. And then Kirk is just like, Spock is trying to cover up his ears, and Kirk's like, hey, we'll be able to just explain that away. Don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Yeah. Foreshadowing. But did you recognize the city they were in?

SPEAKER_01 27:28

No. I know there's a boxing match that they should go to.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

So there it's the same back lot that they filmed Miri.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Aww.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

And it's the same back lot from The Return of the Archons.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Well, that's good. Everybody, you know, gotta reuse your sets.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Save some money.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

And I was just, I'm happy to finally see the this lot used for an episode that's good as opposed to Miri and the Return of the Archons. Two episodes that are not so good.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

So they realize that along with the ears on Spock, they need to change their own clothes. And it just so happens to be around the corner in an alley, somebody is drying their clothes on their little fence around their porch, like an upper porch.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

It's called a fire escape. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Well, it's up there drying. And they're just gonna pop up there and grab 'em. And then when Spock's like, uh, that's stealing, Kirk is like, I'm gonna be Robin Hood. I'll return it to the poor later.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Right. Always kind of funny that we get these time travel episodes and they recognize the importance of not changing anything, and then they immediately start to change things. I guess Kirk's initial thought of it's no big deal to steal the clothing, but in a moment we're gonna see that they get caught and they have to run away from the cop. How do we know that doesn't change the timeline in any significant fashion?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Oh, you're right. So because I mean the cop does recognize things are fishy, and like he's trying to do his job, and Kirk and Spock are trying to get out of there, and I mean Kirk goes along to say, well, you know, this man's Chinese. I'm trying to help him out.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Yeah, not exactly for a fantastic episode, not a scene that ages very well, I don't think. The fact that he explains Spock's pointy ears as, well, Spock's Chinese, and he ended up in an accident with a mechanical rice picker. I think we can come up with a better explanation.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

And don't forget that nice uh plastic surgeon who is a civilian that he gave his time to fix Spock's ears, obviously really wrong, like a Doberman. Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Yeah, I don't know. I think I stands out. I mean, jump forward the next generation. Anytime anyone questions Data's appearance, it's just he's from South America, which is so blatantly against a stereotype that it's so funny and that they go along with it.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Well, anyways, they run away from the cop and they run across the street, and Kirk makes it across, but Spock like walks across and then he's almost gonna get hit by a car.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

One of so many foreshadowing moments to the end of this episode.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

But it's so frustrating for me because isn't Spock I mean, is he walking slow to investigate, like, wow, what is this mechanical thing?

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Yeah, there's a moment where he literally says fascinating and he's as he's looking at the car. He is enthralled by this ancient machine.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

I mean, it's yeah, but then it's gonna kill you, dude.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

And you say they run across the street. Fun fact, if you go back and look, it's the same alleyway they come back to. So they like run away from the alley, they do another shot of them crossing the street, but then they film the next scene of them running into the same alleyway. It's identical with the setup and the fire escape and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

It's really bad that they're tricking me.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

It's what they're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

So they're able to find shelter down in the basement of a large building, and they as they start dressing, they're talking about their plan, and then we see a lovely young lady come down going, Who do you think you are? And then Kirk says, Oh, my name is Kirk, and you know, we we're sorry to be down here. Um, it's cold, and this lady, she's she's sharp as a tag. She's like, It's not very nice to introduce you or yourself with a lie, or you know, like begin your relationship with the lie. It's amazing. Because she's like, it's not even cold outside, right? And so then we learn we then she meets Spock and she has no reaction to his name because I mean I think Kirk was trying to figure out what to name him. Yeah. They just went with Spock.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yeah, they absolutely 100%. There's that awkward pause where he goes, Well, I'm Mr. Kirk, and this is Spock. And it's like, come on, make up a name.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah, just that that was a weird thing, but I mean, everybody accepted it, probably because he does look kind of weird, like, even with the beanie on.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Sorry, no no offense.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

To who? Vulcans?

SPEAKER_01 32:42

So uh and we learned that her name is Edith, and she happens to have you know, she finds job openings for them, and they can start cleaning up and taking care of her place.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Which I would describe as a kind of soup kitchen, first and foremost. Secondary, she helps find random jobs for those that visit the soup kitchen, not just with her, but elsewhere. It's not a boarding house because no one lives there, but I think a soup kitchen is the best way to describe what she's running.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

And so Kirk is like, awesome, thank you. And Spock asks, how much does it pay? And Kirk gives him a look, and he's like, It's for my hobby, remember?

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Right, because what Spock is referring to is this plan that they've come up with to create a very primitive rudimentary computer type system, because Spock's tricorder has recorded all of the images and data that was coming off of the Guardian before they jumped through. And Spock is hoping by being able to plug that into a more powerful computer to analyze the data, he'll be able to, I don't know, figure out when McCoy is supposed to appear, where he's supposed to appear, ultimately, maybe some clues as to what event McCoy does or prevents that drastically change the timeline. So Spock is seeing this as an opportunity to gain access to this equipment and parts that he's gonna need to build this computer.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And so we are now at the 21st Street mission that I forgot to tell you, Edith rent herself. She's very proud of it. And it's we're in the dining room, Kirk and Spock get their dinner, they sit down, and this gentleman, rude gentleman, sits next is sitting next to them, and they're like, This is not a free dinner. You have to listen to her Miss Goody Tutu's talk. And then they go on to say, like, describe her body, like she's a good-looking woman. And then Kirk is like, Stop talking.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Yeah, he makes it sound like before because this is before she starts talking, he makes it sound like she's going to preach to them that there's maybe going to be some sort of lecture to them about how to live and their life choices and so forth. And so the meal comes with this price, but it's not quite that, it's something different.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

More like a like a positive, you guys are gonna do great. Just keep your mindset.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Sure. And I guess some people could be annoyed by that. But yeah, it's more of a motivational speech. It's more about, hey, times are tough now, but we will see better times in the future. So you have to, as she says, she's she says you have surviving is hard, but you have to survive so that you can see these better times later.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

And what I love is that on top of all of that, she talks about what she thinks is gonna happen in the future. That there's going to be um c control of the atom, they're gonna go to space, there's gonna be flying, like all sorts of things that we're doing now, but she had these ideas back in what we learn is 1930s.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Right. Which of course means Kirk is instantly infatuated with her.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

I wrote Twitter patent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Suddenly Kirk, well, he it started in the basement when they first met and she gave them the job, but now definitely Kirk is drawn to her.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

So as they're cleaning up, time to go, she asks them, Do you have a flop? And they're like, excuse me, what? And then we learn that a flop is a place to sleep or live, and it's only two dollars a week. And Edith takes them with her because not to sleep with them, but that there's a pla there's an empty room that they can rent for two dollars a week.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Right, in the same little uh it's an apartment, so in the same apartment building that she is currently living in. Again, her soup kitchen doesn't act as a board and care home of any kind or uh bed and breakfast, so no, it's just a feed and get people out of the cold.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

I love uh the idea of it. She's a very strong woman. So it's three days later, and we're in Kirk and Spock's room. Spock has put something that's fantastical, like there's little bulbs everywhere connected to each other, and there's an energy like a V with a energy going up and down. It's like a homemade energy wire. It's amazing. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

It's the start of his rudimentary computer, so and Spock is diligently working on that. Kirk comes into the room, he's got two bags of groceries, which is full of vegetables for Spock, because remember, Vulcans are vegetarian.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

I was gonna ask that. I was like, why are there so many he made a point to say veggies?

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yep, because he's a vegetarian as a Vulcan, but he's got food for them, he's got more parts for Spock, and I just wrote in my notes they're making, assuming they do the same work every day,$1.50 a day, 10 hours. That's the original job that Edith Keller gave them. They're spending two bucks a week on this flat. So how cheap are electronic parts in 1930? I would imagine that they would be more expensive because they're I would consider them to be more of a luxury item.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Perhaps, because I mean he does have a a bag of them. But I think though it's a joke when Spock says, I need platinum, I need just about six pounds of it.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Right. Definitely ridiculous, definitely puts a little bit of perspective that they're no, we're not just getting all this money and electronical parts magically, but again, I don't think they're buying all this stuff at that those wages.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

No, it's probably a little sneaky sneaky from the soup kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Well, we do see that they're not above that idea.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Exactly. But then Edith like barges into the room because she's like, You come now, and I have five hours of work for you at 22 cents. And she sees what Spock has made, and she's like, Whoa, what is that?

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Right. And very in character with her, she's not afraid of it or nervous about it. It's pure curiosity.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

So she's she's loving it. And then Spock's like, Oh, I made it with bear skin and stone knives.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

Yeah, he said he tells her exactly what he's making. It's it's a a form of a computer, but um, and she just takes it in stride and is just like, yeah, okay, cool. Well, do you want the work? Come with me. Off they go.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

So now we're back in the dining room, and while they're cleaning up, probably what their 55 cent job is, and Spock notices that these men are are using like those fine tools that you use like in a clock or something that has the cogs and the gears, and he's like, Whoa, look at that! Fine tools. And so, next scene we see Spock turning the combination lock.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Right, which didn't exist in 1930. This was oh fun little fun fact. This particular lock was invented in 1935, 1937, so after the when this episode would supposedly take place, and the front of the lock is of a plastic, but back when this would have came out in the 30s, it would have been a metal face.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Well, that's interesting. They could have at least colored it.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

So we got to use the fine tools because he opened up the lock.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

Right. Specifically, he he forces the combination with his stellar vulcan hearing, and he can hear the tumblers fall into place.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

I don't know why they're always in the basement. Are they just always like feeding the furnace? Is that like the main point?

SPEAKER_02 41:24

That's the main source of heat. So they're down there at that at the end of this scene, Spock feeds more coal into or charcoal, into the furnace to keep it going. So I'm assuming that's why they're down there.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

So they're down there, and Edith comes down saying, You broke into that box that had a lock. How did you do it? I need to make sure these are these tools are replaced, and then Kirk like calms her down. He's like, he will return them, but it's my word. Like we just need to use them.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Right. And no indication of how Edith knew that Spock had broken in, because this is the same night.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

If cause Spock's intention was to use them that night at the end of their shift and then put them back in the morning where no one would notice they were gone.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

So, in this short span of time, how did Edith know that Spock had broken in and taken the tools? No idea.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

She popped up behind a counter.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Right. But as Kirk explains away the theft and charms her, she falls for the charm, and she goes, Well, I'll ignore it, but you have to walk me home. So we get a little bit of a scene where they're walking together, they hold hands, clearly they're starting to fall for each other, and definitely developing this more romantic connection.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

So with the Fine Tools, there is even a larger space that's taken up by all the tricorder work that Spock has worked on in their rented room. And the tricorder is able to show the future for six years because also Spock kind of kept it to him until he saw this. Earlier, when he was working with this tricorder, it shows that Edith was she was killed in a traffic accident. We don't know how, but she doesn't live. And then and this other viewing that he sees it six years later, it shows that she's gone on to become this great leader of peace and she meets the president. Like, what is her future supposed to be? And that's how we learn she is the target. I think that's a bad word. But that this is what happens if McCoy if we don't fix what McCoy messed up.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Right. So they see two possible timelines. So I Like, I'll just comment and say it's we're gonna condense some of this for time. They originally posed this idea of Edith is that focal point where time div diverges into two separate timelines, and Edith is that central point, and it's a matter of does she live or does she die? And at first they don't really point out which is which. It could be either. They don't know which is the correct version of the timeline to make it happen. And I kind of like that for a time travel story, because so many timelines or so many plots that involve time travel very much just point out, no, she has to die. So that that little bit of uncertainty in the beginning is great. We do eventually, to break it all down, she either dies in the car accident in 1930, which is what's supposed to happen, or if she's allowed to live, she meets with the president, she becomes the leader of this national peace movement, which sounds great, but it unfortunately means the United States is so focused on peace, they enter World War II even later, which means Hitler is given enough time to develop atomic energy, he develops the atomic bomb, and he does so first, which means he then gets to conquer the world. And that's the timeline where the Starfleet and the Enterprise no longer exist.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

And then outside we see, you know, the old-time milkmen delivering milk, and someone is just waiting as the milkman delivers, and then he leaves, and then that person runs and grabs the milk that was left for a family or a person and steals it, and then out pops McCoy. He's in the middle of the street, he's yelling, Murderers, and then he sees a human, and he's like, What planet am I on? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Yeah, the uh pull back the curtain, the name of the character is in scripts, it's just referred to as rodent for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Well, that makes sense. Rodent steals stuff.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Yeah. But there's a whole confrontation in the alleyway. This is where we get to see the big range of acting for McCoy, where he's fully in the throes of this overdose. Because again, in McCoy's existence, this is moments after he runs through the time portal of the Guardian. And ultimately, he has these delusions. He ends up passing out in the alleyway. The thief character rodent picks his pocket, steals his phaser, overloads the phaser, and kills himself, like we talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

And now we are at the mission breakfast, and McCoy happens to walk in and he comments how great that the coffee smells, and Edith welcomes him, but takes him into a second room to lay down, because he is very sweaty, he has such so many spots on his face. Poor guy, he's been through it. So she takes him away into the side room that we haven't learned about, and she has him lay down. So while she's gone, Spock takes her place. It's like you guys could have seen each other. Right. And so she calls him down in her the side room. McCoy doesn't want to just lay down. He wants to know where he is. He's afraid that if he asks the special question of where am I, then it will be either he's demented or unconscious. But he's guessing he's on Earth 1920. And she she corrects him, Edith, by saying, Why don't you just say 1930? So she just keeps going. And as Mulcoy goes on to say that he is with the USS Enterprise, he is Leonard McCoy. And Edith is like, I have a friend that talks just like you. You guys should meet. And McCoy answers that he is a surgeon, not a psychiatrist. Right.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

And again, it kind of shows Edith's character a little bit as someone who maybe is a little more advanced because she doesn't really She's so open. That's a great way to put it. I mean, to a sense, McCoy's talking j what would be gibberish to her. And she just takes it all in stride and goes, Yeah, that's just kind of how, you know, that's how my friend talks, or that's how I know people who talk like that. And she's referring, of course, to Kirk and Spock.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

And I love how she's like, your uniform isn't really US Navy, though, but that's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Again, completely open-minded to this strange um stranger in a strange set of clothing.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

So Edith is walking down a hallway, and then we she goes to the stairs, and as she goes down, she starts to trip, and yay, Kirk is in the right spot, and he saves her from death because she could have fallen and broken her neck. Right. And she thanks him with a kiss, and Spock's like, Oh, I I better not, you know, watch this.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Right. And then Spock has the confrontation with Kirk, was like, you know, if you just let her fall, she would have died and it would have been fine. And Kirk was like, No, it's not time yet. How interesting would it have been, just as a side note, Kirk's what if in fact there wasn't any knowledge about the auto accident? They just knew that she was supposed to die.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

What if instead they're all focused? What if the plot twist was they're all focused that McCoy causes the deviation in the timeline? But what if it turns out that they go back in time to chase McCoy, and in fact, the pivotal moment that changes everything is when Kirk stops her from falling down the stairs. Oh, that's a good one. So, and now that they've changed history and Kirk has saved her, they have to find a way to naturally allow her to die so that the timeline can get fixed. That would have been an interesting uh time time travel episode.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Like a drama thriller, because like they either push her in front of the car or kick her off the side of a cliff.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

Yeah, and what if what if that's how the episode ends? Is Kirk takes her on the date to the movies, and while they're walking to the movie theater, he pushes her in front of a car. That's dark as hell. I'm gonna note that down. We're gonna we're gonna as we write, rewrite fan episodes, that's gonna be one.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

So she goes back to the side room and she checks back on McCoy, and now he's awake and alert, like he's like a different person. The cortisine seems to have lessened, and his body has metabolized it so where he can be almost normal, quote unquote. And then he's just grateful for her assistance, and he asks just like Kirk and Spock, he's like, How can I thank you for what you've done for me? You you know, you're so nice. And she's like, Oh, well, I I don't know about tonight because I'm going to see Clark Gable movie. And they're like, Who? It's so funny these guys don't know Clark Gable.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

Right. Well, Clark Clark Gable also doesn't really become a prominent actor until later.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Oh, okay. So I was gonna ask you, how far out are they? Like, is it just a couple years or is it like thousands?

SPEAKER_02 52:00

When does Star Trek take place in the Star Trek timeline?

SPEAKER_01 52:04

Yeah, like if this is 1930 and they don't know who Kurt Gable is, I'm assuming it's just like passed along. So I don't know, I'm maybe asking a weird question.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Star Trek takes place 300 years into our future. So this would be closer to 300, this would be closer to four 350, 400 years in the future.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

No wonder they don't know who Kirk Gable is.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Interesting. Okay, so now they're outside, so they keep jumping around, but the mission is like the focal point. But Kirk and Edith are going to the movie, they can still make it in time, and they're crossing the street, there are no crosswalks, and Kirk makes it across the street, and Edith is behind him, and then they McCoy comes out, and they all are like, McCoy, you're back. And Kirk runs back across the street to like hug McCoy, because of course they think that he's still crazy. They haven't noticed he's normal.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Right. Again, they had no idea if it was possible for his body to naturally his body's metabolism to work through the high dose of the drug that he got, the cortisine. And so, yes, they are all ecstatic to see that not only he's arrived, that they're they've finally met up, because again, they also didn't know if they time traveled to the correct location. It could have been anywhere. So they're just so excited that they've met up with him, that he's alive, that he's doing well, and now they can figure out what to do to save the timeline.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

And so Edith is in the middle of the road and a car is coming, and McCoy's like, I'm gonna go save her. And Kirk has to grab McCoy and just like hug him. They have to keep him in place, and Kirk's like so sad. You can see his face is like his eyes closed. I don't know, it's it's sad. Because it like he has to save his bestie, and yet his girl, she has to die in a traffic accident. So we are back on the planet, and they all three are jumping back from where they were through the guardian onto the planet.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

Right. To go all the way back to the beginning before they travel through, the guardian makes the comment that if they are successful in reversing the action that changes time, the guardian would pull them back. That's how to to explain how they get back to their own time, the guardian makes the decision to pull them back. There's no little quest where they have to go find the portal. I'm pointing it out so that it's not like Stargate where they have to go find the Stargate.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

So he'll let them go back to Enterprise safely.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

And Scotty's like, you just you just left a minute ago. How are you back already?

SPEAKER_02 55:10

Right. Again, because the Guardian pulled them back to pretty much the same moment in which they left.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 55:15

And they do say they were successful, and the Guardian tells all is well. And then we hear Yahara tell Kirk that the Enterprise is ready to beam them up, and Kirk's like, let's get the hell out of here. Yes. I question, is the man who or voice that is the guardian, the man, and the wizard of Oz? They have like the same voice.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

So the Wizard of Oz, again, from 1939. Oh. So almost 30 years before, was Frank Morgan the voice and eventually the Wizard. Wizard.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

And in this episode of Star Trek, the voice of the Guardian is a gentleman named Bart LaRue. So different voices.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

Well, they did so well.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

But with all that being said, and with the credits rolling, Jackie, what were your final thoughts to season one, episode 28, The City on the Edge of Forever?

SPEAKER_01 56:21

I loved it. Like, I could have even used more. Like it just everything happened so beautifully, and it then it ended, and I was like, no, maybe they can have a way of contacting each other, even if I don't know. My my brain was like, aw, poor Kirk.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Yeah. And I there's gonna be other episodes that don't necessarily involve time travel, but some of them do. But where they one of the characters falls in love with or becomes infatuated with another, and you know from the beginning there's no way that this is gonna end up well. But it it's a good, it's a good plot. It's a good episode, it's a great episode. Again, top-rated episode across all of the original series. Um, so yeah, I like it. Uh, we'll wrap up our final thoughts here, uh, while it's still fresh in our mind, with our favorite quote from the episode, Jackie. What is your favorite quote?

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Mine was a lie is a very poor way to say hello. And that was Edith when she was meeting Kirk and Spock. And it's so true. Like they could have just said, sorry, I didn't mean to burst into your b your basement.

SPEAKER_02 57:37

All right. Uh, mine is gonna be at the end of the walk home, their first little true romantic interaction between Keller and Kirk. And Miss Keller starts by saying, I think that one day they are going to take all the money they spend now on war and death, and Kirk finishes her thought and says, and make them spend it on life.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

That's beautiful too.

Tribble Tidbits

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Because it kind of encompasses, I think, Miss Keller as a character and fully wraps up her view of the world and and her hopes and what she thinks that mankind will achieve, which is ultimately what draws Kirk to be attracted to her. Uh yeah, yeah, I like that one. But I do have some tribble tidbits or are fun facts to the episode, and why do we call them tribbed tidbits, Jackie?

SPEAKER_01 58:29

Because they're fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

Because tribals are both fun and sometimes not so fun. Our episode aired first April 6th, 1967. In that scene where Kirk and Miss Keller are walking home, or Kirk is walking Miss Keller home, and the first time that they hold hands, we see they pass by Floyd's barbershop, which is the exact same barbershop from the Andy Griffith show, because it's the same back lot that they film on. In fact, the filming of this episode went a day and a half over schedule. So they lost access to the lot because the Andy Griffith show had booked it for filming. So all of the scenes that you see where McCoy arrives and he meets the vagrant, and the vagrant steals the phaser and ends up evaporating himself. That was all filmed in a back alleyway of the lot that normally is not used for filming. It's kind of just behind the scenes because that's all they had access to when they ran over their allotted time to film the episode. We ran over time a lot. The writer of the original script, Harlan Ellison, asked that he be credited for the episode under his pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. This was a subtle way for him to distance himself from the final product because he was not happy with all of the drastic changes that took place in the rewrites and the final episode that was created. This request was denied by Gene Roddenberry because Roddenberry knew that's what he was up to, and knew that this was a subtle way for the writer to let other writers know that in this time period when science fiction was written, that was kind of the common thing scripts would be written, and it would end up getting rewritten so much, and it ended up being stuff that wasn't aligned with the original script, and so writers were trying to distance themselves from the work. Roddenberry knew that this would have been a signal to other writers and perceived as, oh, Star Trek is just another science fiction show that is butchering scripts, and it would have driven good writers away. So Roddenberry said, No, you're gonna get credited by your real name or not at all. Ellison's original script included a drug-dealing member of the crew fleeing and getting caught instead of the whole overdosing of McCoy. That would have been swapped. Rodent, the vagrant who ends up overloading the phaser, was supposed to be a one-legged World War I veteran named Trooper, who would still die in the episode. And the Enterprise wouldn't disappear. They would beam back up to the Enterprise and find that it had been replaced with a pirate starship named the Condor, and it would have been crewed by a pirate crew. The budget for this episode at the time was$245,000, adjusted for inflation. That's almost$2.5 million in 2026. It is the most expensive episode for the first season, and it is the most expensive episode across all the seasons of the original series, if you don't count the original two pilots that were filmed.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

That's really interesting. Because it doesn't seem like it's overly expensive.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

Right. Because you if you think about it, because it's all filmed on a lot, so they're not building sets except for the Guardian.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

And there's no like giant alien they have to put away. Like it just seems a lot for a beautiful episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:37

I guess maybe costume rentals, because there's a lot of extras and oh yeah, probably the extras and the cars and stuff. Yeah, so the final line said by Kirk when he says, Let's get the hell out of here, uh, was aired over the objection but not opposition from the network because it included the word hell. Uh it is only one of five times that that word is used in the original series. Kind of funny when you think about it, because then you jump forward all the way to today with Discovery, New Worlds, and uh Starfleet Academy, where they're just dropping F-bombs. So Yeah, and hell is used as a light word. Right. And then the scene where the man in the alley is overloading the phaser and he ends up killing himself accidentally, is or at least was in the 70s when this started to run reruns and syndication. That scene was often removed from the rebroadcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

So that makes no sense. He just turns blue and goes away.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

You are probably one of the only people who watches that and think they disappear. It is pretty well picked up that he dies.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

Well, see, I just tried to wish happiness, like he was stuck in a portal himself.

Episode Ranking

SPEAKER_02 1:03:57

That's your version of happiness, I guess. He he needed milk. And those are your triple tidbits. Uh, this is where we share our episode ranking where we pretend the episode is a member of our crew and what Starfleet rank we would assign to them based on how much we enjoyed the episode. Uh, a higher rank means we found the episode more entertaining when we watched it, but we also consider the episode a more important member of our crew for our fictitious starship. And the opposite is true, a lower ranking episode means we find the episode less entertaining, but we also find it a more disposable member of our crew. Our enlisted ranks at the bottom start with ensign, lieutenant junior grade, and lieutenant, all of which we can have an unlimited number of episodes at those ranks, and then our officers we limit the number we can have in each tier. We can have seven lieutenant commanders, five commanders, one captain, a 10 out of 10 episode, and we have a spot for an admiral. This would be the capstone episode, the pinnacle episode of the season. If none of that makes any sense, uh we do post a graphical representation of all the episodes that we've ranked over on our Patreon, again, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. It's free for anyone to view, and it will be published on Wednesday, the day after this episode goes live. Jackie, looking at your starship, the USS Galactic Glitterbee, what rank do you assign this episode?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

I'm going to bite the bullet and make it my admiral.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

I have a lot of work to do on my bottom tiers, but at this time I just loved the episode. It was right on through. Like I didn't have any questions. And well, except for the guy who disappeared. But yeah, I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

Alright. Uh, I'm gonna follow suit just like we did last week. We both gave the same rank to the episode. Uh, this is gonna be my My Admiral for my starship, the USS Cosmic Shark. I knew kind of going into this, at least when we were getting through the first half of the season, that this was going to be my Admiral episode. Cheater. I know the episode, so I kind of have an idea going into the season what I'm gonna rank. Um, it does change a little bit because it is partially based on how entertained we were when we watched it in the moment, but this is an entertaining episode. Yes. There's just really not gonna be any other episode that beats it. I'll point out we don't have to have an admiral to the ranking system. We can go a season without an admiral. I don't know that we will. Um, but yeah, this how can you not rank this episode as the top episode for the season? Right. As of this recording, this episode over at IMDB again is the top-ranked episode. It's as of this recording, nine point two out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:01

Yeah, you're not gonna get a lot of episodes that are above a nine on that scale. Lot lots of eights. Anything an eight or above is a great episode, I think, uh on the IMDB rating system. Anything seven is entertaining and okay. Anything below a seven is gonna kind of be problematic.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

I I can agree with that.

Turbolift Tease

SPEAKER_02 1:07:22

But those are our ranks. Again, as a reminder, we will post that graphical representation over on our Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents, free for everyone to view. We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, and Jackie, next week's episode is the season finale of season one of the original series.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

Whoa. No, no, no, no. We have to have more. Are we really all that way at the end?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

All the way at the first season. There's two more seasons.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:55

Of 30-ish episodes.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:57

It's just like flown on by.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Yes, for Jackie it is flown on by. It's flown on by for me too. Maybe a little slower because I do all the editing.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

So you work really hard. You do a good job.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:09

Yes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

But before we go, we Yeah, you made that cute little picture for the triple that I don't I have not read it yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

Yeah. As we come up, yeah, I don't know what we're gonna do with that. It'd be nice to I I made a little anatomy poster for Tribbles, because Tribbles seemed to be the mascot of our podcast, even though we've never seen an episode with a trible in it yet. No. But that's so cute. Yeah, made a little anatomy image of a tribble. I don't know what we'll do with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

It popped out of the book. Is it a good song?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:44

We'll have to we'll have to do some research. I've got some ideas for it, but um for our Turbo liftees for next week, I'll give Jackie the title of next week's episode, the season finale, and Jackie, without any other information, will give a guess to the plot of the episode. So Jackie, next week's episode is entitled Operation Annihilate Exclamation Point.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Unbeknownst to them, the Enterprise is being hunted by a very angry, mean, rough alien species that we're yet to learn about. And that is their their orders to do in order to destroy the Enterprise.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:38

And tune in next week to see if Jackie's episode guess for the plot is correct. Tune in next week for the season finale of Star Trek, the original series, and our season finale for this. I personally am looking forward to switching over to season two. The entire numbering system for the episodes with the cage being is it episode one, is it episode zero? Has really screwed up a lot of things. So it's looking forward to getting through next week's episode and then starting season two for that switch over in episode numbering. We'll have to have a like a party. Yes. But if you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon at patreon.com slash treks and tangents. Over on that Patreon, we also do a bonus episode each week on the episode that we just watched where we do a deeper dive into one or two topics, questions, and so forth. And I think this week for our Star Note bonus episode, we're just gonna have a general discussion on this and go deeper into our thoughts and what we liked about the episode. So we're not gonna be a super structured episode this week, but those are available, those bonus episodes are available for every member of the Patreon, um, including the free membership. So follow us over on Patreon and absolutely enjoy those episodes and catch the back catalog of those bonus episodes. We're catching up slowly on the back catalog, but there's still a good good handful of bonus episodes there as of this moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:23

Yeah, we're chugging along.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

You can also follow us on x.com at treks underscore tangents. We're on Instagram and Blue Sky as Trucks and Tangents, Jackie where can people find you? And what are you up to?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:37

I am mostly on Instagram as Jaboom J I B B O O M. On there I have everything from my music to fashion as a mid-sized person, weight loss information, makeup, my service dogs, disability awareness. I got it all on there. So I will look forward to seeing you.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:05

And you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown. On YouTube I post video games and other random content on my main channel, PiratePoundtown. Also on YouTube, some coin collecting and other hobby content at Pirate Treasure Hunting. I post socially on Blue Sky at PiratePoundtown, and I can mostly be found on Instagram under Pineapple Cannibal. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning into this week's episode. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:40

And don't worry, your 15th cents does get bigger as the years go on.