The City on the Edge of Forever (18 page)

COME BACK INTO FOCUS TO:

4 INT. BRIDGE—MEDIUM CLOSE ON LeBEQUE
 

as everything leaves its fuzziness and we HEAR the VOICE of MR. SPOCK O.S. and we see LeBeque at a huge bank of ship’s controls, knife-switches depressed, and a control bar in his hand, gauges oscillating wildly and all of them in the DANGER RED country. There is a frightening HIGH PIERCING WHINE of machinery stressing to implosion level that is the tail end of the SCREAM we have heard through the drug-vision. The FOCUS COMES SHARPER thru VOICE O.S.

Spock’s Voice O.S.

(urgent but Spock-ish)

Mr. LeBeque! Damp that starboard unit, you’re running in the red. You’ll blow the entire drive! LeBeque!

And as CAMERA PULLS BACK we see LeBeque being dragged away from the controls by TWO CREWMEN as Spock steps in quickly but calmly to damp the power controls. The WHINE SUBSIDES RAPIDLY.

Spock turns to LeBeque. He is as coldly furious as an alien without emotion can get. Menace in his voice.

SPOCK

You’ve been walking around this bridge like a man under water for two hours. If you’re unwell, Mr. LeBeque, have yourself placed on relief, and leave the bridge.

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 the 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.