The City on the Edge of Forever (20 page)

31 REVERSE ANGLE—PAST KIRK IN EXT. F.G.

(NOTE: this
must
be shot past the three people in the transporter to show the entire chamber before them.)

WHAT THEY SEE: the six enlisted personnel herded into a corner, being held at bay by men and women with weapons totally unlike those used by the
Enterprise
crew. The captors are RENEGADES. Their dress is not regulation uniforms, but motley garb, each one wearing what he or she feels like. They are unkempt, and as vicious-looking as a crowd of free-booters can look. There are as many in the group as needed to hold the
Enterprise
crew at bay.

In the forefront of the group stands the RENEGADE CAPTAIN whose evil nature is so evident on his face that no one could doubt for a moment that this man is the vilest scum of a million worlds. He has a weapon of extreme ugliness pointed at Kirk and Spock and Rand. His smile is the smile of an animal.

RENEGADE

(with chill warmth)

Welcome to the
Condor
.

HARD CUT TO:

32 CLOSE ON KIRK

his expression of—yes, possibly—fear and bewilderment and then dawning realization that he has, indeed, wandered helplessly into a world he never made. HOLD ON THAT thought as we

FADE OUT.

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

FADE IN:

33 INT. TRANSPORTER CHAMBER—ESTABLISHING

the renegades holding the
Enterprise
patrol at bay. Kirk and Spock make a slight move, but guns come up, and they settle back. The Renegade Captain seems perplexed, but still a threat.

RENEGADE

Whoever you are, you shouldn’t have come aboard.

34 CLOSE 2-SHOT—KIRK & SPOCK (RAND IN B.G.)

Kirk’s bewilderment has passed. He speaks in an undertone to Spock.

KIRK

He was right. Time’s been altered.

SPOCK

Renegades.

KIRK

This isn’t the
Enterprise
anymore.

35 PAST RENEGADE CAPTAIN TO THEM

on the Transporter stage. Beside the Renegade is a TECHNICIAN who is operating the complex Transporter console.

RENEGADE

Now step down off that stage slowly.

36 SAME AS 34

Kirk frantically seeks an escape route. We see it in his face.

KIRK

(to Rand, softly)

Yeoman…give that console full feedback!

37 CLOSE ON JANICE RAND

as she hesitates a fractional beat to understand his order. Then CAMERA TILTS DOWN SLIGHTLY to show us the console still strapped on her, and her hands moving to two big calibrated knobs. She suddenly twists them as far as they will go. There is an ABRUPT PIERCING WHINE.

38 SAME AS 33—HAND-HELD

as the Transporter console erupts in a shower of sparks and a WHAMMMM! and the Technician is thrown half across the room. The Renegade Captain and his men naturally turn with a start, and in that instant, Kirk leaps off the Transporter stage.

KIRK

(yells)

Go!

And Spock joins him in a flying leap that carries him off the stage and onto the nearest renegade. The
Enterprise
crewmen begin punching, grabbing weapons. There is a pitched battle in the cramped confines of the Transporter chamber and the tactic resolves itself into forcing the remaining members of the
Condor’s
crew out the hatch, and sealing it behind them. The final tally has one
Enterprise
crewman dead on the floor, and three
Condor
renegades in similar condition.

39 MEDIUM SHOT—KIRK PROMINENT

as several of the patrol with phasers stand guard at the port, waiting for a counter-attack. The remainder gather around Kirk. Janice Rand is trying to pull her torn uniform around her. Spock has a cut on his cheek. He is bleeding yellow.

RAND

Captain, where’s the
Enterprise
crew?

KIRK

Not here. Maybe nowhere.

SPOCK

Logically, with time altered, they were possibly never born, or they have become
those
.

He jerks his head in the direction of the hatch and the renegades.

KIRK

There are 450 enemies out there.

CUT TO:

40 CORRIDOR OUTSIDE TRANSPORTER CHAMBER

as the Renegade Captain regroups.

RENEGADE

Nimblek, Owstian, blast through that hatch!

Two renegades with weird hand-weapons move on the hatch, start to blast at it. The door gets smoky, smudgy.

41 INT. TRANSPORTER CHAMBER—ANOTHER ANGLE

CLOSE ON CREWMAN nearest hatch. He turns head sharply into CAMERA and speaks as FRAME OPENS to SHOW FULL SCENE.

CREWMAN

Cap’n. I feel heat. They’re blasting.

SPOCK

(to Kirk)

There are too many variables to this problem.

KIRK

We have to change things back.

SPOCK

Then all the possibilities come back to a single course of action.

KIRK

(nods understanding)

Yeoman Rand…can you hold this chamber?

RAND

(unsure)

How long, sir?

KIRK

Indefinitely.

There is a beat of silence. Everyone knows what he means. She nods. Kirk looks at Spock.

KIRK

Let’s get back.

They hasten to the Transporter stage, get on. Rand moves to the main control panel that her feedback exploded.

RAND

I’ll have to cut in alternate circuits, Captain. My feedback burned out the central sources.

KIRK

Do your best, Yeoman.

As she works, rehooking circuits, moving hurriedly, Spock moves off his Transporter plate to Kirk’s side.

42 EXTREME CLOSE TWO-SHOT—KIRK & SPOCK

as Spock leans in to speak so the crew won’t hear him.

SPOCK

They may not allow us to go back after Beckwith.

KIRK

They’ve got to.

SPOCK

Time is something sacred to them. They may not think as we do—that it should be changed back.

KIRK

(more insistent)

They’ve
got
to!

RAND’S VOICE O.S.

Ready, Captain. It’s jerry-rigged, but it ought to hold.

KIRK

Energize
!

43 ANGLE ON KIRK, SPOCK IN CHAMBER

The dematerialization EFFECT—they become transparent…

RAND

Hurry back, we might not be here when you—

…they dissolve. A few faint sparkles fade. Empty chamber.

44 EXT. PLANET—PLATEAU OF THE GUARDIANS OF TIME

as we left it. The REMATERIALIZATION EFFECT occurs: first the sparkling, then the transparent outlines of bodies, then the solid appearance of Kirk and Mr. Spock. They look around and then the Guardians POP INTO EXISTENCE where they had stood before.

1ST GUARDIAN

The universe you knew…never existed. The ship you came in…never existed. The men and women you knew…never existed.

KIRK

(fiercely)

Let us follow Beckwith. We’ll change Time back.

1ST GUARDIAN

The rope of the time stream knots, and knots again. It is far more dangerous attempting to unsnarl the past than it is to let Time flow on. Let it go.

KIRK

(anguished)

Not that
easy
for us! Everything we knew, everyone we care about…they’re gone…or changed…

1ST GUARDIAN

You are children, believing you can put smoke back in its bottle.

SPOCK

Is Time immutable? Or can it be set back as it was before Beckwith’s intercession caused the knotting?

1ST GUARDIAN

The man Beckwith…he is a serious impediment in the Time-flow. He is scar-tissue. A clot in the chronal bloodstream. Do you know the concept “evil”?

KIRK

(tense)

We do. Send us back. We’ll retrieve him.

1ST GUARDIAN

There is a problem, of course. There is
always
a problem. Time cannot be doubled.

SPOCK

(grasps immediately)

Basic physics. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. You cannot send us back to the precise time of Beckwith’s appearance, can you?

1ST GUARDIAN

Before. Or after. But not the same.

Spock looks at Kirk. They communicate silently, analyzing the options, the two intelligent problemsolvers considering all the possibilities. Finally: they nod to each other.

KIRK

Before
he gets there. He won’t know we’re already settled in.

(beat)

How close can you set us down in the past?

1ST GUARDIAN

Soon. Close, perhaps. But we have no way of calculating such things.

SPOCK

Captain, the tricorder. I can set it now to resonate in phase with the Vortex. That will establish a baseline for dating, and once in the Past, we can get our chronological bearings.

KIRK

We’ll grab him when he comes through. We’ll be waiting.

(beat)

I just hope we won’t have been waiting for
years
.

SPOCK

If we bring him back, then the river resumes its natural course, everything goes back the way it was?

1ST GUARDIAN

(nods)

But in each time-period there is a focal point. An object, a person, something that is indispensable to the normal flow of time. Unimportant otherwise, but as a catalyst…

KIRK

And if Beckwith tampers with it—time is changed permanently.

SPOCK

Will Beckwith know what this focal point is?

1ST GUARDIAN

No, but the stresses of the time-flow will
draw him to it
. If he influences it, nothing can restore the shape of the past.

KIRK

(intense)

Then how can we stop him?

1ST GUARDIAN

(mystically)

Bring him back. He will seek that which must die, and give it life. Stop him.