Original subtitles

- Stay on top of it, Sulu. - We're holding orbit.

The helm is sluggish.

- Control circuit might overload. - Understood.

Mr Spock?

- We can't avoid the turbulence. - We'll have it plotted soon.

Sickbay to bridge.

Switching to manual. Do we maintain orbit?

- Spock? - lt's important.

We're passing through ripples in time.

Maintain orbit. Open a channel to Starfleet Command.

Precautionary measure -

broadcast my log entries to Starfleet Command,

starting with the unusual readings we had and how they led us here.

lnform them that apparently something or someone down on this planet...

Bones.

...can affect changes in time, causing space displacement.

Some heart flutter. Better risk a few drops of cordrazine.

lt's tricky stuff. Are you sure you want to risk...

You were about to make a medical comment, Jim?

Who, me, Doctor?

We're guiding around most of the time ripples now.

- Mr Spock? - All plotted but one.

Coming up on it now. Seems to be fairly heavy displacement.

Bones!

Get back to your positions.

- The hypo? - lt was set for cordrazine.

- Empty. - Emergency medical team.

Killers! Assassins! l won't let you! l'll kill you first.

l won't let you!

You won't get me! Murderers! Killers!

Security alert.

Space - the final frontier.

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.

lts five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds,

to seek out new life and new civilisations,

to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Captain's log, supplemental entry.

Two drops of cordrazine saves a life.

A hundred times that amount has been pumped into Dr McCoy.

ln a strange, wild frenzy, he has fled the bridge.

All connecting decks are on alert.

We don't know if the madness is permanent or temporary,

or in what direction it will drive McCoy.

Continue alert, decks 4 through 1 1 .

The medical department knows little. ln these doses there's wild paranoia.

Confirmed by the library records. Subjects failed to recognise people,

became convinced that they were in danger and sought escape.

Extremely dangerous to...

- Security. Alert! - Bridge here.

Security 054, sir. We found our transporter chief injured.

Dr McCoy beamed himself to the planet.

The transporter was focused on the centre of the time disturbance.

So whatever's down there, McCoy is in the heart of it.

Set up a landing party. Let's go get him. Kirk out.

These ruins extend to the horizon.

Begin recording.

Recording, sir.

And of considerable age. On the order of 1 0,000 centuries old.

Detail, fan out.

What is this thing? lt seems to be pulsating with power.

Analysis, please.

- Unbelievable, Captain. - That's funny.

This object is the source of all the time displacement.

- Explain. - l can't.

For this to do what it does is impossible by any science l understand.

lt is operating even now.

Putting out waves of time displacement which we picked up miles away.

Landing party to Enterprise. No sign of Dr McCoy. Search progressing.

lncredible power. lt can't be a machine as we understand mechanics.

- Then what is it? - A question.

Since before your sun burned hot in space, and before your race was born,

l have awaited a question.

- What are you? - l am the Guardian of Forever.

- Are you machine or being? - l am both and neither.

l am my own beginning, my own ending.

Why are your answers couched in riddles?

My answer is as your level of understanding makes possible.

A time portal. A gateway to other times and dimensions, if l'm correct.

As correct as possible for you.

- Your science knowledge is primitive. - Really?

- Annoyed, Spock? - Behold!

A gateway to your own past, if you wish.

Killers!

Killers! l won't let you get me! l'll kill you first!

l won't let you! Assassins! Murderers! Killers!

Spock!

lf that is a doorway back through time,

could we somehow take Bones back a day in time then...

Relive the accident. Be certain that the hypo accident is avoided.

Look at the speed with which the centuries pass.

To step through on precisely the day we wish...

Guardian.

Can you change the speed at which yesterday passes?

l was made to offer the past in this manner. l cannot change.

Strangely compelling, isn't it?

To step through there and lose oneself in another world.

l am a fool. My tricorder is capable of recording even at this speed.

l've missed taping centuries of history which no man has ever...

- Dr McCoy! - Bones, no!

- Where is he? - He has passed into what was.

l've lost contact with the ship.

l was talking to them and it went dead. No static, just nothing.

Kirk to Enterprise.

Scotty?

- Nothing wrong with the communicator. - Your vessel, your beginning...

All that you knew is gone.

McCoy has somehow changed history.

- You mean we're stranded down here? - With no past, no future.

Captain, l'm frightened.

Earth's not there. At least not the Earth we know.

We're totally alone.

Captain's log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist.

McCoy has affected a change in the course of time.

All Earth history has been changed. There is no Enterprise.

We have asked the Guardian to show us Earth's history again.

Spock and l will go back into time and set right whatever McCoy changed.

l was recording images at the time McCoy left.

A rather barbaric period in your American history.

l believe l can approximate just when to jump.

Perhaps within a month of the correct time, a week if we're fortunate.

Make sure we arrive before McCoy got there.

lt's vital we stop him before he does whatever it was that changed history.

Guardian, if we are successful...

Then you will be returned. lt will be as though none of you had gone.

Captain, it seems impossible.

- Even if you found the right date... - Finding McCoy would be a miracle.

There is no alternative.

Scotty, when you think you've waited long enough...

Each of you will have to try it. Even if you fail, at least you'll be alive.

Aye.

Seconds now, sir. Stand by.

- Good luck, gentlemen. - Happiness at least, sir.

And...now!

l've seen old photographs of this period.

An economic upheaval had occurred.

lt was called ''Depression'', circa 1 930. Quite barbaric.

We seem to be costumed a little out of step with the time.

l'm going to be difficult to explain in any case.

Well, if we can't disguise you, we'll find some way of...explaining you.

That should prove interesting.

Let's get out of here.

Look out, will you? Watch where you're going!

Theft, Captain?

We'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor later.

l'm going to like this century. Easier to manage.

We won't have any difficulty explaining...

Ahem.

Well?

You're a police officer. l recognise the traditional accoutrements.

You were saying you'll have no trouble explaining it.

My friend is obviously Chinese.

l see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain....

Perhaps the unfortunate accident l had as a child...

The accident he had as a child.

He caught his head in a mechanical...rice-picker.

But there was an American missionary living close by

who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life...

All right. Drop those bundles and put your hands on the wall. Come on.

How careless of your wife to let you go out that way.

lt's quite untidy. Let me help you.

You were enjoying my predicament back there. At times you're quite human.

lnsults are not within your prerogative as my commanding officer.

Sorry.

Time we faced the unpleasant facts.

First, l believe we have about a week before McCoy arrives.

- But we can't be certain... - Where? Honolulu? Boise? San Diego?

- Outer Mongolia, for that matter. - There is a theory.

There could be logic to the belief that time is fluid.

Like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.

And the same currents that swept McCoy to a certain time and place

might sweep us there, too.

Unless that is true, Captain, we have no hope.

Frustrating. Locked in here is the exact place and moment of his arrival

and the images of what he did.

lf only l could tie this in with the ship's computers.

Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?

ln this zinc-plated, vacuum-tubed culture?

Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mr Spock.

Excuse me. l sometimes expect too much of you.

Who's there?

Excuse us, miss. We didn't mean to trespass.

- lt's cold outside. - A lie is a very poor way to say hello.

lt isn't that cold.

No. We were being chased by a policeman.

Why?

These clothes. We stole them.

We didn't have any money.

l could do with some help around here. Doing dishes, sweeping, cleaning.

At what rate of payment?

l need radio tubes and so forth. My hobby.

1 5 cents an hour for ten hours a day. What are your names?

Mine is Jim Kirk. His is...

...Spock.

l'm Edith Keeler. You can start by cleaning up down here.

Excuse me, miss.

- Where are we? - You're in the 21 st Street Mission.

- Do you run this place? - lndeed l do, Mr Kirk.

Radio tubes and so on. l approve of hobbies, Mr Spock.

Good evening.

- You'll be sorry. - Why?

You expect to eat for free? You've got to listen to Goody Two-Shoes.

And now, as l'm sure that somebody has said, it's time to pay for the soup.

She's not bad-looking, but if she wanted to help out a fella in need...

Shut up. Shut up!

- l want to hear what she has to say. - Yes, of course, Captain.

Let's start by getting one thing straight. l'm not a do-gooder.

lf you're a bum - if you can't break off with the booze

or whatever makes you a bad risk, then get out.

l don't pretend to tell you how to find happiness and love

when every day is a struggle to survive.

But l do insist that you do survive.

Because the days and years ahead are worth living for.

One day soon...

man is going to be able to harness incredible energies,

maybe even the atom,

energies that could ultimately hurl us to other worlds in some sort of spaceship.

And the men that reach out into space

will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world

and to cure their diseases.

They will be able to find a way to give each man hope and a common future.

Those are the days worth living for. Our deserts will bloom...

Atomic powers years away and space flight years after that.

Speculation. Gifted insight.

l find her most uncommon, Mr Spock.

...prepare for tomorrow.

Mr Kirk. You are uncommon workmen.

That basement has been scrubbed and polished.

Then we can get other work?

Yes. 7:00 in the morning. Do you have a flop for the night?

- A what? - You really are new at this, aren't you?

- A flop is a place to sleep. - Oh.

There's a vacant room where l live. l could take you there.

Thank you.

Good.

- We have a flop. - We have a what, Captain?

A place to sleep.

One might have said so in the first place.

Captain, l must have some platinum. A small block would be sufficient.

By passing circuits through it would be used as a duodynetic field core.

l've brought you some vegetables, baloney in a hard roll for myself,

and l've spent the rest of our salaries for the last three days, filling your order.

This bag does not contain platinum, silver or gold, nor is it likely to.

You want me to work with equipment

which is not far ahead of stone knives and bearskins.

McCoy will be along in a few days. Perhaps sooner.

There's no guarantee that these currents in time will bring us together.

- This has to work. - Captain...

Captain, in three weeks at this rate, possibly a month,

l might reach the first memory circuits.

Your hat.

lf you leave right away, l can get you five hours' work at 22 cents an hour.

What on earth is that?

l'm trying to construct a mnemonic memory circuit,

using the stone knives and bearskins.

Captain.

Tools for finely detailed work.

That toolbox was locked with a combination lock and you opened it.

- Why did you do it? - l needed the tools for my radio work.

- They'd have been returned. - l'm sorry. l...

lf Mr Spock says that he needs the tools and that they'll be returned,

you can bet your reputation on that, Miss Keeler.

On one condition.

You walk me home.

l still have a few questions l'd like to ask about you two.

Oh, and don't give me that, ''Questions about little old us?'' look.

You know as well as l do how out of place you are around here.

lnteresting. Where would you estimate we belong?

You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will.

And you? You belong in another place.

l don't know where or how.

l'll figure it out eventually.

- l'll finish with the furnace... - ...Captain.

Even when he doesn't say it, he does.

Why does Spock call you Captain? Were you in the war together?

- We served together. - And you don't want to talk about it?

Why? Did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something?

Whatever it is, let me help.

''Let me help.''

A hundred years or so from now, a famous novelist will use that theme.

He'll recommend those three words, even over ''l love you''.

Centuries from now? Where does he... Where will he come from?

Silly question.

- Want to hear a silly answer? - Yes.

A planet circling that far left star in Orion's belt. See?

How are the stone knives and bearskins?

l may have found our focal point.

You may also have a connection burning.

Yes, l'm overloading those lines. We'll have our answer on this screen.

- And you may find this a bit distressing. - Let's see what you have.

l've slowed down the recording we made from the time vortex.

February 23, 1 936. Six years from now.

''The President and Edith Keeler conferred for some time today...''

- How bad? - Bad enough.

- The President and Edith Keeler. - lt would seem unlikely, Jim.

A few moments ago, l read a 1 930 newspaper article.

We know her future. Within six years from now, she'll become very important.

- Nationally famous. - Or Edith Keeler will die...this year.

l saw her obituary.

Some sort of traffic accident.

You must be mistaken. They both can't be true.

Edith Keeler is the focal point in time we've been looking for,

the point in time that we and Dr McCoy have been drawn to.

She has two possible futures then,

and depending on whether she lives or dies, all of history will be changed.

- And McCoy... - ls the random element.

ln his condition, does he kill her?

Or perhaps he prevents her from being killed. We don't know which.

Get this thing fixed. We must find out before McCoy arrives.

Captain, suppose we discover that in order to set things straight again,

Edith Keeler must die?

Assassins! Murderers!

Murderers! Assassins!

You! What planet is this?

No! Don't run!

l won't kill you! lt's they who do the killing!

Don't run! l won't kill you!

Why?

What is so funny about man reaching for the moon?

- How do you know? - l just know, that's all. l feel it.

And more, one day they'll take all the money they spend on war and death...

- And make them spend it on life. - Yes.

You see the same things that l do. We speak the same language.

The very same.

l'm glad you got away, too. Why do you think they want to kill us?

Look, Fella, you...you take a sip too much of that old wood alky

and almost anything seems like it...

Where? Where are we? Earth?

The constellations seem right, but...

Explain! Explain this trick.

l...l...

Biped. Small.

Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry.

ls that how you're able to fake all of this?

Very good.

Modern museum perfection.

Right down to the cement beams.

Very, very good.

Oh, l'd give a lot to see the hospital.

Probably needles and sutures.

All the pain.

They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments.

Needles and sutures.

Oh, the terrible pain!

How long before we get a full answer?

l'll need two days before l dare make another attempt.

McCoy could have been in the city a week now for all we know.

Whatever he does that affects her and changes history could happen tonight.

- Or tomorrow morning. - Captain...

Our last bit of information cost 30 hours' work in fused and burnt circuits.

l must know whether she lives or dies, Spock.

l must know what to do.

Extra, Extra! Get your morning paper!

Get your paper! Read all about it!

Miss, that coffee. lt just smells wonderful.

You look terrible! You'd better sit down. Come on.

l can't. l got to keep moving. l can't let them find me.

There's a cot in the back room. They won't find you there.

This is how history went after McCoy changed it.

Here. The late 1 930s. A growing pacifist movement,

whose influence delayed the US entry into the second world war.

While peace negotiations dragged on,

Germany had time to complete its heavy-water experiments.

Germany. Fascism. Hitler...

Seig Heil! Seig Heil!

...won the second world war.

Because all this lets them develop the A-bomb first.

There's no mistake. Let me run it again.

Edith Keeler. Founder of the peace movement.

- She was right. Peace was the way. - She was right. But at the wrong time.

With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them,

- Germany captured the world. - No.

And all this because McCoy came back

and somehow kept her from dying in a street accident as she was meant to.

We must stop him, Jim.

How did she die? What day?

We can estimate general happenings from these images.

But l can't trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain.

l'm sorry.

Spock...

l believe...l'm in love with Edith Keeler.

Jim, Edith Keeler must die.

Hey now, come on. You're not ready to take on any tigers just yet. Lie down.

The most common question to ask would be, ''Where am l?''

- l don't think l'll ask it. - Why not?

The only possible answer would conclusively prove

that l'm either unconscious or demented.

This looks like old Earth around 1 920 or 25.

Would you care to try for 30?

l am unconscious, or demented.

l have a friend that talks about Earth the way you do.

- Would you like to meet him? - l'm a surgeon. Not a psychiatrist.

l am Leonard McCoy, senior medical officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.

l don't mean to disbelieve you, but that's hardly a navy uniform.

lt's quite all right, dear.

Because l don't believe in you, either.

Get some rest.

Edith?

- Are you following me, sir? - With ulterior motives. Pleased?

l hope it means...

Stupid. l've been up and down these stairs 1 ,000 times.

l could have broken my neck.

- Captain, l did not plan to eavesdrop. - No, of course you didn't.

l must point out that when she stumbled...

she might have died right there had you not caught her.

lt's not yet time. McCoy isn't here.

We're not that sure of our facts.

Who's to say when the exact time will come?

Save her, do as your heart tells you to do,

and millions will die who did not die before.

Come in.

- Well, you look just fine, Doctor. - Thank you.

- l thought you might like the paper. - Not particularly.

l've convinced myself this is all a cordrazine hallucination.

- But l've decided you're not. - That's reassuring.

But if you're not, what are you?

A friend. When you showed up here, you looked like you could use one.

l don't doubt it. What about this place. Do you run it?

- l try to. - Why?

- lt's necessary. - lt was for me, at least.

- You may have saved my life. - People drink from the wrong bottle.

Not as wrong as the bottle l drank from.

Allow me to show my gratitude. Perhaps there's something l can do.

We can talk about that later. l have to go.

My young man is taking me to a Clark Gable movie.

- A who movie? - A Clark Gable...

- Don't you know? - l know what a movie is, but...

That's very strange.

You get some rest. l'll see you later.

lf we hurry we can catch the Clark Gable movie.

- What? - Dr McCoy said the same.

McCoy? Leonard McCoy?

- Yes. He's in the Mission. He's... - Stay right here.

Spock!

Stay right there!

- What is it? - McCoy! He's in...

- No, Jim! - Edith.

You deliberately stopped me, Jim. l could have saved her!

Do you know what you just did?

He knows, Doctor. He knows.

What happened, sir? You only left a moment ago.

We were successful.

Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before.

Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway.

Captain, the Enterprise is asking if we want to beam up.

Let's get the hell out of here.