60 Years Later, Star Trek’s Best Classic Episode Almost Got a Sequel (With William Shatner’s Return)

Almost exactly 60 years after it first aired, one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek almost got an unlikely sequel – or would have if Strange New Worlds‘ showrunners had gotten their way. In 1967, Original Series episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” saw William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock venture back to 1930s New York in pursuit of Bones McCoy, whose use of a dangerous drug prompts him to time-travel and alter the timeline, removing the Federation from history entirely. It remains one of the most critically acclaimed episodes, and only gets better with age. Naturally, it saw Kirk fall in love with an Earthling, Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), in record time, and with a tragic twist.

In a new interview on Polygon, exceutive producer Henry Alonso Myers revealed that his biggest regret for Strange New Worlds was not getting William Shatner’s return over the line. The plan was for Shatner to appear in a sort of sequel to the classic time travel episode, playing the version of Kirk who defied the mission by saving Edith from the deadly crash that McCoy saved her from, thereby breaking the timeline, and remaining in Depression-era New York. Myers says the team attempted to make it happen every season, with several scripts written, but it never came off. The executive producer remains pragmatic about the missed opportunity: “I think if you get to the end and there’s nothing left for you to want to do, then that’s more of a disappointment. I’m proud of every episode we’ve done, but I feel like the best dinners you come to don’t leave you feeling stuffed. They leave you wanting more.”

Star Trek Could Have Paid Off the Original Ending of One of the Best-Ever TOS Episodes

“The City on the Edge of Forever” was written by sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, who famously clashed with creator Gene Roddenberry over the episode’s story. Roddenberry believed Ellison’s version of the story was too dark, so he rewrote elements of it, including the ending. In the televised final version, Kirk chose to allow Edith to die and stopped McCoy from intervening too, essentially choosing to make the personal sacrifice of his love for the greater good. It was the noble thing to do, and fit with Roddenberry’s utopian image of higher-morality humans. Ellison believed in a messier, more emotional version and had wanted Kirk to fail to make the right choice, requiring the more logical Spock to intervene and restrain Kirk to ensure Edith died. Ellison remains frustrated that his ending was taken from him:

“The script does not end the way the episode does. Kirk goes for her to save her. At the final moment, by his actions, he says, ‘F**k it, I don’t care what happens to the ship, the future, and everything else. I can’t let her die, I love her,’ and he starts for her. Spock, who is cold and logical, grabs him and holds him back, and she’s hit by the truck. The TV ending, where he closes his eyes and lets her get hit by the truck, is absolutely bulls**t. It destroys the core of what I tried to do. It destroyed the art; it destroyed the drama, it destroyed the extra human tragedy of it.”

He makes a good case. Intriguingly, Kurtzman and Goldsman’s desire to bring back Kirk would have effectively shown the sliding doors story of what would actually have happened if he’d stayed with Edith. How that would have happened remains unclear (and hopefully we’ll see one of the finished scripts turned into a comic), given the episode establishes that the Federation wouldn’t exist in that timeline, but it would still be fascinating to see the Kirk who turned his back on his duty. Chalk this one up as a huge missed opportunity.

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