Review of "Star Trek Fotonovel #1 City on the Edge of Forever," created by Gene Roddenberry

 Review of

Star Trek Fotonovel #1 City on the Edge of Forever, created by Gene Roddenberry ISBN 9780553113457

Five out of five stars

Captures the charm and sadness of the original series episode

 No episode of the Star Trek original series captures the enormous burden of responsibility that the captain of a starship must bear. With many dangers in the universe and the ship constantly moving into unknown and uncertain territories, disaster with the loss of millions or billions of lives are always a potential consequence of the captain’s actions.

 This episode also introduces an incredible, even godlike, entity. The Guardian of Forever is the most powerful object to ever appear in Star Trek, yet it is neither machine nor living being. Yet, it is eternal, capable of displaying all that has happened in the universe since it’s creation. It reminded me of the Akashic records of theosophy. It is the equivalent of a god, capable of providing access without actually altering the events.

 The Enterprise encounters massive waves of time and space distortion and in an accident, Dr. McCoy is injected with an overdose of a drug that leads to wild paranoia and psychosis. He beams down to the surface and jumps through the Guardian, going back into the past and fundamentally altering the present. Only the Enterprise landing party is spared the changes. Determined to restore the world as they know it Kirk and Spock go back in time.

They land on Earth in the 1930’s at the peak of the Depression. They are in a city in the United States and must somehow use Spock’s tricorder to determine what it is they must do. Overcoming enormous technical hurdles, Spock manages to learn that in order for their world to live, one person, a good-hearted woman and Kirk’s love, must die.

 This is one of the best written and acted episodes of the original series. The viewer feels Kirk’s anguish at what he must do. Never has it been more clear that Captain Kirk is fundamentally an island in his position as commander of a starship. It is also an expression of the phrase to appear later in the Star Trek franchise, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

 This presentation of the episode in the form of the fotonovel, equivalent to a graphic novel where the images are stills from the episode, is very well done. The humor and dead serious goals of Captain Kirk and Spock are captured. It is a book you keep on the shelf as you know you will reading it again. An urge similar to rewatching the episodes of the original series.