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Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, Issue 3 was the third issue of a five-part Star Trek: The Original Series miniseries published in 2014 which adapted Harlan Ellison's original script for TOS episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever". It was adapted by writers Scott and David Tipton and painted by J.K. Woodward.

Description[]

Solicitation text
Harlan Ellison’s Hugo- and WGA Award-winning teleplay, visualized for the first time! Stranded in the past of old Earth, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock search for the focal point that altered the timestream and changed everything about the universe they knew. And once they find her, they could find themselves foiled by a force even greater than the Guardians of Forever—love!

Summary[]

Ducking into a basement, Spock has a disturbingly emotional reaction at the savage past of humanity only for Kirk to quickly silence him and begin looking for contemporary clothing. Once the two are disguised, the landlord discovers them and sympathetically offers them lodgings if they are willing to provide cleaning services. Smirking, Kirk asks Spock if humans are indeed "worse than any barbarians".

As they sweep the floors, the two men ponder that if Beckwith will be drawn to the "focal point" in time, so will they. Grabbing the tricorder Kirk orders the machine to, despite the very real risk of power overloads and internal circuit burnout, use the data gathered from the Guardians to compute all possible points of temporal divergence. As it goes to work, Spock points out the good news that the tricoder is not dependent of the USS Enterprise for power. The bad news is that without the Enterprise, they are dependent on one tricorder which they stretching far beyond its design limitations. And in this primitive time, its value to them is inestimable. The device then beeps but all it can do is remind them of the Guardians' cryptic warnings. It did warn them of possible circuit burn out.

Delegating Spock to repair it, Kirk decides to find a job but overrules Spock doing the same. Overhearing, the landlord waves off such concerns and says he can find Spock a job just down the road. A week later, Spock walks home from work and overhears the sermon of Edith Keeler. Who preaches truth as clear as the sky, wears a brooch of a burning sun and a cloak as blue as the sky of old Earth and the key is in the name.

Observing the woman from afar, Spock reports to Kirk his theory of believing she is the focal point they have been searching for. But despite Beckwith's absence, they have no way of knowing if he hasn't already arrived. Continuing to observe Keeler, Spock worries his captain is developing feelings for the woman.

Later, Spock stoically observes Kirk and Keeler walking out together.

References[]

Characters[]

Edith KeelerJames T. KirkJanice RandSpock
Referenced only
BeckwithGleeson

Starships and vehicles[]

automobiles
Referenced only
SS Condor

Locations[]

Earth (New York City)
Referenced only
ChinaIowa

Races and cultures[]

Human (Chinese) • Vulcan

States and organizations[]

New York City Police DepartmentStarfleetUnited Federation of Planets

Science and technology[]

memory bankmnemonic memory cubetransistortricorder

Ranks and titles[]

captainethnologistFederation Starfleet ranks (2260s)SisterStarfleet ranks

Other references[]

1930apartmentasparagusbarbarianbaseballbaseball batcabbagecoordinatesdaydogdollardrumemotionEnglish languageGreat Depressionhistoryhourhydroponicsplantkilometerlogicmacaronimoneymonthnight shiftpeacepeacespaceStarfleet uniformStarfleet uniform (2265-2270)sunsuntime vortexyear

Appendices[]

Related media[]

Background[]

  • In this continuity, it is established Vulcans made it into space 200 years after humans- contrary to other sources.

Connections[]

Timeline[]

published order
Previous comic:
Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, Issue 2
TOS comics
IDW Publishing
Next comic:
Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, Issue 4
chronological order


Publication history[]

27 August 2014
First printed by IDW Publishing.
3 February 2015
Collected in the hardcover omnibus. (IDW Publishing)
19 January 2017
Collected in the Graphic Novel Collection's Volume 2 omnibus. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations[]
6 September 2017
Italian: Collected in the Italian paperback release of Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 2: La Città Sull’orlo del Sempre – La Sceneggiatura Originale. (RCS MediaGroup, ISSN 977228074425770002)
18 February 2021
Spanish: Collected in the Spanish hardcover omnibus as La ciudad al borde de la eternidad. (Editorial Drakul, ISBN 978-8412169249)

External link[]