Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal

Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal
Plot element from the *Star Trek* franchise
First appearance	Star Trek: The Original Series "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967)
Created by	Gene Roddenberry
Genre	Science fiction
In-story information
Type	Time portal
Function	Allows the user to travel through time

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, the time portal portrayed in the episode, has since been featured in many spin-offs, tributes and parodies.

Fictional origins[e

In the Star Trek universe, analysis of the ruins on the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's home world suggests it may be billions of years old but no one knows who built the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is able to speak to anyone who asks it a question, though the meaning of its responses is not always clear. For instance, when asked if it was machine or being, it responded, "Both, ... and neither". When Spock says "I see no reason for your answers to be couched in riddles", the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal states "my answer is simply as your level of understanding makes possible," and continues that the characters "science knowledge is obviously primitive." The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal can detect changes in the timeline, but typically provides its users little help in figuring out how to change it back. And being in the vicinity of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal when such changes occur isolates those from the effects of the change in the timeline.

Other appearances

(covers information from several alternate timelines)

Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal

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The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in 2267

"Are you machine, or being?"

"I am both... and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending."

- Kirk questioning the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever")

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is a construct of an unknown, ancient alien race, that functions as a time portal, a gateway to the time vortex that allows access to other times and dimensions. It is located on an ancient planet where the focus of all timelines throughout at least the Milky Way Galaxy converge. It is apparently sentient, responding to external stimulus such as questions and actions, and can even somehow control the flow of time. It generates immense ripples in time that manifest themselves as spatial disturbances in the region around the planet where it is located.

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is located among the ruins of a large, forgotten city that stretched beyond the horizon in all directions around it. Based on initial observations, the ruins appeared to be at least one million years old.

It should be noted that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal claims to be on the order of at least five billion years old.

Capable of speaking to those around it, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal explained that it is "its own beginning and its own ending," and that, "since before your sun (Sol) burned hot in space, [it had] awaited a question." Apparently an inert formation of quasi-metallic substance, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal creates portals to other times.

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was first discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise in 2267. Encountering powerful waves of space displacement, which Spock described as "ripples in time," the Enterprise tracked the waves back to their point of origin on a previously-uncharted planet. Doctor McCoy, suffering from paranoid delusions as a result of an accidental overdose of cordrazine, beamed down to the surface in an attempt to escape the ship. Searching for McCoy,Captain Kirk and Spock encountered and made contact with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, who offered them the chance to explore the past. As the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was displaying images from Earth history, McCoy emerged from hiding and leapt through the time portal, arriving on Earth in the year 1930. The landing party soon discovered that they had lost all contact with the Enterprise, and the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal informed them that McCoy had effected a change in history, wiping out their civilization. Realizing that they must correct the damage to history, Kirk and Spock had the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal replay Earth history, and traveled through the portal to a point in time prior to McCoy's arrival. Eventually successful in their effort to restore the timeline, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal returned all three of them to their proper place and time, mere moments after they initially departed. (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever")

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in 2269

In 2269, a team of historians, accompanied by Captain Kirk and Spock, used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to investigate Federation history. Their investigation included firsthand accounts of the formation of the Orion civilization and the monitoring of Vulcanhistory of the 2230s and 2240s. While Kirk and Spock were visiting Orion, their support team was monitoring Vulcan's past, which, in doing so, inadvertently removed Spock from the proper timeline. Spock, however, was protected from the change while he was in Orion's past, and the change to the timeline went unnoticed until he and Kirk returned through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. Once the cause was determined, Spock was able to use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to return to his own childhood on Vulcan, and prevent his death during the kahs-wan ritual. (TAS: "Yesteryear")

Spock's tricorder)

Promoting war bonds

An unnamed Vulcan starship

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Appendices

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The voice of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was performed by Bart LaRue in "The City on the Edge of Forever" and by James Doohan in "Yesteryear".

In the original teleplay for "The City on the Edge of Forever," the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals of the Time Vortex were nine feet tall, humanoid statue-like beings.

An original draft of the episode that eventually became TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise" featured a Vulcan science team researching history through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. In that story, the team accidentally caused the death of Surak, the father of modern Vulcan philosophy - as a result, the Time of Awakening never occurred, and the Vulcan race had essentially evolved as the Romulans. The time line would be reset when Sarek, aboard the Enterprise-D to greet the scientists, would use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to go back in time and take Surak's place in history. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

The original Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was designed by Desilu Supervising Art Director Rolland M. Brooks, because Matt Jefferieswas sick with the Flu that week. (Star Trek: The Animated Series DVDs, text commentary for "Yesteryear")

During the production of Star Trek it was briefly rumoured that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal would be used by the Romulans to go back in time. .

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's last words in City on the Edge of Forever were "Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway". This suggested that further stories could be written involving the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. However, although the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal appears in many apocryphal stories, its only other on-screen canonical role was in the animated episodeYesteryear.

Apocrypha ' class="spr

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal appears in the game Star Trek Online in a mission involving the players character breaking the quarantine of the guardian's planet. The player must travel through the portal in order to follow a group of Klingons and stop them from destroying the Enterprise from the Original series and rescue Miral Paris. This is one of the few appearances of voice-overs in the game.

In the novel Yesterday's Son, Kirk and Spock use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to rescue Spock's son Zar from the ancient, doomed world of Sarpeidon. They also discover that Zar is able to communicate telepathically with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. In the novel's sequel Time for Yesterday, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is summoned away from its duties of regulating time in the Milky Way by its capricious Creators. Zar uses his telepathic powers to return the consciousness of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to the gateway and banish the Creators to a universe where they cannot harm our space-time.

In the novel Engines of Destiny, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal appears in an alternate timeline where the Borg have conquered Earth and an alternate Guinan, having learned of the change, has gone to the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's planet to ask for help, and the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal reveals how to restore the timeline to normal.

In the novel The Devil's Heart, the titular object, an ancient stone rumored to have vast powers, is revealed to be a "seed" created by the same civilization who created the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, and meant to create another Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal on the world it was sent to, before it went astray.

In the novel First Frontier, members of the Clan Ru, a species whose pre-sentient ancestors - Earth dinosaurs - had been rescued by the Preservers before the mass extinction, used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to destroy the asteroid which would hit Earth, allowing their species to remain and evolve there. The timeline would be reset by Kirk, with the assent of the Clan Ru, when they discovered that in this altered history, their species destroyed itself in a series of nuclear wars before it could reach the stars.

In the Q Continuum series, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is used by a younger Q when attempting to find something new, allowing him to make contact with the being known as 0 (although the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal briefly tries to deny 0 access to this universe), who subsequently contacts (*), Gorgan and The One via the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. It is hinted here that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was built by the race that would eventually evolve into the Q – when looking at the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, the young Q comments "At least our ancestors made things", reflecting his dejection at the stagnant nature of the Q Continuum – but the veracity of this is uncertain, and given the nature of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, Q's comments might have been influenced by images he perceived within it.

In the alternate future seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine book trilogy Millennium the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was key to Admiral Kathryn Janeway's Project Forever. Janeway, along with a combined Federation/Borg armada hoped to use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to go back in time and wipe out Bajor (the Federation was at war with the Bajoran Ascendancy in this timeline and were facing the end of the universe). However, at the very moment that Janeway and a team arrived at the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, the Grigari set off a singularity bomb, creating a black hole that destroyed the entire Federation/Borg fleet, the Grigari fleet, Janeway, and the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. The timeline was later reset by Benjamin Sisko and the crew of Deep Space 9.

In the alternate future presented in Imzadi, Admiral Riker used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to travel back in time to save Deanna Troi's life from an attempt to kill her and prevent her participation in a conference. In the timeline where she died, the species involved went on to secretly rebuild and become a major military power, but with her survival, Troi's empathic powers revealed that they were lying to gain time, and the conference was abandoned until the species was in desperate need of assistance. Although the future Data also attempts to travel back in time to maintain continuity (Riker is convinced to travel back after new evidence suggests that Troi was killed by a time-traveler, but Data feels that Riker is clutching at straws), it is revealed at the conclusion of the novel that history had already been changed, and Riker's actions actually set it back on the right path.

In Spock Vs. Q, Spock mentions having used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to travel back to the 20th century. Q describes it as "that lop-sided donut thing" before Spock corrects him, and asks him if he knows it. Q responds "been there, done that, got the T-shirt."

In the novel Provenance of Shadows, the Enterprise returns to the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal for a third time, just before the end of its original 5-year mission. They respond to a distress call from the science station erected in orbit of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's planet. Three Klingon ships attack the station and the Enterprise. They are successful in boarding the Enterprise's bridge and manage to take over the ship, forcing the crew to abandon ship, but Captain Kirk manages to escape, obtain several phasers, and transport down to the planet. There, he steps through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal and ends up back on the Enterprise's bridge moments before the Klingons boarded. As the crew evacuates the bridge, Kirk sets the phasers on overload, and sacrifices himself to kill the Klingons, but his now-alternate timeline counterpart survives. As a last resort, the Klingons crash their ship into the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, apparently destroying it.

The image of the sailing ship firing its cannons seen in the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's portal is also later seen in the intro to themirror universe episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.

A 1978 story in an issue of the Gold Key Star Trek comic, entitled "No Time Like the Past", features the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal.

In the short story "Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals" (from the anthology Strange New Worlds VII), the Horta are assigned by the Federation to serve as the protectors of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal after a failed attack/attempt to alter the timeline by the Romulans. Since their lifespan extends for the next 40,000 years, they are witnesses to vast changes in the Federation, the ascendancy of humanity to incorporeal beings and the eventual exploration of the known universe and beyond. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal undergoes periodic attacks and attempted usage from the Borg, the Romulans and theCrystalline Entity, each time defeated by the Horta.

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The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was a portal-like device used for viewing the past and for traveling through time. It was constructed at least six billion years ago by an unknown race on a planet in the Beta Quadrant, within Federation space.

The planet that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is located on has different names in different books. This may be due to the fact the existence of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is a highly classified secret, and so the planet doesn't have an official designation. The Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook claims the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was created eight billion years ago.

[hide]

· 1 History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal

· 2 The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in alternate timelines

· 3 Notes

· 4 External links

1 History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal' class="sprite edit-pencil" v:shapes="_x0000_i1034"> Edit

The Federation's first contact with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was made in 2267 by Captain James T. Kirk of the USSEnterprise. Doctor Leonard McCoy, suffering from cordrazine-induced madness, fled through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to 1930Earth. Kirk and Spock followed him and succeeded in preventing him from altering history, but at the cost of the life of Edith Keeler, with whom Kirk had fallen in love. The incident made a profound emotional impact on Kirk. (TOSepisode: "The City on the Edge of Forever")

Following its discovery, Federation researchers investigated the possibility of removing the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal from its planet to "The Yard", a secret Starfleet facility. This, however, proved not to be a practical option, and all study was conducted on the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's planet. It had become something of an unofficial "Eighth Wonder."(TOS short story: "Devices and Desires")

The deposed dictator from Oorego IV named Trengur was attempting to flee from the Enterprise in 2267. Trengur landed on the planet with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal and traveled to Earth in the year 218 BC and was able to alter history by interfering with Hannibal's campaign against Rome. Kirk, Spock and McCoy were sent by the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to the same time-frame in order to repair the damage. (TOS comic: "No Time Like the Past")

In 2269, Spock assisted a team of historians at Oyya, the original name for the ruins on planet Gateway. During that assignment, Spock found that history had been altered so that he had died as a child. He used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to travel to 2237 and save the life of his younger self. (TAS episode & novelization: Yesteryear)

Later that year, Spock gained permission to use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to visit Sarpeidon's past and bring his son Zar home with him. However, circumstances necessitated Zar returning to his own place in space and time. (TOS novel: Yesterday's Son)

Shortly after this, when historian William Harrod "accidentally" fell into the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, Uhura was sent to retrieve him. (TOS short story: "If I Lose Thee...")

Towards the end of the year, Kirk and the Enterprise crew used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to prevent the Clan Ru from altering Earth's history. (TOS novel: First Frontier)

In 2285, Kirk, Spock and McCoy were sent by Starfleet Command to repair the malfunctioning Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. (TOS novel: Time for Yesterday) It was shortly after this that the Federation set up the Ellison Research Outpost on Gateway to study the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal and the timeline.

In 2293, Kirk visited the Ellison Research Outpost, where he questioned the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. (ST novel: Federation)

Roughly around 2364, Dr. Elias Frobisher read his own obituary on a playback of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. (TNG novel: Double or Nothing)

In 2368, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise consulted the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal regarding the Devil's Heart. (TNG novel: The Devil's Heart)

In 2373, Special Agents Dulmer and Gariff Lucsly of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to visit Earth in 2063 and 1996 to follow up on recent temporal incursions by the USS Enterpriseand the USS Voyager. (VOY short story: "Almost... But Not Quite")

During the Dominion War, around 2374, Roga Danar was recruited by Section 31 to prevent the Dominion from seizing the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. After completing his mission, Roga asked the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal what it desired. When it said that it wanted freedom, Roga granted it permission to leave Gateway, which it did. (SNW short story: "Orphans")

In 2375, James T. Kirk encountered another Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal inside a Preserver vessel in orbit of planet Halka in the mirror universe. (TOS novel: Preserver)

2 The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in alternate time lines

§ In one alternate timeline, in which Kirk and Spock fail in their mission to prevent McCoy from saving Keeler's life, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott and Security Officer Michael Jameson travel to 1930 Earth from 2267. Instead, Kirk, distracted by Scott, is killed in the auto accident. This creates another alternate timeline in which Lt. Uhura and Security Officer Worsley travel back in time and join the other four officers to successfully restore history. (TOS short story: "Triptych")

§ In another timeline set in the 2260's, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was used to fix reality when it was discovered that renegades had traveled into the early periods of Klingon history where they prevented the assassination of a key figure. This resulted in the Klingon Confederation being a much more peaceful interstellar state that prized the sciences and worked with the Federation to destroy the Romulan Star Empire after the Romulans launched a sneak attack on them. The crew of the USS Enterprise traveled through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to return the timeline to its unaltered state. (TOS comic: "Time Crime")

§ In another, Kirk (circa 2269) was abducted by Kor, subjected to a Klingon mind sifter, and transported through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to 1950s Earth, where he was placed in a mental hospital. Spock was promoted to Captain and spent a year looking for Kirk. (TOS short story: "Mind-Sifter")

§ In another, in which Montgomery Scott traveled back in time to rescue James T. Kirk before he was absorbed into the Nexus, the Guinan of that universe consulted the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to determine how to restore the timeline. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal insisted that it was not possible to make all as it must be through him, and told Guinan to look within herself, showing her the Nexus and the multiple facets of herself, revealing the source of her frequent premonitions and helping her understand that Kirk had to be returned to the Nexus to restore history. (Star Trek novel: Engines of Destiny)

§ In another, Admiral William T. Riker used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in 2408 to travel to 2368 and prevent the murder of Deanna Troi by a time-traveling Sindareen; he was followed by the Data of his time, who believed that Riker's 'evidence' that Troi was killed by a time-traveller was just circumstantial, but the mission concluded with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal revealing that history had been changed and it had never mentioned this to others because nobody had bothered to ask. Experts in the 25th Century theorized its energy source came from the sun, via solar quantum filaments. (TNG novel: Imzadi)

§ In another, the Horta become guardians to the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in 2464. (TOS short story: "Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals")

§ In another, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was believed destroyed in 2270, along with the orbiting Einstein station, when CaptainKorax plunged the IKS Gr'oth directly onto the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's site, believing the temporal energies to be evidence of a Federation super-weapon development site. (TOS novel: Provenance of Shadows) In actuality, however, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal had moved itself through time to the year 2293, in part so it could transport Kirk to Veridian III in2371 after Kirk avoided being pulled into the Nexus. (TOS novel: The Star to Every Wandering)

§ In another, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was destroyed during the War of the Prophets when Starfleet conducted Operation Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal with the purpose of altering the timeline to prevent the creation of the Red Wormhole and the Bajoran Ascendancy. Allied Borg and Federation forces fought the Grigari over the planet and Admiral Kathryn Janeway landed her forces in sight of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal when the Grigari activated a singularity bomb which destroyed the planet and all the fighting forces. (DS9 - Millennium novel: The War of the Prophets)

3 Notes

§ The novel Preserver suggests that the Preservers may have created the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal as Kirk encounters a massive obelisk which has a Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal inside.

§ In the Decipher RPG module: Worlds, its speculated that the Iconians might be the makers of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal.

4 External linksEdit

Production[edit]

Original treatments and scripts[edit]

In his 1996 book The City on the Edge of Forever, Harlan Ellison provides two treatments, a complete script and a revised first act.^[1]

Treatment of March 21, 1966[edit]

Lieutenant Richard Beckwith, a drug dealer selling the illegal "Jewels of Sound", kills Lieutenant LeBeque after he threatens to expose Beckwith's activities. This occurs after LeBeque realizes he almost caused a major accident while under the influence of the Jewels. Beckwith's crime is witnessed; he is court-martialled and sentenced to death. The rules also require that he be executed on an uninhabited planet.

The Enterprise locates what seems to be a dead world. Kirk takes Beckwith along with Spock, two other (unnamed) officers and a firing squad of twelve men to the planet's surface. But on the planet they find evidence that there may be inhabitants, which means they cannot dispose of Beckwith there.

Exploring, they encounter the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals of Forever, ancient-looking humanoids nine feet tall, who explain that they guard the Time Vortex, a link to the past that can only exist on this one planet. They show Kirk scenes from the past of Earth. They explain it is possible to go back but not wise, a visitor may change everything. Beckwith overhears and enters the Time Vortex to escape. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals of Forever panic: everything has changed, but they do not know how. They vanish back to their city.

Kirk tries to return to his ship, but finds the effects of the time changes cause the Enterprise to become the Condor, a pirate vessel. They manage to get control of the Transporter Room, and Kirk and Spock return to see if time can be repaired.

Back on the surface, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals tell them that the key change is a woman called Edith Koestler, who is scheduled to be run down and killed by a moving van at a specific time. Beckwith will prevent this. They must stop him doing so.

They go into the vortex and arrive in Chicago, 1930. An old street-vendor sees them arrive and the sight of Spock gives him a heart attack. They are blamed and flee. They also have to adjust their translators - Kirk says he can almost understand 1930s English, but it is as difficult for him as Shakespearian English would be for them.

They adjust and find work. They encounter Edith Koestler and Kirk is drawn to her. In this version, she has an admirable character but is not described as preaching or doing good works, nor is she Sister Edith Koestler. There is no indication as to why her death matters to history.

Beckwith arrives, but they fail to capture him. He in turn hunts them and nearly kills Spock. Finally it comes to the moment when Edith Koestler is due to die. But in this version, Beckwith attempts to save Edith, and Spock must tackle and stop him. Captain Kirk, knowing Edith must die, but wanting her to live, as he has fallen completely in love with her, is frozen in indecision and does nothing. Spock stops Beckwith, lets the woman die and then helps Kirk return with their prisoner.

With the timeline set right, Beckwith attempts to escape through the Time Vortex again, but the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals of Forever have set a trap for him: he finds himself in an exploding supernova, and just before he dies a fiery death, is pulled backwards in time and forced to relive his agonizing death again and again for all eternity.

The very last scene was a quiet one between Kirk and Spock, where Spock treats his captain compassionately, telling him that "no other woman was ever offered the universe for love". He also addresses him as "Jim": on all other occasions he remains formal and says "Captain".

Treatment of May 13, 1966

This begins with an explanation by Kirk about how one of the crew can go wrong, even though "we have continuous psych-probes". The initial crime is the same. But Beckwith immediately escapes to the planet's surface, with Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Yeoman Rand, and five "Enlisted Crewman" close on his heels.

The planet is the same, and the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal guard the Time Vortex. They still find the Enterprise has become the pirate-ship Condor, but leave Yeoman Rand and the five crew men to guard the transporter. Returning to the surface, Kirk and Spock are given no definite explanation of the key change. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals made riddling statements -- "He will seek that which must die, and give it life. Stop him." And "Blue it will be. Blue as the sky of Old Earth and clear as truth. And the sun will burn on it, and there is the key."

They are taken to New York, 1930. A mob attacks them, identifying them as foreigners responsible for taking jobs from good Americans. They escape and hide in a cellar. The (male) custodian finds them and helps them get work. Spock then encounters Sister Edith Keeler at a street-corner revival, preaching love and hope. She is wearing a blue cape with a sunburst brooch, also her name links to key—she is the one.

The rest of the plot proceeds as in the first treatment.

First Draft, June 3, 1966

The plot is the same as in the second Treatment, except that they already know the planet is odd, with clocks running backwards. The landing party consists of Kirk, Spock, Yeoman Rand, and six "Enlisted Crew". They arrive in two shifts, respecting the limit of six transporter pads. Beckwith's escape, the transformation of the Enterprise into the Condor and their return happen as before, and the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals give them the same clue.

Initial events in New York are also the same, except that Spock uses his tricorder to try to track down the exact change. It burns out. He then spots Sister Edith Keeler and understands the clue. He then manages to partly repair the tricorder. He also gives the first speculation as to why Sister Edith Keeler needs to die: his first suggestion is that she may give birth to a child who would become a dictator, his second is that perhaps she may keep America out of the coming war for two years longer, allowing Germany to perfect its atomic weapons.

We also encounter an additional character in the person of a legless World War I veteran known as Trooper. They hire him to find Beckwith, which he does. Kirk and Spock try to overpower Beckwith, who fires his phaser at them and kills Trooper. They feel sympathy, but also wonder if he mattered in the time-flow.

As before, Beckwith is about to save Edith, Kirk cannot act but Spock secures him and they return. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal assures them that time has resumed its shape. Spock asks "What of the death of the cripple?" and is told "He was negligible".

As before, it ends with a conversation in which Spock addresses Kirk as Jim. This time he comments that Spock has never previously called him anything but Captain. Kirk also notes that Beckwith, though an amoral killer, was still willing to try to save the woman at the risk of his own life. He sees it as a sign of hope, "The worst among us does the great thing".

Second Revised Final Draft, December 1, 1966

Dr. McCoy is bitten by a toxic animal (that is inexplicably growing younger as they approach an unexplored planet), which causes him to go insane and beam down to the planet. He takes over Beckwith's role of changing the past by saving Edith Keeler. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals are changed from humanoids to a single Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, described as "a globe of flickering light... like a shimmering handful of fog..." who guards the Time Vortex of the Ancients.

Later changes

In his adaptation of the story in the book Star Trek 2, James Blish explained to readers that he tried to preserve the best elements of both Ellison's original script and the final rewrite. In Blish's version, Kirk allows Edith to die, with the result that Spock tells him, "No other woman was ever almost offered the universe for love."

The closing credits of the episode that was ultimately telecast has Edith Keeler identified as "Sister Edith Keeler". She is running the 21st Street Mission, a name that in that time period would only be used of a religious mission. In one scene, before a speech that is more motivational than religious in nature, she was seen carrying a Bible.

Controversy

The script was commissioned in early 1966 from Harlan Ellison. Justman's and Solow's book Inside Star Trek recalls that the script was delivered late.

The production staff considered Ellison's script to be excellent (though the director Joseph Pevney said, "Harlan had no sense of theater... in the original script's dramatic moments, it missed badly"), but they had several concerns. As originally written, the episode would have been too long for a one-hour show, too expensive to stage, with too many speaking parts and elaborate special effects. Also, several plot elements—such as a member of the crew dealing drugs and Kirk preparing to sacrifice his crew to be with Edith—led the producers to decide that Ellison's teleplay was simply "not Star Trek". Ellison did a number of rewritings himself, delivering his Second Revised Final Draft in December 1966. Gene Roddenberry continued to claim the story was still considered to be too expensive to shoot as written, and instead it was rewritten internally, by a sequence of editors including Steven W. Carabatsos, Gene L. Coon, D. C. Fontana, and Gene Roddenberry himself. Ellison was unhappy with the rewritings, and he considered disowning the script by putting his "Cordwainer Bird" pseudonym on it.

Part of the reason for this controversy was a subtle but important change in Edith Keeler's character. In the original script she was a social worker with a vague hippie philosophical bent whereas, in the final version, she was changed into an all-out war protester. The version that was telecast in the end carried the implication that anti-war movements were harmful to the future of humanity. (Kirk: "She was right; peace was the way." Spock: "She was right...but at the wrong time.") When the associate producer Robert Justman was asked if the episode was intended "to have the contemporaneous anti-Vietnam-war movement as a subtext", he replied, "Of course we did". This new thematic element, which may be interpreted as critical of the anti-war movement, ran counter to Ellison's strongly held anti-war views, established in many of his writings.

According to Ellison, Roddenberry later claimed that Ellison's original script had Scotty dealing drugs, but Scotty did not appear at all in that script. Roddenberry later admitted that when he made the comment, he had not read Ellison's draft in years. Ellison set out his side of the story in a 1995 book, The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay That Became the Classic Star Trek Episode, containing two drafts of his story outline, his first draft teleplay, with the teaser, and first act of his second revised draft (the latter dated December 1966). In the White Wolf paperback edition of 1996, the book also contains a 75 page memoir introduction, replete with photos of legal documents, letters, etc., bolstering Ellison's version of the story behind rewrites of his script, of duplicitous actions by Gene Roddenberry and his supporters.

Filming of this episode began on February 3, 1967, and it finished on February 14, 1967. This episode took seven and one-half days to film, more than was typical for an episode, and -- although no financial records are available to back the claim -- according to Inside Star Trek, the overall cost totaled $250,000, compared to the weekly average of around $185,000.

The ancient ruins allegedly were the result of someone's misreading Harlan Ellison's description in the script of the city as "covered with runes."

Before being reprinted in Ellison's book in 1996, the original script of "The City on the Edge of Forever" had been published in 1976 in "Six Science Fiction Plays", edited by Roger Elwood

Wikinews has related news:Harlan Ellison sues CBS-Paramount, WGA over Star Trek royalties

On March 13, 2009, Harlan Ellison filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount Television, seeking payment of 25% of net receipts from merchandising, publishing, and other income from the episode since 1967; the suit also names the Writers Guild of America for allegedly failing repeatedly to act on Ellison's behalf in the matter. On October 22, 2009, the lawsuit was settled with Ellison claiming he was satisfied with the outcome.

Filming of the episode

With the exception of some stock footage of New York City used on this episode (in which the Brooklyn Bridge can be seen as well as a street in front of the apartment Kirk and Spock live in), all the exterior shots were filmed on "the back forty", Desilu Studios' film backlot in Culver City, California. Previous episodes that were filmed there were "Miri" and "The Return of the Archons". The 21st Street Mission was part of the Back Forty film set known as "Main Street," and it was referred to originally on The Andy Griffith Show as the Grand Theater. In addition, during the scene in which Kirk and Edith are strolling down the street and discussing the stars, the words "Floyd's Barber Shop" are clearly visible in the window of one of the shops.

Music[edit]

In addition to the standard Star Trek themes used in many episodes, this episode has some original music by Fred Steiner. Originally, this episode used music from the popular 1931 song "Goodnight, Sweetheart". This music was included, unaltered, in the first home video release, in both Beta and VHS. When the complete series was released on VHS, the "Goodnight, Sweetheart" portion was replaced by generic music, because of copyright issues (J. Peter Robinson composed the replacement music). With the release of the first DVD of the episode, the plan was to, again avoid the copyrighted music issue, and issue the DVD with a disclaimer on the box, "Some music has been changed for this DVD." Somehow, the original "Goodnight, Sweetheart" portion erroroneously was included in the DVD's release, with Paramount reportedly having to pay royalties. Since the royalties were paid, all subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases have all included the original "Goodnight, Sweetheart" music.

Reception

The filmed version of "The City on the Edge of Forever" is considered the best episode of the original series by many critics such as Entertainment Weekly. TV Guide ranked it #68 in their 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History feature in its July 1, 1996 edition, featured ranked it #92 on the 100 greatest TV episodes of all time,^[10] and ranked it #80 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time." IGN ranked it as number one out of their "Top 10 Classic Star Trek Episodes". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' rating, describing it as a "a justly revered classic".

It is one of the most widely acclaimed episodes of the original series of Star Trek. It was awarded the Hugo Award in 1968 for the "Best Dramatic Presentation" at that year's World Science Fiction Convention. It was twenty-five years before another television program received that honor again, and the next recipient became the episode "The Inner Light" from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Harlan Ellison's original version of the teleplay won the annual Writers Guild of America Award for best dramatic hour-long script. Gene L. Coon reportedly said at the time: "If Harlan wins, I'm going to die", and that "there are two scripts up tonight for the Writers' Guild Award, and I wrote them both." This quotation is of dubious merit, however, since the WGA rules do not allow production companies to submit scripts, but rather only the credited writers, who may submit whichever draft of their scripts that they may choose. Ellison submitted his original first draft for WGA award consideration, and not any version that had been edited by the Star Trek production staff, so Coon's supposed version of the script was ineligible and never submitted.Gene Roddenberry noted that "many people would get prizes if they wrote scripts that budgeted out to three times the show's cost." In the documentary To Boldly Go... included in the Season 1 DVD set, Leonard Nimoy characterizes the episode as a high-water mark in the series, calling it "good tragedy". William Shatner considered it one of his favorite episodes, and it appeared as his "Captain's Pick" in the "Star Trek Fan Collective—Captain's Log (2001)".

Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever

Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever
Plot element from the *Star Trek* franchise
First appearance	Star Trek: The Original Series "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967)
Created by	Gene Roddenberry
Genre	Science fiction
In-story information
Type	Time portal
Function	Allows the user to travel through time

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever, the time portal portrayed in the episode, has since been featured in many spin-offs, tributes and parodies. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever was a portal-like device used for viewing the past and for traveling through time. It was constructed at least six billion years ago by an unknown race on a planet in the Beta Quadrant, within Federation space. The planet,sometimes called the Time Planet or Time Vortex Planet, that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever is located on has different names in different books. This may be due to the fact the existence of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is a highly classified secret, and so the planet doesn't have an official designation. The Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook claims the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was created eight billion years ago. Contents [hide]

Time vortex planet

Type: Planet

Time vortex planet was an informal name for the planet where the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever was located. This planet had a Class M atmosphere. The planet was littered with the ruins of a massive, forgotten city that stretched beyond the horizon in all directions around the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. Based on initial observations, the ruins appeared to be at least one million years old, although the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal claimed to be at least five billion years old, predating the existence of Sol system.

The planet of the time vortex was discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise in 2267 and was revisited in 2269 by Captain James T. Kirk and his science officer Spock, accompanied by a team of historians. (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever"; TAS: "Yesteryear")

Time Planet Apocrypha

The novelization of "Yesteryear" (in Star Trek Log 1) names a city on the time vortex planet as "Oyya."

In the novel Imzadi, the time vortex planet is referred to in the 25th century as "Forever World", since giving it anything other than such a Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal-referencing name was felt to have been, in the words of one character, "... like painting a mustache on the face of God."

Other Pocket Books novels and Star Trek Online have called the time vortex planet "Gateway," a reference to the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever's final spoken line in "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Let me be your gateway." 1 History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal 2 The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in alternate timelines 3 Notes 4 External links

History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal

Two million years ago, a young Q encountered the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal, which resulted in his meeting the malevolent extra-dimensional entity known as 0. One million years ago, 0 used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to bring other entities like itself into the Universe. (TNG novels: Q-Space, Q-Zone) This was also the time when the "Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever ruins" were created. (Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook) The Federation's first contact with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever was made in 2267 by Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Doctor Leonard McCoy, suffering from cordrazine-induced madness, fled through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to 1930 Earth. Kirk and Spock followed him and succeeded in preventing him from altering history, but at the cost of the life of Edith Keeler, with whom Kirk had fallen in love. The incident made a profound emotional impact on Kirk. (TOS episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever")

In 2269, Spock assisted a team of historians at Oyya, the original name for the ruins on planet Gateway. During that assignment, Spock found that history had been altered so that he had died as a child. He used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever to travel to 2237 and save the life of his younger self. (TAS episode & novelization: Yesteryear)

Later that year, Spock gained permission to use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever to visit Sarpeidon's past and bring his son Zar home with him. However, circumstances necessitated Zar returning to his own place in space and time. (TOS novel: Yesterday's Son)

Shortly after this, when historian William Harrod "accidentally" fell into the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever, Uhura was sent to retrieve him. (TOS short story: "If I Lose Thee...")

Towards the end of the year, Kirk and the Enterprise crew used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever to prevent the Clan Ru from altering Earth's history. (TOS novel: First Frontier)

In 2285, Kirk, Spock and McCoy were sent by Starfleet Command to repair the malfunctioning Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. (TOS novel: Time for Yesterday) It was shortly after this that the Federation set up the Ellison Research Outpost on Gateway to study the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal and the timeline.

In 2293, Kirk visited the Ellison Research Outpost, where he questioned the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal. (ST novel: Federation)

Roughly around 2364, Dr. Elias Frobisher read his own obituary on a playback of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever. (TNG novel: Double or Nothing)

In 2368, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise consulted the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever regarding the Devil's Heart. (TNG novel: The Devil's Heart)

In 2373, Special Agents Dulmer and Gariff Lucsly of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever to visit Earth in 2063 and 1996 to follow up on recent temporal incursions by the USS Enterprise and the USS Voyager. (VOY short story: "Almost... But Not Quite")

In 2375, James T. Kirk encountered another Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal inside a Preserver vessel in orbit of planet Halka in the mirror universe. (TOS novel: Preserver)

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in alternate timelines

In one alternate timeline, in which Kirk and Spock fail in their mission to prevent McCoy from saving Keeler's life, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott and Security Officer Michael Jameson travel to 1930 Earth from 2267. Instead, Kirk, distracted by Scott, is killed in the auto accident. This creates another alternate timeline in which Lt. Uhura and Security Officer Worsley travel back in time and join the other four officers to successfully restore history. (TOS short story: "Triptych") In another timeline set in the 2260's, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was used to fix reality when it was discovered that renegades had traveled into the early periods of Klingon history where they prevented the assassination of a key figure. This resulted in the Klingon Confederation being a much more peaceful interstellar state that prized the sciences and worked with the Federation to destroy the Romulan Star Empire after the Romulans launched a sneak attack on them. The crew of the USS Enterprise traveled through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to return the timeline to its unaltered state. (TOS comic: "Time Crime")

In another, Kirk (circa 2269) was abducted by Kor, subjected to a Klingon mind sifter, and transported through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever to 1950s Earth, where he was placed in a mental hospital. Spock was promoted to Captain and spent a year looking for Kirk. (TOS short story: "Mind-Sifter")

In another, in which Montgomery Scott traveled back in time to rescue James T. Kirk before he was absorbed into the Nexus, the Guinan of that universe consulted the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to determine how to restore the timeline. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal insisted that it was not possible to make all as it must be through him, and told Guinan to look within herself, showing her the Nexus and the multiple facets of herself, revealing the source of her frequent premonitions and helping her understand that Kirk had to be returned to the Nexus to restore history. (Star Trek novel: Engines of Destiny)

In another, Admiral William T. Riker used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever in 2408 to travel to 2368 and prevent the murder of Deanna Troi by a time-traveling Sindareen; he was followed by the Data of his time, who believed that Riker's 'evidence' that Troi was killed by a time-traveller was just circumstantial, but the mission concluded with the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal revealing that history had been changed and it had never mentioned this to others because nobody had bothered to ask. Experts in the 25th Century theorized its energy source came from the sun, via solar quantum filaments. (TNG novel: Imzadi)

In another, the Horta become guardians to the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever in 2464. (TOS short story: "Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals") In another, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was believed destroyed in 2270, along with the orbiting Einstein station, when Captain Korax plunged the IKS Gr'oth directly onto the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's site, believing the temporal energies to be evidence of a Federation super-weapon development site. (TOS novel: Provenance of Shadows) In actuality, however, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal had moved itself through time to the year 2293, in part so it could transport Kirk to Veridian III in 2371 after Kirk avoided being pulled into the Nexus. (TOS novel: The Star to Every Wandering) In another, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal was destroyed during the War of the Prophets when Starfleet conducted Operation Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal with the purpose of altering the timeline to prevent the creation of the Red Wormhole and the Bajoran Ascendancy.

Allied Borg and Federation forces fought the Grigari over the planet and Admiral Kathryn Janeway landed her forces in sight of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal when the Grigari activated a singularity bomb which destroyed the planet and all the fighting forces. (DS9 - Millennium novel: The War of the Prophets) 3 NotesEdit The novel Preserver suggests that the Preservers may have created the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever as Kirk encounters a massive obelisk which has a Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal inside. In the Decipher RPG module: Worlds, its speculated that the Iconians might be the makers of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever. 4 External linksEdit

Fictional origins

Other appearances[edit]

The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's only other on-screen appearance was in the animated episode "Yesteryear" (1973), in which the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's voice was provided by James Doohan (who portrays Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott).

In the unofficial mini-series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the Original Series character Charlie Evans used the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to go back in time and change history. The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal also appears in an episode of Star Trek: New Voyages, which moreover portrays a second much larger Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal through which a starship can fly.

Title	Author	Plot
The Devil's Heart	Carmen Carter	The origin of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal is revealed.
Federation	Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens	The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal apparently stopped responding to questions several years after the events of "The City on the Edge of Forever" but it answers one special question from James T. Kirk.
Imzadi	Peter David	The portal serves as an integral feature of the story, creating an alternate timeline in which Deanna Troi died at the hands of a scientist from the future in order to reshape the history of his species. The attempt by a future Admiral William Riker to undo the changes to the timeline drives the novel to conclusion.
Star Trek: Crucible: McCoy: Provenance of Shadows	David R. George III	This trilogy explores the long-term effects on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy after the events of "The City on the Edge of Forever", in the alternate history before it was corrected. The third book focuses on the life of McCoy, in which the doctor is never rescued and has to adapt to 20th century life. The fate of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal may be indicated.
Star Trek: First Frontier	Diane Carey and Dr. James I. Kirkland	The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever is instrumental in helping Kirk and his crew return to just before the extinction of the dinosaurs to correct an altered timeline, from which they were spared due to an unexpected effect of an experimental new shielding system.
Yesterday's Son andTime for Yesterday	A.C. Crispin	Kirk, Spock and McCoy use the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to visit Sarpeidon in the past and find Zar, Spock's long lost son with Zarabeth from "All Our Yesterdays".
Preserver	William Shatner	Kirk and Tiberius enter an enormous Preserver obelisk and Kirk discovers a Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in the final chamber.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Homenovelization	Vonda McIntyre	McCoy angers Kirk before their time travel by asking, "What would the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal say?"
Doctor's Orders	Diane Duane	The obelisk (named ;At), which can perform limited time-shifting, mentions the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal as a "colleague".
The Q Continuum	Greg Cox	A young Q implies that the ruins around the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal were constructed by his and the Q Continuum's organic ancestors.
Q's Guide to the Continuum	Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger	Q implies that the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal's original purpose was to dispose of trash.

Short stories[edit]

Title	Author	Collection	Plot
Mind-Sifter	Shirley S. Maiewski	Star Trek: The New Voyages	Captain Kirk is stranded on 1950s Earth in a mental hospital, having been abducted by Kor, subjected to a Klingon mind sifter, and transported through the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever. Spock is promoted to Captain and spends a year looking for Kirk.
Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portals	Brett Hudgins	Strange New Worlds VII	Set in a future where the Horta are serving as protectors of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever, preventing any malevolent races from purposely altering the timeline. The story makes use of several popular Trek characters and villains (Odo, Q, the Borg, and Armus (from "Skin of Evil")) during the 50,000 year span of time covered.

Comics

· A 1978 story in an issue of the Gold Key Star Trek comic, entitled “No Time Like the Past”, features the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever.

· DC Comics Star Trek Volume 2, #53 (October 1993) begins a five-part time travel story involving the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever.

· Star Trek (DC Comics)#Vol. 2 Also, in Star Trek: Engines of Destiny, the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever shows Guinan, a member of the Enterprise-D crew, how to restore an alternate timeline in which the Borg control most of the Alpha Quadrant.

Computer games

· In the role-playing video game Fallout 2 there is a random encounter in which the player is able to enter a time portal resembling the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal of Forever which paradoxically makes him start the plot of the game's predecessor, Fallout.

· In Star Trek Online, the mission "City on the Edge of Never" involves using the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal to travel through time to stop Klingons intent on altering history.

Thursday, August 1, 2013