Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal
Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal
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Plot element from the Star Trek franchise
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First appearance
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Star Trek: The Original Series
"The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967) |
Created by
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Gene
Roddenberry
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Genre
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Science
fiction
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In-story information
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Type
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Time
portal
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Function
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Allows the user to travel through time
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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
35,916pages on
this wiki
this wiki
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")
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
Add an image to this gallery
Appendices 
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 '
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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.
See also '
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42,501PAGES ON
THIS WIKI
THIS WIKI
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.
Contents
[hide]
·
1 History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal
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2 The Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel /Time Portal in alternate
timelines
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3 Notes
·
4 External links
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1 History of the Well of Worlds/Time Tunnel
/Time Portal'
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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 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 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")
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 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")
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)
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
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[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.
See also]
·
Axis victory in World War II
References
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