10 Best Final Lines In Star Trek Episodes

The last line of The City on the Edge of Forever goes to Captain Kirk. He has been forced to allow, and to witness, the death of Edith Keeler so as to prevent catastrophic changes to the timeline. The line encapsulates both Kirk’s sadness and his frustration.

Now considered one of the greats, the episode’s script, final line, and production faced more problems than McCoy hopped up on cordrazine. The pitch and original script were the work of noted science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison but contained some very un-Star Trek ideas such as drug dealing and murder between the Enterprise crew, arguments, Spock calling humanity "barbaric," Kirk suggesting Spock should be "lynched," execution by firing squad, and would have cost a small fortune to film. The script was sent for multiple rewrites by various parties that lasted months and resulted in decades of animosity between Ellison and Gene Roddenberry. In the end, the episode was also the most costly of the first season.

In Ellison’s first script, Kirk hesitates and does not prevent Keeler’s rescue. It is Spock who intervenes at the last moment. The episode’s final line was also initially problematic for broadcaster NBC on account of its infernal obscenity. After some persuasion from Roddenberry and William Shatner, the line and its offending term were permitted, becoming one of the first uses of the word 'hell' as such on American television.