I have this memory of being a little squirt (could have been anywhere from 5-7 years old) watching “City on the Edge of Forever” with my parents. At the end, after the climactic car crash, Kirk said to Spock, “That’s the first time you’ve called me anything but Captain.” I turned to my Dad and said, “What did he call him?” (Being the little squirt, I was not paying attention, you know) and dad said, “Jim.” (Also my dad’s name, coincidentally.)
That’s the way I remember it, anyway. It’s a rather detailed memory.
BUT I have seen “City” a few times since then, and the “That’s the first time you’ve called me anything but Captain” line was not in there. I’ve been puzzling over this for some time and have come up with a few possibilities:
1)The line was cut out when the episode was shown locally, to make room for commercials.
2)The line was cut out because someone did their homework and realized that it was NOT in fact the first time Spock had called Kirk “Jim.”
3)It was never there in the first place and I just imagined it.
I have read the Blish book on this one and the line IS in there. My dad may have read the book prior to this time, so it’s possible that he said the line and I just remembered wrong that Spock said it.
I whipped my copy of this episode which was recorded on the Sci-Fi Channel when they were showing the original uncut versions and the line you mention is not there. Here’s how it goes:
{Edith begins to cross the street and doesn’t see the truck}
Spock: “No,Jim!”
{McCoy tries to save Edith and Kirk holds him back, Edith gets whacked}
McCoy: “You deliberately stopped me, Jim! I could have saved her. Do you know what you did?”
I saw TOS epsodes probably at least 30+ times each when they went into syndication in the 1970’s. By the time I got to college (82-86), my friends and I could recite each episode line per line as we watched it at 4pm every weekday afternoon. I honest don’t recall a line like that in “City…” or in any other episode.
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Kirk does urge Spock to call him Jim, but he keeps calling him Admiral, even when they’re in the presence of 20[sup]th[/sup] Century types that they should be being discrete in front of.
[hijack]My grandmother’s Americanized name was Helena (real name Elayna). Elayna’s now my niece’s name. :):)[/hijack]
Nope, he was so soured on Trek by his experiences writing this ep that he has had nothing but disdain for the franchise since. He did date Grace Lee Whitney briefly until he caught her firing up a joint in his living room, though. . .
Ellison was called in to pitch a Trek movie premise back in 1976, but it was not accepted. He was asked by Nimoy to consider writing The Voyage Home, but Ellison claims he was so distraught at the idea of having to work with Shatner that he purposely asked for half a million dollars knowing he would be turned down. IIRC, he also claims he was asked to write The Wrath of Khan and The Final Frontier.
Ellison also worked on Babylon-5 as a consultant of some sorts and appeared briefly in one episode. I wonder if Ellison’s association with B-5 is the source of the manic hatred many B-5 fans have for Star Trek?
Note, this anecdote comes from Ellison’s new introduction to his original script of COTEOF. Shatner, getting impatient for this terrific script everyone was talking about visited Ellison’s house to read a draft. As time went on Ellison realizes Shatner is counting his lines to make sure he has more than Nimoy. When departing Shatner wiped out on his motorcycle leaving a huge skid mark in the driveway that exists to this day.