(in shock)

No…

SPOCK

Captain, she has to die.

(continues, softer)

The Guardian told us. We had insufficient codification to interpret the metaphors. But I have been resonating the words again in my mind.

KIRK

No.

SPOCK

(recites)

“He will seek that which must die, and give it life. Stop him.”

KIRK

I don’t believe that…they didn’t mean that at all. How could her death alter the course of history?

SPOCK

In a million ways. If she lived, she might give birth to a child who would become a dictator…

KIRK

That’s all extrapolation, none of it real. You’re guessing…

SPOCK

…in a few years this planet will have a war, a great war. What if her philosophy spread, and it kept America out of the war for a mere two years longer…and in that time Germany perfected its atomic weapons? The outcome of the war would be reversed.

KIRK

That’s insanity.

SPOCK

History, Captain. There are spools of records on the Enterprise. I have played them all…. What I suggest is just one logical extrapolation.

(beat)

She has to die; history and time demand it.

KIRK

I don’t want to think about it. Leave me alone.

SPOCK

I will leave you alone, Captain—

(beat)

but time will not.

Their IMAGES BEGIN TO FADE into the blackness, like a light being turned slowly down, dimmer and dimmer, till all we see is the tormented face of Jim Kirk, in the mid-f.g.

FRAME TO BLACK.

78 EXT. NEW YORK STREET—NIGHT

BLACK FRAME becomes the back of Kirk, as he walks AWAY FROM CAMERA hand-in-hand with Edith Keeler. Street dressed for a Saturday night, people out on the sidewalk, cars passing, women leaning out of upstairs windows calling their kids to come in, men sitting on stoops talking, the activity, the life of the city, consistent with the image of the times. CAMERA GOES WITH THEM. As they pass a series of shops, we begin to HEAR MUSIC from one of them, a jaunty tune of the times, played on a raggy piano, being sung by one of those girls who sang from sheet-music in the Thirties. She is singing “Please.”

Please, lend your little ear to my pleas.

Lend a ray of cheer to my pleas.

Tell me that you love me, too.

Please let me hold you tight in my arms.

I could find delight in your charms.

Ev’ry night my whole life through.•

• Copyright © 1932 by Famous Music Corp.

As they pass the down-below-street-level music shop, Edith stops, turns and cocks her head to one side. CAMERA IN CLOSE. She smiles, rocks to the music. Kirk grins.

EDITH

Let’s go down for a minute, Jim. We have time before I speak, and I love this song.

79 2-SHOT—KIRK & EDITH