Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Guardian Of Forever

I'm, uh - I'm Carl - and I've got the best intro line in all of Star Trek.

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[davidioanhedges]

Harlan Ellison was a brilliant writer with some amazing ideas ... unfortunately he knew this, didn't like anyone changing anything, held grudges for longer that was tenable .... his fans recognise his genius, and acknowledge his flaws .... his genius is why many remember him, his flaws are why so few do ...

[JeffHarbert]

Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday were absolutely outstanding.

[stuartwald]

If we are talking about contacts between Q and the Guardian, we must include the live show "Spock vs. Q", a wonderful 2-man back-and-forth performance by, of course, Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie. At one point, Spock makes reference to the Guardian, and Q replies: "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

[__The_Real_V__]

Disco's reveal of the Guardian was absolutely incredible. I geeked out so hard.

[NomenLuni]

When Carl introduces himself in 'Terra Firma', he refers to himself as a portal, which is also the word the holographic representative from the Tkon Empire used when Riker met him in 'The Last Outpost', so I'm convinced that there is a connection between them, and the Tkon Empire may actually have built the Guardian originally. I would love to see that explored further.

[NostalgiaBrit]

The novel _'Imzadi'_ (my copy is actually signed by *Marina Sirtis, * btw) has a really, genuinely interesting inclusion & usage of *The Guardian of Forever!* I highly recommend the book to any *Trekkie/Trekker/Star Trek fan* 📚👍🏻

[hueyiroquois]

That "Many such journeys can be made" line gives me the impression that the Guardian is an arcade machine for Qs.

[joerider]

Absolutely ❤❤❤ this episode! I am a suckered for timectravel stories, and I fell off my chair when Carl, in its original voice, announced " I am the Guardian of Forever "! I also fell out of my seat when you, Sean, suggested the Kelvin Universe could usevit to criss over into the Prime!

[LordLOC]

When Carl/Guardian of Forever showed up in Discovery my jaw was on the floor. I literally couldn't believe they brought back the GoF, let alone made it into some sort of being or intelligence that can manifest as a person/whatever. And brought in to help Georgiou and send her back to the (we assume) original time Discovery started around. When Carl just stopped and went "I am the guardian of forever" I think my heart skipped a couple beats.

[GSBarlev]

Things I'm surprised you didn't touch on:
- the "ruins" surrounding the portal were supposed to be "runes" but the set designer mis-heard
- the Federation spent years studying the Guardian, with the science team including an Aurelian
- It seems pretty clear that we were meant to think that McCoy was going to *kill* Keeler (why else have him steal the phaser?) and that the milk-thief vaporizing himself (and the gun) was meant to tie into the revelation that Edith needed to die. The fact that it really doesn't read that way when you're watching "City" seems like a directorial fail.

[nmgg]

I really love and appreciate Sean's outro's I know that the concensus when creating content is short and sweet but hearing all the kindness he tries to put forth it just makes me smile and makes my heart happy ❤

[mal]

I just love the idea of the mirror universe having a portal there only because I think it would look just like the portal we all know and love but just with a goatee. 🤪

[UnanimousDelivers]

I still say he's called Carl as a nod to Lorenzo Music's "Carlton your doorman" from Rhoda. He's a Door who's now a man. A Door-man.

[lamartherevenger]

It's kinda funny concerning Yesterday's Enterprise original story. They pulled that sort of thing off on Babylon 5 with Jeffrey Sinclair going back in time and becoming Valen, the Minbari leader.

[vic]

Years ago, I saw Star Trek: The Exhibition, which was the old Stsr Trek: the Exhibition in Vegas. One of the props featured is the initial Guardian. It also featured several of the Enterprise-D models. Just fascinating.

[scottnahler]

Don’t forget the Peter David novel “imzadi” that was a good GOF story and may have been obliquely referenced in “all good things”

[firstcynic]

12:10. Not quite correct. The film is "The Spanish Main", not man, and it's from 1945 not 1939. It is an RKO film and you used the right clip image.

To make things more interesting...
That clip of a sailing ship firing that was used in "City on the Edge of Forever" was also used in the opening credits of Enterprise's 2 season four mirror universe episodes. In Enterprise they had cleaned up the shot and added a sepia tone to the original color sequence; it was b&w in TOS. Going solely off of screenshots from that film of the ship models used, I can say it really looks like the ship is The Baracuda from that film in both TOS and Enterprise.

[Aezetyr]

"... One of the 47 voices he was doing that week". Nice, Sean, very clever.

[willmfrank]

Thing no. 11: Thanks to our friend Steve Shives, the Guardian is now known as Carl the Talking Time Donut.

[peterconstable]

Great article. Thank you Sean. Don’t be put off by the episode All Our Yesterdays being from the original third series. This episode and the third season actually very good.