Exactly WHEN in 1930 does "City on the Edge of Forever" take place?

I was probably eight years old when I saw COTEOF for the first time (mid 1970's) and I knew who Clark Gable was then. Richard Dix would have meant nothing to me, then or now.

 

Spock was wrong when he guessed 1930. The calendar they saw was was old and he and Kirk never bothered to check another source. When they returned to the ship McCoy set them straight and needled Spock about it for the next five decades.

 

Garbo. Legendary even then.

 

Spock... guessing? C'mon. Like he wouldn't have half a dozen ways to confirm the year.

And besides, Keeler confirmed that the year was 1930 to McCoy later in the episode.

Yeah, sure. Because when your entire timeline is at stake based on you knowing exactly where and how history was changed, you totally half ass major details like that.

That'd be pretty tasteless considering how their mission back to 1930 ended.

 

You mean you have only seen the syndication cut that omits the big comic relief scene on the bridge at the very end?

The times 1930 is established as the exact year (rather than an approximation or a guess):

- "February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now." is how Kirk comments on Spock's recording of a newspaper article.
- "A few moments ago, I read a 1930 newspaper article. [..] Edith Keeler will die this year. I saw her obituary." is how Spock comments on an actual newspaper of the day he saw.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Mccoy: This looks like old Earth around 1920 or 25.
Edith: Would you care to try for 30?

 

Work with me people!

 

Scripts are stubborn things.

 

Well, I got it.

But an eternal source of annoyance to my love is that I will make facetious comments in a group, and people will answer not getting the joke, and I'm delighted by the response. My love, who in twenty years has never once failed to recognize my straight-faced jokes for what they are, takes offense on my behalf.

 

That's awesome. I was going to go back and check but haven't had the time to. I clearly remember her wearing a cross but it's obviously a pocketwatch. Goes to show how fallible memory can be.

And I should make clear that in my post where I said that for years I had thought she might be a nun, I wasn't referring to years that include our current decade. I gave up the nun theory a long time ago. But I still think she's a do-gooding christian who takes her beliefs seriously. That's the point I was trying to make.

Apologies for my lack of clarity and thanks for the pictures that set me straight.


--Alex

 

forgetting the episode and just looking at the calendar itself and the fact the ep released in 1967, I would say the month on the wall is from June of 1967, so the 14th is Flag Day. As to the episode, I'd say that based on the weather it could have either been March or the end of Sept or Oct. I'm originally from NY and I remember it started getting cooler by mid-late Sept and by Halloween my mother would have me cover up my costume () because it had gotten cold.

 

I agree with you there.

 

Though it's interesting that there's nothing even remotely religious about her speech at the soup kitchen.

Kor

 

I always thought she was more like a secular peacenik. Of course, television in the Sixties almost always shied away from specific religion references. Thus Edith could be a devout Christian, and the only reason we don't know it is that she was on a one-hour drama series.

I almost wish they'd dropped some hints as to her beliefs, to add some texture to the characterization. They could have had a wall-mounted cross in the room where McCoy slept, or she could have carried a recognizable bible (a big black book with gold leaf on the edges) in one scene, let's say.

 

Reopening my old thread to note something that I'd forgotten from David R. George III's novel Crucible: McCoy: Provenance of Shadows: At the end of Chapter 7 (page 60 in my paperback edition), Spock tells McCoy that he and Kirk were living in 1930 for 47 days. Edith Keeler's death is also dated to March of 1930, so perhaps George came to a similar conclusion that we did in our discussion. (McCoy estimates that he was in 1930 for three or four days, but he doesn't positively remember how long it was due to his Codrazine overdose.)

Keeler's death happening in March 1930 would put Kirk and Spock's arrival sometime in January or February of that year, which would fit with the weather and the astronomy references discussed above. Kirk and Edith would have about six weeks to get to know each other and fall in love. And the 47 day period makes sense from a general plot standpoint too, as Kirk and Spock would need to save enough money from their combined paychecks to buy the equipment that Spock needed to access his tricorder. As Spock wouldn't need the same amount of rest that Kirk would ("The Paradise Syndrome" reveals that Spock can go for several weeks without sleep or food), he was presumably working around the clock to use his tricorder to gain more information, outside of his shifts at the 21st Street Mission.

So while at first I was thinking that Kirk and Spock were only in the past for one or two weeks, I'm now thinking that 47 days, spanning from January to March 1930, works just about perfectly.