Hey, I never noticed that before....

But RSNG's color choices and the cinematography of Lionel Lindon, Gerald Perry Finnerman, et al., brought out a certain realism that looked like the early 70s which was not found on often overlit shows such as Jack Webb series, sitcoms shot on film (The Odd Couple, The Partridge Family, etc.) or flat detective dramas (e.g., Mannix). It made the horror/fantasy seem like it could happen in the real world you lived in.

 

Good point. “They’re Tearing Down Tim Reilly’s Bar” certainly captured that verisimilitude.

I really think my beef is with the film stock.

 

As recently as the 1970's my parents had the milk delivered. I'm not sure why as we had two refrigerators. It wasn't everyday, two or three times a week. There was a little metal box outside the house the milkman would put the milk in that anyone could have taken the milk from, but not once did that ever happen. Then convenience stores became popular, and milk stopped being delivered.

 

I wonder if there was ever any concern about what became of McCoy’s phaser, he was unconscious when Rodent disintegrated himself so as far as he knows he just dropped it someplace in 1930 NYC. Recall the concern about McCoy leaving his communicator behind on Sigma Iotia II in A Piece of The Action.

 

"Concern" is a relative term... Kirk just made a joke.

 

Back in TOS days, they didn't make much of a fuss about anything, except when all of a sudden (in Omega Glory) Kirk remembers that there is a prime directive.

 

Don't look too closely otherwise you might need to ask where in spacetime the Guardian of Forever kept the changing room.

 

Actually the GoF is the first instance of a predestination paradox. There was a vagrant disintegrated by a phaser in 1930.<--- that too had to happen as it did for the Federation to exist in Kirk's time; but that couldn't happen until McCoy shot himself full of cordrazine and went on his trip through the Guardian of Forever, followed soon after by Kirk and Spock.

 

Actually, in the alternate timeline, the vagrant died of food poisoning. It turns out the milk he's ingested contained a nasty strain of salmonella...


From the internet:

 

It might also have been the case that Rodent died in irrelevancy either way.

But the critical focal point is Edith, in particular when, where, and how she died. Would she have been on that street at that particular place and time were she not going with Kirk to the movies?

 

The thing is that she didn't need to die. The changes she caused that created that new timeline could have been canceled had she left with Kirk et al., just as Gillian did later but for some reason the GoF didn't give them the possibility.

 

I've heard that theory advanced before, but the story denies it as a possible option.

Not only was it necessary to stop Edith from delaying the American entry into WWII, but also there had to be evidence in the timeline that she had died. Now it is not specified in the story why that evidence had to exist, but it is implicit in the stipulation that it was necessary for her to die that evidence of her death must exist. One consequence of the evidence might be to stop someone else from being suspected in connection with her disappearance, say one of the other derelicts at her mission. If she had simply disappeared, suspicion might fall on somebody, which in turn might alter other events.

In any case, the condition of restoring the timeline was tied to her death. Once she died, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were returned to the future. Their return was assured when the timeline was restored and denied otherwise. Ergo, the three of them could not be returned otherwise, so Edith could not live on in the future.

 

That was one of the elements that carried over directly from Harlan Ellison's original script, all the way to the aired episode. Edith had to die, there was no saving her.

 

McCoy was concerned.

 

it went the same place as Terrells phaser in Wrath of Khan. It disintegrated itself.

 

Hundreds of people disappear in any given country of a certain size (meaning not one of these micro countries like the Vatican) and are never found. Her disappearance especially in the mess that was America at that time would not cause a big stir, especially since she was still an unknown at that time, her fame came later (which is why we've never heard of her btw) and as for someone being accused of her death, it's extremely hard to make a case without a body so it couldn't result in the sentencing of an innocent. At most the cops would harass a few homeless people for a while and then drop the case. So the only thing that prevented her from escaping her time with Kirk is the GoF stupidity and nothing else. Plus she seemed very intelligent, I am sure she would have understood the situation if Kirk had explained it to her, all the more since she was dreaming of this world. It would have been a big thrill for her to become a part of it.

 

McCoy didn’t know that, he was passed out on the ground.

 

Yeah, that always bugged me.