Most Romantic Episodes

[Bad Thoughts]

But doomed romances are still romances, even when larger issues prevent the lovers from living happily ever after.

The problem is not that the romance is doomed, it is that the particulars never take the intelligence of the woman, Edith Keeler, seriously. She can only offer a flawed philosophy that is poorly timed, and there is no means to appeal to her on the basis of the intelligence and dignity that they deign to ascribe to her. It might have happened that they completely missed the point at which McCoy interfered with her fate. What would have been their plan? Why were they not at least laying the groundwork for that necessity?

The reason why TCOTEOF is a poor romance is that Edith Keeler is ultimately just a MacGuffin that one, explains the historical discontinuities, and two, she is a device for Kirk to feel regret.

 

[Nyotarules]

Edith was portrayed as some great love, they could have taken her back with them , but knowing Kirk he wouldlhave found another 'great love' on the next planet.

 

[exocomp]

Edith was portrayed as some great love, they could have taken her back with them , but knowing Kirk he wouldlhave found another 'great love' on the next planet.

That's how he turned Janice into a psychopath...

 

[DonIago]

We have no reason to believe that they could have taken Edith back with them.

 

[Nyotarules]

We have no reason to believe that they could have taken Edith back with them.

Why would the Guardian spit her back to 1930's New York lol

 

[exocomp]

Why would the Guardian spit her back to 1930's New York lol

He had all the time in the world. He could have travelled back in time the way they did in the whale movie, I want to say, ST4? They could have grabbed Edith a second before she was hit, using the transporter. The people who'd have noticed anything, would assume they were hallucinating, case closed.

 

[The Old Mixer]

He can't go back in time via the Enterprise if there's no Enterprise in orbit because of the timeline change. They were playing by the Guardian's rules in that one. They also couldn't just grab her and step into the portal, because there was no portal to step into on 1930 Earth...presumably the Guardian didn't return them until they'd met the conditions under which the Guardian considered the timeline to be restored.

 

[exocomp]

He can't go back in time via the Enterprise if there's no Enterprise in orbit because of the timeline change. They were playing by the Guardian's rules in that one. They also couldn't just grab her and step into the portal, because there was no portal to step into on 1930 Earth...presumably the Guardian didn't return them until they'd met the conditions under which the Guardian considered the timeline to be restored.

It was her peace movement that was the cause of the change in the timeline. Why couldn't he just talk her out of starting it? She seemed intelligent enough, maybe she would have understood and agreed with his reasons. Once the timeline was restored the Guardian would have had no choice but to send their back to their time.

 

[Nyotarules]

He had all the time in the world. He could have travelled back in time the way they did in the whale movie, I want to say, ST4? They could have grabbed Edith a second before she was hit, using the transporter. The people who'd have noticed anything, would assume they were hallucinating, case closed.

A transporter in 1930's NYC how would that happen? In ST4 they had a Klingon ship, in 1930's NYC there is no Federation technology around apart from the phaser that McCoy dropped and the tramp killed himself with.

 

[Nyotarules]

It was her peace movement that was the cause of the change in the timeline. Why couldn't he just talk her out of starting it? She seemed intelligent enough, maybe she would have understood and agreed with his reasons. Once the timeline was restored the Guardian would have had no choice but to send their back to their time.

Why should she listen to Kirk just cos she is sleeping with him? The original timeline she was dead, hence no peace movement, as long as she was alive the greater chance of her starting a peace movement.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Why should she listen to Kirk just cos she is sleeping with him? The original timeline she was dead, hence no peace movement, as long as she was alive the greater chance of her starting a peace movement.

I think it bears repeating: what if they failed to stop McCoy from interfering in the accident? What would be plan B? Why is it a problem that they might appeal to her on an intellectual level, not on the level of "sleeping with the captain?"

 

[Nyotarules]

I think it bears repeating: what if they failed to stop McCoy from interfering in the accident? What would be plan B? Why is it a problem that they might appeal to her on an intellectual level, not on the level of "sleeping with the captain?"

Well Spock could mind meld her and force her to remain a social worker and forgot starting a peace movement.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Well Spock could mind meld her and force her to remain a social worker and forgot starting a peace movement.

Hence the shallowness of the romance.

 

[exocomp]

I think it bears repeating: what if they failed to stop McCoy from interfering in the accident? What would be plan B? Why is it a problem that they might appeal to her on an intellectual level, not on the level of "sleeping with the captain?"

Precisely, and it would have the added advantage of being in keeping with star Trek spirit of finding solutions based on reason and dialog instead of brute force and death. As both Spock and Kirk remarked. She was very intelligent and seemed to anticipate the future and at a time when that future was even more problematic than it is now. Why not try to make her understand that he movement would have precluded that future? What I find shocking is that they didn't even try. Spock could have convinced her of the truthfulness of their statements by showing his ears and if that wasn't enough a drop of his blood should have done the trick.

 

[Nyotarules]

Hence the shallowness of the romance.

Well its Star Trek - a girl on every base. 99% of the romances were shallow, McCoy dumped his alien wife Natira, once he was cured. Great doctor, lousy husband (and lousy father).

 

[exocomp]

Well Spock could mind meld her and force her to remain a social worker and forgot starting a peace movement.

That beats the hell out of becoming dead. Don't you think?

 

[The Old Mixer]

A timeline in which Edith survived but didn't start the peace movement still wouldn't have been the original timeline. They were playing by the Guardian's rules, it likely wasn't bringing them back until it was satisfied that they'd cleaned up the mess that McCoy made.

 

[DonIago]

Perhaps Edith's death (not disappearance, death, positive identification of the body) was also necessary to preserve the timeline, though I'll grant that that's not made clear from the evidence we have.

In any case, I don't see any reason to believe the Guardian would have allowed Edith to appear in the future, and Kirk time-travelling to the past to save Edith after the events of the episode...isn't completely without potential, I suppose.

 

[Tracy Trek]

A timeline in which Edith survived but didn't start the peace movement still wouldn't have been the original timeline. They were playing by the Guardian's rules, it likely wasn't bringing them back until it was satisfied that they'd cleaned up the mess that McCoy made.

This was always my interpretation. But perhaps not instantaneous because they had time to change back into their uniforms before they went back to their own time.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If he did go back for her via a different time-travel mechanism, would the guardian know and try to stop him?

*Guardian delivers a temporal Gibbs-slap to Kirk* "Have you learned nothing??!!"