Was Kirk the CAUSE of Edith Keeler's death?

[Push The Button]

I've seen this episode dozens of times now, but had never noticed the pile of cannibalized radio cabinets in the corner of Kirk and Spock's room, until tonight. It makes sense, of course, new electronic components were expensive, so I can see the guys doing a little after hours dumpster diving to scrounge up parts for Spock's frame grabber, which had grown in size to fill almost the entire room by the end of the episode.

I'm going with the theory that Kirk, Spock and McCoy were always in 1930 New York for those few weeks, and were always part of what was going to happen, the same as in Assignment Earth.

 

[Robert Comsol]

I'm going with the theory that Kirk, Spock and McCoy were always in 1930 New York for those few weeks, and were always part of what was going to happen, the same as in Assignment Earth.

I'd say that is the logical conclusion.

• McCoy went back in time but
• never changed anything because Kirk and Spock prevented that and
• made sure that history would follow its proper path

Simply put there was no causality ever involved that could have changed the course of history.

OTOH, we have this disturbing newspaper headline. The only way I can rationalize this, is that our protagonists somehow got a short glimpse into the mirror universe according to "In A Mirror, Darkly".

I can imagine that the "surviving" Edith would have become a factor contributing to the founding of the Terran Empire, thus the alternate timeline was actually a parallel universe.

Bob

 

[DonIago]

It could be that Spock's device didn't do what he thought it was doing. It was constructed of stone knives and bearskins after all.

 

[Mytran]

There's been a lot of talk about McCoy "saving" Edith but I don't think that's really the case. As has been pointed out upthread, Kirk is the one responsible for endangering her life, since without him she wouldn't be out at that time of night, crossing the street in the first place. Once the portal opens it is necessary for all 3 guys to be present in the past; McCoy on his own doesn't exactly SAVE Edith, he's just not sufficient to cause her demise (which is what Federation history requires).

Bob: Interesting thought about the Mirror Universe origin, definitely worth a ponder...