Don't you just hate time travel stories like "Yesteryear" that have all of these unexplainable contradictions in them? You sit there and try to figure out what happened and end up retconning it?
Let's say, somehow the Romulans (or anybody, really) come across time travel--the Romulans find an Iconian gateway; or Future Guy from Enterprise if he really was a Romulan like some of the writers were thinking about doing at one time, or some other scenario.
The Romulans find out about Ambassador Spock's future attempt to unify Vulcan with Romulus (or some other significant event in Spock's life). They look into history and find that if this cousin Selek was kept from saving Spock from the le-matya, Spock would die as a boy and his future threat of reunification would be gone. (Maybe Selek was a lower profile target than a more direct attack on Spock. You gotta watch those temporal police, like in Deep Space Nine or Enterprise, nosing around.)
The Romulans go back in time (coincidentally, after the moment that Kirk and Spock go back in time through the Guardian to visit Orion's past) and stop/kill Selek. Selek doesn't save young Spock. Spock dies.
Spock's existence is wiped out of the original timeline just like the Enterprise was in "City on the Edge of Forever." The caveat being that the Guardian's influence to protect people from the timeline changes only applies to those in the immediate vicinity of the Guardian on the planet (just like "City"). Let's say that McCoy, Jan Grey, and Aleek-Om were not present when Kirk, Spock, and the red shirted guy jumped into the Guardian and that they came later since we were never shown that exact moment in the actual episode. (I'm ignoring the further complications of the Alan Dean Foster adaptation.) Therefore, McCoy, Jan and Aleek-Om don't remember Spock because they weren't protected by the Guardian when the Romulans altered the timeline.
So, to reiterate, in this new altered timeline, Spock doesn't exist and doesn't come with the Enterprise to the Guardian's planet. Therefore, McCoy, jan, and Aleek-Om don't remember Spock because their memories of Spock were wiped before they entered the Guardian's influence.
Since the full history of the Guardian was never explained, maybe those who are back in time in the Guardian are protected from timeline alterations like those within its immediate presence on the planet. Kirk and the red shirted guy remember Spock when they return from their trip but no one else does because of the altered timeline by the Romulans.
Spock's "faulty" memory could be caused by being young and not being trained in the Vulcan mental abilities at the time; and later by following Vulcan tradition in suppressing all emotional instances out of themselves (like Spock suppressing Kirk's memory of loving Rayna in "Requiem for Methuselah"). Since the Romulans eliminated/killed Selek in this new timeline, Spock has to go back and pose as this "Selek" in order to correct the timeline by preventing his own death as a boy. Not knowing exactly what's going on in the Vulcan past, Spock may not have been in exactly the right place at the right time as the original Selek in order to keep I-Chaya from dying when he (older Spock) saves young Spock. This causes a new little time ripple that the older Spock says never happened the first time around. Young Spock is saved and older Spock returns to the present after completing his mission just as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy did in "City."
Kirk and Spock are unaware of the bigger picture with the Romulans altering the timeline. So Kirk is constantly grasping at straws to explain what's going on. It was never the historians replaying Vulcan history in the Guardian that caused young Spock's death but the Romulan tampering of the timeline. Young Spock's death was because the Romulans killed Selek not because Spock was in Orion's past and couldn't be in two places at the same time.
When Kirk asks if Selek looked like how Spock does now, it's more of a solution to the problem rather than an explanation of it. With his fuzzy memory, Spock goes along with it because it appears to be the only answer in solving the problem. If Spock was protected by the Guardian's influence while back in Orion's past, his memory of the le-matya attack would have been with the original Selek and not an older Spock. Was there ever an instance in the series that actually said Spock, or Vulcans in general, have an eidetic or photographic memory?
Let's say, somehow the Romulans (or anybody, really) come across time travel--the Romulans find an Iconian gateway; or Future Guy from Enterprise if he really was a Romulan like some of the writers were thinking about doing at one time, or some other scenario.
The Romulans find out about Ambassador Spock's future attempt to unify Vulcan with Romulus (or some other significant event in Spock's life). They look into history and find that if this cousin Selek was kept from saving Spock from the le-matya, Spock would die as a boy and his future threat of reunification would be gone. (Maybe Selek was a lower profile target than a more direct attack on Spock. You gotta watch those temporal police, like in Deep Space Nine or Enterprise, nosing around.)
The Romulans go back in time (coincidentally, after the moment that Kirk and Spock go back in time through the Guardian to visit Orion's past) and stop/kill Selek. Selek doesn't save young Spock. Spock dies.
Spock's existence is wiped out of the original timeline just like the Enterprise was in "City on the Edge of Forever." The caveat being that the Guardian's influence to protect people from the timeline changes only applies to those in the immediate vicinity of the Guardian on the planet (just like "City"). Let's say that McCoy, Jan Grey, and Aleek-Om were not present when Kirk, Spock, and the red shirted guy jumped into the Guardian and that they came later since we were never shown that exact moment in the actual episode. (I'm ignoring the further complications of the Alan Dean Foster adaptation.) Therefore, McCoy, Jan and Aleek-Om don't remember Spock because they weren't protected by the Guardian when the Romulans altered the timeline.
So, to reiterate, in this new altered timeline, Spock doesn't exist and doesn't come with the Enterprise to the Guardian's planet. Therefore, McCoy, jan, and Aleek-Om don't remember Spock because their memories of Spock were wiped before they entered the Guardian's influence.
Since the full history of the Guardian was never explained, maybe those who are back in time in the Guardian are protected from timeline alterations like those within its immediate presence on the planet. Kirk and the red shirted guy remember Spock when they return from their trip but no one else does because of the altered timeline by the Romulans.
Spock's "faulty" memory could be caused by being young and not being trained in the Vulcan mental abilities at the time; and later by following Vulcan tradition in suppressing all emotional instances out of themselves (like Spock suppressing Kirk's memory of loving Rayna in "Requiem for Methuselah"). Since the Romulans eliminated/killed Selek in this new timeline, Spock has to go back and pose as this "Selek" in order to correct the timeline by preventing his own death as a boy. Not knowing exactly what's going on in the Vulcan past, Spock may not have been in exactly the right place at the right time as the original Selek in order to keep I-Chaya from dying when he (older Spock) saves young Spock. This causes a new little time ripple that the older Spock says never happened the first time around. Young Spock is saved and older Spock returns to the present after completing his mission just as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy did in "City."
Kirk and Spock are unaware of the bigger picture with the Romulans altering the timeline. So Kirk is constantly grasping at straws to explain what's going on. It was never the historians replaying Vulcan history in the Guardian that caused young Spock's death but the Romulan tampering of the timeline. Young Spock's death was because the Romulans killed Selek not because Spock was in Orion's past and couldn't be in two places at the same time.
When Kirk asks if Selek looked like how Spock does now, it's more of a solution to the problem rather than an explanation of it. With his fuzzy memory, Spock goes along with it because it appears to be the only answer in solving the problem. If Spock was protected by the Guardian's influence while back in Orion's past, his memory of the le-matya attack would have been with the original Selek and not an older Spock. Was there ever an instance in the series that actually said Spock, or Vulcans in general, have an eidetic or photographic memory?
