FaceInTheCrowd Wrote:Almost anything is possible where the Trek's Guardian is concerned, because the people who created it are no longer around to say what the limits of its capabilities are. It does tell Kirk that it can't change its own functions, though, and it doesn't offer to "fix" time, it just tells Kirk and Spock that if they go back and do everything right, they can fix it.
Kirk asks the Guardian, "If we are successful", and the Guardian responds, "then you will be returned. It will be as if none of you have gone".
The Guardian doesn't say IT will return them if they are successful, but there is no other entity who could do it. The Guardian would have to have power over time, otherwise all three of them would be stuck in the 1930s.
So Kirk is the one who comes up with a solution to take Bones back in time, before the cordrazine accident occurred, and just prevent it from happening. And Spock goes along with it.
I get this is a solution, but let's see, the possibility of going back in time several hours through an alien being/structure that they have no knowledge AND messing up the time continuum, or, or taking off for the nearest medical facility who could treat Dr. McCoy, hmmm, now, which is the better option?
Quote:FaceInTheCrowd
Or, the Guardian's warnings and assists could have been a failsafe that kicked in whenever travelers did something they weren't supposed to.
This is theoretical, but I suppose someone could actually have a desire to remain wherever the Guardian sent them instead of lifting a finger to fix time. Take Dr. McCoy. After Dr. McCoy recovered, he wasn't fretting around about being in a different era. It seemed like, from the way he flirted with Edith, he might have considered the possibility of remaining there. He really didn't have a choice, I know that, but, all of these people on the Enterprise are supposed to be hotshots, even for their time period. McCoy could conceivably use his knowledge to change the present by "inventing" cures which are standard for the 23rd century but are unknown in the 20th. He would have the opportunity to become one of the most famous doctors in history.
I wonder if the Guardian has the ability to punish someone who refuses to try anything to fix a mistake in time. Kirk seems to think that if he and Spock can't do it, the landing party should try it, telling them, if they fail, at least they'll be alive somewhere. I'm wondering what he means by "if they fail".
They won't have Spock or his tricorder, so there is no possibility of success. It's Kirk and Spock, or nothing. So wouldn't that mean they'd be deliberately going back into time and spending the rest of the lives there, with the knowledge they have from the future? I wonder if the Guardian would punish them in that instance.
The best way to frustrate a cyberbully is to ignore him.