History Recap / StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever

* BlatantLies: Kirk tries to pass off Spock's ear shape as being the result of surgery after an accident with a mechanical rice picker while in Asia. Naturally, no one buys it.

* DownerEnding: Kirk goes after [=McCoy=] after the latter briefly goes mad on an experimental drug. The two end up traveling back in time, where Kirk meets Edith Keeler. They hit it off and it seems like he's finally found true love, but it's then revealed that she's doomed to die in a traffic accident. Kirk thinks about saving her life--- only to learn that if she survives, she'll start a pacifist group that will delay the United States's entry into World War II, which will in turn allow Hitler to develop atomic technology and defeat the Allied Powers. Despite truly loving the woman, Kirk is forced to watch, knowing full well what's about to happen, as she starts crossing the street where she'll be struck. This episode ends with the only profanity uttered in the original series: Kirk's famous line "Let's get the hell out of here."

** Spock claims that with V2 ballistic rockets at their disposal, Nazis would be able to deliver nuclear payload anywhere they want. In reality, V2's maximum range was only 380 kilometers-- not even close enough to endanger the USA or other distant allied powers. In addition, the V-2 rocket had a payload that weighed about 2,000 pounds. That was pretty much the limit that it could carry, so it never would have been able to even get off the launch pad with a primitive nuclear weapon based on 1940's technology. Fat Man and Little Boy, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, each weighed just over 10,000 pounds. The Germans ''did'' have some more advanced delivery systems, such as the long-range ''Amerikabomber'' project, the V-5 multistage ballistic missile, and the ''Silbervogel'' orbital bomber (whose concept was eventually developed into the Space Shuttle), but only the first of these ever made it into the prototype phase.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Edith Keeler was loosely based on Aimee Semple [=McPherson,=] whose biography Ellison was reading at the time. During the interwar years, [=McPherson=] was a popular evangelist, known to her fans as "Sister Aimee." If you've ever wondered why the credits refer to Edith as "Sister Edith Keeler." this is why. While [=McPherson=] really was an idealistic pacifist who advocated on behalf of the poor, she was also a controversial public figure embroiled in various scandals. Edith also seems to lack [=McPherson's=] more religious views, such as her advocacy of faith healing, which she personally practiced on her followers. On the other hand, [=McPherson=] pragmatically abandoned pacifism when World War II came around, so at least she has that over her fictional counterpart.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Edith Keeler was loosely based on Aimee Semple [=McPherson,=] who was a popular evangelist during the interwar years. While [=McPherson=] really was an idealistic pacifist who advocated on behalf of the poor, she was also a controversial public figure embroiled in various scandals. Edith also seems to lack [=McPherson's=] more religious views, such as her advocacy of faith healing, which she personally practiced on her followers. On the other hand, [=McPherson=] pragmatically abandoned pacifism when World War II came around, so at least she has that over her fictional counterpart.

* ForWantOfANail: Spock explains to Kirk that because Edith Keeler was not hit by a car and killed in 1930, she became the leader of a pacifist movement that delayed American entry into World War II for so long that the Nazis developed the atomic bomb first, and neither Starfleet nor the ''Enterprise'' ever existed.

** Changing history by making the USA enter the war late or not enter it at all would have many, many consequences which could possibly help the Nazis win World War II[[note]] And it should be noted that "Hitler wins the war" does not necessarily mean "Hitler conquers the world," though even a negotiated Nazi victory would undoubtedly still be a very unpleasant geopolitical condition[[/note]]. Britain could be deprived of vital supplies and eventually forced to surrender. Russia could be unable to launch their great 1943 counteroffensive without all those means of transport and communication they got from the Americans, and without the US strategic bombing campaign sapping its frontline strength, the Luftwaffe could've been a ''much'' bigger problem on the Eastern Front. Japan could build its empire in Asia unopposed. However, the screenwriters decided to pick one factor on which the USA not partaking in war would have little to no impact whatsoever. Contrary to popular belief, the Nazi nuclear program was not nearly as advanced as the Manhattan Project, and it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage successfully derailed in 1943]] by the British Special Operations Executive, without any American involvement.

** Kirk and Spock travel back in time to Depression-era New York in order to avert a disastrous event that changed history, but they don't know what it is. Fortunately for them, the information is stored on their tricorders. Their tricorders are damaged and Spock works to fix them, but he quickly finds it almost impossible. No matter how smart Spock is, the tricorder is centuries ahead of the most cutting-edge technology available at the time, and he's been trained to use highly advanced tools in a time where getting a pound of pure gold or platinum for your amateur electronics project is no simple matter - he compares it to working with "stone knives and bearskins". He's reduced to working with consumer-grade electrical goods such as lightbulbs and radio sets, and can only get a few seconds of functionality out of the tricorder after days of work. Also, in order to buy those materials he and Kirk need to work menial odd jobs and live in a homeless shelter, and in order to fit in they steal clothes off a clothesline... where they are promptly confronted by a police officer.