# What happened to McCoy before Kirk and Spock reset the timeline? (CotEoF) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229 "2019-09-14T18:58:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229/21 "2019-09-15T02:13:32Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > However, Spocks conclusions are illogical. We don’t know McCoy literally pushed her out of the way from a car. At first, Spock doesn’t know if McCoy kills Edith or saves her. All he knows from her obituary is that she dies in “some sort of traffic accident.” It isn’t until later, after they learn about the future pacifist movement, that Kirk and Spock realize she was meant to die in 1930, and McCoy must somehow have prevented this. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229/22 "2019-09-15T05:07:55Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > This book answers your exact question far, far better than I ever could. > > [https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Original-Crucible-Provenance-ebook/dp/B000JMKRG6](https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Original-Crucible-Provenance-ebook/dp/B000JMKRG6) > > I read most Trek books, but would recommend this one to even casual fans. Yeah this book is one of their best and was designed to be accessible to people who only know the show and don’t read the books. Highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229/23 "2019-09-15T07:08:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Yes, of course. What I meant was, it took weeks before they bumped into each other because McCoy arrived much later than Kirk and Spock. > > Their time and place of arrival were based on Spock’s estimate of when to jump through the portal. They all ended up in the vicinity of the mission because Edith Keeler was a “focal point in time” (Spock’s words). Just checked Harlan’s original script, and the focal point in time concept is in there. In fact, the guardian (actually there are multiple Guardians) say they can’t go back to the exact time when the person who changed history (not McCoy in the original version) arrived, but they gave a choice of before or after that time. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229/24 "2019-09-15T11:27:27Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Err…who’s Eddy then exactly? And this is his sofa, is it? Back to the OP (sort of), is that episode considered the best one, pretty much universally? He was still sort of out of it when Kirk and Spock showed up, right? He had just decided that everything else was an illusion, but Edith was real. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229/25 "2019-09-15T14:56:26Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Back to the OP (sort of), is that episode considered the best one, pretty much universally? > > He was still sort of out of it when Kirk and Spock showed up, right? He had just decided that everything else was an illusion, but Edith was real. Yes, and it was Roddenberry’s favorite episode. McCoy had recovered by the time he was reunited with K&S, though he jokingly told Edith he thought his surroundings were an illusion (but she wasn’t). I suspect that by the time of the accident, he’d figured out he’d been displaced somehow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mccoy-before-kirk-and-spock-reset-the-timeline-coteof/840229.md?page=1)