Kirk's Eyeglasses

[Wishfire 2]

In ST 2, McCoy gives Kirk a pair of eyeglasses for his birthday. In ST 4, Kirk pawns them in the 20th century. Spock points out that they were a gift from doctor McCoy, and Kirk points out that they "will be again, that's the beauty of it."

 

Is it possible that they are the same exact pair of glasses? I know that they started with lenses and ended without, but who's to say that in 300 years someone didn't put in new lenses?

[pittykitty 0]

That's a good question.

[Odie 0]

I am not sure about that. Glass in the Glasses have changed a lot seen the Kirk's glasses where made. The only he "get them back" if he come back to the 23 century at the same moment that he left. That would mean he didn't lose the pair of glasses.

Edited December 12, 2004 by Odie

[Wishfire 2]

I am not sure about that.  Glass in the Glasses have changed a lot seen the Kirk's glasses where made.  The only he "get them back" if he come back to the 23 century at the same moment that he left.  That would mean he didn't lose the pair of glasses.

288657[/snapback]

 

I think that what Kirk meant was that since McCoy gave them to him in the 23rd century, and he pawned them in the 20th, they'll be around for McCoy to buy in the 23rd centurt. I guess that would make the glasses a physical paradox...

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

Well... You could always consider that to be a change inthe timeline. You notice that Starfleet doesn't mention transparent aluminum after Star Trek IV..... That would mean something replaced it....

[Wishfire 2]

But the transparent aluminum thing is an entirely different type of timeline change. In that case, transparent aluminum (a future discovery) brought back to a point before it should have been discovered, could have resulted in the discovery in something stronger. Transparent titanium, for instance. Nothing that would severly alter the time-line, but still a difference. (Then again, at the end of Generations we see that the skylight at the top of the Enterprise-D's bridge was shattered like glass, not dented and twisted like metal would be...)

 

But with the glasses... Put it this way... McCoy buys them in the 23rd century. Kirk goes back in time and pawns them. From there, they are bought by a collector, and pass back and forth between various collectors. Kirk is a collector of antiquities, so McCoy, 300 years later, buy them for Kirk, who goes back in time and pawns them... See where this goes? That's the paradox. And it also results in two major questions...

 

1. Wouldn't, with each loop, the glasses get older and more brittle?

2. Where did they come from in the beginning?

 

Ah, temporal physics and the possibilities of a true paradox. Enough to blow a fuse... or keep your mind going in circles for an infinity. Fun stuff, no?

[Matt 0]

I'd say they're the same pair of glasses.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

At the risk of getting a headache I'll say Kirk never saw them again after he pawned them because he returned to the future BEYOND the point he first received them.