Oh! You didn't mean ST-III or ST-IV; you meant City on the Edge of Forever!

The trouble with playing God is that no human (Herb included laugh ) has sufficient knowledge to do so. OTOH, returning the multiverse to its "original" configuration sounds like a good thing, if it saves many lives, right?

Trouble is, there's no way to know if the many lives saved may not doom (in some yet later time period) even MORE lives. Orson Scott Card's The Redemption of Christopher Columbus comes to mind.

Anne, it's a question many SF authors besides Ellison and Card have dealt with, and every solution is different. I've yet to meet one that didn't make me think. I look forward to reading your take on it.

Do you know the most surprising thing about divorce? It doesn't actually kill you, like a bullet to the heart or a head-on car wreck. It should. When someone you've promised to cherish till death do you part says, "I never loved you," it should kill you instantly.

- Under the Tuscan Sun