@Knixon : Good point!

Excellent point. Unfortunately, no scripted answer. However, McCoy could have been scripted to face death or a future as scrambled molecules in the transporter-a reality in real life getting closer all the time.

I've said elsewhere that I expect the transporter to be the least-likely Star Trek technology to ever actually exist. And if it DID exist, nobody with any sense would ever use it. Because it would kill them, and make a copy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZzSrAIp-E

All wrong the way you feel,Knix, or rather your feelings do not translate into reality good at all . Time travel by the Enterprise is foundation free in real life. The transporter can be a reality one day and it will be necessary from time to time ( in fatal disease cases especially).

Assuming that the transporter works as it appears to even in Star Trek, making a copy of the individual, I suspect many people with terminal illnesses wouldn't be interested in dying early so a disease-free copy of themselves can be made.

Knix, your being dense more than is thought humanly possible. The fatally sick person may need to get across the world in minutes to get to a special doctor who can cure them. Other possible needs to. I am not speaking of this crazy notion of cloning. All that was ever said usually in the original was molecules get scrambled up and reassembled. The Enemy Within was about crazy as Spock's Brain. There is a thought on TV that is something is only said once and is contradicted in all other episodes that something is to be discounted. A possible analogy. McHale's Navy. In one ep Mr. Parker ( well played by Tim Conway)has an uncle who is an admiral in the US Navy. In all other episodes I saw Parker had no connections special to him in the Navy. I do not think his admiral uncle ever was referred to again. Therefore we can discount him in the show canon. Back to ST. If this cloning transporter bit was never brought up again on the original show of ST we can discount.

Further analogy. In one ep McHale's Navy Parker acted like heroic and it turned out it was him imagining this as he was writing his book. Maybe Parker's admiral uncle was only a chapter in his fictional book too. For ST in 'Day of the Dove' they had hallucinations brought on by telepathic aliens. Maybe some other aliens were making Kirk believe that transporter bit.

PS Both MN and ST started Stanley Addams ( Adams).

Well, maybe. But even in the Enterprise series - episode 1 - they referred to converting people into a "data stream." I think once that happens, the same person doesn't exist.

Ultimately, we have to base our judgment on understanding what happens. Because a true copy of the person would have the same memories etc, so from that - or "asking questions that only the person would know" etc - it would be impossible to tell.

"Converting into a data stream" would explain duplicate Kirk, duplicate Riker, etc. So I suppose there's more evidence for that perspective, than for the other.

Meanwhile, are you claiming that the duplicate Kirk was just something he dreamt? How would that explain the other crew members seeing him too?

Another use. Saving people in doomed space capsules. Like Galileo 7 and The Menagerie.

F-Troop. Like Star Trek this show also guest-starred James Gregory. The eps first had Parmenter's name being shouted out to the Indian enemy and they would retreat loudly saying 'Scourge of the West'. They did this I seem to remember in at least two eps ( one definitely the pilot). This was canon to the show.

Here are two shows that took a single reference and rejected it. Felix having a younger sister in The Odd Couple. They decided Fel was just joking when he said he took her to his prom. That he made her up. He had a weird sense of humor.

Get Smart. The Chief has a wife in just one early ep. Later he was a never married bachelor.

The two shows and ST starred gorgeous Marj Dusay.

@Knixon said:

I've said elsewhere that I expect the transporter to be the least-likely Star Trek technology to ever actually exist. And if it DID exist, nobody with any sense would ever use it. Because it would kill them, and make a copy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZzSrAIp-E

This post.

It didn't focus as much on the transporter, but you can find more on the subject here:

https://ricochet.com/1639244/most-unlikely-things-in-star-trek-or-sci-fi-in-general-but-especially-star-trek/

In short, Knix, one element introduced in one ep of a fictional TV show never referred to again and contradicted by multiple eps of that show will not count. James R.Kirk does not count.Speculation that Mitchell's increasing mental ability powers were showing their limits are completely worthless. James T. Kirk counts. And in F-Troop ( which bad Mash is partially based on) Parmenter's scourge of west detail counts as well.

The transporter stuff was reinforced, not ignored/omitted or contradicted. The "Mirror Universe" could have been ignored as you say, except both DS9 and Enterprise "turned it up to 11."