The thing that I always found kind of unique (yes, I said "kind of" unique

) about this episode, (that they sort of touch on in the interview) is that even though James Kirk had a love interest in many episodes, (generally somebody either in a 60's stewardess outfit or a young woman in a bathing suit and a sparkly sash...James Bond-type "relationships") this was the
one episode where he was dealing with a woman of substance...
A woman who at the outset wasn't particularly impressed with him...a woman who had no knowledge of James T. Kirk, the 23rd Century swash-buckling commander of the USS Enterprise...
Initially to her, he was just another down-on-his-luck guy who happened to show up at her Depression Era soup kitchen...
Edith Keeler...
And then he has to confront the reality and conflict of who he
really is (a person from the future who doesn't belong in 1930's America) and why he's there, versus the personal feelings he's developed, and the "butterfly wing" negative effect that acting on his personal feelings could have on the whole course of human history...