Back in the eighties, we would go see movies many times in the theaters. Don’t think people do as much of that today.

At our fifth or sixth viewing, at the end of the film, during the ceremony on Vulcan, a gong is struck repeatedly. One of my buddies yells out “Divert all power to the Chinese Vulcan!!”. The whole theater laughed, since we all had seen the movie many times already.

What does “grok” mean any way?
where does it come from?
i remember seeing it in pictures from the 60’s “I grok Spock” but never worked out what it meant?

Can someone please tell me?

Oh and nice trailer for a nice film- but ST:III does have a bit of middle child syndrome…

I dunno. I think the shot of the Enterprise in flames, falling toward the planet and then streaking across the sky in a ball of fire was a pretty big giveaway.

Well, I’m not sure who these people are that were so calloused as to laugh during that scene. Scotty missed a note – who cares? That’s hardly detrimental to the scene’s emotional impact in any significant way. He’s a Scot, and he’s playing in tribute to his fallen commander. Doesn’t seem in the least bit inappropriate to me. Whenever those bagpipes start to play, I find myself moved in a very real way, even all these years later.

And again, I’d argue that the emotional impact of TWOK is why Kirk breaks down more significantly in TSFS. He’s clearly intensely effected in TWOK – he stumbles on the word human, finding himself choked up. He’s still tormented later when we see David visit him in his quarters. And at the beginning of TSFS, he states in his log entry that ‘the death of Spock is like an open wound’. After he enters the turbolift, he very nearly collapses from the weight if it all. Just because he doesn’t openly weep in front of his crew doesn’t mean he isn’t devastated. He clearly feels defeated, almost hollow after he falls to the engine room floor after Spock’s death. Crying wouldn’t have given any greater depth to the loss he’s clearly feeling at that moment.

Consider this – by the time Kruge has David executed in TSFS, Kirk has lost his best friend, risked his command and finds himself and his closest friends in danger of being killed by Klingons. Add to that the sensless murder of his son by Kruge, and his more outward reaction is totally understandable. He’s not just crying for David, but for all the loss he’s been forced to endure. He’s moved into a different stage of grieving. Just because he expresses the grief differently doesn’t mean the grief is of a greater or lesser value than the other.

Morrow IS a bad admiral. He nearly don’t care for anything, not even for the rituals and mystics of one of the federation most important members: The Vulcans. He not only obvious know not the right age of the Enterprise, he don’t allow Kirk to return to Genesis – for no real reason. Why should he (or how could he) think Cpt. Esteban will handle that matter with his tiny ship better than Admiral Kirk with the Enterprise or the even the brand new Excelsior under his command? The next, he sends spies from the security service after McCoy (Isn’t that a bit KGB-style?). Or was it realy luck, that there was one agent in exactly the same bar as McCoy? Morrow was so inapt, that he placed this joke of a captain (Styles) on the centerseat aboard the brand new Excelsior. IMO, Morrow is responsible for all the disasters in TSFS. He should have been fired right after (and perhaps he was. There was no Morrow in the hearing of TVH).

You’re definitely right there. Morrow’s line is just nonsense. Even *if* you could somehow stretch that the Enerprise’s last major refit was 20 years before (and I don’t see how that works under any interpretation), he would know the ship was older. It could have been fixed with a simple modification to 40, which would seem more reasonable, but somebody fell asleep at the continuity machine on that one. I guess we could just say Morrow is ignorant, or just flatly mistated the facts. He wouldn’t be the first ‘bad’ admiral we’ve seen in Trek! Nor the last. Haha.

The only thing which cannot be reasoned, IMO, is Morrow’s assertion that the Enterprise is 20 years old during the events of TSFS (which is what started this discussion in the first place, I think).

As you are already aware, I share your opinion about TAS. “Yesteryear” is difficult to ignore since it is repeatedly referenced in live action Trek (and I like it), but I think the rest of it remains non-canon, and in the same category as the novels, comics, and reference books.

You’re both right, of course, that writers simply screwed up the dates. I guess it just depends on our own personal points of view as to which interpretation we’re willing to accept. Since Kirk pointedly makes reference to that date on the bottle of ale – and since there’s no dialogue that suggests to me he’s speaking in anything other than Earth years – I’m more comfortable with the notion that Kirk & Kahn were simply rounding off.

Some like to place the 4th & 5th year of the original 5 year mission as TAS. Personally, the only TAS episode I consider worth its weight is ‘Yesteryear’, so I go with the other line of thought that the first season of TOS is essentially the 2nd or early 3rd year of the 5 year mission. Sure, there’s a certain leap required since it isn’t specifically mentioned in dialogue, but it does mesh better with the dates mentioned in TWOK (if Space Seed took place in 2267-2268). Then it could be between 16-17 years, which wouldn’t be unreasonably close to 15. People do frequently refer to events happening a certain number of years ago, when the actual number could be a few years off. Plus, stardates in the first season (actually, all 3 seasons) tended to go backward and forward without rhyme or reason, so who is to say when that episode actually takes place, chronologically. I always keep in mind that ‘The Paradise Syndrome’ covers at least 2-3 months, so it’s hard to say at times how much time passes between episodes.

Anyway, that’s just me. I’m sure we all have our little justifications for our personal ‘fanon’. None of it holds up very well under intense scrutiny anyway. I still have fun with it! :)