Spoilers Well, I guess we know now... (SNW "Subspace Rhapsody" spoilers)

[Noname Given]

Since David remembers the 'overgrown Boy Scout', I figured that at first Kirk would just show up randomly as duty permitted and Carol finally had enough of that part-time parent crap.

He didn't remember the overgrown Boy Scout per se, all he knew was that James Kirk was someone that is Mother dated when she was younger. David didn't even realize Kirk was his father until the events of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. Carol never told David who his father was because she was afraid if she did David would go looking for him.

 

[Ssosmcin]

David definitely recognizes Kirk in the Genesis Cave. He has a moment where he looks at Kirk and mutters "You" before he lunges at Kirk with his knife. Kirk definitely doesn't recognize David at first, though, probably because he hadn't seen him since he was a kid.

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Well, to be fair, that only means he knows what Admiral James T Kirk looks like.

And he didn't say "you" like "it's you!" It was more like "you..." as in "you bastard." The tone of voice made it feel like the start of a thought. He "knows" Admiral Kirk ordered Reliant to take Genesis. And that he represents the military.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Are we supposed to assume that in his entire life, David Marcus never asked his mother who his father was?

And that Carol would just blithely lie about it or tell him no, she was going to keep it a secret?

He knew, from the very beginning. He knew.

 

[Paul755]

thats what I was saying. It’s very possible David knew the whole time Kirk was his old man. He just never said anything to Kirk until the end of the movie. There is nothing on screen saying one way or the other.

 

[Sci]

I always figured Jim knew about David throughout TOS. I also always figured that he kept away primarily because Carol didn't want him to be part of hers and David's lives, but also because on a certain level he didn't want to be tied down to a child. James T. Kirk is a great man... but great leaders are often shitty parents or partners.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I took STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN as having a somewhat progressive (for the Eighties) take on deconstructing the nuclear family. Carol Marcus raised David Marcus as a single mother and Kirk respected that decision. There's been speculation that they were married (and in some spin off media) they were as well as divorced while other media just has her pregnant with his child but Kirk only found out later.

My interpretation is that Kirk definitely knew and their relationship didn't work out for very understandable adult reasons.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Are we supposed to assume that in his entire life, David Marcus never asked his mother who his father was?

And that Carol would just blithely lie about it or tell him no, she was going to keep it a secret?

It's not unheard of for some families to have secrets, even from their own children. From my own experience, I didn't know I had a slew of brothers and sisters until I was an adult. I was raised mainly by my mother and didn't know much about my absent father as we simply didn't talk about him and I wasn't really encouraged to ask.

Families can be strange...

 

[BK613]

He didn't remember the overgrown Boy Scout per se, all he knew was that James Kirk was someone that is Mother dated when she was younger. David didn't even realize Kirk was his father until the events of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. Carol never told David who his father was because she was afraid if she did David would go looking for him.

I know, I have seen the movie once or twice.
I never said that David knew, only that he remembered Kirk hanging around with his Mom (the way he says it—and Carol's reply—imply a shared memory to me. YMMV).

 

[BK613]

It never seemed to me that David actually remembered Kirk, but that he had heard stories of him from Carol. Presumably she had brought him up during a previous "Starfleet bad" disagreement.

It felt like they were discussing someone they both knew. I don't see how you get the 'Boy Scout/Never a Boy Scout' difference of opinions if only one of them actual knew Kirk. But that's just me.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Well, to be fair, that only means he knows what Admiral James T Kirk looks like.

Well, yes. That's why I used the word "recognized" in my post. I wasn't implying that the "You" line meant that David knew his father was Kirk at that point.

 

[the G-man]

They've actually been very respectful of canon. They're not throwing it away. It's as definitive now as it ever was.

The Gorn would like a word.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Well, yes. That's why I used the word "recognized" in my post. I wasn't implying that the "You" line meant that David knew his father was Kirk at that point.

Fair enough, I misinterpreted. It was late and I was still reeling from seeing my first Star Trek musical...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Gorn would like a word.

Since the Gorn appeared in exactly ONE episode of TOS and we found out almost nothing about them, I'm good.

 

[Jedi Marso]

It's not unheard of for some families to have secrets, even from their own children. From my own experience, I didn't know I had a slew of brothers and sisters until I was an adult. I was raised mainly by my mother and didn't know much about my absent father as we simply didn't talk about him and I wasn't really encouraged to ask.

Families can be strange...

Indeed, they can be. But most young men would have a burning desire to at least know the identity of their father.

 

[Noname Given]

Since the Gorn appeared in exactly ONE episode of TOS and we found out almost nothing about them, I'm good.

We found out they had enough information to know which Federation ship was on patrol in the area, and convincingly fake a message from a Starfleet Commodore, and knew enough about Federation ship approach procedures to not raise suspicion when their ship approached Cestus III, so that they could do a complete surprise attack.
^^^
That's not information they got after the attack, as the Cestus III colony was so destroyed, I doubt there was any data left to be retrieved from the wreckage. They got all that data way before they decided to attack the planet.

So no, the producers of strange new worlds haven't really been Gorn cannon out of shape.

 

[the G-man]

Since the Gorn appeared in exactly ONE episode of TOS and we found out almost nothing about them,...

Well, except for the fact that in "Arena" none of the Enterprise crew (including SNW [semi]regulars Kirk, Spock and Uhura) had ever even heard of the Gorn, whereas in SNW they are a Klingon level threat whom all three have more or less personally encountered

 

[fireproof78]

Kirk seems the only one unfamiliar.

The others never have the opportunity to discuss it with him. And the Gorn captain appears physically different to the younger forms.

It stretches but doesn't break.

 

[Supervisor 194]

If memory serves, Kirk refers to the "creature that calls itself a Gorn" which could mean that Kirk has never heard of a Gorn, or it could mean that the Gorn Kirk sees doesn't look like Gorn he is familiar with.

 

[fireproof78]

If memory serves, Kirk refers to the "creature that calls itself a Gorn" which could mean that Kirk has never heard of a Gorn, or it could mean that the Gorn Kirk sees doesn't look like Gorn he is familiar with.

Here's the transcript:
Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn. Large, reptilian. Like most humans, I seem to have an instinctive revulsion to reptiles. I must fight to remember that this is an intelligent, highly advanced individual, the Captain of a starship, like myself, undoubtedly a dangerously clever opponent.

 

[Supervisor 194]

That still works. Either Kirk has never heard of the Gorn, or what the Metron called a Gorn doesn't square with what Kirk is familiar with. The second interpretation has quite a bit of latitude.