Arena Questions.

[Borg451]

Hi..

2 Main Questions..

How many fingers does the Gorn Captain have on each hand?

and

Does Arena SAY that Kirk and Gorn Captain fight on Cestus III...

i onmly know cos Ben Sicko says so in TaT.

Than ku

 

[Mister_Atoz]

I can't answer the finger question, but the fight between Kirk and the Gorn presumably took place on a planet in the uncharted solar system the two ships came across during the chase. Cestus III was the location of the Federation Outpost the Gorn destroyed which was why the Enterprise was chasing the Gorn ship in the first place.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Kirk and the landing party came under fire from Gorn forces on Cestus III, though the real one-to-one battle was on an unknown planet.

 

[Redfern]

Either the "gloves" were sculpted in a "three-finger" slip cast fashion or the performer in the suit tended to hold them in a "Vulcan salute" stance, but the surface detail suggested four fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

How many fingers does the Gorn Captain have on each hand?

The right number.

What, are you gonna argue with him about it?

Does Arena SAY that Kirk and Gorn Captain fight on Cestus III...

i onmly know cos Ben Sicko says so in TaT.

Yeah, but are you gonna believe some Sicko?

Sisko referred to Kirk "fighting the Gorn on Cestus III." Kirk and his landing party fought the Gorn (plural, the Gorn invasion force) on Cestus III using long-range weapons, then pursued the Gorn ship to an uncharted system in Metron space. From there, Kirk and the Gorn captain were teleported an unknown distance to a planet or planetoid prepared for them by the Metrons.

 

[Timo]

...Although if there were a need, one might say that the planetoid was transformed by the Metrons into a facsimile of Cestus III for the purposes of the contest. Or even that the Metrons transported Kirk and the Gorn skipper back to Cestus III for the fight, as they would perceive the fight as being a primitive territorial squabble over that particular piece of dirt.

That is, if we (or some future writer) wanted to take Sisko hyper-literally here.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Although it probably was not the writers' intent (they probably conflated the two locations), to me, this adds an air of verisimilitude to the TaT scene -- Sisko would probably remember the exciting high points of the lecture (or novel, or holofilm, whatever), and come away with "Gorn attack, Cestus III, face-to-face combat, Kirk jerry-rigs cannon, Metrons." I'm sure I conflate events that happened to me twenty years ago, let alone historical points one hundred or so years previous.

FWIW, Coon's script (and Blish's adaptation) states in the stage directions, and in a voice-over by Kirk, that the two combatants have been transported to a small, unidentified asteroid.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Christopher]

...Although if there were a need, one might say that the planetoid was transformed by the Metrons into a facsimile of Cestus III for the purposes of the contest. Or even that the Metrons transported Kirk and the Gorn skipper back to Cestus III for the fight, as they would perceive the fight as being a primitive territorial squabble over that particular piece of dirt.

That is, if we (or some future writer) wanted to take Sisko hyper-literally here.

No need. As already mentioned, Kirk (and his crew) did fight the Gorn (plural) on Cestus III, in the first half of the episode. So Sisko's statement can be taken quite literally and be 100% consistent with the facts.