Don't get smart, Tiny.

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Trek III: When Sulu asks the security guard if "they're keeping you busy," what on earth made the guy stand up and tell Sulu, "Don't get smart, Tiny." Sulu was being pleasant enough, and smiling in commiseration. Did George Takei miss a note in the script that he was supposed to come across as sarcastic, or did they cut part of a more antagonistic exchange from the finished film? It just seemed to escalate quickly for no apparent reason.

 

[Orac]

Misdirected self-loathing due to low job satisfaction. A common human flaw.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Was he human?

 

[Henoch]

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SULU: Where's Admiral Kirk?
GUARD #1: With the prisoner.
SULU: Get him quickly. Commander, Starfleet wants him right away.
GUARD #2: Uuhh! (yawns)
SULU: Keeping you busy?
GUARD #2: Don't get smart, Tiny.

This looks like a Federation (not Starfleet) facility. Sulu, wearing civilian clothes, barges in and starts demanding action from the guards. Sulu only flashes his ID to the first guard and the second guard doesn't see it. Could it be possible that the guard had no idea who Sulu is? To Guard #2, he comes off as just some smart-ass civilian who could be more respectful to the guards who are working the graveyard shift.

 

[Kor]

The guy was a stereotypical security guard, that's all.

Kor

 

[NCC-73515]

The yawning is key here

 

[fireproof78]

To Guard #2, he comes off as just some smart-ass civilian who could be more respectful to the guards who are working the graveyard shift.

Indeed, yes. Sulu comes across as bit of gentle ribbing that could be taken as condescension.

 

[Vger23]

The guy was just kind of a dink.

It happens from time to time. There’s no deep meaning or causality in this case.

 

[Oddish]

The 23rd century has jerks, just like the 21st does. And the 20th did. And other centuries I wasn't/won't be here for.

 

[Tosk]

Guard yawns.
Sulu says, "Keeping you busy?" Which can be read sarcastically like if someone catches you slacking and they say, "Working hard?"

Simple as that.

 

[Oddish]

Guard yawns.
Sulu says, "Keeping you busy?" Which can be read sarcastically like if someone catches you slacking and they say, "Working hard?"

Simple as that.

Still, that guy was being manifestly threatening. Or at least intimidating. Not saying he deserved a beating, but I'm not really sorry he got one.

 

[Timo]

It's more or less his job. He holds the dregs of the society in his cells, he gets visitors who are pals to these dregs of the society, the society probably would be better off if he roughed up those visitors every time.

He is Starfleet, though. Or at least he wears the arrowhead. Indeed, we never learn of a civilian police organization in the UFP, only of these "Federation Security" spooks, who nevertheless deliver McCoy to this Starfleet gaol. Which is sort of funny: TOS suggests that jails no longer exist and crime is an illness for which there is a cure, but the need for a police force to bring the criminals to the asylums for the cure should still remain, and it's a fairly odd job for the military to handle. Out in the frontier, yeah, all right, but in San Francisco?

McCoy probably was on Starfleet grounds when caught - the whole city might count there. And he was Starfleet himself. Perhaps there does exist a separate civilian thief-catcher force that also supplies the likes of van Gelder with patients, and crime is simply so rare that we never ever see the slightest glimpse of this force in any Trek adventure?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Oddish]

It is funny that so many elements of life are left the same. Like in "Non Sequitur", when Harry picks his anklet. Two security guys appear and run after him. As opposed to just locking on his signal and beaming him to the brig.

 

[fireproof78]

Guard yawns.
Sulu says, "Keeping you busy?" Which can be read sarcastically like if someone catches you slacking and they say, "Working hard?"

Simple as that.

Pretty much, this, for me.

 

[Tomalak]

He is Starfleet, though. Or at least he wears the arrowhead. Indeed, we never learn of a civilian police organization in the UFP, only of these "Federation Security" spooks, who nevertheless deliver McCoy to this Starfleet gaol. Which is sort of funny: TOS suggests that jails no longer exist and crime is an illness for which there is a cure, but the need for a police force to bring the criminals to the asylums for the cure should still remain, and it's a fairly odd job for the military to handle. Out in the frontier, yeah, all right, but in San Francisco?

McCoy probably was on Starfleet grounds when caught - the whole city might count there. And he was Starfleet himself. Perhaps there does exist a separate civilian thief-catcher force that also supplies the likes of van Gelder with patients, and crime is simply so rare that we never ever see the slightest glimpse of this force in any Trek adventure?

Timo Saloniemi

But McCoy isn't being held because he's a criminal as such, it's because they believe he's mentally ill. Clearly this isn't a particularly enlightened drunk tank, given guard #1 calls Bones' intended destination "the Federation funny farm" - but perhaps it's The Farm to which Boimler is sent!

 

[Doug Otte]

In addition to everyone's previous responses, I see it as a dramatic and comedic device. Sulu flipping the guy jumpstarts McCoy's jailbreak. But, we'd think Sulu was a jerk for doing that without being insulted beforehand.

 

[Oddish]

True. But Kirk popped his partner one in the face, unprovoked, and that didn't seem to be a big deal.

 

[XCV330]

I think the only reason McCoy was being held like that was because he was blabbing about Genesis. He needed to be isolated for security reasons. Bearing in mind Genesis planet was proof that the UFP had a fully weaponized first-strike planet killing weapon with no known defense, I could see why Starfleet wanted to not discuss it.

 

[Oddish]

It's like trying to build a nuclear reactor and accidentally developing a hydrogen bomb. You might not have intended to kill people with it, but it's skill the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever built.

 

[Grant]

Bad writing. Setting up strong man so that the heroes can knock them down