Kirk and 20th cen money

[Crewman47]

Watching COTEOF the other day and I realised that with Kirk and Spock trapped in 1930 for at least a week, Kirk had some knowledge and experience of using money but when it came to the movie TVH Kirk only had a little knowledge to know that money was still being used but he had to ask if a $100 was a lot for a pair of glasses.

Did he somehow forget how to use money between these two points or was a mistake on the writers part?

Any thoughts?

 

[FalTorPan]

Assuming anyone mentioned COTEOF to Trek IV's writers, they probably ignored it in order to play the gag for laughs. And that's not a bad thing.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Crewman47 said:
Any thoughts?

COTEOF was never a favorite episode of mine, but ST:TVH (i.e., Star Trek does Galactica: 1980 right down to invisble spacecraft being left in public parks and 20th century scientists receiving technical assistance care of their friends from the future) sucked harder than a billion solar mass singularity.

TGT

 

[FalTorPan]

The God Thing said:

Crewman47 said:
Any thoughts?

COTEOF was never a favorite episode of mine, but ST:TVH (i.e., Star Trek does Galactica: 1980 right down to invisble spacecraft being left in public parks and 20th century scientists receiving technical assistance care of their friends from the future) sucked harder than a billion solar mass singularity.

TGT

I agree on both counts.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Crewman47 said:Did he somehow forget how to use money between these two points or was a mistake on the writers part?

No, he was just aware of inflation

 

[jayrath]

He was still aware of money in whale-ville. He even said, "They're still using money." Kirk only asked if what he was getting for antique glasses was "a lot," and he (and Spock, especially) seemed to be unaware of the meaning of "exact change."

Seems reasonable to me. How many Americans today even know the value of recently-used British currencies such as pence, ha'pennies, crowns, shillings, etc.? Would you recognize any of these? If someone offered you a shilling for your glasses, would you think that was a lot?

And that's just from the 20th century and in our own language!

 

[Ronald Held]

I did not see any problem. Kirk has little idea of the value of 1980's money, even if he remembered what 1930's dollars bought.

 

[Kryton]

Also remember that City was some 20-ish years earlier from Kirk's perspective, but the time period of TVH is around 50-plus years later.

Holy crap, Janeway was right! Temporal Mechanics DOES give you a headache!

 

[Ronald Held]

That is another important consideration

 

[CoveTom]

The God Thing said:
COTEOF was never a favorite episode of mine, but ST:TVH (i.e., Star Trek does Galactica: 1980 right down to invisble spacecraft being left in public parks and 20th century scientists receiving technical assistance care of their friends from the future) sucked harder than a billion solar mass singularity.

"Don't mince words [TGT], what do you really think?"