Spock has met Carol before but not David.

[ClayinCA]

Except that
A Spock and possibly McCoy know Carol.
Carol was in a serious relationship with Kirk
Kirk had a serious thing for a blonde lab tech
Carol is blond and in the sciences and almost certainly would have been a lab tech at some point.
It fits. Unless you care to name another blonde scientist from Kirk's past you can nominate as "That blonde lab tech.

Well, there's Janet Wallace...

Kirk's relationship with Janet Wallace, which ended in June or July of 2261 further constrains the window in which David Marcus might have been conceived. However, Wallace was also a blond medical researcher, which does raise the possibility of another candidate for the "blond lab technician," though that would constrain the window further.

See?

Seriously, though, Janet Wallace was actually the prototype for Carol; as Allan Asherman's excellent The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) shows, the earliest drafts of what became the second Star Trek film did indeed feature Janet Wallace, not Carol Marcus, as Kirk's old flame/mother of his child.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That's still speculation though...unless Bennet or Meyer come out and say yes the lab tech mentioned in the series is what we used as the basis for Carol Marcus it's a moot point. I don't get why so many are so passionate about this. It's not really even important. The topic was about Spock meeting Carol before not Kirk. You guys have gone in circles about Carol being the blond lab tech and gotten off topic, how this is even remotely to the point is beyond me. I've proposed a couple of theoretically possible suggestions as to how Spock could have known or met her and yet all I keep seeing is post after post about the blond lab tech.

 

[Timo]

Well, you answered the original question already, so there's not much left to discuss there...

The thing is, Spock basically knows everything about everything. It would make perfect sense for Kirk to give him a little wink-wink about him also knowing everything about Carol Marcus, especially if Spock had no real excuse for knowing anything about her.

If Kirk had anybody else as his trusted lieutenant besides Spock, said lieutenant would probably know zip about Kirk's old flame, or about the project leader of the top secret Genesis endeavor... So Kirk jabs "But you of course know" and Spock goes "Indeed".

That's the downside of the whole thing: we cannot deduce anything from it. We cannot use it as evidence that would help define the character histories of Kirk or Spock or Marcus, because Spock would know even about obscure people who have either tenuous connections or none at all to the main characters. Heck, he chastizes himself for not knowing about an obscure Earth astronaut (or space probe project leader?) from the early 21st century...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Admiral_Young]

To further postulate about Spock knowing Carol but not David...one could assume that during one of these scientific conferences that David was simply too young to attend with his mom or was being cared for by a relative or close friend. This might be quickly rejected given the line that Carol gives Jim "I wanted him with me, not gallivanting across the galaxy with his father." It is also possible that Spock did know David as the son of Dr. Marcus but was unaware of his relationship to Jim Kirk for obvious reasons.

As for the lab tech...the only thing I'll say about this is that as posted previously there seems to be inconsistent time frames for Kirk to have engaged in a serious relationship with Carol back at that time. We know from his personality that he is a womanizer and a career oriented person who is dedicated (some might say obsessed) with his job. It's possible that the two of the them had a simple fling that resulted with Carol becoming pregnant and not wanting to hold Jim to any responsibly even though it is clear that Jim wanted to be part of his child's life. It is an interesting, unexplored part of his past.

 

[Iamnotspock]

I actually like that it was left unresolved, leaving us to read into the quick exchange.

Which is just the way Nick Meyer likes it too.

 

[David cgc]

In the "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary" computer game, there's a level where the Enterprise has to solve a small Romulan problem on a research station where Carol's working. McCoy and Spock meet her then, though I don't remember the dialog specifically enough to tell if it was implied that that was the first time. Also, I believe Spock was either poisoned or high at the time.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Spock was high...he had taken a dose of some gas. I remember the scene, Carol is working at some station and there are early hints of the genesis device I believe in the game.