Technology and society of the alternate continuity

[horatio83]

Yet he does not work on the Enterprise in order to be able to afford the nice apartment we see in TWOK, he works because he loves his job. The main point of TWOK is that his comfortable life behind a deck in Starfleet HQ and in this lovely apartment is the wrong life for him.
Note that this is not a crazy or even a socialist idea, every workaholic works for the sake of the job and not for the sake of money.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd call Kirk a glory hound, not a workaholic. He didn't miss the work, he missed the thrill.

 

[horatio83]

Sure but it's part of the job.
Think about the stereotypical old patriarch of a family company who is unwilling to retire despite his old age. Of course he is not a literal workaholic, he fears that once he gives up command things won't run as smoothly anymore (or rather merely pretends to fear this and actually really fears that things will run as before despite of his absence) or that he is "castrated" once his son takes over ... but all these issues are nonetheless associated with his job.
You can also take the loner who fears to lose the social contact with his colleagues. Again not a workaholic but again also somebody who is indirectly addicted to work.

 

[M'Sharak]

I'd call Kirk a glory hound, not a workaholic. He didn't miss the work, he missed the thrill.

"Sorry, Spock - I can't hear you over the sound of what a rush it is to be a starship captain."

 

[F. King Daniel]

 

[sariel2005]

I'd sort of assumed that in the TOS era, there was no PHYSICAL money, to speak of, more an electronic credit system. Presumably there is a way to convert this into physical currency that the other cultures use, otherwise how was McCoy able to purchase Romulan ale? ( Unless he was trading medical supplies ).
Same goes for the charter ride in STIII - apparently it takes more money to buy the permits to travel to restricted areas, So some sort of buying and selling occurs in the 23rd century ( And given the outrage the pilot has when he is told about Genesis, it is reasonable to assume he worked within the law).


As to food synthesisers, the Bar was fully stocked with branded bottles so they are certainly in production, and Scotty certainly did not have access to Food processors since he bemoaned the food packs and wanted a sandwich when Kirk and Spock met him.

 

[MattWallace]

That still doesn't explain kirk saying they abolished money in one of the movies

Actually, he doesn't say that at all. Certainly nothing about money being abolished, or not existing; merely that he and his people don't use it.

The only exchange about money (that I can remember from the films) is from "The Voyage Home", and is, in its entirety:

Dr. Gillian Taylor: Don't tell me... you don't use money in the 23rd Century?
Kirk: Well, we don't.

He says nothing about money being "abolished", n ever even implies that it doesn't exist; merely that"we" (he and his people) don't use it.

And even that might be a statement of generality, and not an absolute. As in they use cash at times, but not so frequently that they carry any with them on a regular basis, and that even if he did have any on him, that it wouldn't be in any form that it'd likely be recognized as currency in your average Italian restaurant in late 20th Century America.

Just after arriving in downtown San Francisco Kirk says "They're still using money. We need to get some"

 

[chardman]

And so? That too could have been a reference to physical currency alone, and doesn't in any way imply that there isn't something hi-tech yet analogous in their own time.

"They're still using [paper] money [instead of federation credit implants, and besides, even if they did, none of us will have accounts established in our names for a couple of centuries, and still wouldn't have any cash to spend. So...] We need to get some [currency of the realm]."?

A bit too talky for my tastes, and utterly irrelevant to the average audience member.

Better to just stick with "They're still using money. We need to get some" as it gets the general conundrum across quite nicely, even if it isn't quite accurate and directly contradicts other films and programs in the series.

 

[Ian Keldon]

^ That's the way I read it at least.

 

[MattWallace]

And so? That too could have been a reference to physical currency alone, and doesn't in any way imply that there isn't something hi-tech yet analogous in their own time.

"They're still using [paper] money [instead of federation credit implants, and besides, even if they did, none of us will have accounts established in our names for a couple of centuries, and still wouldn't have any cash to spend. So...] We need to get some [currency of the realm]."?

A bit too talky for my tastes, and utterly irrelevant to the average audience member.

Better to just stick with "They're still using money. We need to get some" as it gets the general conundrum across quite nicely, even if it isn't quite accurate and directly contradicts other films and programs in the series.

No need to get defensive. I was just pointing out another case of money being mentioned in TVH. To quote:

The only exchange about money (that I can remember from the films) is from "The Voyage Home", and is, in its entirety:

Dr. Gillian Taylor: Don't tell me... you don't use money in the 23rd Century?
Kirk: Well, we don't.

He says nothing about money being "abolished", n ever even implies that it doesn't exist; merely that"we" (he and his people) don't use it.

 

[chardman]

Not "defensive" at all, just clarifying a point that your post indicated maybe needed clarification.

 

[matsuiny2004]

will there be universal translators in the alternate continuity? Did they have them at this time?

 

[F. King Daniel]

They've had them since Star Trek: Enterprise, 100 years previously. Were they used in this film? It depends if you think Nero was speaking English or was having it translated by computer. Marc Okrand, who made up the Klingon language, made a Romulan language for the movie, but it was only used for background radio chatter on the Narada. Early plans to have the Romulans speak Romulan and be subtitled, were dropped.

(IIRC, the early version of the script does state that Nero knew English, but not Klingon. His Klingon interrogator knew English, but not Romulan. So, in the (deleted) scene, the Klingon interrogator spoke English)