I agree that the announcement of the pregnancy maybe was a bit much, surely we could have filled in with our imagination there, but love at first sight and marriage after only two months hasn't been unheard of in the real world. It happens.
It wasn't two months. It was less than a week. That's why some of us are saying it's too rushed.
Okay, the insta-romance is something that's a staple of many TV shows and movies, and Star Trek is no different... and one of the worst offenders in that regard isn't actually Kirk - it's McCoy (in "The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"). He was single, married, and single/separated/divorced (they don't tell us that part) again, all in about 3 days, tops.
What I find problematic about the fast-forward type of romance in this episode, though, is that it's less than a week for Kirk and Carol to meet, fall in love, have sex, he proposes marriage, then she says "No, and by the way, I'm pregnant, it's a boy, stay away from us." I don't care what kind of technology or medical advances they have in the 23rd century - that just doesn't make any sense and while it was going on, I was having a "WTF???" reaction. If the episode really had taken place over the course of a month or two it would have been more believable. And honestly, I get the impression that while Kirk fell in love with Carol, Carol didn't fall in love with Kirk. And then there was that whole bit about her announcing her pregnancy, juxtaposed with the dialogue about her birthing planets... yikes.
Just to nitpick something that hasn't been mentioned yet - I found the rescuing scene a bit odd. After the preview, I had hoped for it to be more - heroic? It took way too long for Kirk to look around to find Carole if he knows he has only seconds. Also shouldn't he have at least visibly gulped a bit of air in before he went down, like a diver? In the end it looked more like she rescued him.
Agreed. And I don't remember McCoy mentioning that Kirk should be checked over after beaming down into all that radiation.
I missed this in the original post. All of Marcus' personal possessions had just been blown to kingdom come and she came to the Enterprise wearing the only outfit she had left to her name and, one would assume, kept getting it washed overnight. At least that was supposed to be the explanation. If you recall, almost every "guest" to the Enterprise didn't change their clothes. The chick in The Deadly Years comes to mind. Elaan of Troyus is probably the notable exception.
Are modern audiences just so habituated to the idea of the replicator that we just assume now that this is how the characters get the clothes they change into? Obviously the TOS era stories don't have replicators, so where did Carol's other clothing come from - does the Enterprise keep a clothing bank on board that loans stuff to people? Did Carol mention to a female crewmember that "I've got a date with the Captain; I wish I had something else to wear besides my uniform" and the other person just found some stuff in her closet to lend?
Yes, some people spend time thinking about things like this...
The two characters with the most frequent costume changes (six) were guests to the Enterprise: Lenore Kaidian and Khan.
That's not actually a problem, though, as both characters had their belongings with them (I assume that when Khan was brought aboard the Enterprise his personal belongings were brought along as well).
I've only read the last couple of pages, so I don't know if this has been addressed, but while I enjoyed this outing, finding it well made and well acted, etc., I have to take issue with the relationship between Carol and Kirk. Not that it took place, mind you, but when. David is about 30 in TWOK, and looks it. But if this shows David's actual origins, he can't be any older than 13, and then dying at 13/14. That just doesn't work for me.
This is the reverse problem I've had with NV/PII's inclusion of Peter Kirk. While Peter was 13 in his first appearance, he shows up on the Enterprise two years later as a 24-year-old. Thus, Peter is way too old on NV/PII. But David is now much too young. Think about it. These two characters should be about the same age, 13-15 or so during TOS, and 30 or so during TWOK. Of everything that NV/PII has done, these two make me wonder just how closely they are actually adhering to the established timeline.
With Peter Kirk, I just assumed they'd decided to apply SORAS (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome). So that didn't bother me. The only thing that did bother me about Peter Kirk was his long, floppy hair. Even if long hair was fashionable in this version of the 23rd century, it still looked unprofessional. Other than that, I liked the character.