The Man Trap

[Neutral Zone]

I watched this episode last night, and i know it was it was an early one, but was Kirk having an off-day?

He, Bones and two crewmen go down to the planet surface on a routine check of the inhabitants, all two of them!

Nancy turns out to be past fling of the good Doctor and when he sees her he notes that she looks exactly the same as she did all those years past. Kirk remarks that she looks older than Bones can see and says as though he had met her before, which I believe he hadn't.

A crew member remarks that she looks like some woman he knows from apleasure planet and shows her in that form.

So clearly she looks like whoever she wants to please the man (probably so can salt vamp him!).

Kirk still only sees Nancy and no other woman. The Kirk we know is a walking erection when it comes to women, but there was reaction. Infact, he actually acts like a captain for a change (and Shattners acting was quite good and not over the top for a change).

So, was the captain having an off-day where women were concerned?

 

[kkozoriz1]

It's been a while since I've seen it but IIRC didn't McCoy mention that he knew Nancy before Kirk met her for the first time? If so, Kirk was expecting to see the woman that McCoy mentioned. McCoy remembered her as she was when he knew her. Kirk saw her as would would have been.

Darnell didn't have any preconcieved notions of her so he saw a different woman.

 

[Warped9]

Kirk's remarks after seeing Nancy Crater for the first time merely reflect that he sees an older woman and definitely not in her late twenties.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Bit that's to be expected if all he knows about her was that McCoy knew her years before, thus the appearance is based on his expectations.

 

[Timo]

Also, if Ruth is anything to go by, Kirk always had a thing for older women - so this would be a normal "on" day for him, not an "off" one.

Really, in TOS, Kirk only seemed to confess to a romantic attraction to (the absent and possibly even late) Ruth; Kirok, a somewhat different person, fell for Miramanee. The other women in Kirk's life during the show were colleagues, mission objectives, threat forces or pawns, more economically manipulated with a soft word than with a phaser blast... For all we know, Kirk's picture of the ideal woman would always include ten years of head start on him.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[THX1138]

Don't forget Edith Keeler!

 

[Timo]

...The target Kirk was sent across time and space to eliminate, with the future (or the present) of the Federation at stake? I'd put her in that "threat force" category.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[THX1138]

But he DID fall very much in love with her.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Edith Keeler might in retrospect have been a threat force, but I don't think that's what she was to Kirk. Athough Kirk can and does seduce women to neutralize threat forces, I don't think that was Kirk's strategy in this case. It looks like he "fell in love" with her for some other reason. I think he was aghast that Edith Keeler was the focal point in time and that "Edith Keeler must die" and was surpised at the notion of her posing a threat, not *banking* on it. It looks like Kirk's "falling in love" must have had some other motivation for Kirk. Perhaps he really was in love with what would appear to be a thirty-three year old woman.

 

[Timo]

All right, I'll withdraw my initial claim and choose another strategy.

"Obviously and without doubt, Kirk could only seriously fall in love with women between 30 and 50, regardless of his own age, and would thus see Nancy Crater that way, too." Howzzat?

No, really, I think the original argument is good enough: Kirk had a mental image of what Nancy must look like, McCoy had another, and both got what they expected to get. I wonder what Robert Crater saw?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Myk]

Because the Salt Creature couldn't imitate the Enterprise.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

It's been a while since I've seen it but IIRC didn't McCoy mention that he knew Nancy before Kirk met her for the first time? If so, Kirk was expecting to see the woman that McCoy mentioned. McCoy remembered her as she was when he knew her. Kirk saw her as would would have been.

Darnell didn't have any preconcieved notions of her so he saw a different woman.

Exactly. Kirk knew that Nancy was an old flame of his good friend McCoy, so he expected to see a women in her 40s or 50s. Therefore, that's what he got. Plus, Kirk observes the "bros before hos" rule, so he wouldn't ever horn in on Bones' action.

Darnell obviously hadn't had shore leave in far too long, so his thoughts led him... in a different direction.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Shatner's acting was rarely "over the top" in the first year of the series, and was particularly restrained during the first ten episodes or so.

There were occasional...exceptions...when a script called for him to be particularly broad - "The Naked Time" and "The Enemy Within" come to mind.