Why kill off David Marcus?

[The Toddler]

Never cared for the protomatter plot development nonsense. Saavik's little spiel at David is amusing to me. David isn't responsible for what terrorists and rogue Klingons get up to.

He was trying to do something wonderful, and he was fully aware of what it could be potentially turned into. He was somewhat naive, sure, but the idea that he somehow needed to "pay" for taking a supposed shortcut does not track. By that logic I guess the first humans to use fire should have paid the price for the mass misuse of it later.

As David himself pointed out, Genesis may never have worked at all if he hadn't used protomatter, and frankly, we don't actually know that Genesis would have been unstable if it had been deployed properly. It also likely would not have become the "galactic controversy" had it been deployed secretly and quietly as was intended.

I was glad when Sarek stepped in to defend Kirk and co, along with Genesis itself.

Agree completely. I was just about to post something exactly along these lines. The protomatter plot (and tumble with the knifey Klingon) was a cheap writer's trick to turn David into some kind of tragic hero. For all anyone knew, Genesis could have worked if they used a real planet.

 

[Therin of Andor]

For me the biggest disappointment is that we never got to see Carol's reaction to learning that her son had been murdered.

"You Starfleet bastard, you killed my son!"

"You killed my bastard."

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

For me the biggest disappointment is that we never got to see Carol's reaction to learning that her son had been murdered.

You're right. That could have been a strong & emotional scene.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

I remember reading an article in Starlog in which Merritt Butrick said that he didn't want to be known only as Captain Kirk's son, so he asked to be killed off.

 

[The Old Mixer]

What? Some of us watched Square Pegs!

 

[Shikarnov]

It's funny this thread should appear now... I was just watching TSFS the other day and remember thinking that killing David made no sense. Sure, it was good drama, but Saavik would have been the logical choice:

As a Vulcan, she is naturally stronger than a human.

As a Starfleet officer, she would have had combat training far in excess of David's as a civilian scientist.

Try as I might, I can see no reason why she would not have engaged the enemy in order to protect civilians in her charge.

 

[Ronald Held]

Better Johnny Slash versus Kirk's son?

 

[stardream]

Why kill off David Marcus?

Because he was annoying?

 

[BillJ]

It's funny this thread should appear now... I was just watching TSFS the other day and remember thinking that killing David made no sense. Sure, it was good drama, but Saavik would have been the logical choice:

As a Vulcan, she is naturally stronger than a human.

As a Starfleet officer, she would have had combat training far in excess of David's as a civilian scientist.

Try as I might, I can see no reason why she would not have engaged the enemy in order to protect civilians in her charge.

The Klingon was getting ready to stick the knife in Saavik's back, David lunged in to protect her. Probably figured she shouldn't give her life for his mistakes.

 

[Timby]

The Klingon was getting ready to stick the knife in Saavik's back, David lunged in to protect her. Probably figured she shouldn't give her life for his mistakes.

There's also an element of misogny in the Klingons' dialogue in the film, implying that the crew really has disdain for women. Saavik is chosen to be killed by the goon, and when Kruge is describing the hostages, the way he delivers "... and a woman" is dripping with contempt.

 

[FormerLurker]

True. There is no qualifier associated with her. The Human is a "weakling Human", the Vulcan is a "Vulcan Boy", and she's just "a woman."

 

[eyeresist]

Kruge is describing the hostages, the way he delivers "... and a woman" is dripping with contempt.

What part of Kruge's delivery does NOT drip with contempt? (Apart from when he kills his spy - who was female.)

 

[alpha_leonis]

It's funny this thread should appear now... I was just watching TSFS the other day and remember thinking that killing David made no sense. Sure, it was good drama, but Saavik would have been the logical choice:

As a Vulcan, she is naturally stronger than a human.

As a Starfleet officer, she would have had combat training far in excess of David's as a civilian scientist.

Try as I might, I can see no reason why she would not have engaged the enemy in order to protect civilians in her charge.

Good points, all. Spock was (only) half-Vulcan, and at that point he had no StarFleet combat training at all, yet in the middle of one of his age-mutations he was able to kill a Klingon pretty much effortlessly. Without a weapon.


There's one aspect that I think would have made David's death even more dramatic (perhaps) and ironic (definitely), in the context of the story. Suppose David had been killed, not by one of the Klingons, but by Spock himself during his Pon Farr? After all, he was overwhelmed with the blood fever anyway, and if he was capable of reasoning in any way, he may have perceived David as "competition" for Saavik's sexual attention. (And of course, either participating in sex or committing murder during Pon Farr is literally a life-or-death action for the pon-farring individual.)

Seriously: imagine if the price of saving Spock was not only the death of David, but the necessary death of David at Spock's hands? Talk about angst.

 

[FormerLurker]

^So many people keep saying some variation of this that to many it has become the truth, but I have since I became aware of it wondered; if the 'blood fever' of Pon Farr affects a Vulcan's ability to reason, that is, use his mind, can a mindless Vulcan truly experience a full-on Pon Farr? Wouldn't the mere contact from Saavik have been enough to make Spock's mindless body calm from what really is nothing more than an echo of what Pon Farr would be to a Vulcan who can think?

 

[eyeresist]

I'd say Pon Farr is instinctual, so experience has nothing to do with it. What is odd to think about is that the finger-trick Saavik uses is either a physiological technique or a meditation technique. But meditation does require a reasoning mind, in which case Saavik's action would be ineffectual. So it must be some kind of neural pressure technique.

 

[slappy]

Honestly, the idea of Kirk with a dead son he never knew is better for his character than a little weenie nerd that Kirk is obligated to get to know.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Honestly, the idea of Kirk with a dead son he never knew is better for his character than a little weenie nerd that Kirk is obligated to get to know.

All I could think about when Kirk was in the Nexus was that his biggest dreams (at least, the few we saw) involved rekindling lost romance and getting boned, and none of them were about going back to spend more quality time with the son he walked away from at birth and lost again before they had a chance to really get to know each other.

 

[Melakon]

That might have been difficult to accomplish, since Merritt Butrick died 5 years before Generations.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

That might have been difficult to accomplish, since Merritt Butrick died 5 years before Generations.

I was talking about Kirk using the Nexus to have a second chance at raising David from infancy. If this hypothetical scenario were ever to have been filmed, they would have cast babies and children, not Merritt Butrick.

 

[JediKnightButler]

I'm in agreement with most of what has been posted already and I was fine with it. I wasn't expecting/hoping for a perfect ending. Kirk ultimately had to sacrifice some things in order to save Spock. Plus, David's death does serve a future purpose in establishing Kirk's character arc in TUC (though I'm sure it wasn't planned out that way at the time). There's no getting around it. STIII was pretty dark but it was impactful on the characters/story.