They didn’t say they were “duplicated”, they simply said they didn’t work. Hard to assert that a brick or tent would be in the same boat. 
If you want to get serious about it, Kirk truly wouldn’t just sleep with anyone. There were plenty of shows where the woman threw herself at him and he looks annoyed (or at least put off). When they try to use him, he uses them right back–fair’s fair and all that. Frankly, if an alien attempts to manipulate and seduce, they deserve what they get (male or female or other). Just MO.
Really, the only one that skeeves me out is the Edith Keeler one–I cannot imagine anyone finding Joan Collins attractive (unless you’re into fucking plastic mannequins). It’s implied, (like most of the sex), but not for certain that he and Edith “consummated their love”, but if they did–UGH.
Muldar was a PITA, no? What a nasty bit of goods–and I saw no reason for the men to be so fawning, either. Roddenberry did fall down on showing fully feminist women–the other ambitious female was a deranged nutcase who wanted to kill Kirk (and she had been dumped by him at the Academy). Unfortunately, the 1960s were not all that revolutionary for women.
I haven’t seen the episode in years, but as I recall, when McCoy said that no one as beautiful as Miranda should have to spend her life talking to ugly aliens, she turned it right back on him, saying no one as charming as McCoy should be locked up on a space ship.
Maybe not fully feminist, but at least spunky.
IMO, she was a type of feminist–but Kirk takes her to task (to his–and the writer’s–credit not because she is ambitious) for not trusting others and wanting to control everything. It skates close to ball busting bitch, but doesn’t quite make it.
There WERE strong women on the show–Nurse Chapel among them. Janice Rand did a great job of showing a woman just doing her job. She may well have had feelings for the captain, but she still performed her duties well. Uhura is another wonderful example–Nichelle Nichols did a great job keeping Uhura professional (the only thing about her is that I never found her line “Captain, I’m frightened” to be plausible–something in her delivery; there are 2 shows where she says it and she does not show fear in either one), and there were several female scientists portrayed (ok, usually they were batshit insane or completely hostile aliens, but work with me here!).
I think they tried to be honest about all genders, but were stymied by the times, the sponsors and the network. Too bad they never showed a gay alien (although the alien men’s costumes for A Wink of an Eye look straight out of La Cage Aux Folle).
I liked Edith Keeler. She was cute. Good looking, too.
ETA: That episode was the best Star Trek ever did.
Indeed.
I’d rather have seen Elizabeth Taylor, though. 
Nah, she was already getting fat and ugly by 1967 (ducking and running).
<shudders> I cannot look at Joan Collins without seeing some type of Black Widow Spider–she looks like she not only kills her “lovers”, but eats her young as well.
There’s something about her facial features, along with her overpolished voice and mannerisms that just squicks me out.
It is a very good episode, though. Not my favorite one, but one of the best for sure.
Elizabeth Taylor would have been WORSE. I think it should have been someone less “glamorous”, someone spunkier–Debbie Reynolds or similar (I am not up on my 60s actresses). I do like that they chose someone close to Kirk’s age and not someone 15 years younger.
I think she intended to mate with Kirk more than once. But yes, he may have sired a child on her.
You know, we men actually CAN choose not to have sex with a given hot chick. In Kirk’s case probably easily, as he was never hard up.
David doesn’t choose anything. “Wink of Any Eye” is about 15 years before The Wrath of Khan, and Dr. Marcus Junior is clearly older than that in the movie. He was probably conceived before Kirk took command of the Enterprise.
I agree, but someone else pointed out that the child would have perished with the rest. I was no fan of the Scalosians, but I must admit that the pregnancy would have been quick–and I count that a good thing!
Well, it is to laugh. The major topic of conversation (among men–why, yes, I’m generalizing to a great degree here) seems to be is she hot, would you do her?, I’d do her etc.* Sure, I get you CAN choose, but so few of you actually pass up any opportunity. But really, it’s less about men being dogs in general** and more about the writers wanting to add interest to the episodes.
But I agree, re Kirk. Plus, he had that Victorian principle, Duty, which has long since gone out of fashion in RL and in TV shows. He knew what he owed to his ship and crew and wouldn’t put that in jeopardy lightly. What I really like about the show is watching him use the female aliens as much as they (attempt) to use him. It’s an interesting byplay in amongst the red shirts getting offed and Mr Spock gazing [del]into his crystal ball[/del] Viewfinder (probably at Vulcan porn)***.
*I am mostly joking.
**I like giving you shit. 
*** Now there’s a “fascinating” subplot, begging to be explored…
What do you mean David doesn’t choose anything? He chooses to not contact Carol after he gets to watch the fruition of his mother’s life work. It’s like she doesn’t exist (which she didn’t, for the scriptwriters). It annoys me because the show did try (by 60s standards) to show strong women (even if they were in miniskirts). Plus, David and Mom were really close. It doesn’t make sense for her not to be mentioned (I can see not adding a layer of complexity to the plot of that movie).
Interestingly, I think the only deliberate alien seduction to benefit the Federation in the series is actually by Spock himself, with the hottie Romulan commander.
(OK, Kirk comes on to the alien-from-another galaxy-in-human-female-form who’s hijacked the Enterprise, but he was really trying to make another alien jealous.)
IIRC, Kirk knew about David. He mentions that he let Carol raise him the way she wanted to. His beef was more that she didn’t tell David about him.
Indeed Kirk knew about David, but likely hadn’t seen him in at least two decades, hence his question to Carol: “Is that David?”, as opposed to “Who is that?”
It’s yet another major selling point for this film - the situation with David is a somewhat mildly bitter custody issue, “old wounds” and all, and gets introduced to the audience without fanfare. Compare that to the TNG episode where Picard (sort-of) finds out he has a son - dun-dun-DUUNNNNNN! (cut to commercial on this dramatic note!)
Kind of.
ETA: :smack:
I have GOT to start reading posts instead of skimming them…
This was brilliant. I mean, when is the opportunity to crack this joke ever going to come up again? Well done.
thwartme
That was an entrenched part of the culture at the time, and a hard thing for writers to shake.
But David KNEW about Kirk-or thought he did. He was quite bitter over his cowboy of a dad, and then he found out he’d misjudged him. So was Carol feeding him crap for years (and I know something about that–my mother could never say a good thing about my dad to us kids after the divorce) or did David build up a false Kirk all on his own?
Spock did indeed seduce that Romulian, but Kirk used his charms on many a female alien to help his crew–Deela was one of them, the catspaw lady was another. There are so many women I can’t recall them all right now, but he did it as a matter of course. It only stood out when Spock did it because of the difference in mating ritual and the fact that it was SPOCK.
Sure we pass up opportunities. I have a co-worker I could probably sleep with, and I abstain not because I’m married but because I find her so odious. I wouldn’t sleep with Anne Coulter either.
While men are often willing to sleep with women we are emotionally neutral about, we generally won’t do it with women we actively dislike, no matter how hot they are.
I’ve always thought that 60s!Kirk was pretty lonely, actually. Not that he didn’t want to be captain; but the decision he made early in his career–to go balls-out after command and never to get serious with a woman because it would be unfair to her and unpleasant to him-- was one he regretted once he actually was in the Big Chair.
Sssssuuurreeeeee you are.
I know!
That was a a typo; I meant to write that he doesn’t prove anything, or rather his existence proves nothing about Kirk’s fertility. He has to have been conceived long before “Wink of an Eye.”
That said…
I think it does make sense. One, his birth happened before the series, I believe, for reasons already stated. Two, for 60s!Kirk, communication was not as instaneous as it was for Picard, or even for us. There’s plenty of times when it’s clear that it’s going to take days or weeks for a message to get to the nearest Starbase; he couldn’t chat with Carol all the time even if she had wanted him to, which clearly she didn’t.
As an aside, one 70s Trek novelist–maybe one of the Haldemans–seemed to think that the Enterprise spent a great deal of its time simply laying communication buoys, so that eventually it would be possible have the sorts of conversations with Command that Picard & Co. did.
Me, either. But I don’t find her remotely attractive–she looks like an android to me.
Ok…I guess I just haven’t come across any men who actively dislike really attractive women…
Yes! This is driven home by one of the early episodes when he is “altered” in some way (can’t remember the episode) but he tells McCoy (or was it Spock?) that he’s sure Bones (or Spock) has noticed how attractive X is (some chick on the ship) and that as a crew member, he can approach her, but as Captain, Kirk cannot… I know he felt the responsibility of his command quite intensely–one of the reasons I admire him as a character.
I really am. And it’s a LOT of fun. 
Ok–I suppose. But it does prove that Kirk did fire loaded rounds at some point. (then again, wouldn’t a Springer type Space show be a hoot? Carol accusing Kirk of being the babydaddy and Kirk all regulations on her ass etc…)
I know this happens, but I cannot imagine not being in contact with the father of our kids, barring an abusive situation or an addiction of some sort.
And now I see the Enterprise as laying interstellar cable for the Federation…
In The Corbomite Maneuver McCoy and Kirk are in Kirk’s cabin when Rand brings Kirk lunch - a salad. Kirk says something about the headquarters genius who assigned him a female yeoman, and McCoy says something about Kirk not trusting himself. Kirk answers that he has a woman, named the Enterprise. I think similar dialog was in a couple of other episodes, but this was the first filmed after the pilots.
And this very thing is what City on the Edge of Forever was about.