XPost: alt.startrek, alt.tv.star-trek, alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise   
   From: graham@ditl.org   
      
   Snake wrote:   
      
   > ToolPackinMama wrote:   
   >   
   >>Graham Kennedy wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>>So you're just guessing? You don't actually know what he   
   >>>did after the end of the episode?   
   >>   
   >>No Graham, I have no need to guess.  All the evidence I need to support   
   >>my stated views is in the episode itself, as I have explained.   
   >   
   >   
   > Hmmm.  And by canon she's right.  We can't 'guess', we can only go by   
   > direct filmed canon.  Anything else is an estimation of events.   
      
   Sure. But as I've said about a dozen times now,   
   there is nothing in the episode that indicates   
   whether Kirk did or did not go through with his   
   plan.   
      
   Laura suggests that Kirk's final bit about the   
   serpents was him changing his mind at Scotty's   
   incredulity.   
      
   Now I don't pretend to know either way, but just   
   for fun here's an alternate explanation :   
      
   Kirk asks Scotty how long it would take to make   
   a hundred flintlocks. Scotty is aghast, naturally,   
   because this seems to be a clear PD violation.   
      
   Kirk, obviously tired and fed up, decides that he   
   can't be bothered to explain it all over the comm.   
   He needs to talk to Scotty face to face, explain   
   what's happened like he did with McCoy earlier.   
      
   So he throws out a his little Serpents line and   
   asks to be beamed up.   
      
   Once aboard, Kirk rests up for an hour or two. Then   
   he goes to see Scotty, and orders him to make the   
   rifles. Scotty complies, and the weapons are beamed   
   down.   
      
      
   Speculation? Absolutely. But so is "Kirk would then   
   calm down and change his mind, and not give them the   
   rifles." That is every bit as speculative. In fact   
   it is more so, since Kirk talks at great length about   
   the need to give the rifles out and only one line at   
   the end indicates any doubt at all.   
      
   I am not saying it went the way I suggested. I am saying   
   that a STRICT canon description should say "Kirk did not   
   order the rifles during the episode and we do not know   
   if he went through with his plan", rather than "Kirk   
   NEVER gave any rifles out. He changed his mind."   
      
   Which is the more accurate description of what happened   
   in that episode? Which assumes facts not in evidence?   
      
   --   
   Graham Kennedy   
      
   Creator and author, Daystrom Institute Technical Library   
   http://www.ditl.org   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)