Nah, Sulu’s outfit doesn’t make him look weak. But Chekov’s all-pink leisure suit, or whatever it is – egads! And, more to the point, why are they all still wearing what they wore when they stole the Enterprise? Couldn’t the Vulcans give them a change of clothes, for frak’s sake? 
(And too bad Spock got stuck in that terrycloth bathrobe. “Karate Kid Spock” – LOL Audra!)
Your wonderings about how Sarek and Amanda ever got together made me think of a limerick some other fan wrote when I was a kid (I wish I’d come up with it!):
Sarek and Amanda were dating;
Amanda was patiently waiting
For some sign of romance–
A soft touch, a slow dance–
What she got was an efficiency rating.
I think “The Man Trap” was the reference to how Vulcan treated their women, and also that Vulcan had no moon. Hive mind, am I right?
Re: two captains on a ship. You technically have three – don’t forget, Scotty gets promoted to captain of engineering in ST III. I had always assumed that didn’t “take” because he didn’t up serving abord Excelsior – but, [spoiler]in TNG, when he is rescued from the transporter[/spoiler], he is clearly addressed as “Captain Scott.”
Hey, here’s a quibble for you: when the probe completely powers down Spacedock, why do those little shuttle ships simply glide to a stop as if they were cars running out of gas? Why don’t they plummet toward the earth’s gravitational well?
But you don’t know that Earth was powerless for a few days – apparently, from the 23rd century’s p.o.v., as soon as things get so desperate and deadly, Kirk and Co. come back from the past. One minute, they are shouting, “Get him back! Get him back!” Then the window blows, and then, “Look! They’re headed for the bridge!” I always had the impression that, from the p.o.v. of the 23rd century folks, Kirk’s time trip was pretty darn near instantaneous.
I so agree with all you said.
Mike you have been busy.
At least one human visited Vulcan – Dr. M’Benga, the ship’s doctor we meet in “A Private Little War.” (He shows up again in “That Which Survives.”) He had an internship on Vulcan.
There is at least one other doctor aboard the Enterprise, but he (she?) is only mentioned by name in a throwaway piece of dialogue in some late episode – a Dr. Sanchez.
I know too much about this show.
Hey, it’s Star Trek. I can’t help myself.
As for Kirk mooching on the pizza… the glasses were only worth $100.
Five groups went out into San Francisco, each given (likely) $20.
Spock and Kirk obviously had to shell out SOME cash for the bus ride to the Whale Lab, plus who knows how many buses they had to hop on to get to the place.
In short, I think Kirk was nearly broke by the time he went to the pizza joint with her.
Meh. This was the eighties. Twenty bucks could get you through a day, no problem.
I am going to start a thread over in the Star Trek forum entitled, “Star Trek IV rejected titles”
Star Trek IV: Kirk Mooches for Pizza will be the first entry. 
The thread can be found here
Yeah, At first the argument that Kirk didn’t really “get” money and how it worked made sense, but I think he knew enough to know better.
Consider:
He knew that he needed money
He figured out (or knew) that he could pawn his glasses for money
He must know something about money and exchange.
Spock inspired many of us. I got through one of the worst moments in my life by silently chanting, “I am in control of my emotions”
He understands money and exchange – he just has no idea what $100 would buy in 1980s San Francisco.
Try this: You understand money and exchange fine, but if we’re standing in mid 1700s New Jersey and I offered you two pounds for your bicycle, is that a good deal or a bad one?
What kind of mileage does the bicycle have on it?
Absolutely, I have no idea what you’re talking about. It doesn’t mean that I’m unable to recognize that there’s some exchange that needs to happen. Kirk recognizes what money is, what exchange is, and still feigns ignorance when someone needs to be paid for the meal. The exchange rate is irrelevant. I think we can probably excuse him on account of unfamiliarity with local customs (paying for a date, or at least ‘going dutch’), but when Gillian gets the order to go, and prompts Kirk with “Let me guess, they don’t have money in the future”, he could have been a little more forthcoming.
Ah. I think I addressed this in the 'cast (though my memory might be bad – it was late Friday night). I had the same thot at first, but dismissed it after some consideration. Here’s why:
The waiter asks “Who gets the bad news?” First of all, while Kirk would likely understand that they must pay for the meal, he has no experience with actually doing it – or any of the social standards around it. It’s also likely he’d have no way of getting that “bad news” was the bill as it’s period slang.
Gillian responds, “Don’t tell me: They don’t have money in the 23rd century.” And Kirk answers, “Well, we don’t. Come on. I don’t have much time now,” then heads off screen. Gillian asks for the food to go. This brings up the second point, which is that we don’t actually know who paid for the meal.
It’s possibly that they met at the register by the door, Kirk saw her start to pay, and offered to pay for it – or part of it. (Though one wonders how far his $10 or so – assuming they split the $100 seven ways at around $14 each and he paid a bus fare – would go.)
Actually, this can get fun. Maybe he was greedy and kept Spock’s share. Or maybe he made Spock pay for the bus fare. Or both.
Point three: When she offered the duo a ride, she knew they were stony. So when she asked them to dinner, I always figured she knew she was paying. I figure that eing a little put off by the “I’m from the future” story, she issued the “no money” crack to poke at Kirk a bit. OTOH, I always thot it was cool that she gave him a ride back anyway. That must be a San Fran chick thing. If I pulled a story like that on someone in Texas, they’d leave me to rot.
Anyway, you get the idea, which is that though this scene insinuates that Kirk doesn’t pay we actually never see either of them pay. So who knows?
No odometer, of course, but grandma just rode it to the corner for scones after church.
I think we can boil this down to overthinking it as well as the writers going for humor over accuracy and logic (ironically). If Kirk can read, one glance in the menu indicates that each item has a dollar amount associated with it.
However, I’ll go for broke on this one: Kirk has twenty bucks. He spends an unknown amount on the bus and an unknown amount to get entry for himself and Spock into the aquarium. Whatever he has left…it aint much. He goes to dinner with “Sweaterina” to obtain information about his whales, therefore accomplishing his goal. When it comes to paying he gets stuck in a pickle…he has a few dollars in his pocket but he knows it is no where near enough…but also remember he has just been told there is now a time restraint…he has got to get out of there and get his crew mobilized and ready to go get some whales. He doesn’t have time to go wash dishes and wants to save some face by giving an essentially valid excuse as to why he has no money.
There. Overthot.
…or, I employ Occam’s razor. She did pay. But Kirk payed her back. Wokka-chicka-bokka-chicka-wokka-chicka
Mmmm… scones.
I will have to rewatch again, because (and not to make myself look like a male pig here) for many years now I have been a you know what fan and I never noticed the lack of a bra on the whale doc! In fact I feel a little embarrassed I didn’t notice now that I think about it.