kirk star trek personality

Uh-oh, Javascript is required for this site.

Please enable Javascript and hit the button below!

James T. Kirk

Character analysis.

(Avoiding Spoilers)

Grew up… on Earth, as the son of George and Winona Kirk. When he was thirteen, he moved to Tarsus IV for a while until a food crisis resulted in a massacre, leaving young Kirk as one of few survivors who escaped. He eventually returned to Earth and enrolled in the Starfleet Academy.

Living... in the late 23 rd century, on the USS Enterprise . Kirk was assigned to captain the USS Enterprise and is in the midst of a five year mission exploring the final frontier and “boldly going where no man has gone before.”

Profession... Starfleet Captain. He’s a damn good one too. At the academy, Kirk was the only student ever to pass the Kobayashi Maru, a Starfleet test that is literally impossible to pass (though Kirk found a way to cheat the system).

Interests… exploration and adventures. Captain Kirk lives his life at warp speed. He famously told his friend Dr. McCoy, “Risk. Risk is our business. That’s what this starship is all about. That’s why we’re aboard her.”

Relationship Status... single. He’s charming his way through every galaxy in the universe. Kirk has had so many lovers that he’s probably lost count. Sadly, almost none of them come to fruition, as he must leave and continue his mission across the universe. But Kirk’s closest and most tested relationship has always been with his first officer, Spock. 

Challenge... exploring and sometimes saving galaxies from harm, without stepping on the toes of his superiors too much. Kirk, at times, believes his way is better than the Starfleet way, and often struggles to do his job within the confines of their rules. But some his biggest obstacles come from outside the Federation – in the form of the Romulans. They share a common ancestry with the Vulcans, but unlike the Vulcans they have scary battle plans and scarier eyebrows.

Personality... charismatic, moral, and headstrong. Kirk is brave enough to save a planet under attack and charming enough to woo every woman there afterwards. Despite his strong sense of justice, Kirk stubbornly takes matters into his own hands, often disobeying orders to do what he thinks is best. He pushes his crew, his ship and most of all, himself, to the limits of what they can accomplish.

Recommendations

Fans of him also like:

Get to Know him in...

The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk, is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock, a Vulcan, was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger—boldly going where no one has gone before.

The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.

Admiral James T. Kirk is feeling old; the prospect of accompanying his old ship the Enterprise on a two week cadet cruise is not making him feel any younger. But the training cruise becomes a a life or death struggle when Khan escapes from years of exile and captures the power of creation itself.

Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis planet to recover Spock's body.

Fugitives of the Federation for their daring rescue of Spock from the doomed Genesis Planet, Admiral Kirk and his crew begin their journey home to face justice for their actions. But as they near Earth, they find it at the mercy of a mysterious alien presence whose signals are slowly destroying the planet. In a desperate attempt to answer the call of the probe, Kirk and his crew race back to the late twentieth century. However they soon find the world they once knew to be more alien than anything they've encountered in the far reaches of the galaxy!

Capt. Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's half brother who kidnaps three diplomats and hijacks the Enterprise in his obsessive search for God.

The crews of the Enterprise and the Excelsior must stop a plot to prevent a peace treaty between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.

When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.

Along with his Captain James T. Kirk and the rest of his crew, Mr. Spock is in the midst of a five-year mission exploring the final frontier and "boldly going where no man has gone before." Spock's Vulcan heritage leads him to suppress his emotions and let logic lead his life. This is especially helpful in his role as advisor to Captain Kirk, who has a tendency to dive into situations without thinking them through.

Play as two of the greatest science-fiction heroes ever—Kirk and Spock—in the award-winning STAR TREK, a completely original co-op experience that expands the Star Trek universe even further. Set in the 23rd Century world of the massively popular Star Trek reboot, this cover-based shooter immerses players in a rich, original story and action-packed combat.

Fasten your seat belts, bring your seat back to an upright position, you are about to pilot a Federation Starship on a wild roller coaster ride through the final frontier. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is a point-and-click adventure with multiple solutions and moral choices, combined with a first person starship simulator. As Captain Kirk, you'll control phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, and communications during eight separate space and ground missions. Visit different worlds and then join a landing party sent down to map and interact with alien races and artifacts. Piloting the U.S.S. Enterprise is a thrill in itself, but the actual voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols will make your adventure truly out of this world.

Star Trek: Armada is a real-time strategy game published in 2000 by Activision. The game's look and feel is based primarily on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and features a few of its main characters and ships. Playable factions include the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire and the Borg. The game received positive reviews and was noted for being one of the better Star Trek games to be made.

Star Trek: Armada II is a real time strategy video game published by Activision in 2001, based upon the Star Trek universe. The game was developed by Mad Doc Software. It is the sequel to Star Trek: Armada. Star Trek: Armada II was released by Activision a year after they acquired the full rights to all the franchise holding of the video game's franchise from Viacom. Like its predecessor, Armada II is set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era of the Star Trek universe. The game showcases events in the Alpha Quadrant between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, Species 8472, and the Borg.

Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s.

Related Characters

To take advantage of all of CharacTour’s features, you need your own personal account. Get entertainment recommendations for your unique personality and find out which of 5,500+ characters are most like you.

The Enduring Personality of James T. Kirk

A 60s Icon Through a 21st Century Lens

Positively Trek 261: The Enduring Personality of James T. Kirk

“Space… The Final Frontier.” With those four words, the voice of Captain James T. Kirk echoes through the minds of Star Trek fans everywhere. Our first peek into the Star Trek universe showed us the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise with the stalwart Captain Kirk commanding the ship and our imaginations.

In this episode of Positively Trek , hosts Barry and Dan embark on the first of many character examinations, and we start where it all began: with Captain James T. Kirk. Most notably played by William Shatner, and ably reprised by Chris Pine and Paul Wesley, Kirk is an inextricable part of Star Trek . What does this character represent? How do we feel about how he has been portrayed over the years?

Show page: http://www.positivelytrek.com/

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/positively-trek/id1501468628

Twitter: http://twitter.com/positivelytrek

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PositivelyTrek

Help support the podcast! Go to https://www.patreon.com/positivelytrek to help out!

Sunshine (version 2) by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4438-sunshine-version-2-

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Take a Chance by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4457-take-a-chance

Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

STAR TREK and all related marks, logos and characters are owned by CBS Studios Inc. Positively Trek is not endorsed or sponsored by or affiliated with CBS/Paramount Pictures or the STAR TREK franchise.

Opening (00:00:00)

Memorable Kirk Moments (00:07:42)

Kirk and Spock (00:30:34)

Patreon Shout Out (00:39:20)

Kirk as a 60s Icon (00:39:59)

Kirk the Tactician (00:43:33)

Kirk and Edith Keeler (00:48:59)

Kirk Must Be Alone (00:57:54)

Final Thoughts (01:06:47)

Closing (01:11:12)

Barry DeFord

Dan Gunther

Dan Gunther (Editor and Producer)

Barry DeFord (Producer)

Recent Episodes

• Book Club: They Sure Like Writing for Garak!
• The Vibe That Is Data
• Discovery: “Red Directive” & “Under the Twin Moons” REVIEWED
• Book Club: Morn’s Little Partner in Crime
• He’s Already More Human Than Human
• Book Club: Seven of Nine Knows Her Name!
• Book Club: Did Anyone Have Android Pulaski on Their Bingo Card?
• Just Waiting for that Kelvan Invasion…
• Book Club: The Red Path

• Entertainment
• How Kirk and Spock’s Relationship Held <i>Star Trek</i> Together

How Kirk and Spock’s Relationship Held Star Trek Together

Excerpted from TIME’s Star Trek: Inside the Most Influential Science-Fiction Series Ever . Available at retailers and at Amazon.com .

Leonard Nimoy and I certainly didn’t start our journey as close friends. Rather, like the other members of our cast, we were colleagues, feeling each other out, learning our professional strengths and weaknesses and trying to bring our A game to the show. The friendships that developed initially were in the scripts: the relationship between Kirk and Spock held the show together. The two of us were onscreen in almost every scene. Leonard described the relationship between these two characters as a “great sense of brotherhood. Spock was tremendously loyal and had a great appreciation for the talent and the leadership abilities of Kirk. He was totally devoted to seeing to it that whatever Kirk needed to be done got done.”

Conversely, Kirk relied on Spock unfailingly for his advice, knowing it would never be encumbered by any thoughts of personal gain or tempered by emotional constraints. But he also depended on him to share the burdens of command. With the exception of Dee Kelley’s McCoy, Kirk had to maintain the distance of command from the rest of the crew. That can be a lonely place if there is no outlet, and Spock provided that outlet for Kirk.

The first week we were on the air, there was one bag of mail. People were writing that they loved the show and asked for autographed pictures. That was encouraging. The second week we got three bags of mail. That was interesting. And then the deluge started, and in fact, it still hasn’t ended. We had not the slightest idea what we were creating; we were always fighting to stay on the air one more season, one more week.

What was surprising to me was that rather than Capt. James T. Kirk, the character who received the most attention, and the most fan mail, was Mr. Spock. This was long before Leonard and I became friends, and honestly, I hadn’t expected it, and I was not especially thrilled about it. I was being paid the largest salary, I was out front for the publicity, I had the most lines, my character’s fate carried the story line, my character got the girl and saved the ship. The natural flow of events should have been that Kirk would receive the most attention, not some alien with strange-looking ears.

But the spectacular performance Leonard gave occupied all that attention in the beginning. Mr. Spock fan clubs were formed. Newspapers and magazines ran features on this extraordinary new character. Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator, got a memo from the network suggesting that Spock be featured in every story. My future was on the line, and that line seemed to be getting shaky. And so, for a few weeks, I was quite jealous. It bothered me so much that I went to Gene Roddenberry’s office to discuss it with him. Gene was the voice of good reason in this case. “Don’t be afraid of having other popular and talented people around you,” he said. “They can only enhance your performance. The more you work with these people, the better the show is going to be.” In other words, the more popular Spock became, the better it was for everyone, including me, and I settled down to that lovely fact.

Spock evolved as Leonard explored all the possibilities of the character. It was a considerably more complex task than usual because there were no recognizable hallmarks. This was a brand-new character in American culture; he was carving out the path. There was no traditional right or wrong; the audience would tell him what was true. So Leonard took great care to protect Spock. He explained to me once, “No one else is going to provide that consistency and continuity. If the writers gave me the line ‘Let’s make hay under the Vulcan moon,’ it was up to me to remind them that three episodes earlier Spock had mentioned that Vulcan had no moons.”

Most of the hallmarks that became associated with Spock, in particular the Vulcan neck pinch and the Vulcan salute, were entirely Leonard’s creation. In one of our first episodes, Kirk’s personality was split into good and evil, and evil Kirk was about to kill good Kirk. In the script, Spock was supposed to sneak up behind evil Kirk and knock him out by hitting him over the head with the butt of his phaser. Leonard wasn’t comfortable with that; brawling, banging someone in the head somehow seemed below Spock’s evolved personality. It was too 20th-century. So he suggested to the director that Spock had a special capability that allowed him to put enemies out of action with little physical exertion. The director was open to the concept.

Leonard and I sat down, and he told me what he had in mind: he would pinch my trapezius muscle, and I would collapse in a heap. I have no idea where that concept came from, but I was a professional actor; I knew how to fall down. Of course, it fit Spock perfectly: an advanced civilization would know where the vital nerves are located and have the physical strength to take advantage of that knowledge to incapacitate their enemy. We did the scene: Spock came up behind evil Kirk and pinched his trapezius, I dropped to the floor, and the Vulcan nerve pinch was born. For those people counting at home, fans of the show saw the Vulcan nerve pinch being used 34 different times. I wonder how many kids since then have had to suffer through the real pain of a Vulcan neck pinch.

The Vulcan salute has become recognized literally throughout the world. In this salute, the right hand is held up with the pinkie and ring finger touching but separated from the middle finger and forefinger, which also are touching, in a modified V-for-victory salute. It was created for the first episode of our second season, by which time Leonard had a strong understanding of Spock. In this episode, “Amok Time,” Spock has to return to Vulcan to fulfill a marriage betrothal that was arranged when he was a child. If he doesn’t return, he will die. This episode was written by the great science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. This is the first time we have seen Spock on Vulcan, among the people of his race. In the script, he is greeted by the woman who is to conduct the marriage ceremony. Leonard suggested to the director that there needed to be some type of Vulcan greeting that would be appropriate. It would be the Vulcan version of a handshake, a kiss, a nod or bow, or a military salute. When the director agreed, Leonard had to create it. It was not an especially easy thing to envision. It needed to be unlike any traditional greeting, but it couldn’t be at all comical. As he often did, Leonard drew on his own life to find it.

There is a gesture he had first seen when he was 8 years old, when he went with his grandfather, father and brother to an Orthodox synagogue, and he had never forgotten it. In Jewish Orthodox tradition, during the benediction, the Shechinah, which very roughly means the feminine counterpart to God, enters the sanctuary to bless the congregation. The Shechinah is so powerful that simply looking at it could cause serious or even fatal injury. So worshipers use this gesture, in which their fingers form the shape of the Hebrew letter shin to hide their eyes. The gesture always intrigued him. “I didn’t know what it meant for a long time,” he said. “But it seemed magical to me, and I learned how to do it.” Not only did he use it as the basis for the traditional Vulcan greeting in the episode, many years later he published a controversial book of naked glamorous women wearing religious symbols, titled Shekhina. The gesture immediately caught on. Fans of the show started greeting him with it on the street—without realizing they were blessing each other.

Several of Spock’s phrases also have become part of the general culture, but none of them are as widely known as the four words said when giving the Vulcan salute that have come to have such deep meaning: “Live long and prosper.” They were written by Theodore Sturgeon for the same episode and are now known by the abbreviation LLAP—which was the way Leonard ended all his own tweets.

Spock eventually became a lasting archetype for an unemotional person. Even decades later, when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wanted to make the point that President Obama was dispassionate and distant, she referred to him as Spock. Spock’s lack of emotion became a central theme of the show. In fact, a lot of the humor in the show came from the constant sparring between the very human Bones McCoy and Spock. In one episode, for example, Spock comments, “He reminds me of someone I knew in my youth.” To which the surprised Bones responds, “Why, Spock, I didn’t know you had one.”

It is difficult for people who aren’t actors to appreciate the talent it took to create a character that has become a part of American cultural history, the enigmatic Jay Gatsby of the 23rd century, destined to be played and interpreted by other actors. In less capable hands, it could have been a very one-dimensional role, but Leonard was able to create a dynamic inner life for Spock.

It resonated with audiences. Kids began wearing Spock ears, and Leonard received piles and piles of fan mail, far more than any of the other cast members. When he was out in public, people would greet him with a raised hand or wish him, “Live long and prosper.” On a different level, I experienced the same thing. People began addressing me as “Captain” or “Kirk.” That was a new experience for me. I’d had professional success, I’d played a role in some major movies, people recognized me, but I had never before been called by my character’s name. It was odd, and in some ways, it made me uncomfortable. I’m not quite sure why, but it did. I wondered, What is that all about? It’s crazy. So often I didn’t acknowledge it, or I disparaged it.

Perhaps the strangest thing was that eventually Leonard became somewhat ambivalent about his relationship with Spock. Spock made Leonard’s career. In each of the three years the show was on the air, Leonard was nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actor. TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest characters in TV history. Leonard became well known and in demand because of the original series. But the new fear, replacing “I will never work again,” was that he was so strongly identified as Spock that he could never escape him.

For someone who proudly described himself as a character actor, being so strongly typecast he could not play other roles was a terrifying possibility. His first autobiography, published in 1975, was titled I Am Not Spock. The title, he explained, came from a meeting in an airport in which a woman introduced him to her daughter as Spock—although the child was never convinced. It also came from the publisher’s desire to profit from the popularity of Spock as well as create a little controversy. It was not, Leonard always insisted, meant to be a statement about his feelings about Spock, and he said if he ever had the opportunity to portray any fictional character, without hesitation he would choose Spock. And several years later, when he did write a second autobiography, it was titled I Am Spock. He had come full circle.

Adapted from Leonard , by Willam Shatner with David Fisher. Copyright 2016 by the authors and reprinted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• What Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests
• How Far Trump Would Go
• Why Maternity Care Is Underpaid
• Saving Seconds Is Better Than Hours
• Welcome to the Golden Age of Ryan Gosling
• Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
• The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeriesJamesTiberiusKirk

Characters / Star Trek: The Original Series - James Tiberius Kirk

Edit locked.

    open/close all folders 

Captain James T. Kirk

Played by: William Shatner

Dubbed in french by: yvon thiboutot (tos), sady rebbot (star trek i to vi), denis savignat (generations), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: garcia junior (tos, redub), marco antônio costa (tos, 2:23, 2:24, 2:26 on, star trek 6), marcos miranda (star trek 1 to 3), waldyr sant'anna (star trek 4), appearances: star trek: the original series | star trek: the animated series | star trek: the motion picture | star trek ii: the wrath of khan | star trek iii: the search for spock | star trek iv: the voyage home | star trek v: the final frontier | star trek vi: the undiscovered country | star trek: generations | star trek: deep space nine note  archive footage | star trek beyond note  photograph.

"'All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by.' You could feel the wind at your back in those days, the sound of the sea beneath you. And even if you take away the wind and the water, it's still the same... The ship is yours, you can feel her. And the stars are still there, Bones." — Kirk , "The Ultimate Computer"

The Captain . James Tiberius Kirk leads his ship, the Enterprise , through the adventure of the week — hostile cultures, supercomputers, places which look suspiciously like Earth, time-travel shenanigans . A very talented and level-headed officer, Kirk always took his duty to Starfleet deeply seriously and his main concern in any crisis was always the safety of his ship and crew. He was notorious for his hollow seductions, and a few romances which ended tragically, but mostly those failed because he named the Enterprise herself as the woman in his life. Although he took the dangers to his crew very seriously, he also maintained a light-hearted attitude and bantered with the other two members of his Power Trio frequently.

• 10-Minute Retirement : In “Generations”, he acknowledges in the Nexus that the universe keeps fucking him over and he deserves to be selfish for once. Of course he goes back to reality because he needs the danger, and it helps that he had multiple Nexus realities, letting him fix everything.
• In "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he addresses Yeoman Smith as "Jones", and she corrects him in a manner that implies it's not the first time he's done that. (In the original script, he does it again in the ending scene, but this was cut.)
• In "Space Seed", Kirk mispronounces the ship's historian's name before Spock dryly corrects him with " McGivers ". He continues to stutter over the name in front of McGivers herself, who also dryly corrects the pronunciation.
• In "The Immunity Syndrome", Kirk consistently pronounces Lt. Kyle's name as "Cowell", something no other character ever does. Kyle himself makes no attempt to correct him.
• Accidental Pornomancer : Bones lampshades that even when Kirk is not actively manipulating someone, he still seems to get every alien species wanting to rail him.
• The Ace : Quite possibly the greatest Captain ever produced by Starfleet and humanity in general, despite all his competition, and even long after his day his many accomplishments and reputation lives on as an inspiration to later Starfleet officers, many of whom look up to him as a legend, and he is even considered this to various alien species he encountered.
• Agent Peacock : In “Where No Man”, the writers talked about how they wanted Kirk to be a man comfortable with being both masculine and feminine, willing to fight dirty and being in command, but memorising poetry, stopping to admire flowers, happy to joke about himself being a mother, uses his sexuality like a Femme Fatale or Heroic Seductress depending on how greyly ambiguous the episode wants to be, and is treated like a Lust Object .
• And in the early 80s Shatner did commercials for an early home computer, the Commodore Vic 20.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg : Mostly refused, but if it’s Close to Home enough, like children ensuring their own destruction, Garth (a captain who he respected) forcing him or Trelane messing with his crew, he’ll beg, plead and kneel as a last resort.
• Captain Kirk's famous line to the alien impersonating the Greek god Apollo in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" is this: Kirk: Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.

• In another episode, Kirk and crew come upon a planet dominated by a Roman Empire but with 20th century technology, where a persecuted, pacifist new religion worships a sun god. At the end of the episode, Lieutenant Uhura discovers that this new religion does not worship the Sun but the Son, clearly referencing Jesus. Kirk even considers remaining at the planet for a number of years just so they can "watch it happen all over again."
• Ambiguous Situation : What Kirk considers to be the biggest regret of his life and the main source of his pain, refusing to allow Sybok to reveal it, as he did Spock's strained relationship with their father and McCoy 's regret over mercy killing his dying father from an illness that soon after was cured. Given all the tragedies he has suffered throughout his life, there are many possibilities.
• Anti-Hero : Sixties sex symbol or not, Kirk stumbled into Classical Anti-Hero in Star Trek: The Motion Picture The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan where his mid-life crisis wears heavy upon him and some poor choices cost the lives of many recruits, and later Knight in Sour Armor in The Undiscovered Country .
• Arch-Enemy : He has a special hatred of Klingons, called out for it in “Errand Of Mercy” and getting exploited in “Day Of The Dove”. And that’s before his son is killed by one of them.
• Badass Normal : Kirk is a good tactician who leagues of more powerful aliens respect, whose exploits include beating a bio-engineered superman with his bare fists. Did we mention he's a non-powered human?
• Because You Were Nice to Me : The suggested reason why he’s a Love Martyr and forgives so easily. He doesn’t ask for much (a few days on a real beach, knowing he made a difference), and any kindness shown seems to be good enough.
• Benevolent Boss : For the most part he’s a tough but fair captain to his crew and a genial father to his men (even if Spock lampshades that general orders don’t apply to his friends). If he starts to act like a brash asshole then something is usually very wrong.
• Beneath the Mask : Spock tells him early on that he has to look perfect as Captain to his crew, and it’s made clear that the swagger is partly affected, admitting to Bones he would like a long sea voyage where he can rest, and to Carol that he feels old and worn out. There’s more than a few episode endings where he’ll laugh along with Bones and Spock, and look regretful once they turn away. --wondering how in the hell he got a public reputation as an impulsive hothead. A lot of the time he felt more like Hamlet, agonizing over every decision. He just had the knack for not letting it show. Being a captain was sometimes more about looking decisive and convincing your crew that you knew what you were doing .
• Big Beautiful Man : Was always a cuddly-looking version of a Mr. Fanservice , even with many shirtless scenes (and Shatner apparently working out to unhealthy levels), and fills out when he hits middle age in the second movie, still being seen as attractive and charming even if his one not-resisting-a-seduction works against him in the sixth movie.
• Blood Knight : On several occasions (“Errand Of Mercy”, “Day Of The Dove”, “Spectre Of The Gun”, “Taste Of Armageddon”), he’s forced to admit that he wants to fight/is a barbarian, and that he’s been trained as a soldier. He settles for diplomat as he gets older, but traces remain, and the fact that he surrenders in the sixth movie proves a Spanner in the Works , everyone expecting him to be more than happy to knock up a few Klingon kills.
• Bold Explorer : Though it was just his job, Kirk's boldness makes him an iconic version of the trope.
• Boldly Coming : The Trope Codifier through Pop-Cultural Osmosis , although it's nowhere near as omnipresent as you might believe. Over 79 episodes, the number of alien women Kirk definitely sleeps with is... four. One of those was the result of being drugged by magic tears, and none of them were green (that was Pike, and she wasn't even really green. The green woman Kirk met was a mental patient who tried to seduce him , to his immense discomfort).
• Break the Cutie : Aside from his seduction as tactic, he gets victimised a lot as well, either Mind Rape , drugged or some other kind of coercion, and he’s never happy about it but he can mostly deal. Until “Requiem For Methuselah”, when he finds out he was used again by Flint (but still loves Reyna anyway), and sounds seconds away from sobbing. No wonder Spock makes him forget about the whole thing.
• Break the Haughty : The movies show what happens when all his flaws come back to bite him. Convinced he's the Captain who deserves command of the Enterprise ? Promote him and he'll become an Insane Admiral , not knowing how to deal with a remodelled ship. Be self-absorbed and convinced that you're on the right side of To Be Lawful or Good ? A Villain of the Week sets off a chain of events that end with Spock and Kirk's son being killed. Still think you can seduce to get your way? Get used instead, and nearly get murdered if your friends hadn't beamed you up. No wonder that for a while, he just wants to stay in the Nexus after being considered dead.
• Broken Ace : Pike started off the line of Starfleet captains who really could do with therapy, Kirk just continued it. He's a hero with many medals, saved the world more times than can be counted, and is a respected Captain, he's just hiding a lot of grief and trauma (around getting old, following orders, not following orders, feeling like he's worthless if not commanding a starship, Tarsus IV, the USS Farrugut, consent getting taken away, the people he's lost…), that he thinks he needs. James T Kirk, hero at large. You can save the galaxy from destruction, but you can’t get your own life in order.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer : The things Kirk got away with... The Autobiography of James T. Kirk calls it a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy , as he's not happy towards the end of the five year mission, thinks he wants to be Admiral, and does more reckless shit to get attention, when he wouldn't have done before.
• His trip to the Mirror Universe. While there, Kirk single-handedly talks Mirror Spock into instigating an uprising against the Terran Empire. We're meant to think they'll eventually find their way to a Federation-like alliance, but in Deep Space 9 we find that Kirk's machinations left mankind ripe for an asskicking by a combined Klingon / Cardassian / Bajoran alliance, after which humans are enslaved. The top dogs of the Mirror Universe are on constant look-out for anyone coming over from the other universe to interfere again, redesigning their tech to make damn sure it wouldn't, and Kirk's name is legendary among them. For Kirk, and Starfleet, the Mirror universe incident was just a weirder-than-average day at the office.
• His encounter with Khan. Kirk meets one of the most famous tyrants on the 21st century, nearly gets killed by him, beats him up, sentences him to Ceti Alpha 5, and then forgot all about him until Khan came back pissed . Khan spent every night thinking of Kirk, while Kirk didn't give him a second thought.
• The Captain : Kirk is the Trope Maker . Spock: "If I may be so bold, it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny; anything else is a waste of material."
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough : He's far more genial and sociable with his crew than his aloof, coldly logical XO Spock.
• The Chains of Commanding : His Married to the Job deal was deconstructed as early as "The Naked Time", as his life is i Enterprise , and his own identity fades. He never gets over it, even as he calms down in his older age.
• He learns to chill and understand what’s really important as he gets older, from being an insufferable nervous Teacher's Pet at the academy, at least trying to be by the book in the series, to full on Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! in the movies.
• His conflicting loyalties about whether to be a soldier following orders or being a diplomat mostly end in Season 3. Of course the movies (and “The Cloud Minders”, as he trusts Vanna to listen to him and gets taken hostage, even if it ends up okay) show that confidence in your own rules don’t always work out, especially when it’s coupled with a mid life crisis.
• Definitely not enjoyed, but the movies force him to actually confront loss and pain, and not just shove things down like a Broken Hero who wants to Just Ignore It .
• He goes from stealing back command of the Enterprise from Captain Will Decker in The Motion Picture , overriding him similarly to the way his father Commodore Matt Decker tried to do to him in The Doomsday Machine , to refusing to do so when the chance to steal command of the Enterprise-B from Captain John Harriman occurs in Generations , despite the temptation.
• Characterisation Click Moment : Started being his own person and less like an Ideal Hero -slash-copy of Pike in “The Enemy Within”, both for the good and bad; compassionate, dutiful, determined, gentle father to his men, but thinks of himself of an extension of the ship, capable of brutality and manipulation, marked self loathing and an anxious tendency to ignore problems he doesn’t want to deal with.
• When trying to seduce someone, he always grabs a woman’s upper arms before kissing her. When he starts to do it to Spock, he’s told not in front of the Klingons, who are all looking on curiously .
• Does the rubbing his forehead version of a facepalm a lot. Lampshaded in “The Trouble With Tribbles” where he actually admits for once that he’s got a headache.
• Rubbing and clenching his hands together when he’s anxious. Spock notices him doing it in “And The Children Shall Lead”, and Kirk reassures him he’s not feeling as bad as he did in the turbolift.
• Chick Magnet : Numerous women of various species tend to be drawn to him, he is aware of it but mostly only takes advantage of it when necessary to see through his duties and protect the lives of his crew and ship.
• Chivalrous Pervert : May very well be the anti- Bond . A lot of the time he'll use his charms for a greater purpose, but he's gentlemanly when he is actually is in love, dissuades Charlie from Entitled to Have You , and most of his (less than ten) exes consider his main flaw to be Married to the Job . He also gives female crewmembers appreciative glanceovers note  does it with a few men as well , but that seems to be as far as he goes, telling other romances to chill and keep to duties, and defending women as crewmen.
• Combat Sadomasochist : Not for nothing did 70s fandom call him a masochist — one of his fantasies in “Shore Leave” is to have a fight with old school bully Finnegan with himself all sweaty and bloody and shirt ripped.
• A Running Gag in the movies is Kirk's loving relationship with his chair. He glumly sits in the rickety captain's chair aboard the Enterprise -A, declaring that it's just not the same. Generations repeated this gag on-board the Enterprise -B, this time complete with Male Gaze .
• Condescending Compassion : His paternalistic tendency to... change civilisations so that they’re assimilated under the Federation was called out early in “Errand Of Mercy”, him acting like the Organians are overly peaceful idiots and swiftly proven wrong, being more akin to the Klingons he hates than the Knight in Shining Armor .
• Conditioned to Accept Horror : Deela teasingly suggests between forcing kisses on him in “Wink Of An Eye” that he’s used to being kissed when he’s not aware of it, and Odona wonders how he can even look at her when she manipulated him in “The Mark Of Gideon”. It all explodes in “Requiem For Methuselah” when he falls for a robot woman who’s actually nice, and loses his mind a little when he finds out he was still used by Flint.
• Court-martialed : " Court Martial ": Kirk gets put on trial for (seemingly) causing the death of a crew member through negligence.
• Cunning People Play Poker : The Corbomite Maneuver " when faced with Balok's incomprehensible mothership threatening to destroy the Enterprise, Spock contextualises their situation as a game of chess and concludes Balok has declared checkmate. Captain Kirk changes the game to poker, and then bluffs that Enterprise has a defense feature that will ensure that if it's destroyed, Balok's ship will also get blown up.
• At some point before he got to command, Kirk was witness to the massacre on Tarsus IV, where thousands were killed in an attempt to hold off starvation that came to naught when the supply ships arrived note  the episode regarding the massacre doesn't state as much, but a reference to his age a later episode, which was subsequently formalized as canon, makes him no older than fourteen at the time of the massacre . During his time on the Farragut , Kirk blamed himself for an attack by a vampiric cloud creature that killed Captain Garrovick and 200 other crewmen.
• His mirror verse version has one too, raised in poverty by his Good Parents until his home was burned down and he was captured by the empire for “re-education”, making him brutal and sadistic .
• Death Seeker : He’s always played fast and loose with his own life, calling the ship so much more important to the point where Sulu is actually concerned, and in “Shore Leave '', Finnegan taunts him on being able to sleep forever if he wants. Gets worse in the movies, doing stupid stunts while his friends are around because they’ll keep him from dying, as he’s convinced he’ll die alone. Kirk : (to the Organians) I’m used to the idea of dying, but I have no desire to die for the likes of you.
• The Defroster : Despite his previous positive relationship with Captain Pike, Spock remains quite stoic and aloof, ashamed about his human heritage and determined to hide it. His friendship with Kirk becomes a chink in his emotionless armor almost immediately (the very first episode has Uhura calling Kirk the closest thing to a friend Spock has). Gradually, under his influence, Spock unbends into psychologically healthier state.
• Desperately Craves Affection : Word of Shatner is that Kirk really does want someone to talk to, to tell them that something is wrong with him, but can’t because as Captain you have to keep some distance.
• Determinator : When Kirk makes up his mind to do something, especially if the lives of his crew are at stake, no force in the universe can keep him down. Kirk: I don't believe in the no-win scenario.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? : A specialty of Kirk's.
• Disappeared Dad : Though not by his own choice. He and Carol had a child and he was so focused on his career that she eventually asked him to stay away.
• The name James Kirk is spoken with great annoyance by the Temporal Investigations department. Seventeen different violations will do that for you. Agent Lucsly: The man was a menace.
• Back in his academy days, a then-Lieutenant Kirk was the bane of the underclassmen. Gary Mitchell: "Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk! In his class, you either think or sink."
• Dropped a Bridge on Him : His death in Generations is the Trope Namer .
• Dude, Where's My Reward? : In Generations , Picard's initial attempt to get him to help by appealing to his duty is brushed off by a bitter Kirk pointing out he'd been saving the galaxy for years, and all it's got him was an empty house. Of course, he soon comes around anyway.
• Dying Alone : Zig-zagged. He reveals in Final Frontier that this is his greatest fear, and he believes that it is his fate to die alone, without his best friends, Spock and McCoy , being near. Sadly, this comes to pass in Generations , but he is not entirely alone, with Captain Picard at his side reassuring him that he has made a difference one last time.
• Embarrassing Middle Name : "Tiberius."
• Endearingly Dorky : In decent episodes, he's... endearingly hammy as a character trait, and how seriously he takes having fun (see times like "A Piece Of The Action") is treated with affection by his crew.
• Even the Guys Want Him : Male Klingons check out his ass , big monsters throw him around like a ragdoll , and he has several ex-friends who end up a little obsessive over him.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones : Kirk protects refugees and famously refuses to consider any casualty acceptable. He has even impressed multiple Sufficiently Advanced Alien species with his capacity for mercy and civility. However, he's much more of a Deadpan Snarker around Mudd and Baris, and the Klingons were an Arch-Enemy even before Kruge killed his son (not that previous Klingons hadn't nearly killed people he loved before).
• Throughout the series, he’s right on the Federation’s side, and is more likely to blame himself for following orders (like in “The Apple”) than be angry at them for actually giving said orders. The only exceptions are “The Trouble With Tribbles”, a priority one distress call for wheat even before the tribbles arrive, “The Galileo Seven” where it’s finding Spock vs a jerkass ambassador on board, and the movies where he’s wearier and chilled out.
• He’s willing to take the blame at first with Janice Lester, and dismisses it when Odona asks why he’s not angrier with her for all the deception and coercion.
• Exhausted Eyebags : Occasionally they’ll slather on a lot of eyeliner below Shatner’s eyes when Kirk is in a particularly bad state.
• Face Death with Dignity : He does this numerous times in the series and movies in the face of death, and lives up to his words to Saavik about the importance of how one deals with death at the end of his life, aboard the Enterprise-B when he believes he is sacrificing himself to save the ship, and again for real on Veridian III when he stops Soran from destroying the star system at the cost of his life.
• Fan of the Past : He embraced the culture and history of his homeland, especially western lore and the life of his hero Abraham Lincoln . Recognizing the document mirrored on the planet Omega IV, he could recite the preamble of the US Constitution from memory. His extensive knowledge of his ancestral background served him well on numerous occasions. In travels to Earth's past, or on planets mirroring Earth's development, Kirk was able to function and pass himself off as a native of the time or culture with (more or less) ease.
• Farm Boy : Kirk was born and raised on a farm in Riverside, Iowa. This only gets said out loud in the fourth movie, but according to Roddenberry, he had it in mind since the beginning, and it’s why Kirk so easily gets distracted by flowers and other growing things. Gillian: You're from outer space. Kirk: No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space.
• His Inferiority Superiority Complex . He has a lot of self loathing, so it makes him crave attention to overcompensate and the need to prove himself. Getting glory and press goes to his head, and in turn makes him miserable because he feels he doesn’t deserve it. The biography has “The Enterprise Incident” as just a shade more acted than how he was actually feeling.
• He also likes repressing his problems. As willing as he to talk about his emotions, Bones despairs about how much he touts Misery Builds Character , getting out of the problem fast without thinking things through has far reaching consequences for Khan and the Mirror Universe , and expanded material has Spock’s death be the catalyst for being forced to think about all his other losses, like Gary, Sam and Edith. Star Trek: Ex Machina also has a Long List of civilizations that he dropped a bombshell on and ran away from, comparing it to his (admittedly biased) view of abandoning Carol and David.
• A Father to His Men : He has a breakdown when three men are killed in “The Apple”, saying it’s his fault because he’s allowed to modify rules (he’s a By-the-Book Cop a lot of the time, just comes off worse later because Starfleet is still writing the rules, as Janeway points out) as he sees fit, and the mission wasn’t that important. He is genuinely upset and enraged by pretty much the death of every crewman, blaming it on himself. One of his Nexus fantasies is saving every Red Shirt .
• Feeling Their Age : At the tender age of… thirty four, he’s taunted by the fantasy Finnegan about being too old, and he comes away from “The Deadly Years” thinking the lesson is he has to be young to be good at his job. No wonder he has a Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis in the movies.
• Former Teen Rebel : Inverted . Unlike his alternate universe counterpart , Cadet Kirk was something of a humorless swot as an underclassman, only later developing into the Military Maverick we see in the movies.
• Four-Star Badass : In the movies. And everyone knows it. Though as a Rear Admiral, technically he was only a Two-Star Badass. Until he gets demoted at the end of Star Trek IV . However, this is also largely subverted. Kirk's moments of badassery as an admiral are actually while he's in direct command of a starship and he's shown to be apathetic and uninterested towards his admiralty duties, such as when he almost immediately cuts the inspection of the Enterprise short in The Wrath of Khan .
• Four-Temperament Ensemble : Kirk is the Choleric, although by no means unsympathetic; he's just the most decisive and determined member of the trio. McCoy 's Id.-->
• Genocide Survivor : In "The Conscience of the King", Kirk is stated to be a survivor of a genocide on the planet Tarsus IV, where the Governor ordered thousands of citizens killed to ensure the rest could survive, using eugenics to decide who lived and died. It's only All There in the Manual that the actual circumstances are discussed; his mother moved to the planet for work, leaving her children and husband behind in Iowa. When Jim visits on a trip, things go very wrong, and between an Enterprise being the supply ship, the trauma itself, and his mom using him as a therapist, it hardens him and he ties himself to Starfleet.
• Gold-Colored Superiority : As The Captain , he wears a gold shirt.
• Good Is Not Soft : As Nice Guy Love Martyr as he is, Kirk — especially Gene Coon’s version, which carried on throughout the movies — often has to remind himself that while he was trained to be a soldier, and humans can be savage, mercy and peace is always the best option, and Vengeance Feels Empty .
• Go Out with a Smile : Despite his somewhat pathetic death, he’s happy knowing he made a difference after so much worry that he wouldn’t, and that he got closure in the Nexus for everything he feels went wrong in his life .
• Gunboat Diplomacy : One of his favorite diplomatic techniques seems to be threatening to blow up a planet that doesn't do what he wants. Somehow he gets away with this. He's Kirk. He even gives orbital bombardment a go as a persuading tool (with phasers on stun... sometimes ). Partially justified by the fact he was trained as a soldier, not a diplomat.
• Has a Type : Of the five women Kirk had long-term relationships with before the series, four out of five were blondes and/or scientists. (The exceptions being Janice Lester, a brunette scientist, and Areel Shaw from "Court Martial", a blonde Starfleet JAG officer.)
• Hates Being Alone : It’s the stated reason why he falls so hard for the first nice woman he sees and can spend some free time with in “Requiem For Methuselah”. Kirk : I had a whole universe to myself after the Defiant was thrown out. There was absolutely no one else in it. I must say I prefer a crowded universe much better.
• Heartbroken Badass : Let's see...with the losses of Edith Keeler, his brother Sam and his sister-in-law, his wife Miramanee and their unborn child, Rayna Kapec, his first BFF Gary Mitchell, his true BFF Spock, his son David, and the Enterprise herself, it's amazing that there's still anything approaching an intact heart by the time he retires. The book versions of the movies are well aware of all he’s lost, and while the angst is there in the films, they bring it to full-scale depression, going right to Death Seeker both when Spock dies and when he retires, as McCoy and Spock go back to their families and he has nothing.
• He Knows Too Much : Kirk is one of nine surviving eyewitnesses who can identify Kodos the Executioner, the man who ordered the deaths of four thousand people on colony planet Tarsus IV. Kodos's daughter Lenore tries to kill him by hiding an overloading phaser in his quarters. By the end of the episode, Kirk is one of only two surviving witnesses, since she succeeded in killing the other seven.
• The Hero : He is clearly the protagonist of the show (and the cause of some off-screen drama).
• The Hero Dies : Eventually meets his end performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save a star system during the events of Generations .
• Heroic Sacrifice : The end of his life involved two of these, one attempted and believed to be such by history, and the other one for real. The attempted one being his saving the crew of the Enterprise-B, ending up in the Nexus instead. The one that stuck happened after later choosing to leave the peace and happiness of the Nexus to stop Soran and save the millions of lives in the Veridian system, including the entire crew of the Enterprise-D, none of whom he had even ever met or knew anything about.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation : More pronounced in the movies, but even in the show, he'll find a reason to hate himself, whether it's feeling useless without command, Survivor's Guilt , losing men, having to kill Edith, being impulsive, and in one comic, worried if being a Heroic Seductress meant that he was nasty to women.
• Heroic Willpower : In "Dagger of the Mind," one of the bad guys notes that he hasn't given in when subjected to a force that reduced one of their scientists to screaming. Note that Kirk is still having a bad time, struggling and crying, but he still alerts his ship. In "Elaan of Troyius", he is even able to resist the intoxicating, hypnotic tears of Elaan and force himself to carry on.
• Hero with Bad Publicity : A common theme in Christopher L Bennett’s books is some strong Leaning on the Fourth Wall , with public perception of Kirk being an Ideal Hero who can do no wrong or a reckless bad boy who will sleep with anyone, with neither close to how he actually is.
• Honey Pot : A lot of the time his "getting some" labelled by pop culture is using his charm and good looks to try and save someone else. Still gets him a reputation as Really Gets Around even in-universe during the movies.
• Honor Before Reason : In "Arena" and "Spectre of the Gun", though in both cases "honor" was the right choice.
• I Can Still Fight! : Kirk doesn't like being shut up in medbay at all, much to McCoy's consternation.
• In the Season 2 episode "The Deadly Years", Kirk is stated to be 34-years-old. He had been Captain of the Enterprise for two years at that point, making him 32 at the time he got the promotion — or to put it another way, just a decade out of the Academy, an average of one promotion every two years. note  Commissioned as an Ensign, and then promoted through Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, and Commander to the rank of Captain. Had he continued at that pace, he would have made full Admiral by age 40.
• Although Kirk's rise to the Captaincy was exceptionally rapid, it's clear that he's obviously an extreme outlier with regard to the average quality of Starfleet officers (even in TOS, most other Starship Captains we meet wind up dead or go insane). Contrast his reboot counterpart, who is field-promoted to Captain from Cadet before graduating from the Academy, which might generously be described as a bit farfetched.
• Curiously, his Mirror Universe counterpart, who is considerably less competent than the Prime Kirk, only reached the rank of Captain through plundered alien technology allowing him to remotely eliminate all of his superiors without putting himself in danger of retaliation.
• Improbable Weapon User : In hand-to-hand combat, he will sometimes grab whatever object is nearby, regardless of what it is. Twice, he has used pillows .
• Inferiority Superiority Complex : Throughout the show and the movies; arrogant, paternalistic, swaggering with a Knight in Shining Armor self image, but also massive Survivor's Guilt note  the novelization of the fourth movie has him yelling at Bones not to bring up the “old days” of the Enterprise , as he still remembers having to watch Edith die, as well as his brother, his sister-in-law, and Gary , is exhausted from The Chains of Command yet feels like he’s worth nothing if he’s not Captain, and worries there’s stains on his shining armor. The official show bible makes note that he has a god complex, and hates himself when he inevitably can’t measure up.
• Insane Admiral : Drifts perilously close to this early in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , especially when butting heads with the Enterprise 's new Captain. He gets over it to some extent, but his later actions lead to a "demotion" that puts him back in the captain's chair, which is exactly where he wants to be and resolves the problem.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side : Owns foundation beyond the out of universe putting all the male actors in eyeshadow and mascara, gets distracted by flowers easily, and is happy to joke about himself as a mother.
• It's All About Me : A Jerkass Has a Point moment in “The Ultimate Computer” calls out that it always has to be him who explores a planet or fights the enemy, and as much Heroic Self-Deprecation as he has, fame and glory have a tendency of going to his head.
• It's All My Fault : Of the “everything that happens under my command is my fault” variety (less so for further consequences, which the movies and DS9 will call him out hard on). McCoy and Spock have the “there’s no point in self recrimination” speech down perfectly.
• If he’s hurting about something (his age being a prime example, in both “The Deadly Years” and the movies) then he goes right into denial and Bones has to yell at him. He admits it himself at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , saying he’s always managed to push the pain from death down until now.
• Less sympathetic is “The Enemy Within” where even the “good” version of himself is far more interested in pretending it never happened than listening to what Janice is saying.
• Kicked Upstairs : While the actual events differ, most books will have him accept being Admiral the first time, ask for a Captain rank between the first and second movie, quit for a while after, and eventually be kicked into Admiral again because Starfleet is sick of him not actually knowing what he wants and they’d rather keep him on a leash anyway.
• The Kirk : He's the Trope Namer , obviously. Whenever presented with a hard dilemma, he almost always tries to find the Third Option that allows for a morally acceptable solution without sacrificing any more crew or victims.
• And then revived in a Star Trek novel series written by...William Shatner!
• Knight in Sour Armor : Played with in the show, as he doesn't want to admit it, would rather be the Knight in Shining Armor , and it's thanks to the trauma of being one of the few surviving members of the Tarsus IV massacre that he does some terrible things in "The Conscience Of The King" (Lenore, a mentally ill 19-year-old girl who is killing other survivors for the sake of her father, calls him out on using her, and asks if there's stains on his armor). By the movies, he can admit that he feels exhausted, needs his pain, and that his impulsive It's All About Me has cost lives, but will still do the best he can. Kirk : We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes. Knowing that we won't kill today.
• Lame Comeback : His being Endearingly Dorky continues as he gets older, having a Fun T-Shirt with the insult (“insult” in big air quotes) “go climb a rock” imprinted on it.
• He's played by William Shatner , after all. Star Trek: The Motion Picture suggests this is a character trait, as he's practically Dull Surprise until Spock comes back.
• “The Enemy Within” plays with it as well, having the good part of Kirk be sedate and softly anxious, while the evil version is just brimming with barely restrained pork, except for when he’s playing weak and charming.
• The Leader : Famously of the Levelheaded type. Come crisis or moral questions, Kirk's main approach was to let his officers have their say on the matter at hand and then try to find a way to successfully combine the various strengths of their advice into an effective solution. He also treated his responsibility to his crew with unwavering seriousness, often sticking his own neck out so they wouldn't have to.
• Legendary in the Sequel : Kirk is depicted as the Captain, against which all of his 24th-century successors are judged (well, eventually. Early TNG episodes treated Kirk's era like it was shrouded in myth, if they acknowledged it at all — even though Dr. McCoy shows up in the pilot episode). Of course, with The Next Generation being the first Star Trek TV series since the original, using an entirely new crew, this was intentional by the producers, who wanted the series to stand on its own. This even extends to the reboot continuity, where a bunch of Romulan space miners living over a century after his heyday immediately recognize James T. Kirk by name as having been Starfleet's greatest Captain.
• Living Legend : Even though the original series depicts his first command, it's clear that he's already becoming one of these. The movies take this trope and run with it.
• Logic Bomb : Known for pulling this move off successfully in just about any episode featuring A.I. Is a Crapshoot ... and then some.
• Lonely at the Top : According to “Where No Man”, Shatner apparently talked to the skippers of atomic submarines so he could get a sense of how lonely and desperate for affection Kirk would be in command.
• The Lost Lenore : The expanded canon books have Edith as someone he loved the most and lost, while also inspiring him to help even more people. Spock, “the noblest half of myself”, at least comes back.
• Love Martyr : The amount of times that someone has hurt him, drugged him, or mind-raped him, and he shoves the anger down. Nobody in-universe can figure out why either, compulsively getting into bad relationships was mentioned in the show bible, Bones and Mulhall treating his trust in Sargon in "Return To Tomorrow" as Stockholm Syndrome , and Odona in "The Mark Of Gideon" asking how he can look at her after what she did to him. He finally breaks in "Requiem For Methuselah", just as upset at getting used as losing someone he fell for.
• Lust Object : Mostly women, but other guys seemed to see it as well. Kirk is one of the few men in popular culture who will regularly use this status to save someone else, provide a distraction, or get information.
• Married to the Job : No matter what, his main commitment is always first and foremost to the safety of the Enterprise and her crew. This sense of duty in him is so overpowering he doesn't even need an antidote to a love potion . This is treated as ultimately unhealthy, as he feels completely lost without command, and the films have him muscle his way back in after getting Kicked Upstairs , not wanting to move on.
• Memetic Badass : In-Universe example. Kirk serves as one for all of Starfleet. When given with the chance of meeting him, Picard and Sisko both positively Squee . Considering that both Picard and Sisko are also examples of this within the Trekverse, that says something.
• The Men First : Being A Father to His Men , Kirk is always insistent on keeping them safe if possible. On a number of occasions note  "The Squire of Gothos", "The Immunity Syndrome", "The Empath" , he has wanted to pull a Heroic Sacrifice (or even tried to do so) to ensure the well-being of his crew, and torturing them is generally a better strategy than torturing him .
• Misery Builds Character : He of the “ I need my pain ” and “ pain can drive a man harder than pleasure ” mindset. Spock and Bones don’t quite agree, both taking turns with “there’s no point in self loathing” speech.
• Missing Mom : All There in the Manual has Kirk’s parents have an Awful Wedded Life , and she leaves to work on Tarsus IV, leaving baby Jim to feel abandoned. She does try later on when he lives with her (he got his rock climbing habit from her), but after the massacre, she uses him as a therapist and he has a complicated relationship with her. Not helped that he repeats her patterns with his own son.
• Mr. Fanservice : That uniform shirt of his will tear open at the touch of a twig. This was not actually intentional; it's just that the tailoring budget for the original show was less than impressive. More intentionally, the green wrap around shirt that’s mostly seen in Season 2, is affectionately called the “fatshirt”, as it’s very form-fitting and shows off everything, along with the much tighter pants Kirk wears than the rest of the crew. Not for nothing that one of Shatner’s nicknames on set was apparently “bubble butt”.
• Must Have Caffeine : Nothing from a super-powerful alien threatening to blow up his ship to a crew member vanishing into thin air on an inexplicably abandoned planet can come between Kirk and his cup of coffee. (When an infestation of tribbles do , then It's Personal !) Kirk: (regarding a cup of tribbles) This was my chicken sandwich and coffee! I want these things off the ship, I don't care if it takes every man we've got!
• Murderous Thighs : Rare Male Example in that one of the few times it’s Shatner in the “Space Seed” fight is when Kirk is trying to choke Khan out with his thighs.
• My God, What Have I Done? : His reaction to sacrificing the Enterprise in The Search for Spock . Understandable, given that for Kirk, it's the equivalent of sacrificing a lover all over again. Good thing Bones was there to remind him: McCoy : What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.
• My Greatest Failure : Kirk came to see his banishment of Khan as this, as not only did it leave him and his crew off-guard for Khan's Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the unexpected destruction of his world and the death of his wife, but it ended up initially coming at the expense of his best friend's life, something he continued to feel guilty of by The Search for Spock .
• Narcissist : The fragile narcissist, as he’s a good person with compassion, but is self-obsessed in a self-loathing way and overcompensates by swaggering. Lampshaded in the sixth movie, where Marta mocks him that kissing himself must have been his life-long ambition.
• Necessarily Evil : When Shanah in “Gamesters Of Triskelion” is a Woman Scorned because of how he coldly seduced her (and she’s definitely not the only one in the series to feel that way), he’s regretful but calls it necessary and what he had to do, the implication being that he knows he does this all the time.
• Nice Guy : He's more balanced and friendly compared to brash McCoy and aloof Spock.
• No Sense of Personal Space : He’s touchy-feely with everyone, especially Spock, even when he’s not trying to seduce anyone.
• "Not So Different" Remark : From the Romulan Commander in " Balance of Terror ." Also to Kor in “Errand Of Mercy”, as much as he denies it and is ashamed when the Organians finally point it out to him. It doesn’t exactly help his loathing of Klingons.
• For all his Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! , actively placing his command in danger is rare for him, the main two times being "The Conscience Of The King" and saving Spock in the movies.
• Overlapping with Shatner's in real life ham, in-universe his crew knows something is wrong when Kirk is being quiet . He walks out without a word when called "Captain Dunsel" in "The Ultimate Computer" and they're all worried, and according to the movie novels, has to be snapped back to reality multiple times when silently despairing over Spock's death.
• It doesn’t last long, as he needs some fear and danger, but Kirk gives up in the Nexus, eventually explaining that making his whole identity about the Enterprise has ruined his life, and wants to make up for the mistakes he’s made. ( All There in the Manual having him save every Red Shirt , save Edith, relive his youth etc).
• Officer and a Gentleman : In addition to judo-throwing aliens and romancing to get his way, he finds time to be well-versed in classical literature and offer aid to space-borne refugees.
• Kirk is positively notorious in Starfleet for his violations of the Prime Directive. However lost in the shuffle is that in most cases, Kirk arrives on the scene only after someone has already interfered, and he's now in a position where he must fix or mitigate the damage, or prevent others from interfering.
• In more of a personal example, he accidentally flirted with Helen Noel at a Christmas party, thinking she was a visitor instead of a crewmember (according to the script), and neither Bones or Spock let him live it down. He’s embarrassed and uncomfortable around her until she gives him Fake Memories .
• On the Rebound : In the books, he tries to get back with Carol after Spock dies (“because they’re both alone”) and she rejects him, as her lover was one of the casualties of Khan. He also wants to get with Gillian as a distraction for David’s death , but she’s too busy.
• Out-of-Character Moment : Most of the time, Kirk is a by-the-book guy but prone to impulsiveness and biases, and mostly had to fix messes (and make some more of his own) by violating the Prime Directive, essentially a mix of To Be Lawful or Good and I Did What I Had to Do . In “The Omega Glory”, he says without a shred of irony that a captain would give his life rather than violating the thing.
• Papa Wolf : Kirk is A Father to His Men who makes a habit of punching out any entity, super-powered or not, that messes with anyone in front of him. Hurting his people (or actual children) causes him much Angst and more anger. Do the math on whether messing with anyone under him is a good idea.
• Please, I Will Do Anything! : Word of actor is that he would willingly (if angrily) let himself be a Sex Slave if it meant protecting Spock.
• Guns of steel aside, Shatner at the time had a soft face with long lashes, a tendency to pout, and the camera objectified him as much as humanly possible. Lampshaded in “Wink Of An Eye”, when Deela wants to keep Kirk for a long time because he’s pretty.
• “Spock’s Brain” has one of the males be confused by Kirk specifically, calling him “small, like the others”. “Others” being women, “who give pain and delight”.
• Proud Beauty : Was a Clueless Chick-Magnet when he was younger, with Gary having to push girlfriends on him, but in series knows full well he’s hot, and uses his looks to get out of trouble (and in one officially published fic, free drinks). Lampshaded by Colbert in an interview with Shatner, asking him if he knew he was beautiful in the show, and of course he did.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes : Moreso as he gets older, especially when Spock is Not Himself and Jim wants their old friendship back.
• Rank Up : He gets promoted to rear admiral sometime prior to Star Trek: The Motion Picture . However, at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Starfleet busts him back down to captain for stealing the Enterprise in defiance of orders in The Search for Spock .
• Refusing Paradise : A recurring belief of his, in conjunction with Misery Builds Character , first shown in Who Mourns For Adonais? , turning his back on paradise under Apollo in favor of the real world, believing people must 'march to the sound of drums', as well as ending the 'paradise' in The Apple for the villagers so they could make their own way in reality and become something more. He does this again at the end of his life in Generations , recognizing the Nexus for what it was and finally refusing its eternal happiness and peace to go back to the real world and perform a Heroic Sacrifice , saving the Veridian System and crew of the Enterprise-D from an Omnicidal Maniac .
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick : Inverted , Captain Kirk is a charming Officer and a Gentleman . By contrast, his first officer, Spock, is more tactless and ruthlessly pragmatic. The fact that he's also The Stoic when he does these things probably doesn't do his image any favors.
• Samaritan Syndrome : “Let me help.” He takes every red shirt death as a personal failing, to the point that in Season 3 all he can do is tiredly and bitterly phase a grave for one of them.
• Sanity Slippage : It’s there in the movie and onwards, but more pronounced in the books that Kirk is losing it after Spock dies, not wanting to be alone, losing track of reality, and almost certain his reputation in Starfleet will be remembered as a poor, sad nutcase. He’s still not completely all there after Spock comes back either, sleeping around to distract from grief, having breakdowns about Edith, Sam, Gary and his sister in law, and verging on Death Seeker .
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : Kirk does this quite a bit. Spock reminds him of "our prime directive of non-interference" and he rationalizes a way around it. Hell, if he were anyone else other than James T. Kirk , he'd have been toast long ago, but he is supposed to have unusually broad powers to make decisions affecting his crew, alien societies, and new worlds. Many times he doesn't violate it and instead he or the bridge crew find a clever way to solve the problem without doing so. In fact more often than not, Kirk is in the position of having to undo damage caused by others. Bones : Jim, ethics are one thing, but you’re crucifying yourself on yours.
• Sex for Solace : Attempted at least. The writer’s bible says that the stress from being Captain leads him to acting out compulsively off-duty, and getting himself into unhealthy romances that he can’t get out of. The novel for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is more explicit about it, wanting to distract himself from grief over his son.
• Sex Slave : Several Season 3 episodes have him trying to get out of becoming breeding stock for one reason or another, or at least trying to get out of being drugged.
• Shirtless Scene : It's not quite to the level of Walking Shirtless Scene , but Kirk appears shirtless a lot in the original TV show. Most famously, it's caused by Clothing Damage during action sequences, but he also tends to just lounge around his quarters without a shirt and such.
• Smart People Play Chess : He's Spock's opponent of choice in chess games and is quite cunning, as a lot of foes have found out, to their regret.
• Sore Loser : Sympathetically, but in a Hard Truth Aesop kind of way. He doesn’t deal well with losing crewmembers, sinking into unhelpful levels of guilt each time, and he programmed the Kobayashi Maru test the third time because he can’t deal with failure. He goes right into self loathing when Spock dies, thinking he’s lost the better half of himself.
• Sudden Name Change : In the second pilot episode, Gary Mitchell, possessed of near-omnipotent alien powers, fights Kirk and creates an open grave with a tombstone reading "James R. Kirk." This would normally be a minor matter, but given how many times Kirk later introduces himself as "James T. Kirk," it's actually quite jarring. Michael Jan Friedman's books turned into a inside joke between Kirk and Mitchell from their Academy days. note  Lieutenant Kirk boasted that "Racquetball is my middle name" when challenegd to a game by Cadet Mitchell, then Gary would joke that the R stood for different things like "Rhinocerous" or "Resourceful" when Kirk got into a tight scrape.
• Survivor Guilt : A deleted scene in "The Conscience of the King" would have revealed that Kirk one of the people whom Kodos deemed worthy of saving in his eugenics program, which would further explain Kirk's hatred of him. Really, though, it would probably apply either way, since no matter whether he was chosen to live or whether he escaped execution, he survived when thousands of others didn't.
• Talking the Monster to Death : Far more often than he gets credit for these days. Kirk is good at talking monsters to death (AKA fast talking his way out of a jam). Since he routinely runs into Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who cannot be defeated with firepower, it's an important skill.
• Teacher's Pet : Was a humorless walking stack of books on legs when he was younger, and actually programmed the unwinnable Kobayashi Maru test on his third go because he saw failing as something he couldn’t live with.
• Thousand-Yard Stare : The worst ones come after Edith dies, after Spock dies and after admitting to Picard that being dutiful got him an empty house, but he’s prone to lesser ones generally.
• To Be Lawful or Good : One of the most frequent moral dilemmas faced by Kirk in quite a few stories. To his credit, he usually manages to come up with a way to actually be both lawful and good, but when his back is truly against the metaphorical wall, he will slightly lean towards the good option and be willing to bend the rules, though he never takes such a decision lightly.
• Took a Level in Cynic : There was always a bit of a stain on his shining armor in the series, but he’s much more weary by the time of the movies. The losses of Spock, his son, and the original Enterprise only make it worse, and he’s a hair’s close to just completely giving up in the Nexus.
• Trademark Favorite Food : Has a definite fondness for Saurian Brandy, with his evil half chugging it straight from the bottle in “The Enemy Within”.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness : Kirk isn’t reckless, but he is impulsive and can let his emotions and biases get the better of him (that’s why having Bones and Spock around helps him out). He admits this himself in the sixth movie, mourning that he was so clouded by the loss of his son (and never liking Klingons much anyway) that he was an easy scapegoat for the assassination plot.
• Tragic Hero : Originally a Broken Hero , the movies (and even more so for the book version of the movies) have him make a lot of mistakes that cost dear collateral damage, and he dies not in a blaze of glory like he wants, but suffocating and bleeding under a fallen bridge, just happy that he’s made a difference.
• Tragic Mistake : It’s a combination of being manipulated by a girlfriend in Starfleet, the trauma of season three making him think he needs another position, and Spock going back to Vulcan that makes Kirk accept being an Admiral. He makes even more mistakes trying to get his ship back, and even after he’s demoted like he wants it’s still a factor in his depression, telling Picard never to accept promotion.
• He worries everyone with how much he wants vengeance in “Arena” (even if he realises by the end) for what he thinks is a massacre/invasion, and he’s particularly upset with massacres that claim to be “clean”. He spends the last quarter of “Miri” sounding on the verge of a breakdown.
• The presence of Karidian / Kodos on the Enterprise brings up some bad memories of Tarsus IV, since he witnessed the massacre and watched a friend suffer permanent injuries.
• At the end of “Elaan Of Troyius”, having sex with her under the influence of being drugged, he tells Elaan that he has no choice remembering her. In the novel version of the sixth movie, it’s explicit that he doesn’t resist Martia kissing and spooning him due to wanting to get out of there, but still feels sick and guilty.
• Trauma Conga Line : A lot of it is self-imposed angst, but the movies do a number on him until he's broken down enough to want to stay in the Nexus. It's only the fact that there's no risk that gets him out of the funk, and he goes out Married to the Job as ever. Kirk : It was fun ...
• True Companions : with Spock and McCoy .
• Ultimate Job Security : Later crews even lampshade that Kirk shouldn't have been able to get away with so much. However, the times when he's reckless or rebellious have been exaggerated in popular culture's perception of the character; ordinarily, he's a pretty law-abiding guy. Furthermore, Starfleet looking the other way regarding his more wild exploits makes sense insofar as the Enterprise is continually getting mixed up in situations where one wrong decision could result in the destruction of humanity at the hands of alien forces, and Kirk is the only captain proven to have a talent for continually making the right call in those circumstances. Organizational discipline is one thing, but species survival trumps it.
• Urban Legend Love Life : Both in-universe and out. While quite charming and capable with women, Kirk was rather restrained and mature about it despite his reputation. Even Shatner and Nimoy around the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture were getting annoyed with Kirk’s “love them and leave them” pop culture rep, and reminded people that sometimes Kirk went “ no no ” (though as the series bible and Shatner also points out, still a lot of Sex for Solace on shore leave because of the loneliness of the Enterprise ). In-universe he gets fucked over frequently, the assumption being the seduction tactics are just him wanting to sleep with everyone, and many years after his day even his biggest fans assume and believe this about him. Captain Sisko : "Kirk had quite the reputation as a ladies man."
• It should be noted that despite this being such an infamous trait of Kirk's, it's only Shatner 's Kirk who talks like this. Both Pine and Wesley consciously chose not to imitate it. Like the mysteriously disappearing and reappearing Klingon forehead ridges, this simply creates questions which are probably impossible to answer. Pine, for his part, proved he could do the "Kirk voice" when he appeared in one of the many Saturday Night Live parodies of Star Trek , in which he played the Kirk from TOS.
• In "Get a Life!" Shatner claims that it's a holdover from his D-list theatre days, when it was the only thing that kept the audience awake. Since his daughter thinks Kevin Pollack does a better Kirk than him, he also asks Pollack to help him punch up his Kirk.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child : Deconstructed in the bio, as Kirk is more like his mother than he wants to be, but she regresses after the trauma of Tarsus and uses him as a therapist, while he suffers Innocence Lost . He also has to comfort his parents after the death of Sam, when he would like nothing more than to go home and be looked after.
• War Hero : Captain Kirk is openly stated to have been decorated many times for valor. Kirk doesn't talk about his awards or display them, preferring to keep them locked away in his quarters.
• What Beautiful Eyes! : The main reason for all the close ups of them with everything else in a darker light seems to be just for pointing out his big and luxuriously lashed bambi eyes.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Kirk gets his fair share, whether it’s from women upset that he’s pretended to love them as a means to whatever end, from Bones or Spock for being an impulsive martyr, or literally anyone for getting too much into a soldier mindset and acting like a dick as a captain.
• Worth It : Despite some not entirely undeserved grumbling about what a lifetime of service has gotten him, Kirk still helps Picard fight Soren in Generations . His last words? "It was fun."
• Worthy Opponent : Klingons, in particular, recognized Kirk as this. The legendary Kor, frustrated by Organian interference that made battle against Kirk impossible, wistfully surmised, "it would have been glorious" in 2267. Captain Klaa believed defeating Kirk would make him the greatest warrior in the galaxy in 2287. General Chang reveled in his attack on Kirk at the Battle of Khitomer, until he lost his advantage. Jadzia Dax would later relate Koloth telling Kurzon Dax about verbally sparring with Kirk on a space station, and lament he never had the opportunity to face Kirk in actual battle. The Romulan Commander of "Balance of Terror" also regards Kirk as a formidable opponent, acting as the Commander himself would in Kirk's place, calling him a sorcerer who "reads the thoughts in my head," and goes to his death telling Kirk "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit : The only time his evil half shows any intelligence, is when he’s playing charming and weak, lulling his good half into a false sense of security before slamming him against the wall and knocking him out. Kirk as a whole person will use nicer variations of the tactic with so many women, and a few men too.
• Wrestler in All of Us : You may have noticed Kirk isn’t actually good at fighting (the throwing himself at the three guys in “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” and the butt move in “Journey To Babel” are two good examples). This is because Shatner took it from wrestling he saw growing up, because he wanted to make it look like Kirk was always improvising.
• Wrong Genre Savvy : He really wants to believe he’s the shining knight when in reality, Lenore was right saying there was a stain on his armor, and he’s had to admit more than once that he wants blood. Wrath Of Khan finally dissuades him of the notion, telling his son morosely that he knows nothing, and part of his arc is having to deal with losses instead of trying to ignore them.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Portrayed By: Paul Wesley

Appearances: star trek: strange new worlds.

In the setting of Strange New Worlds , Kirk is presently a lieutenant serving on the Farragut before being promoted to First Officer. In the Prime timeline, after two alterate variants of the character appeared before him, Lieutenant Kirk finally appears as the recently promoted first officer of the USS Farragut , which was collaborating with the USS Enterprise on a mission.

• The Ace : Top of his class at Starfleet Academy, and (will be) the youngest captain in the fleet. He's already become the fastest promoted First Officer in Starfleet, breaking the record previously held by his father.
• Jim's struggle with his father's legacy in the Prime Reality stems from the fact that the elder George Kirk was always away helping others, and famed for being the youngest officer in the fleet to be promoted to first officer. In the Kelvin Timeline, Jim struggled with the fact that George was revered for having sacrificed his life on the Kelvin to save its crew, including Jim and his mother.
• The circumstances behind Kirk meeting Pike and Uhura are also much different. In the Kelvin Timeline, he met both in a bar brawl trying to flirt with Uhura and getting into a fight with Starfleet cadets, with Pike daring him to do better than the late George Kirk did instead of wasting his life. He meets Uhura while nursing a drink after an argument with his brother, and has to make it clear he's not flirting with her (even when she decks him during a hallucination), with his first meeting with Pike being a result of his efforts to help Uhura.
• While later works in the franchise establish that Kirk has a reputation as a ladies man, it is established here that when in a relationship he will remain committed to his partner and his natural charm and outgoing personality are easily mistaken as him being a flirt.
• Annoying Younger Sibling : As far as Sam Kirk's concerned, Jim is this on account of the way he's advancing through the Starfleet ranks; Sam thinks he's just trying to one up him to please their father.
• Big Good : He's a bit of a maverick, but he's one of Starfleet's best officers and a paragon of their ideals.
• Call-Forward : He immediately takes notice of Spock's skill and insight, hinting at their eventual friendship.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome : La'an quickly calls him out for "helping every stranger in need". He gets it from his father.
• Commonality Connection : In his first meeting with Spock, both men feel that Sam is a huge pain in the ass.
• Doomed by Canon : He turns down a relationship with La'an because he's in an off-again/on-again relationship with a woman named Carol, and she's pregnant. She doesn't even give him a chance to be a father. His son fares no better.
• Exact Words : He mentioned that he first met Pike when he became Fleet Captain. Turns out that it wasn't the exact time he was promoted; Pike had been given a temporary promotion to Fleet Captain, and Kirk happened to be on that same assignment.
• Following in Relative's Footsteps : It's already established that in the prime universe, George Kirk Sr. was the inspiration for his sons to join Starfleet, and Jim directly states that he wanted to understand his father's passion for helping others.
• Guile Hero : His defining trait. If there's even a slight chance to Take a Third Option , he'll do it. His brother Sam mentions that he doesn't like to lose, and will do whatever it takes to avoid that.
• Rank Up : He's given a promotion to First Officer of the Farragut in his first "Prime" appearance, albeit that it's going to take a few weeks until they can train his replacement.
• Reasonable Authority Figure : As Uhura begins to suffer from mysterious complications related to the mining facility the ship is stationed at, and seems to be the only one experiencing them, Kirk is the one officer that takes the extra step to help her out, as the rest of the Enterprise crew think she's just suffering from over-exhaustion and a form of radiation poisoning, which he suspects is something more.
• Smart People Play Chess : Prime Kirk points out a mistake that Spock makes in a game against Christine Chapel and how it costs him an easy win.
• Vitriolic Best Buds : He loves his brother Sam and would go to any lengths to keep him safe, but Sam's jealous attitude about his brother's fast-advancing career makes things an annoyance for the younger Kirk.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy : Sam accuses Jim of this by trying to outdo their father's already impressive Starfleet career.
• When You Coming Home, Dad? : George Kirk, in contrast to being dead in the Kelvin Timeline, was rarely home to spend time with his sons, having vested himself to his Starfleet career. This left Jim wondering why his father was choosing to help total strangers instead of making an effort to be there with his family.

    A Quality of Mercy Kirk (spoilers)  

• Always Someone Better : To Pike, at least in the scenario of "Balance of Terror". The viewer gets the benefit of seeing that Kirk's handling of the Romulans would have indeed proven itself correct, as Kirk's more aggressive response discouraged the Romulans' belligerence, while Pike's attempt at diplomacy and negotiation in an alternate timeline was seen as weakness.
• Batman Gambit : He does these so frequently that he's able to identify one on sight. When the Romulans let their appearance leak, showing that they're similar to Vulcans, Kirk suspects they did it to sow discord amongst Federation officers.
• Birds of a Feather : We first meet this version of Kirk in an alternate timeline where he never captained the Enterprise , and thus he meets Spock much later than he did before. That aside, they both get on immediately due to their shared ability to think outside the box and to also be pragmatic when the occasion calls for it.
• No Hero to His Valet : His older brother Sam makes it clear that he's one of the best captains in Starfleet. He also freely acknowledges that his little brother is a massive pain in the ass. Later, it turns out his brother is The Resenter of Kirk's rapid success in Starfleet, making Sam feel inadequate compared to his equally-famous father. Sam Kirk: Look, I'm not gonna say that Jim isn't a pain in the ass . He is. He's a huge pain in the ass. But the truth is, he's as fine a Captain as Starfleet has.
• Strange Minds Think Alike : Both he and Spock agree that showing weakness in front of the Romulans is bad, but for different reasons. Kirk doesn't want the Romulans to think the Federation won't defend themselves. Spock knows how vicious Vulcans were before they embraced logic, and if Romulans are an off-shoot of that martial philosophy, then he knows they should not be under-estimated.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Pike hesitating against the Romulans costs Kirk the Farragut , and he's not happy about that. Kirk doesn't want war, but he also isn't willing to hesitate against a violent enemy. "You flinched! You deliberated! And you lost! "

    Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Kirk (spoilers)  

• Big Brother Instinct : Or rather, little brother instinct. He has no pretense of altering the timeline until La'an reveals Sam is still alive in her time, at which point he changes his tune.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation : Instead of having a bridge dropped on him after traveling into the future, he dies in the past with a point-blank disruptor shot to the chest.
• For Want Of A Nail : In this timeline, the Romulans assassinated a child named Khan Noonien Singh before he could become the infamous dictator of the Eugenics Wars. Without him, they never occurred, but it didn't give humanity the kick in the teeth it needed for losing billions of lives to it, and they became an isolationist government with a bleak, barely habitable Earth, and are stuck in a war with the Romulans that they're implied to be losing. For Kirk, he was born on the Iowa instead of Riverside, Iowa, his brother is dead (well, dead before he should be ), and his only contact with Spock is a message to tell him they can't help.
• In Spite of a Nail : He still becomes Captain of the Enterprise , albeit much earlier than he did in the Prime Reality.
• The Lost Lenore : For La'an, compounded by the presence of Prime Kirk as an eternal reminder. As of " Subspace Rhapsody ", she is still holding onto the watch he gave her .
• Smart People Play Chess : Not only does the alternate version of Kirk in season 2 defeat multiple 21st-century opponents at traditional chess, but he also dismisses it as "idiot's chess".

Tropes applying to the novelverse Kirk

    Novelverse Kirk 

• Antiquated Linguistics : How Bones got his nickname, according to "The Captain's Oath". Kirk called McCoy a 'sawbones' in one of their early meetings, and Bones was amused by the fact the younger man was using more outdated language than the self-professed country doctor.
• Break the Badass : He's initially talked into experimenting with time travel by Admiral Delgado on the grounds of "think of the potential". After what happens with Edith, Kirk's attitude is locked into " screw the potential". The events of "Yesteryear" do not help. At all.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday : The events of The Motion Picture , specifically V'Ger's ascension. A mass freak out occurs across Federation space, with people debating what it means, some people seeing Kirk as a religious icon and some as a monster who kills AI. Kirk doesn't get what the big deal is.
• Cassandra Truth : Some of Jim's more... unusual exploits tend to get dismissed by 24th century characters as being implausible, or stuff he made up (such as that incident where someone supposedly stole Spock's brain). The Enterprise -E crew, on hearing the things about "Requiem for Methuselah", however, are more open-minded (run-ins with Q will do that).
• "The Captain's Oath" shows Kirk's transformation from the humorless terror of the Academy to the rules-lawyering man of the show proper, along with the start of his friendships with Bones and Spock.
• A flashback in "Forgotten History" shows the transitory Kirk at the end of the five year mission - he's gotten fed up of The Chains of Commanding , the lost red shirts, the various failed romances and chasing around the galaxy, and is looking to pack it all in and take a desk job, maybe just settle down with someone.
• "Ex Machina" has Kirk beginning to go from getting his fire back at the end of The Motion Picture to the man we see in Wrath of Khan , feeling his age and use diminishing in equal measure.
• Designated Villain : In-universe, even. The Department of Temporal Investigations calls Kirk one of the biggest menaces of time travel on record; a boogeyman held up as a cautionary example of exactly what not to do. Most of Kirk's seventeen violations were accidents, or things Starfleet got him into. Agent Lucsly even comes to realize this when an eighteenth violation brings him into contact with the man, and he sees the dreaded "Time Pirate" isn't so bad as all that. But for the sake of the Department, he still has to lie and maintain Kirk's image.
• Famous for Being First : Among other unsavory bits of his reputation, he's the first captain to be court-martialed thanks to that mess with Ben Finney.
• A Father to His Men : Used to justify why he keeps leading shore parties - he doesn't want to expose anyone to danger he wouldn't face himself.
• Improbable Age : As mentioned up above, he made Captain by his thirties, which gets mentioned in "The Captain's Oath", with one or two characters thinking poorly of him for it, figuring he didn't earn it on legitimate merit.
• Kicked Upstairs : Sort of... his being made admiral is a little more complicated. There was a court martial after Kirk decided to screw the Prime Directive again, this time when an Obstructive Bureaucrat was on-board (of the TNG-era style mindset of "the Prime Directive says they must die"). The bureaucrat had been put there by Admiral Delgado, who wanted Kirk out of the way so he could get his hands on the Enterprise engines, but Admiral Nogura actually did want Kirk as a Fleet Admiral because he thought he'd be good at it.
• Love at First Sight : No, not Spock. The Enterprise . Kirk fell in love with the old girl the first moment he saw the bridge. (Spock played Moment Killer .)
• His various meddlings with alien cultures. Related, his habit of destroying AIs , which even has pro-AI groups seeing him as some sort of demon.
• Apparently Spock taunted him about not recognising who Surak was that one time. Afterward, Kirk made time to study up on Vulcan history.
• His reputation as a seducer. One book in New Frontier has a member of the Excalibur crew decry this reputation Kirk has... only to seconds later state he did seduce her grandmother .
• A century onward, and Flint is still ticked off with him, and Starfleet types in general.
• Red Baron : The Department of Temporal Investigations brand Kirk "The Time Pirate".

Captain James T. Kirk (Kelvin Timeline)

Played by: Chris Pine

Dubbed in french by: emmanuel garijo, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: marcelo garcia, appearances: star trek | star trek into darkness | star trek beyond.

• Abusive Parents : His unseen stepfather is heavily implied to have been abusive towards him and his brother. In the original script, his friend "Johnny" that young Kirk speaks to is his brother George Jr., who was running away from home due to this and learning their stepfather intended to sell their biological father's prized car. Kirk, meanwhile, decided to total it to spite him .
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade : Due to his father's death, this Kirk had a significantly rougher upbringing. He was essentially an aimless drifter before Pike encouraged him to step up while the original Kirk had wanted to join from a young age. Even by Beyond where he's mostly grown back into his original characterization, the loss of his father still weighs on him.
• Adaptational Dumbass : While far from stupid (Pike describes him as "the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest"), this version of Kirk is more prone to reckless overconfidence and impulsive action than the Prime universe version, though this can mostly be put down to inexperience ; the Prime Kirk was an experienced, seasoned officer when he became Captain of the Enterprise , whereas this one got the job while he was still a cadet. By Star Trek Beyond , he's closer to his original portrayal.
• Adaptational Dye-Job : A minor example; the original Kirk had hazel eyes, while this one's eyes are blue.
• Adaptational Personality Change : This Kirk is more laid back than the original .
• AM/FM Characterization : In his first scene, he's hanging up on his step-father in favor of blasting Beastie Boys ' "Sabotage" (a song that In-Universe is a 100-plus-years-old) over the radio, establishing his disregard for authority (and a certain degree of love for Good Old Ways , even if they clash with Federation standards) even before the character says a single word. The detail about "Sabotage" being so old it's considered "classic" (and Kirk loving it) gets a Call-Back gag on Star Trek Beyond .
• Amusing Injuries : A lot of them in the first movie. Gets shades of it in the first half-hour of the second, but after Admiral Pike dies, the joke stops being funny in a real hurry.
• Anti-Hero : He's a Chivalrous Pervert and Jerk with a Heart of Gold with some serious issues when it comes to authority. But at the end of the day, you can count on him to do what's right, even if it conflicts with protocol. By the end of Star Trek Into Darkness , he's becoming more of a Hero Classic.
• Arch-Enemy : No matter the universe or timeline, Kirk and Khan will always be bitter enemies.
• Badass Biker : Star Trek Beyond has Kirk show his amazing biker skills when he averts the attention of Krall's men.
• Badass Normal : No superpowers, but he'll go charging in anyway.
• Big Brother Mentor : To Chekov in Into Darkness and Beyond .
• Big Ol' Eyebrows : The character retains Chris Pine 's bushy eyebrows.
• Birthday Hater : He hates celebrating his birthday because it reminds him of his father's death. In Beyond , he hates it even more because he's now one year older than his father ever got to be.
• Boldly Coming : Zigzagged . So far, he's bedded an Orion woman and Caitian twins, but both those incidents took place on Earth. When he's on the Enterprise or otherwise away from his home planet, he avoids actually romancing anyone.
• Kirk is confident about himself, fearless, and absolutely believes there's no such thing as a no-win scenario, prompting him to cheat at the Kobayashi Maru test to prove his point. But then comes Star Trek Into Darkness where he gets demoted and lost the command of the Enterprise , lost his father-figure Pike, and almost led his entire ship to its demise because of his impulsiveness (good thing Scotty saved them) . Kirk: I'm sorry...
• At the beginning of Into Darkness , he bragged how no one in his crew was killed in the past six months of his command, then his mission to Kronos cost the lives of his escorts, many of the crewmen sucked into space at warp speed and fell into their deaths when the ship was crashing. Kirk was unable to do anything but watch. He tried to save one woman, but she slipped from his fingers.
• On the mission to infiltrate the Vengeance , he ordered Spock to stay and take command of the ship, admitting that he didn't know what to do. He realized Spock was the one needed while he's expendable.
• By the time he's dying, he's definitely broken . Kirk: I'm scared, Spock. Help me not be...
• Brilliant, but Lazy : Kirk has a brilliant tactical mind and is an outstanding leader, but only if you can pry him away from women and alcohol long enough. Pike even refers to him as the "only genius-level repeat-offender in the Midwest."
• Broken Ace : While Kirk Prime had shades of this, the premature loss of his father in this reality definitely has caused this Kirk to grow up a lot more rough around the edges. Many of his behaviors, such as excessive flirting and posturing, could be construed as coping mechanisms for his Dark and Troubled Past .
• He gets choked by Spock at one point and by a Romulan at another . Both times with some pretty good acting by Pine. It hurts as you try to catch your breath afterwards. Pine actually mentioned in an interview that he admires Harrison Ford for his ability to take a beating like it really hurts , and that he considered that an underrated skill.
• Kirk getting repeatedly owned in hand-to-hand combat with Spock and the Romulans is somewhat justifiable, considering they're meant to be three times stronger than humans.
• The second film is no different, although it's less humorous this time around: He accidentally shoots the ride that he and Bones were going to use to get back to the Enterprise , loses his ship (temporarily), watches his father figure Pike die , gets the snot beaten out of him by Harrison, and he even dies (albeit temporarily) a very painful death of radiation poisoning .
• By the third movie, his injuries aren't so amusing anymore.
• The Captain : Captain of the Enterprise , leading his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits across the stars.
• Cerebus Callback : Kirk's Heroic Sacrifice in into Darkness is a direct reference to Kirk and Spock's debate in the first film after Kirk cheated on the simulation.
• Character Development : Grows from a smart-ass drifter to a capable leader throughout the first film, and learns to abandon some of his Military Maverick and Leeroy Jenkins tendencies in the second. By the third, he is becoming jaded with never-ending exploration and considers taking a promotion to a desk job, though he later turns it down and loses his jadedness.
• The Charmer : Flaws aside, he's likable, friendly, and charming.
• Chick Magnet : Gaila was into him in the first movie and the sequel has him in bed with two Caitians.
• Chivalrous Pervert : Despite how much he flirts with women, we never see Kirk get pushy, and the only woman he ever (visibly) scores with is Uhura's roommate. Though in Into Darkness , he's in bed with two Caitians. As for the "chivalrous" part, it's worth noting that, despite chasing Uhura the entire first movie, he treats her as a professional and an officer worthy of respect and never makes a pass at her in the second movie. They even have a Friendship Moment bonding over their frustration with Spock.
• Dark and Troubled Past : Heavily alluded to. Kirk lost his father just minutes after his birth, was frequently abused by his stepfather while his mother was off-planet, his brother ran away when Jim was still young because he hated their stepfather so much, nearly killed himself by driving a car off a cliff when he was 12, and was already a repeat offender long before enlisting in Starfleet. It certainly explains a lot of the behavioral differences between him and Kirk Prime.
• Deadpan Snarker : Kirk often exhibits a dry wit. Kirk : The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Spock : An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.. Kirk : Well, still, it's a hell of a quote.
• Determinator : He doesn't believe in no-win scenarios and is certainly one stubborn fellow once he sets his mind to accomplishing something. He keeps fighting physically superior beings (Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Harrison), and either holds his own or keeps going despite taking beatings that others would collapse from.
• Did Not Get the Girl : Kirk hits on Uhura at the beginning of the first movie, but she turns him down. It is later revealed that she and Spock have an established relationship. In the Star Trek (IDW) comics and subsequent films, he's actually quite supportive of the relationship and gets worried about them when problems arise.
• Embarrassing Middle Name : To the point his father refused to let it be Kirk's first name. George Kirk: What, "Tiberius?" [chuckling] No, are you kidding me? That's the worst.
• Of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell . Both are Military Mavericks who are also Handsome Leches and eventually prove their mettle when faced with danger in an emergency situation. Both also served on the USS Enterprise and have fathers who were killed in action.
• To make things more interesting, he also has traits of Jason Nesmith from Galaxy Quest — who was himself an expy of Shatner's Kirk (bringing things full-circle). Both start out as arrogant jerks who go through major Break the Haughty plots and emerge humbler and more serious about leadership.
• Farm Boy : Kirk was raised on a farm in Iowa.
• A Father to His Men : Kirk loves his crew as if they were his family. Harrison notices this and presents his own love for his crew as a point of similarity between them. Towards the end of Into Darkness , Kirk provides an answer to the question posed by Harrison when he gives his life (temporarily) to save the Enterprise and her crew . Harrison : My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
• Fight Magnet : He gets into no fewer than four fistfights during the first film and loses pretty much all of them.
• First-Name Basis : McCoy mostly is on this with Kirk, Spock, and Scotty as well, but not so much.
• Fire-Forged Friends : He and Spock had to be this first, though.
• Former Teen Rebel : In Pike's words, "The only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest."
• Freudian Trio : The Military Maverick and Handsome Lech id to Spock's superego and McCoy 's ego .
• Genius Bruiser : According to Pike, "[his] aptitude tests are off the chart." And he's good in a scrap.
• Guile Hero : He loses most of the physical fights he gets involved in and has limited scientific expertise. Instead, Kirk relies on his wits to win.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold : A bit jerkish , maybe, but Kirk still fits the archetype of a heroic blond protagonist. This trait also contrasts against Harrison and Admiral Marcus .
• Handsome Lech : Played by the attractive Chris Pine , but also eyeballs every woman in the vicinity (even while delirious from the vaccine McCoy gave him).
• The Hero : He is the lead protagonist of all three films.
• The Hero Dies : In Into Darkness . But only briefly . It helps that McCoy put him into cryostasis to preserve Kirk's body as soon as possible .
• Heroic Sacrifice : Goes into the radiation-filled warp reactor of the Enterprise during Star Trek Into Darkness to save his crew .
• He also has elements of this with McCoy , which is especially apparent in the first film. In this universe, if there's anyone who's going to stick by Kirk's side through thick and thin, it's the good doctor. And he's proven it plenty so far.
• I Am Not My Father : He does not enjoy constantly being compared to his deceased father.
• Iron Butt Monkey : Frequently gets his ass handed to him in fights, but makes up for it with guile and simply refusing to give up.
• It's Personal : In the sequel after Harrison murders Pike .
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Kirk can be a rather manipulative Guile Hero . However, Kirk is never out to hurt anyone just for his own ends and it's made clear he's only acting up because he lacks a challenge worthy of his smarts. Most importantly, he uses his cunning to save the universe.
• The Leader : Starts out as The Headstrong type, which gets brutally deconstructed as he leads the Enterprise into near-destruction. After coming back from being mostly dead , he grows into The Levelheaded type.
• Living Emotional Crutch : He and Uhura are this to Spock . He is Spock's closest friend (besides Uhura) and their bond is a crucial one in the franchise. Zoe Saldaña even describes how he and Uhura are emotional crutches to Spock in the documentary For the Love of Spock : Zoe: Every time he [Spock] goes into a negative place, or he starts being a little bit of a pessimist, he allows Uhura and Kirk to snap him out of it. And I really like that.
• Manly Tears : When he sees that Pike has died during Harrison's assault .
• Military Maverick : Regularly says Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! or straight-out leaps before he looks.
• Mr. Fanservice : Played by the attractive Chris Pine , and has a number of shirtless scenes .
• Not Quite Dead : McCoy revives him with Khan's enhanced blood, even lampshades it by saying "Oh, don't be so melodramatic. You were barely dead."
• Over Ranked Soldier : Gets an official promotion to Captain at the end of the first film. Note that he wasn't even technically a Cadet at the time. The expectable happens in the sequel when it shows he's as hot-headed as ever.
• Papa Wolf : Kirk will do anything to ensure the safety of his crew.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni : The brash, rule-breaking Red Oni to Spock's logical, task-orientated Blue Oni.
• Revenge Before Reason : He's dead-set on killing Harrison after Pike's death , to the point that he's nearly manipulated into provoking a war with the Klingons . His crew talks him out of it before it's too late .
• This actually gets him in trouble in the sequel, as Starfleet, for some reason , does not like him violating the Prime Directive. He's actually stripped of his command and Pike has to struggle to keep him as Commander .
• Seen It All : He has a different flavour of angst in Beyond than his original, Prime Kirk feeling like he's nothing without the Enterprise , Reboot Kirk tired of how "episodic" it all feels.
• During Spock and Uhura's conversation on Qo'noS, he was clearly on her side, commenting that she's right and Spock's response to Uhura's accusation is "not exactly a love song."
• Despite Spock's injuries, Kirk still allows him to join the mission into Krall's camp after Spock says it's for Uhura.
• Took a Level in Badass : Goes from a delinquent in Iowa to being a legendary captain who saved the Federation from total annihilation twice .
• Took a Level in Kindness : He starts out a Jerk with a Heart of Gold , but loses the jerk part by the third movie.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid : A Deleted Scene reveals that Kirk, as a child, would get good grades and stay out of trouble. Things didn't stay that way. invoked
• Vitriolic Best Buds : With McCoy . And Spock, far more in the Abramsverse than the original series.
• Wrong Genre Savvy : While he's fully in the right not to trust Khan during their Enemy Mine , he might have ordered Scotty to knock him out a little too early, though admittedly they'd probably not have fared well owing to Khan's Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder .
• Star Trek: The Original Series
• Characters/Star Trek
• Star Trek: The Original Series - Spock

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

Kirk vs Picard: Who is the best Star Trek captain?

The debate surrounding Kirk vs Picard has been raging on since the late 80s, but can we finally settle the dilemma?

• Command style
• Personality

Kirk vs Picard. It’s probably one of the oldest pop-culture debates that is still going on, as well as being one of the nerdiest. Since the late 80s, when Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) hit, fans have been divided. Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a suave and debonair diplomat, or William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, a rough-and-ready, old-school man of action — who was the best captain of the USS Enterprise?

Since then, you’ll find no shortage of fans debating one way or the other. Fans of Star Trek: The Original Series prize Kirk for his rough and tumble attitude, and the cheesy, over-the-top style of his acting that matches the show around him. On the other hand, fans of TNG prefer Picard for his sophistication, his commanding demeanor, and the classically trained actor that portrays him.

No matter which side of the fence you sit on, if you’re a Star Trek fan then the discussion has almost certainly come up at least once. To this day, there is no general consensus on exactly which version of the character worked the best. Both characters have different things that make them appealing, and it’s hard to argue objectively one way or the other. 

Hard, but not impossible. That’s exactly what we're going to do right here. We’ll pit each captain of the Enterprise against each other, looking at their command style and personality to see who comes out on top. 

If you want to catch up on the exploits of both captains before you make your mind up, check out our Star Trek streaming guide to see where you can watch both shows online. You can also check out our Star Trek movies in chronological order guide too.

Kirk vs Picard: Command style

When it comes to running his ship, Kirk was very much a man of two minds. He was certainly a capable tactician, with many of his exploits becoming required reading in the Starfleet Academy. He stuck to his own moral compass, even when that meant breaking important rules, or trampling over some civilizations’ cultural customs. He was also a man who was capable of extreme aggression and anger, to the detriment of his mission, if rarely to the crew or ship he commanded.

Kirk was also a man who very much relied on his close friends to balance out his personality. He was passionate, sometimes to a fault, so Spock had to bring him down to a logical level. Similarly, he was sometimes overly gung-ho, meaning McCoy (aka Bones) fulfilled the role of his conscious. The Enterprise wouldn't have functioned nearly as well if either of these two weren't there to help Jim through the tough times.

In terms of his command style, Picard was very different from Kirk. He was incredibly strict and efficient, rarely relying on his passions or emotions. He was quick to anger, but very rarely let it control his decision-making. Picard was also a trained diplomat, which did have an impact on the way he ran his ship, making him much more likely to seek a verbal solution, rather than one based on immediate action.

Having said that, it’s not like Picard was perfect. He had personal attachments with several crew members that did occasionally interfere with how he commanded his crew, in particular Beverly Crusher and her much-maligned son, Wesley. Picard’s preference for words over action has endangered the crew of the ship once or twice, though his solid decision-making often saved the day in the end.

Kirk vs Picard: Personality

Personality-wise, Kirk is usually sold to outsiders as a horny womanizer. While that image is not without merit, it’s also true that his womanizing is somewhat blown out of proportion. For the most part, his character in the original series is staunchly pro-woman, defending reproductive rights and a woman's right to say no to a potential romantic partner on numerous occasions. If you only take into account the original canon, his number of confirmed partners hit around 9 or 10. Looking back, Kirk might seem like a bit of a sleazy horndog, but at the time he was positively forward thinking as characters go.

Outside of the bedroom, Kirk is an everyman. He doesn’t see himself, or in fact his officers, as above the rest of the crew. That’s part of the reason why he’s so willing to jump right in and put himself in harm’s way. He also cares deeply for the lives of his crew, as displayed on several occasions. Not only has Kirk done his utmost to preserve the lives of others, even at the expense of his own, but he’s been shown to take an interest in the personal lives of his crew, like when he went out of his way to run an ill-fated wedding for two of his crew members.

It can't be denied that Kirk has a dark and aggressive side. However, in one particular episode he addresses this and builds close personal relationships that help him to balance out those parts of himself; Spock and McCoy aren’t just officers, and at various times you get a very clear impression that they’re some of his closest friends. Without them, he would actively be a worse captain, and he knows it. They’re not just integral to the running of his ship, but an important part of his life and effectively act as his conscious.

When it comes to personality, Picard is quite a bit different from Kirk. Both are men of principle, Picard is much more reserved and restrained than Kirk. You can see that Picard cares deeply for the lives of those under his command, but he doesn’t rely on his officers in the same way that Kirk does. Although Riker does occasionally have to push Picard towards action rather than diplomacy at times, Picard often has a more balanced approach to problems than Kirk does when he’s separated from his officers and crew.

Compared to Kirk, Picard feels a bit more detached from his crew, yet he knows how to delegate and often does. While Picard is not unwilling to put himself into a position of danger, he acts more like an officer than a soldier. That’s not to say he’s okay sending his crew to their deaths, far from it, but he does seem to understand that it’s sometimes inevitable and is prepared to bear that burden. Indeed, while Kirk very much wears his heart on his sleeve, Picard is considerably more introspective. He carries a lot of pain with him and is often seen in turmoil over his past decisions and traumas.

Winner: Picard

No matter what answer you arrive at when it comes to the Kirk vs Picard question, you’re going to upset people. The truth is that both of these captains are brilliant in their own right. If you divorce the characters from the quality of the shows, it basically comes down to how you feel a ship should be run. The reason that Picard squeaks out a victory here is mostly based on his numerous unfair advantages.

The Next Generation is set over 100 years after The Original Series. Not only has deep space exploration been going on for over a century, meaning they’re not wrestling with the unknown as often, but the Federation is no longer one step away from war with the Klingons. Kirk almost certainly had to be more action-oriented because he was often working with little to no information. As information allows for more diplomacy, that gives Picard a slight edge here.

No matter how you personally feel about the shows, the characters, or the actors, you have to agree that the series wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for both of these captains. They’ll forever be part of the legacy of Star Trek, which ensures that this debate will still be going on by the time we actually hit the year 2265. Also, you know the best Star Trek captain is Benjamin Sisko anyway... If you want more Star Trek content, be sure to check out our Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best article to see which captain gave us the best movie in the franchise.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 110 — Voyager 1's Brush with Silence

How to watch new 'Doctor Who': Stream Ncuti Gatwa episodes from anywhere

The stormy sun erupts with its biggest solar flare yet from a massive sunspot — and it's still crackling (video)

Most Popular

• 2 Houston, we have an encore: ISS virtual reality experience 'The Infinite' returns
• 3 Total solar eclipse 2027: A complete guide to the 'eclipse of the century'
• 4 This Week In Space podcast: Episode 110 — Voyager 1's Brush with Silence
• 5 DARPA's autonomous 'Manta Ray' drone can glide through ocean depths undetected

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Jun 12, 2023

In Defense of Captain James T. Kirk

We're going back to the beginning to take a second look at Star Trek's classic captain.

StarTrek.com

While the new Star Trek series are being celebrated (and rightly so) for their inclusion and progressive ideas, this is, as many old-school fans are happy to point out, nothing new. But often the praise for the new shows has come with a side order of derision towards The Original Series and, in particular, its lead character, Captain James T. Kirk . I’m here to tell you that Star Trek ’s first captain was a lot more progressive than he gets credit for.

Let’s start with some of James T. Kirk’s origin story, for those who only see him as the king of swagger:

• He grew up with horrific tragedy; he lived through a food crisis on Tarsus IV, where Governor Kodos executed 4000 colonists to “save” the rest. Kirk, 13 at the time, was an eyewitness to the massacre.
• He was described by close pal Gary Mitchell as a “stack of books with legs.” Mitchell added that, at Starfleet Academy , “The first thing I ever heard from an upperclassman was, ‘Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink.’”
• Also at the Academy, Kirk was relentlessly hazed by a bully named Finnegan.

Is that the guy you think of when you hear “James T. Kirk”?

While Kirk definitely had his fair share of backwards moments — as an adolescent girl, I cringed every time he addressed his entire crew as “gentlemen” — he also proved, over and over again, that he was able to transcend them.

He Didn’t Stand for Bigotry

A famous line still quoted all over social media happened right in Star Trek ’s first season, when the crew saw what Romulans looked like for the very first time. Startled by their striking similarity to Vulcans, navigator Lt. Stiles immediately became suspicious of Mr. Spock . When he suggested they ask Spock to decode Romulan messages, instead of the cryptography team that was already on the case, Kirk put his foot down.

KIRK: I assume you're complimenting Mister Spock on his ability to decode. STILES: I'm not sure, sir. KIRK: Well, here's one thing you can be sure of, Mister. Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the Bridge. Do I make myself clear? STILES: You do, sir.

He Knew That 'No' Meant 'No'

One of Star Trek ’s earliest episodes, “ Charlie X ,” was about the discovery of an orphan who’d been given extraordinary powers and was struggling to handle them as he went through a turbulent adolescence and exposure to other humans for the first time. It was left to Kirk to teach him about how to behave around women. Granted, there were some clunky moments like this one, where the message was good, but the delivery was a failure —

“There's no right way to hit a woman.I mean, man to man is one thing,but, er, man and woman, er, it's, er, it's, er.Well it's, er, another thing. Do you understand?”

Charlie didn’t really, and Kirk’s mistake was — as someone who had to act like a parent but wasn’t one yet — that he didn’t see how deeply Charlie was struggling until too late. But when Kirk tells Charlie to stop pursuing Yeoman Janice Rand, he’s 100% clear.

“You go slow. You be gentle.I mean, it's not a one-way street,you know, how you feel and that's all.It's how the girl feels, too.Don't press, Charlie.If the girl feels anything for you at all, you'll know it.”

He’s talking about consent. He hammers the point home with this —

“Charlie, there are a million things in this universeyou can have and there are a million things you can't have.It's no fun facing that, but that's the way things are,” advising the lovesick superteen to, “Hang on tight and survive. Everybody does.”

He Put Himself in His Enemy’s Shoes

Unlike too many of the loudest voices today, Kirk wasn’t a dig-his-heels-in kind of guy; he had the ability to see himself through his enemy’s eyes and change his way of thinking — even when threatened.

In “ The Devil in the Dark ,” it’s Kirk who discovers that the creature who’s been killing the miners on Janus VI isn’t a marauding murderer. When he comes face-to-face with the creature Spock describes as a “proven killer,” he ignores Spock’s urging to shoot it. While it’s Spock who connects the dots and realizes the miners have been destroying the Horta’s eggs, it’s Kirk who stopped the killing cycle and connected with the creature before anyone else.

Many viewers think of “ Arena ” as the episode where Kirk builds a gun and fights the Gorn, but what the episode is really about is Kirk listening to the Gorn. When the Gorn captain describes a Federation colony as invaders in Gorn territory, Kirk hears it, loud and clear. As he’s about to win the battle to the death, he stops. “No, I won’t kill you,” he says, “Maybe you thought you were protecting yourself when you attacked the outpost.” (Bonus points to McCoy and Spock, who also consider the Gorn’s perspective even when their captain is threatened.)

In “ By Any Other Name ,” as soon as Kirk conquers the aliens who’ve taken over his ship and are steering it towards another galaxy, his first offer is one of help. Even as they’re physically wrestling and he knows he’s won, he tells the Kelvan (no relation to Kelvin) commander Rojan to bring the problem to the Federation, who can help the Kelvans find a place to live. Rojan is shocked, “You would really do that? You would extend welcome to invaders?” They stop fighting, and Kirk says, “No. But we would welcome friends.”

And in “ Day of the Dove ,” when an alien sets Klingons up against the Enterprise crew in an endless battle, Kirk determines they’re being manipulated and makes peace. “What's happening to us? We've been trained to think in other terms than war. We've been trained to fight its causes, if necessary. Then why are we behaving like a group of savages? Look at me. Look at me. Two forces aboard this ship, each of them equally armed. Has a war been staged for us, complete with weapons and ideology and patriotic drum beating? Even — Spock. Even race hatred?”

He Could Always See A Better Future

In “ Mirror, Mirror ,” Kirk, Uhura , Scotty , and McCoy are thrown into the Mirror Universe — a savage world where officers are promoted by assassinating their superiors and planets are conquered. When they finally figure out how to get back, Kirk stalls his return. He’s not just racing back to safe home territory; he wants the Mirror Universe to be safer, too.

With two minutes and ten seconds left, he decides it’s time to have a one-to-one with Mirror Spock. He appeals to Spock’s logic, calling him out as illogical for going along with the brutality of the Empire. “If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?” he asks, urging Spock to find a logical reason to spare the Halkans (who are about to be destroyed). We learn many years later, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , that his speech worked, and the Empire fell. (It’s not his fault that the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance took over.)

His Soulmate Was the Most Progressive Person of Her Time

In “ The City on the Edge of Forever ,” Kirk meets Edith Keeler in New York City during the Great Depression. Sure, she’s played by the gorgeous Joan Collins, but he doesn’t fall for her because she’s beautiful or has a delightful accent; he’s immediately hooked by her ideas. She talks about a future with hope and unity to a largely oblivious room, and when another fella tells Kirk, “Not that she's a bad-looking broad, but if she really wanted to help out a fella in need...” Kirk tells him to shut up. Twice. “I want to hear what she has to say,” he says. You can almost hear his heart pounding.

All of Edith and Jim’s conversations as they’re dating are about her views. Her optimism and her belief in a better world are what make him fall for her. When he has to let her die to save Earth’s future, he’s utterly devastated because he knew she was right and could have changed the world, if only she’d been born at a different time. And he loved her.

He Had Humility, and Could Admit When He Was Wrong

Humility is sorely missing from today’s political and social conversations. We’re all sticking our heels in the mud, refusing to acknowledge that anyone who thinks differently from us might have any validity, and refusing to engage in conversation.

And yet Kirk, who’s often described as a macho guy who always thinks he’s right, was able to recognize when he wasn’t — after behaving like a fool for most of the episode. The Organians repeatedly tell him they don’t need his help stopping a Klingon invasion of their planet, but he doesn’t listen at first; he knows what’s what and they don’t, and if they’re not going to defend themselves, he’ll do it for them. The Organians finally put a stop to the fighting, then tell Kirk, Spock, and the Klingons to leave; they’ve put up with their shenanigans long enough. Kirk and Kor (the Klingon commander) are outraged... at first. Later, on the ship, he sings a different song.

“I'm embarrassed.I was furious with the Organiansfor stopping a war I didn't want.We think of ourselvesas the most powerful beings in the universe.It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.”

When was the last time you heard someone say something like that — or said it yourself?

He Overcame His Own Prejudice

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Kirk’s son David Marcus was killed by Klingons, and it hardened Kirk’s heart. He hated Klingons for it and was furious when Spock set him up (three movies later with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) as the escort and emissary for Klingon Chancellor Gorkon .

After Gorkon has been killed, and McCoy and Kirk imprisoned for the crime and then rescued, Kirk confesses, “Gorkon had to die before I understood how prejudiced I was,” and admits that, “people can be frightened of change.”

“Some people think the future means the end of history,” he tells the assembly after saving the Federation President and the Chancellor’s daughter. “But we haven't run out of history just yet.” The message is as relevant now as it was then, if not more so.

So Let’s Boldly Go… As We Always Did

So, next time you compare our new heroes to our old ones, take a closer look because Kirk and his crew were fighting the good fight long before they knew we’d still be talking about them 56 years later. They learned, they grew, and they set the stage for everything that came after with messages of equality, peace, and not just a better future, but a better humanity.

This article was originally published on June 13, 2022.

Get Updates By Email

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Laurie Ulster (she/her) is a freelance writer and a TV producer who somehow survived her very confusing adolescence as the lone female Star Trek fan in middle school. She's co-author of several books about TV and was the Supervising Producer on After Trek. Laurie can be found on Twitter at @floobish.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

Paul Wesley's Captain Kirk on Star Trek is not like William Shatner: 'This is a whole new look'

The Vampire Diaries alum opens up for the first time about playing a younger Kirk on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and what's in store for season 2.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 finale.

A new captain has beamed up to the command deck.

Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley was announced in March as a young Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . But — SPOILER ALERT — Wesley's Kirk ended up making his debut in the season 1 finale, which dropped on Paramount+ Thursday.

According to Wesley, who opens up about the role for the first time with press, the original plan was to never formally announce his casting. The network and producers hoped it would be a surprise for Star Trek fans when he popped up on screen at the end of SNW . But meddling paparazzi threatened to leak images of him from the set, so the powers that be decided to announce his season 2 role, while holding onto the season 1 surprise.

"I'm glad they did [announce it] because it allows people to digest it in a way," the actor tells EW.

Trek fans know Kirk by way of William Shatner on the original Star Trek series of the 1960s, while a newer generation got their introduction to the character from Chris Pine in the J.J. Abrams Trek films. This Kirk, Wesley says, is somewhere in between. "This is a whole new look," he notes.

The SNW finale sees Captain Pike ( Anson Mount ) getting a visit from his future self. He's not just shown, but lives out a potential tragic future that could happen if Pike's prophesied death doesn't play out as its meant to. This future takes place several years down the line when Pike meets Kirk, who's captain of the U.S.S. Farragut and arrives on the scene amid a conflict with the Romulans.

Wesley discusses taking on the role, what people can expect from his performance, and what's coming in season 2.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I feel like you're probably getting this a lot these days, but how does it feel to be Captain Kirk?

PAUL WESLEY : Gosh, how many adjectives? I could give you about a hundred and it would still not really describe it. Obviously, it is incredibly daunting. Ever since I got the role of Kirk, I'll literally be speaking to someone and there's a massive language barrier and I can't quite communicate certain words. Then I'll say "Captain Kirk." There's nobody on the face of planet earth... or I should say, most 99 percent of people know who Captain Kirk is. That is crazy. It's arguably the most iconic fictional character. There's Hans Solo and there's Captain Kirk.

There's the generation of Trek fans who know Kirk through Chris Pine and there's the other generation who know Kirk through William Shatner. What is your personal Captain Kirk?

He's somewhere in between. At the end of the day, the most important thing for me and the most important thing for the showrunners was to not insult the original series' Kirk by doing an imitation of [Shatner]. It's an interpretation that is different. I think doing an imitation of either [Kirks] would be an insult. We just remind people that it's not William Shatner. This is a whole new look. It's a whole new Spock. It's a whole new Uhura. It's a whole new Kirk. It's a new Pike. They're old characters interpreted in a new way. What is most important is to pay respect to the integrity of who Kirk is — his wants, his needs, his deep desires, his morality, his spontaneity, his instinct.

What was really important for you to bring out in him with your debut in the season 1 finale?

In the season 1 finale, it's actually a Kirk that we've never seen because he doesn't really exist. It's an alternate projected timeline of something. If Pike hadn't died and he was still commanding the Enterprise, what would this world look like? Of course, it doesn't exist. It's just in his mind. So he meets Kirk, and Kirk is not captain of the Enterprise. Kirk is captain of the Farragut. Kirk has never met Spock, he's never met Uhura, he hasn't gone through all the things that the original Kirk had gone through. So, in a way, it allowed me to... I'm not gonna say whatever I wanted, but it's a looser interpretation, right? We're not sticking to a regiment. So it was a little liberating because I didn't have as much pressure. I can't talk about season 2 too much, but it's a little bit more in line with a Kirk that we know, but it's pre-Enterprise. The most important thing is, to answer your question, is to maintain that sense of Kirk having this incredible gut instinct that he relies on, that is preternaturally accurate in a way, a morality, courage, charm, humor. We don't get to see as much of that humor in the season 1 finale because there's something very intense happening. Season 2, we get to explore a little bit more of Kirk.

In the finale, we see Kirk and Pike hitting up against each other. Do you see this episode as setting up that particular character dynamic in season 2?

Yeah, I do. The two men have a great deal of respect for one another. Pike sees this future, so he kind of knows Kirk in a way, but Kirk doesn't know him. So it's fascinating to see this. It's like, I've met you before, but I can't tell you that I've met you before and I can't explain to you how I've met you before. I do think that the two have different command styles and different approaches, but I think there's a lot of respect between the two men. There's never really a sense of animosity or real competitiveness. There's a deep sense of respect, 'cause ultimately they want the same thing. Kirk just knows that he'll figure it out quickly and he's relied on that his entire life.

We found out about you playing Kirk with the anticipation you would come in season 2. Obviously, you have this surprise appearance in season 1. It sounds like you've been hanging onto this secret for longer than I think a lot of us realized. Did you have to shoot this appearance under the cover of darkness, as it were?

Yeah, totally. I didn't tell anyone other than very, very close family and friends. And it was like an "if you say anything, I'm never talking to you again" kind of thing. Ultimately, we weren't even really gonna announce that I was playing Kirk at all until suddenly I just appeared on screen in the finale. But then we were shooting season 2 and a couple of photos came out because we did an episode where they go to earth. That's when they said, "Okay, let's just announce it because there's a lot of speculation," etc. I'm glad they did because it allows people to digest it in a way, you know? It was really hard to not tell. I ran into some people who are diehard Star Trek fans. This was before the announcement. Friends of mine that I hadn't seen in ages, and I'm like, "Well, I'm doing this show called Star Trek ." They're like, "Oh! What character?" I'm like, "Maybe you've heard of him. Captain Kirk." They're like, "Shut up! No, you're not." Nobody believed me. They literally thought I was a crazy person. Then the announcement came out and they were like, "You weren't kidding!" It's such an iconic role that everyone thinks you're pulling their leg. So I was glad that the announcement came out.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley to play Captain Kirk on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Anson Mount talks Strange New Worlds , fan love for Pike, and having the best hair quiff on TV
• Spock is getting even sexier in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds trailer

Related Articles

James T. Kirk Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

What is the personality type of the Star Trek character, Captain James Tiberius Kirk? I will mostly be using the Big Five Personality Traits, and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for this analysis.

James T. Kirk is the most well-known character in the Star Trek universe, and the captain of the most well-known ship in the federation. This ship, of course, is the Star Ship Enterprise.

James T. Kirk Personality – Big Five

James Kirk is high in the trait of openness. There are a few things about his character and life choices that suggest this. Firstly, he works in space, and space is very open. Secondly, Kirk often moves away from conventions and traditions. James Kirk tends to have a dislike for rules, and often goes against authority. There are many examples of this rebellious type of behaviour in the many depictions of Kirk.

He also displays open and out of the box thinking during his star fleet admittance test, the (Kobayashi Maru). He breaks the rules to win the test, a test that was intentionally designed to be unwinnable. This is a strong example of disliking restrictions and limitations. This is all associated with someone that is high in openness.    

Conscientiousness

James Kirk is not particularly high in trait conscientiousness, especially in his early years. He shows a preference for play over duty and work. He also has a casual and laid back demeanour. He seems to develop a more conscientious personality as he gets older. Overall, I would say he is somewhere in the middle of the conscientiousness trait scale.

Extroversion

Kirk seems to tilt more towards being extroverted on the scale. It’s not too obvious where to place him on the scale. However, a slightly extroverted personality is probably about right.

Agreeableness

Many times, Kirk shows his competitive side, and he is not afraid of confrontation. This suggests he is on the lower side of the agreeableness scale.

Neuroticism

James Kirk is also low on trait neuroticism. An indicator of this, he is good under pressure. In fact, he has a great ability to function well under pressure and stress. His life is constantly in danger. This is not a job for someone that is high in neuroticism, and that can be overwhelmed by negative thoughts and emotions.

James T. Kirk Personality Type – MBTI

James Kirk is a ESTP . He tilts more towards extroversion. He seems like more of a sensor , however, he does show aspects of a creative mind, which is more in line with being dominant with intuition. His thinking function seems more dominant, he is generally straight talking and combative. Being a natural rebel and a free thinker suggests he is a perceiver.

Related Articles

Similar Posts

Andrew tate personality type – mbti & big five.

What personality type is Andrew Tate, using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five Personality Traits? I will also be including any other relevant psychology to analyse his character. Andrew Tate was born in Washington DC. He lived in the UK for awhile, but he is currently a US Citizen. He is…

Robert Downey Jr Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

Answering the question, what is the personality type of Robert Downey Jr, using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the Big Five Personality Traits. Robert Downey Jr is an American Actor. Some of his most well known movies include: Weird Science, Air America, Natural Born Killers, Restoration, One Night Stand, U.S. Marshals, In Dreams,…

Adolf Hitler Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

We are investigating the personality type of one of the most well known and infamous people in human history, Adolf Hitler. What is his MBTI personality type, and his big five traits? Adolf Hitler lived from 1889-1945. He was born in Austria and moved to Germany in his early twenties. He served in the German…

Jennifer Lawrence Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

Looking into and analysing the personality type of Jennifer Lawrence using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five Personality Traits. Jennifer Lawrence is from Kentucky, United States. In 2015, she was the highest-paid actress, with her movies grossing over 6 billion dollars. Jennifer Lawrence’s most well-known and successful roles include: The Hunger…

Russell Brand Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

Russell Brand is a flamboyant character, and he has what some consider to be some controversial views on certain subjects. Using the Big Five Personality Traits and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), we will take a look at his personalty traits. Russell Brand, originally from Essex, England, first came to fame as a comedian,…

Tom Cruise Personality Type – MBTI & Big Five

What personality type is the legend and movie star, that is Tom Cruise? I will mostly be focusing on the big five personality traits to analyse his behaviour, actions, choices and beliefs. However, we will also be taking a look at other psychological aspects, and his Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) type. Tom Cruise Early…

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘star trek: strange new worlds’ casts captain kirk: paul wesley to play iconic character.

The 'Vampire Diaries' actor will step into the sci-fi role made famous by William Shatner.

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

There is a new James T. Kirk.

Star Trek : Strange New Worlds has cast actor Paul Wesley in the iconic sci-fi role.

The Vampire Diaries actor will join the upcoming Paramount+ series in the show’s second season, which is in production in Toronto. In an unusual move, the second-season casting is being announced before the first season has debuted.

Above is a first-look image of Wesley in character on what’s presumably the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge.

“Paul is an accomplished actor, an astonishing presence and a welcome key addition to the show,” said executive producer Alex Kurtzman and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers in a statement. “Like all of us, he is a life-long Star Trek fan and we are excited by his interpretation of this iconic role.”

Related Stories

William shatner willing to return to 'star trek' as de-aged captain kirk, william shatner on living boldly throughout acting career: "the future is unheralded".

Kirk was first immortally first portrayed by William Shatner in 1966’s Star Trek and across many films. The character was also played by Chris Pine in the newer Trek feature films.

Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) as he leads the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show is billed as a return to the classic planet-of-the-week space exploration format of The Original Series . It also stars Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.

The series is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery , which introduced these new iterations of Pike, Number One and Spock during its second season.

While Pike is the ship’s captain, and Kirk will eventually be the ship’s captain, Mount will continue as a series regular on the program in season two.

Wesley is best known for his leading Vampire Diaries role across eight seasons. He also starred in the series Tell Me a Story and the miniseries Medal of Honor . He will next be seen in the film History of Evil .

Previously, Goldsman confirmed that one of the CBS Studios series’ new castmembers has a link to the show’s most iconic villain, the infamous Khan Noonien-Singh. Actress Christina Chong was announced as playing a series regular named La’an Noonien-Singh in the show. Goldsman hinted that Khan might eventually appear on the show, but not in its debut season.

Strange New Worlds launches May 5 on Paramount+. Here’s the trailer:

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘saturday night live’ crowns maya rudolph as “mother” in mother’s day-centric opening, al onorato, casting director and talent manager, dies at 88, chris pine addresses “emotionally incapacitating” acne that kept him from landing role in ‘the o.c.’, bob ellison, emmy-winning ‘mary tyler moore show’ writer and expert joke fixer, dies at 91, hollywood a-listers react to sam rubin’s death: “your professionalism was unmatched”, ‘the other black girl’ canceled at hulu (exclusive).

Sure, the 93-year-old William Shatner would appear as Captain Kirk again, if the part was good

T he Star Trek franchise has been going strong for 60 years now, and William Shatner is part of the crew who kicked it all off in Star Trek: The Original Series back in the 1960s. Even now, all these years later, his Captain Kirk is still used as a reference point for rugged individualism and devil-may-care leadership.

Part of the reason why Kirk has stuck around in the public imagination may be that Shatner is still around to remind us. At 93 years old, he's still very active, becoming the spokesperson for a number of technology companies, promoting his new documentary You Can Call Me Bill , and even going into outer space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin shuttle in 2021. As he told Global News , he'd even be willing to return to the role of Kirk in a future movie of TV show.

“It’s an intriguing idea," Shatner said. “It’s almost impossible but it was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it.”

Shatner suggests that de-aging technology could be used to make him look younger, which has been coming into vogue in movies more and more recently. He even pitched ideas for how Kirk could return, since the character died in 1994's Star Trek Generations . “A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it,” he mused. “‘We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”

Chris Pine still doesn't know whether he'll appear in another Star Trek movie

Here's a question: what seems more likely: a Star Trek movie featuring William Shatner as a de-aged Captain Kirk, or a fourth movie in the series of Star Trek films starring Chris Pine as Shatner? Because while rumors have swirled about another movie in that series ever since Star Trek Beyond bowed in 2016, nothing has ever materialized, and you get the idea that Pine is getting tired of being asked about it.

“I honestly don’t know,” Pine recently told Business Insider when he was asked yet again about a possible return to the final frontier. “There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it’s always been with Trek , I just wait and see.”

So Pine will find out along with the rest of us. In the meantime, Star Trek is alive and well on TV even if it's absent from the big screen:

h/t The A.V. Club

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account , sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel .

This article was originally published on winteriscoming.com as Sure, the 93-year-old William Shatner would appear as Captain Kirk again, if the part was good .

Carol Marcus

• View history

Doctor Carol Marcus was a female Human who was one of the leading scientists in the Federation . She was once romantically involved with Starfleet officer James T. Kirk – a relationship from which she bore a son, David Marcus – but she opted to devote her life to her research and to raising David.

• 1.1 Relationship with James T. Kirk
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Appearances
• 4.2.1 Conception
• 4.2.2 Casting
• 4.2.3 Aftermath
• 4.3 Apocrypha
• 4.4 External links

Early life [ ]

Carol Marcus was born to Alexander Marcus , a Starfleet officer , and a woman with the maiden name Wallace . ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

Relationship with James T. Kirk [ ]

It was during the late 2250s when Carol Marcus became involved with James T. Kirk, at the time a junior Starfleet officer. In 2259 , she was stationed at Starbase 1 , while Kirk was the first officer of the USS Farragut . Although their long-distance, off-and-on-again relationship was described as "complicated", Carol eventually became pregnant with Kirk's son, David. ( SNW : " Subspace Rhapsody ")

Carol felt that she and Kirk had no basis for a lasting relationship, with Kirk traveling around the universe while she worked in a lab , so she asked that Kirk leave her alone to raise the boy. That they both cared more for their careers than they did for each other was never disputed. As Carol saw it, she and Kirk lived in entirely different worlds, and she wanted her son to be raised in hers. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

Project Genesis [ ]

Marcus wearing her work uniform

Carol continued with her work, enjoying much success. In 2284 , she proposed the most ambitious and potentially dangerous of her plans to the Federation, dubbed " Project Genesis ". Once her proposal was accepted for Federation funding, she began a three-stage development process aboard the station Regula I , accompanied by a highly skilled team of scientists which included her son, Dr. David Marcus.

She and her team made remarkable progress and, by 2285 , they were ready to try out their new invention. However, before they could find a suitable planet on which to test the Genesis Device , Khan Noonien Singh and his band of " supermen " intervened, bringing Kirk back into her and David's life.

Though she didn't share her son's mistrust of Starfleet, Carol was incensed when told that her project and all her files were to be taken by the crew of the USS Reliant , under orders of the new Admiral Kirk. She was determined to fight this unexpected incursion into her territory, though she was willing to give her former lover the benefit of the doubt. When it turned out to be Khan, not Kirk, who stole the Genesis Device, she gratefully accepted Kirk's assistance. When Khan came to the lab, she led a few of her team down into the Genesis cave in Regula to hide the Genesis Device from him. Kirk found and rescued her.

Carol Marcus with Admiral Kirk and Doctor McCoy , proudly observing the newly formed Genesis Planet

Throughout the quest to save the device from Khan's evil plans, it was apparent that, although Carol Marcus still felt affection for Kirk, her true love was her work. Even as havoc was erupting all around, she gazed on the glory of the Genesis Planet forming exactly as her specifications and years of research had indicated it would. The Genesis Project appeared to be a success, and her pride in her work was unmistakable.

The encounter with Khan gave Carol the opportunity to reunite David with his father. ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ) When her son was later killed by Klingons on the Genesis Planet, Carol was left with her projects and her research, the life that had sustained her for many years. ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

Almost a century later, in 2374 , Captain Kathryn Janeway referred to Dr. Marcus in her captain's log when Janeway was in search of the omega molecule and found herself having to face enforcing the Omega Directive .

In her log, she noted that, in spite of her apprehensiveness, she now knew how Carol Marcus must have felt when she developed the Genesis Device, watching helplessly as science took a destructive course. Janeway, however, noted that, unlike Marcus, she had at least a chance to prevent it from happening. ( VOY : " The Omega Directive ")

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Every time we have dealings with Starfleet, I get nervous. We are dealing with something that… could be perverted into a dreadful weapon. Remember that overgrown Boy Scout you used to hang around with? That's exactly the kind of man… " " Listen, kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a Boy Scout! "

" Starfleet has kept the peace for over a hundred years. I cannot, and will not, subscribe to your interpretations of this event! "

" Mother, he killed everybody we left behind! " " Of course he didn't. David, you're just making this harder. " " I'm afraid it's even harder than you think, doctor. Please… don't move. "

" You had your world… and I had mine. And I wanted him in mine… not chasing through the universe with his father. "

" Actually, he's a lot like you. In many ways. "

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (archive footage)

Background information [ ]

Conception [ ].

The notion that gradually transformed into the character of Carol Marcus was incorporated into the plot for Star Trek II as early as the first story treatment written for that film. In this one-page story outline (written by Executive Producer Harve Bennett ), Admiral Kirk personally responded to news of a colonial rebellion on a Federation planet specifically because his former relationship with this unnamed woman personally connected him to a leader of the revolution, their son. The plot, in this earliest of its forms, also involved Kirk rescuing the woman from a drifting spacecraft, bringing her aboard the Enterprise , before proceeding to the planet. ( The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , pp. 35-36)

The character of Kirk's former lover then received the name Diana, in a nineteen-page outline that Jack B. Sowards went on to develop from Bennett's single-page treatment. She was again rescued by the Enterprise from a refugee ship that originated at the planet undergoing revolution, this time named as Omega Minori IV. However, it was established that she had never informed Kirk of the fact that, as a result of their prior relationship, she now had a son, a fact Kirk nevertheless learned during the course of the adventure. ( The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , pp. 37-39)

Subsequent early drafts of Star Trek II featured Dr. Janet Wallace from " The Deadly Years " in the role of Kirk's old flame. Near the start of the next story outline, she sent a personal call to Kirk while both were on Earth, saying that she could use a visit from an old friend. Wallace thereafter intermittently told Kirk and their son that they were related to one another, easing tensions between them. She also traveled to Omega Minori IV herself, shortly before her revelation to David that Kirk was his father. ( The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , pp. 39-42) This version of the character remained much the same in the film's first script draft, written by Jack Sowards. She was again reduced to hiding in caves with David and the other rebels but also had some significant interplay with Kirk. ( The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , p. 45)

In an updated script draft which Sowards submitted, the role that Janet Wallace fulfilled in the story had been replaced with a new character named Carol Baxter. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 5 ; [1] ) While still to undergo some degree of final revision, the character was by now much as it is in the film's final version. ( The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , pp. 37-39)

The filming script for Star Trek II describes Carol Marcus as being "in her early forties, attractive and intelligent." The same script draft also states that, at the time she recorded the visual footage in which she proposed Project Genesis , she was "not used to" appearing on-camera. [2]

It has been suggested (such as in the Star Trek Chronology , 1st ed., p. 151 & 2nd ed., p. 268) that a "little blonde lab technician" mentioned in " Where No Man Has Gone Before " may, in fact, have been Carol Marcus. As depicted in the episode, Kirk almost married this woman, after an initial encounter between them was arranged by Gary Mitchell (unbeknownst to Kirk) while Kirk was his instructor at Starfleet Academy . Of course, this unnamed character also could have been Janet Wallace or some other woman never shown on-screen. Although Michael and Denise Okuda (the writers of the Star Trek Chronology ) recognize that the reference might actually be to Carol, they also consider that, given the amount of romantic relationships that Kirk had in his lifetime, it is not surprising that Carol was never heard of (at least not directly) before appearing in Star Trek II . ( text commentary , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  The Director's Edition )

Casting [ ]

Upon seeking a suitable actress to play Carol Marcus, Director Nicholas Meyer had two precise goals in mind. He later explained, " I wanted a woman who was beautiful and looked like she could think; a woman who was attractive enough that you could see why Kirk would fall for her, and at the same time somebody who could keep up with him. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 5 ; [3] ) Meyer also said of the role, " I felt that, if it was to be any kind of meaningful or long-lasting or memorable relationship, she had to have more than just looks. She had to be intelligent. " ( audio commentary , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  The Director's Edition / Blu-ray )

Ultimately, Carol Marcus was played by actress Bibi Besch . Nick Meyer was satisfied with this casting decision, believing that Besch fit both necessities for the role, saying of the performer, " She has a face where you can see all the thoughts flitting back and forth. " ( audio commentary , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  The Director's Edition / Blu-ray )

Bibi Besch approached her performance of Carol Marcus on a very basic Human level but also as an acting exercise, attempting to make it as realistic and therefore believable a portrayal as she could. " I tried to make it as Human as possible, " remembered Besch, " rather than trying to fit into something that already was because this character hadn't existed before and I didn't really feel that I had to do that […] It's difficult to play a woman who has had a relationship with someone that everybody knows. So I tried to make it believable for myself. I fantasized about an early affair [between Kirk and Carol Marcus] and why it turned out the way it did. What kind of people we both became, how I got to be where I was, not just as a scientist but as a woman who wouldn't have told Kirk for all those years that he had a son. " ( The Making of the Trek Films , 3rd ed., p. 171)

Bibi Besch struggled, somewhat, with relating to a few aspects of Carol Marcus' persona. " I don't know what it's like to be a scientist or to live in the future, " she mused, " There's no way for me to do any research on that. " Even so, she was able to draw on personal experience, since she had been a single parent while having a career, to better understand the role. In this way, she intended to make the part believable to herself, thereby enabling her to engender a realistic portrayal for viewers. ( Starlog , issue #153, pp. 54 & 55)

The first day on which Bibi Besch portrayed Carol Marcus involved the character arriving on the bridge of the Enterprise and overseeing the forming of the Genesis Planet. All other scenes in which Carol Marcus appears were filmed later. ( text commentary , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  The Director's Edition )

Bibi Besch felt that, as written for Star Trek II , the role of Carol Marcus was quite limited, even including the details of her past romance with Kirk. " There was a little bit more about our relationship that didn't end up on the screen. But not much, really. It was sketchy to begin with, " the actress related. " Sometimes, I think of my character as just a lot of exposition–a means of getting to the plotline. I would love to do a future Star Trek with a little more exposition. " ( The Making of the Trek Films , 3rd ed., p. 171)

Besch's costumes from Star Trek II were later sold in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction . [4] [5] [6]

Aftermath [ ]

Carol Marcus was omitted from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , because Harve Bennett decided not to use her in the story, as a cut-back to that film 's budget. ( Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies , 3rd ed., p. 87) Though Bennett originally included Carol in the story outline for the movie (later saying, " I thought it might be fun to have her relating to David and have something going with Saavik "), he subsequently deemed the character extraneous to the story and had some difficulties with how to logically account for her having known about David Marcus using unstable protomatter in the Project Genesis matrix. Thus, Bennett not only excised Carol from the third film but also imagined that she had no knowledge of her son's use of protomatter in the matrix. ( The Making of the Trek Films , 3rd ed., p. 46) Regarding her inclusion, or lack thereof, Leonard Nimoy expressed that, " I gave it a lot of thought, but wasn't aware of any obligatory scene in which Carol Marcus would have worked. " ( Starlog #106, May 1986 , p. 54)

The exclusion of Carol Marcus from Star Trek III was initially very difficult for Bibi Besch to accept. ( The Making of the Trek Films , 3rd ed., p. 46) She couldn't understand why the character wasn't even in the movie's script when she first read it. ( Starlog #153, April 1990 , p. 55)

According to Harve Bennett, Bibi Besch sent a letter of acceptance to him once she viewed Star Trek III , shortly after its release. Bennett stated about the message, " It said, 'I've seen the picture. Now I understand. You were right. I hope you can find a place for me in one of the other films.' " ( The Making of the Trek Films , 3rd ed., p. 46)

Comments made by Bibi Besch, several years after Star Trek III was released, seem to suggest that she remained or returned to feeling frustrated about not having been in that film. She said, " I feel disappointed that I never got a chance to complete my relationship with Jim Kirk vis-a-vis the death of our son […] It would have been nice to have been able to mourn with the father, Kirk; there was nothing with them together [in the film], and that's too bad. " On the other hand, she did admit to subscribing to one theory about her role's exclusion from the third film, remarking, " My sense about it was that they need to keep Captain Kirk unencumbered in any way […] [because] it's part of the Kirk mythology that he be the Lone Ranger out there, by himself, battling the elements. " ( Starlog #153, April 1990 )

Despite hoping to someday make a return appearance as Carol Marcus and "tie up a few loose ends between Carol and Kirk," Bibi Besch was fundamentally honored to have played the part. She reflected, " I feel like I'm part of this history now, having done this character […] After all this time, [Carol Marcus' popularity] is incredible. " Besch also received many items of merchandise in which the character featured. ( Starlog #153, April 1990 )

Initially, Carol was supposed to appear in Star Trek Generations , but this was changed at Paramount's request, Carol was replaced with Antonia . ( audio commentary , Star Trek Generations (Special Edition) DVD )

Apocrypha [ ]

According to the CD-ROM game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary , Carol Marcus was assigned as the chief of research on a Federation Research Station, Ark-7, near the Romulan Neutral Zone , in 2268 .

Carol Marcus appears in the Star Trek: Vanguard novel series, set shortly before and during the early part of the original series and centered around Starbase 47 , code-named "Vanguard" ( β ). Dr. Marcus was assigned as the civilian chief scientist of the Vault, a top-secret laboratory at Vanguard established following the discovery of the Taurus meta-genome ( β ). The series implies that the research into the meta-genome provided the basis for Project Genesis. Her mirror universe counterpart ( β ) appears in a similar position in The Sorrows of Empire .

In the novelizations of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , the relationship between Kirk and Carol breaks down when she discovers Starfleet's intentions to hush up information about Genesis – something Kirk had nothing to do with, as well as the fact that Carol reveals that she and one of her colleagues were in a relationship. She elects instead to pay condolence calls on the families of the Regula One staff that were murdered by Khan. It is during one of these visits that she is informed of David's own slaughter.

At the beginning of the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country novelization, Carol is visiting one of the families again on the Themis colony (presumably over fifteen years after the Genesis incident) when it is attacked by Klingons – presumably General Chang, using the prototype Bird-of-Prey that will later cause the Enterprise crew trouble. Carol is severely injured and on life support, news which affects Kirk deeply; over the years, he and Carol had healed the rift over David's death and became friends again, and they were planning on making a life together after his retirement. For this reason, his hatred of Klingons is even more extreme in the novel than in the movie – not only did they kill his son, they may have also killed his future life partner.

In William Shatner 's novel The Ashes of Eden , Carol and Kirk are initially shown living together in Kirk's San Francisco apartment. However, their relationship seems strained due to Kirk's restlessness regarding his retirement. He ultimately decides to join the Klingon/Romulan hybrid Teilani on a mission to her homeworld, leaving Carol behind.

During the Genesis Wave series, it is revealed that Carol is still alive well into the twenty-fourth century, having been concealed on a distant planet during the Dominion War to prevent her knowledge from falling into the wrong hands. Despite the precautions taken to secure information about the Genesis Project, Carol is captured by a race of sentient plants capable of creating mental illusions, who trick her into creating the "Genesis Wave", a wave of energy that terraforms all planets in its path into something that can be inhabited by this species. However, Carol manages to shake off their illusions during a brief period of illness, and, accompanied by Maltz – the sole Klingon survivor of the original Genesis catastrophe – she destroys the space station that would have launched a second Genesis Wave, both she and Maltz dying in the process.

The Myriad Universes story A Less Perfect Union involved an alternate timeline in which John Frederick Paxton destroyed Starfleet Command and ended the talks for the Coalition of Planets in 2155 , Carol Kirk married Commander James T. Kirk , the first officer of the UESS Enterprise ( β ) , in 2255 . They had a son named David Samuel Kirk , who was born in 2261 .

In 2264 , she and David were killed when their transport vessel, the Galileo ( β ) , was traveling to an interstellar symposium on molecular biology proposed by the Vulcan government. Upon the sight of a Human vessel crossing the border of the Interstellar Coalition ( β ), the ship was destroyed by the Coalition vessel ICV Vanik ( β ) when its Vulcan captain T'Prynn ( β ) claimed that the Human transport was not responding to hails. This led to her husband developing a deep resentment towards Vulcans.

External links [ ]

• Carol Marcus at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Carol Marcus at StarTrek.com
• Carol Marcus (Star Trek) at Wikipedia

'Here Comes Captain Kirk!': William Shatner Open to Star Trek Return

William Shatner admits he's open to a Star Trek return and pitches a possible scenario to make it happen.

William Shatner hasn't completely closed the door on returning as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise. He's admitted that he would come back as the character, but it would have to be done in a meaningful way.

Shatner spoke about the possibility of revisiting Kirk in a new interview with the Canadian Press to promote his new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill . He said it intrigued him to think about reprising the role of Kirk, but he wouldn't want to come back for a brief cameo that didn't have a well-written reason behind it. Shatner also commented on how modern technology could de-age him by decades, which would lend to all kinds of possibilities for how a Kirk return could happen. The actor even shared a pitch for how the Kirk character could be resurrected in a Star Trek show .

One of the Most Underrated Star Trek Films Is Far Better Than Fans Remember

“It’s an intriguing idea,” Shatner said. "It’s almost impossible but it was a great role and so well-written and if there were a reason to be there not just to make a cameo appearance, but if there were a genuine reason for the character appearing, I might consider it .”

Shatner added that Otoy, a tech company for which he has signed on to become a spokesperson, could take " years off of your face , so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are."

“A company that wants to freeze my body and my brain for the future might be a way of going about it,” the actor also said about how to bring back Kirk. " ‘We’ve got Captain Kirk’s brain frozen here.’ There’s a scenario. ‘Let’s see if we can bring back a little bit of this, a little salt, a little pepper. Oh, look at that. Here comes Captain Kirk!’”

A 57-Year-Old Star Trek Mystery Has Finally Been Solved

William shatner's last appearance in star trek was in 1994.

Shatner last played the role of Kirk in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations . In the movie --- SPOILER ALERT --- Kirk dies in the end and is buried by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Shatner has recently shared his regrets about the way he portrayed his characters's final moments in the death scene. That regret could be one reason why he's feeling open to returning to Star Trek , possibly to give him a send-off that he feels happier with.

Shatner's new documentary, You Can Call Me Bill , drops digitally and on VOD on Tuesday.

Source: Canadian Press

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

Chris Pine got his movie-star education from Denzel Washington

The director, cowriter, and star of "Poolman" reflects on his rise through Hollywood's ranks, from his rom-com days to playing Captain Kirk.

"Is this on camera?" Chris Pine asks me as we stare at each other through the magic of Zoom.

Sporting a graying beard, perfectly combed shoulder-length hair, and a loose-fitting yellow and white cardigan, Pine certainly appears camera-ready. But once I tell him that video won't be recorded, he slouches back in his chair, seemingly pleased that he can keep a toothpick dangling from his mouth during our conversation.

Whether he's playing the handsome leading man in a rom-com or an intensely focused franchise star, Pine has the uncanny ability to adapt into the movie star that's needed at any particular moment. And right now, with the cameras not technically rolling, he doesn't have to be one at all.

Pine didn't want to be a movie star growing up, either. A third-generation actor, he first avoided going into the family business. As a die-hard Yankees fan thanks to his East Coast-raised father, a teenage Pine dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player like his idol, Yankee great Don Mattingly.

When that phase passed ("Kids were starting to pitch faster," he said), he dabbled in theater. But it wasn't until he returned home from a stint studying abroad in the UK during college that he decided to pursue acting in earnest.

"It wasn't a passion," Pine says. "It's something that I found."

But the childhood memories of both his parents struggling to find work as actors stayed with him. His mother, Gwynne Gilford, eventually gave up acting to become a therapist. Though his father, Robert Pine, is still working as a veteran character actor best known for playing Sergeant Getraer on the late-1970s hit series "CHiPs," he was keeping the family afloat gig by gig during Pine's childhood.

Those Hollywood anxieties are present in Pine's directorial debut, "Poolman," in theaters Friday. Though the film is hardly autobiographical — Pine stars as a burnout pool cleaner in LA who's trying to uncover a city scandal — his character gets support from two parental figures in his life, who are struggling showbiz types played by Danny DeVito and Annette Bening.

"There's a scene at the end when Danny's character, Jack, says that his agent finally called back and offered him a sitcom for $75,000 an episode, and he turned it down," Pine says. He looks down in his lap, almost reliving what he's describing. "And Annette's character has a conniption fit."

Pine finally looks up.

"That's my childhood," he continues. "The dream was for my father to get a television show that paid $70,000 an episode, and that would finally get us out of financial distress."

With a filmography that charts an impressive ascension from heartthrob to the face of IP-fueled blockbusters to prestige fare, it's safe to say that distress is now behind him.

In Business Insider's latest Role Play interview , Pine discusses why he refuses to watch some of his rom-coms, learning how to be a movie star via Denzel Washington, and the untimely end of the "Wonder Woman" franchise.

On hating working at restaurants and refusing to watch his old rom-coms

Early Chris Pine is a trip to watch. You played a hard partier in an episode of "E.R." You cried in front of David Caruso in "CSI: Miami." At that time in your life, were you just going after anything?

Fuck yeah! Don't be a waiter. Actually, I was a host at a restaurant and just hated it. Could not have hated it anymore. I was not a people person. It was all about just getting work.

You started getting noticed thanks to romantic comedies — "Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," "Just My Luck," "Blind Dating" — would you watch any of those titles now? Like, if you're in a hotel room flipping through the channels and it comes on.

I mean, not a chance. And that's for most of my films. It's too difficult because then you're thinking, "God, why did I fucking do that?" Or "Why did they pick that take?"

What I will say, though, is I get more people coming up to me about "Princess Diaries 2," and I think that's because it's played for so many generations of young girls now. So that's a trip.

On being comfortable playing Captain Kirk — by movie No. 3

Playing Captain Kirk in the "Star Trek" movies must have been daunting — not only were you taking on an iconic IP, but the actor who originated the character, William Shatner, is still so synonymous with Kirk. Were you ever comfortable in that role?

It's interesting. Karl Urban decided to go head first into McCoy because Karl loved "Star Trek." With Spock, you have to do Spock-like things, plus Zach [Quinto] kind of looked like Leonard [Nimoy]. And then Kirk is a tricky one. You are the lead of the band of characters, so you don't want to occupy too much space. It's fine if they are doing a thing, but you don't want to. And J.J. [Abrams] never asked me to do a thing, though I did do little nods to Shatner because it was fun.

But I would say I felt most in his shoes in the third movie. By that point, I think I mellowed into it and didn't feel like I was trying too hard.

Has the ship sailed to do Kirk again?

I honestly don't know. There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it's always been with "Trek," I just wait and see.

On getting a crash course in being a movie star from Denzel Washington and playing a 'non-charming' leading man

"Unstoppable" is the moment, I feel, where you're not fucking around anymore. Tony Scott, working across from Denzel Washington —

Youth really is wasted on the young [ laughs ]. It's such an awesome moment. It's one of the biggest films of the year; all the lights are shining on you, all the possibility of you being able to do whatever you want. I really wish I took more effort to enjoy that moment. 

I was reading a lot of scripts at the time, and I was on a plane when I read this one. And I didn't want to like it because it's a train. It's like, what is my job in this fucking film? The train is going to explode and then it's not. You know exactly what is going to happen.

But Mark Bomback wrote this incredible script, and I was on the plane, and I couldn't stop reading it. I would push it away — No. Buuut. No, nope. Buuut. I just could not turn away from it. Plus, Tony Scott was a god to me. He'd done "Days of Thunder" and "Top Gun," and then you add into that mix Denzel, plus that it's a two-hander that takes place in one location. From an acting class standpoint, I'm getting paid a lot of money to learn at the feet of one of the best who has ever done it. It was out of control cool. I learned more from that set about what it means to be a movie star than probably anything else. 

Before "Hell or High Water," you'd worked with Ben Foster in "The Finest Hours." How much of the praise you received for that movie do you attribute to the comfort you two had in working together?

I think it's more than that. Taylor [Sheridan] wrote a banger script. That script is one of the five best scripts I've ever read in my entire life. So you have the writing. Then you have David [Mackenzie] coming off of making "Starred Up," which is an incredible film, and then you have the Jeff Bridges of it all.

I think I held my own there, but you have these two incredibly dynamic actors: Jeff is the legend, and Ben is a caged animal of an actor. I had a lot of fun because up until that point, I hadn't played a closed-off, non-talkative, non-charming leading man. So I was really stoked to take that on. I think it was all the pieces coming together, not just one thing.

On turning down 'Wonder Woman' twice before director Patty Jenkins convinced him by bringing up 'Casablanca'

By the time you did the "Wonder Woman" franchise, you had done your fair share of blockbusters. Was there a moment in filming the first movie when you realized this one was different than the others?

I got pitched the film and didn't want to do it. Patty came on board and I still didn't want to do it. I had no interest in playing the boyfriend, and it sounded like second fiddle. Then, in talking to Patty, the way she described it was, "Forget the superhero of it all, this is a romance, this is "Casablanca," that's the movie I want to make." And I was like, oh, now that is very cool, because when had you seen a superhero film that was a love story, ultimately? That had nothing to do with blowing shit up.

For me, the pivotal moment is the scene on the tarmac; it's "Casablanca" by a different name. So when I saw that film, man. Film is not an actor's medium, it's a director's and editor's medium, and shit can go wrong really fast, and that was a movie where you're in the theater and you get lost in it. You forget you're in it. That's when you know it's gold.

Do you or Gal Gadot or Patty feel that there's unfinished business with the franchise not doing a third movie?

Me? No. Homie is dead. Steve is gonzo. It would be ridiculous to try to bring me back.

I'm stunned that they said no to a billion-dollar franchise and decided to pivot elsewhere. I don't know what the reasoning was behind that; it's above my pay grade, but Wonder Woman is an incredible character, and Patty is such a thoughtful director. Even think of "Wonder Woman 1984" — that's a blockbuster movie that is a hero's journey not about revenge. I mean, wow. People poo-pooed it, but wow!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

"Poolman" is in theaters May 10.

Related stories

More from Entertainment

Most popular

• Main content

Screen Rant

Walter keonig reveals missing chekov & kirk moment in star trek’s mirror universe episode.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Star Trek: The Original Series Cast & Character Guide

Shogun just proved everything that's wrong with this $450 million tom cruise movie, star trek: discovery reveals seven of nine's surprising legacy.

• Walter Koenig points out missing moment in Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" where Kirk does not hold Chekov after he's hurt.
• Koenig shares "I was there" insights on Star Trek episodes almost 60 years later on The 7th Rule podcast.
• In "Mirror, Mirror", Chekov is knocked out without Kirk touching him.

Walter Koenig points out a missing moment from Star Trek: The Original Series ' classic "Mirror, Mirror" episode. Koenig joined Star Trek in season 2 as Ensign Pavel Chekov, a role he reprised in 7 Star Trek movies. Having not seen the Star Trek episodes he starred in since they aired in the 1960s, Koenig now reviews Star Trek: The Original Series on The 7th Rule podcast , lending his invaluable "I was there" insight to the episodes almost 60 years later.

Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror" introduced the Mirror Universe . Walter Koenig was quick to inform The 7th Rule hosts Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk that there's a moment missing in the scene where the evil Mirror Chekov attempts to kill Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) . Check out Koenig's quote and watch The 7th Rule video below:

There’s a moment that’s missing that we shot… When Chekov steps out of the elevator behind Kirk - the good Kirk but the bad Chekov. We never do see the good Chekov in this episode, by the way - he pulls his phaser… and he’s hit. He’s punched. And I have some commentary about the choreography of the fights in this episode. But, in any case, Chekov collapses, and what’s missing is Kirk picks him up and holds him in his arms. And that’s not there! You don’t go back to Chekov before the scene ends. [In the missing moment] Kirk is holding him and saying something about him. So I just thought that’s an extraordinarily important, and significant, and profound moment, and how could they have edited it out? (laughs)

As the scene plays out in Star Trek: The Original Series "Mirror, Mirror", Chekov is knocked out by a security guard loyal to Kirk, and Pavel is then carried away to the Agonizer without Kirk ever touching him.

Star Trek: The Original Series features some of the most iconic characters in all of science fiction with the crew of the original USS Enterprise.

Star Trek: Discovery Updates What Happened After TOS' "Mirror, Mirror"

The iss enterprise returns in star trek: discovery season 5.

Most of Star Trek: The Original Series ' "Mirror, Mirror" takes place aboard the ISS Enterprise, and the Mirror Universe's counterpart of the USS Enterprise returned in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Over 900 years since the ISS Enterprise was last seen, the derelict Constitution Class starship was found in a pocket of interdimensional space by Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), Moll (Eve Harlow), and L'ak (Elias Toufexis). Burnham and Book piloted the ISS Enterprise into Star Trek' s Prime Universe , meaning the Mirror Universe's vessel survived into the 32nd century.

A plan to have William Shatner guest star as the Mirror Universe's Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4 never came to fruition.

Aboard the ISS Enterprise, Book found a plaque that offered some history of what happened after Star Trek: The Original Series ' "Mirror, Mirror". As urged by Captain Kirk, the Mirror Spock became High Chancellor and instituted reforms to save the Terran Empire. However, Spock was assassinated and a group of refugees stole the ISS Enterprise to escape to the Prime Universe. Leaving the damaged starship behind, the passengers succeeded in fleeing the Mirror Universe to make new lives for themselves. What happened to the Mirror Chekov after Star Trek: The Original Series ' "Mirror, Mirror", however, remains a mystery.

Source: The 7th Rule

Star Trek: The Original Series is streaming on Paramount+

• Walter Koenig

Chris Pine Was Surprised by New ‘Star Trek 4’ Writer Hire Because ‘I Thought There Was Already a Script…I Was Wrong or They Decided to Pivot’

By Zack Sharf

Digital News Director

• John Leguizamo Turned Down ‘Mr. & Mrs Smith’ Because Jolie and Pitt Were ‘Getting $20 Million and They Were Going to Pay Me Scale. I Felt Dissed’; He Regrets It Now 2 days ago
• Whoopi Goldberg Liked Hosting ‘The View’ More When People Didn’t Think Everything You Say Comes From a ‘Nasty or Horrible’ Place: You Have to ‘Hedge What You Say’ Now 2 days ago
• 15-Year-Old ‘Hunt for Gollum’ Fan Film Restored Online After It Got Blocked Following Warner Bros.’ New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Announcement 2 days ago

Chris Pine was taken by surprise when news hit that Steve Yockey, creator of the Max series “The Flight Attendant,” had signed on to write the script for “ Star Trek 4.” Why? “I thought there was already a script,” the actor recently told Business Insider during an interview on his “Poolman” press tour.

Popular on Variety

“I honestly don’t know,” Pine told Business Insider when asked about “Star Trek 4” updates. “There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it’s always been with ‘Trek,’ I just wait and see.”

Steve Yockey is the latest screenwriter to get a chance to pen the script for “Star Trek 4.” Attempts over the years to get the sequel off the ground have included an R-rated idea from none other then Quentin Tarantino. Another version of the project was to be directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) and written by Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”). Shakman left the project to direct Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four” instead, and it fell apart soon afterwards.

In his Business Insider interview , Pine also said that it wasn’t until the third movie that he finally felt comfortable on set playing Kirk. The character was made famous by William Shatner.

“It’s interesting. Karl Urban decided to go head first into McCoy because Karl loved ‘Star Trek,'” Pine said. “With Spock, you have to do Spock-like things, plus Zach [Quinto] kind of looked like Leonard [Nimoy]. And then Kirk is a tricky one. You are the lead of the band of characters, so you don’t want to occupy too much space. It’s fine if they are doing a thing, but you don’t want to. And J.J. [Abrams] never asked me to do a thing, though I did do little nods to Shatner because it was fun.”

“But I would say I felt most in his shoes in the third movie. By that point, I think I mellowed into it and didn’t feel like I was trying too hard,” Pine added.

More From Our Brands

Roger corman, trailblazing b-movie director and producer, dead at 98, a manhattan mansion by architect robert d. kohn hits the market for $13 million, messi injury scare leads to criticism of mls’ new sit-out rule, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, snl video: maya rudolph’s beyoncé returns to hot ones, suffers through more wings in a cowboy carter outfit, verify it's you, please log in.