Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Debunks The Biggest Kirk Myth
by Witney Seibold · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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The popular image of Captain Kirk, originally played by William Shatner, is wholly inaccurate. Kirk is often thought of as a reckless cowboy, and has been told as much to his face. He has a reputation of flouting the Prime Directive, incautiously charging into action, and snogging all the hot alien women who wander into his field of vision. The cliched version of Kirk was embodied in J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot movie "Star Trek," wherein Kirk (Chris Pine) was indeed a horny, distractible, reckless charmer. That film functioned as a hyper-charging machine, however, taking what the average non-Trekkie citizen might know about "Star Trek" characters, and kicking it into overdrive. In the original "Star Trek," Kirk did indeed take big risks occasionally and did indeed make out with multiple pretty women, but the 2009 Kirk did those things to the exclusion of everything else.
Going back and watching the original "Star Trek," though, reveals a Kirk who is actually judicious, wise, and cautious. Indeed, Kirk was once accused of being too intellectual, having been called "a stack of books with legs." Kirk commanded the USS Enterprise by instinct a lot of the time, but he was never imprudent. The most reckless thing he did was, when faced with a godlike being that could erase the Enterprise with a thought, slap that little brat across the face. But then, Kirk was making a point that death games aren't fun when your prey isn't cowering.
On "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," Kirk is played by Paul Wesley, and he is depicted closer to the classic version of Kirk than the popular misconception. Indeed, in the most recent "SNW" episode, "Orders of Magnitude," Trekkies will see that Kirk will only be reckless when it's in defense of vital principles.
Captain Kirk was never a reckless cowboy and always had principles
The plot of "Orders of Magnitude" is classic '90s-era Trek, featuring a battle of ethics, and a crazed admiral on a mission of madness. While Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Commander Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) are on an away mission, a huffy admiral named Reeger (Joe Morton) swans onto the Enterprise and commandeers the vessel for a secret mission. Kirk, although not stationed on the Enterprise, is technically the ranking officer on board, so Reeger makes him First Officer. Reeger aims to use a new kind of warp-trail-detecting technology to track an enemy vessel and find its homeworld.
Reeger's insistence on speed, and his reckless orders seem sus to Kirk. At one point, he orders that an innocent cargo vessel be fired upon so as to sneak past it. Kirk doesn't like the risk, as the shot had the chance of destroying the vessel and killing everyone on board. While Reeger has a point about expediency, no one seems to like his tactics. Eventually it becomes clear that Reeger's motives for this mission may be a lot more personal than he let on.
Kirk never once suggests the reckless course of action, and is eager to stay away from violence. Indeed, Kirk will be the one who stands up to Reeger, questioning his orders, and serving as the voice of reason on the bridge of the Enterprise. Later in the episode, Kirk will go well out of his way to sabotage the Enterprise to prevent Reeger from carrying out a course of action that could lead to many deaths. These are not the actions of a reckless cowboy or an amoral horndog.
Kirk is more in character on Strange New Worlds than he was in the 2009 Star Trek movie
Another myth about Kirk is that he is full of himself and lives to serve his ego. This perception of the character may come from the fact that William Shatner's ego is larger than the Milky Way. Indeed, Shatner's real-life bluster can put some people off. Most Trekkies can tell you about how Shatner never really got along with most of his co-stars, with George Takei once calling him "a cantankerous old fossil." He said that "Bill is an egocentric, self-involved prima donna." Some people have taken those comments and applied them to Kirk, making him guilty by association.
Kirk, however, was never egocentric. Oh sure, he was confident. He was resolute and often took control of situations. He sometimes had to bark at low-ranking officers when they refused to follow his orders (see: "The Corbomite Maneuver"). But he never did it for the glory, and he never did it because he craved adulation. Kirk only expressed some regrets in "Star Trek: Generations," when he admitted that he loved being a Starfleet captain because he could "make a difference." He longed to change the galaxy for the better, not be promoted and be given ribbons.
Indeed, the one time Kirk ever went on a mission to wholly serve his own personal ends — the events of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" — he ended up getting the Enterprise destroyed and nudged up against the real possibility of being drummed out of the service. Ego and self-service, Kirk knows, are dangerous things. The "SNW" Kirk, meanwhile, puts his ego aside, and stands up for what he believes in. Confidence and principles are not the same as ego. Indeed, they are the opposite.