Captain James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is the main protagonist of the original science-fiction television series Star Trek and subsequent movie adaptations based on the original series.
"James Tiberius Kirk" himself is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in Star Trek serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise as captain. Kirk leads his crew as they explore new worlds, new civilizations, and "boldly go where no man has gone before". Often, the characters of Spock and Leonard "Bones" McCoy act as his logical and emotional sounding boards, respectively. Kirk has also been portrayed in numerous films, books, comics, webisodes, and video games.
Kirk first appears in Star Trek's episode, "The Man Trap", broadcast on September 8, 1966, although the first episode recorded featuring Shatner was "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which retained many elements of the first pilot "The Cage". Shatner continued in the role for the show's three seasons, and later provided the voice of the animated version of Kirk in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974). Shatner returned to the role for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and in six subsequent films.
American actor Chris Pine portrays an alternative young version of the character in the 2009 Star Trek film. Pine reprised his role in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and in Star Trek Beyond (2016). Paul Wesley portrays the main timeline's Kirk on the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, set prior to Kirk's captaincy of the Enterprise. Other actors have played the character in fan-created media, and the character has been the subject of multiple spoofs and satires.
Biography[]
James Tiberius Kirk was born in Riverside, Iowa, on March 22, 2233, where he was raised by his parents, George and Winona Kirk. Although born on Earth, Kirk lived for a time on Tarsus IV, where he was one of nine surviving witnesses to the massacre of 4,000 colonists by Kodos the Executioner. James Kirk's brother, George Samuel Kirk, is first mentioned in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and introduced and killed in "Operation: Annihilate!", leaving behind three children.
Kirk became the first and only student at Starfleet Academy to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking after he reprogrammed the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable. Kirk was granted a field commission as an ensign and posted to advanced training aboard the USS Republic. He was then promoted to lieutenant junior grade and returned to Starfleet Academy as a student instructor. According to a friend, students could either "think or sink" in his class, and Kirk himself was "a stack of books with legs". Upon graduating in the top five percent, Kirk was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard the USS Farragut. While assigned to the Farragut, Kirk commanded his first planetary survey and survived a deadly attack that killed a large portion of the Farragut's crew, including his commanding officer, Captain Garrovick.
Kirk became Starfleet's youngest starship captain after receiving command of the Template:USS for a five-year mission, three years of which are depicted in the original Star Trek series. Kirk's most significant relationships in the television series are with first officer Spock and chief medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. McCoy is someone to whom Kirk unburdens himself and is a foil to Spock. Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence's The Myth of the American Superhero describes Kirk as "a hard-driving leader who pushes himself and his crew beyond human limits". Terry J. Erdman and Paula M. Block, in their Star Trek 101 primer, note that while "cunning, courageous and confident", Kirk also has a "tendency to ignore Starfleet regulations when he feels the end justifies the means"; he is "the quintessential officer, a man among men and a hero for the ages". Although Kirk throughout the series becomes romantically involved with various women, when confronted with a choice between a woman and the Enterprise, "his ship always won".
Roddenberry wrote in a production memo that Kirk is not afraid of being fallible, but rather is afraid of the consequences to his ship and crew should he make an error in judgment. Roddenberry wrote:
- “[Kirk] has any normal man's insecurities and doubts, but he knows he cannot ever show them—except occasionally in private with ship's surgeon McCoy or in subsequent moments with Mr. Spock whose opinions Kirk has learned to value so highly.”
- ―{{{2}}}
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Admiral Kirk is Chief of Starfleet Operations, and he takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Willard Decker. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's novelization of The Motion Picture depicts Kirk married to a Starfleet officer killed during a transporter accident. At the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Spock to pursue his enemy from "Space Seed", Khan Noonien Singh. The movie introduces Kirk's former lover Carol and his son, David Marcus. Spock, who notes that "commanding a starship is [Kirk's] first, best destiny", dies at the end of Star Trek II. In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Admiral Kirk leads his surviving officers in a successful mission to rescue Spock from a planet on which he is reborn. Although Kirk is demoted to Captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for disobeying Starfleet orders, he also receives command of a new Enterprise, the USS Enterprise-A (NCC 1701-A). The ship is ordered decommissioned at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
In Star Trek Generations, Captain Jean-Luc Picard finds Kirk living in the timeless Nexus, despite the fact that history recorded his death during the Enterprise-B's maiden voyage, Kirk having fallen into the Nexus in the incident that caused his "death". Picard convinces Kirk to return to Picard's present to help stop the villain Soran from destroying Veridian III's sun. Although Kirk initially refuses the offer, he agrees after realizing the Nexus cannot give him the one thing he has always sought: the ability to make a difference. The two leave the Nexus and stop Soran. However, Kirk is mortally wounded; as he dies, Picard assures him that he helped to "make a difference". Picard buries Kirk on the planet. Shatner has since written a series of novels featuring Kirk being brought back to life by a Borg-Romulan alliance to serve as an assassin against Picard, but he is restored to normal and returns to provisional active service in Starfleet, including opposing his Mirror Universe counterpart.
Appearance[]
Kirk first appears in Star Trek's episode, "The Man Trap", broadcast on September 8, 1966, although the first episode recorded featuring Shatner was "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which retained many elements of the first pilot "The Cage".
Personality[]
After his personality was split due to a transporter accident in 2266, Kirk was forcibly introduced to the competing elements in his personality, described most roughly as passive and aggressive. (The Enemy Within)
In ultimately unused dialogue from the final draft and the revised final draft of the script for "The Enemy Within", Kirk admitted that, at the outcome of this experience, he felt "just the opposite" of "sadder but wiser."
One half of Kirk's dual nature manifested itself in his frequent melancholy about the state of his life: when he was aboard ship, he longed for a life of ease; (The Naked Time) when moored, his thoughts were with the Enterprise. His violent tendencies ranged from his enthusiastic beating of Finnegan to his willingness to provoke Spock. (This Side of Paradise) Evaluating Khan in his first encounter, Kirk admitted, "We Humans have a streak of barbarism in us. Appalling, but there, nevertheless." (Space Seed)
In a cut line from the final draft script of Dagger of the Mind, Kirk mentioned he was proud to be Human and that the penal colonies that Tristan Adams had inspired made him feel that way. However, he ultimately concluded (in another ultimately omitted line from the same script), "Doctor Adams and I agreed on one thing. Vengeance is wrong. I'm sorry for him."
The flexibility of his nature was a large part of his success. The man sensitive enough to tread lightly among gangster Iotians, in the manner of their culture, was the same who saw the plain necessity in destroying the war-computers that were a cultural pillar of Eminiar VII. (A Taste of Armageddon)
Kirk had a strong moral center and devotion to the values he found embodied in the Federation, spending most of his life in its service and defense. In numerous incidents, he risked his life for causes he deemed just, including his final act on Veridian III. His confidence in his righteousness sometimes led him to creatively interpret, and outright disobey, his orders.
Kirk 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. (Spectre of the Gun, The Savage Curtain, The Omega Glory, The City on the Edge of Forever & A Piece of the Action)
A charismatic and successful leader, Kirk inspired loyalty from his officers, some of whom spent the bulk of their careers under his command. His command crew risked their careers at his call, conspiring to steal the Enterprise on a mission to save their comrade Spock. As a commander in his own right, Hikaru Sulu disobeyed orders and attempted to rescue Kirk and McCoy from Klingon imprisonment, later coming to Kirk's aid at the Battle of Khitomer. After Montgomery Scott's recovery from a transporter loop in 2369, the old engineer's first assumption was that Kirk himself had taken the Enterprise out of mothballs to come to his rescue. (Star Trek 3); Flashback; (Star Trek 6); Relics)
Beyond his command skills, Kirk exhibited a comprehensive knowledge of starship systems. When Ben Finney's sabotage of the Enterprise caused the ship to lose orbit above Starbase 11 in 2267, Kirk managed to scramble up a Jefferies tube to effect the necessary repairs. After the "planet killer" nearly destroyed the NCC-1017, Kirk directed Montgomery Scott and a skeleton crew to salvage the ship, recovering enough power and control functions so Kirk could pilot the hulk, solo, into the machine's maw.
On several occasions, Kirk displayed his skill in inducing self-destruction in computers and androids by confronting them with paradoxes. After the Enterprise's major refit of the early 2270s, Kirk's extended desk-duty showed in his unfamiliarity with the new systems, but he corrected the mistake in the following years. His last act of 2293 was the successful modification of the Enterprise-B's navigational deflector, saving the ship from destruction by the Nexus. (Court Martial, The Doomsday Machine;
Tactics[]
Kirk's historic role as an explorer was rivaled by his reputation for tactical genius. In several notable engagements, Kirk used the USS Enterprise effectively as a weapon of war.
As a means to avoid battle, or to divert his opponent long enough so he could get the upper hand, Kirk frequently "bluffed" or lied his way through a parley. In two incidents, Kirk used his corbomite gambit. He misled Khan into expecting valuable data rather than a devastating phaser strike in their encounter of 2285. His capitulation to Kruge was a lure to draw the bulk of the Klingon crew to the Enterprise before he ordered its destruction. Perhaps Kirk's most intricate, audacious misdirection of an enemy was found in the events leading up to his theft of a Romulan cloaking device in 2268.
The Romulan incursion of Federation space in 2266 led Kirk into a drawn-out cat-and-mouse chase against a commander in whom Kirk found an instinctual rapport. The Romulan Bird-of-Prey had the ability to render itself invisible as well as delivering a powerful plasma torpedo that nearly overwhelmed the Enterprise. Both captains used ruses that simulated more damage than actually received. Kirk was able to briefly track the Romulan, by mirroring its movements to simulate a sensor ghost. Finally, emerging from the camouflage of a comet's tail, Kirk was able to disable the Romulan vessel. Before ordering his vessel's self-destruction, the Romulan captain remarked that under different circumstances he and Kirk might have been friends.
In 2267, Kirk found the NCC-1017, severely damaged and adrift in space, with only Commodore Matt Decker aboard. The Constellation had been attacked by a huge, ancient device, and the crew evacuated to a nearby planet, which the planet killer destroyed and consumed. Kirk directed the salvaging of the Constellation and Decker was sent to the Enterprise.
Upon return of the planet killer, the unmoored Decker assumed command of the Enterprise and endangered it it in a useless attack. Kirk was able to maneuver the Constellation enough to distract the device. Decker was relieved of command, but stole a shuttlecraft he took into the maw of the device, destroying himself. Inspired by Decker's mad attempt, Kirk piloted the Constellation to the machine's mouth, detonating the ship's impulse engines and destroying the device. (The Doomsday Machine)
In 2269, a simulacrum of Abraham Lincoln was struck by Kirk's propensity to take the offensive when required. He asked of Kirk, "Do you drink whiskey?" Kirk responded, "Occasionally; why?" Lincoln answered, "Because you have qualities very much like those of another man I admire greatly, General Grant." (The Savage Curtain)
A textbook example of Kirk's ability to wield the Enterprise against a well-matched opponent was in the encounter with the USS Reliant, a Miranda starship commandeered by the Augment Khan Noonien Singh at the Battle of the Mutara Nebula (actually a series of two successive engagements) in 2285. Kirk admitted, in frustration and fury, to having gotten "caught with my britches down," at first (namely ignoring General Order 12, which allowed the Enterprise to be crippled by the non-communicative ship's sudden attack), but he used his long starship experience and Khan's own egomaniacal psychology to level the playing field and prevail, though it came at a great personal cost.
Klingons, in particular, recognized Kirk as a worthy opponent. 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.
During a visit to the 23rd century, even Lieutenant Commander Worf remarked that it would be an honor to meet Kirk. Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax also commented that Koloth always regretted not getting the chance to face Kirk in battle.
The defensive pattern Kirk Epsilon was a battle tactic that was still in use during the late 2370s.
References[]
External Links[]
- Startrek.com's biography of James T. Kirk
- Star Trek wiki
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_T._Kirk
