Trekipedia

Kirk, James T.

James Tiberius Kirk was one of the most celebrated captains in the history of Starfleet, and his exploits became required reading at Starfleet Academy. Kirk spent most of his life in Starfleet, from the age of 17 when he entered Starfleet Academy until his death in the 24th century, saving the Veridian star system.^[36]

Kirk’s early experiences may go some way to explaining his determination to excel. When he entered the Academy in 2250 he had already had a troubled childhood. At the age of 13 he was on Tarsus IV and saw the brutal measures that Governor Kodos took to deal with the planet’s famine. The teenage Kirk was one of only nine eyewitnesses to survive the massacre, and never forgot what he had seen.^[6] A man named Mallory helped Kirk get into the Academy at the age of 17, and his faith in the young man was amply rewarded. Kirk was a brilliant and dedicated student, though some people, including an upperclassman named Finnegan, thought he was a little too serious and bookish.^[9] Kirk was particularly impressed by one of his instructors—a history professor named John Gill, whom he considered one of the kindest and gentlest men he had ever met.^[23]

Kirk proved himself to be more than just an academic when he was the first cadet to beat the Kobayashi Maru scenario, a test designed to confront aspiring starship captains with a no-win situation. Refusing to accept that there was such a thing, Kirk broke into the Academy’s computer and reprogrammed the scenario so that he could achieve all his goals. Far from being criticized for his behavior, he was commended for original thinking.^[31]

From the very beginning of his career, Kirk was dedicated to duty. As a midshipman he befriended one of his instructors, Ben Finney, and the two became close friends. Finney even named his daughter Jamie for Kirk. During Kirk’s first year at the Academy both men were assigned to the U.S.S. Republic NCC-1371. The young Kirk relieved Finney on watch and discovered that he had left a circuit open to the ship’s atomic matter piles open, seriously endagering the ship and the lives of everybody on board. Kirk closed the circuit and logged the incident. As a result, Finney was reprimanded and lost any immediate chance of promotion. He failed to accept responsibility for the incident and blamed Kirk.^[8] While assigned to the Republic, Kirk was part of a mission to the planet Axanar, where one of his heroes, Captain Garth, had won a famous victory. Kirk was awarded the Palm Leaf of Axanar for his part in the Republic‘s mission.^[26]

After his tour on the Republic ended, Kirk returned to the Academy, where he became a student tutor. The class he taught earned quite a reputation among other cadets, who knew that in Kirk’s class it was “think or sink.” Kirk became friends with one of his students, Gary Mitchell, who later served on the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701.^[1] Kirk left a lasting impression on many of his other contemporaries, including R.M. Merrick, who was expelled after failing a psychosimulator test. Years later, Merrick still remembered Kirk as an example of all that was best about Starfleet officers.^[18]

During his time at Starfleet Academy, Kirk had at least three serious relationships: one with a blonde lab technician,^[1] one with Janice Lester, which lasted a year,^[29] and one with a beautiful young woman named Ruth.^[9] When Kirk graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2254 he was assigned to the U.S.S. Farragut NCC-1647 under Captain Garrovick.^[20] The young Lieutenant Kirk first experienced command when he led a planetary survey party; during this mission he befriended the leader of the local hill people, a man called Tyree.^[19] In 2257, Kirk was involved in a serious incident that left him deeply troubled for many years. Near Tycho IV, the Farragut encountered a mysterious and dangerous cloud creature. Kirk hesitated for a brief moment before firing the ship’s phasers and, when the creature attacked, 200 people, including Captain Garrovick, were killed. Although Starfleet found nothing wrong with his actions, Kirk blamed himself for the disaster.^[20]

At this point in his career, Kirk was involved with a number of women. He and Carol Marcus had a son, David, in 2259, but she asked him not to become involved in the child’s upbringing and Kirk respected her wishes.^[31] Later the same year, Kirk was involved with Janet Wallace, an endocrinologist, but their differing career goals pulled them apart. (TOS-) During this period, he was also involved with Areel Shaw, an impressive young lawyer with the Judge Advocate General’s office. The two parted on good terms but didn’t see one another for several years.^[8] In fact, it seems that Kirk’s dedication to his career made it almost impossible for him to form lasting relationships.

Early in his career, Kirk developed an intense dislike for the Klingons. He was horrified by the way the Klingons maintained “order” on occupied planets by organizing them into vast labor camps, taking and killing hostages and confining the people’s leaders. He became convinced that the Klingons were a brutal people who could not be trusted.^[12]

In 2265, Kirk was promoted to captain and replaced Christopher Pike as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, and began his first five-year mission. Kirk excelled as a captain, and his exploits became requred reading at the Academy. Kirk had a relaxed command style and enjoyed a close relationship with his crew. At his request, his old friend Gary Mitchell was assigned to the Enterprise.^[1] Although Kirk and Finney had never reconciled their differences, Kirk did not object when Finney was assigned to his ship as records officer.^[8]

Kirk was on very good personal terms with many of his officers, who respected and admired him. Occasionally, these relationships verged on romance—Kirk evidently became close with Dr. Helen Noel at a science lab Christmas party—but on the whole he felt it was inappropriate to become romantically involved with another member of his crew.^[5] Although Kirk didn’t establish any lasting romances, he did form some of the most important friendships of his life while he was aboard the Enterprise. His first officer, the half-Vulcan Spock, and the ship’s doctor, Leonard McCoy, became his lifelong friends.^[31]

Tactically, Kirk was one of the finest officers who ever served in Starfleet, and he consistently proved himself the equal of many adversaries. Kirk’s many exploits included the discovery of replicable means of time travel,^[2] several important conflicts with the Klingons^[12] and Romulans^[3] (including a mission where he stole a cloaking device),^[25] the first successful journey across the galactic barrier,^[22] and the discovery of the mirror universe.^[17]

Kirk and his crew also repelled several attempts to invade Federation space. In 2262, the Enterprise encountered an automated weapon that had destroyed several planets and crippled the U.S.S. Constellation NCC-1017. Kirk finally managed to defeat the weapon by setting the Constellation to self-destruct and flying it inside the planet-destroying device.^[16] In the same year, Kirk and his crew defeated a massive spaceborne “amoeba” that had destroyed the U.S.S. Intrepid NCC-1631 and threatened Federation space.^[21] Kirk also convinced the Kelvans to stop their intergalactic invasion plans.^[22]

Despite all his achievements, in 2266 Kirk was the first Starfleet captain to ever stand trial when he was accused of the murder of Ben Finney. During the trial it emerged that Finney, who was still obsessed with Kirk, had faked his own death, and Kirk was exhonerated.^[8]

Kirk endured other hard times during his first command. In 2265, he was forced to kill Gary Mitchell when his friend assumed extremely potent psionic powers after passing through the galactic barrier, becoming a serious danger to the rest of the crew.^[1] In 2266, the Enterprise visited Deneva, where Kirk’s older brother, George Samuel Kirk Jr., was working as a research biologist. When the planet was attacked by a race of neural parasites, Sam (as Kirk called him) and his wife Aurelan were killed, and their son Peter barely survived. Fortunately, Sam’s two other sons^[4] were not on the planet at the time.^[14]

Kirk also had a difficult time romantically. In 2266, he traveled back in time to 1930 and fell in love with Edith Keeler, but was forced to let her die in order to preserve the flow of history.^[13] In 2268, he spent several months living among a Native American community when he was stranded on a planetoid with amnesia. During this time he married a woman named Miramanee, who became pregnant. Shortly after the Enterprise returned to rescue Kirk, she and her unborn child were stoned to death by an angry mob.^[24] Later that year, Kirk fell deeply in love with the android Rayna Kapec. He awakened similar feelings in her, but she was unable to cope when asked to choose between Kirk and her creator, the immortal Mr. Flint; her programming failed, and she died. Kirk was so distressed by her death that Spock took the unprecedented step of mind-melding with him to remove the painful memories.^[28]

If Kirk had a weakness, it was his obsessive devotion to duty. He was extremely hard on himself, and felt personally responsible whenever one of the people under his command was killed. He rarely took shore leave,^[9] and Dr. McCoy was forced to order him to relax on more than one occasion. He was extremely devoted to his ship, which he looked on as “a lady” who needed his love.^[11]

Kirk was just as dedicated to the members of his crew, and he disobeyed direct orders on several occasions in order to help officers under his command. For example, in 2266, he refused to obey Galactic High Commissioner Ferris‘ order to abandon the search for a shuttlecraft which had been lost while investigating the Murasaki-312 quasar-like phenomenon.^[7] The following year, Kirk disobeyed direct orders from Starfleet Command to attend the inaguration of the president of Altair VI. Instead, he ordered the Enterprise to Vulcan because his science officer, Spock, needed to return there in order to deal with his pon farr. Spock held his captain in such high regard that he asked him to be present at the koon-ut-kal-if-fee ceremony. As a result, Kirk and MCoy (who was also present) became part of a select band of Humans who have had first hand experience of this aspect of Vulcan culture.^[15] In general, Kirk was intolerant of bureaucracy and often described himself as a soldier rather than a diplomat. However, he played an important part in resolving several conflicts, including the conflict between the Vendikar and Eminiar VII.^[10] He also forced the inhabitants of Ardana to reconsider the divisive social system that forced one group of people to work in the zenite mines while others lived in luxury in the floating city of Stratos.^[27]

Fortunately for Kirk, during his time aboard the Enterprise he managed to lay some of his demons to rest. In 2266, his friend Thomas Leighton, another survivor from Tarsus IV, told him that he believed he had found Kodos, who had assumed the identity of Anton Karidian, a Shakespearean actor. Leighton was murdered shortly after he revealed his suspicions to his friend, but Kirk’s investigations proved that he had been right about Kodos. The fugitive governor died in an accident when his daughter, Lenore, attempted to kill Kirk.^[6] Kirk also encountered the cloud creature that had attacked the Farragut years earlier. The events that followed proved that Kirk’s hesitation in firing on the creature during its attack on the ship had made no difference. Kirk eventually managed to destroy the creature with an antimatter bomb.^[20]

When the Enterprise‘s five-year mission ended in 2270, Kirk was promoted to admiral.^[30] He accepted the promotion against the advice of Dr. McCoy, who warned him that he would never be happy unless he was in command of a starship.^[31] Kirk recommended that the young Will Decker replace him as captain of the Enterprise, which began a major refit shortly after its return to Earth.^[30]

As an admiral, Kirk became chief of Starfleet Operations. McCoy’s prediction about Kirk’s happiness proved right; everyone could see that the admiral was frustrated and unhappy with his desk job. When the Federation was threatened by V’Ger in 2272, Kirk grabbed the opportunity to return to the field. In his obsession to regain command of a starship and save the Federation, Kirk was less than sensitive to the needs of the people around him: in order to resume command of the newly refitted Enterprise, Kirk demoted Decker and assumed personal control of the mission. He also forcibly reactivated Dr. McCoy’s commission. Although Kirk’s actions may suggest that he was insensitive and egotistical, he was proved right. Under his command, the crew of the Enterprise persuaded V’Ger to abandon its attack on Earth. Decker and the ship’s navigator, Ilia, were lost in the mission.^[30]

After the V’Ger threat passed, Kirk remained in command of the Enterprise and began a new five-year mission of deep space exploration. This mission ended in 2277, and Kirk decided to retire from Starfleet five years later in 2282. During his retirement, Kirk fell in love with a woman named Antonia, whom he met at his uncle’s farm in Idaho. They lived together in a beautiful mountain cabin, but Kirk was clearly not satisfied. In 2284, he returned to Starfleet against her wishes and their relationship ended.^[36] On his return to active duty, Kirk took up a post as an instructor at Starfleet Academy, moving into an apartment in San Francisco so that he could be near his work. By this time, his closest friend, Spock, who had been promoted to captain, was also working as an instructor at the Academy and as Captain of the Enterprise, which was now a cadet training vessel.^[31]

Although Kirk was only 53, at this point of his life he was beginning to feel his age. Even though he had chosen to return to Starfleet, he did not feel that he was young enough to return to the bridge of a starship and, despite Dr. McCoy’s advice, he refused to request a command of his own. In 2284, Kirk took the Enterprise on a cadet training mission. At the same time, the genetically engineered human, Khan Noonien Singh, took control of the U.S.S. Reliant NCC-1864, determined to wreak revenge on Kirk, who had left him on Ceti Alpha V in 2266. The Reliant had been assigned to the Genesis Project, led by Dr. Carol Marcus and Dr. David Marcus, the son she had with Kirk. Khan learned about the project and used it to lure Kirk into a battle near Regula-1, where the Marcuses were based.^[31]

Although Khan inflicted serious damage on the Enterprise, Kirk’s vast experience triumphed and Kirk outfought the Reliant in a tense battle in the Mutara Nebula. At the end of the battle the Genesis device was activated, creating a new planet. The mission had a great personal cost for Kirk: Spock was killed by radiation exposure when he repaired the Enterprise‘s warp engines. The Vulcan was given a funeral in space, with Kirk providing the eulogy. Spock’s body came to rest on the Genesis Planet.^[31]

When the Enterprise returned to Spacedock, Admiral Morrow informed Kirk that the decisison had been made to retire the badly damaged ship. Still grieving for his friend, Kirk found it extremely difficult to accept that his ship and crew could be treated in such a way. The same day, Spock’s father, Sarek, visited Kirk and asked him to recover Spock’s body from the Genesis Planet and return it to Vulcan.^[32]

Although Kirk and Spock were extremely close, the Vulcan had not told his friend many details about life on Vulcan. Sarek explained that before they die, Vulcans mind-meld with one of their most trusted companions and give them their katra, or soul, which is then taken back to Vulcan with their body. Kirk learned that although Spock had been unable to mind-meld with him he did manage to place his katra in Dr. McCoy’s mind. Demonstrating typical loyalty to his crew, Kirk asked Morrow for permission to return to the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock’s body, but the admiral refused. Genesis had become the focus of a diplomatic furor, and Starfleet Command had placed the planet off-limits to everyone except essential personnel. Effectively, this meant that the only people allowed to visit the planet were the crew of the U.S.S. Grissom NCC-523, which included David Marcus.^[32]

This prompted Kirk to make a momentous decision: he disobeyed orders and, with the aid of the Enterprise‘s senior staff, stole his old ship and went to Genesis. When the Enterprise arrived, the crew discovered that the Grissom had been destroyed by a group of Klingons and that only Lieutenant Saavik and Dr. Marcus had been left alive on the planet’s surface.^[32]

The damaged Enterprise was no match for the Klingon ship, and Kirk was powerless when David was killed by the Klingons. Once again Kirk was faced with apparently insurmountable odds. In a desperate move, he tricked most of the Klingons into boarding the Enterprise, which he destroyed, killing them. Kirk and his staff narrowly escaped the destruction of the Genesis Planet after it became unstable; they managed to retrieve Spock’s body, which had been rejuvenated by the Genesis effect, and took control of the nearly-deserted Klingon ship. They then took Spock to Vulcan, where his katra and body were reunited.^[32]

The death of Kirk’s son had a profound effect on him and further hardened his attitude toward the Klingons. He had never had much respect for the Klingon Empire, but he was now convinced that the Klingons were little better than animals.^[35] As always, Kirk was willing to face the consequences of his actions and he returned to Starfleet Headquarters to face trial. However, before he could arrive, Earth was “attacked” by a mysterious probe. Kirk saved Earth by traveling back in time and retrieving two humpback whales from the 20th century. When he returned, a Starfleet board decided to reduce him in rank for disobeying orders, and placed him in command of the new U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A. Kirk was delighted to be back on the bridge of a starship and gratefully accepted the position.^[33]

After a year’s shakedown and refit, this new Enterprise entered service and the crew were sent to deal with a disturbance on Nimbus III. When they arrived, Spock’s renegade half-brother Sybok took control of the ship and headed for the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy. The Enterprise was the first Federation vessel to pass through the barrier, and on the other side the crew met a malevolent entity who claimed to be God. Sybok was killed, but Kirk defeated the entity and returned to normal space.^[34]

In 2293, Kirk was nearing retirement once again when he and the Enterprise were assigned to escort the Klingon chancellor, Gorkon, to vital peace talks with the Federation. Initially, Kirk, who blamed the Klingons for his son’s death, was unwilling to accept the assignment. The Klingon Empire was on the verge of collapse and he felt it would be better to let it die. However, Starfleet Command wanted to send someone who had been known as an enemy of the Klingons to show how serious they were about peace.^[35]

Despite Kirk’s feelings, he and Dr. McCoy beamed over to Gorkon’s ship to offer assistance, but the chancellor was assassinated. They were arrested for Gorkon’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on Rura Penthe, but they escaped, and Kirk was instrumental in exposing a plot to disrupt peace negotiations with the Klingon Empire. Kirk was deeply impressed by Azetbur, Gorkon’s daughter and the newly-named chancellor, who insisted on pursuing peace negotiations with the Federation even after her father’s death. He realized that his attitude to the Klingons was not entirely fair, and recognized that he had been guilty of prejudice.^[35] After the Khitomer conference, the Enterprise went on a handful of missions before the ship was decommissioned and Kirk once again retired from Starfleet.

The following year, Kirk was an honored guest at the launch of the newly commissioned U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B. When the ship responded to a distress call from two transports loaded with El-Aurian refugees he made essential modifications to the ship’s deflector, but was lost and presumed dead. Kirk was actually transported to an unusual region outside normal space-time known as the Nexus. While there, he lived an idyllic existence unaffected by the passage of time. The Nexus provided Kirk with an “ideal” reality. In it he “returned” to the period in the 2280s when he left Starfleet. He was once again living in his mountain cabin and had the opportunity to stay with Antonia rather than return to Starfleet. Kirk left the Nexus when Captain Jean-Luc Picard from 2371 arrived there and persuaded him to help fight Dr. Tolian Soran, who in one timeline had destroyed millions of lives in order to return to the Nexus himself. Kirk was more than willing to leave because he realized that, although the Nexus appeared idyllic, nothing in it mattered and his life there lacked the passion and the sense of adventure that had been so important to him throughout his life. Kirk was killed on Veridian III, foiling Soran’s scheme and altering the timeline so that millions of lives were saved. However, because of the unusual properties of the Nexus, it is not entirely clear whether or not Kirk is still there, outside the passage of normal time…^[36]

Portrayed by William Shatner.