Welcome to the Personnel File, where we look into the career and personality of Star Trek’s
characters. Today we’re addressing the record of Captain James T. Kirk. So as usual with
the Personnel File, I will be using alpha continuity canon to list out the career and
where there are blanks, filling in the missing time with beta content as long as it doesn’t
conflict with the existing lore. James “Jim” Tiberius Kirk was born in
2233, March 22nd in Riverside, Iowa, Earth and was named aft-…
James “Jim” Tiberuius Krik was born in 2233, January 4th aboard a Medical shuttle
fleeing the USS Kelvin NCC-0514. His parents were George and Winona Kirk. George
Kirk died protecting the evacuating USS Kelvin, saving around 800 lives. Winona moved back
to Earth where she remarried and settled in Riverside, Iowa, around 2240.
The young Kirk never got along with his stepfather and often acted out against his authority,
especially when his mother wasn’t present. Growing up he stole his father’s (George’s)
Chevy Corvette and took it out for a joyride driving it into a quarry while being pursued
by local police. During this time, Kirk partook in numerous
academic aptitude tests and it was revealed that he possessed a near-genius intellect,
if a complete lack of discipline. In 2255, at the age of 22, Kirk reached the
Riverside Shipyard, a locale frequented by Starfleet officers.
Amid a bar brawl, Captain Christopher Pike walks in an takes the young Kirk aside, familiar
with his father, George Kirk’s acts, he offers James Kirk a sponsorship to enter Starfleet
academy and give his life a focus, daring Kirk to outperform his father’s legacy.
After pondering the idea, he eventually caught the shuttle to Starfleet Academy where he
met Leonard McCoy. He joined the Command Training program with
the goal of becoming a ship’s captain. He also studied Advanced Tactical Training
and was assigned Captain to Cadet Team Delta for training scenarios.
In 2256, he was assigned field learning on the USS Farragut where he awarded the Palm
Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission for valour by Captain Garrovick.
At Starfleet Academy in 2258, he took the Kobiyashi Maru test twice failed both times,
as is expected. On his third attempt however, he cheated by
rewriting the program in advance and was placed on academic suspension.
It was here that he was confronted by the Instructor, Commander Spock who had been overseeing
the test scenario, but an official verdict on Kirk’s actions was never reached, as
a distress call from Vulcan called away the newly completed USS Enterprise NCC-1701. It’s
crew was drafted from the numerous available officers, most of who were cadets.
Cadet Kirk was not selected as a crewmember for the ship and it fell to Doctor Leonard
McCoy to take Kirk aboard as a patient of his.
During the confrontation with Nero, Captain Pike promoted Kirk to acting-first officer
and assigns him the rank of Lieutenant. Commander Spock found Kirk’s attitude irreconcilable
with Spock’s command style and had him marooned just outside Starfleet’s Delta-Vega base.
It was here that he encountered Spock from the unaltered future who, being the best friend
of Prime Kirk, convinces the young Kirk of his duty and giving him insight into the younger
Spock’s mental state. From here he met Montgomery Scott and returned
to the Enterprise where, acting as first officer, accused Spock of being emotionally unbalanced
due to Vulcan’s loss and asked him to step down. Spock acquiesced and the USS Enterprise
fell to the command of acting-captain James Kirk.
Later that year, Kirk was officially made captain of the Enterprise and assigned his
own crew, based mostly on the candidates selected by Captain Pike before him.
In 2259, Kirk contained an outbreak of tribbles on the Enterprise.
He also made contact with the people of Gamma Trianguli VI.
A race of reptilian aliens called the Gorn attempted to enter the galaxy through Vulcan-made
portals but were thwarted by the crew of the Enterprise. It’s unknown if these Gorn were
related in some way to those native to the Milky Way galaxy but possessed a number of
distinct differences. Captain Kirk was assigned to survey Phaedus
IV where he encountered former Starfleet captain, Robert April.
In 2259, Kirk was demoted to Commander for violating the Prime Directive on Nibiru and
assigned as first officer to Captain Pike. The Enterprise crew became entangled in a
scheme from Admiral Marcus and Section 31 to instigate a new war with the Klingon Empire
and encountered an altered Khan Noonien-Singh who had been brought into Section 31 as a
military advisor and designer. Kirk was reinstated as Captain in rank and position of the USS
Enterprise by Admiral Marcus who wished Kirk to pursue and terminate Khan.
Not long after, the struggles resulted in Kirk receiving a fatal dose of radiation from
the malfunctioning warp core of the Enterprise. He died inside the chamber.
Fortunately, Chief Medical Officer McCoy devised a cleansing serum from Khan’s blood to rapidly
heal Kirk’s damaged tissue and after extensive care, Kirk was revived.
The Enterprise was then grounded for almost a year for minor refits and repair.
In 2260, Starfleet reinstated its plans for deep-space exploration that the Constitution
class had originally been intended for and assigned Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise
to the first wave of these 5 year missions to seek out new life and new civilizations.
In 2261, Q entertained himself by exploring different realities and arrived aboard the
USS Enterprise, toying with the crew and wishing to see the future of the Kelvin universe,
teleported them to the year 2369, Terak Nor. In 2263, Kirk was negotiating a peace between
the Fiban-Fibonan-Fibna…Fibonan Republic and Teenaxi Delegation.
Not long after, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 was ambushed over Altamid and brought down
by Krall’s swarm ships. Kirk assumed temporary command of the USS
Franklin NX-326 to save the Federation station Yorktown.
Kirk was reassigned to the USS Endeavour NCC-1805, replacing Captain Derbes.
In early 2263, an unknown craft had arrived at the edges of Federation space after destroying
the USS Concord NCC-6871. This ship turned out to be a single Borg Sphere responding
to the presence of the Narada, detected years earlier, which itself contained Borg technology.
During this year, Cadet Jaylah is brought aboard for training.
Also, briefly, Kirk was impersonated by the mad Garth of Izar.
Later in 2263, the Babel Conference is held with the Romulans and Federation to discuss
a potential Borg threat. By the end of the year, Starfleet had completed
construction of a Constitution-refit design and assigned it the name USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A,
in honour of Kirk’s previous command. The last recorded events in the Kelvin timeline
had Kirk and the crew engaged in a merger or realities where various incarnations of
the Star Trek Universes were colliding in a detrimental fashion. This Quantum Storm
was being generated by the being evolved from esper, Gary Mitchell.
It’s hard to talk about the Kelvin iteration of James Kirk without comparing him to his
counterpart as there are a number of differences caused by drastically different upbringings.
James Kirk was a very rash youth, he displayed frequent anti- authoritative behaviours and
this came out as a lack of respect for his parental figures and left him feeling aimless
by the time he had progressed through his teenage years.
It must have been hard for him forever being known as that kid whose dad saved lives and
a sense of expectation was likely levelled against him. He had the ability to excel at
academia, as indicated by his scores from aptitude tests but chose not to apply himself,
perhaps conscious of the idea that he would never match up to his father. Pike eventually
goads the young Kirk into joining Starfleet by way of a dare, to at least get him considering
the idea. The fact that this works relies on Kirk’s superficial tendencies to rebel,
but cuts much deeper and appeals to sense of direction he desperately needed. The dare
got him to accept Starfleet, his inner drive got him to stay.
That’s not to say he was a model student. Unlike his prime counterpart, this Kirk’s
rebelliousness was much closer to the surface and he acted on instinctive spur of the moment
decisions, effectively relying on a mix of his innate tactical ability, charm and seeming
luck to wing it through scenarios. Throughout his academy days he used his bad boy reputation
to try to win over many a girl’s affection, sometime more successfully than others, but
this attitude was later dropped as he got older, though again, unlike his prime version,
these elements of him sat much closer to his emotional surface.
His proclivity towards tactics and a natural charm are qualities that are often signifiers
of a good Starship captain and he had no trouble rallying his friends (and later crew)to action
and kept a level head in most confrontations. It took him much longer however to learn the
lessons of diplomacy and apply that tactical brilliance to find less confrontational means
of settling disputes. From an early age, we can see he had been conditioned to fight of
flight a problem in a direct manner and perhaps, he even enjoyed the adrenaline rush it bought
him. The one thing that he learn in the academy it seems however, is that when other people’s
lives are in his hands, that gung-ho attitude won’t fly.
It’s hard to justify his rapid rise to captain of the Enterprise as anything other than the
film trying to place Kirk in the chair before the film’s climax and the fact he went from
Cadet to Captain in rank in a year is ludicrous. But this is then tied into concerns regarding
the second film, where Pike openly admits that he may have promoted Kirk too quickly
and reins him in, assigning him as his executive officer. In this fashion, he can continue
to monitor and instruct Kirk in proper leadership. His disregard for the Prime Directive in this
situation shows a lot of arrogance, but also a clear morality developing. To him, saving
lives is far more important than exposing a primitive culture to alien life.
Correct or not, this is combined with his prior attitude of bending the rules paints
him in a very impulsive light. For this reason, more than ever before, this Kirk needs his
companions to counter his emotions, he needs McCoy to point out the cynical, but often
realistic consequences of his actions, while Spock had bring him the raw, unbiased facts
to placate his impulsive acts. By the time he has progressed three years
into the Enterprise’s first five-year mission, he has very much matured as a person. He had
finally grown to fit the power and status he was granted early on in his life. Learned,
through trial, error and the realisation that he needs others, that the bending the rules
is sometimes necessary, but it shouldn’t be your go-to solution for problem solving.
Though he does, and will always, have those rebellious tendencies, smirking at reminders
of his younger days. This does show a slight conflict with his
own inherent nature, and by the beginning of Star Trek Beyond, he is considering taking
a desk job, thinking that any change would be better and growing concerned with his ability
to lead. When his worst fears come true and he loses his ship, he finds that that doesn’t
necessarily mean he will lose his friends and his commitment to protecting and exploring
his reaffirmed. As far as hobbies go, this Kirk had an appreciation
for Earth’s history, especially American history but rather than focusing on earlier
periods, it seems he gravitated towards more 20th-21st century oddities. Originally his
father George Kirk’s hobby of collecting or maybe restoring? classic vehicles was adopted
by a young Kirk. Maybe in a way for him to try to understand his father?
He was described by those under him as “A fearless and relentless captain who wouldn’t
ask anything of the crew he wouldn’t do himself.” This statement is a testament
to his persona and inspiring nature as well as perhaps a nod to the fact that he was still
rather quick to assign himself to a hazardous job, and off all the people who said this
about him, it was Lieutenant Hendorff, that burly security officer who started a fight
with Kirk in the Riverside Shipyard’s bar, and survived all three films wearing a red
shirt. This isn’t the Kirk from the original series.
This is a Kirk who never had the guidance he needed to set out for the captain’s chair
from a young age but did possess the raw potential to form a captain as iconic, if only he could
be shaped somewhat. In an urgency to bring responsibility and promote growth, he was
placed in a command position to early and had a trial-by-fire that eventually began
to create the more capable leader, Pike saw he could be and the universe, any Trek universe,
needed him to. Without this lenient support, it’s unlikely he would have developed beyond
the cocky, aimless rogue he began as. Thanks for listening to this Personnel file
of the Alternate reality version of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Usually at this stage
I’d recommend a couple of episodes to focus on, but there’s really no point here. Instead,
I’d suggest maybe picking up some of the graphic novels around the Kelvin universe
if you see them for cheap as for the foreseeable future, that’s the only further tale we’re
going to get of Alternate Kirk and the Kelvin universe.
Thanks again for watching and until next video, I’ll see you later. Goodbye.