Jimmy T. Kirk Jr.

James Tiberius “Jim” Kirk was a male Human Starfleet officer who lived during the 23rd century. His time in Starfleet made Kirk arguably one of the most famous and sometimes infamous starship captains in Starfleet history. The highly decorated Kirk served as the commanding officer of the Constitution-class starships USS Enterprise and USS Enterprise-A, where he served Federation interests as an explorer, soldier, diplomat, and time traveler. (TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, “Court Martial”, “Errand of Mercy”; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; Star Trek Generations; DS9: “Trials and Tribble-actions”; VOY: “Q2”, “Friendship One”, et al.) – James T. Kirk to Jean-Luc Picard, 2371 (Star Trek Generations) and

Starfleet Career Summary

2250 — As a first-year Academy student with ensign rank, assigned to U.S.S. Republic NCC-1371

2254 — Upon graduation, promoted to lieutenant and posted to U.S.S. Farragut under Capt. Garrovick

2264 — Promoted to captain, in command of U.S.S. Enterprise for five-year mission

2266 — Exonerated in wrongful death charge of Ben Finney, first captain ever to stand trial

2269 — Returned from five-year mission; promoted to admiral in charge of fleet operations at Earth

2271 — Demanded to relieve Capt. Will Decker, his choice as successor for the refit Enterprise, and dealt with V’Ger crisis before beginning second five-year mission

2277 — Accepts appointment to Academy faculty, moves into San Francisco apartment

2286 — Charged, convicted and reduced permanently to captain’s rank by the Federation Council for theft of Enterprise a year earlier, after saving Earth from alien onslaught by securing two extinct whales via time-traveling; given command of U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A

2287 — Explores center of the galaxy with Enterprise-A hijacked by Sybok

2293* — Spearheads initiatives leading to Khitomer Accords and exposes anti-peace conspiracy in Starfleet and Klingon Empire; dies while saving the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B from an energy anomaly just minutes after its commissioning ceremony

2371 — Reappears in Nexus long enough to help Captain Jean-Luc Picard save planet Veridian III from destruction in the Nexus

As much as any other figure in Starfleet history, the tall tales about James T. Kirk’s exploits over a 40-year career are as numerous as the official record — and probably closer to the truth in some instances. Kirk’s renown began by becoming the youngest captain in Starfleet to date at 34 and the first captain to bring his starship back relatively intact after a five-year mission, having also gained a reputation as an independent whose success couldn’t be argued even though he often bucked the system. He also has the distinction of being involved in 17 different temporal violations, a career record which still stands.

Kirk’s ancestors pioneered the American frontier, and his Midwest roots tied him closely to American history, a lifelong interest. He had an older brother, George Samuel Kirk, although “Sam” and his wife Aurelan died at Deneva in 2267; their one son and Kirk’s nephew Peter survived them. As a child of 13, Kirk witnessed the massacre of 4,000 people during a famine by the governor of Tarsus IV, nicknamed Kodos the Executioner.

A romantic at heart, Kirk never formed a lasting, romantic relationship due to his devotion to career — especially during his captaincy of the U.S.S. Enterprise. He did father a son with Dr. Carol Marcus, David, but was asked to avoid his upbringing and did not know he had matured into a scientific genius until 2285-86, when the young man was killed by Klingons on the Genesis planet he’d help to create. Kirk long grieved for the boy’s death, and that he had only a few months to know his progeny. He also regretted not having married a woman named Antonia whom he dated for about two years, from 2282 to 2284.

A family friend named Mallory helped gain Kirk entry to Starfleet Academy, and he soon had the rare treat of earning starship duty as a first-year cadet with the brevet rank of ensign while aboard the U.S.S. Republic. There Kirk was close friends with Benjamin Finney, for whose murder Kirk was later tried, but was tormented by an upperclassman, Finnegan. As an older cadet he served as an instructor, where Gary Mitchell was one of his students and later his best friend, saving his life on Dimorus. His heroes included Abraham Lincoln and Captain Garth, whose missions were required reading in class, as were the works of Dr. Roger Korby. Kirk had the distinction of being the only cadet ever to beat the “no-win” Kobayashi Maru scenario; he had secretly reprogrammed the simulation computer, making it possible to win and earning himself a commendation for original thinking.

After graduation, Kirk’s first assignment was the U.S.S. Farragut as a newly-promoted lieutenant, a tour distinguished by his command of a survey mission to Tyree’s planet Neural in 2254 and his guilt-plagued discovery of the creature dubbed a “cloud vampire” which led to the deaths of his captain and 200 shipmates — although he realized that there was nothing he could have done to save them. Kirk once contracted and recovered from Vegan choriomeningitis, but still carries microorganisms of it in his blood.

Kirk’s historically rapid rise to a captaincy and command of a loyal and respectful 430-member crew are reflected in the awards and commendations he had garnered by 2267, including the Palm Leaf of the Axanar Peace Mission, the Grankite Order of Tactics, a Class of Excellence award, the Prantares Ribbon of Commendation, First and Second Class, the Medal of Honor, a Silver Palm with Cluster, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry, the Karagite Order of Heroism and several Awards of Valor.

It was on this Enterprise that he assembled a crew and forged friendships with fellow officers who would themselves become Starfleet legends: First Officer and Science Officer Spock, Dr. Leonard McCoy, engineer Montgomery Scott, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Uhura. Even after the end of their five-year mission, it almost became a cliché that only Kirk and his crew could save the Federation from a new crisis — or at least Earth. That is exactly what happened in the case of V’Ger in 2271 and the whale-calling aliens in 2286.

Kirk had accepted a promotion to admiral in charge of fleet operations upon his initial return, but accepted a reduction to captain when he regained command of the Enterprise in 2271 to thwart V’Ger, relieving Will Decker after recommending him for the “center seat.” Some 14 years later after another five-year command mission and a return to Academy teaching, he used Spock’s cadet ship to thwart a grab by his onetime nemesis Khan Noonian Singh for the experimental Genesis device. That mission in turn set off a chain of events that led to Kirk’s reunion with Carol Marcus and his son David, David’s death, Spock’s sacrifice to save the ship and his storage of his katra in McCoy’s mind, and the discovery that Spock’s body had regenerated on the Genesis Planet.

Bucking the odds once again, Kirk’s loyal officers all risked their careers and lives to steal the Enterprise, retrieve Spock’s body for refusion with his katra, and face down a Klingon crew in their way bent on taking Genesis — which included the destruction of Kirk’s beloved starship. With the stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey and Spock on the road to recovery, the officers opted to return to face punishment — but not before time-traveling to retrieve extinct whales to save Earth from an alien probe’s onslaught while searching for them. Once again, Kirk was rewarded rather than punished, and given command of the all-new U.S.S. Enterprise-A that year.

Heavily involved with early peace negotiations with the Klingons, Kirk’s expose of a terrorist conspriacy trying to sabotage the talks helped bring about greater peace in the galaxy just prior to his retirement from Starfleet in 2293. While aboard for the ceremonial christening of the U.S.S. Enterprise-B, Kirk volunteered to launch a torpedo manually from the underarmed, understaffed ship during an unexpected rescue mission, but was pronounced dead when his section was ripped open by discharges from the Nexus, a temporal energy ribbon, and his body was never recovered. In actuality, he survived that incident by gaining access to the Nexus — and a timeless, perfect life within it for decades. He was finally shaken from endless Nexus fantasies in 2371, when Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D persuaded him to help stop the obsessed El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, from destroying Veridian III. They stopped the madman’s plot, but Kirk was killed in the fight and buried in a plain grave atop a tall butte on the rocky planet.

At least two other James T. Kirks are known to have recorded lives in substatially different, but similar quantum parallel universes. See HERE for the James T. Kirk born aboard the USS Kelvin and raised fatherless.

James Tiberius Kirk was born in Riverside, Iowa, on March 22, 2233,^[2] where he was raised by his parents, George and Winona Kirk.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

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.^[4] According to a friend, students could either “think or sink” in his class, and Kirk himself was “a stack of books with legs”.^[6] Upon graduating in the top five percent, Kirk was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard the USS Farragut.^[4] While assigned to the Farragut, Kirk commanded his first planetary survey and survived a deadly attack by a bizarre cloud-like creature that killed a large portion of the Farragut‘s crew,^[4] including his commanding officer, Captain Garrovick. Although the surviving Executive Officer disagreed, Kirk blamed himself for years for hesitating to fire his assigned weapons upon seeing the threat until a later encounter with the creature showed that firing immediately with conventional weapons would have been useless anyway.

Kirk became Starfleet‘s youngest starship captain after receiving command of the USS Enterprise for a five-year mission,^[4] three years of which are depicted in the original Star Trek series.^[7] Kirk’s most significant relationships in the television series are with first officer Spock and chief medical officer Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy.^[8] McCoy is someone to whom Kirk unburdens himself and is a foil to Spock.^[9] 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”.^[10] 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”.^[11] 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”.^[12]

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.^[13] 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.^[13]

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Admiral Kirk is Chief of Starfleet Operations, and he takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Willard Decker.^[4] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry‘s novelization of The Motion Picture depicts Kirk married to a Starfleet officer killed during a transporter accident.^[14][15] 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).^[4] 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, however in Star Trek: Picard‘s third season (2023), Kirk’s body is revealed to be stored in stasis at the Daystrom Institute by Section 31. ^[16]

Shatnerverse[edit]

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.

Kelvin Timeline[edit]

In this series, Chris Pine plays Kirk, Zachary Quinto plays Spock, Karl Urban plays Bones McCoy, Simon Pegg plays Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, Zoë Saldana plays Nyota Uhura, John Cho plays Hikaru Sulu, and Anton Yelchin plays Pavel Chekov.

The series takes place in an alternate course of events known as the “Kelvin Timeline”^[17] that reveal different origins for Kirk, the formation of his association with Spock, and how they came to serve together on the Enterprise.^[18][19] Whereas The Original Series portrayed Kirk as having been born in Iowa, the Star Trek film portrays him being born on a shuttle escaping the starship USS Kelvin in an alternate timeline in which his father is killed when the Kelvin is attacked by a Romulan ship from the future.^[18] In the film, George and Winona Kirk name their son James Tiberius after his maternal and paternal grandfathers, respectively.^[20]

Although the film treats specific details from Star Trek as mutable, characterizations are meant to “remain the same”^[21] though with Kirk being initially portrayed as “a reckless, bar-fighting rebel”^[22] but who eventually matures.^[23] According to Pine, the character is “a 25-year-old [who acts like a] 15-year-old” and who is “angry at the world”,^[24] until he enrolls in Starfleet Academy basically after being ‘dared’ by Captain Christopher Pike.

Kirk and Spock clash at Starfleet Academy, but, over the course of the film, Kirk focuses his “passion and obstinance and the spectrum of emotions” and becomes captain of the Enterprise.^[18][24] He is also aided by a meeting with the time-displaced Spock of the original timeline, who inspires Kirk to live up to his full potential after learning about the parallel version of himself and his accomplishments as Captain in the elder Spock’s timeline.