What people forget about Kirk — in magnification of other parts of his personality — is that he was always a nerd. He excelled at academics, only cared about his job and once ruined the career of his best friend by writing him up for a mistake he could’ve easily ignored.
There’s this pop culture idea that he spent all his time sexing women and punching bad guys. But he’s really a very lonely guy who takes his responsibility to ship and crew enormously seriously. You see it weighing on him constantly. (At least in the TV version.)
In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of a time when TV Kirk actually defied orders. There’s maybe a few, and a few more where he interprets them creatively or leaves details out of his log. But I’d be willing to hazard that it’s not any more so than Picard.
Yes, Westerns are part of the DNA of Star Trek. But I’d argue that’s about structure and tone and not that Kirk is a Western-styled hero. Pike was FAR more the Old West Captain: dark, traumatized, prone to melancholic musings.
The truth is Kirk is the epitome of the Kennedy Era ideal. A jacked space nerd ready to fight the communists, but also think his way into going to the moon. In temperament, he’s much more like Horatio Hornblower: adventurous, intellectual, sometimes playful even. But...
... with the heavy weight of command always bearing down on him. Kirk doesn’t think he can have friends. He’s always speaking to people in that Captain’s Voice. The only ppl he’ll let the veneer drop for and show vulnerability to are Bones and McCoy.
Sure, in the movies he’ll share a moment with Chekov or Uhura. But not in the show. Not for the most part. To them, he has to be the captain. And there’s always a distance there. Because Kirk’s good at his job and won’t let his desire to be liked get in the way of command.
And we’re constantly being reminded of the toll that takes on him psychologically. The dude has no family. No relationships.
Part of the reason we think of Kirk as such a lothario is that we’re constantly meeting the string of ex-girlfriends he gave up for the job.
Part of the reason we think of Kirk as such a lothario is that we’re constantly meeting the string of ex-girlfriends he gave up for the job.
*i meant Bones and Spock a little while up, but I’m sure that’s obvious
But sex and fist punching aside, if not for that regret and inner turmoil he feels over the road not taken, and his friendship with the only two men in his life he can open up to... if you met Captain Kirk, you’d probably find him to be a real square.
So the next time somebody tells you they prefer Picard because Kirk is a dumb cowboy. Tell them they can like whoever they choose, but Gary Mitchell called Kirk “a stack of books with legs” and that he gave up the prospect of friends and family just to be a better Captain.
Nerds, amirite?
