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.)