Tiberius

Was Kirk's middle name invented for the Animated Series, or had it been decided on before then?

 

IIRC, Roddenberry had a history of using Tiberius in the names of his heroes, as well as a more generic history (and future) of using exotic middle names beginning with T. TNG kept up the tradition with William T. Riker, although when the time came to decide on what the T really stood for, long after Roddenberry's involvement in the show, they copped out of Tecumseh and chose the bland Thomas instead.

I'd think the expansion of the middle initial was decided upon during the original show, perhaps many times over - and whatever choice TAS would have made, they would have had a document or three to prove that Roddenberry had suggested the very thing earlier on.

Timo Saloniemi

 

He will always be James Riberius Kirk to me.

 

Gary Mitchell was a big Scooby-Doo fan.

 

R'uh-R'oh.

 

In one of Peter David's books (I think it was Imzadi), Riker's middle name was Thelonius.

 

Emperor Tiberius was what the bad Kirk called himself in the mirror universe trilogy by Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens'. Gave the character that Caligula-ish quality....older and even worse than what we saw in the TOS episode. The name was definitely used to good advantage in those books. He had McCoy hung for treason, among other things.

 

I remember that. It was a brilliant character idea.

 

I thought it stood for Rice.

 

Wasn't there a novel in which McCoy called Riker "William T. (not for Tiberius) Riker" ?

 

It stood for Romulus. You can see why he changed it.

 

David Gerrold claims in the commentary for "Bem" that he picked Tiberius as the most outrageous "T" name he could think of, and was suprised when Rodenberry and co. okayed it.

 

Since Roddenberry used "Tiberius" as the middle name of the lead his "The Lieutenant" TV series, I don't see why he would object.

 

Our new cat's name is Tiberius. Actually, it is his middle name -- J. Tiberius Katz.

We call him "Ty" for short.