Kirk's child

http://fandom.wikia.com/articles/kirk-become-father-star-trek-4

I've thought that Kirk becoming a father is the next logical step in the story arc, and that yes, this Kirk, not knowing his dad will have an impact on how he views becoming a dad himself, and the responsibilities of doing so. The fact that Carol's dad is gone now (and that she considers the crew her family by the end, as Kirk does, her included) also might make her more reluctant not to share her child's existence and life with Kirk.

Though if anyone is going to have a baby that adds tension to the plot somehow, it'll be Spock and Nyota. (Him worrying about newly pregnant her while the ship is in peril - imagine a scene earlier where she discusses it with McCoy, who being her doctor, knows before Spock does, then her telling Spock) Sulu's kid in Beyond was almost an afterthought.

 

If nuKirk becomes a father, it certainly won't be with Carol Marcus. They didn't like each other at all in STID. Carol had more chemistry with McCoy.

 

Perhaps as a parallel to prime Kirk, it could be a child from a past relationship/one night stand we've yet to hear of. Someone Kirk knew before/during his Academy years.

 

I know plenty of people who "don't like each other" a lot more intensely than Kirk and Carol in ID, yet they always end up in the same bed over and over. It's a mystery to me how, but I've seen it enough that I wouldn't blink an eye if Carol's expecting Kirkbaby in ST4.

 

it would have helped if carol was in star trek beyond ...it would have made the idea more appealing

 

They could always say she was on maternity leave...

 

I wouldn't say they didn't like each other at all. Granted, STID didn't do much to establish a romance between them, but they didn't hate each other either.

 

she liked him. the ending gives it away when she smiles at him longer than any one should as he walks away from her after telling her ...welcome to the family.

 

I think it would be a little jarring if by the start of the fourth film he's fathered a child with her, unless it makes clear a bit of time has passed. I don't think it's essential to ST4's success either way anyway.

 

Not that I had a problem with Star Trek Beyond, which I liked very much, but if they wanted to introduce the idea of Kirk having a child...

I think showing Kirk was travel-weary and questioning he wanted to accept promotion to admiral in STB would have been a great opportunity to have shown he reconnected with Carol Marcus. When the crew docked at Yorktown Station, and many of the crew had loved ones waiting for them, it would have been a great point to have Carol there to meet Kirk, and them discussing plans for Kirk to settle down, accept promotion, and them getting more serious. Then at the end of the film, when Kirk realizes he can make the most difference as Captain of the Enterprise, Kirk and Carol both have a private conversation where each has something to tell the other. Kirk goes first, breaks the bad news to Carol, then when it's Carol's turn, she keeps the fact she is pregnant to herself, and allows Kirk to fulfill his destiny as Captain because she realizes that is where he would be happiest.

 

Don't even need to go that far. Prime Carol got pregnant and ran as far from Kirk as she could. Same thing happens again - who'd want to have their kid follow their fathers footsteps when her dad was a tunatic and George became space pizza?

I dont think it'd be too hard. David was a surprise in ST2. all this would need is a quick chat with Bones to establish there was a relationship (similar scene to Beyond's birthday drink). A whole "We're about to see my ex, could be awkward." scene.

Then when they see Marcus, suddenly there's a child of a certain age that makes Kirk start counting the years....

 

honestly it would make more sense, and be more useful narrative-wise, for Spock to be the one with that kind of storyline because 1) he's the one with an established relationship the audience already knows about and cares about the characters so it wouldn't come out of nowhere and feel forced, while with Kirk you should essentially do tos Carol v2 where he suddenly is a father with a stranger we know nothing about and we never saw a relationship for him before (which might make it hard for the audience to care and get much invested. Or you do what they did with Sulu, in which case the kid wouldn't have much relevance to the plot beside adding the information that x character has a kid ). 2) another vulcan/human hybrid has more potential and is more fitting for trek (unless Kirk has a kid with an alien too). Just the parallel with Spock and his parents, not to mention the conflict about whether the kid would be considered a valid vulcan now that they need to repopulate their new world 3) it wouldn't feel like another thing they copy from tos and the old movies.
However, I think we either wouldn't see the kid (thus just have a pregnancy storyline) or they'd have to place the events of the movies years later so that the kid would be old enough to actively participate to the plot in some way (e.g., The Mummy sequel).

For me, the movies already are too much about Kirk and if the next movie will have his father, you can just bet his personal storyline will already eat most of the screentime.. and I don't like that honestly. I wish this was more an ensemble and we could see more of the personal lives of others too. They already do too little with the others.

 

I quite like this idea, could have been made to work, though I'm more than happy with the film as it was.

TWOK had the luxury of the cast being quite old, with a lot of time in between the series and movies where literally anything could be shoehorned in at the writers whim, which is exactly how Carol and David came to be - not that it was done badly or anything, quite the opposite. ST4 won't have that luxury, though I concede it is still clearly doable. I just don't think it fits with what we've seen onscreen with the characters so far.

 

Plus, TOS had established the precedent of Kirk occasionally running into old flames wherever he went, so it felt almost inevitable that he would run into some offspring at some point.

 

Sometimes people forget to use birth control. It happened to Sisko and Kassidy, after all.

 

It's not a matter of technology. We have numerous, effective forms of birth control today, and have had for decades at least. (Hell, the Pill has been around for nearly sixty years now.) We still have unplanned pregnancies--and not just because the tech isn't good enough.

As long as people are people, you're going to have unplanned pregnancies.