Was Kirk a Bad Friend?

[Tenacity]

We were assigned to the same ship some years later. I relieved him on watch once and found a circuit open to the atomic matter piles that should've been closed. Another five minutes, it could have blown up the ship. I closed the switch and logged the incident. He drew a reprimand and was sent to the bottom of the promotion list.

When Kirk logged the oincident, would Kirk have known that Finney would necessarily have receive a reprimand?

 

[Voth commando1]

Kirk didn't really have that many friends-Bones and Spock were probably the real friends he had.

He had acquaintances sure, old boys from the academy and superiors he respected but they weren't friends.

 

[J.T.B.]

I think Kirk said "I logged the mistake, Ben. Blame me, not them." To my lights, that's a write-up.

It's not. Logs are official records that are required to be kept accurately. For all we know, there was a field on the log for "atomic matter pile circuit: open/closed." Kirk not recording the state of the engine room, or falsifying the log when he took over would be violating regulations.

What's more, when Kirk relieved Finney, it became his responsibility. If the engine room blew up, Kirk would be blamed as much as Finney. It was a really serious thing Finney had done and it wasn't Kirk's place, friend or not, to cover it up for him.

 

[BillJ]

Kirk didn't really have that many friends-Bones and Spock were probably the real friends he had.

And they had no issues following regulations when the safety of the ship or priority of the mission were being compromised. See: "Obsession".

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

If anyone was a bad friend in this situation, it was Finney, not Kirk. He held a grudge against his friend for years and then faked his death to get Kirk booted from command, all because the younger man did his duty and logged an error as dictated by protocol.

 

[Noname Given]

I just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in...the 2 cents which Kirk was happy to put over my eyes.

To be fair, you were trying to take control of his ship and kill him.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

To be fair, you were trying to take control of his ship and kill him.

No, I was just speed reading and figuring ot how to better control the ship with my mind for efficiency's sake and my old buddy Jim was going to maroon me on a planet with no women.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Finney was the bad friend, he knew Kirk was coming on duty, maybe that's why he shirked his job "my bud will cover for me", real friend's don't do that.

If anyone was a bad friend in this situation, it was Finney, not Kirk. He held a grudge against his friend for years and then faked his death to get Kirk booted from command, all because the younger man did his duty and logged an error as dictated by protocol.

Of course, if I'm being serious I agree with you guys and others. Finney was the bad guy. If he wanted to stay in Starfleet for so many years without promotion, he should have made peace with his situation. Failing that, he should have resigned and become a used hovercraft salesman.

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/...overboard-and-dead-discovered-hiding-on-board

"It is unclear how Mims survived a week in the engineering space or where he was hiding."

What a guy. He loved the service more than any man ever dared.

 

[Push The Button]

If anyone was a bad friend in this situation, it was Finney, not Kirk. He held a grudge against his friend for years and then faked his death to get Kirk booted from command, all because the younger man did his duty and logged an error as dictated by protocol.

Finney definitely had a few loose marbles rolling around in his head. Plus, what was he, like 60? It was probably time for Starfleet to give him his latinum watch and let him retire to planet New Miami Beach instead of making him sit inside some dirty ion pod.

 

[Shawnster]

Logging the incident might not include mentioning Finney. Kirk may have simply recorded "atomic pile circuit was about to melt down. Circuit inadvertently left open. I closed the circuit."

Only upon investigation was it determined Finney was responsible. An investigation that surely would have followed.

It's possible Kirk did not know Finney was responsible. The quote from Court Martial was years later in hindsight.

 

[DonIago]

It would be pretty poor diligence to note that a near-catastrophic error had been made but not make any effort to find out who committed the error. Though I guess that the "who" could have been out of scope for Kirk's responsibilities at the time. Though he doesn't strike me as the type to just sit on that sort of situation.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's possible Kirk did not know Finney was responsible.

Unlikely. Kirk was the officer who relieved Finney at shift change. It'd be impossible for Kirk not to know the error was Finney's.

 

[J.T.B.]

The officer of the watch is responsible for what happens on that watch, period, so Kirk had to know it would reflect on Finney. The point remains, though , that whatever investigation and punishment resulted came from higher up. If Finney thought the punishment was too hard, he should blame the captain or the board or whoever handed it out. Not Kirk who was just doing his job.

 

[MacLeod]

The phrase was logged so perhaps when Kirk took over he had to complete a checklist to make sure everything was set as it should be.

An incorrect setting would be logged as being altered to the correct setting.

We also don't know if there was other factors for why Finney had either set it incorrectly or not noticed it was incorrectly set. Hypotetically he could have been intoxicated and that why his career stalled rather than not noticing an incocrrect setting.