Is Kirk really to blame for the events in 'The Wrath of Khan'?

[BillJ]

A novel I read, claimed that most people who read Kirk's logs mistook him for an imaginative drunk.

That doesn't really work either. I'm pretty sure Kirk isn't the only one who files log entries on the Enterprise. We know that Spock and McCoy have also filed logs from the series. I imagine any department head would need to do so. Plus accident reports from when the Red Shirts got their ass kicked by Khan.

Hard to keep a lie going with that many redundant reports being filed.

The logic of Kirk successfully not telling Starfleet about Khan simply doesn't hold up.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That doesn't really work either. I'm pretty sure Kirk isn't the only one who files log entries on the Enterprise. We know that Spock and McCoy have also filed logs from the series. I imagine any department head would need to do so. Plus accident reports from when the Red Shirts got their ass kicked by Khan.

Hard to keep a lie going with that many redundant reports being filed.

The logic of Kirk successfully not telling Starfleet about Khan simply doesn't hold up.

I don't remember which star trek novel this is from, or who wrote it, but it was probably Peter David.

But it's more the redacted logs that have been released to the public for transparency and entertainment, more so than an Admiral wondering if Kirk needs to be shitcanned.

 

[BillJ]

I don't remember which star trek novel this is from, or who wrote it, but it was probably Peter David.

Yeah, Peter David took some shots at Kirk while building up his own super-Captain Mackenzie Calhoun.

 

[NCC-73515]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Shaka Zulu]

It seems like, a strong element of the story is the notion of unintended consequences. We're placed in the almost unique position of seeing the aftermath of one of those end-of-episode morality scenes from TOS: you know the sort, Kirk makes some determination, it wraps up the plot neatly, and the Enterprise and her crew fly off to their next mission, never to look back. This time, Kirk's decision to leave Khan on Ceti Alpha V comes back to bite him in the ass, and has major personal consequences.

But.... to be fair to Kirk's original decision, he was faced with a problem of how do you punish a nign indestructible, super-human whose very instincts are to rule and conquer? He solved that by engaging Khan's very nature, giving him a planet to cultivate and rule over in exchange for going away quietly and not (for example) escaping to try and take over the Federation, or worse. Something that Khan and his followers would almost certainly have tried to do if he'd simply handed them over to authorities for a conventional sentence and imprisonment. Kirk's solution is genius: it appeals to Khan's pride to "rule in hell" rather than "serving in heaven". The fate of Ceti Alpha was unfortunate, and perhaps Kirk has some responsibility for not having followed up on and checked that Khan's people were OK, but it was meant to be a punishment after all -- like the original convicts sent to Botany Bay, there in chains, but with an opportunity to build themselves a better life, if they were to survive and prosper in a harsh, dangerous environment. It was a relatively humane solution, as well as nullifying any possibility that Khan could become a threat to the wider Alpha Quadrant.

Yes, Kirk's actions led to the events of The Wrath Of Khan. But to "blame" him, or ascribe fault, is as simplistic as Khan's bitter recollections of the original episode, when Kirk had actually offered him hospitality and a chance to atone for his past, Khan threw it in his face, and more than that, now spins it as Kirk having treated him badly. Khan holds some responsibility. Kirk holds some responsibility. And simple bad luck / fate, in what happened to Ceti Alpha, holds some responsibility. But Kirk's choice to give Khan a world to 'conquer' was made in good faith, and accepted by Khan as such.

But what say you?

My answer to this question? No, it's not Kirk's fault, or anybody else's fault; Khan & company brought whatever happened on Ceti Alpha V on themselves by being what they are the minute they get out of cryo-sleep. If Khan and company had been able to resist what they are, they would've been able to peacefully find a planet to live on that wasn't Ceti Alpha V, and still be alive today.

The real tragedy is that Khan and company weren't /couldn't be taken to a prison planet and given something like the 'death of personality' neuralyser treatment seen on Babylon 5; that would've really changed Khan and company and made them better people (a good example of a personality to be inserted into Khan and the other Augments would be one based on this character, specifically his creed):

Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.

If Khan and company could be made to be like that, imagine how better things would be for civilization. Unfortunately, just like the famous fable about the fox and the scorpion, he and his fellow Augments acted according to their nature, and what happened, happend.

As for checking up on Khan, what for? Kirk and his crew had other duties to carry out, many of them far more important than looking after a human timber wolf and his pride.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

He recorded the events in his Captain's Log, also it would be hard to keep 430 people quiet about what happened no matter how loyal. Then there's the missing ship's historian Kirk would have to account for...

But then what? The crew aren’t quiet and the whole thing becomes a matter of public record for news services and historians to peruse. Starfleet declares the planet off limits and sets up monitoring.

And then, years later, the planet shifts orbit with no one in the public the wiser, not even Federation scientists taking a particular interest in that solar system? And if they are aware, everyone just shrugs off the new prison conditions? (This isn’t exactly a Prime Directive scenario.)

What Khan and his followers did was entirely their responsibility; Kirk’s was to make sure they entered the criminal justice system rather than be creative and gamble on their descendants building a productive society instead. If Picard had the same inspiration, he would’ve probably left them on the planet, set up monitoring and notified the authorities so they could make a final decision and take care of the rest.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The fate of Ceti Alpha was unfortunate, and perhaps Kirk has some responsibility for not having followed up on and checked that Khan's people were ok...

Not his job. As we saw many times in TOS, very often one ship was following up on another's work. If there's anyone at fault for not checking up on Khan and his people, it's Starfleet bureaucracy. I'd say that most likely, Starfleet's left hand didn't know what its right hand was doing, and the folks in charge of scouting planets for the Genesis Project had no idea that there were any inhabitants on CA5.

And besides, how would Khan know that Starfleet wasn't checking up on him from orbit? A ship could zip by, scan the planetary conditions, and even check for human life forms, all without Khan having any idea. Some people forget that the Khan we met in TWOK had long since fallen into madness, obsession, and paranoia and cannot be considered a particularly reliable source on anything except how long he's been on Ceti Alpha V.

BTW, a couple of years ago I came up with a theory that explains why the Reliant didn't notice a missing planet in the Ceti Alpha system. You can read about it in this thread.

Kirk holds some responsibility...

He screwed up by not raising the Enterprise's shields when they encountered the Reliant, but that's about it.

Maybe Kirk knew about the ecosystem, and figure Khan would be f*cked within a few months.

That doesn't sound like Kirk at ALL. Here's how they describe the conditions at Ceti Alpha V:

KIRK: Mister Spock, our heading takes us near the Ceti Alpha star system.
SPOCK: Quite correct, Captain. Planet number five there is habitable, although a bit savage, somewhat inhospitable.
KIRK: But no more than Australia's Botany Bay colony was at the beginning. Those men went on to tame a continent, Mister Khan. Can you tame a world?
KHAN: Have you ever read Milton, Captain?
KIRK: Yes. I understand. Lieutenant Marla McGivers. Given a choice of court martial or accompanying them there...
KHAN: (gazing into her eyes) It will be difficult. A struggle at first even to stay alive, to find food.
MARLA: I'll go with him, sir.
KHAN: A superior woman. I will take her. And I've gotten something else I wanted. A world to win, an empire to build.

So it was definitely harsh, but like Chekov said in TWOK, there was life and a fair chance. Obviously something extrordinary and unforeseen happened to destroy CA6, but Kirk and company can hardly be blamed for that. If the planet was inherently unstable, Spock would've known about it. He's too good at his job not to.

I don’t see Kirk informing Starfleet because it doesn’t make sense they wouldn’t cordon off the system and set up monitoring

This is how the final scene of "Space Seed" begins:

(The senior staff are in dress uniform again.)
UHURA: Record tapes engaged and ready, Captain.
KIRK: This hearing is now in session. Under the authority vested in me by Starfleet Command, I declare all charges and specifications in this matter have been dropped.
MCCOY: Jim. Agreed you have the authority...

They're in dress uniforms, they ring a bell to start the hearing, Uhura is recording the proceedings, and McCoy immediately confirms that Kirk has the authority to drop the charges. It doesn't get any more official than that. To think that they did all of that and then didn't bother to inform Starfleet of what they'd done is ludicrous.

Kirk promised to keep his discovery of Zephram Cochrane in "Metamorphosis" a secret, but as it was only him, Spock, and McCoy who ever met Cochrane, that'd be a pretty easy secret to keep. Since the entire ship faced the consequences of what Khan and McGivers did, that's 430 people who at least have an idea of what happened.

He recorded the events in his Captain's Log, also it would be hard to keep 430 people quiet about what happened no matter how loyal. Then there's the missing ship's historian Kirk would have to account for...

I could see the crew talking amongst themselves, but if they were ordered to stay quiet about something classified, they'd stay quiet. But I agree otherwise. What sort of cover story could Kirk possibly come up with?

A novel I read, claimed that most people who read Kirk's logs mistook him for an imaginative drunk.

Sounds dumb. No reason to throw one of Trek's main characters under the bus just to make a not especially funny joke about how some of TOS' episodes come off a little campy now.

We got to see the pre disaster surface of Ceti Alpha V in the Enterprise episode "Twilight"
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Twilight_(episode)

Man, that show just couldn't resist throwing Jonathan Archer into everything first, could it?

 

[Boris Skrbic]

To think that they did all of that and then didn't bother to inform Starfleet of what they'd done is ludicrous.

The coverup decision could’ve been made during the end credits, after Khan had agreed to the exile, otherwise what would’ve been the point?

How else would you explain that the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI and the consequent cataclysm on V wasn’t on Twitter or whatever? This is the Federation we’re talking about, which prides itself on advanced methods of rehabilitation as opposed to a solution worse than Rura Penthe.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The coverup decision could’ve been made during the end credits, after Khan had agreed to the exile, otherwise what would’ve been the point?

You're really bending over backwards to interpret the ending in the exact opposite way it was intended.

How else would you explain that the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI and the consequent cataclysm on V wasn’t on Twitter or whatever?

How do you know that any of the other planets in the system were inhabited?

 

[Boris Skrbic]

You're really bending over backwards to interpret the ending in the exact opposite way it was intended.

How do you know that any of the other planets in the system were inhabited?

The intent of the ending was that Kirk knew what would happen to Khan and his followers and decided to try and take advantage of their nature rather than subdue it via rehabilitation during life imprisonment. It’s fairly consistent with the TOS philosophy of the starship captain as a lone arbiter on faraway missions.

The point is that if the information was a matter of public record, someone from the general public (a historian, a journalist) would’ve taken an interest in the new colony. Someone would’ve noticed that the planetary orbit shifted and resulted in a climate catastrophe. There would’ve been pressure from some quarters to relocate the population. A research project as significant as Genesis would’ve been aware of the situation.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

A research project as significant as Genesis would’ve been aware of the situation.

Not if they accidentally weren't told. Never blame on malice what can explained by incompetence. (And to be clear, that's incompetence on the part of Starfleet brass, not Kirk & company.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

Checov, who worked for Genesis, knew that the Khan homestead was one planet over from where they landed.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Not if they accidentally weren't told. Never blame on malice what can explained by incompetence. (And to be clear, that's incompetence on the part of Starfleet brass, not Kirk & company.)

But you just said this sort of thing couldn’t be kept secret, so why would they need to be told? An experimental prison colony was in peril; it would’ve been reported by news services and resulted in a campaign to relocate the prisoners to an equivalent planet or standard facilities. All this would’ve become an issue as soon as the explosion of Ceti Alpha VI was hypothesized or became a certainty, and earlier there would’ve been questions raised about the whole notion even if the Federation had backed up Kirk’s idea.

This just works so much better if either Kirk or his immediate superiors (at most) had placed a gag order on the original decision.

 

[UssGlenn]

Checov, who worked for Genesis, knew that the Khan homestead was one planet over from where they landed.

It's made clear in the movie that Chekov had forgotten the specific location until the ship name jogged his memory.

 

[BillJ]

This just works so much better if either Kirk or his immediate superiors (at most) had placed a gag order on the original decision.

From our vantage point, Kirk entered the events into the official record. So it wouldn't be Kirk. Even if Starfleet put a gag order on the events, it wouldn't preclude them from quarantining the Ceti Alpha system.

So it still really works its way around to incompetence on Starfleet's part.

 

[Timo]

Of course, all the pomp at the end of "Space Seed" could be for Khan's benefit, to placate the vain superman into accepting his fate. It's not as if Kirk won here: he's pretty much in the same situation as he was when Khan started taking over his ship the previous time, with Khan under guard and all. That didn't stop him or even slow him down much originally! So extra care should be taken to contain the threat, when locked doors and burly guards have already been established as woefully insufficient.

That Kirk failed to raise shields shouldn't be held against him. We never learn of a regulation that would call for the raising of shields on such an encounter. And surely having shields up would be a really bad move if the Reliant had to be evacuated quickly!

Quarantining Ceti Alpha was probably out of the question: "Space Seed" says the general vicinity has been abandoned by Earth/UFP traffic, so placing a secret research base there is a good idea, but then drawing attention to that base by having the neighboring system quarantined is not...

As for the peril at Ceti Alpha, there is no precedent for Starfleet or anybody else being able to tell. Planets blowing up only becomes evident when a starship flies deep into the system and starts scanning (or gets blasted by rubble). It cannot be spotted at a distance, not in real time. That is, unless a subspace telescope is aimed at the spot, but the odds would be astronomically against that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

And surely having shields up would be a really bad move if the Reliant had to be evacuated quickly!

Why? It was like six seconds for Reliant's shields to drop. It would probably take at least that long for the Enterprise transporters to warm up to help with an evacuation. Besides, Spock scans Reliant, it seems like any type of emergency situation that required evacuation would've shown up at that point?

The lives lost on Reliant's initial attack are purely Kirk's fault.

SAAVIK: Sir, may I quote General Order Twelve, 'On the approach of any vessel, when communications have not been established...

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Yes and no. Kirk made the original decision to maroon Khan, so there's no doubt he shares some of the blame. Starfleet also shares some of the blame, as they had his logs, knew what he did with Khan, did nothing to overrule Kirk's decision, and never checked up on him.

Kirk shares NONE of the blame; he did as best as he could with this nearly hard to beat man and his similarly augmented buddies. Kirk could just ship them to the nearest Starbase, where they would be tried, but then most likely, Khan or one of the other Augments would break free, join up with the others to grab a starship that's docked there and then get away back to Earth to conquer it (and succeed because they'd found a way to 'cloak' it, or just invent a cloaking device so that said ship wouldn't pop up on long range sensors) and then instead of Wrath of Khan, it'd be Revenge of Khan. Everybody thinks that there would be an easy solution, but there isn't one because of the way Augments are (if it was hard for Archer and crew to stop them, and then Kirk and crew, how easy would it be for Starfleet personnel to do this, even with the staff of and resources of a Starbase?) That;s why genetic modification is banned on Earth and in the Federation generally, much like this 'ban' on computer technology in this particular sci-fi franchise.

To sum it up, Kirk was lucky to stop Khan and company; somebody else in Starfleet might not be able to.

Kirk is one man, and may have never had the resources to return to Ceti Alpha V. Starfleet did have those resources and manpower and never cared to check up on what one of their officers did.

Exactly. Plus as I said, Kirk had other duties to carry out more important than taking care of a genetically engineered superhuman who he was barely able to best in combat and who acts like a timberwolf.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

So extra care should be taken to contain the threat, when locked doors and burly guards have already been established as woefully insufficient.

There is no evidence Starfleet wouldn’t have taken precautions. This was more about Kirk taking matters into his own hands.

As for the peril at Ceti Alpha, there is no precedent for Starfleet or anybody else being able to tell.

That would make sense if nobody had any reason to believe that someone lived there, which is the coverup scenario. In case of a public revelation, presumably some kind of subspace monitoring would’ve been set up and led to an alert when Ceti Alpha VI was destroyed.

 

[Timo]

Why? It was like six seconds for Reliant's shields to drop. It would probably take at least that long for the Enterprise transporters to warm up to help with an evacuation.

But it seems idiotic to raise shields for no good reason when the first assumption is, and should be, that a fellow starship is in distress. All the more so if there appears to be a difficulty communicating; raised shields would probably make that issue even worse.

If we quibble reaction times, then the arming and locking of weapons is also a process consuming finite time - Kirk's cadets just were slow in coping with this.

Besides, Spock scans Reliant, it seems like any type of emergency situation that required evacuation would've shown up at that point?

The point seemed to be that Spock couldn't tell anything definite, whereas the ship was signaling it was in distress of some indeterminate sort. Evacuating, or beaming over to help, would be a likely prospect there; the other ship firing, not so much.

We have no idea what General Order 12 says. For all we know, Kirk followed it to the hilt here.

Timo Saloniemi