Paul Wesley's incarnation of James T. Kirk

But the majority of the episode featuring the character wasn't.
So your thought process is incorrect.

 

Is it too much to ask current SNW Kirk to transition to TOS Kirk by ~2265?

 

If we still see him in SNW stories set that late he probably will be a lot more like TOS Kirk.

 

Yup. We have one data point for Wesley's Kirk. No doubt there's room for growth.

 

He's not going to be just like TOS Kirk.

 

Agreed. No way he can be. He doesn't look like Shatner or even sound like him. Shatner is Shatner. No one can replace him. With that said I wasn't too crazy about Wesley's Kirk. Something didn't feel right in the actual performance. Also since this is Pikes time I could have waited 3 or so seasons before we saw Kirk. Sam Kirk actually seems interesting. Would like to have seen more of him in the first season.

 

He needs to pick up a barbell. Looks more like a young Walter Koenig

 

Vic Mignonna did it. Did you see it?

 

I saw a number of Vic's performances, and overall no he didn't do it. In my opinion the problem with a lot of Vic's portrayals was that his Captain Kirk came across more like Picard and that he was always trying to get consensus among his Bridge officers before he ultimately did anything. In actual Star Trek, while Captain Kirk did often ask for the opinions of his senior staff, in the end he usually made his own decision regardless of those opinions. He never waited for or try to convince everyone to agree with him before he made a Command decision.

There were one or two episodes of ihs fan film series where I felt he did come across like Kirk, so I think there's still hope for Paul Wesley in the wrong depending on the direction and the writing.

 

Agree. Watched it again Friday night n he pulled me out of the story. No swagger nor Kirk esque qualities
Still a great episode if you over look that. Anson is GREAT as Pike

 

I think he might have picked up a barbell or two.

 

Judging by the age of the pics, when George Bush was president

 

Maybe Obama.

 

Don't want him to ape Kirk.

 

But one wants him to act like Kirk and honestly im most of his performances he didn't in my opinion. Again it was probably more the writing than the acting.

That's the problem I had with a lot of the fan films in that they tried to recontextualize the TOS era to be more like the TNG era.

 

Lol

 

Indeed. Despite the accolades of the fan film series the acting never was quite there for me. Vic didn't quite have the look in the face that I find appeals with Shatner, Pine, and Wesley had some small moments that indicate the possibility of that glimmer.

 

He's also Kirk that did not have the friendships and social setting of the larger Enterprise. He'd been on the Farragut a long time by this episode, and to some degree you're a product of your environment. He also didn't have a chance to be around Pike until this episode. They've never really had a chance to differentiate Pike vs Kirk in any meaningful way until this season, and I think that was always going to require a little redrawing of both characters.

Pike is a very social captain, cooking for the crew, getting in on in a personal level, maybe more like Admiral Anderson "If we're fighting, we're not talking," from the first season of Discovery. He's not a war-time captain, and Starfleet knew it, leaving him and his ship out of the Klingon-Federation war, unless it absolutely became necessary. Kirk can build friendships with his senior staff but he's not as social, nor does he go the Picard route of building up a clique around him (the Broccoli incident).

Kirk will do absolutely anything to make sure he and his crew survive. That can have drawbacks. The man that cheats death might not have been willing to accept the time-crystal's predictions on Boreth. Kirk's ego and survival sense is bigger than prophecy. So they both have their plusses and minuses.

 

Nope.