It's a pajama shirt. He's been awakened from his nap and had to rush to the bridge. 
Kirk's black tunic - Theories? Thoughts?
- Thread starter Stag
- Start date
Kirk is wearing the black uniform because he is a space cadet. In the new Star Trek universe, Starfleet Academy cadet's wear black. This is the official word.
Source: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233502_6,00.html
Source: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233502_6,00.html
A grain of salt must be taken with Entertainment Weekly, especially since those stiffer red costumes appear to be cadet uniforms. Maybe the black tunic is a cadet undershirt or something. Maybe it's a casual uniform, either for officers or cadets. Who knows. Of course the simplest explanation is that he left his gold shirt somewhere. It would be a plot reason to have it I suppose.
Honestly, I doubt it... Kirk was around 33-34 when he took command of the Enterprise, right? Starfleet Academy is like college... It's four years or so. At least the novels allude to it being as such.
Regardless, let's play devil's advocate and say it's even 8 years. That means that Kirk would graduate at 26. There's still at lest 7 years before taking command of the Enterprise.
Besides that, Chekov's an ensign, obviously younger than everybody else. Sulu's a full lieutenant, so he's definitely been out of the academy longer. Spock and McCoy hold higher ranks, so they've also been out of the acadmy longer.
So... How could everybody be right out of the academy and hold different ranks from ensign to captain? I don't think so.
I'm betting that the scene of McCoy and Kirk in the shuttle doesn't happen at the same time as the scene on the bridge. Also, we get to see Kirk and Spock as kids... So, obviously there will be a long span of time during the length of the movie. Therefore, I think we're going to see all the characters at different points in their lives, but the scenes with all the TOS characters together on the Enterprise are obviously around the time of Where No Man Has Gone Before.
Regardless, let's play devil's advocate and say it's even 8 years. That means that Kirk would graduate at 26. There's still at lest 7 years before taking command of the Enterprise.
Besides that, Chekov's an ensign, obviously younger than everybody else. Sulu's a full lieutenant, so he's definitely been out of the academy longer. Spock and McCoy hold higher ranks, so they've also been out of the acadmy longer.
So... How could everybody be right out of the academy and hold different ranks from ensign to captain? I don't think so.
I'm betting that the scene of McCoy and Kirk in the shuttle doesn't happen at the same time as the scene on the bridge. Also, we get to see Kirk and Spock as kids... So, obviously there will be a long span of time during the length of the movie. Therefore, I think we're going to see all the characters at different points in their lives, but the scenes with all the TOS characters together on the Enterprise are obviously around the time of Where No Man Has Gone Before.
I think his overshirt just got ripped or something, and he took it off. IRL they probably did it to distinguish Kirk from the rest of the crew, make him stand out more. Or it could be a symbolic thing where he doesn't don the gold shirt until he officially becomes Captain Kirk at the end of the movie.
Very interesting then that Chekov and Uhura are already officers while Kirk is still a cadet.
Something just doesn't seem quite right with that.
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That sounds plausible. Especially since I just asked my dad a former navy man how the academy ranking works and whether the rank at the academy translates over to a similar rank in the navy. His answer was everyone who comes out of the Academy is either a L JG or an Ensign and have to earn their ranks up from there.
I think this will be closest to the truth. Maybe he has a black mark (pun intended) on his file for sabotaging the simulator when he was a cadet which means Starfleet is planning on passing him over for a command but through the plot of the film he earns a command - that of the Enteprise.
Actually, I think that's very much on the mark myself. I think a Lieutenant Kirk is in some serious trouble with Starfleet at the beginning of the movie and may actually be on his way of getting drummed out the service when...um, stuff happens...
I think this will be closest to the truth. Maybe he has a black mark (pun intended) on his file for sabotaging the simulator when he was a cadet which means Starfleet is planning on passing him over for a command but through the plot of the film he earns a command - that of the Enteprise.
However, if you are a physician and join the services as a doctor and you get through training you are automatically made a Captain or Major, I cannot recall (Navy equiv is 1st Lieutenant or Lt. Cmndr)
Yes but My dad said once you do that you can't be a line officer.. you become a specialist and only like officers can hold command on a ship, (with even more restrictions on Aircraft carrier captains, and Sub Captains meaning you have to have your wings or dolphins for those)
Maybe Kirk's in Section 31... 
We don't know that. We do know that Kirk was 34 years old in The Deadly Years (season 2).... but we don't know how long he had been commanding the ENT at that point.
This is pretty irrelevant, though... as one of the filmmakers recently said that this film is about 'the act of changing what you know'.
Actually, I was wrong, but we do know. According to Memory Alpha, which is the all-canon wiki, he took command in 2264. He was born in 2233. That makes him 31. Check the first sentence in the section of his MA article that I'm linking to.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/James_T._Kirk#The_USS_Enterprise_and_her_five-year_mission
I doubt he was graduating the academy at 31.
Evil Kirk is on the bridge that's why he's wearing black. Evil Kirk jettisoned good Kirk in the escape pod
No, Kirk was sudduced by the Dark Side of the Force. This explains why JJ keeps dropping Star Wars references. Pine basing Kirk on Hans Solo, Them trying to put a little Star Wars in Star Trek. I can't wait to see Pine force-choke someone.
