How Would Captain Kirk Handle a Mutiny?

[Captain Shatner]

I've always found it interesting that Captain Kirk never had to face a determined mutiny from his crew. Let me clarify that a little.
Yes, in many, many episodes of TOS, something happens to one of the bridge crew and they end up fighting Kirk. Same for many of the guest star roles.
But it's never their intent to attack Kirk. In every case I can think of, something (a disease, alien entity, etc.) influenced them to fight Kirk. I don't think anybody has ever tried a mutiny of their own free will.
How would Kirk react if someone, say Uhura or Sulu, conspired against him, and tried to commandeer the Enterprise?
Would he go down Admiral Adama's route during the Gaeta rebellion and swiftly execute them?
Or would he show clemency, and maybe even restore them to their posts?

 

[Delta Vega]

First, he would dropkick said mutineer

Then put him in the Brig

Then he would chose a likely planet, and "Maroon" said mutineer

Job done

 

[R. Star]

Didn't we pretty much see this in Star Trek V?

 

[JarodRussell]

I've always found it interesting that Captain Kirk never had to face a determined mutiny from his crew. Let me clarify that a little.
Yes, in many, many episodes of TOS, something happens to one of the bridge crew and they end up fighting Kirk. Same for many of the guest star roles.
But it's never their intent to attack Kirk. In every case I can think of, something (a disease, alien entity, etc.) influenced them to fight Kirk. I don't think anybody has ever tried a mutiny of their own free will.
How would Kirk react if someone, say Uhura or Sulu, conspired against him, and tried to commandeer the Enterprise?
Would he go down Admiral Adama's route during the Gaeta rebellion and swiftly execute them?
Or would he show clemency, and maybe even restore them to their posts?

Put them to the brig and then court martial perhaps?

Does nobody go to the military anymore?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Didn't we pretty much see this in Star Trek V?

And in "This Side of Paradise".

 

[Nacluv]

Didn't we pretty much see this in Star Trek V?

And in "This Side of Paradise".

No. They were affected by the spores..

 

[Timo]

In "Obsession", the top officers intend to topple Kirk if the skipper doesn't properly explain himself. There is no outside agent influencing these officers there. And Kirk doesn't appear all that worried about the inviolability of his status, but he doesn't feel obligated to explain himself, either.

I don't see Kirk acting out of spite even if his closest men or women decide to rise against him. There just isn't precedent for that. Kirk is more the "turning defeat into victory" type, gracefully yielding to being overthrown simply because this will give him time to plot his counterstrike. And he is always gracious in victory, even offering a helping hand to characters like Khan or Kruge. It takes a really vicious kind of villain to goad a "mercy shot" from Kirk, and I doubt the TOS officers would qualify. Unless they were indeed under the influence of some outside agent, that is, and this is outside the scope of this argument.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

Kirk would follow regulations. How is this even in doubt? If the crew were acting in their right minds, without spores, Sybok or whatever, Kirk would quell the uprising and then lock them up (a court martial requires 3 command officers according to The Menagerie). He wouldn't kill them (Adama didn't have a military organization to turn them over to - he WAS the authority) or strand them on some planet (because that's just stupid). They would be turned over to Starfleet command at the nearest base for court martial.

 

[Kamdan]

Didn't we pretty much see this in Star Trek V?

And in "This Side of Paradise".

No. They were affected by the spores..

Kirk: This is mutiny, mister!
Leslie: Yes, sir. It is.

I rest my case.

Also, lets not forget about the Kirk-Lester temper tantrums and inflicting the death penalty for mutineers.

 

[Use of Time]

I believe he would have dramatic fist fights with the men. As for the women, I think we all know what Kirk would do with the women.

 

[bbailey861]

I believe he would have dramatic fist fights with the men. As for the women, I think we all know what Kirk would do with the women.

I'm not sure if I know. Please explain it to me. Graphically.

 

[Nacluv]

And in "This Side of Paradise".

No. They were affected by the spores..

Kirk: This is mutiny, mister!
Leslie: Yes, sir. It is.

I rest my case.

Also, lets not forget about the Kirk-Lester temper tantrums and inflicting the death penalty for mutineers.

What do you mean you rest your case? I don't get it. Leslie was infected.

 

[Gov Kodos]

The actions are still a mutiny.

 

[marksound]

First, he would dropkick said mutineer

Then put him in the Brig

Then he would chose a likely planet, and "Maroon" said mutineer

Job done

This.

Sidebar: Did Shatner ever again perform the dropkick in character after its real life failure? http://youtu.be/GgtPb4-ou1A

 

[BeatleJWOL]

The actions are still a mutiny.

A mutiny solvable (in that case only) by neutralizing the alien spores, not by jailing the officers and rounds of court martials.

The thread is asking about a mutiny that comes without any alien or strange outside influence.

 

[Nacluv]

The actions are still a mutiny.

Yes. But it's irrelevant. This thread is about how Capt. Kirk would handle a real mutiny under normal circumstances, i.e. no intoxication and no rapid aging.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kirk's XO once commandeered his ship and got away with only a slap on the wrist. Kirk's pretty soft.

 

[Blip]

I had to enter this thread just so I could find out what it was Kirk was "handling" - the main page only shows so many characters....

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered it was merely your average run-of-the-mill mutiny.

 

[JimZipCode]

The thread is asking about a mutiny that comes without any alien or strange outside influence.

This thread is about how Capt. Kirk would handle a real mutiny under normal circumstances, i.e. no intoxication and no rapid aging.

So right away the thread seems pretty un-grounded in the character and the universe of the character. A "normal" Starfleet crew would never mutiny against Kirk; a normal (non- Janice Lester) Kirk would never provoke mutiny from a crew.

Patrick O'Brian's wonderful book Post Captain,the second of the Aubrey-Maturin series (sequel to Master and Commander) has a mutiny situation that Captain Aubrey defuses. That's wonderful reading for thinking about this topic. The situation there was the culmination of a number of factors: a nearly criminal XO who was simultaneously unskilled and tyrannical; a distracted captain; a poorly-built, dangerous ship; an inferior crew consisting of the dregs of the pressgangs; and inferior senior leadership, who was giving the ship missions that it was unsuited to performing.

Star Trek usually has different situations.

 

[Captain Shatner]

The thread is asking about a mutiny that comes without any alien or strange outside influence.

This thread is about how Capt. Kirk would handle a real mutiny under normal circumstances, i.e. no intoxication and no rapid aging.

So right away the thread seems pretty un-grounded in the character and the universe of the character. A "normal" Starfleet crew would never mutiny against Kirk; a normal (non- Janice Lester) Kirk would never provoke mutiny from a crew.

Not necessarily! Have you noticed how many dud captains Starfleet Academy seems to turn out? Almost every fellow captain Kirk meets in TOS is horribly flawed in some way.
So, it stands to reason that at least small percentage of bridge officers, yeomen, and crewmen are capable of leading a mutiny.
Furthermore, would Kirk really do the passive-aggressive thing and stand by while the Enterprise was commandeered, waiting for an opportunity to strike back? I think he would set the ol' phaser to kill and fight back.