What was wrong with Kirk?

(I already posted a different version of this post in SNW forum, but I think this is the best place to discuss the subject)

Kirk, after the loss of several ships and the death of hundreds of crewmen caused by the Enterprise's computer (The Ultimate Computer)


Kirk, after the losing of Memory Alpha and all the people living there (The Lights of Zetar)


Kirk, following the violent deaths of several women at the hands of a serial killer (Wolf In The Fold)


Kirk, after the death of his brother, his sister-in-law and two nephews, with one nephew, Peter, left an orphan.



Now, the Real Life reasons why it behaves like this after horrendous tragedies is clear. It was a different (tv) era and they didn't want to leave the viewers with a bitter taste at the end of an episode. I mean, Jessica Fletcher laughed gleefully after each gruesome murder.

But with a modern eyes his behavior is a little disturbing. I understand using black humor as a copying mechanism, but doing every time while the bodies are still warm it seem really insensitive and disrespectful toward people who are still mourning their beloved dead ones. One wonders what it is his problem.

So I figured out this in-universe explanation: he suffers from a severe form of PTSD. After seeing huge tragedies, he is no longer able to healthy process them so he reacts in a totally inappropriate way to the situation (and does not even realize it). Of course, being Kirk, he doesn't even think about asking for help and no one thinks of contradicting him ("Er, there are still the bodies of our mates floating out there and they are visible on the main screen, sure it's the best time to make a joke?") because he is , well, Captain Kirk.

Your thoughts?

 

This could be a method to maintain good moral. Kirk knows that "A happy ship is an efficient ship and an efficient ship is a happy ship. Invest in your crew – there are rough seas ahead."

 

Yes, but people need mourning too. If someone were to joke at me while I'm in anguish near the still warm body of a friend of mine it wouldn't make me feel any better. On the contrary.

 

This is him being desperate after he lost his robotic sex doll he had known for five minutes.



I think that he simply doesn't care when a tragedy is not of direct concern to him.

 

I do think most captains put on a brave face or an air of levity for their crews if only for the sake of morale. Kirk may have been an expert in finding a bit of light in even the darkest of situations, something that he telegraphed to his crew to keep their spirits up even in the face of tragedy. Additionally, there weren't many people outside of Spock and McCoy who ever saw Kirk down and depressed, IMO. To the rest of the Enterprise crew, Kirk was always pushing forward, getting on with life, even if privately he may have really felt like crying at times...

 

I love it when when the OP answers their own question / conundrum right in the OP.

And there is no other answer than this, really, because it's a TV show, make believe, and a real person wouldn't behave that way IRL, as we well know.

 

How do we know Kirk isn't like this after the other episodes you listed? If we followed Kirk around every second of those episodes we'd probably see this private mourning.

 

It isn't necessary. Just make him to report for Sensitivity training

 

This is indeed true.

Also, I find it ironic that in the pictures posted, both McCoy and Spock are involved in said scenes. You know, the two officers who could, within Starfleet regulations, relieve Kirk of command if circumstances dictate (see "Obsession", which itself has four or five redshift deaths, Kirk is delaying the delivery of perishable medical supplies, yet ends with a scene where Kirk intends to tell Ensign Garrovick a few stories about his DEAD father!).

But at the end of the day, it's still a TV show.

 

And they are NOT amused.

 

In the fourth pic, that's because McCoys' under his breath compliment was overheard by Spock!

 

I'm thinking that everyone knows going in that serving on a starship is a very dangerous job and a certain percentage of deaths is expected. If the captain is going to be paralyzed by grief every time it happens, he's not going to last long. I'm thinking starship officers learn to compartmentalize their grief. We know there are scenes where Kirk has great sorrow and compassion when a crewman dies, such as when he consoled Angela when Tomlinson was killed in Balance of Terror.

 

Kirk is an atavism according to The Movie novelization. Most of Starfleet are.

Primitive and savage people they put on starships because regular humanity are a bunch of nudist vegetarian psychics.

 

Your answer is in the final scene in Balance of Terror as Kirk, walking down the corridor, rebuilds his armour. He has a long history of using gallows humour to mask anguish. His achilles heel is getting snappy in a crisis.

 

Kirk is sad a lot - after COTEOF, Miramanee's death, on Neural, Kodos, Lazarus, Charlie just to name a few.
I can only explain the levity after Galileo 7, Operation Annihilate!, Lights of Zetar as relief that it wasn't worse.
I can't explain Wolf in the Fold though, so many women died and all Kirk could say was it wasn't Scotty - not a word about all the women who were killed.

 

"Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence." - Bones
"Sometimes things go so badly that you just have to laugh." - Spock

 

Well, it's simple: they were women, and they were in the 60s.

I mean, I didn't want to focus on that, but all the episode reeks so much of sexism to make "Mad Men" proud.

Spock says assumes Redjac targets women because “women are more easily and more deeply terrified, generating more sheer horror than the male of the species.”

 

Instead of cherry-picking those events that support only your argument, why don't you show us screenshots of all the times Kirk agonized over the death of people?

 

I'm currently re-watching TOS, and it's fun seeing the wild swings in behavior on this topic from one episode to the very next.

In "Friday's Child", Kirk lambasts McCoy (pretty unfairly) for the loss of a random redshirt at the start of the episode. McCoy: "Look Jim, I know what it means to you to lose a crewman."

In the next episode, "The Deadly Years", poor, young Lt. Galway dies horrifically of accelerated aging right in Kirk's arms. We saw how terrified she was of her condition through several lines she got earlier in the episode. Practically nothing is said, and by the end of the episode Kirk is in a grand mood, joking, and making the moves on hot-lady-of-the-week Dr. Janet Wallace.

 

34 year old Jim getting up close and personal with 19 year old Lenore rings plenty of alarm bells, even if it's legal.