Was it necessary, was it well executed, or was it just a plain dumb idea?
One word summary: sucked.
Two word summary: sucked
badly.
Three word summary: worst death
ever.
The details on my position:
I was unhappy with the way Kirk's character developed after
Wrath Of Khan. The implications of his aging were increasingly overlooked, to the point where ST5 actually had a fifty-something James Kirk
free-climbing El Capitan.
(There's a really ironic side-note, as well:
(About the same time ST5 was released, two guys got worldwide press for scaling El Cap.
(Well, I call it "two guys," but in fact, one of the guys was a double amputee with no legs.
(In reality, it was a Hurculean effort by one man to carry himself, his buddy, and two packs up and down El Capitan. He was successful, too.
(Hence the press. They got footage by sending climbers partway up to wait for the two on their way
down.
(When ST5 was released, El Cap had only been free-climbed three times in human history by younger individuals in peak physical condition.)
Anyway, Shatner's personal difficulties in dealing with his own age impacted the character of Kirk, much to the character's detriment.
Back in the 1970s, before any of the films, I had an entirely different idea of how Kirk would end up, influenced largely by the
Horatio Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester.
However, my interpretation of how Kirk would handle being eventually kicked upstairs was a bit different. First he's promoted to Fleet Captain and commands a small fleet, of which the
Enterprise is only one ship.
Eventually he's promoted to Commodore in command of
Starbase 11.
As portrayed in TMP, he pretty much detests it for the desk job that it is. But he knows that he really is too old to be on the front lines any more.
(I think I envisioned his last mission as Fleet Captain to have been something he could've done when he was younger, but was no longer physically capable of it through no fault but age. It was the Enterprise's dashing First Officer, Commander Sulu, that saved the day -- and dramatically, Kirk's ass.
(Probably with an
epee -- not a
katana. It might still have been retractable, that's a cool kind of space opera thing ...
(Spock wasn't Captain of the
Enterprise or any other ship. TOS's Spock would have gone on to a scientific research position in Starfleet when he was promoted to Captain. He never wanted a ship, certainly not Kirk's ship. A chance to study the
Guardian Of Forever, as head of a Starfleet team, on the other hand ... )
So in my private fantasy future (PFF?) for Kirk, he eventually got sick of pushing paper and followed in the footsteps of his Starfleet friend
Commodore Robert Wesley. Wesley, it turns out in TAS, retired from Starfleet to become Governor of the colony planet
Mantilles.
In my PFF, Kirk did the same thing: found a colony that needed a fearless, active, mature leader and got himself appointed Governor. The planet was Class M, of course, but still had its share of hostile life forms to occasionally harass Kirk so he didn't feel like he was pushing paper all the time.
And it was a colony, which even in
Star Trek's time means there are dangers. How many colonies in TOS needed the
Enterprise's help, after all?
(Apparently it's not all that incredibly uncommon to get everything going really well ... only to discover your planet's being constantly bathed in
lethal radiation and the only thing keeping you alive are some
parasitic spores that make you want to live like
Amish ...)
Naturally, McCoy tagged along. He'd been on Kirk's staff since the
Enterprise.
And of course, at some point along the way (the memory of my PFF is hazy on this point), they discover they need Spock for some big McGuffin that threatened the colony. Something only his scientific expertise could possibly deal with.
Cue the big reunion scene where Spock beams down (ferried by the
Enterprise) to Kirk's office transporter pad. The day is quickly saved and Spock remains ... for no reason other than it
felt right to be together again.
The other characters go on to other things. Kirk occasionally saw a Captain Sulu of the USS
Enterprise when his patrol would bring the ship to Kirk's colony. Like I say, it's a bit hazy.
Eventually and poetically (influenced here by
Robin Hood's and
Sherlock Holmes' deaths), Kirk goes off to confront some big McGuffin that needs taking care of or the colony will die. He knows he won't come back.
I was never specific with myself about his end -- and to be honest, I'd've preferred
Generations had never touched it.
In my PFF, one evening Kirk strapped on his phaserbelt and climbed on his hover-bike. The last anyone saw, he was riding into a blueish alien sunset, knowing that only he and he alone could save the day ...
... and he simply never came back.
Nobody knew the details of what happened, not even Spock or McCoy. They all knew he went to die heroically, but that was all. No trace of him (or the McGuffin) were ever found.
It was akin to knowing that Sherlock Holmes dragged Moriarty off the cliff at Reichenbach Falls, but not needing to know the details of the fistfight. Holmes just did what he had to do, and that was that.
(In my later years with modern SFX, I might put in a blinding light on the horizon just before dawn the next morning -- to indicate Kirk's success and certain death. But the nature of the menace would be such that the damage caused by whatever was going on would be limited as long as Kirk succeeded.
(I dunno, maybe a "deeply troubled" Klingon,
Kor, never got over Kirk repeatedly beating him and wrecking his career. Now he's got a
Neutron Polarity Reversal Device and is holding the planet hostage until Kirk will meet for a duel ...
(Cue Kor's subspace ultimatum: "We shall finally meet in battle, as we were destined. No omnipotent aliens stand in our way. Come if you dare.")
Spock outlives McCoy in the PFF, of course, with McCoy dying in his sleep: the colony's aged country doctor.
My PFF for Spock gets a lot hazier, mostly because I've approved of how the character was handled post-TOS. Becoming an Ambassador, particularly to Romulus, was perfectly within Spock's character.
I'd like to think in my PFF that maybe one day, Commodore Sulu came calling for Spock because they needed him to negotiate with the Romulans.
Turns out that against all odds, the
Romulan Commander eventually gained some political clout. Now the Romulan Empire wants to open diplomatic relations, with the Romulan Commander as their chief Ambassador ... and she'll only negotiate with Spock.
Yeah, it got a little
Mary Sue-ish, what with Spock getting the girl in the end. Still, it's a hell of a lot better than Kirk's ridiculous end fighting Malcom MacDowell.
Dakota Smith
