Hey, I never noticed that before....

[JonnyQuest037]

The “Spock’s first command” was overplayed in “The Galileo Seven” as it made no sense for Spock to have served at least thirteen years of shipboard service in Starfleet earning his way to Lt. Commander and not having commanded landing parties, shuttlecraft excursions or taking the con in Pike’s or Kirk’s absence.

Yeah. I just look at it as one of those things like "Turnabout Intruder" implying that women can't be Starship Captains, the wonky science of "The Alternative Factor", or the Enterprise reporting to the United Earth Space Probe Agency in "Tomorrow is Yesterday." It's one of those things that just doesn't make sense in the larger world of Trek, or even in the overall context of TOS, so it's best just disregarded.

It’s reprinted in The Making Of Star Trek.

From pages 215-216 of my paperback edition:

Kirk rose very rapidly through the ranks and received his first command (the equivalent of a destroyer-class spaceship) while still quite young.

Kirk has been in command of the Enterprise for more than four years and was the youngest Academy graduate ever to have been assigned as a Starship Command Captain.

 

[Harvey]

Interesting that they seem to have dropped that in the later version of the Guide. Hmm.

 

[Warped9]

One can make a case that Kirk’s first command is referenced in WNMHGB. Dehner mentions Kirk asking for Mitchell when he received his first command and that can be interpreted to mean one of two things: the Enterprise is Kirk’s first command or he had a previous command before the Enterprise. I think the latter holds more weight as it makes more sense for Starfleet not to hand command of one its frontline ships to a neophyte, and it gels with the reference in Kirk’s bio.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

One can make a case that Kirk’s first command is referenced in WNMHGB. Dehner mentions Kirk asking for Mitchell when he received his first command and that can be interpreted to mean one of two things: the Enterprise is Kirk’s first command or he had a previous command before the Enterprise. I think the latter holds more weight as it makes more sense for Starfleet not to hand command of one its frontline ships to a neophyte, and it gels with the reference in Kirk’s bio.

Agreed. Despite everything, in my personal head canon Kirk and Mitchell served together before, but the Enterprise is his first actual command.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

One can make a case that Kirk’s first command is referenced in WNMHGB. Dehner mentions Kirk asking for Mitchell when he received his first command and that can be interpreted to mean one of two things: the Enterprise is Kirk’s first command or he had a previous command before the Enterprise. I think the latter holds more weight as it makes more sense for Starfleet not to hand command of one its frontline ships to a neophyte, and it gels with the reference in Kirk’s bio.

Yeah, that's more or less the rationale that @Christopher used in his recent book The Captain's Oath, which covers Kirk's command of that previous vessel (the Sacagawea, in his book) and how Kirk became Captain of the Enterprise.

In my head canon, I believe that:

1) Kirk commands that destroyer class vessel at age 29 the rank of Commander (the Saladin, in my mind).
2) Kirk is promoted to Captain when he receives the Enterprise assignment, which is part of why that command is so special to him.
3) Commander Kirk asked for his friend Gary Mitchell to serve with him on the Saladin, but...
4) Mitchell couldn't accept because he was already serving aboard the Enterprise under Captain Pike (circa 2263-2265).
5) Kirk then is promoted to Captain at age 31, becoming the youngest Academy graduate to do so, breaking Christopher Pike's previous record of making Captain at age 32.​

I believe that this reconciles all of the information from both TMOST and WNMHGB. Kirk had a previous command before the Enterprise, but he doesn't become a Captain at an implausibly young age. Kirk asked for Mitchell on his first command, but he didn't get him, and Mitchell still served next to Mr. Spock "for years", as Dr. Dehner says during the WNM briefing. And I personally find it very intriguing to think that around the time of WNM, Gary Mitchell knew both Spock and Kirk better than they knew each other.

 

[J.T.B.]

Interesting that they seem to have dropped that in the later version of the Guide. Hmm.

To be clear, that is not in the Guide/Bible excerpts in TMoST, but is in the character biographies in the main text. I guess it raises the question of who told Whitfield/Poe that?

One can make a case that Kirk’s first command is referenced in WNMHGB. Dehner mentions Kirk asking for Mitchell when he received his first command and that can be interpreted to mean one of two things: the Enterprise is Kirk’s first command or he had a previous command before the Enterprise. I think the latter holds more weight as it makes more sense for Starfleet not to hand command of one its frontline ships to a neophyte, and it gels with the reference in Kirk’s bio.

I figure that the only way for Kirk never to have commanded a smaller vessel is if there are no smaller vessels. If there are, he is just the type of officer that Starfleet would need to command them and they would be sure to use that step for building experience for the officers who will go on to command the big starships.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

To be clear, that is not in the Guide/Bible excerpts in TMoST, but is in the character biographies in the main text. I guess it raises the question of who told Whitfield/Poe that?

Weren't the character bios also drawn from the Writers' Guide?

 

[Dale Sams]

Could be Spock was only recently made First Officer. He certainly distinguished himself well enough in WMNHGB if Mitchell WAS XO (which I lean against)

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Could be Spock was only recently made First Officer. He certainly distinguished himself well enough in WMNHGB if Mitchell WAS XO (which I lean against)

Yeah, the whole "Was Mitchell the first officer in WNM?" thing is a whole other can of worms. And honestly, I can see both arguments there. I tend to lean towards Mitchell being the first officer because it increases the drama of the episode.

 

[Maurice]

It’s reprinted in The Making Of Star Trek.

That doesn’t ensure it’s accurate to the internal docs.

 

[J.T.B.]

Weren't the character bios also drawn from the Writers' Guide?

I have not heard that. There's a lot more material in TMoST than any version of the guide I've seen.

 

[Warped9]

For a very long time The Making Of Star Trek was akin to the holy bible of Star Trek (at least as far as TOS is concerned). And to the best of my knowledge very little of it is contradicted onscreen.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

For a very long time The Making Of Star Trek was akin to the holy bible of Star Trek (at least as far as TOS is concerned). And to the best of my knowledge very little of it is contradicted onscreen.

Isn't TMOST where fans first got the idea that Spock was the very first Vulcan in Starfleet?

BTW, I just looked at the biography section for Mr. Spock in my copy, trying to confirm that, and it said that Spock spent eight years in the "Space Academy" after he joined Starfleet. That's certainly not something that Trek has stuck to.

 

[plynch]

She's working on her screenplay.

It's called "The God Thing." Think anybody'll buy it?

 

[johnnybear]

Yeah. I just look at it as one of those things like "Turnabout Intruder" implying that women can't be Starship Captains, the wonky science of "The Alternative Factor", or the Enterprise reporting to the United Earth Space Probe Agency in "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

I count the women can't be Starship Captains line as the rule of that time to be honest! ENT contradicting that does us no favours and so I say ENT is another timeline where that rule wasn't in force so did Janice Lester become a Captain in that reality and Turnabout Intruder ever happen there? Subsequently in Star Trek IV we see a female Captain so the rule must have been changed between TOS and TMP!
JB

 

[Maurice]

For a very long time The Making Of Star Trek was akin to the holy bible of Star Trek (at least as far as TOS is concerned). And to the best of my knowledge very little of it is contradicted onscreen.

Possibly. But lack of evidence against isn’t evidence for.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It’s reprinted in The Making Of Star Trek.

That doesn’t ensure it’s accurate to the internal docs.

But Stephen Whitfield didn't make that stuff up, apart from possibly making certain word choices. He was getting it right from Gene Roddenberry, and GR's office I'm sure, while the series was in production. It doesn't get much closer to "internal docs" than that.

I have to say fictional claims in TMOST come in just below dialogue in the finished episodes. They're one quarter step from canon, and where they fill in the blanks with no continuity error (e.g., did Kirk command another ship?), they carry a lot of weight. In a few spots, they can't work (e.g., the Hangar Deck could hold a fleet of modern airliners), and that must be written off as rhetoric.

 

[J.T.B.]

For a very long time The Making Of Star Trek was akin to the holy bible of Star Trek (at least as far as TOS is concerned). And to the best of my knowledge very little of it is contradicted onscreen.

Agreed, I was just trying to be clear about sources; what was in the guide (AFAIK) and what wasn't.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think it's clear that what was in the writers guide was fleshed out with other information for TMoST. The additional material may well have been information compiled during production as reference material or notes for use by the story editors. But on the other hand it could have been information fleshed out specifically for the book itself. It would be nice to know what the sources were.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I count the women can't be Starship Captains line as the rule of that time to be honest! ENT contradicting that does us no favours and so I say ENT is another timeline where that rule wasn't in force so did Janice Lester become a Captain in that reality and Turnabout Intruder ever happen there? Subsequently in Star Trek IV we see a female Captain so the rule must have been changed between TOS and TMP!
JB

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds “ -Emerson