In Your Mind, Did Kirk and Spock Meet Before?

[RookieBatman]

This isn't meant to be a discussion of whether there's anything explicitly stated in onscreen dialogue to confirm or deny that Kirk and Spock met and were friends before they served together on the Enterprise. I'm pretty sure that such a discussion has been done enough times. Rather, I was just curious as to how you thought of it in your own personal continuity. I thought of this because I was thinking about Shatner's Academy book (which I haven't read), and trying to decide whether I liked the idea of those two meeting at the Academy.
I, personally, feel that their relationship depicted in WNMHGB gives absolutely no indication of lifelong friendship. Rather, it seems to me that in that episode, Kirk is having to deal with Spock, the stranger, telling him to kill Gary, the lifelong friend (Kinda like if in TMP, Decker was advising Kirk to kill Spock). I also feel that the deep, abiding relationship they have during the course of the franchise could very reasonably be the result of the close-knit time they spent together on the Enterprise during the five-year mission (as well as any previous shakedown cruise), and need not be the product of some destined lifelong relationship, like Pete and MJ in the Spider-Man movies (which also doesn't match the source material).
So, in my own personal Star Trek continuity, Kirk and Spock didn't meet before serving together on the Enterprise. In WNMHGB, Spock was just another officer, that had probably received a very good recommendation from Pike, and their friendship developed from there. That's the way I see it (I'll probably still read Shatner's book eventually, though, if only for curiosity's sake), how about you?

 

[Michael]

I reckon I always imagined them meeting on the Enterprise at the begin of the five-year mission. You're right, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" doesn't give the impression that they know each other very much. Also, I find it a bit too convenient that they served together on the academy.

Good question, by the way.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Oy. This again.
Spock was a Lt. on the Enterprise when Kirk was getting his first torpedo-wax.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

I never had any impression that they knew each other prior to Kirk taking command of the Enterprise, though I'm not opposed to the idea that their paths may have crossed at the academy. I am opposed to the idea that they were close friends prior to Kirk's Enterprise assignment, since that seemed to be a result of them working together as Captain and XO. But that's not so much based on anything on screen as my own interpretation of events.

 

[Zeppster]

There are quotes that indicate they knew each other for years.

Amok Time says "For all the years I've known you..." then he goes on about how he hasn't asked shore leave. The most Kirk would have been on the Enterprise was 2 years at this point. That quote seems to indicate they knew each other and had worked with each other for longer than a couple of years. There are some other quotes that make you think they knew each other a while but nothing as concrete as that one.

 

[Outpost4]

The most Kirk would have been on the Enterprise was 2 years at this point.

How do you know that? I'm one of those folks who think there was a significant period of time between WNMHGB and the beginning of the five year mission. Besides the obvious refit of the Enterprise, both internally and externally, there seems to be a comfort and familiarity of everyone with each other and to the ship the exists starting with The Corbomite Maneuver that doesn't exist in WNMHGB.

I think they've know each other for quite a while by the beginning of the series. I'm open minded on whether they met at the academy. I'll have to see how the movie handles their relationship. Certainly Spock served on the Enterprise well before Kirk rose to any position of power. Of that there can be no dispute.

 

[A beaker full of death]

The most Kirk would have been on the Enterprise was 2 years at this point.

How do you know that? I'm one of those folks who think there was a significant period of time between WNMHGB and the beginning of the five year mission.

Further, the series was EPISODIC. There are very few internal references to other episodes, and no reason to think they bear any relationship to production time.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

In my mind only...when I did my own research into the Trek timeline according to the episodes only. Spock turned out to be only 1 year older than Kirk. So it's POSSIBLE that they could have bumped into each other at the Academy. Spock went on to the Enterprise after his 4 years at the Academy and Kirk went on to Command School. They eventually end up together on the Enterprise when Pike moves up.

The alternative version of WNMHGB has Kirk narrating a captain's log that gives the impression that the Enterprise HAS had other assignments before WNMHGB. So I consider WNMHGB as part of the 5-year mission. "THe Corbomite Maneuver" states that it's time for the quarterly medical checkup already, so at least 3 months has pasted between the 2 episodes.

As far as the 5 year mission, the first season seemed to break down as the first 2 years...say the first year with WNMHGB and the Rand episodes and the latter half of the season as the 2nd year. The 2nd and 3rd seasons are mixed togther as the 3rd and 4th years. While the TAS is the last part of year 5 when Chekov went off to security school before returning in STTMP>

So if ST XI has Kirk and Spock meeting before the 5 year mission, I'm ok with it but I don't feel like they should be close friends until they meet again on the Enterprise.

 

[Ronald Held]

I thought that they got to know each other when posted on the Enterprise. It is possible they met beforehand.

 

[erastus25]

In my mind they met when Kirk came aboard the Enterprise. However, I'd be fine with it if they are shown at the academy together as friends. The "getting to know" each other thing could be a result of serving on separate ships for a couple years and then suddenly being part of a command crew together. Such a change would require some kind of adjustment. Perhaps, at first, Kirk was a little uncomfortable commanding a dude who was his peer at the academy and intellectually superior.

 

[Red Ranger]

I like to think that they never met face-to-face before Kirk was ssigned to command Enteprise, but they knew each other by reputation. Let's also remember that by the time of Amok Time, they had known each other for at least two, maybe three years, if you also counts WNMHGB, so that quote about Kirk knowing Spock for years doesn't really require any more time than that, IMO. -- RR

 

[NCC621]

It's not impossible that they met before, but I tend to think they didn't.

 

[Timo]

I prefer the "they never met" approach, too, if for nothing else then for the added strength this gives to the growth of friendship between the two as the show progresses.

As for "Amok Time", the fewer years Kirk's statement covers, the more plausible it becomes. Spock might not have begged for leave before this occasion, but surely he would have filed a request or ten in his career, if only to comply with Starfleet standard procedure. The exclamation would have more strength if none of Spock's shore leaves had taken place during his service under Kirk. (He doesn't take one in "Shore Leave", mind you.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tyberius]

Absolutely not.

I figured that maybe Bones and Kirk had met, but that could have been just Bones' manner. But there was much more development later on between Kirk and Spock, specifically in the movies, which indicated to me that their friendship was just burgeoning.

 

[Timo]

...Of course, Kirk would have been likely to follow the career of the famous and brilliant son of the Vulcan Ambassador, at some superficial level anyway. And Spock might have shown an interest in the human illogic of giving a million-ton starship to a relative toddler. It's not that big a fleet, and the deep space exploration assignments that both these officers seemed to gyrate towards would be celebrity posting to a degree.

Doesn't really mean that Kirk ever fancied having the Vulcan (or any Vulcan) as one of his officers, or that Spock ever seriously considered having to serve under the young hero.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tyberius]

I agree that they would have known of and possibly have met, but it will be interesting to see how STXI will retcon a friendship (or even if they will try)

I mean there was never any indication on any episode that I remember of any history ("I new your father", "You had McDermot for ethics", "Your history with this species is such that...", etc.) which would indicate even passing knowledge, much less history or friendship.

In contrast, the Cage had a nice scene between Pike and Boyce which indicated a great deal of history between the two. Nothing like that between Kirk and Spock.

 

[Timo]

Agreed on all those points. And I'm all for a Kirk-McCoy friendship on the same basis of witnessed interaction that makes you think Pike and Boyce knew each other. (Although Kirk admittedly was very friendly with his previous doctor Piper, too - the only one in his crew apart from Gary that he was on first-name basis with. Perhaps Kirk simply understands who holds the keys to the medical alcohol cabinet?)

Now that's a whole different challenge for STXI writers, because it's much more difficult to justify those two being, say, at the Academy at the same time. There's the apparent age difference, the career difference, the fact that we did see that other doctor originally... Kirk and Spock could plausibly meet, only to go on separate paths again because both characters undergo development in TOS and could well have been incompatible back then. And the writers of 2000s fiction might love to utilize that incompatibility, just like 1960s writers valued camaderie. But there are some practical and psychological hurdles with pairing young bookworm Kirk with the older doctor.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Michael]

Now that's a whole different challenge for STXI writers, because it's much more difficult to justify those two being, say, at the Academy at the same time. There's the apparent age difference, the career difference, the fact that we did see that other doctor originally... Kirk and Spock could plausibly meet, only to go on separate paths again because both characters undergo development in TOS and could well have been incompatible back then. And the writers of 2000s fiction might love to utilize that incompatibility, just like 1960s writers valued camaderie. But there are some practical and psychological hurdles with pairing young bookworm Kirk with the older doctor.

Maybe they had a previous assignment together where they got to know each other. Was there ever something said which would have contradicted them being on the, let's say, Farragut together?

 

[Timo]

Not to my knowledge. The background of McCoy is vague, and I rather like it that way. Perhaps he didn't join Starfleet until late in the game, possibly just before the events of TOS? Perhaps he was the civilian doctor of the Kirk family at some point? Not that he'd show too much familiarity with Kirk's brother and his family in "Operation: Annihilate!"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sector 7]

Not to my knowledge. The background of McCoy is vague, and I rather like it that way. Perhaps he didn't join Starfleet until late in the game, possibly just before the events of TOS? Perhaps he was the civilian doctor of the Kirk family at some point? Not that he'd show too much familiarity with Kirk's brother and his family in "Operation: Annihilate!"...

Timo Saloniemi

Interesting take, but McCoy was divorced, in part, due to his career in StarFleet. He seems to have been a career fleet officer for many years by the time Kirk commanded the Enterprise. I think his being older, even wiser (or at least more experienced) is why he could talk to Kirk so plainly and Kirk would listen. Not to mention McCoy was the only one who could declare him unfit for duty.