James *T* Kirk First Episode?

[Shaw]

Well, early on in production it was realized that there would be only one set of quarters that would have to be redressed when serving for other characters. Part of the redressing was the name plate next to the door.

The plates for Kirk's quarters reads:

CAPTAIN
JAMES T. KIRK
3F 121​

The plates for McCoy's quarters reads:

LEONARD McCOY
M. D.
3F 127​

The plates for Rand's quarters reads:

YEOMAN
JANICE RAND
3C 46​

These name plates show up very early (McCoy's is seen in The Man Trap), so it was most likely decided before it started showing up in dialog.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Well, early on in production it was realized that there would be only one set of quarters that would have to be redressed when serving for other characters. Part of the redressing was the name plate next to the door.

The plates for Kirk's quarters reads:

CAPTAIN
JAMES T. KIRK
3F 121​

The plates for McCoy's quarters reads:

LEONARD McCOY
M. D.
3F 127​

The plates for Rand's quarters reads:

YEOMAN
JANICE RAND
3C 46​

These name plates show up very early (McCoy's is seen in The Man Trap), so it was most likely decided before it started showing up in dialog.

Not only that, but the script for "The Corbomite Maneuver" indicates:

"Scene 12 INT. SICK BAY- MED. SHOT KIRK

"Clad only in gym shorts, CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK dogtrots in a treadmill we cannot see. We HEAR the strange SOUND of an o.s. SCANNER as varicolored LIGHTS play on Kirk's torso. CAMERA DRAWS BACK to INCLUDE DOCTOR McCOY, the treadmill and the scanner. McCoy attired in a white smock, looks from his stop watch to the o.s. body function panel."

So, it was James T. Kirk as early as the very first regular production episode.

 

[Kelso]

For the record, the initial format pitch had "Robert M. April". Not sure if it ever morphed into "T."

The version that appears in Stephen E. Whitfield's book definitely has "T." and it's described as the original outline as it was sold to the network.

 

[Timo]

The plates for Kirk's quarters reads:

CAPTAIN
JAMES T. KIRK
3F 121​

The plates for McCoy's quarters reads:

LEONARD McCOY
M. D.
3F 127​

The plates for Rand's quarters reads:

YEOMAN
JANICE RAND
3C 46​

Groovy! I didn't even realize the Kirk plate existed... That settles quite a few things, plus it sort of suggests that these folks all were bunking on Deck Three. Makes sense, I guess: senior officers and their closest assistants grouped near the bridge, in the superstructure of the ship. Although it then means that Kirk had not just two sets of quarters (Deck 12 in "Mudd's Women", Deck 5 in "Journey to Babel") but three...

...Also, why isn't McCoy's position (Chief Medical Officer) stated above his name, like Kirk and Rand's?

Timo Saloniemi​

 

[Christopher]

For the record, the initial format pitch had "Robert M. April". Not sure if it ever morphed into "T."

The version that appears in Stephen E. Whitfield's book definitely has "T." and it's described as the original outline as it was sold to the network.

Maybe it was the first version the networks saw, but it wasn't the first draft, which I have a copy of courtesy of Lincoln Enterprises. In that version, it is Robert M. April. The version in TMoST has a number of differences in content and structure as well as a different initial for April.

 

[Kelso]

For the record, the initial format pitch had "Robert M. April". Not sure if it ever morphed into "T."

The version that appears in Stephen E. Whitfield's book definitely has "T." and it's described as the original outline as it was sold to the network.

Maybe it was the first version the networks saw, but it wasn't the first draft, which I have a copy of courtesy of Lincoln Enterprises. In that version, it is Robert M. April. The version in TMoST has a number of differences in content and structure as well as a different initial for April.

Thanks for the clarification.

Not only that, but the script for "The Corbomite Maneuver" indicates:

"Scene 12 INT. SICK BAY- MED. SHOT KIRK

"Clad only in gym shorts, CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK dogtrots in a treadmill we cannot see. We HEAR the strange SOUND of an o.s. SCANNER as varicolored LIGHTS play on Kirk's torso. CAMERA DRAWS BACK to INCLUDE DOCTOR McCOY, the treadmill and the scanner. McCoy attired in a white smock, looks from his stop watch to the o.s. body function panel."

So, it was James T. Kirk as early as the very first regular production episode.

That's interesting. Did "James R. Kirk" appear anywhere in the script for WNMHGB?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Prop Dept screw up?

 

[GSchnitzer]

Not only that, but the script for "The Corbomite Maneuver" indicates:

"Scene 12 INT. SICK BAY- MED. SHOT KIRK

"Clad only in gym shorts, CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK dogtrots in a treadmill we cannot see. We HEAR the strange SOUND of an o.s. SCANNER as varicolored LIGHTS play on Kirk's torso. CAMERA DRAWS BACK to INCLUDE DOCTOR McCOY, the treadmill and the scanner. McCoy attired in a white smock, looks from his stop watch to the o.s. body function panel."

So, it was James T. Kirk as early as the very first regular production episode.

That's interesting. Did "James R. Kirk" appear anywhere in the script for WNMHGB?

Yes. James T. Kirk twice in the "Corbomite" script but James R. Kirk in the "Where No Man..." script. (The script describes what the tombstone should look like.)

My hunch is that Roddenberry probably wanted the character to be "James T(iberius) Kirk" even from the initial stages of "Where No Man...." But in one of those odd "coincidences," the guest star for "Where No Man..." ended up being a guy (Gary Lockwood) who played the character of William Tiberius Rice in another Roddenberry series just a few months earlier. Lest it all seem too "insider joke"-ish, I think Roddenberry probably just changed the middle name to an "R"--at least while they were still trying to sell the pilot. Once the series sold, (and Gary Lockwood was gone), Roddenberry didn't need to shy away from the Tiberius middle name any longer.

 

[Christopher]

Or maybe Roddenberry just changed his mind, like he evidently did with Robert M./T. April. The names of the characters were heavily in flux throughout the development stage, as is usually the case with a new show. Sometimes the name changes come about because the legal department nixes a name (generally because it's shared by a real person in the same profession or is unique to a single real person), but sometimes it's just because the show developers have second thoughts and decide to try something different. I know I often go through a similar process settling on character names in my writing.

After all, given that Roddenberry never actually used the name "Tiberius" onscreen throughout the entire series of TOS -- and that its only onscreen uses are in productions where he was just a consultant and someone else was actually writing and producing -- it doesn't seem to make much sense to assume he was concerned with whether or not he was "free" to use the name. He probably just chose "T." because he liked the sound of it and decided as an inside joke that it might stand for Tiberius. Heck, he had so many other bigger things to think about that by the time the show got on the air, he might've forgotten all about the "James R. Kirk" and pulled "T." out of the recesses of his mind without necessarily realizing the Lieutenant influence.

Kirk's middle initial was a tiny, tiny detail, and a producer trying to get a new show developed and on the air has about fifty thousand other, more important decisions to make. So I don't think too much should be read into the decision to replace one initial with another. On the grand scale of things, it's tantamount to a fashion designer slightly tweaking the angle of a feather in a model's hair just before she strides out onto the catwalk. A tiny, impulsive change made by someone who has countless bigger decisions to make in a hurry.

 

[Captain Robert April]

It's also possible that the initial R in WNMHGB was a typo in the script that wasn't caught until after the prop department whipped up that tombstone and it was too late.

All you have to do is read the TOS Writer's Guide and see all the typos to see this as a possibility.

In the end, though, it's not much different than Stan Lee forgetting that Spider-Man's secret identity is Peter Parker (not Peter Palmer, as is stated in Amazing Spider-Man #1) or that the Hulk is Bruce Banner, not Robert Banner. In the early development of a project like a comic book, or Star Trek, when there's a sizable time lag between installments (the time between Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 was several months, for instance, as it was between the production of WNMHGB and "The Corbomite Maneuver"), it's a minor miracle things like this don't occur more frequently.

 

[Christopher]

^Right. It's hard to avoid forgetting some details in the course of creating a complicated story. I've written novels where I forgot the spelling of a proper name midway through. With a novel, you can fix such things in editing before it comes out, but in series television, you don't have the luxury of waiting until the whole thing is done and then going back to make it all consistent. A TV series, or a monthly comic book, is a work in progress, and thus it's inevitably going to contain inconsistencies.

 

[Captain Robert April]

And remember, the R and T keys are next door neighbors, and the IBM Selectric typewriter doesn't have a spellcheck function.

For that matter, it doesn't even require major typos. The script for "City on the Edge of Forever" called for large rune stones scattered around the Guardian. Whoever was in charge of setting up the set, I'm guessing John Dwyer, misread it as "ruins", which is why we got classic Roman style columns. This misread was pointed out to the person in question on the set, which made said person sick to his stomach, since by this point, it was waaaaaaaaaaay too late to correct the error.

 

[Christopher]

^But then, what exactly is a "rune stone" supposed to look like? A big stone covered in runes, or a stone in the shape of one rune? And what kind of runes? It's an ambiguous description even without the misreading.

And surrounding the Guardian with ruins worked at conveying the impression of great age and ancientness, which helped sell the idea of it as a time portal. Even if it was a misreading, it was a lucky accident.

 

[Timo]

The writer of the instructions probably assumed that "runestone" would be a well-established concept, as it's actually found in dictionaries and unambiguously refers to the "stone covered in runes" style there. But one can never be too careful, or even careful enough; mistakes happen.

As for "James R. Kirk", I guess that's another lucky accident, because it transmits the idea that our tragic new god is fallible after all...

Timo Saloniemi