Kirk's execution of Nero/Optimus Prime "Any Last Words?" TF2

[Greg Cox]

I bet Kirk and Mal Reynolds would have got on well.

Assuming Mal wasn't in cahoots with Harry Mudd!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Mal would no doubt regard Harry Mudd as a goof and a jackass who wasn't any good at being a smuggler. Mal would have more in common with Kirk.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Kirk of TOS was a man who always strived to be a representative of the way humanity SHOULD be, not the way it IS NOW. That is the difference here, and I suggest people who defend the poor characterization of imposter 2009 kirk take this distinction into account.

I think you're confusing TOS and TNG. Kirk was never supposed to be some sort of paragon of enlightened future humanity. He was a flawed, flesh-and-blood mortal who sometimes wrestled with self-doubt and his own primitive instincts. He acted rashly at times, lost his temper occasionally, liked a good fistfight, had a weakness for pretty guest-stars, and thought of himself as a soldier, not a diplomat . . . .

As Carol Marcus famously put it, Jim Kirk was no Boy Scout. Heck, even Picard and Janeway regarded him as a cowboy who didn't always play by the rules. And the time police thought he was a menace!

I remember Janeway not only saying that Kirk's crew would be booted out of modern Starfleet (in "Flashback"), but also her dismissive attitude towards Kirk "claiming to" have met Leonardo DaVinci (and this from the woman who rescued Emilia Earhart!)

 

[Cyke101]

^ Then explain "I...have HAD...enough of YOU!!!!!!!!!"

They were hanging off a cliff. Much different scenario than firing on a sitting duck ship, like a bully and a coward would. There was no equity of danger involved in imposter 2009 kirks actions.

KRUGE was hanging off a cliff. Kirk was not.

And I might argue that the 'equity of danger' was much higher in ST XI. The worst that could have happened in ST III was Kruge pulls Kirk over the edge of the cliff and they both die. That would be it. But in ST XI, Nero could have gotten away (however unlikely), and thus done a LOT more damage. Why should Kirk take that chance?

I'd like to follow this up: the LAST time Nero fell into a black hole, he ended up destroying the Kelvin, 47 Klingon ships, a Starfleet task force, and the planet Vulcan. So yeah, better to be safe than sorry as far as Kirk is concerned.

 

[Greg Cox]

^ Cyke: I love your sig line, which seems very on point!

 

[Cyke101]

^ Cyke: I love your sig line, which seems very on point!

*bows* Thank you kindly