It's kind of refreshing that Kirk doesn't need to have a love interest in Beyond.
No Kirk love interest for a change
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
Considering all he goes through in the film, it's a bit of a break for him. One front he doesn't have to handle this time.
Refreshing for a Trek film.
In most TOS episodes, Kirk didn't have a love interest. That angle of his character was heavily emphasized in pop culture despite it being a relatively minor aspect of the man, considering his duties and responsibilites.
BEY was an updated and extended version of a TOS episode with all the modern bells and whistles. It was great as it was, and the sexualized nature of Kirk's character has been firmly established in the previous two Kelvin films.
The absence of a love interest for Kirk is also a nice piece of in-universe realism while being "out there" and dealing with the duties of a Starleet captain. The intro captain's log about extended "co-habitation" on a deep-space starship mission touches on sexuality nicely too from his perspective, and the birthday angle and the more mature characterization improves Pine's Kirk.
BEY has only improved for me on repeated viewings.
In most TOS episodes, Kirk didn't have a love interest. That angle of his character was heavily emphasized in pop culture despite it being a relatively minor aspect of the man, considering his duties and responsibilites.
BEY was an updated and extended version of a TOS episode with all the modern bells and whistles. It was great as it was, and the sexualized nature of Kirk's character has been firmly established in the previous two Kelvin films.
The absence of a love interest for Kirk is also a nice piece of in-universe realism while being "out there" and dealing with the duties of a Starleet captain. The intro captain's log about extended "co-habitation" on a deep-space starship mission touches on sexuality nicely too from his perspective, and the birthday angle and the more mature characterization improves Pine's Kirk.
BEY has only improved for me on repeated viewings.
Mature him, yes, but don't fast forward so he's already at TUC stage by the next film. You could argue that TOS Kirk was offered an admiralty at some point in the show's run, but declined (an untold story). By not having to go through years of experience as Ensign, Lt, Lt. Commander, etc before becoming captain, this Kirk could stay in the chair a lot longer.
Please don't red uniform them all, though if Uhura's hair gets shorter, that would be okay. And don't leave us with only the seven (six now, minus Yelchin's Chekov) heroes.
Please don't red uniform them all, though if Uhura's hair gets shorter, that would be okay. And don't leave us with only the seven (six now, minus Yelchin's Chekov) heroes.
Honestly, Kirk didn't have a love interest in most of the original movies. Ilia was Decker's love, Carol Marcus was an old flame, no romance at all in THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, there was a bit of a flirtation with Gillian in the whale movie but no great romance, no romance at all in THE FINAL FRONTIER, and only a brief dalliance with Iman in the the final movie . . ..
Keep in mind that alternate reality Kirk doesn't have a TV series full of episodes in which not to fall in love.
for one, I'm not against Kirk having a decent love interest (meaning one that lasts) against the whole 'Kirk is married to the enterprise' fanon trope (tbh, it's refreshing change for any of them to have a relationship) but at the same time, I can't deny that one of the things I like about the reboot is that it subverted the trope that 'the kirk' must automatically be the one getting the romantic subplot, if one exists, just because he's the Kirk. Not only he doesn't need that, but they represent romance with the least predictable option (and yet, the more fitting one for trek): Spock.
I like that it's the introvert nerdy guy and someone who is harder to write as the clichés of romantic hero (when most of real life guys and real relationships don't fit with those ideals either) but, at the same time, he's not really portrayed as the 'fail boyfriend because nerdy' stereotype (that writers tend to write nerdy boyfriends into the few times hollywood gives them the romantic subplot) either. Yes, the drama surrounding his dual heritage is no doubt used to add drama to his relationship too, but most of it really only happens in context of what the vulcan diaspora did to him and thus some very unique circumstances that don't really define, at least not for me, the whole relationship. I don't see any evidence that the narrative effectively tries to sell this idea that he's such a worse option for a romantic partner than, say, McCoy, Kirk and any human dude without his complex alien baggage would be.
but I digress. Back to Kirk, I think that the problem is that even when they try to make Spock an equal protagonist, or try to make it more an ensemble thing, with Kirk's role in the franchise it's always a balance easy to distrupt any moment as he already has too many dynamics, in a sense, to develop for him that you can't add another without scaling back some of his other, or scale back Spock's dynamics and that of the other secondary characters. So Uhura, Spock and Sulu being the ones with a relationship for subplot makes things a tad more dynamic and less 'Kirk gets it all' the way this kind of franchises tend to do with his kind of characters.
I like that it's the introvert nerdy guy and someone who is harder to write as the clichés of romantic hero (when most of real life guys and real relationships don't fit with those ideals either) but, at the same time, he's not really portrayed as the 'fail boyfriend because nerdy' stereotype (that writers tend to write nerdy boyfriends into the few times hollywood gives them the romantic subplot) either. Yes, the drama surrounding his dual heritage is no doubt used to add drama to his relationship too, but most of it really only happens in context of what the vulcan diaspora did to him and thus some very unique circumstances that don't really define, at least not for me, the whole relationship. I don't see any evidence that the narrative effectively tries to sell this idea that he's such a worse option for a romantic partner than, say, McCoy, Kirk and any human dude without his complex alien baggage would be.
but I digress. Back to Kirk, I think that the problem is that even when they try to make Spock an equal protagonist, or try to make it more an ensemble thing, with Kirk's role in the franchise it's always a balance easy to distrupt any moment as he already has too many dynamics, in a sense, to develop for him that you can't add another without scaling back some of his other, or scale back Spock's dynamics and that of the other secondary characters. So Uhura, Spock and Sulu being the ones with a relationship for subplot makes things a tad more dynamic and less 'Kirk gets it all' the way this kind of franchises tend to do with his kind of characters.
Now if only Bones could have a love interest...
After our first viewing my husband said it wasn't a 'true' Star Trek movie because Kirk didn't fall in love with the alien woman. 
I am on the McCoy/Marcus train personally.
I am on the McCoy/Marcus train personally.
she looks at him in a very attractive way at the end of STID when she says it nice to have a family.
this picture is creepy.
I saw some potential with kirk/carol but some people said they saw more potential with bones/carol
I always felt that between Into Darkness and Beyond, there was a fling with Jim and Carol...And it ends in a pretty messy way that made Jim a little more focused on his job as a result, only increasing his growing weariness of deep space exploration.
But that's just me really.
But that's just me really.
They spend some time together post-Darkness in the IDW comics...
Did Kirk really have a love interest in ST'09 or ID? He fancied Uhura in '09 and made out with Gaila, had a threesome in ID and fancied Carol, but none of it was a big part of the plot.
Edith Keeler was a love interest. That woman Picard learned Matrix bullet-time from in Insurrection was a love interest.
Edith Keeler was a love interest. That woman Picard learned Matrix bullet-time from in Insurrection was a love interest.
It shows that Kirk can go some time without trying to romance someone. Clearly he's got other things on his mind. He's drowning his feelings in routine work and the occasional drink with Bones.
It's not for a change. Kirk doesn't have a love interest in the movies generally. He only has sex once in the TOS and NuTrek films - the threesome with the cat women twins in ID (he was interupted with Rachel Nichols in 09 where Uhura walks in on him).
In three other movies he has some minor flirtations - Slavic in TWOK, Gillian in TVH, the shapeshifter in TUC, Uhura in 09, and Marcus in ID.
With Saavik he's just a dirty old man perving on her and he knows it.
Gillian is the closest to a romantic relationship but still wouldn't be out of place among a normal office flirtation. There is nothing overtly sexual or even leaning that way about their relationship.
The shapeshifter kisses him once, but that's it.
Uhura rejects him up front, continues to reject him, and dates his friend at which point he stops hitting on her.
He uses Carol to make Spock jealous and then spies on Carol in her underwear after she outright tells him not to try anything, he emotionally hurt her friend. That's all that's there. McCoy had a more flirtatious relationship with her than Kirk.
Movie Kirk doesn't get much lovin.
In three other movies he has some minor flirtations - Slavic in TWOK, Gillian in TVH, the shapeshifter in TUC, Uhura in 09, and Marcus in ID.
With Saavik he's just a dirty old man perving on her and he knows it.
Gillian is the closest to a romantic relationship but still wouldn't be out of place among a normal office flirtation. There is nothing overtly sexual or even leaning that way about their relationship.
The shapeshifter kisses him once, but that's it.
Uhura rejects him up front, continues to reject him, and dates his friend at which point he stops hitting on her.
He uses Carol to make Spock jealous and then spies on Carol in her underwear after she outright tells him not to try anything, he emotionally hurt her friend. That's all that's there. McCoy had a more flirtatious relationship with her than Kirk.
Movie Kirk doesn't get much lovin.
Actually, he may have (remember they had been in space on missions for 3 years and things seemed "episodic"
) - it's just we as an audience never got to see them.Similar threads
