NuKirk as reflective and literate as original Kirk?

[Cadet49]

In TOS and its movies, original Kirk was often very philisophical, reflecting on the human condition at the end of the episode, sometimes quoting a famous writer in the process.

Somehow, I don't picture NuKirk being quite so reflective.

Example:
At the end of ST: TMP, after V'Ger "explodes" (as part of its evolving into a higher lifeform):

Spock: Yes, Captain. We witnessed a birth. Possibly a next step in our evolution.
James T. Kirk: I wonder.
Leonard McCoy: Well, it's been a long time since I delivered a baby. And I hope we got this one off to a good start.
James T. Kirk: I hope so too. I think we gave it the ability to create its own sense of purpose... out of our own human weaknesses... and the drive that compels us to overcome them.


How it might play out in NuTrek:

Spock: Yes, Captain. We witnessed a birth. Possibly a next step in our evolution.
James T. Kirk: "WHOA! (Banging on the command chair in triumph) Did you see that explosion! That was ... awesome! (High Fives Mr. Sulu) Earth: 1, V'Ger: 0!"
Spock: Sigh ... yes, Captain. It was indeed ... awesome."

I've heard it before ... Trek 90210. Sigh.

How do you think NuKirk would handle other situations from the Prime Trek Universe - he grew up in a very different manner than original Kirk, after all.

 

[DonIago]

I don't think you're giving NuKirk enough credit. Just because he may not be as profound as TOS Kirk doesn't mean he's at the extreme far end of the spectrum either. Your TMP example is rather clearly biased.

 

[Cadet49]

I don't think you're giving NuKirk enough credit. Just because he may not be as profound as TOS Kirk doesn't mean he's at the extreme far end of the spectrum either. Your TMP example is rather clearly biased.

Haha - I know, I know. My example was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I just think something of the Kirk character, which I always admired, might be lost in NuKirk.

 

[EnsignRicky]

He probably would have been the one who ran over Edith Keeler.

You know, in that episode City On The Edge Of The Quarry.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

"He will be.. He will be."

 

[JarodRussell]

Neither nuKirk nor nuSpock seem to be as reflective as the originals.

SPOCK: You mean to destroy the alien ship, Captain?
KIRK: Of course.
SPOCK: I thought perhaps the hot pursuit alone might be sufficient. Destruction might be unnecessary.
KIRK: Colony Cestus Three has been obliterated, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: The destruction of the alien vessel will not help that colony, Jim.

KIRK: This is Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Your ship is compromised. Your too close to the singularity to provide assistance, which we will provide.
SPOCK: (to Kirk) Captain, what are you doing?
KIRK: You show them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock. Thought you'd like that.
SPOCK: No, not really. Not this time.
NERO: (on viewscreen) I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you.
KIRK: You got it. Arm phasers, fire everything we got.

And we recently had a discussion with the tie-in writers. Old Kirk would be reading Dickens, nuKirk wouldn't. The nickname "Bones" for McCoy is now explained by McCoy's comment about his divorce, and not because Kirk is referring to McCoy, a surgeon, as "Sawbones" (which happens to appear in Dickens' first novel). He also didn't seem to be "a stack of books with legs" in nuTrek. And so on...

 

[bullethead]

He also didn't seem to be "a stack of books with legs" in nuTrek. And so on...

Well, Pike did refer to him as a "genius level repeat offender," so we know he's smart, but he could have hit the same rut a lot of smart people do and just started to cruise through his work instead of actually do his best. He did apparently fulfill his promise to get through Starfleet Academy in three years, so it appears that nuKirk can easily do intellectual leg work if you give him enough incentive and/or challenge him. I guess his upbringing in the STXI timeline wasn't really conducive to being smart purely out of curiosity and it became a way to avoid punishment from his mom/stepdad.

 

[DonIago]

Agreed. It isn't that he -can't- be as profound as TOSKirk, it's that thus far he is generally choosing not to be.

Not like he's the first person to intentionally come across as dumber than they actually are.

 

[Jeri]

Cheeze, he's just a kid yet.

 

[JarodRussell]

Cheeze, he's just a kid yet.

Good to know that with 25 (or 30, Pine's real age) you're just a kid.

 

[Jeyl]

Khan: Have you ever read Milton, Captain?
NuKirk: What?

 

[kkozoriz1]

He also didn't seem to be "a stack of books with legs" in nuTrek. And so on...

Well, Pike did refer to him as a "genius level repeat offender," so we know he's smart, but he could have hit the same rut a lot of smart people do and just started to cruise through his work instead of actually do his best. He did apparently fulfill his promise to get through Starfleet Academy in three years, so it appears that nuKirk can easily do intellectual leg work if you give him enough incentive and/or challenge him. I guess his upbringing in the STXI timeline wasn't really conducive to being smart purely out of curiosity and it became a way to avoid punishment from his mom/stepdad.

Or he could have had mostly female professors and slept though class, if you get my drift

 

[Captrek]

The scene in the bar recalls Good Will Hunting, an obvious inspiration for the character. NuKirk is very well read. He doesn’t seem to appreciate it the way Kirk Prime does, but maybe he will when he gets older.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm hoping the difference is that Pine's Kirk is younger than Shat's, and that he'll slow down in the next movie. Kirk was not hyperkinetic. If he needed to stop and think about his next move, he'd do just that, and not allow anyone or anything to rush him into doing something stupid.

Pine's Kirk really needs something at the start of the next movie that will smack him into reality. He takes a dumb risk and doesn't get away with it. It will temper his arrogance and make him realize he better shape himself up.

Khan: Have you ever read Milton, Captain?

NuKirk: Milton Bradley?

Wakka wakka.

 

[DonIago]

Actually, Kirk encountering Khan might be exactly the sort of event that would bring out his deeper side. Let's face it, Nero was no genius himself...there was no real pressure on Kirk in the first film -to- be thoughtful.

Khan though...especially if he starts out as an unknown...is exactly the sort of person whom you really need to be on guard around all the time...and not just because he can most probably wipe the floor with you. In a way they could echo WoK...Kirk's overconfidence gets the best of him initially and Khan's allowed to get away with something that he wouldn't have pulled off if Kirk had taken him seriously.

Hm. Interesting that both NuKirk and Khan could have the same serious flaw.

 

[JarodRussell]

The scene in the bar recalls Good Will Hunting, an obvious inspiration for the character. NuKirk is very well read. He doesn’t seem to appreciate it the way Kirk Prime does, but maybe he will when he gets older.

Only that in Good Will Hunting Will first* succeeded with his intelligence, while nuKirk never showed any wit in that bar scene in nuTrek.


*It's been a long time since I've last seen GWH, but he never beat up the guy, did he?

nuKirk: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Uhm, message, Spock?
nuSpock: None that you would be able to understand. Let us just say: Happy Birthday.

 

[DonIago]

Khan: Have you ever read Milton, Captain?
NuKirk: Dude, I love Office Space!!! Wait...they made it a book?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think of NuKirk as a kind of Holden Caulfield in the years before he signed with Starfleet. He didn't just spend his time drinking and getting into trouble with the law, he also spent it reading great literature, looking for meaning in this universe. Perhaps the more he read the more hopeless a life of ticking boxes seemed.. until eventually he was burned out on his own jadedness, no longer enamored with being the outsider cynic. At that point Pike offered him something.. a challenge, a vision of how he could make fitting into the world work.

It would have only taken one reference or quote from NuKirk in the film to make it abundantly obvious that he was as literately inclined as his Prime counterpart. Instead we have to hang onto Pike's words "genius" and "off the charts". Hopefully in XII we see NuKirk as much more than just an action hero.

But please.. no more Shakespeare!

(I predict it will be in an exchange with Spock, who is certainly well read that we realize that NuKirk is as well.)

 

[JarodRussell]

The next movie could begin with Kirk and Spock playing chess for a start.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The next movie could begin with Kirk and Spock playing chess for a start.

OOOOOOoooooo that would be so great, with the 3D chess set.