Paul Wesley's incarnation of James T. Kirk

He won't.

He will do his own thing and I will treat it as such. Pine was wise when he said he was not trying to do what "Mr. Shatner did."

 

I thought SNW Spock improved over the season. Alt-BoT Spock did all right as he would not be exactly the TOS version.

 

He wasn't even supposed to be the SNW Spock, never mind the TOS BoT one.

That's what an Alternate Future story almost always entails.

 

Yep. He was especially cold to Pike. I get the impression he and Ortegas kind of fell out with PIke. While La'An on the other hand got closer.

 

This episode was just brilliant from start to the last scene.

 

Jim Carrey performed Kirk in two "In Living Color" skits, not SNL.
Jim Carrey's performance as "Kirk" was, as befitting a comedy sketch show, much more animated and unrestrained than Paul Wesley's.
Other than their similarities in physical build, there is no comparison between the two performances.

 

I would not want him to imitate Shatner. I dont know if it was the direction or what. But as Kirk he just doesn't seem right for it . It may be what someone mentioned above, that it's his age. Hes gonna be 40 in a couple weeks. I liked him well enough in Vampire Diaries. I know he can act. But maybe it is just his age. He looks like hes pushing 40. He doesnt look anywhere near 26 or 27.

I think his younger self from Vampire Diaries would have been a better fit....

 

Doesn't look it.

And maybe I'm saying that because soon I will be 40. But, yeah, he doesn't look his age at all.

Personally, I think one alternate reality viewing is not enough data for me to judge his performance. It worked fine in the episode.

 

People in their 20's still have a fresh faced look to them. Their hair even looks more vibrant etc. Older people that never lose their hair dont always have their bounce to it that they had when they were younger. (Anson is so far an exception.lol)
I looked pretty dang good for 40. Could easily pass for early 30's. Now in my early 50's. Even hair dye wont make anyone mistake me for early 30's.lol. Maybe late 30's at the youngest.
Its tough for a 40 year old man to pull off a 26 or 27 year old. Heres is Paul when he was around 31. He would have been more suited at that age..

 

He looks the same to me. So, I'll take your word for it that acting a certain age is difficult.

 

One thing I didn't get was the sense that Wesley was too old to play Kirk. I think I was just looking for someone a little younger than Pike, so he worked for me. If we go by the dialogue in TOS' "The Menagerie," Pike and Kirk were of comparative ages--maybe no more than ten years apart--so Kirk really shouldn't look like a total kid next to Pike, IMO.

I dunno, maybe because of Pine, I was more interested to see Wesley's take on Kirk more so than in comparing him to Shatner or Pine. But I also think this Kirk represents a path not taken, namely that as captain of the Enterprise. And I know some may disagree, but I do think Spock and McCoy were very influential on Kirk and helped keep him grounded when he needed to be.

 

Exactly. In the scenes in the episode, the back and forth between Kirk and Spock shows what could be the foundation for what we'd see develop more later, if Kirk were in command of Enterprise.

 

I have no problem with Pine's performance. He played a wilder Kirk when he was in his 20s, in his "extended" adolescence: he would still be undergoing myelination, and his behavior and psychology would be more greatly affected by events (people become less susceptible to PTSD after 25 years, for instance). This is why the focus within military organization, both for individuals and their commanders, is on young people working on themselves, become more responsible and disciplined.

Shatner and Wesley played Kirk in his mid 30s. Certainly, events could affect him, but a lot less than in his youth. More importantly, he would be expected to mold people in his command, not molded by him. It's not desirable to have a leader who is overly influenced by people under them. Indeed, if Kirk were so impressionable, I doubt he would be offered a captaincy. What Picard says about leadership in Icarus Factor was dead on. It's less likely for Wesley's Kirk to be different than Shatner's, while the differences with Pine's are entirely appropriate.

 

It's not about being impressionable but as a leader adjusting your style to impact your crew to the greatest benefit. Kirk clearly developed a completely different way with commanding the Farragut vs. commanding the Enterprise.

Again, I expect Wesley Kirk in this scenario to be different, to have a bearing to him all his own. And he did. I don't like him or Kirk being present at all, but that has more to do with the showrunners demanding I smile and be happy about "OMG! Kirk"* than his presentation. I have rewatched his interaction with Pike a lot and I still find Kirk there, but it's a different way to Kirk.

No doubt Season 2 will be worse.

*Sarcasm.

 

He is a bit older for a 27 year old character. But I also get why they casted older since he also had to play 34 year old Kirk.

But judging from that interview clip, Wesley is more than capable to have the Kirk glint in his eye. Now I wonder if it was just the direction and script that dulled that because they needed Kirk to be a certain way to counterpoint Pike.

Still might need more swagger tho'. Shatner was very good at body language, something Pine mentioned he studied for 2009.

 

He might arguably adapt to the realities of his crew, but that would not explain why he was so different with Pike. If he would be so impressionable with each crew that his personality would change from posting to posting, he would be unreliable.

 

I agree. The TOS theme cue was well placed. Unfortunately, the actor couldn't match the impact of the cue. It's kind of like seeing a 10 year old son try on his fathers clothes. He just can't fill them out. That dynamic held through out the episode.

 

Frankly, Tuvok was as good a "Spock" as any Spock since Nimoy. I felt Russ's Tuvok, captured more of Nimoy's original Spock than any other actual "Spock" actor. Of course, the argument follows that perhaps that's not what Russ should've done, but..., just sayin.

 

and 79 'missions' under his belt too.

 

But this Kirk was NOT given command of a Starship in that timeline (and Starships and Starship Captains are considered a very special ship/very special type of Captain <--- and that was said a number of times in TOS directly; as well as STD when they were explaining WHY Pike and the 1701 were never involved in the Fed/Klingon war in a combat role), Kirk was in command of a Federation starship <--- So that already goes to show that WITHOUT Pike's recommendation the Admiralty of Starfleet didn't think Kirk's Command style warranted assignment to a Starship. <--- And yes, it's fair to say that a year or more in that role and direct interactions with Spock (and possibly McCoy too) and the adventures he had (chronicled in the TOS episodes leading up to BoT), 'changed him' to be the Starship Captain we know in TOS S1 - Balance Of Terror.

So, yes, the Kirk we see the Pike's alternate timeline is NOT that Kirk. He has some small noticeable aspects of that Kirk, but he's different in a few ways as well, including being more deferential to a Captain (Pike) of a Starship Class ship.