Peter Kirk - his age

[Crewman47]

After watching the latest New Voyages episode yesterday I saw that in the trailer for the next episode it would have Kirks nephew, Peter, in it as, I assume, a freshman cadet, but I'm sure I remember him as being a cadet in the novel Sarek, which is set in the year 2293.

I then found out from both Memory Alpha and the Wiki Memory Beta that Peter Kirk was born in 2252, which would make him 14 in the Operation Annihilate episode, 18 in the next New Voyages episode and by the novel Sarek he'd be around 41 but yet in Memory Alpha's entry for this novel he was described (and as I remember it) as a senior Cadet. So within both the canon universe and novel (non-canon) universe how can he possibly be a cadet by the age of 41 where he was just in his senior year and even sitting the Kobayshi Maru test and also a cadet in 2270 as a freshman. Has there been some kind of continuity error been made here with this character or did something happen to him?

Any thoughts?

 

[foravalon]

I don't believe the Canon universe ever makes stated how old Peter was. I'm not sure where that 2250's date came from.

A.C. Crispen says that Peter was seven when his parents died and if the book takes place in 2293 then that would make the year of his birth 2261, and the events of "Operation -- Annihilate!" in 2268.

The action of the book takes place some 25 years after Peter's parents were killed on Deneva, after that he was raised by his grandmother Winona Kirk. Here's a little snippet of the rest:

From Sarek by A.C. Crispen:
Staring at the cadet's uniform he was holding, Peter wondered if that was why, at the age of thirty-two, he was still in school.

Peter Kirk hadn't decided on a career in Starfleet until he was in his mid-twenties--almost a decade after most cadets entered the Academy. He'd spent that decade attending the best colleges, gaining degrees in xenolinguistics and xenocultural interfaces with minors in Terran/xenopolitical interaction, before deciding that he would finally follow the family tradition and join Starfleet.

 

[Crewman47]

I meant to say that it's been a while since I read the book, and I don't have it at hand, but is this from Sarek, if so then that means that with his at 32 in 2291 (25 years after Deneva) then that would only make him 7 during TOS Operation Annihilate. His age still doesn't add up, although it does explain why he's a cadet at such a late age but what about him being a cadet in the New Voyages episode (although I do realise that NV won't probably adhere to any canon or non-canon I guess).

 

[foravalon]

Ah! okay here's your problem right here!

From Memory Beta:

Peter James Kirk [snip] was born in April 2252 (TOS novel Avenger)...

You were taking info from a Shatnerverse book, whose 'Verse's logic does not resemble our Earth logic.

 

[Christopher]

Crewman47 said:
So within both the canon universe and novel (non-canon) universe how can he possibly be a cadet by the age of 41 where he was just in his senior year and even sitting the Kobayshi Maru test and also a cadet in 2270 as a freshman. Has there been some kind of continuity error been made here with this character or did something happen to him?

What? His one and only appearance in canon is "Operation: Annihilate." The events of that episode are the only things that any creator of subsequent fiction about him is bound to. Sarek and New Voyages are by different creators, so there's no reason to assume they'd be in continuity with one another, any more than they would be in continuity with the DC Trek comics story that gives yet another contradictory fate to Peter Kirk. There's no "error," just different and unrelated creations making different choices.

New Voyages may be getting a lot of publicity lately, even participation from some big names, but it's still entirely unofficial, pure fanfiction. It isn't binding on anything else, or vice-versa.

As for Peter Kirk's age in "Operation," the actor who played him, Craig Hundley, was 12 years old at the time the episode was produced.