Spoilers The Autobiography of James T. Kirk - announcement and reviews

[DavidAGoodman]

Autobiography? Somehow, I don't picture Jim Kirk writing a book about himself.

From the forward of the TMP novelization (Gene Roddenberry writing as Kirk, circa 2274):

"...our five-year mission was so well documented, due to an ill-conceived notion by Starfleet that the return of the U.S.S. Enterprise merited public notice. Unfortunately, Starfleet’s enthusiasm affected even those who chronicled our adventures, and we were all painted somewhat larger than life, especially myself.

Eventually, I found that I had been fictionalized into some sort of 'modern Ulysses' and it has been painful to see my command decisions of those years so widely applauded, whereas the plain facts are that ninety-four of our crew met violent deaths during those years—and many of them would still be alive if I had acted either more quickly or more wisely.

Nor have I been as foolishly courageous as depicted. I have never happily invited injury; I have disliked in the extreme every duty circumstance which has required me to risk my life. But there appears to be something in the nature of depicters of popular events which leads them into the habit of exaggeration. As a result, I became determined that if I ever again found myself involved in an affair attracting public attention, I would insist that some way be found to tell the story more accurately."

This, of course, was written well before Khan/Genesis/Whaleprobe and the Khitomer incident. I could see a full autobiography by Kirk, written between the latter event and the Enterprise-B tragedy, as an extension of that effort to set the story straight and deconstruct the legend somewhat (especially, as Christopher notes, for any Academy cadets who might try to follow in his footsteps). Am I right, Mr. Goodman?

Definitely my intent, and please call me David!

 

[Therin of Andor]

Autobiography? Somehow, I don't picture Jim Kirk writing a book about himself.

Some of the Trek actors didn't write their own autobiographies either.

 

[DEWLine]

So this will have been his last attempt to "set the record straight (enough)" before he was declared dead for the next-to-last time. Got it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Autobiography? Somehow, I don't picture Jim Kirk writing a book about himself.

Well, on the original series aside from his captain's log he also kept a personal log, which had no official purpose other than to share his thoughts, presumably for posterity. So I think there's enough precedent that the character was interested in sharing his story.

Plus, Kirk's book has been cited and quoted in Peter David's New Frontier series (where IIRC it was called "Risk is Our Buisness")

If it does well, I'd love to read Ambassador Spock's autobiography, also cited in NF.

 

[Stevil2001]

"Admiral Chekov's books" are mentioned in Federation, and in The Return this is expanded upon: "Admiral Pavel Chekov, commander in chief of Starfleet. The books he had written after his retirement, detailing his adventures on the Enterprise, the Potemkin, and the Cydonia, had made household names of all his crewmates."

I like the idea both that the original Enterprise crew wasn't terribly famous until Chekov's retirement (presumably mid-C24), and that he actually made household names of three different ships. It nicely not Enterprise-centric.

 

[Saul]

Gotta say this is a fun idea. I want a copy. Any chance of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens Kirk book adventures getting a mention?

I'm a big fan of my friends Judith and gar's books but most of them take place chronologically after the "death" of Kirk on the enterprise b, and this book ends there.

How about events from Collision Course or Ashes of Eden?

 

[DavidAGoodman]

Gotta say this is a fun idea. I want a copy. Any chance of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens Kirk book adventures getting a mention?

I'm a big fan of my friends Judith and gar's books but most of them take place chronologically after the "death" of Kirk on the enterprise b, and this book ends there.

How about events from Collision Course or Ashes of Eden?

I wasn't aware of Collision Course until you mentioned it ("how the hell can he say he's a fan of their work if he hasn't read all their books" you may ask, and to that, I can only ask forgiveness.) However, there is a nod to Ashes of Eden in my book.

 

[DavidAGoodman]

Autobiography? Somehow, I don't picture Jim Kirk writing a book about himself.

Some of the Trek actors didn't write their own autobiographies either.

Therin of Andor, its been too long!

 

[DavidAGoodman]

"Admiral Chekov's books" are mentioned in Federation, and in The Return this is expanded upon: "Admiral Pavel Chekov, commander in chief of Starfleet. The books he had written after his retirement, detailing his adventures on the Enterprise, the Potemkin, and the Cydonia, had made household names of all his crewmates."

I like the idea both that the original Enterprise crew wasn't terribly famous until Chekov's retirement (presumably mid-C24), and that he actually made household names of three different ships. It nicely not Enterprise-centric.

Yeah, I liked that too, although it seems like it was eventually contradicted by "Generations" where Harriman says he read their adventures in grade school, referred to them as living legends, and the reporters all knew who they were.

 

[JD]

Not to mention the kid Uhura was working with in The Search for Spock was already in awe of Admiral Kirk. So obviously Kirk at least, was already pretty well known by that point.

 

[Christopher]

Well, if we go by the assertions of the ST:TMP novelization, there was some hack named Roddenberry who made a sensationalized and inaccurate video series about the adventures of the Enterprise after it returned from the 5-year mission, thereby making Kirk and his crew famous for their exploits. Although that hack then went on to write a novel about the V'Ger mission, this time getting Kirk's input to ensure that it was a more accurate account.

 

[DavidAGoodman]

Well, if we go by the assertions of the ST:TMP novelization, there was some hack named Roddenberry who made a sensationalized and inaccurate video series about the adventures of the Enterprise after it returned from the 5-year mission, thereby making Kirk and his crew famous for their exploits. Although that hack then went on to write a novel about the V'Ger mission, this time getting Kirk's input to ensure that it was a more accurate account.

Going back even further there were signs in the original series that the Enterprise crew was well-known: T-Pring said Spock was becoming a legend and no way did she want to be the consort of a legend, and if Commander Kor had been drinking something when Ayelborne told him who was standing in the room, he would've done a spit take.

 

[Christopher]

Going back even further there were signs in the original series that the Enterprise crew was well-known: T-Pring said Spock was becoming a legend and no way did she want to be the consort of a legend, and if Commander Kor had been drinking something when Ayelborne told him who was standing in the room, he would've done a spit take.

I think Spock was a legend among Vulcans simply for who he was -- the son of the ambassador (and evidently a member of T'Pau's clan, though that's ambiguous) and a half-human who chose to serve with humans in Starfleet rather than following the path his family laid out for him. So his fame among Vulcans wouldn't have been for quite the same reasons or followed the same trajectory and timing as his fame within the rest of the Federation. (Indeed, we now know that he's the great-grandson of the Vulcan who made the first official contact with Earth, so his family would be famous for that as well.)

And Kor, as a military commander who presumably studied his enemy, would've been more familiar with the records of Starfleet captains than the general civilian populace might be. That was always the impression I got about Starfleet and Klingon personnel -- that they knew each other's reputations because of their services' rivalry. That isn't something that would necessarily translate to the general public's knowledge, especially since a lot of that military intelligence would be classified.

 

[DavidAGoodman]

Going back even further there were signs in the original series that the Enterprise crew was well-known: T-Pring said Spock was becoming a legend and no way did she want to be the consort of a legend, and if Commander Kor had been drinking something when Ayelborne told him who was standing in the room, he would've done a spit take.

I think Spock was a legend among Vulcans simply for who he was -- the son of the ambassador (and evidently a member of T'Pau's clan, though that's ambiguous) and a half-human who chose to serve with humans in Starfleet rather than following the path his family laid out for him. So his fame among Vulcans wouldn't have been for quite the same reasons or followed the same trajectory and timing as his fame within the rest of the Federation. (Indeed, we now know that he's the great-grandson of the Vulcan who made the first official contact with Earth, so his family would be famous for that as well.)

And Kor, as a military commander who presumably studied his enemy, would've been more familiar with the records of Starfleet captains than the general civilian populace might be. That was always the impression I got about Starfleet and Klingon personnel -- that they knew each other's reputations because of their services' rivalry. That isn't something that would necessarily translate to the general public's knowledge, especially since a lot of that military intelligence would be classified.

Very valid reasoning, however there's nothing in either episode that specifically states that's why they're well-known. And certainly, the fact that he was the great grandson of Solkar, the vulcan on the T'Planahath is retconned history. Mike Sussman took that info from a star trek game (I was there when he did it).

 

[Christopher]

^Yup, but by this point, most Trek history is retconned. Heck, "Vulcan" instead of "Vulcanian" is a retcon, technically.

 

[DavidAGoodman]

^Yup, but by this point, most Trek history is retconned. Heck, "Vulcan" instead of "Vulcanian" is a retcon, technically.

Is it retconned if they existed side-by-side for the first season, and then Vulcanian was dropped?

 

[Avro Arrow]

Not to mention the kid Uhura was working with in The Search for Spock was already in awe of Admiral Kirk. So obviously Kirk at least, was already pretty well known by that point.

Well, well-known within Starfleet anyway. That doesn't necessarily mean he was well-known to the population at large.

That being said... he was the commander who saved Earth from V'Ger. If the Federation media is anything like ours, people should have known him after that, unless the whole incident was classified somehow.

EDIT: I just realized that in my browser tab, this thread title is truncated to "The Autobiography of Jam...". I'd totally read that.

 

[Christopher]

That being said... he was the commander who saved Earth from V'Ger. If the Federation media is anything like ours, people should have known him after that, unless the whole incident was classified somehow.

That's the approach I took in Ex Machina. While he may have gained some repute as an explorer and defender before then, once he out-and-out saved the Earth, that made him a household name. (Although it was really Decker and Spock who saved the Earth, but that's fame for ya.)

After all, a giant energy cloud flew across the Federation and disgorged a ship the size of Maui into Earth orbit, and that ship then erupted into a blinding burst of transcendent energy and vanished to parts unknown. You can't classify something that huge and visible. Billions of people on Earth would've been cowering in terror of their imminent doom, then witnessed something awesome and mysterious that saved them in a way nobody would quite understand. People would've been talking and speculating about it for decades afterward. As I showed in ExM, it's the sort of thing that would've even started religions.

 

[Saul]

I'm a big fan of my friends Judith and gar's books but most of them take place chronologically after the "death" of Kirk on the enterprise b, and this book ends there.

How about events from Collision Course or Ashes of Eden?

I wasn't aware of Collision Course until you mentioned it ("how the hell can he say he's a fan of their work if he hasn't read all their books" you may ask, and to that, I can only ask forgiveness.)

All is forgiven. I wasn't much interested in reading again about how he stole the Enterprise at age 16.

However, there is a nod to Ashes of Eden in my book.

Excellent.

 

[Mysterion]

Picked up a copy of this yesterday and read it straight through by bed-time. Good stuff! Was happy to see it turn out to be more than just a recap of stuff we already know/have seen on-screen. Goodman added some interesting bits to the character of Kirk and (from my initial read) remained very consistent with on-screen events. After this book a his earlier History of The Federation book, I really would like to see more from Mr. Goodman.