Kirk conspires, all to save his dearest friend, even though the planet is solely for the science team where they might not want any more contamination than absolutely necessary - it's a reminder that Kirk has always been a maverick, doing what's best for people
I would disagree with characterizing Kirk as a maverick. The movies certainly
told us that he was a rule-breaking maverick, but he really didn't break rules or disobey orders on TOS as much as the movies suggested. Kirk would bend the rules sometimes, but that was usually under his discretion as Captain. The only time I remember him openly defying orders on TOS was to save Spock's life in "Amok Time," and that was under extreme circumstances.
What TOS Kirk was was an original thinker. He would think outside the box and, when presented with an impossible choice, he would usually come up with a third option that got him out of the fix he was in. I'm thinking of stuff like coming up with the Corbomite Maneuver or knowing that Spock was a man of integrity in both universes and convincing Mirror Spock in just a few minutes that overthrowing the Empire was the most logical option.
That's Captain Kirk.
I think they wrote Kirk differently in the movies because by the 1980s, our heroes were usually rebels and rule breakers. In the early 60s when
Star Trek was conceived, it was still possible to be a cool person from the authority and the establishment. There was a total paradigm shift by the 1980s, because Vietnam and Watergate had taught Americans that people in authority were sometimes hideously wrong. It's a lesson we've never entirely forgotten since.
I agree that Robin Curtis's Saavik is a different character than Kirstie Alley's Saavik. Kirstie Alley gave the character more humor and emotion while Curtis made her a straightedged Vulcan. I thought Curtis was good overall but I never liked her "David is dead" delivery. That seemed a little cold.
Yeah, but that's what Nimoy wanted as a director, so we can't really fault Curtis for giving him the performance he wanted. She's said in interviews over the years that she also thought that delivery was really flat.
I actually saw TSFS before I ever saw TWOK, so I saw Curtis' Saavik first. But over time I've come to appreciate Alley's Saavik much more. She's just a much more intriguing character to me.
Aw, that's great! It's so fun when actors go the extra mile for cons like that. She looks like she's hardly aged.
#myfavouritesaavik
