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Why is Kirk so revered???

As has been noted Kirk saved Earth several times and had a role in many big in universe historical events so he would be a pretty legendary guy in universe. Picard stopping the Borg in FC might be the only thing a ST captain did that compares to any of his exploits.

Of course all of that is except for Archer, who has the greatest accomplishment in all of human history with the Gazelle Speech, which can immediately stop any armed conflict by causing the participants to spontaneously orgasm.
 
TheAdmiralty said:
As has been noted Kirk saved Earth several times and had a role in many big in universe historical events so he would be a pretty legendary guy in universe. Picard stopping the Borg in FC might be the only thing a ST captain did that compares to any of his exploits.
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We don't know that, though, since there are far more Starfleet captains we haven't seen on TV than ones we have. Other captains may well have achieved similar feats of greatness that we just don't know about because they aren't included in the small fraction of the Trek universe's history that we've been allowed to glimpse.

I mean, the crew of Discovery literally saved all life in the galaxy almost a decade before TOS, but we never knew about it until DSC season 2 was made. So just because we haven't seen a captain's epic feats of heroism, that doesn't justify assuming they never happened.
 
Didn't Picard save the entire universe (or at least the galaxy) in "All Good Things"? Sure, he had to become 'Q's pet fuzzylumpkin forever and ever, but he did it. He even got to hangout with some primordial ooze.

As for Kirk's legendary status - I think the DS9 episode where they go back to the TOS tribbles episode sums it up best - Sisko risked getting court-martialed just to speak to Kirk. And the Time Authority guy just said, "No worries, I would have done the same thing". Thats it - you can ignore even the temporal prime directive if its to get some face time with Kirk.
McKoy is runner-up, because no single disease, wound, or genetic defect hasn't come up on all the shows where they didn't reference the amazing doctor McKoy''s work in the past. Funny how no-one mentions Phlox, who did it all first.
 
MarkusTay said:
Didn't Picard save the entire universe (or at least the galaxy) in "All Good Things"? Sure, he had to become 'Q's pet fuzzylumpkin forever and ever, but he did it. He even got to hangout with some primordial ooze.
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I'm not convinced any of that was more than Q's illusions, and none of it would've happened anyway if not for Q sending Picard bouncing around in time to create the problem in the first place. And it was all undone at the end, with no proof of any of it except Picard's anecdotal account. So it wouldn't contribute to his reputation.


As for Kirk's legendary status - I think the DS9 episode where they go back to the TOS tribbles episode sums it up best - Sisko risked getting court-martialed just to speak to Kirk. And the Time Authority guy just said, "No worries, I would have done the same thing". Thats it - you can ignore even the temporal prime directive if its to get some face time with Kirk.
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As I've been saying all along, I have no issue with the idea of Kirk being famous. I just dispute the assumption that he's the only Starfleet captain in history to be equally famous. That just doesn't follow, and it's a failure of imagination to presume it.

I mean, heck, there's a 32nd-century starship named after Nog, but we haven't seen one named after Kirk yet.
 
Christopher said:
I mean, heck, there's a 32nd-century starship named after Nog, but we haven't seen one named after Kirk yet.
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I'm actually surprised about that as well.

In fact, when exactly WAS the first time we had a starship named after a main character? The USS Chekov from BOBW 2?
 
It was to appease the Russian fanbase... I wonder if it was Nue-cler Vressel?

Naming something after a single-syllable person is rough, but I suppose if they did it for Nog...
Maybe a name a hedonist-style cruise ship after Kirk? :p
The U.S.S Spock... a science vessel, boring yet logical.

But there were other captains that were famous, even before Kirk (who apparently never heard of Archer), like Garth. Kirk practically worshiped Garth, and he is mentioned ("The Battle of Axanar") in a LOT of other ST media. I just did a rewrite of Garth that makes more sense (without changing what we saw in the episode) for my own fan-project. The thing is, the way the Federatioin is setup, military leaders would not really be put on a pedestal like that - the UFP idolizes those who save or protect life, which include scientific breakthroughs. There was also that 'galaxy-renowned mediator' on that episode of TnG, so there are definitely tons of other famous 'hero types' that we don't hear about because it would probably bore TV audiences. And I am sure each species has their own heroes. The Ferengi probably love Scrooge McDuck.
 
I can't believe no one has mentioned this. Why is Kirk so revered?

Because he bagged the most chicks.

Or to put it in modern terms, of all the captains, Kirk was the one who bagged the most of his partner preference.

Robert
 
Ah, but he didn't get pregnant, did he?
Tucker smashed a Vulcan (thought to be impossible), a space princess, and got himself knocked up by a scaly engineer gal in a holodek... in his first year out. I'd say had he lived, he easily would have given Kirk a run for his money. Oh, and he could have bagged Phlox's wife... WITH Phlox's approval. LOL
 
Christopher said:
We don't know that, though, since there are far more Starfleet captains we haven't seen on TV than ones we have. Other captains may well have achieved similar feats of greatness that we just don't know about because they aren't included in the small fraction of the Trek universe's history that we've been allowed to glimpse.
Click to expand...

By the material we have seen, saving the universe or galaxy might be a pretty mundane Tuesday job for the average crew. And then the Captain usually gets most of the credits.
 
I'm sure once SNW gets done with Kirk he will have more achievements under his belt we never heard of...
 
How much stuff was classified would be another question. With Kirk, a lot of his actions were probably very public about what had occurred. Whereas with Picard and crew, I'm sure aspects of their missions were classified at the highest levels. Can't let people know that parasites nearly took over the Federation, can't let people know about the Borg using time travel, that kind of thing.
 
Then again, Picard is a role model...

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