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Strange New Worlds Just Debunked Star Trek’s Oldest Kirk Criticism
With one ambitious, time-bending swing, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has finally laid the biggest and oldest Captain Kirk criticism to rest. No Star Trek fan could deny the immense impact of James T. Kirk upon Gene Roddenberry's fictional universe, where he earned legend status many times over. Kirk is renowned for his bravery, tactical nous, leadership skills and decision-making, which led to countless first contacts and military victories. Nevertheless, one recurring criticism has dogged Captain Kirk throughout his Starfleet career - an accusation of being a reckless maverick who acts first and asks questions later.
Whether Kirk deserves that reputation has always been questionable. William Shatner's extensive Star Trek: The Original Series captain's log contains more diplomatic and level-headed moment than Kirk often gets credit for. On the other hand, Kirk absolutely is more gung-ho than Starfleet captains such as Jean-Luc Picard, who's often considered the "thinker" between these two Star Trek protagonists. Audience tastes of the 1960s also dictated that Captain Kirk must be an action hero, whereas the evolving nature of sci-fi has allowed successors to grow beyond those confines.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 1 finale ("A Quality of Mercy" - an alternate version of the 1960s classic "Balance of Terror") finally proves Kirk's overriding criticism was always very wrong. Captain Pike adopts the role of a Kirk critic in this scenario, dismissing the young firebrand as a hothead whose impulses could trigger a bloody, endless war. Pike's skepticism over Kirk directly mirrors how the latter's Enterprise captaincy has been criticized over the years since Star Trek: The Original Series. Strange New Worlds then proves Pike's assessment of Kirk is entirely unfair. The two captains do bicker over shooting without hesitation, and Kirk does conclude they should've blown the Romulans up from the beginning, but as Pike comes to realize, the young captain's decisive strike vs. his own contemplative deliberation is the difference between war against the Romulan Empire and maintaining a fragile peace.
Strange New Worlds Is Already Improving Captain Kirk
Strange New Worlds has thus far given only the merest glimpse at Paul Wesley as Star Trek's new Captain Kirk. Due to timeline shenanigans, the version from "A Quality of Mercy" isn't even the true version that'll appear when the character returns in season 2. But despite Wesley's Kirk only taking his first tentative steps into the Star Trek universe, his Strange New Worlds portrayal is already improving James T. Kirk - just as we've seen already with Uhura, Chapel, Sam Kirk, and others throughout season 1.
Rather than trying to play down Kirk's maverick-ness, or morph his unique personality into something more closely resembling Jean-Luc Picard, Strange New Worlds has embraced that oft-criticized shade of Kirk and attributed the galaxy's continued survival to the very quality Captain Pike and so many others believed was a problem. "A Quality of Mercy" takes one of Captain Kirk's most aggressive moments - hunting down a retreating enemy, even if he does offer to take prisoners aboard afterwards - and proves beyond doubt that the correct course was taken. How many other similar disasters might've been averted throughout Star Trek: The Original Series solely because Kirk took action when other captains would've hesitated?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds places Paul Wesley's Captain Kirk on a pedestal ahead of his actual debut in season 2. Any notion that Kirk's gutsy philosophy is inferior to the intellectualism of Picard, Pike and others has been dispelled. So too has the image of Kirk as some old-fashioned fist-throwing dinosaur among the modern Star Trek landscape. Instead, Strange New Worlds has reintroduced James T. Kirk as a Starfleet captain so damn good, his biggest and oldest critique was actually responsible for saving the galaxy. How's that for a comeback?
