Kirk and Spock on one of their very first missions together, seen in Star Trek, in “The Man Trap”. Screenshot: Paramount
Last night brought the shocking news that Captain James T. Kirk would return to Star Trek, his young self being played by The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley in Season 2 of Strange New Worlds. If the maps don’t show any typical Trek temporal shenanigans, there’s a good chance it’s a young Kirk before he was captain of the Enterprise. But what do we know about Kirk’s early Starfleet career?
What were Kirk’s days at the Academy like?
There is surprisingly little response, at least on screen. Kirk’s rise through the ranks was frankly meteoric given what little we know: Jim entered Starfleet Academy in 2252 and by 2265 was commanding a Federation flagship on its iconic five-year mission. Five of those 13 years were spent on team training at the Academy. a program that combines study and practical education with the role of a Starfleet midshipman, service as an officer cadet, and participation in missions, including a diplomatic mission on the planet Axanar, which earned him the palm leaf of the Axanar Peace Mission. Kirk, of course, also managed not to be completely expelled from the Academy, but instead to be praised for cracking the infamous Kobayashi Maru’s invincible practice test, becoming the first Academy student ever to dethrone a no-win scenario.
Screenshot: Paramount
What was Kirk’s first spaceship?
If we knew little about Kirk’s time at Starfleet Academy, we know even less about his early career. In the Star Trek Season 1 episode “Court Martial”, we learn that one of Kirk’s first assignments was aboard the USS Republic as an ensign, where he served alongside one of his instructors at the Academy, Lieutenant Benjamin. Finney. Finney and Kirk were close friends after their time at the Academy, but their relationship soured aboard the Republic when a mistake Finney made almost destroyed the ship – and Kirk fixed his role in the mistake, leading to Finney being reprimanded by Starfleet and was left without attention. promotion.
Unlike Kirk, who moved up the ranks very quickly. By the mid-2250s, Kirk was already a lieutenant and returned to the Academy to teach. In 2255, as detailed in the season two episode “Possession”, Kirk’s first assignment in deep space was aboard the USS Farragut, where Lieutenant Kirk was assigned as a phaser cannon crew member. However, just two years after completing the Farragut mission, disaster struck: on the planet Tycho IV, the ship encountered an incorporeal being known as the Dikironia cloud creature, which attacked the ship and killed two hundred of its crew members, including Farragut’s Captain, Garrovik.
Kirk, one of the few survivors, was traumatized by the event, believing that his delay in obeying the order to fire on the cloud creature (which drained him unconscious) led directly to the disaster. But not only was Kirk acquitted by the surviving Farragut chief executive, his heroism in the line of duty allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks after the Farragut tour.
Image: Paramount
How did Kirk become the captain of the Enterprise?
This rapid ascent meant that in 2265, when Kirk was only 32 years old, he became the new captain of the USS Enterprise, replacing Christopher Pike, who had served aboard the ship since 2250 – before Kirk entered Starfleet Academy. While we don’t know the exact details of how or why Pike left the Enterprise, “The Menagerie,” the famous Star Trek season 1 episode that uses footage from the original discarded pilot for The Cage, tells us that Kirk and Pike only met once before the events of this episode, when Pike was promoted to captain of the fleet – which may have been the point at which his service aboard the Enterprise came to an end.
We know that from now on, Kirk and Pike’s careers will lead them – Kirk during his iconic call of duty, boldly going where no man has gone before, Pike before tragedy when, in an accident during an inspection aboard a training vessel he was exposed. to lethal levels of radiation that disfigured him and left him on mobile life support. What else we can learn about Kirk’s early years is likely to happen in Strange New Worlds.
Wondering where our RSS feed has gone? You can pick up a new one here.