A fairly thorough piece.
Whatever your view on whether it’s a pro or con for the ensemble and storytelling, SNW ‘Lost in Translation’ having covered off the ‘met him when he made fleet captain’ reference to Pike in TOS, there seems to be a great deal of flexibility for SNW to keep bringing Jim Kirk into its stories.
Here’s one unexpected take.
So what does that mean for Kirk? We have to wait until 2265 for him to take over as captain of the Enterprise, right? Well, maybe not. Canon is oddly vague on the handover from Pike to Kirk. In fact, only one episode of TOS actually takes place in 2265: “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot. There’s also nothing that indicates Kirk didn’t serve on the Enterprise in another role before getting promoted. If, in theory, Pike were to step down and someone else became an interim captain, then nothing is stopping Kirk from serving on the Enterprise before 2265.
I find it weakens the storytelling on SNW. If I wanted to watch Kirk, I’d tune into TOS or one of the many movies he’s featured in. I also think the actor they’ve hired to portray him isn’t channeling the existing character very well.
He really isn’t. I can see Ethan Peck as a younger Spock and Celia Rose Gooding as a younger Uhura, but Paul Wesley doesn’t bring to mind Kirk at all.
As someone who grew up with Picard, I only really knew Kirk as the brash/cocky, but often correct captain. Wesley does convey that to me quite well. But it can feel forced.
I’m allowing him more time to own it. The idea of him having a deeper involvement with Kahn through La’an is pretty fun. But the title of “Jim Carrey Kirk” does hit a little hard.
@piskertariot @samus12345 I mean I feel like that’s part of the problem, he’s more playing the stereotype of Kirk more than Kirk himself