Everything We Know About Captain Kirk’s Pre-Enterprise History

Last night time introduced the stunning information that Captain James T. Kirk can be returning to Star Trek, his younger self being portrayed by Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley within the second season of Strange New Worlds. Unless some sometimes Trek-y timey-wimey shenanigans are on the playing cards, the chances are that is a younger Kirk in a time earlier than he captained the Enterprise. But what can we find out about Kirk’s early Starfleet profession?

What Were Kirk’s Academy Days Like?

The reply is surprisingly little, at the least on-screen. Kirk’s rise within the ranks was frankly meteoric, given what little we all know: Jim entered Starfleet Academy in 2252, and was commanding the Federation’s flagship on its iconic five-year mission by 2265. Five of these 13 years had been spent within the Academy’s command coaching program, balancing research and sensible schooling with a task as a Starfleet midshipman, serving as an officer cadet and taking part in missions—together with a diplomatic mission to the planet Axanar, which earned him the Palm Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission. Kirk, in fact, additionally managed to not get kicked out of the Academy totally, however as a substitute get recommended, for hacking the infamously unbeatable Kobayashi Maru sensible check, turning into the primary Academy pupil to ever topple the no-win state of affairs.

What Was Kirk’s First Starship?

If we knew little about Kirk’s time at Starfleet Academy, we all know even much less about his early profession. In Star Trek season one episode “Court Martial” we study that certainly one of Kirk’s earliest commissions was aboard the USS Republic as an ensign, the place he served alongside certainly one of his instructors on the Academy, Lieutenant Benjamin Finney. Finney and Kirk had been shut associates following their time on the Academy, however their relationship soured aboard the Republic when an error Finney made almost destroyed the ship—and Kirk logged his function within the mistake, resulting in Finney being reprimanded by Starfleet and left unconsidered for promotion.

Which is not like Kirk, who was very a lot fast-tracked by the ranks. By the mid-2250s, Kirk was already a lieutenant, and returned to the Academy to show. In 2255, as detailed within the second season episode “Obsession,” Kirk’s first deep stempo task was aboard the USS Farragut, the place Lieutenant Kirk was assigned as a member of the phaser gun crew. Just two years into the task, nonetheless, catastrophe struck the Farragut: on the planet Tycho IV, the ship encountered a non-corporeal entity referred to as the Dikironium cloud creature, which attacked the ship and killed 2 hundred members of its crew, together with the Farragut’s captain, Garrovick.

Kirk, one of many few survivors, was traumatized by the occasion, believing his delay in following orders to fireplace upon the cloud creature (which had debilitated him to the purpose of dropping conciousness) immediately led to the catastrophe. But not solely was Kirk cleared of wrongdoing by the Farragut’s surviving govt officer, his heroism within the line of responsibility noticed him quickly propel by the ranks within the wake of the Farragut’s tour.

How Did Kirk Become Captain of the Enterprise?

That fast ascension meant that in 2265, when Kirk was simply 32, he turned the brand new Captain of the USS Enterprise, changing Christopher Pike, who had served aboard the vessel since 2250—earlier than Kirk had even joined Starfleet Academy. While we don’t know the precise particulars of how or why Pike left the Enterprise, “The Menagerie,” the well-known season one Star Trek episode that makes use of footage from the collection’ unique scrapped pilot, “The Cage,” tells us that Kirk and Pike had solely met as soon as earlier than the occasions of that episode, when Pike had been promoted to Fleet Captain—which is likely to be the purpose at which his service aboard the Enterprise got here to an finish.

We do know that from there on the place Kirk and Pike’s careers would lead them—Kirk on his iconic tour of responsibility to boldly go the place no man had gone earlier than, Pike’s to tragedy, when an accident throughout an inspection aboard a coaching vessel noticed him uncovered to deadly ranges of radiation, disfiguring him and leaving him on cellular life help. What else we would study Kirk’s early years will possible come to go in Strange New Worlds.

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