123-710: James Tiberius Kirk , commonly known as Captain Kirk , is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner , Kirk first appeared in Star Trek serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise as captain. Kirk leads his crew as they explore new worlds and "boldly go where no man has gone before ". Often, the characters of Spock and Leonard "Bones" McCoy act as his logical and emotional sounding boards, respectively. Kirk has also been portrayed in numerous films, books, comics, webisodes, and video games. Kirk first appears in
246-515: A Shakespearean actor to invigorate the character, whose dialogue at times is laden with jargon. Not only did Shatner take inspiration from Roddenberry's suggestion of Hornblower, but also from Alexander the Great – "the athlete and the intellectual of his time" – whom Shatner had played for an unsold television pilot two years earlier. In addition, the actor based Kirk partly on himself because "the fatigue factor [after weeks of daily filming]
369-489: A YouTube video expressing disappointment at not being approached for a cameo. Although Shatner questioned the wisdom of not including him in the film, he predicted the movie would be "wonderful" and that he was "kidding" about Abrams not offering him a cameo. Kirk also appears in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , which is set six years before the events of the original series . He first appears in
492-560: A cult following among Trekkies greater than during its original run; by 1976, the cast described Star Trek as "the most popular series in the world". One sign of the series' growing popularity was the first Star Trek convention , which occurred on January 21–23, 1972 in New York City. Although the original expectation was that a few hundred fans would attend, several thousand turned up. Fans continue to attend similar conventions worldwide. The series' newfound success led to
615-540: A tent pole for the studio when other projects failed. The Next Generation had the highest ratings of any Star Trek series and became the most syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run. In response to the Next Generation 's success, Paramount released a spin-off series, Deep Space Nine , in 1993. While never as popular as the Next Generation , the series had sufficient ratings for it to last seven seasons. In January 1995,
738-484: A "superhuman redeemer" who "like a true superhero ... regularly escapes after risking battle with monsters or enemy spaceships". Although some episodes question Kirk's position as a hero, Star Trek "never left the viewer in doubt for long". Others have commented that Kirk's exaggerated "strength, intelligence, charm, and adventurousness" make him unrealistic. Kirk is described as able to find ways "through unanticipated problems to reach [his] goals" and his leadership style
861-465: A better teacher, colleague, and husband because he watched Kirk run the Enterprise ; Pausch wrote that "for ambitious boys with a scientific bent, there could be no greater role model than James T. Kirk". David A. Goodman commented that Kirk "has as much reality as possible for a fictional character." In 2012, IGN ranked the character Captain Kirk, as depicted in the original series, films, and
984-557: A big fan wanted to meet her while attending an NAACP dinner party: I thought it was a Trekkie, and so I said, 'Sure.' I looked across the room, and there was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walking towards me with this big grin on his face. He reached out to me and said, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' He said that Star Trek was the only show that he, and his wife Coretta, would allow their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King about her plans to leave
1107-561: A campaign reminiscent of the one that saved the third season of the Original Series . Paramount renewed Enterprise for a fourth season, but moved it to the Friday night death slot . Like the Original Series , Enterprise ' s ratings dropped during this time slot, and UPN canceled Enterprise at the end of its fourth season. Enterprise aired its final episode on May 13, 2005. A fan group, "Save Enterprise ", attempted to save
1230-411: A censor down to the set to measure a woman's cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing." Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of
1353-490: A contest to build a medical tricorder device was announced in 2012. Ten finalists were selected in 2014, and the winner was to be selected in January 2016. However, no team managed to reach the required criteria. Star Trek also brought teleportation to popular attention with its depiction of "matter-energy transport", with the famously misquoted phrase " Beam me up, Scotty " entering the vernacular. The Star Trek replicator
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#17327878624351476-416: A few months after the Next Generation ended, Paramount released a fourth television series, Voyager . Star Trek production reached a peak in the mid-1990s with Deep Space Nine and Voyager airing concurrently and three of the four Next Generation -based feature films released in 1994, 1996, and 1998. By 1998, Star Trek was Paramount's most important property and the profits of "the franchise" funded
1599-590: A fourth is scheduled for July 2020. The first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books . James Blish wrote adaptations of episodes of the original series in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1977; in 1970, he wrote the first original Star Trek novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die! . Pocket Books published subsequent Star Trek novels. Prolific Star Trek novelists include Peter David , Diane Carey , Keith DeCandido , J.M. Dillard , Diane Duane , Michael Jan Friedman , and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens . Several actors from
1722-694: A hero for the ages". Although Kirk throughout the series becomes romantically involved with various women, when confronted with a choice between a woman and the Enterprise , "his ship always won". Roddenberry wrote in a production memo that Kirk is not afraid of being fallible, but rather is afraid of the consequences to his ship and crew should he make an error in judgment. Roddenberry wrote: [Kirk] has any normal man's insecurities and doubts, but he knows he cannot ever show them—except occasionally in private with ship's surgeon McCoy or in subsequent moments with Mr. Spock whose opinions Kirk has learned to value so highly. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Admiral Kirk
1845-573: A large portion of the Farragut ' s crew, including his commanding officer, Captain Garrovick. Although the surviving Executive Officer disagreed, Kirk blamed himself for years for hesitating to fire his assigned weapons upon seeing the threat until a later encounter with the creature showed that firing immediately with conventional weapons would have been useless anyway. Kirk became Starfleet 's youngest starship captain after receiving command of
1968-542: A meeting with the time-displaced Spock of the original timeline, who inspires Kirk to live up to his full potential after learning about the parallel version of himself and his accomplishments as Captain in the elder Spock's timeline. Jeffrey Hunter played the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise , Captain Christopher Pike , in the rejected Star Trek television pilot " The Cage ". In developing
2091-610: A myriad of commercial entertainment venues. In Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty's Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation (2005), he explores the kind of fascism that is symbolically conveyed by heroic figures such as Luke Skywalker of Star Wars (1977) and Neo in The Matrix series. Matthew Kapell and Lawrence's co-edited book, Finding the Force of
2214-525: A mythological analysis of American culture in ways that account for religion, political history, mass (or popular) culture and are well regarded both in the United States and in Europe where they are read as a means of understanding American foreign policy. In collaborating with Matthew Wilhelm Kapell , Lawrence has explored the idea of the "mythic franchise," the core mythic story that is licensed for
2337-423: A narrative adventure video game set in the Next Generation era, was released by Dramatic Labs. Star Trek has led directly or indirectly to the creation of a number of magazines which focus either on science fiction or specifically on Star Trek . Starlog was a magazine which was founded in the 1970s. Initially, its focus was on Star Trek actors, but then it expanded its scope. Star Trek: The Magazine
2460-498: A new cast portraying the crew of the original show. Star Trek was a prequel of the original series set in an alternate timeline , later named the Kelvin Timeline. This gave the film and sequels freedom from the need to conform to the franchise's canonical timeline and minimized the impact these films would have on CBS's portion of the franchise. The eleventh Star Trek film's marketing campaign targeted non-fans, stating in
2583-464: A new pilot episode, called " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", series creator Gene Roddenberry changed the captain's name to "James Kirk" after rejecting other options like Hannibal, Timber, Flagg and Raintree. The episode title may have been inspired by Captain James Cook , whose journal entry "ambition leads me ... farther than any other man has been before me" inspired the episode title, and became
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#17327878624352706-486: A new set of fans to the franchise. CBS eventually sought to capitalize on this trend, and brought the franchise back to the small screen with the series Star Trek: Discovery to help launch and draw subscribers to its streaming service CBS All Access . Discovery's first season premiered on September 24, 2017. While Discovery is shown in the United States exclusively on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access), for its first three seasons, Netflix, in exchange for funding
2829-558: A new starship Enterprise with a new crew. Following Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Roddenberry's role was changed from producer to creative consultant, with minimal input to the films, while being heavily involved with the creation of The Next Generation . Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, giving executive producer Rick Berman control of the franchise. Star Trek had become known to those within Paramount as "the franchise", because of its great success and recurring role as
2952-497: A pilot, " The Cage ", starring Jeffrey Hunter as Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike . NBC rejected "The Cage", but the executives were still impressed with the concept, and made the unusual decision to commission a second pilot: " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". While the show initially enjoyed high ratings, the average rating of the show at the end of its first season dropped to 52nd out of 94 programs. Unhappy with
3075-486: A prequel to the 2009 film, Star Trek: Countdown . In 2012, IDW published the first volume of Star Trek – The Newspaper Strip , featuring the work of Thomas Warkentin. As of 2020, IDW continues to produce new titles. The Star Trek franchise has numerous games in many formats. Beginning in 1967 with a board game based on the original series and continuing through today with online and DVD games, Star Trek games continue to be popular among fans. Video games based on
3198-400: A racially diverse crew. In early 1964, Roddenberry presented a brief treatment for a television series to Desilu Productions , calling it "a Wagon Train to the stars". Desilu studio head Lucille Ball was instrumental in approving production of the series. The studio worked with Roddenberry to develop the treatment into a script , which was then pitched to NBC. NBC paid to make
3321-411: A sequel. The studio forced Roddenberry to relinquish creative control of future sequels. The success of the sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , reversed the fortunes of the franchise. While the sequel grossed less than the first movie, The Wrath of Khan ' s lower production costs made it net more profit. Paramount produced six Star Trek feature films between 1979 and 1991, each featuring
3444-420: A series of standalone mini-episodes which air between Discovery and Picard seasons. A new live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , a spinoff of the second season of Discovery and prequel to the original series, premiered on May 5, 2022. Lower Decks , an animated adult comedy series, was released on August 6, 2020, on CBS All Access. Another animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy , premiered on
3567-416: A significant portion of the studio's operations. Voyager became the flagship show of the new United Paramount Network (UPN) and thus the first major network Star Trek series since the original. After Voyager ended, UPN produced Enterprise , a prequel series. Enterprise did not enjoy the high ratings of its predecessors and UPN threatened to cancel it after the series' third season. Fans launched
3690-589: A starship is [Kirk's] first, best destiny", dies at the end of Star Trek II . In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Admiral Kirk leads his surviving officers in a successful mission to rescue Spock from a planet on which he is reborn. Although Kirk is demoted to Captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for disobeying Starfleet orders, he also receives command of a new Enterprise , the USS Enterprise -A (NCC 1701-A). The ship
3813-469: A student instructor. According to a friend, students could either "think or sink" in his class, and Kirk himself was "a stack of books with legs". Upon graduating in the top five percent, Kirk was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard the USS Farragut . While assigned to the Farragut , Kirk commanded his first planetary survey and survived a deadly attack by a bizarre cloud-like creature that killed
James T. Kirk - Misplaced Pages Continue
3936-646: A television film every two years starting with Section 31 . Many licensed products are based on the Star Trek franchise. Merchandising is very lucrative for both studio and actors; by 1986 Nimoy had earned more than $ 500,000 from royalties. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon . Star Trek merchandise generated $ 4 billion for Paramount by 2002. Since 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The first original Star Trek novel
4059-401: A universal narrative of the myth of the hero's journey which he claimed had disappeared in contemporary culture. Lawrence and Jewett described an American evolution of this mythological structure that reflected a deep antipathy to democratic institutions through the violent actions of a hero who remains separate from the community. This pattern varies significantly from Campbell's, that emphasizes
4182-474: A variety of ways, including collectible busts, action figures , mugs , t-shirts , and Christmas tree ornaments. A Kirk Halloween mask was altered and used as the mask worn by the character Michael Myers in the Halloween film franchise . In 2002, Kirk's captain's chair from the original Star Trek was auctioned for $ 304,000. In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Kirk tied with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin as
4305-611: A young version of the character in the 2009 Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and in Star Trek Beyond (2016). Paul Wesley portrays Kirk on the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , set prior to Kirk's captaincy of the Enterprise. Other actors have played the character in fan-created media, and the character has been the subject of multiple spoofs and satires. James Tiberius Kirk
4428-470: Is "a fine, brash boy Kirk". Slate , which called Pine "a jewel", described his performance as "channel[ing]" Shatner without being an impersonation. Slate described Shatner's depiction of Kirk as an "expansive, randy, faintly ridiculous, and yet supremely capable leader of men, Falstaffian in his love of life and largeness of spirit". The Myth of the American Superhero refers to Kirk as
4551-668: Is Chief of Starfleet Operations, and he takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Willard Decker . Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry 's novelization of The Motion Picture depicts Kirk married to a Starfleet officer killed during a transporter accident. At the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Kirk takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Spock to pursue his enemy from " Space Seed ", Khan Noonien Singh . The movie introduces Kirk's former lover Carol and his son, David Marcus . Spock, who notes that "commanding
4674-642: Is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as " Wagon Train to the Stars" and as Horatio Hornblower in Space . The opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957. Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and
4797-473: Is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Morningside College in Sioux City , Iowa , United States. His initial major publication, The American Monomyth , written with Robert Jewett, was published in 1977. The major contribution of The American Monomyth is a re-thinking of Joseph Campbell 's famous classical monomyth from his 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces . Campbell's monomyth described
4920-477: Is anime voice actor Vic Mignogna , who also plays the role of Kirk. Rounding out the core cast is fellow voice actor Todd Haberkorn as Spock, Chris Doohan (son of the original Scotty actor James Doohan ) as Scotty, and as McCoy first author-producer Larry Nemecek , followed by voice actor Chuck Huber . It also co-starred Grant Imahara ( MythBusters ) as Sulu. The first episode, " Pilgrim of Eternity " (with Michael Forest reprising his role as Apollo from
5043-420: Is attacked by a Romulan ship from the future. In the film, George and Winona Kirk name their son James Tiberius after his maternal and paternal grandfathers, respectively. Although the film treats specific details from Star Trek as mutable, characterizations are meant to "remain the same" though with Kirk being initially portrayed as "a reckless, bar-fighting rebel" but who eventually matures. According to Pine,
James T. Kirk - Misplaced Pages Continue
5166-410: Is credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field of diatom nanotechnology . In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise , after the fictional starship . Later, the introductory sequence to Star Trek: Enterprise included footage of this shuttle which, along with images of a naval sailing vessel called Enterprise , depicted
5289-463: Is depicted as an orange tabby cat . The Kirk crater on Pluto 's moon, Charon , is named after the character. In addition to television, feature films, books, and parodies, Kirk has also been portrayed in non-canon fan fiction . The Star Trek: New Voyages fan production , known from 2008 until 2015 as Star Trek: Phase II , portrays the further voyages of the original Enterprise crew. The series' creators feel that "Kirk, Spock, McCoy and
5412-529: Is in pre-production to take the place of one of these series. Star Trek: Prodigy was removed from Paramount+ in June 2023. The series was picked up by Netflix, and season 1 was made available on December 25, 2023. A second season aired later in 2024. Paramount is also planning to create television films for Paramount+ every two years. The first of these movies, Section 31 , will star Michelle Yeoh , reprising her role as Empress Georgiou from Discovery . It
5535-443: Is most "appropriate in a tight, geographically identical team with a culture of strong leadership." Although Roddenberry conceived the character as being "in a very real sense ... 'married' " to the Enterprise , Kirk has been noted for "his sexual exploits with gorgeous females of every size, shape and type"; he has been called " promiscuous " and labeled a " womanizer ". The Last Lecture author Randy Pausch believed he became
5658-448: Is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also notable for its progressive stances on civil rights . The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television. As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek . Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space —a so-called " Wagon Train to
5781-590: Is ordered decommissioned at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . In Star Trek Generations , Captain Jean-Luc Picard finds Kirk living in the timeless Nexus, despite the fact that history recorded his death during the Enterprise -B 's maiden voyage, Kirk having fallen into the Nexus in the incident that caused his "death". Picard persuades Kirk to return to Picard's present to help stop
5904-829: Is revealed to be stored in stasis at the Daystrom Institute by Section 31 . Shatner has since written a series of novels featuring Kirk being brought back to life by a Borg -Romulan alliance to serve as an assassin against Picard, but he is restored to normal and returns to provisional active service in Starfleet, including opposing his Mirror Universe counterpart. In this series, Chris Pine plays Kirk, Zachary Quinto plays Spock, Karl Urban plays "Bones" McCoy, Simon Pegg plays Montgomery "Scotty" Scott , Zoë Saldana plays Nyota Uhura , John Cho plays Hikaru Sulu , and Anton Yelchin plays Pavel Chekov . The series takes place in an alternate course of events known as
6027-491: Is scheduled to be released in early 2025. Twelve television series make up the Star Trek franchise: The Original Series , The Animated Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Enterprise , Discovery , Short Treks , Picard , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds . All series in total amount to 937 episodes across 49 seasons of television. Paramount Pictures has produced thirteen Star Trek feature films. The first six films continue
6150-444: Is such that you try to be as honest about yourself as possible". A comedy veteran, Shatner suggested making the show's characters as comfortable working in space as they would be at sea, thus having Kirk be a humorous "good-pal-the-captain, who in time of need would snap to and become the warrior". Changing the character to be "a man with very human emotions" also allowed for the development of the Spock character. Shatner wrote that "Kirk
6273-517: The Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars. The Star Trek franchise inspired some designers of technologies, the Palm PDA and the handheld mobile phone. Michael Jones, Chief technologist of Google Earth , has cited the tricorder 's mapping capability as one inspiration in the development of Keyhole/Google Earth. The Tricorder X Prize ,
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#17327878624356396-404: The Original Series cast in their original roles. In 1987, Paramount responded to the popularity of Star Trek feature films by bringing the franchise back to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation . Paramount chose to distribute the new series as a first-run syndication show rather than a network program. The series was set a century after the original, following the adventures of
6519-562: The Star Trek episode " The Man Trap ", broadcast on September 8, 1966, although the first episode recorded featuring Shatner was " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". Shatner continued in the role for the show's three seasons, and he later provided the voice of the animated version of Kirk in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974). Shatner returned to the role for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and six subsequent films. American actor Chris Pine portrays
6642-554: The Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Kurtzman wanted to "open this world up" and create multiple series set in the same universe but with their own "unique storytelling and distinct cinematic feel", an approach that he compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe . However, the franchise would not tell a single story across multiple series, allowing audiences to watch each series without having to see all of
6765-460: The USS ; Enterprise for a five-year mission, three years of which are depicted in the original Star Trek series. Kirk's most significant relationships in the television series are with first officer Spock and chief medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy . McCoy is someone to whom Kirk unburdens himself and is a foil to Spock . Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence 's The Myth of
6888-450: The series of the same name and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon . Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into various films , television series , video games , novels , and comic books , and it has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time . The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series , which premiered on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. In
7011-561: The "Kelvin Timeline" that reveal different origins for Kirk, the formation of his association with Spock, and how they came to serve together on the Enterprise . Whereas The Original Series portrayed Kirk as having been born in Iowa, the Star Trek film portrays him being born on a shuttle escaping the starship USS Kelvin in an alternate timeline in which his father is killed when the Kelvin
7134-448: The 1956 film Forbidden Planet , and television westerns such as Wagon Train . The Star Trek canon includes the Original Series , 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise ; further adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original Series , the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. A television revival beginning in
7257-433: The 1979 song " Where's Captain Kirk? " by Spizzenergi , the 1982 rap song " Tough " by Kurtis Blow , and 1983's " 99 Luftballons " by Nena (both German and English versions). More recently, in the 2003 remix of 1998’s " That Don't Impress Me Much ", Shania Twain puts forth Captain Kirk as one of the unattainable ideals to whom her unappealingly haughty suitor apparently thinks himself equal. Kirk has been merchandised in
7380-436: The 1980s saw four spinoff series: The Next Generation , following the crew of a new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; Deep Space Nine and Voyager , set in the same era as the Next Generation ; and Enterprise , set a century before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four additional feature films. In 2009,
7503-406: The 8th smartest character of Star Trek . In 1985, Riverside, Iowa petitioned Roddenberry and Paramount Pictures for permission to "adopt" Kirk as their town's "Future Son". Shatner and Roddenberry approved the proposal. Paramount wanted $ 40,000 for a license to reproduce a bust of Kirk, but the city instead set a plaque and built a replica of the Enterprise (named the "USS Riverside "), and
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#17327878624357626-804: The American Superhero (2002), which extends the analysis of the American Monomyth of American mass culture into areas such as videogames, and Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism (2003), (with Jewett listed as first author) which traces the history of holy wars and uses the American Monomyth concept to understand the American reaction after the events of September 11, 2001. The three books work together to suggest
7749-400: The American Superhero describes Kirk as "a hard-driving leader who pushes himself and his crew beyond human limits". Terry J. Erdman and Paula M. Block, in their Star Trek 101 primer , note that while "cunning, courageous and confident", Kirk also has a "tendency to ignore Starfleet regulations when he feels the end justifies the means"; he is "the quintessential officer, a man among men and
7872-521: The Ecowestern. In collaboration with Morningside College professor Marty Knepper, Lawrence published The Book of Iowa Films in June 2014. The book is the only comprehensive history and discussion of over 400 Iowa movies from 1918 through 2013, including both Hollywood films and independent films. He is also known for work on scholarly-related issues in copyright through his edited volume (w. Bernard Timberg) Fair Use and Free Inquiry (1980, 1989) and
7995-504: The No. 6 most popular space hero. Captain Kirk has also been portrayed in feline form. First, anthropomorphically, in two episodes of the 1975 Filmation Saturday morning animated children’s series The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty . The cartoon is based around the title character’s fantasies about being various heroic felines based on popular culture icons. Later came scientific illustrator Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats , in which Kirk
8118-516: The Riverside Area Community Club holds an annual "Trek Fest" in anticipation of Kirk's birthday. Kirk has been the subject of a wide range of television spoofs that aired in many countries, including The Carol Burnett Show and KI.KA 's Bernd das Brot . John Belushi 's impression of Kirk for Saturday Night Live , which he described as his favorite role, was "dead-on". Jim Carrey has been praised for his satire of
8241-636: The Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics (2006), examines the myths, the stereotypes, sexualities, the toys, and the critical response to the two Star Wars trilogies. George Lucas credited that Star Wars was influenced by John Shelton Lawrence's saga. Lawrence has provided essays and filmographies for the Film and History League's publications Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History (2003); there he suggests that Hollywood has begun to represent
8364-642: The US it debuted on September 8, 1966, on NBC . The series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise , a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before ". In creating Star Trek , Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift 's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels ,
8487-469: The US space program , working in this quality for NASA from the late 1970s until the late 1980s. In 2020, the US effort to develop a vaccine to protect against COVID-19 was named Operation Warp Speed , which was suggested by a Star Trek fan, Peter Marks. Marks leads the unit at the Food and Drug Administration which approves vaccines and therapies. John Shelton Lawrence John Shelton Lawrence
8610-508: The absence of stimuli: new cases for Holmes; starship adventures for Kirk. Meyer's The Wrath of Khan script focuses on Kirk's age, with McCoy giving him a pair of glasses as a birthday present. The script states that Kirk is 49, but Shatner was unsure about being specific about Kirk's age because he was hesitant to portray a middle-aged version of himself. Shatner changed his mind when producer Harve Bennett convinced Shatner that he could age gracefully like Spencer Tracy . Spock's sacrifice at
8733-471: The actor has enough swagger "to be passable in the role". Cawley's portrayal was well-known enough at Paramount that a group of Star Trek: Enterprise writers called for Cawley's attention at a science fiction convention by shouting "Hey, Kirk!" at him while Shatner sat nearby. First produced in 2013, the 11 episode series Star Trek Continues also looked to chronicle the "lost seasons" of Star Trek: The Original Series . The series developer and producer
8856-487: The actualization of Star Trek's holodeck in the future by making extensive use of artificial intelligence and cyborgs. Star Trek -based comics have been issued almost continuously since 1967, published by Marvel , DC , Malibu , Wildstorm , and Gold Key , among others. In 2009, Tokyopop produced an anthology of Next Generation -based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga . In 2006, IDW Publishing secured publishing rights to Star Trek comics and issued
8979-434: The advancement of human transportation technology. Beyond Star Trek 's fictional innovations, its contributions to television history included a multicultural and multiracial cast. While more common in subsequent years, in the 1960s it was controversial to feature an Enterprise crew that included a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator, and a black female communications officer. Captain Kirk's and Lt. Uhura's kiss, in
9102-472: The adventures of the cast of the Original Series ; the seventh film, Generations , was intended as a transition from original cast to the cast of the Next Generation ; the next three films focused completely on the Next Generation cast. The eleventh film was widely considered to be a reboot of the franchise, despite being a continuation set in an alternate timeline known as the "Kelvin Timeline". Additionally, streaming service Paramount+ intends to release
9225-480: The animated Star Trek series, star in the first seven Star Trek films, and provide voice acting for several games. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan director and writer Nicholas Meyer , who had never seen an episode of Star Trek before he was assigned to direct, conceived a " Hornblower in outer space" atmosphere, unaware that those books had been an influence on the show. Meyer also emphasized parallels to Sherlock Holmes , in that both characters waste away in
9348-475: The box office. CBS turned down several proposals in the mid-2000s to restart the franchise on the small screen. Proposals included pitches from film director Bryan Singer , Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski , and Trek actors Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner. While CBS was not creating new Star Trek for network television, the ease of access to Star Trek content on new streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video introduced
9471-478: The character in a 1992 episode of In Living Color . Comedian Kevin Pollak is well known for his impressions of Shatner as Kirk. Kirk's memorable scream of "Khan!" in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has become a pop culture icon in its own right, spawning internet memes and is widely parodied and paid tribute to. Kirk has been referenced in the lyrics of many pop songs . Early examples include
9594-471: The character is "a 25-year-old [who acts like a] 15-year-old" and who is "angry at the world", until he enrolls in Starfleet Academy basically after being 'dared' by Captain Christopher Pike. Kirk and Spock clash at Starfleet Academy, but, over the course of the film, Kirk focuses his "passion and obstinance and the spectrum of emotions" and becomes captain of the Enterprise . He is also aided by
9717-442: The conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have tackled issues of their respective decades. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism , imperialism , class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism , feminism, and
9840-480: The end of the film allows for Kirk's spiritual rebirth; after commenting earlier that he feels old and worn out, Kirk states in the final scene that he feels "young." Additionally, Spock's self-sacrificing solution to the no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario, which Kirk had cheated his way through, forces Kirk to confront death and to grow as a character. Both Shatner and test audiences were dissatisfied that Kirk
9963-405: The episode " Plato's Stepchildren ", was also daring, and is often mis-cited as being American television's first scripted, interracial kiss, even though several other interracial kisses ( e.g. on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ) predated this one. Nichelle Nichols, who played the communications officer, said that the day after she told Roddenberry of her plan to leave the series, she was told
10086-486: The film did not earn as much in the North American box office as its predecessor, internationally, in terms of box office receipts, Into Darkness is the most successful of the franchise. The thirteenth film, Star Trek Beyond , was released on July 22, 2016. The film had many pre-production problems and its script went through several rewrites. While receiving positive reviews, Star Trek Beyond disappointed in
10209-434: The film franchise underwent a reboot , creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Discovery , Picard , Short Treks , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds , streaming on digital platforms. Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of
10332-425: The film's advertisements that "this is not your father's Star Trek ". The film earned considerable critical and financial success, grossing (in inflation-adjusted dollars) more box office sales than any previous Star Trek film. The plaudits include the franchise's first Academy Award (for makeup ). Two sequels were released. The first sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness , premiered in the spring of 2013. While
10455-401: The film's production about the possibility of Shatner making a cameo appearance . According to Abrams, the production team considered ways to resurrect Shatner's deceased Kirk character, but could not devise a way that was not "lame". However, Abrams believed Shatner misinterpreted language about trying to get "him" into the movie as a reference to Shatner, and not his character. Shatner released
10578-605: The final episode of Season 1, portrayed by Paul Wesley , and appeared as a recurring guest in Season 2. In this series, the Enterprise has another captain, Kirk's predecessor Christopher Pike , who first appeared in " The Cage ". Other fellow crew characters from the original series, such as Uhura , Spock and Nurse Chapel are main characters in Strange New Worlds . According to Shatner, early Star Trek reviewers described his performance as "wooden", with most of
10701-464: The first and only student at Starfleet Academy to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking after he reprogrammed the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable. Kirk was granted a field commission as an ensign and posted to advanced training aboard the USS Republic . He was then promoted to lieutenant junior grade and returned to Starfleet Academy as
10824-530: The franchise are called " Trekkies " or "Trekkers". The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games , figurines, novels , toys, and comics . From 1998 to 2008, there was a Star Trek –themed attraction in Las Vegas . At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions . Star Trek
10947-484: The future of the franchise. Paramount relieved Berman, the franchise producer, of control of Star Trek . In 2007, Paramount hired a new creative team to reinvigorate the franchise on the big screen. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and producer J. J. Abrams had the freedom to reinvent the feel of the franchise. The team created the franchise's eleventh film, Star Trek , releasing it in May 2009. The film featured
11070-493: The hero's return to the community with some kind of significant aid ("the boon") and a willingness to accept public leadership as a member of that community. Responding to the Star Trek fan movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, they predicted the rise of entertainment-based systems of religious belief – a reality that became even more evident with the Star Wars phenomenon. Lawrence and Jewett have since further expanded these initial ideas in two more books: The Myth of
11193-415: The idea of reviving the franchise. Filmation with Paramount Television produced the first post–original series show, Star Trek: The Animated Series , featuring the cast of the original series reprising their roles. It ran on NBC for 22 half-hour episodes over two seasons on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974. Although short-lived, typical for animated productions in that time slot during that period,
11316-682: The movie's alternative timeline while attempting to preserve key character traits from the previous depictions. Kurtzman said casting someone whose portrayal of Kirk would show that the character "is being honored and protected" was "tricky", but that the "spirit of Kirk is very much alive and well" in Pine's depiction. Due to his belief that he could not take himself seriously as a leader, Pine recalled having difficulty with his audition, which required him "to bark ' Trek jargon'", but his charisma impressed director J. J. Abrams . Pine's chemistry with Zachary Quinto , playing Spock, led Abrams to offer Pine
11439-442: The new Kirk in 2009 film Star Trek , as the number one top character of the Star Trek universe. In 2016, Kirk was ranked as the #1 most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe by Wired magazine, out of 100 characters of the franchise. In 2018, CBR ranked Kirk the best Starfleet character of Star Trek, including later television series. In July 2019, Screen Rant ranked Kirk
11562-490: The original series episode " Who Mourns for Adonais? ") was released in 2013. The second episode, " Lolani " (featuring guest star Lou Ferrigno ), was released in February 2014, and a third episode, " Fairest of Them All " was released in June 2014 and won a Burbank International Film Festival award for "Best New Media – Drama". Star Trek Continues also won a Geekie Award for "Best Web Series". On June 19, 2015, Episode 4 of
11685-612: The others. CBS and Kurtzman refer to this expanded franchise as the Star Trek Universe . The second series of the expansion of the Star Trek Universe, Star Trek: Picard , features Patrick Stewart reprising the character Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation . Picard premiered on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020. Unlike Discovery , Amazon Prime Video streams Picard internationally. CBS has also released two seasons of Star Trek: Short Treks ,
11808-662: The past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species known as the Vulcans , who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gave Star Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations. His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that Enterprise have
11931-593: The president as a physical superhero in such films as Independence Day (1996) and Air Force One (1997); in Hollywood's West: The American Frontier in Film Television and History (2005), he analyzes The Lone Ranger as a juvenile franchise that has affected adult culture; in Landscape of Hollywood Westerns: Ecocriticism in an American Film Genre (2006), he has traced the little recognized subgenre of
12054-487: The production costs of the show, owned the international screening rights for the show. This Netflix distribution and production deal ended right before the fourth season premiere of Discovery in November 2021. Discovery has since been exclusive to Paramount Global owned platforms. In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of Discovery , Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand
12177-477: The production of Star Trek . Jack Lord was Desilu Productions ' original choice to play Kirk, but his demand for fifty-percent ownership of the show led to him not being hired. The second pilot episode was successful, and " Where No Man Has Gone Before " was broadcast as the third episode of Star Trek on September 22, 1966. William Shatner tried to imbue the character with qualities of "awe and wonder" absent from "The Cage". He also drew upon his experiences as
12300-557: The rebranded service Paramount+ first on October 28, 2021, and on December 17, 2021, on Nickelodeon . Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target younger audiences, and is the franchise's first fully computer animated series. Star Trek saturation would hit a new peak in 2022, with five Star Trek series airing in the same year. The Star Trek: Picard series finale aired in April 2023. Discovery's series finale aired in May 2024. A Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series
12423-566: The rest should be treated as 'classic' characters like Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman , Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings or even Hamlet , Othello or Romeo . Many actors have and can play the roles, each offering a different interpretation of said character." James Cawley played Kirk in most of the ten episode Phase II series from its beginning in 2004 before replacing himself with actor Brian Gross. Wired observes that while Cawley's depiction "lacks Shatner's vulnerability",
12546-473: The role of technology. Roddenberry stated: "[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam , politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek : we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network. If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send
12669-707: The role. Jimmy Bennett played Kirk in scenes depicting the character's childhood. The writers turned to material from the novel Best Destiny for inspiration as to Kirk's childhood. In preparing to play Kirk, Pine decided to embrace the character's key traits – "charming, funny, leader of men" – rather than try to fit the "predigested image" of Shatner's portrayal. Pine specifically did not try to mirror Shatner's cadence, believing that doing so would become "an impersonation". Pine said he wanted his portrayal of Kirk to most resemble Harrison Ford 's Indiana Jones or Han Solo characters, highlighting their humor and "accidental hero" traits. A misunderstanding arose during
12792-405: The series and tried to raise $ 30 million to privately finance a fifth season of Enterprise . Though the effort garnered considerable press, the fan drive failed to save the series. The cancellation of Enterprise ended an eighteen-year continuous production run of Star Trek programming on television. The poor box office performance in 2002 of the film Nemesis cast an uncertain light upon
12915-419: The series catch-phrase in the opening voice-over. The character is in part based on C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower hero, and NBC wanted the show to emphasize the captain's "rugged individualism". Roddenberry had previously used the middle name of Tiberius for the leading character in his earlier television series, The Lieutenant , which was to feature several actors who would later go on to be part of
13038-463: The series garnered the franchise's only Emmy Award in a "Best Series" category—specifically Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series ; later Emmy awards for the franchise would be in technical categories. Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry began developing a new series, Star Trek: Phase II , in May 1975 in response to the franchise's newfound popularity. Work on the series ended when the proposed Paramount Television Service folded. Following
13161-435: The series include Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek: Conquest . An MMORPG based on Star Trek called Star Trek Online was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World . It is set during the Next Generation era, about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis . The most recent video game was set in the alternate timeline from Abrams's Star Trek . On April 23, 2023, Star Trek: Resurgence ,
13284-474: The series was posted and titled "White Iris". All eleven full episodes have been released as of December, 2017. In October 2021, Kirk's actor from The Original Series William Shatner flew to space aboard a Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule. At age 90, he became the oldest person to fly to space and one of the first 600 to do so. Star Trek Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry , which began with
13407-414: The series.] I never got to tell him why, because he said, 'You can't. You're part of history.' After the show, Nichols used this public standing to speak for women and people of color and against their exclusion from the US human space program; NASA reacted by asking her to find people for its future Space Shuttle program. Nichols proceeded and successfully brought the first non-white people and women into
13530-515: The show's acting praise and media interest going to Nimoy. However, Shatner's mannerisms when portraying Kirk have become "instantly recognizable" and Shatner won a Saturn Award for Best Actor in 1982 for The Wrath of Khan . Star Trek II director Nicholas Meyer said Shatner "gives the best performance of his life" in The Wrath of Khan . The Guardian called Pine's performance of Kirk an "unqualified success", and The Boston Globe said Pine
13653-506: The show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season. The show's fan base , led by Bjo Trimble , conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air. NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the " Friday night death slot ", and substantially reduced its budget. In protest, Roddenberry resigned as producer and reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek , which led to Fred Freiberger becoming producer for
13776-475: The show's third and final season. Despite another letter-writing campaign, NBC canceled the series after three seasons and 79 episodes. After the original series was canceled, Desilu, which by then had been renamed Paramount Television , licensed the broadcast syndication rights to help recoup the production losses. Reruns began in late 1969, and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. This helped Star Trek develop
13899-560: The stars"—he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels , intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale. Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet , the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets . The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas. Many of
14022-522: The success of the science fiction movies Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode of Phase II into the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The film opened in North America on December 7, 1979, with mixed reviews from critics. The film earned $ 139 million worldwide, below expectations but enough for Paramount to create
14145-512: The television series have also written or co-written books featuring their respective characters: William Shatner , John de Lancie , Andrew J. Robinson , J. G. Hertzler and Armin Shimerman . Voyager producer Jeri Taylor wrote two novels detailing the personal histories of Voyager characters. Screenplay writers David Gerrold , D. C. Fontana , and Melinda Snodgrass have also penned books. A 2014 scholarly work Newton Lee discussed
14268-414: The themes [of death and mortality] in the way we wanted". Malcolm McDowell , whose character kills Kirk, was dissatisfied with both versions of Kirk's death: he believed Kirk should have been killed "in a big way". McDowell claims to have received death threats after Generations was released. In Star Trek (2009), screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci focused their story on Kirk and Spock in
14391-583: The villain Soran from destroying Veridian III's sun. Although Kirk initially refuses the offer, he agrees after realizing the Nexus cannot give him the one thing he has always sought: the ability to make a difference. The two leave the Nexus and stop Soran. However, Kirk is mortally wounded; as he dies, Picard assures him that he helped to "make a difference". Picard buries Kirk on the planet, however in Star Trek: Picard 's third season (2023), Kirk’s body
14514-480: Was Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds , which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968. In 1968, Gene Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the nonfiction book The Making of Star Trek for Ballantine Books . Among the most recent is the Star Trek Collection of Little Golden Books . Three titles were published by Random House in 2019,
14637-522: Was a magazine published in the U.S. that ceased publication in 2003. Star Trek Magazine , originally published as Star Trek Monthly by Titan Magazines for the United Kingdom market, began in February 1995. The magazine has since expanded to worldwide distribution under the name Star Trek Explorer . Other magazines through the years included professional, as well as magazines published by fans, or fanzines . The Star Trek media franchise
14760-485: Was a man who marveled and greatly appreciated the endless surprises presented to him by the universe ... He didn't take things for granted and, more than anything else, respected life in every one of its weird weekly adventure forms". Shatner did not expect Star Trek to be successful, so when it was cancelled in 1969, he assumed it would be the end of his association with the franchise. Following Star Trek's popularity after its cancelation, Shatner went on to voice Kirk in
14883-598: Was born in Riverside, Iowa , on March 22, 2233, where he was raised by his parents, George and Winona Kirk. Although born on Earth, Kirk lived for a time on Tarsus IV , where he was one of nine surviving witnesses to the massacre of 4,000 colonists by Kodos the Executioner . James Kirk's brother, George Samuel Kirk, is first mentioned in " What Are Little Girls Made Of? " and introduced and killed in " Operation -- Annihilate! ", leaving behind three children. Kirk became
15006-433: Was broadcast worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves " trekkies " or "trekkers". An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the film Trekkies . Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show by TV Guide . The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of
15129-489: Was fatally shot in the back in the original ending of the film Star Trek Generations . An addendum inserted while Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories memoir was being printed expresses his enthusiasm at being called back to film a rewritten ending. Despite the rewrite, Generations co-writer Ronald D. Moore said that Kirk's death, which was intended to "resonate throughout the Star Trek franchise", failed to "pay off
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