Star Trek To Reveal Captain Kirk Lore TOS Only Hinted at as It Heads to His “Final Destination”

Prequels can be a mixed bag. The best ones are able to find a way to add depth to the previous works, recontextualizing characters and events in a compelling way. But that’s a fine line to walk, and there are several examples of prequels that struggle to execute their ideas. Fortunately, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has proven to be very successful over the course of its run, evoking the spirit of classic Star Trek as it builds to the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. One of the many highlights of Strange New Worlds is seeing iconic characters at a different stage in their life, before they became part the seasoned Enterprise crew fans know and love. As the show continues, it’s about to flesh out James T. Kirk in fascinating ways.

During a preview screening of the Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale (via TrekMovie), actor Paul Wesley discussed what’s next for Kirk and expressed excitement over exploring the character’s emotional side. “In watching TOS, you do learn a lot about the history of Kirk, but it’s very quick … I enjoy taking these kernels, these little things that just pieces of information from TOS and exploring them in an emotional way,” he said. “My relationship with Sam Kirk … I don’t want to give away too much, but there’s Kirk’s emotional ties to other humans. I think it’s humanizing a very important character in American television history. So, we’re exploring the human side of a lot of things that are well known in canon, but not necessarily from an emotional perspective.”

He added, “I am excited for people to see what happens in Season 4 and I’m excited for what I’m going to do in Season 5, because we are ultimately going to a final destination, which is the Kirk that is the fully-formed Kirk that we know from TOS.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Will Continue to Flesh Out Kirk’s Relationship With His Brother

One of the more significant ways Strange New Worlds has explored Kirk’s character is by diving into his dynamic with his older brother, George Samuel Kirk. “Sam” only appears briefly in The Original Series, and that’s as a corpse in the episode “Operation — Annihilate!” In contrast, the elder Kirk has a recurring role in Strange New Worlds, being featured in 12 episodes across the first three seasons. Based on Wesley’s comments, Sam Kirk will continue to play a key part in Strange New Worlds, factoring into Jim’s arc as he evolves into the captain he’s destined to be.

Throughout Strange New Worlds, Sam and Jim have experienced their fair share of differences — in multiple timelines (recall that a variant of Sam referred to his brother as “a huge pain in the ass”). It will be interesting to see how their relationship develops as Strange New Worlds progresses towards its fifth and final season, as there’s a lot of potential for emotional and meaningful interactions. There have been times when Sam’s expressed displeasure with Jim’s rise up the Starfleet ranks and his approach to protocols, which have been fascinating angles. Perhaps as the two continue to spend time together, they will help each other learn and grow, setting the stage for Jim to become the leader of the Enterprise crew.

The Sam/Jim relationship is an illustration of what makes a project like Strange New Worlds worthwhile. All fans learned during The Original Series was that Captain Kirk had a brother who was there to say goodbye before the Enterprise set off on its famous five-year mission. There was a lot of unexplored material to tap into, and Strange New Worlds has turned Jim’s dynamic with Sam into a compelling chapter of the character’s rich history. By the time Strange New Worlds reaches its conclusion, it could be hard to think about Captain Kirk without recalling the moments he had with his brother.

It’s important that Strange New Worlds continues to lean into humanity and emotion. It isn’t enough to just have Captain Kirk there for the sake of fan service. His inclusion on the show has to be worthwhile, and the way to accomplish that is to find interesting threads to explore and develop. The creative team has already been quite successful in that regard, and it sounds like that’s set to continue.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

Every Live-Action Star Trek Show Ranked, From Worst to Best