Legendary Star Trek icon Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) demonstrates aspects of a darker side through a pattern of crimes and disregarded orders in the space-faring franchise’s movies. Promoted to Admiral for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the saga’s first movie in 1979, Kirk instantly sets about getting back his command of the Starship Enterprise. Kirk’s disillusionment with his desk job is revealed over the next few movies, culminating in blatant insurrection in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Famously rejecting the ‘no-win scenario,’ the generally obedient and proper Kirk occasionally gambles on taking risks and evading regulation to achieve a moral or necessary outcome.
With the creation of J.J. Abrams’ Kelvin Timeline in Star Trek (2009), an alternate Kelvin timeline James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) embarked on a life towards Starfleet and captaincy of the USS Enterprise. Living a different life from his William Shatner counterpart, Pine’s Kirk also shares many similarities – including a certain disregard for the rules. However, violations of Starfleet’s oath can come with a heavy price, with multiple examples in Star Trek’s history of Starfleet officers facing legal consequences for questionable acts. With Prime Kirk’s inclusion in Star Trek’s first seven movies and the Kelvin timeline’s Kirk’s role in the most recent three, here’s a look at the character’s crimes across the franchise’s ten Kirk-specific movies.
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10 Star Trek Generations
Captain Kirk Teams Up With Captain Picard
Though a case could be argued that Kirk’s death in Star Trek Generations is itself a crime, the former Captain of the Enterprise committed no crimes in this movie. During the USS Enterprise-B’s maiden voyage, an energy ribbon called the Nexus rips through the ship’s hull and Captain Kirk is believed to have been killed. When he is later revealed to be alive and unknowingly trapped within the Nexus, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) enlists Kirk’s help to prevent Dr. Tolian Soran’s (Malcolm McDowell) scheme to destroy a planet and return to the Nexus himself from coming to fruition. Although Kirk and Picard are successful in their attempts, the movie sadly proves to be Kirk’s last. Kirk is crime-free in Star Trek Generations and goes out having once again saved worlds.
9 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Captain Kirk Questions What God Wants With A Starship
William Shatner directs Star Trek’s fifth movie, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which starts with Captain Kirk enjoying shore leave along with Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Ordered by Starfleet to rescue diplomatic hostages on Nimbus III, the USS Enterprise-As crew meets the mysterious Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) – Spock’s half-brother – who intends to use the Enterprise to find Sha Ka Ree. Emphatically avoiding Sybok’s offer to ‘free him from his personal pain,’ Kirk learns the innermost emotional vulnerabilities of his closest friends. Kirk doesn’t commit any crimes in this movie but, with control of the Enterprise taken from him, is frustrated by Sybok’s quest to find his Vulcan ‘God’.
8 Star Trek Beyond
Captain Kirk Is Attacked By Krall
Captain Kirk leads the Enterprise on a rescue mission after Starfleet’s Yorktown space station receives a distress call. The message leads to an ambush, and the Enterprise is destroyed by Krall’s (Idris Elba) mechanical swarm. Through rescuing a scattered crew from Altamid and pursuing Krall to Yorktown, the Enterprise officers learn that it was a weary Kirk’s personal logs that, hacked, provided Krall with information on Enterprise. With Yorktown similarly infiltrated, it’s a race against time to escape Altamid and stop Krall’s dastardly scheme. It’s hard to imagine a different course of action Kirk might have taken upon attack, but Star Trek Beyond restores Kirk’s commitment to his captaincy.
7 Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Admiral Kirk Seizes Command Of The USS Enterprise
The Star Trek franchise’s first movie introduces a more mature original cast, with noticeably different character facets and temperaments. Admiral James T. Kirk begins the film by usurping command of the Starship Enterprise and demoting Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins) in order to investigate the threat from V’Ger (and escape the confines of his desk job). It’s soon presented that Kirk was the one to recommend Decker as his successor and now temporarily demotes him. While not strictly criminal, Kirk’s actions are manipulative and abuse his authority. Kirk’s lack of familiarity with the Enterprise is clear when his phaser order is countermanded by Decker, saving the Enterprise from destruction.
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6 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Captain Kirk Is Convicted Of Murder And Sentenced To Life Imprisonment
The Klingon Empire is devastated by the destruction of Praxis, a moon, and the USS Enterprise is tasked with escorting a Klingon party to Earth for peace talks. The Klingon Chancellor, Gorkon (David Warner), is assassinated en-route and Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy framed for the crime. Arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced by the Empire, the Starfleet officers are condemned to life imprisonment on Rura Penthe, a penal ice world. Though Kirk’s earlier discrimination is used against him, it’s important to note that Kirk and McCoy were innocent of all charges. Kirk later recognizes his prejudice and, with the Enterprise crew, helps to establish peace and expose the Starfleet/Klingon Empire conspiracy.
5 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Admiral Kirk Admits To Cheating On Starfleet’s Kobayashi Maru Simulation
Temporarily stuck on Regula I during a lull in hostilities with Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), Kirk admits to a curious Lieutenant Saavik (Kirstie Alley) his solution to Starfleet’s infamous Kobayashi Maru training simulation. Designed as a test of command cadets’ ingenuity and nerve, Kirk’s lack of belief in no-win scenarios led him to reprogramming the simulation on his third attempt to allow for success. David Marcus (Merrick Butrick) reacts negatively to the revelation, but Kirk comments that his solution resulted in a commendation from Starfleet for Original Thinking. Nevertheless, it is an admission of cheating and counter to his Starfleet vow.
4 Star Trek (2009)
Cadet Kirk Cheats On Starfleet’s Kobayashi Maru Simulation
Cadet James T. Kirk takes Starfleet’s ‘unwinnable test’, the Kobayashi Maru, and alters the parameters of the simulation to allow for a successful outcome. Unlike his Prime Universe counterpart, however, he does not win any prizes for his creativity and instead is summoned before a Starfleet Academy Panel of Admirals for a hearing on academic dishonesty. The hearing is interrupted by a distress call from Vulcan, and he is placed on academic probation until the hearing can be resumed. Smuggled aboard the USS Enterprise, Kirk commits mutiny and is literally thrown off the Enterprise by Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto). Kirk then secretly follows instructions from Prime Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to reveal the Kelvin Timeline’s Spock is emotionally compromised by the destruction of Vulcan in order to take command of the Enterprise.
3 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Admiral Kirk Disobeys Orders and Steals Some Whales
Admiral Kirk and the former Enterprise crew prepare to return to Earth to face up to their actions in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Leaving Vulcan in their stolen Klingon bird-of-prey, Kirk and his friends disobey direct orders to return to Earth to travel back in time to retrieve several whales that could respond to an alien probe wreaking havoc on Earth. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, AKA ‘the one with the whales,’ Kirk and crew break Starfleet’s Prime Directive, and finally face tribunal with all but one of the charges dropped in light of their actions to save Earth. Admiral Kirk alone is reduced in rank to Captain for disobeying direct orders.
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2 Star Trek Into Darkness
Captain Kirk Disregards The Prime Directive
Kirk – temporarily demoted to Commander – reels from the death of his mentor, Admiral Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), and seeks vengeance against Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch). Initially breaking Starfleet’s Prime Directive by allowing the native inhabitants of Nibiru to see the Enterprise when Spock’s life is threatened in an active volcano, having lured them away with theft of a sacred document, Kirk is subsequently reprimanded for falsifying his mission log. Kirk’s captaincy is restored by Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller), who sends the Enterprise after Khan with a payload of experimental torpedoes. Kirk disobeys these orders when his crew objects to the mission, and the ship suffers an unexplained power failure.
1 Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Admiral Kirk And The Enterprise Crew Steal The USS Enterprise
Embarking on a quest of rebellion, hope, and sacrifice for Spock’s soul, Admiral Kirk and his former crew break their vows to Starfleet and commit a significant series of crimes. Believing that “the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many,” Kirk and company steal the USS Enterprise and travel to the off-limits Genesis Planet against direct orders. To prevent pursuit and allow escape with the stolen starship, the officers also sabotage the USS Excelsior and temporarily hold several officers prisoner. Later, Kirk destroys the Enterprise to prevent it from falling into enemy hands and kills Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), also taking his ship to escape the combusting planet. Kirk’s crimes are so great in the third Star Trek movie that he faces a court-martial in the next film, Star Trek IV.
