Like James Bond and Han Solo, James Tiberius Kirk has always had main character energy. Nobody would have called it that back in the 1960s, of course, but the man who shares a name with a Roman emperor (those guys weren’t shrinking violets either) tends to be the biggest presence on any starship bridge.
While later “Treks” have prioritized the ensemble over the individual, the original Enterprise was fueled by star power, with Kirk more often than not the hero. Six decades since they first boldly went, he and Mr Spock remain the most famous names in Starfleet.
So whenever Kirk shows up on Christopher Pike’s Enterprise — a surprisingly regular occurrence, seeing as he’s still the first officer of the USS Farragut — he’s no ordinary “special guest star” (the credit given to Paul Wesley every time he reprises a role famously originated by William Shatner). And even in a spin-off series that’s rarely shy about indulging in franchise nostalgia, Kirk is a gravity well that unbalances “Strange New Worlds” every time he beams aboard. In fact, in the latest episode, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” it feels like he’s hijacked someone else’s show.
Although he’s the most famous, Kirk wasn’t the original captain of the Enterprise. That honor fell to Robert April (an admiral in the “Strange New Worlds” era), who’d ceded command to Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) in time for original “Star Trek” pilot “The Cage”. This first-ever “Trek” episode didn’t make it out into the wider universe until the late ’80s, by which time Kirk had become a bona fide sci-fi icon.
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The only other evidence of Pike’s existence was the two-part episode “The Menagerie”, in which a gravely injured Pike (now played by Sean Kenney) was an unexpected guest on the Enterprise. Footage from “The Cage” appeared in flashbacks.
Although an alternate incarnation of Pike turned up in the Kelvin universe Trek movies (played by Bruce Greenwood), he was effectively a footnote in Starfleet history until he took command of the USS Discovery. But, he (now played by Anson Mount), the new-look Spock (Ethan Peck), and first officer Una “Number One” Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) proved such a hit that they were granted their very own TV show. This prequel series’ prime directive was detailing the voyages of the starship Enterprise before Kirk sat in the big chair — or so we thought.
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