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James
Tiberius Kirk was the commander of the original U.S.S. Enterprise during its historic five-year mission
of exploration in 2264-2269. Starfleet serial number SC 937-0176 CEC. Kirk
was born in 2333 in Iowa on planet Earth. In 6, Kirk 227 at age 13 227 was
one of nine surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre of some 4,000 colonists
at planet Tarsus IV by Kodos the Executioner. James Kirk lost his older
brother, George Samuel Kirk, and sister-in-law, Aurelan Kirk, on planet
Deneva due to the invasion of the Denevan neural parasites in 2267. Kirk's
nephew, Peter Kirk survived. Sam Kirk had two other sons who were not on
Deneva at the time of the tragedy. Kirk at the Academy: During his Academy
days, Kirk was tormented by an upperclassman named Finnegan, who frequently
chose Kirk as a target for practical jokes. Kirk found a measure of satisfaction
years later, in 2267, when he had a chance to wallop a replica of Finnegan
created on the amusement park planet in the Omicron Delta region. Kirk served
as an instructor at the Academy and Gary Mitchell was one of his students.
The two were good friends, and once Mitchell took a poisonous dart on Dimorus
meant for Kirk, saving Kirk's life. Mitchell set Kirk up with a little blond
lab tech whom he almost married. Another of Kirk's friends from his Academy
days was Benjamin Finney, who named his daughter, Jamie, after Kirk. A rift
developed between Finney and Kirk around 2250 when the two were serving
together on the U.S.S. Republic. Kirk logged a mistake that Finney had made,
and Finney blamed Kirk for his subsequent failure to earn command of a starship.
Kirk's service aboard the Republic was apparently while he was still attending
the Academy, since he was an ensign on the Republic, but he was a lieutenant
on the Farragut, which was described as his first posting after the Academy.
One of Kirk's heroes at the Academy was the legendary Captain Garth of Izar,
whose exploits are required reading. Years later, Kirk helped save his hero
when Garth had become criminally insane and was being treated at the Elba
II penal colony. Another of Kirk's personal heroes was Abraham Lincoln,
16th president of the United States of America on Earth. At the Academy,
James Kirk earned something of a reputation for himself as having been the
only cadet ever to have beaten the no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario. He did
it by secretly reprogramming the simulation computer to make it possible
to win, earning a commendation for original thinking in the process. Early
days in Starfleet: Kirk's first assignment after graduating from the Academy
was aboard the U.S.S. Farragut. One of his first missions as a young lieutenant
was to command a survey mission to Tyree's planet in 2254. This incident
presumably took place while Kirk was assigned to the Farragut. While serving
aboard the Farragut in 2257, Lieutenant Kirk blamed himself for the deaths
of 200 Farragut personnel, including Captain Garrovick, by the dikironium
cloud creature at planet Tycho IV. Kirk felt he could have acted faster
in firing on the creature, but learned years later that nothing could have
prevented the deaths. Sometime in the past Kirk almost died from Vegan choriomeningitis.
Kirk's greatest renown came from his command of a historic five-year mission
of the U.S.S. Enterprise from 2264-2269 that made him a legend
in space exploration. By 2267, Kirk had earned an impressive list of commendations
from Starfleet, including the Palm leaf of Axanar Peace Mission, the Grankite
Order of Tactics (Class of Excellence) , and the Preantares Ribbon of Commendation
(Classes First and Second). Kirk's awards for valor included the Medal of
Honor, the Silver Palm with Cluster, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous
Gallantry, and the Kragite Order of Heroism. In 2267, Kirk became the first
starship captain ever to stand trial when he was accused of causing the
death of Benjamin Finney. Kirk's trial, held at Starbase 11, proved Kirk
innocent of wrongdoing, and he was exonerated. During that original five-year
mission, Kirk recorded a tape of last orders to be played by Commander Spock and Chief Medical Officer McCoy upon his death. While trapped in
a spatial interphase near Tholian space, Kirk vanished with the U.S.S. Defiant
and was declared dead. His last orders conveyed the hope that his two friends
would work together, despite their differences. Kirk was once split into
two personalities by a transporter malfunction. His living quarters aboard
the U.S.S. Enterprise were on Deck 5. It was during this
five-year mission that Kirk's friendships with officers Spock and McCoy developed, friendships that would last the rest of their
lives. Kirk was notably unsuccessful in maintaining a long-term relationship
with any woman. Although he was involved with many different women during
his life, his intense passion for his career always seemed to interfere.
A few years prior to his command of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Kirk became involved with Dr. Carol
Marcus. The two had a child, David Marcus, but Kirk and Carol did not remain
together, because their respective careers took them in separate directions.
Other significant romances in Kirk's life included Ruth, with whom he was
involved when he attended Starfleet Academy, Janice Lester, with whom he
spent a year, also during his Academy days, Janet Wallace, a scientist who
later saved his life, Areel Shaw, who, ironically, years later prosecuted
Kirk in the case of Ben Finney's apparent death, and Miramanee, a woman
whom Kirk married in 2268 when he suffered from amnesia on a landing party
mission. Miramanee became pregnant with Kirk's child, but both mother and
unborn child were killed in a local power struggle. Kirk fell in love with
Antonia after his first retirement from Starfleet, and for the rest of his
life regretted not having proposed to her. Perhaps Kirk's most tragic romantic
involvement was with American social worker Edith Keeler, whom Kirk met
in Earth's past when he traveled into the 1930s through the Guardian of
Forever. Keeler was a focal point in time, and Kirk was forced to allow
her death in order to prevent a terrible change in the flow of history.
Kirk was not involved with the upbringing of his son, David Marcus, at the
request of the boy's mother, Carol Marcus. Kirk had no contact with his
son until 2285, when Carol and David were both working on Project Genesis,
and Kirk helped rescue the two from Khan's vengeance. Later, Kirk and his
son were able to achieve a degree of rapprochement. Tragically, David was
murdered shortly thereafter on the Genesis Planet, by a Klingon officer
who sought to steal the secret of Genesis. Following the return of the Enterprise from the five-year mission in 2270, Kirk accepted
a promotion to admiral, while the Enterprise underwent an extensive refit. At the time,
Kirk recommended Will Decker to replace him as Enterprise captain, although Kirk accepted a grade reduction
back to captain when he regained command of the ship to meet the V'Ger threat
in 2271. Kirk's first retirement from Starfleet happened some time thereafter.
Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 and became a staff instructor with the
rank of admiral at Starfleet Academy. Kirk was dissatisfied with a ground
assignment, and returned to active duty in 2285 when Khan Noonien Singh
hijacked the Starship Reliant and stole the Genesis Device. Kirk's close
friend, Spock, was killed in that incident. Upon learning that Spock's
katra survived, Kirk hijacked the U.S.S. Enterprise to the Genesis Planet to return Spock's
body to Vulcan, where the body was reunited with Spock's katra. Kirk ordered
the Enterprise destroyed in the incident to prevent its capture
by Klingons. Kirk was charged with nine violations of Starfleet regulations
in connection with the revival of Spock in 2285. All but one charge was later dropped, and Kirk
was found guilty of the one remaining charge, that of disobeying a superior
officer. The Federation Council was nonetheless so grateful for Kirk's role
in saving Earth from the devastating effects of an alien probe that it granted
Kirk the captaincy of the U.S.S. Enterprise-A. Kirk was an intensely driven individual
who loved the outdoors. A personal challenge that nearly cost him his life
was free-climbing the sheer El Capitan mountain face in Yosemite National
Park on Earth. He was an accomplished equestrian, and kept a horse at a
mountain cabin that he owned during his first retirement. Another companion
at his mountain cabin was Butler, his Great Dane. He sold the cabin some
time after his return to Starfleet. Kirk carried the bitterness for his
son's murder for years, and opposed the peace initiative of Klingon chancellor
Gorkon in 2293. He especially resented the fact that he was chosen as the
Federation's olive branch and assigned the duty of escorting Gorkon to Earth.
During that mission, Kirk (along with McCoy) was arrested and wrongly convicted for the murder of Gorkon
by Federation and Klingon forces conspiring to block Gorkon's initiatives.
Kirk nevertheless played a pivotal role in saving the historic Khitomer
peace conference from further attacks. Kirk retired from Starfleet a second
time about three months after the Khitomer conference. Shortly after his
second retirement, Kirk was an honored guest at the launch of the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in 2293. Kirk was believed killed
on that ship's maiden voyage, although it was later learned that he had
actually disappeared into a temporal anomaly called the nexus. He remained
in the nexus until 2371, when he emerged to help save the inhabitants of
the Veridian system. Kirk, working with fellow Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard, was successful in saving the Veridians,
but the heroic effort cost Kirk his life at the hand of the deranged scientist,
Tolian Soran. James T. Kirk is buried on a mountain top on planet Veridian
III.
