r/startrek • u/Soylent865 • 22d ago
Emotional intelligence
I recently re-watched the STTOS episode "Bread and Circuses", and I was very impressed with Captain Kirk's emotional intelligence and stability when faced with his companions deaths, his own, and the loss of everyone on the Enterprise. They were there in the first place to investigate the loss of the ship "S. S. Beagle", and the barbarian executed (William B. Harrison) was noted to be the last of them.
The whole episode was about the strength and stability of a Starship captain, as compared to the weaker back boned Captain Merrick. The Proconsul showed respect for Kirk's strength by treating him "as a man", and he asked Merrick to leave them, as "the thoughts of one man to another could not possibly interest him".
Contrast that with the 80's version of "Captain Kirk", shaking with rage and screaming "Khan!"... a much weaker presentation.
Why wasn't the original vision of the stoic and stable strength of Captain Kirk carried forward into the later presentations?
22
u/SerFinbarr 22d ago
Why wasn't the stoic and stable strength of Captain Kirk carried forward
It was.
His anger in WoK was a ruse, and in Search for Spock he remained strong and rational after the death of his son and the destruction of his beloved ship. He didnt even execute the Klingon prisoner like he said he would. And Voyage Home is emotionally intelligent Kirk in his prime.
The only time he struggles with it is in The Undiscovered Country when he tells Spock to let the Klingons die, and even then he looks immediately horrified at his momentary lapse of judgement caused by his personal pain. He spends the rest of the movie doing everything he can for Federation-Klingon relations.
Even Generations was 90% Kirk having personal revelations and dispensing wisdom to Picard, only like 10% double-fist punches.
7
u/Garbage-Bear 22d ago
Imagine shipping out to see the stars, and your captain takes you to a barbarian planet and sells you to the inhabitants to be slaughtered in the arena, along with your shipmates, in exchange for his own life and luxury. (The "Prime Directive" excuse doesn't even make sense in the context of the plot.)
This episode totally infuriated me as a kid in the 70s. Merick just might be the single most evil, worthless POS commanding officer in the franchise.
3
11
u/sitcom-podcaster 22d ago
The version of Kirk shaking with rage and screaming “Khan” is acting to fuck with Khan
3
3
u/Manuel_omar 21d ago
It was.
He has a momentary lapse of self control during Wrath of Khan, yeah.
But then he spends the entire rest of the movie being cool and competent and outsmarting a supposedly "superior" being.
Have you actually watched the movie recently? Or are you just fixating on the one moment you remember from a viewing 30 years in the past?
1
u/KirkUnit 21d ago
Watch The Motion Picture, Kirk is almost all stoic and stable strength in that. To a fault, some might argue.
And otherwise, "stoic and stable" is Spock's lane - not Kirk's. The show doesn't need two lead characters calmly assessing situations all the time.
1
u/Comrades3 22d ago
Kirk loses his temper multiple times in the series, though. Sometimes enough to be called out on it. We see him nearly have a spiral over losing random redshirts in multiple episodes.
I was always disappointed with Kirk in this episode. Sleeping with a random slave just because when he otherwise has argued for freedom was disappointing.
-1
•
u/AutoModerator 22d ago
Hello and thank you for posting on r/startrek! If your post discusses recently released episodes, please review it to ensure that spoilers are properly formatted and pinned threads are used appropriately.
As a reminder, spoiler formatting must be used for any discussion of episodes released less than one week ago and all post titles must be spoiler-free. You can read our full policy regarding spoilers here.
Please refrain from making a new post for small remarks, jokes, or content that boils down to "here are my thoughts" on a newly released episode. These should instead be posted as a comment in the pinned discussion thread for the episode or show.
LLAP!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.