Ofc Spock is alienated, and it’s a beautiful and heart wrenching conflict, but I think Kirk’s alienation in TOS is just as fascinating.

Kirk can’t have long term romantic relationships because he is Captain. He refuses to get with people on his crew who he has direct control over (in the context of Spirk I believe that this would also cause him to hesitate in forming a relationship with Spock) and of course all other relationships would be long-long-long distance.

Jim’s romances are also often ruses; it’s not often that he seems to truly fall in love with a woman as opposed to simply seducing her in order to gain an advantage.

Jim has to be forced by Spock and McCoy to relax; he also seems to have told no one about either his traumatic experience on Tarsus IV, or his traumatic experience with the spooky evil fog. This seems to me to show a reluctance to show weakness.

Jim loves his position as captain and would do (almost) anything to maintain it.

I also see Kirk as fairly calculating; he is able to put emotion aside to make difficult choices (as in The City on the Edge of Forever). Kirk, while personable, is a fairly Vulcan human.

All of these things, I believe, show that Kirk probably feels lonely and alienated. I think this is why he understands Spock so well — they are able to find in each other the solace they lack everywhere else. Kirk can trust that Spock won’t be manipulated by him because of Spock’s Vulcan strength and logic; Kirk doesn’t have to worry about Spock attempting to gain power because Spock does not want command.

Jim struggles with loneliness and alienation. Boom.

anewstartrekfan

I agree with a lot of this. Great blog.

I’d only add that as far as we know, the difference between Kirk and Spock is we know why Spock is this lonely and faces alienation. It 100% has everything to do with his upbringing and existing as a half Vulcan half human.

Jim Kirk however, is more muddled. He chose to be a captain. He walked into this alienation in that sense given he knew he would the the highest person on the chain of command. And a lot of his loneliness is self imposed because you see Bones and Spock confront Kirk on his past and he still refuses to speak of it unless it threatens the ship. And even then what Jim says is often just parroting what other characters have described about the events. Not his own feelings.

He refuses to open up and we don’t even know for sure why. Is it because he thinks a captain can’t show weakness or does he genuinely not want to talk about this stuff? Or some other third thing? The audience doesn’t know.

I love Kirk so much.

na-nanu

YESSS he’s so fucked <3

fractal-baby

Absolutely love this post. This is exactly how I understand TOS Kirk. Sorry, got a character ramble incoming.

Kirk is well-liked and has a million friendly acquaintances, but in the pilot his only close relationship is with his first officer Gary Mitchel. (Gary has entered fanon lore as Kirk's ex-boyfriend. This has no explicit canon backing other than Shatner doing his classic bedroom eyes at Lockwood, but I like the interpretation personally.)

But Gary doesn't appear to actually like Kirk all that much. He clearly has a deep inferiority complex centered around Kirk and their years at the academy, and my take is that this is what dictates a lot of Kirk's early relationships. People (esp other Starfleet officers) get jealous and weird around him because he's so over-the-top accomplished, so he turns on the charm to get people to like him, but that perversely works to distance him from others even further. After all, it's hard to really get to know a guy who's just sort of flirtatious and charming and perfect all the time, and it's easy to hate him. Court Martial strongly implies that Kirk's entire graduating class from the Academy fucking hates him, other than Areel Shaw, who almost treats him with a kind of pity. But Kirk seems to prefer this emotional distance, perhaps because of Tarsus trauma, or maybe that's just the way he is. We don't really know.

Later we get Kirk's only real friend, McCoy, who unsurprisingly seems to have very little professional ambition and an abrasive personality. I think this is why they work as friends---McCoy is older, he doesn't hold a grudge about Kirk ruining the curve in Quantum Temporal Mechanics II or whatever, and he finds Kirk's charm mostly ridiculous. So they can have a real friendship, although because of Kirk's penchant for emotional distance McCoy still ends up prying stuff out of him, or just guessing wildly at Kirk's motivations (Conscience of the King/Requiem for Methuselah being two examples).

I won't get into Kirk's relationship with Spock here, but I think they're basically of a kind. They both struggle with a high degree of consciousness over their image, and to reconcile what they feel like they're supposed to be (emotionless Vulcan scientist/ideal Starfleet captain) with the reality of what they are (human who makes mistakes). Kirk doesn't walk around calling emotions a weakness the way Spock does---to the contrary, he'll argue with Spock on this point---but he acts as though he believes they are. Or more to the point, he seems to struggle with any emotions that are off-script (the script being dashing Starfleet captain x pretty girl, but that never lasts for long).

Last note, we do see Kirk change a bit as he gets older. In the movies---especially after TMP---he's more emotionally open and willing to engage with McCoy and Spock.

You’re a goddamn genius