I've only fully watched the series' from TNG onward, plus the "must see" episodes of TOS. I'm just wondering if in canon he's actually all that promiscuous.
Perhaps gently ease your way into it, with the movies first. In reverse order. Then, less culture shock when jumping to TOS.
A lot "hero gets the gal" [or doesn't] crap shoe-horned in to (afaicr) every episode. Gets me wondering what trek could be, freed from the producers, the corporation, the industry, etc., not just how different standards from then to now, but what flawed standards of our times could be more savagely exposed. If they were making those mistakes then that we see now, what mistakes are we making now (or even 30 years ago), that are yet to be exposed (by just socially evolving past).
There were 79 episodes, but Kirk had on screen kisses in 20 of them. That's more than 25% of the series run that you can watch Kirk's libido in action, so I can only guess it has become so normalized to some of us that we don't even remember clearly how overt it was. That's on top of the other relationships both on and off screen as well. I would say Kirk's rep is well deserved.
For a refresher, I submit Exhibit A
I think one of those kisses in Exhibit A was an evil duplicate. But yes, you make a strong case
Yeah, that and the kiss with Uhura are the "Kirk not himself" ones. With Rand, there's the argument to be made that it is still very much Kirk acting according to his instincts, just without the part of him that acts as a filter. With Uhura, both are forced into it and desire plays no role. Still, quite the list.
Sort of, sometimes. In more of a goofy 1960s sci-fi kind of way, otherwise not much different than Riker in that respect.
So he's Austin Powers with better teeth and a phaser, got it.
That depends on the timeline we're talking about. Kelvin? Yes, mostly. He straightens out once he meets Old Spock and takes command of Enterprise. Mirror? Yes, absolutely - he was a man with nearly limitless power, and he could exercise that power however he damn well pleased. Prime? I don't think so, no. He's described as a walking stack of books, a studious and attentive officer, and he's shown to be that way too. He beat the Kobayashi Maru through trickery and intelligence - he didn't just sleep with a professor.
Now, I will borrow from the statement of one preacher who wrote in on "Plato's Stepchildren". Any red-blooded man who's holding a woman looking that beautiful, if he doesn't kiss her it's almost a sin. I think Kirk is presented as an attractive man who's in a culture and situation that leads to him encountering a lot of attractive women. We read it as womanizing, because in the real world, it probably would be. Frankly speaking, yes, Kirk is a reflection of Roddenberry's own 'free love' beliefs. Look that up if you want to knock the aura off the Great Bird. But in the fiction, no, Prime Kirk was certainly promiscuous, but not a womanizer, and I feel there's room to accept the difference. For the majority, the women he manipulated, canonically, he didn't sleep with, and the women he slept with (or wanted to be with), he didn't manipulate.
To start new life
In the modern sense, theres some problematic depictions, but he wasnt all that promiscuous. In the 60s sense he was very respectful which is what made him attractive to the women he encountered but he only has an on-screen kiss like three times. In that moment the show was very much eelfecting its day by having the crew encounter "regressive" societies that were illustrations of things going on in the present. The Kirk as playboy idea came about after the fact and gets reflected in the movies a bit, and in the development of the riker character.
I’m sorry, that’s not Vina and we didn’t see any Andorians in Starfleet.
No, Kirk is NOT promiscuous. He seems to respect fully the people he is seen attracted to. The promiscuity seems to come from the sheer number of women he is depicted being attracted to. He doesn’t chase them in any sense. Take for example “Miri”, where Rand says she had tried in the past to get him to look at her. Kirk doesn’t reply to that but I got the sense that he regretted in the moment not paying attention to Rand more, even in a platonic sense.
If you’ve watched SNW.
While this is an explanation that fits into what is presented in TOS and after, it works. Kirk tells La’An in “Subspace Rhapsody” after she revels the time they spent together in an alternate timeline (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”), that he can’t be with her. They frame the scene like those TOS scenes with the gold lighting. Kirk says he currently dating Carol Marcus who is pregnant. So while he may have indeed spent time with La’An, he has no memory of it and can’t be that person for her. He had an obligation to a girlfriend with an unborn child. If you factor in STII, the time we see in TOS suggest that he has no idea what came of his child because he was away from Carol so often. We know Carol choose to raise David without away from Kirk.
I might be thinking about this too much. Only a handful of romances are depicted. The only time promiscuity is truly depicted might be when he was with the Orion in ST09.
EDIT: I left a crucial word!
I think it's an earlier episode than "Miri", but the one where they get infected and everyone is doing stuff because their barriers are down (drunk), Kirk mentions in his breakdown before Spock kicks sense into him the ensign that he sees every day, but can't do anything. So there was the thoughts deep down, but Kirk has disciple and morality. Even more so in the novel version, Kirk is a prodigy in most canon books and wouldn't do that stuff.
plus the "must see" episodes of TOS
There are episodes of TOS that are not "must see"?
There are two kinds of TOS episodes: the ones that are so historically great you absolutely have to watch them, and the ones that are so iconically bad that you absolutely must experience them.
To explore strange nude worlds.
To seek out nude life, and nude civilizations.
I suspect he got þat reputation because, more þan oþer ST characters, he solves problems þrough seduction. He's also þe lead character in every episode; even if he shares wiþ anoþer character (usually Spock or McCoy), þeir drama usually involves Kirk as a central figure. Spock goes þrough Pon Far, and has to fight Kirk. McCoy gets drug-induced insanity, and it's up to Kirk (and, yes, Spock) to save him. So he has a dominant role in every episode, and frequently (or, at least, several times) he solves insolvable situations by seducing his way out of þem, by turning (female) opposition to his side. It was very much a page out of þe Bond franchise, and I suspect þat by TNG it was recognized þat þis sort of emotional, sexual subterfuge was no longer kosher. Kirk even manipulated an underage girl's crush once, and alþough þere were no sexual undertones, he took advantage of her crush to get her to help þem.
Spock did it once, too, to a Romulan commander, but I'm aware of only once or maybe twice þat someone oþer þan Kirk did it, whereas I can þink of 4 or 5 times Kirk used þe ploy. He was so desireable, he was able to seduce alien intelligences and emotionless robots.
I'll also suggest þat when Kirk was seducing women, it was usually to manipulate þem for þe plot.
Miri is such a weird case. She's simultaneously an underage girl and a developmentally challenged woman. Kirk knew without question that he was manipulating her, and that he was doing wrong by her. The challenge of the episode is determining whether he served the greater good by deceiving her and saving his crew - did the ends justify the means?
True. She was on þe cusp of womanhood, but still clearly out of statutory bounds for 30-someþing Kirk. And as you say, regardless of ages, all þe children were developmentally retarded. I don't remember him deceiving her, just manipulating her emotions. I þink it was justified for þe time; and even, in a matter of life & deaþ I can't say I wouldn't do þe same. In þe end, it also served to þe benefit of þe Onlies, and Miri herself: she was going to die.
This makes me think of Kodos' daughter in that Shakespeare episode. Kirk is attracted, but also trying to draw information from her about her mysterious father, like is she "crazy sexy" or "crazy crazy"? Will his powerful libido win out? Next time....on Star Trek! ::::weeeooow wailing theme::
I can't blame him. How many pleasure planets did they end up on?
It's called Risa for a reason, baby.
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