Tumblr crosspost (31 January 2025)

[anghraine]

Poll #33056 TOS characterization details

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

Which is your favorite character detail from TOS?

View Answers

Kirk used to teach an infamously tough class at the Academy.
2 (28.6%)

Spock is ashamed of his affection for Kirk and guilty about being ashamed.
0 (0.0%)

Technically, Kirk isn't the first white person Uhura kisses; Nurse Chapel is.
0 (0.0%)

Kirk's only stated religious beliefs are that he's a strict monotheist, a god needs compassion, and he particularly rejects Hellenic polytheism.
0 (0.0%)

McCoy avoids revealing Dr. Jones's blindness out of respect for her privacy.
1 (14.3%)

Uhura finds Kirk's voice soothing and hates kissing him for that reason.
0 (0.0%)

The original Gorn were just trying to protect their homes from colonization.
0 (0.0%)

Spock hasn't been on familial terms with Sarek for 18 years by S2.
0 (0.0%)

Sulu and Chekov refuse to fly the Enterprise when given unethical orders.
2 (28.6%)

Kirk was 13 when he survived starvation and genocide.
1 (14.3%)

McCoy marries a high priestess who survives and retains her political authority.
1 (14.3%)

Spock is a firm vegetarian who dislikes meat.
0 (0.0%)

1. Kirk as a notoriously challenging teacher -> "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (S1).
2. Spock's shame over his feelings for Kirk -> "The Naked Time" (S1).
3. The Uhura/Chapel kiss -> "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" (S1).
4. Kirk angrily refusing to convert to Hellenic(/ancient alien) polytheism because he's a firm monotheist -> "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (S2); his insistence that a god needs compassion is from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (S1).
5. McCoy honoring the privacy of the woman of the week's disability -> "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" (S3).
6. Uhura hating kissing Kirk because she's always found his voice so platonically reassuring -> "Plato's Stepchildren" (S3).
7. The Gorn Did Nothing Wrong -> "Arena" (S1).
8. Spock hasn't had a father-son relationship with Sarek for 18 years, or visited his parents in 4 years -> "Journey to Babel" (S2).
9. Sulu and Chekov don't believe in just following orders (and Starfleet regulations allow for this) -> "Turnabout Intruder" (S3).
10. Kirk was a thirteen-year-old genocide survivor -> "The Conscience of the King" (S1); his age is established in both "Shore Leave" (S1) and "The Deadly Years" (S2).
11. McCoy's marriage to Natira, one of the few female authority figures who is capable and noble and survives and is triumphant, gaining full leadership of her people, and Kirk promises to help McCoy visit her periodically -> "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" (S3).
12. Spock is a firm vegetarian and dislikes meat, which is a clue to how powerfully the ancestral memory effect is working on him ("All Our Yesterdays," S3).

Tagged: #i had to leave some other interesting or fun ones out sadly. like baby spock's sehlat

Comments

[elperian]

You actually let us pick more than one option in the settings but I followed your rule anyway ;)

I went with Kirk being an infamously tough teacher here, although I think with Uhura/Chapel on Tumblr, and Spock's guilt over his shame is a good one. So many good options!

[anghraine]

Heeeh, thank you! The poll creator contested my will with this one on multiple fronts >_>

I am so fond of the younger Kirk terrorizing cadets who don't want to think that hard, ngl! A lot of the Tumblr crowd are justifiably fond of the "stack of book with legs" description of him (which is incredibly fair!), but sometimes forget that Mitchell isn't describing him as a fellow student but as a notoriously challenging teacher and that's how they met. But yeah, I think it tracks in interesting ways with characterization elsewhere, even lesser Kirk episodes like "This Side of Paradise" where he's so affronted at the idea of a life where people turn their brains off and exist in a state of flat unchallenging contented bliss rather than striving for epiphany or achievement or joy.

Also, the Gary Mitchell Clueless-style shenanigans to get him a girlfriend to survive his class is an absolutely hilarious result of this to me, all the more because Kirk nearly married said girlfriend. I wish I liked Mitchell himself more, because the idea of him, like, scraping a C in Kirk's philosophy course -> them becoming close friends afterwards to the point that Kirk specifically requested him when he got his first command -> Kirk's blatant incredulity when Mitchell says he's voluntarily reading "some of that longhair stuff you like" and it being Spinoza of all people (Kirk's "You? Spinoza?" is just ... akjdfa;kdf) then him being offended and alarmed at Mitchell insulting the good name of Spinoza -> Kirk having to kill Mitchell to save everyone else ... well, hell of a way to kick the entire damn show off.

[elperian]

When I eventually go TOS icon shopping, I really hope there's one of Kirk with 'stack of books' text for my professor needs.

where he's so affronted at the idea of a life where people turn their brains off and exist in a state of flat unchallenging contented bliss rather than striving for epiphany or achievement or joy.

And this - this is where I very much identify with and connect with Kirk on a soul level. How dare he be so good!?

I would like to go back and watch the "first" episode at some point because I think it has such interesting things to say about humanity, our responsibility to ourselves and others especially when we hold great power (as god or captain of a starship), and great character beats with Kirk and Spock.

[anghraine]

I really want a stack of books with legs or "in his class you think or sink" icon myself! Might have to be the change I want to see, though; I've never seen one.

And this - this is where I very much identify with and connect with Kirk on a soul level. How dare he be so good!?

Right? I broadly identify a lot more with Spock, but on the ideological level Kirk's perspective is just like... peak blorbo. And he's been here the whole time!! Despite the uneven writing of him in S3, I'm like... adfjkajk;dfdkj all these years and OG Captain Kirk was the reflective cerebral It's About Ethics and Humanism space captain of tomorrow the whole time. I'd even heard the "stack of book with legs" quote brought up to disrupt the awful pop culture version many times, and still had no idea that the context wasn't him being a bookish kid or nerdy fellow cadet, but a bookish INSTRUCTOR who was so demanding about critical thinking that his class had become notorious among the cadets AND that class is strongly implied (in the pilot!) to have been a philosophy course with Spinoza on the curriculum... like.

I'm actually reminded of how, when I was a senior in undergrad, the methodology course required of all the psych majors was famously demanding and scary within the department, but you couldn't get through the major without passing it. And after all the warnings, I had a great time with the involved discussions of research ethics and IRBs and survey designs and the various complications with methodology since psychological research necessarily involves human subjects the vast majority of the time. Also the history of ethical failures in psychological research. It was awesome if you were into that, but it was absolutely notorious. So that's how I imagine Lieutenant Kirk's philosophy course for cadets :D

(Also, speaking of Space Captain Philosophy Teacher James T. Kirk and "This Side of Paradise," when he has to invent the most enraging screed against Spock he can think of and detours into Spock's mother being a walking encyclopedia, and it turns out this is about her having been a teacher, it's the one part that's just funny to me because OKAY CAPTAIN STACK OF BOOKS WITH LEGS. He doesn't mean any of it regardless, but the TOS-only universe I choose to inhabit where Kirk and Spock do get that recuperation on Vulcan cut from "City on the Edge of Forever" after the five-year mission also, in my mind, involves Kirk and Amanda hanging out and talking about their syllabi while eating chocolate.)