Star Trek
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross
Aboard the USS Enterprise, the most-sophisticated starship ever built, a novice crew embarks on the newly christened flagship’s maiden voyage. Their path takes them on a collision course with Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan commander whose mission of vengeance threatens all of humanity. To survive this calamity, a rebellious, young upstart, named James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), and a coolly logical Vulcan named Spock (Zachary Quinto) must move beyond their rivalry and find a way to defeat Nero before it is too late.
Courage is a powerful theme in this film, and nowhere does courage shine more brightly, than in the characters of Captain George Kirk, James Tiberius Kirk, and Lieutenant Spock, and how courage shapes and defines these characters as they embark on this journey together to defeat this villainous foe who is hell-bent on destroying them and restoring his own past.
Our first impressions of each of these men clearly defines who they are as individuals.
Jim’s father, Captain George Kirk, is a man of great courage. He was given command of the U.S.S. Kelvin when her current Captain was taken hostage by Nero, after he attacks their ship in space when they are investigating an apparent lightning storm. The purpose of Captain Robau going on the enemy ship was to negotiate a ceasefire and save his people from Nero. When he is killed by Nero, after failing to tell the enemy the location of Ambassador Spock and his ship, George Kirk becomes the new captain of the Kelvin, and he is forced to take command of the ship and evacuate the crew, including his pregnant wife, Winona, who was, at that very moment, giving birth to their first child. His sacrifice saved the lives of over eight hundred people, including his wife and newborn son, whom he names James Tiberius Kirk, after his grandfathers. George Kirk died a hero because he chose to sacrifice his own life, destroying the enemy’s massive ship by first fighting them off, and then crashing the Kelvin into Nero’s ship, when the autopilot and weapons/shield systems fail, thus allowing his wife and son, along with 800 other souls who were onboard the doomed ship, to reach the escape pods and get away from the danger. In his last moments, despite the devastation exploding around him, George ensures that his wife gets safely to her shuttle, and while he initially promises her that he is on his way to join her in that shuttle, George orders them to evacuate the medical shuttle, and his wife, without him, when he realizes the truth. He then shares a precious farewell with his wife, when he realizes his fate, naming their son and telling her how much he loves her before he crashes into the enemy’s ship.
The identities of James Kirk and Spock may be defined in the wisdom that Spock’s father, Sarek, imparts on his son, when Spock gets in trouble for fighting with some other Vulcan children who were bullying Spock and insulting his parents. While this is their 35th attempt to elicit an emotional response from Spock, their cruel jabs about his father being a traitor for marrying his human mother, as well as Spock having no place in the universe for being half Vulcan and half human, is enough to snap Spock’s hold over his self-control and it boils over into full-blown rage as he attacks his tormentors. Sarek tells his young son that marrying his mother was logical, and that only he can decide his own destiny, but it will be up to him which path to choose… and that this choice is something that only Spock (and Kirk) can decide.
When we first met Jim Kirk, he was exactly the opposite of Spock. While Spock is highly intelligent and has more self-control than Kirk, when we first meet a young James T. Kirk, he is stealing his stepfather’s antique car and speeding down the highway, being chased by a police officer. When he drives his car off a cliff, he proudly tells the officer that his name is James Tiberius Kirk. This first impression of Kirk clearly establishes that, unlike young Spock, who is disciplined and highly intelligent, Kirk is reckless, immature, and has absolutely no respect for authority or rules whatsoever. This is confirmed when we see Kirk twenty-five years after his birth, and he is in a bar, completely sloshed and hitting on Uhura. He gets into a bar brawl with four Starfleet cadets, and he is almost beaten to a pulp before being rescued by Captain Pike, of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Pike tells Jim that he is his father’s son, and he possesses the same qualities that made George Kirk such a good man… his courage, his sacrifice, and his penchant to leap without looking and make reckless choices. Pike tells Jim that he has two choices… he can continue down this path of reckless self-destruction and dishonor his father’s legacy, or he can enlist in Starfleet and become the man his father would be proud to call his son. His parting shot to Jim is that his father was only a Captain for twelve minutes… but he saved eight hundred lives including Jim’s and his mother’s… and Pike dares Jim to do better than his father before leaving him alone in the bar. Not one to back down from a dare, Jim agrees to join Starfleet, but his arrogance compels him to tell Pike that he would become an officer in three years, rather than the four it typically takes a cadet to earn the privilege of becoming a Starfleet officer. We see yet another example of Jim’s arrogance and blatant disregard for the rules when he takes the impossible Kobayashi Maru test for yet a third time, and this time, he cheats by changing the parameters of the test, allowing him to best the impossible scenario after eating an apple and not taking the test seriously at first… a feat that baffles the test’s creator, Commander Spock… one of the most distinguished graduates in Starfleet. When Jim confronts Commander Spock during his hearing, Spock tells Jim that he, of all people, should understand that a captain cannot cheat death. He tells Kirk that the importance of accepting a no-win scenario, is so the captain can accept death while still maintaining control of himself and his crew… something Jim’s father did when he died saving his crew. When Kirk meets Spock Prime on the frozen planet, they share a mind meld, where Spock reveals his story to Jim, and then Kirk asks Spock if he knew his father in Spock’s timeline. Spock tells Jim that he did, indeed, know his father, and that his father inspired Jim to join Starfleet, and he was proudly there to witness his son becoming captain of the Enterprise.
I notice that while Spock is the epitome of self-control, his mother is the only thing that elicits an emotional response from him. When he is a child, Spock clearly endures the bullies’ cruel taunts… until they insult his mother and these cruel words are what ignite Spock's temper and he attacks his tormentors. When Spock is grown, and about to embark on his new path towards being accepted at the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy, he asks his mother which path he should take… if he should remain both human and Vulcan, and retain his emotional psyche... a gift which he inherited from his human mother... or if he should submit to the Kolinahr ritual, thus purging all of his human emotions, and becoming entirely Vulcan. His mother, Amanda, wisely tells Spock that no matter which path he chooses, be it human emotion or Vulcan logic, he will always have a proud mother. When he is accepted into the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy, Spock is fully prepared to honor his Vulcan heritage… until he hears the minister insult his mother, by calling her a disadvantage to Spock’s otherwise flawless resume. He has excelled at school, his record is flawless, but they believe this is shocking, considering Spock has a human mother. Hearing this, Spock chooses to honor his mother and his human heritage by refusing the admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and choosing to serve in Starfleet, instead. When Vulcan is being attacked by the Romulans, Spock chooses to beam down to the planet after Kirk and Hikaru Sulu disable the drill, hoping to save his parents and the High Council before the planet is destroyed. While he reaches them in time, and he is able to save his father and three others, thus preserving the essence of their Vulcan heritage, only an estimated ten thousand Vulcans have survivedthis devastating loss of their home planet, and he has lost his precious mother. While Spock held his mother protectively to get her safely out of the temple, he was unable to save her from falling before they beamed back to the ship. This devastating double loss, of both his mother and his home, has shaken Spock to his emotional core. He allows himself a moment to grieve when Uhura comforts him in the elevator, but soon after, he is locked in a heated confrontation with Jim about what their course should be now that Pike has been captured and Vulcan destroyed. While Kirk’s strategy is to be unpredictable and go rescue Pike, Spock’s logic compels him to withdraw and regroup with the fleet, because they are impossibly outmatched in every way, and going after this enemy alone would be suicide. When Kirk rebels, Spock ejects him from the Enterprise, and onto a nearby ice planet, where he meets an unexpected ally in Spock Prime, after the older Spock saves Kirk from being killed by an alien monster. Spock Prime recognizes Jim immediately and tells Jim that he has been, and always will be, Jim’s friend, and that he is remarkably pleased to see Jim, especially after witnessing the tragic demise of his home planet. He tells Jim two vital pieces of information when they are together on the ice planet: that in his time, Jim’s father, George Kirk, was alive and well, and that Jim told Spock that it was his father who inspired him to join Starfleet and that his father had lived to see Jim become Captain of the Enterprise. He also tells Kirk about how vitally important his friendship with the current Spock was, and how, to protect that friendship, he needed to return to the Enterprise and prove that the younger Spock is emotionally compromised, so that he could take command and save the day. Kirk does this by reminding Spock of the one thing he knows will cause Spock to emotionally react… reminding him of his mother and saying that he failed his mother and indeed, he never even loved her. This works, and once again, it is Sarek who calls his son back from that rage.
© 2025 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder, Ben Cross
Aboard the USS Enterprise, the most-sophisticated starship ever built, a novice crew embarks on the newly christened flagship’s maiden voyage. Their path takes them on a collision course with Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan commander whose mission of vengeance threatens all of humanity. To survive this calamity, a rebellious, young upstart, named James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), and a coolly logical Vulcan named Spock (Zachary Quinto) must move beyond their rivalry and find a way to defeat Nero before it is too late.
Courage is a powerful theme in this film, and nowhere does courage shine more brightly, than in the characters of Captain George Kirk, James Tiberius Kirk, and Lieutenant Spock, and how courage shapes and defines these characters as they embark on this journey together to defeat this villainous foe who is hell-bent on destroying them and restoring his own past.
Our first impressions of each of these men clearly defines who they are as individuals.
Jim’s father, Captain George Kirk, is a man of great courage. He was given command of the U.S.S. Kelvin when her current Captain was taken hostage by Nero, after he attacks their ship in space when they are investigating an apparent lightning storm. The purpose of Captain Robau going on the enemy ship was to negotiate a ceasefire and save his people from Nero. When he is killed by Nero, after failing to tell the enemy the location of Ambassador Spock and his ship, George Kirk becomes the new captain of the Kelvin, and he is forced to take command of the ship and evacuate the crew, including his pregnant wife, Winona, who was, at that very moment, giving birth to their first child. His sacrifice saved the lives of over eight hundred people, including his wife and newborn son, whom he names James Tiberius Kirk, after his grandfathers. George Kirk died a hero because he chose to sacrifice his own life, destroying the enemy’s massive ship by first fighting them off, and then crashing the Kelvin into Nero’s ship, when the autopilot and weapons/shield systems fail, thus allowing his wife and son, along with 800 other souls who were onboard the doomed ship, to reach the escape pods and get away from the danger. In his last moments, despite the devastation exploding around him, George ensures that his wife gets safely to her shuttle, and while he initially promises her that he is on his way to join her in that shuttle, George orders them to evacuate the medical shuttle, and his wife, without him, when he realizes the truth. He then shares a precious farewell with his wife, when he realizes his fate, naming their son and telling her how much he loves her before he crashes into the enemy’s ship.
The identities of James Kirk and Spock may be defined in the wisdom that Spock’s father, Sarek, imparts on his son, when Spock gets in trouble for fighting with some other Vulcan children who were bullying Spock and insulting his parents. While this is their 35th attempt to elicit an emotional response from Spock, their cruel jabs about his father being a traitor for marrying his human mother, as well as Spock having no place in the universe for being half Vulcan and half human, is enough to snap Spock’s hold over his self-control and it boils over into full-blown rage as he attacks his tormentors. Sarek tells his young son that marrying his mother was logical, and that only he can decide his own destiny, but it will be up to him which path to choose… and that this choice is something that only Spock (and Kirk) can decide.
When we first met Jim Kirk, he was exactly the opposite of Spock. While Spock is highly intelligent and has more self-control than Kirk, when we first meet a young James T. Kirk, he is stealing his stepfather’s antique car and speeding down the highway, being chased by a police officer. When he drives his car off a cliff, he proudly tells the officer that his name is James Tiberius Kirk. This first impression of Kirk clearly establishes that, unlike young Spock, who is disciplined and highly intelligent, Kirk is reckless, immature, and has absolutely no respect for authority or rules whatsoever. This is confirmed when we see Kirk twenty-five years after his birth, and he is in a bar, completely sloshed and hitting on Uhura. He gets into a bar brawl with four Starfleet cadets, and he is almost beaten to a pulp before being rescued by Captain Pike, of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Pike tells Jim that he is his father’s son, and he possesses the same qualities that made George Kirk such a good man… his courage, his sacrifice, and his penchant to leap without looking and make reckless choices. Pike tells Jim that he has two choices… he can continue down this path of reckless self-destruction and dishonor his father’s legacy, or he can enlist in Starfleet and become the man his father would be proud to call his son. His parting shot to Jim is that his father was only a Captain for twelve minutes… but he saved eight hundred lives including Jim’s and his mother’s… and Pike dares Jim to do better than his father before leaving him alone in the bar. Not one to back down from a dare, Jim agrees to join Starfleet, but his arrogance compels him to tell Pike that he would become an officer in three years, rather than the four it typically takes a cadet to earn the privilege of becoming a Starfleet officer. We see yet another example of Jim’s arrogance and blatant disregard for the rules when he takes the impossible Kobayashi Maru test for yet a third time, and this time, he cheats by changing the parameters of the test, allowing him to best the impossible scenario after eating an apple and not taking the test seriously at first… a feat that baffles the test’s creator, Commander Spock… one of the most distinguished graduates in Starfleet. When Jim confronts Commander Spock during his hearing, Spock tells Jim that he, of all people, should understand that a captain cannot cheat death. He tells Kirk that the importance of accepting a no-win scenario, is so the captain can accept death while still maintaining control of himself and his crew… something Jim’s father did when he died saving his crew. When Kirk meets Spock Prime on the frozen planet, they share a mind meld, where Spock reveals his story to Jim, and then Kirk asks Spock if he knew his father in Spock’s timeline. Spock tells Jim that he did, indeed, know his father, and that his father inspired Jim to join Starfleet, and he was proudly there to witness his son becoming captain of the Enterprise.
I notice that while Spock is the epitome of self-control, his mother is the only thing that elicits an emotional response from him. When he is a child, Spock clearly endures the bullies’ cruel taunts… until they insult his mother and these cruel words are what ignite Spock's temper and he attacks his tormentors. When Spock is grown, and about to embark on his new path towards being accepted at the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy, he asks his mother which path he should take… if he should remain both human and Vulcan, and retain his emotional psyche... a gift which he inherited from his human mother... or if he should submit to the Kolinahr ritual, thus purging all of his human emotions, and becoming entirely Vulcan. His mother, Amanda, wisely tells Spock that no matter which path he chooses, be it human emotion or Vulcan logic, he will always have a proud mother. When he is accepted into the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy, Spock is fully prepared to honor his Vulcan heritage… until he hears the minister insult his mother, by calling her a disadvantage to Spock’s otherwise flawless resume. He has excelled at school, his record is flawless, but they believe this is shocking, considering Spock has a human mother. Hearing this, Spock chooses to honor his mother and his human heritage by refusing the admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and choosing to serve in Starfleet, instead. When Vulcan is being attacked by the Romulans, Spock chooses to beam down to the planet after Kirk and Hikaru Sulu disable the drill, hoping to save his parents and the High Council before the planet is destroyed. While he reaches them in time, and he is able to save his father and three others, thus preserving the essence of their Vulcan heritage, only an estimated ten thousand Vulcans have survivedthis devastating loss of their home planet, and he has lost his precious mother. While Spock held his mother protectively to get her safely out of the temple, he was unable to save her from falling before they beamed back to the ship. This devastating double loss, of both his mother and his home, has shaken Spock to his emotional core. He allows himself a moment to grieve when Uhura comforts him in the elevator, but soon after, he is locked in a heated confrontation with Jim about what their course should be now that Pike has been captured and Vulcan destroyed. While Kirk’s strategy is to be unpredictable and go rescue Pike, Spock’s logic compels him to withdraw and regroup with the fleet, because they are impossibly outmatched in every way, and going after this enemy alone would be suicide. When Kirk rebels, Spock ejects him from the Enterprise, and onto a nearby ice planet, where he meets an unexpected ally in Spock Prime, after the older Spock saves Kirk from being killed by an alien monster. Spock Prime recognizes Jim immediately and tells Jim that he has been, and always will be, Jim’s friend, and that he is remarkably pleased to see Jim, especially after witnessing the tragic demise of his home planet. He tells Jim two vital pieces of information when they are together on the ice planet: that in his time, Jim’s father, George Kirk, was alive and well, and that Jim told Spock that it was his father who inspired him to join Starfleet and that his father had lived to see Jim become Captain of the Enterprise. He also tells Kirk about how vitally important his friendship with the current Spock was, and how, to protect that friendship, he needed to return to the Enterprise and prove that the younger Spock is emotionally compromised, so that he could take command and save the day. Kirk does this by reminding Spock of the one thing he knows will cause Spock to emotionally react… reminding him of his mother and saying that he failed his mother and indeed, he never even loved her. This works, and once again, it is Sarek who calls his son back from that rage.
© 2025 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.