Strange New Worlds Will Try To Save Captain Kirk’s Reputation

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 6 seconds ago

Strange New Worlds had its fourth-season debut this past week. It was an episode that largely abandoned the smart, scientific writing Star Trek is known for in favor of cool action beats and unexpected character moments that would have been more at home in the Kelvinverse. Fortunately, the episode worked because it had a lot going for it: time travel, ethical dilemmas, and even dinosaurs. One thing it did not have was James T. Kirk, the future Enterprise captain who has become a frequent guest on this fan-favorite Trek spinoff.

Thanks to both William Shatner and Chris Pine, new Kirk actor Paul Wesley had some very big boots to fill. Fortunately, he managed to win fans over through sheer charisma. We can certainly expect to see more of his character, and it sounds like the show is going to use Season 4 to save Kirk’s reputation. How so? By giving us an episode that shows Kirk being a good father to David Marcus, the estranged son we meet in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The writers’ goal is simple: they want the fandom to stop thinking of Captain Kirk as a deadbeat dad!

Showing Kirk As A Good Dad

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan revealed that Kirk had a son, David Marcus, with whom he was estranged. The idea of Kirk having a secret kid was believable enough; considering how many babes (alien and otherwise) he bedded over the years, it’s a small miracle that he only has one child. However, some fans were irked because The Wrath of Khan implied Kirk might have been a deadbeat dad who expected his baby mama to raise his son while Kirk continued gallivanting around the galaxy. Now, the Strange New Worlds writers have decided to save Kirk’s reputation by having him beat the deadbeat allegations, all these years later.

How will they do that? In an interview with SFX Magazine, Strange New Worlds showrunner Henry Alonso Myers revealed that the show’s writers wanted to feature Kirk being an active father to a younger David. “I don’t want to call it a rewrite, but it’s like a rethink,” he said. “The experience of David was not a part of [The Original Series] because they didn’t really figure David out until the movies.” He then summed up the writers’ motivation and their goals: “Kirk is heroic, and none of us wanted to imagine that he is a lousy father, so that offered a lot of opportunities about how to get into his mind, emotionally.” 

Emotional Availability? I’m Sorry, David, I Can’t Do That

Beyond that, Myers didn’t offer up any additional details, so we can only speculate about what the upcoming Strange New Worlds episode will do with Kirk’s character. The Wrath of Khan indicates that Carol Marcus explicitly asked Kirk to stay away because “You had your world and I had mine. I wanted him in mine, not chasing through the universe with his father.” In that same scene, Kirk asks her a question about David: “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” The line is ambiguous enough that fans long wondered exactly when Kirk found out that he had a son. Was this new information, or something he had known for years?

Even though Carol asked Kirk to stay away, many fans feel like The Wrath of Khan portrays him as a deadbeat dad who was eager to forget about his kid and get back to exploring the final frontier. Previously, Strange New Worlds chipped at this narrative by having Kirk tell La’an (who now has feelings for him) that he’s in a relationship with Carol Marcus and that she’s pregnant. This implied that, early on, Kirk really wanted to make things work and start a family. The upcoming episode will demonstrate his skills as a father, but it may also put the child’s life in danger, justifying Carol’s decision to keep Kirk away from them.

Will we end up seeing a kinder, gentler side of James T. Kirk? Or maybe hints of a dark side that reveals why he isn’t suited to raise a child? We won’t know until this upcoming episode of Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+. With any luck, it will be the same episode that transforms Captain Pike into a living puppet man. This is the show of gentle retcons, after all, and it would make watching The Wrath of Khan that much weirder if we suddenly learn that a Muppet became David’s godfather right before mommy and daddy warped their separate ways!