star trek kelvin timeline reparto

Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline explained

We've remodulated our tricorders to help you make sense of the Star Trek Kelvin timeline from the recent Star Trek movies.

Our Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline explained article is here to tell Spock from Spock.

How do you reboot a franchise that’s been around more than 50 years old and whose fan base is, shall we say, passionate about the accuracy of its canon? If you wipe the slate completely clean and start afresh, you lose the benefit of five decades of lore from which to draw inspiration and characters. If you keep the continuity, you’re shackled to decades of details from which you can’t escape. What can you do? If you’re Star Trek, you create the Kelvin Timeline.

The Kelvin timeline, or "alternate universe Trek", creates a new environment in which the events of the more recent Star Trek films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) won’t contradict those that came before. It’s also how Spock ended up meeting himself. 

If you want to rewatch the new Star Trek movies, our Star Trek streaming guide will show you where to watch them all online. And if you're curious to see how the new movies stack up against the classics, check out our Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best article. Now, let's dive into the Star Trek Kelvin timeline.

Event One: Nero Travels Through Time 

According to Star Trek (2009), the planet Romulus was destroyed by a supernova in the year 2387. Ambassador Spock attempted to use "red matter", a substance so powerful that a single drop can destroy a planet, to save Romulus by destroying the supernova. He did indeed manage to destroy the supernova, but not in time to prevent the planet’s destruction. To make matters worse, both his ship, the experimental Jellyfish, and the Romulan mining ship Narada were pulled into the black hole’s wake and sent hurtling backwards in time. Spock emerged in 2258 while the Romulans landed in 2233. 

The Narada’s captain, Nero decides to use this opportunity to take out his grief on the organization he holds responsible for the ruin of Romulus and, by extension, the death of his family: the Federation. One of his first acts is to destroy the U.S.S. Kelvin, captained heroically to the very last minute by George Kirk, who lives just long enough to name his newborn son James.

And thus begins the Kelvin timeline. 

Spock, Meet Spock 

Jim Kirk grows up as a rebellious punk constantly trying to outrun his father’s long shadow. Christopher Pike sees something of value in him and urges him to join Starfleet, which he eventually does. Through a contrivance of events, he ends up aboard the Enterprise along with Spock, Bones McCoy, Uhura, and the rest of the Original Series crew. 

It’s now 2258 and Ambassador Spock emerges from the black hole just in time to be scooped up by Nero, who keeps the Jellyfish — and its cache of red matter — for himself while abandoning Spock on the frozen planet of Delta Vega. He wants Spock to bear witness as the Narada drills a hole into the center of Vulcan and releases red matter at the planet’s core. The Enterprise tries to stop him and fails, though they do manage to rescue Spock’s father, Sarek. Nero is eventually defeated, and Spock's young and old take a moment to reflect on their coexistence

Enter Khan, Exit Kirk 

Nero’s too-close-to-success-for-comfort attempt to destroy Earth shifts Starfleet’s ethos from one of discovery to one of protection. They still want to "seek out new life forms," but only to find out how dangerous they are. In Into Darkness (2013), Alexander Marcus, leader of the secretive Section 31, finds the SS Botany Bay, stuffed to the rafters full of augmented humans in cryostasis. He wakes one of them up — Khan Noonien Singh — and forces him to build weapons that Earth could use to defend itself against alien threats. 

Huge surprise, Khan betrays Marcus, exacting vengeance on various Starfleet targets. In doing so, he kills Kirk’s father figure Christopher Pike. Marcus tries to leverage Kirk’s hot-headedness by sending Kirk after Khan, who has fled to the Klingon homeworld of Kronos. He figures Kirk will kill, not capture, Khan, thus removing a threat and evidence of Marcus’ secret project.

Kirk goes off script and keeps Khan alive, much to the chagrin of Admiral Marcus, who tries to blow them all the heck up. The sacrifice that leads to victory happens just as in the original, except in the Kelvin timeline it’s Kirk who gives his life to save his crew. In the prime timeline, Genesis brought Spock back to life, but here it’s Khan’s blood that gets the job done.

That bit of ugliness behind them, the Enterprise receives its five-year-mission. You know the one.

Farewell to Spock 

In Star Trek: Beyond (2016), the Enterprise discovers the USS Franklin, a Federation ship that had been lost for decades. Here’s what’s fun about that: the Kelvin timeline doesn’t start until 2233. The Franklin disappeared before that, so it exists in both timelines, which means a different version of it could theoretically pop up in Star Trek media that doesn’t adhere to the Kelvin timeline. 

In Kelvin, however, the Franklin is half-buried after crashing into the surface of the planet Altamid. Few of its former crew remain, and those that do are unrecognizable, having been transformed by technology they’ve used to keep themselves alive. The Franklin’s captain, Balthazar Edison, now known as Krall, rejects Starfleet ideals of peace. He’s a soldier and he believes that he should be allowed to do what he does best. He returns to starbase Yorktown with the goal of commandeering it to launch an attack on the Federation, but first he’ll have to kill every living thing in residence. Kirk et al save the day, of course. 

This is also the point at which Ambassador Spock leaves the timeline due to the passing of the peerless Leonard Nimoy. Kelvin Spock had been planning to rejoin what remains of the Vulcan people, but instead chooses to honor his other self by remaining in Starfleet.

Crossover With the Prime Timeline 

Keeping track of the Kelvin timeline is important because there are still Star Trek properties operating in the prime timeline, such as Picard . However, there has been a little bit of crossover between the two. Picard takes place long after the titular character has quit Starfleet, and early on we discover the destruction of Romulus was why. 

Picard wanted to launch a rescue mission to save as many Romulans as possible before the detonation of the supernova, but Starfleet pushed back. He went forward with it anyway, but when his ships were decimated by a fleet of rogue synths, Starfleet gave up all rescue efforts. Picard resigned in disgust. Everything that happens after that — and therefore everything taking place in the show — is part of the prime timeline, despite being kicked off by Event One.

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Susan Arendt is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant living in Burleson, TX. She's a huge sci-fi TV and movie buff, and will talk your Vulcan ears off about Star Trek. You can find more of her work at Wired, IGN, Polygon, or look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt. Be prepared to see too many pictures of her dogs.

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The Star Trek Kelvin Timeline Explained

In 2009, Paramount Pictures released Star Trek , the first film in what would become a new action-oriented trilogy to reinvigorate the franchise at the worldwide box office. Directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, Star Trek introduced the world to new versions of classic characters like Kirk, Spock, and Uhura, and it took us back to their earlier days in Starfleet. This wasn't just another reboot, though. Thanks to the heavy sci-fi influence of the original series, this version of Star Trek was actually presented in the form of an alternate timeline, with its roots in events of the original universe and one of the franchise's original characters.

Later dubbed "the Kelvin timeline" because of its connection to a destroyed Federation starship called the U.S.S.  Kelvin , this alternate reality set the stage for three different Star Trek feature films, all of which remixed original series continuity in some form or another. Plus, in recent years, the inciting incident for this reality has become a jumping-off point for more stories in the Prime Star Trek reality, making it a major influence in two different universes. From its explosive origins to its broader implications, this is Star Trek 's Kelvin timeline, explained

The real-world origins of the Kelvin timeline

In the late 2000s, Star Trek was in need of a re-invigoration. The last feature film in the franchise, Nemesis , came out in 2002, and the prequel TV series,  Star Trek: Enterprise , went off the air in 2005, leaving the legendary sci-fi property without a major live-action media presence for the first time in years. Ultimately, Paramount Pictures decided the way to bring Trek back was a prequel film ... but not just a typical prequel. The film that would become 2009's Star Trek fell into the hands of screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who decided to use time travel to create an alternate reality that would both raise the stakes for their "prequel" concept of a younger Kirk and Spock and also allow them to take some creative liberties with the well-worn characters.

Speaking with Sci Fi Wire in 2009 , Kurtzman explained, "Yeah, the biggest thing I think we all hiccuped on, just conceptually, when Trek was presented to us was, 'Well, we know how they all died. We know what happened to them.' And when you know that, it's very difficult to put them in jeopardy in a way that feels fresh or original. How do you ever have real stakes to your characters?" Well, the answer was the introduction of an alternate reality that would link the new Star Trek film series to past canon, while also allowing filmmakers to go their own way.

The Kelvin timeline has its roots in tragedy

The story of Star Trek 's Kelvin timeline began in the Prime Star Trek universe in the 2380s , when it became clear that the Romulan sun presented a major danger not just to the Romulan Star Empire but to a whole quadrant of the galaxy. The sun was nearing the end of its life and would soon go supernova, which would in turn destroy Romulus and other nearby worlds. Desperate to save their people, the Romulans asked the United Federation of Planets for help.

When evacuation efforts failed, Spock — now an ambassador from his homeworld of Vulcan — intervened in 2387 with his own attempt to halt the supernova through the use of red matter. Spock was able to stop the supernova's expansion but not before Romulus was destroyed, something he'd promised he could prevent. Enraged, a Romulan mining ship captain named Nero sought vengeance, and he attacked Spock's one-man vessel with his own ship, the Narada . During the pursuit, both ships were pulled through the black hole left in the wake of the supernova, which sent them back in time.

The fate of the U.S.S. Kelvin

Unbeknownst to Nero, when the Narada was drawn into the black hole, the Romulan ship was sent back to 2233, more than 150 years in the past. But the dude was still very angry. Nero's rage then focused on the first Federation vessel he found, the U.S.S. Kelvin . As the Romulan vessel attacked, First Officer George Kirk took command of the Kelvin after the death of his captain, and he sacrificed the ship to protect the escape shuttles fleeing the area, including the one carrying his wife and newborn son, James Kirk. The Kelvin was destroyed, and Nero's reign of terror continued in what was now an alternate reality. 

As you've probably guessed, the Kelvin Ttmeline is so named because the destruction of the Kelvin is the event triggering the alternate reality. In the Kelvin timeline, life unfolds in a way that's quite recognizable for longtime Star Trek fans but with many differences interspersed throughout the universe. The starships look similar, for example, but the designs are altered in many ways, and the same is true of things like phasers, communicators, and Starfleet uniforms.

A different Kirk

In the Prime Star Trek timeline, James T. Kirk's path to captaining the U.S.S. Enterprise is noteworthy but very conventional. Kirk entered Starfleet in part because of his father, but George Kirk was still very much alive when he signed up, and once Kirk was a part of Starfleet, he spent quite a bit of time doing other things before joining the Enterprise , including a stint as an Academy instructor and serving on the U.S.S. Farragut .

In the Kelvin timeline, though, the absence of Kirk's father sent him off on a very different path, one with much less conviction and certainty early on. This version of James T. Kirk was a rebellious young man, joyriding in stolen cars as a teenager and getting into bar fights in his 20s. His Starfleet journey actually began when one of these fights was broken up by Captain Christopher Pike, a Starfleet officer familiar with Kirk's history and his father's heroism. Pike — who was also Kirk's predecessor as captain of the Enterprise in the Prime timeline, under very different circumstances — urged young James to do something with his life because his father sacrificed himself to make sure Kirk would live and accomplish something meaningful. Spurred on by Pike, Kirk joined Starfleet and eventually tricked his way onto the newly launched Enterprise  after cadets in the Academy were called into service to help battle Nero.

Now, there are two Spocks

While Nero arrived in the Kelvin timeline in 2233, Spock didn't actually emerge from the black hole until 25 years later, and he found the vengeful Romulan waiting for him. Nero captured Spock's ship, the Jellyfish , and left the Vulcan stranded on the icy planet Delta Vega, with the intention of making Spock watch his own homeworld perish just as Nero had to watch Romulus fall. Nero achieved this by drilling into Vulcan's core with his ship's machinery, then shooting red matter into it. Vulcan collapsed as the Kelvin timeline version of Spock attempted to evacuate as many of his people as he could. He was able to save his father but not his human mother, who fell just as they were preparing to beam back up to the Enterprise .

A short time later, Kirk was also marooned on Delta Vega by an irate Spock, who was acting captain of the Enterprise and had already discerned Nero was a time traveler. Here, Kirk met the Prime timeline version of Spock, who used a Vulcan mind meld to reveal to him the explanation for Nero's presence, including the destruction of Romulus and the black hole he journeyed through. Eventually, both Spocks met each other and attempted to rebuild Vulcan culture through their shared knowledge and experience. With Spock Prime's help — including the introduction of transwarp beaming to the Kelvin timeline — Kirk and Spock were able to make amends and defeat Nero before he could destroy Earth, cementing the dynamic of the Enterprise crew.

A warlike Federation

The sudden destruction of Vulcan and the losses in the Federation fleet during the battle with Nero, coupled with the growing hostility of the Klingons, spurred certain factions within Starfleet to seek a more militaristic approach to dealing with the future of the galaxy. In 2258 and 2259, Admiral Alexander Marcus went to great lengths to pursue this more warlike approach in secret, and he began exploring the galaxy for various resources to use for the defense of Starfleet. Marcus' search eventually led to the discovery of Botany Bay and a group of enhanced superhumans in cryogenic stasis.

Desperate to advance his cause, Marcus roused the leader of the group, Khan Noonien Singh, and held the rest of Khan's people hostage while Khan himself was forced to develop advanced weapons for the Federation under the secretive Section 31. This included the development of the Vengeance , a powerful new Federation warship, and a new advanced torpedo design that Marcus hoped to use against the Klingons.

Khan tried to smuggle his people out of Marcus' care by hiding them, still in stasis, in the torpedoes, but Marcus discovered this plan. Certain that the admiral had already killed his people, Khan set out to become a one-man vengeance machine and destroy the Federation from the inside.

The wrath of Khan

Operating under the name John Harrison, Khan staged successful attacks on Starfleet facilities that resulted in the death of Admiral Christopher Pike. After this attack, Marcus saw a path to killing his former hostage and covering up his military conspiracy at the same time. He dispatched Kirk and the Enterprise to capture "Harrison" on the Klingon world Kronos, believing Kirk would simply kill the terrorist as an act of revenge. This set Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise crew on a new, alternate trajectory to a confrontation with their old Prime universe foe.

At fist, Harrison/Khan tried to present himself as an ally to Kirk and Spock before finally turning on them when he felt he could safely extract his still-living crewmates from their torpedoes. The resulting confrontation led to Kelvin timeline Spock seeking the advice of Spock Prime, who recalled the deadly consequences of battling Khan. In the Prime timeline, it was Spock who paid with his life before being revived. In the Kelvin timeline, though, it was Kirk who sacrificed his life in the battle with Khan. Fortunately, Spock was able to defeat Khan through some clever deception, and Dr. Leonard McCoy was able to use Khan's blood, which had strange restorative properties, to revive Kirk.

The clash with Krall in the Kelvin timeline

After the battle with Khan, the Enterprise crew in the Kelvin timeline set out for their own version of the five-year mission we saw in Star Trek: The Original Series , and three years into that mission, they encountered something interesting (particularly from our perspective as observers), something with a backstory that extended far back into the timeline, before the universes diverged.

In Star Trek Beyond , the Enterprise crew discovers the buried U.S.S. Franklin , a Federation starship that was lost decades earlier, in an era before the Kelvin incident diverged the timelines. That means that, since the alternate reality doesn't really split until 2233, the loss of the Franklin is something we can consider to exist in both timelines. What happens after that — including the Enterprise 's encounter with Krall, the mutated former captain of the Franklin  — is part of the Kelvin timeline only, which means another version of Starfleet could encounter the Franklin in the Prime universe and theoretically have a different outcome. It's an intriguing idea spinning out of the fun sci-fi adventure story that  Beyond offers.

Star Trek Beyond also offers another intriguing detail regarding the Kelvin timeline's Spock. Early in the film, he's considering leaving Starfleet to have a more direct role in redeveloping Vulcan culture. After learning that Spock Prime has died, though, he chooses to honor his alternate self's memory by remaining in Starfleet, as it's what Spock Prime was doing at the same age.

How the Kelvin timeline has impacted the Prime timeline

The Kelvin timeline of Star Trek is fascinating for a number of reasons, including the fact that it didn't have to exist this way at all. The writers of 2009's Trek film could have simply said, "We're starting over, but the other films and shows are all still there for you to watch." They didn't do that, instead leaning into the science fiction of it all. That means we have an inciting incident for the Kelvin timeline that also exists as a major, galaxy-altering event in the Prime timeline, and that means there are consequences for both realities.

For a long time, those consequences weren't directly explored in Star Trek live-action storytelling, but that changed with the 2020 series Star Trek: Picard . Set in the decades following Star Trek: The Next Generation , the series follows the latter-day adventures of Jean-Luc Picard , and it reveals that his departure from Starfleet was directly tied to the Romulan sun disaster. Though many in the Federation opposed it, Picard spearheaded a massive evacuation effort to get as many people off Romulus as possible in the years before the supernova, only to have his rescue fleet destroyed by a surprise attack from a group of rogue synths. Starfleet dropped the rescue effort entirely in the aftermath, and Picard resigned.

Den of Geek

Star Trek: A Watching & Reading Guide to the Kelvin Timeline

What's the best chronological order to watch and read the Star Trek Kelvin timeline stories in? Here's our suggestion...

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This article comes from Den of Geek UK .

Over the years, Star Trek has presented us with many alternative timelines and parallel dimensions, but none have become so prominent as the Kelvin Timeline. Home to alternative versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew of Captain James T. Kirk, science officer Mr. Spock, chief medical officer Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, communications officer Nyota Uhura, chief engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott, Helmsman Hikaru Sulu, and Navigator Pavel Chekov.

You will probably know the Kelvin Timeline from the 2009 movie Star Trek , and its sequels Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond . However, there is more to this alternate reality than just those movies.

Here we will give you an unofficial guide to the Kelvin Timeline, consisting of movies, TV series, video games, and comics. “Punch it!”

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1. Star Trek: Enterprise

Medium: TV show, seasons 1 to 4 (2001-2005)

The adventures of the Enterprise NX-01 crew, led by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), take place between the years 2151 and 2155. Or rather, those are the adventures we see in seasons 1 to 4, as the show was cancelled before it could cover topics like the Earth-Romulan War, the origin of the Borg Queen, and the formation of the Federation. The creation of the Kelvin Timeline takes place 78 years later, in 2233, and therefore makes Star Trek: Enterprise the only TV series set in both timelines.

In Star Trek Into Darkness , a model of the NX-01 Enterprise can be seen in Admiral Markus’ collection. Video footage in Star Trek Beyond shows us that the crew on the U.S.S. Franklin wore the same uniforms as the NX-01 Enterprise crew. And the Franklin’s Captain, Balthazar M. Edison, is implied to have been part of the MACO attachment of the NX-01 Enterprise during Earth’s conflict with the Xindi.

What one must wonder is how the Borg that crashed in the Arctic after the Prime Timeline’s time travel movie Star Trek: First Contact exactly shows up in the episode “Regeneration.” Does that mean the Kelvin Timeline has no further effect on the past of the Prime Timeline, or that The Next Generation era turns out (mostly) the same in the Kelvin Timeline? We can only wait to see how the Kelvin Timeline develops.

The final episode of the show, “These Are the Voyages … ,”is only partially canon to the Kelvin Timeline, due to it basically being a holodeck episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation set during its season 7 episode “The Pegasus.” The historical parts involving the Enterprise NX-01 crew did happen, but everything involving Star Trek: The Next Generation does not.

2. Star Trek: Countdown

Medium: comic (2009)

This comic from IDW Publishing written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, after a story by movie scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, further connects the Prime Timeline with the Kelvin Timeline and gives more motivation to movie antagonist Nero. The story leads up to the events in Star Trek , but is set in the Prime Timeline eight years after the events of the movie Star Trek: Nemesis in 2387, and it picks up some threads from Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s “Unification” two-parter. It furthermore shows where The Next Generation crew ended up since.

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Romulus, and the rest of the galaxy, is in danger of a massively destructive supernova. Spock, now ambassador on Romulus, tells the Romulan Senate of the threat and proposes the use of the Vulcan substance called “red matter” as a solution, which causes quite a stir. With a ship called Jellyfish, designed by Geordi La Forge, Spock attempts to use the red matter to create a singularity to absorb the supernova. Unfortunately, this comes too late for Romulus and the planet is destroyed. This leads to the crew of the mining ship Narada and its Captain Nero to seek revenge on Ambassador Spock and follow him through the singularity and into the past.

The destruction of Romulus eventually leads to the Prime Timeline events in the MMORPG videogame Star Trek Online . However, the canon status of that game’s story can be overwritten by potential future post- Star Trek: Nemesis projects if the power that be choose to do so.

Just recently, Eaglemoss reprinted Star Trek: Countdown as the first hardcover paperback volume in their Star Trek graphic novel collection, with a bonus classic –1960s comic story “Planet of No Return.”

3. Star Trek

Medium: movie (2009)

Directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the story starts on the U.S.S. Kelvin in 2233. The encounter between the Romulan ship Narada emerging from the singularity and the Kelvin causes a diversion of the Prime Timeline and the creation of the Kelvin Timeline. After this, the story picks up in 2255 when Captain Christopher Pike convinces James T. Kirk to enlist in Starfleet. Three years later, in 2258, the Narada and its Captain Nero show up again to continue their vengeance for the destruction of Romulus, and threaten the Federation.

The Kelvin incident causes a number of diversions from the Prime Timeline. For example, James T. Kirk’s father, George Kirk, dies saving the Kelvin escape shuttles from the Narada, while his wife, Winona, gives birth to James T. Kirk on one of the shuttles. In the Prime Timeline, Kirk was born on Earth in Ohio.

Another difference of note in the Kelvin Timeline is an earlier born Pavel Chekov. In the Prime Timeline, Chekov was born in 2245, while in the Kelvin Timeline he was born in 2241. A change that was probably made because Chekov would otherwise be a 13-year-old during the events of Star Trek . Former Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike also goes through a number of changes that arguably benefit him, as the events of Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Cage” most likely do not occur.

The biggest change might be to the Enterprise herself. The interior of the ship is a lot different from what we saw in The Original Series . Most notably is the engineering section, which is humongous when compared to all others in Star Trek shows or movies – in fact it’s actually the Budweiser Brewery in Los Angeles. The ship’s measurements are also different. The Prime Timeline Constitution-class Enterprise is 288.6 meters in length, while the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D is 641 meters in length, but both are topped by the Kelvin Timeline Constitution-class Enterprise that has a length of 1,200 meters, according to the 2009 reference book Star Trek – The Art of The Film . However, the Enterprise we see in the Kelvin Timeline movies is likely not the counterpart of the Prime Timeline Enterprise. More on that later when we talk about the comic Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness .

IDW also adapted the movie into a six-issue comic, if you’d rather keep on reading.

There is also a tie-in videogame called Star Trek D·A·C , an arcade style top-down shooter. The “D·A·C” in the title stands for the game modes in the game: deathmatch, assault, and conquest.

4. Star Trek: Nero

This four-issue comic from IDW written again by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, after a story by movie scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, takes place during Star Trek . It follows Nero and his Narada crew between the moment they emerge from the singularity and their second appearance in the movie. The comic tells us what they did in those years. Actually, the comic takes a deleted scene of Nero on a Klingon prison planet and expands upon it. It’s a shame that scene was cut from the movie.

It might be best to read this comic after seeing Star Trek , as it’s quite spoiler heavy. Repeat viewers might find added motivation to Nero’s actions in the movie.

5. Star Trek, Vol. 1

Medium: comic, issues 1 to 4 (2011)

Overseen by writer/producer Roberto Orci and written by Mike Johnson, the Star Trek comic from IDW gives us Kelvin Timeline versions of Prime Timeline Star Trek: The Original Series stories. In this first volume, we get two stories set after Star Trek . The first is “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which was  The Original Series ‘ the second pilot episode after “The Cage.” The second story is “The Galileo Seven,” which is a season 1 episode.

The comic contradicts Star Trek Into Darkness a bit, as in the movie Kirk says he didn’t lose any crew members during his first year as captain.

6. Star Trek, Vol. 2

Medium: comic, issues 5 to 8 (2011)

The second volume tells a Kelvin version of The Original Series ’s “Operation – Annihilate!,” the season 1 finale. This version of the story gives us flashbacks to just after young Kirk crashed the Corvette in the movie. The comic makes it clear that, unlike what the credits of Star Trek told us, the owner of the Corvette was not Kirk’s stepfather but his maternal uncle, Frank. Frank has a live-action appearance in a deleted scene of the movie.

The second story, called “Vulcan’s Vengeance,” is the first story not to adapt an Original Series story. However, according to writer Mike Johnson, the story is to be seen as the Kelvin Timeline’s answer to The Original Series ’s “Balance of Terror.” In the story, a group of rogue Vulcans want to take revenge on the Romulan Empire after Nero’s deeds in Star Trek . Spock attempts to infiltrate, but gets a nasty surprise.

7. Star Trek, Vol. 3

Medium: comic, issues 9 to 12 (2012)

Volume 3 starts with “The Return of the Archons,” an adaptation of the season 1 episode of The Original Series . In it the Enterprise gets a lead on the U.S.S. Archon, a starship that disappeared a century earlier.

The next story had to happen at some point. It’s a Kelvin Timeline version of The Original Series  season 2 episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.” In the story, called “The Truth About Tribbles,” Scotty has found an ideal pet for his cousin Chris, a furry little animal called a Tribble. It’s only after Scotty has teleported the pet Tribble to his cousin on Earth that the Enterprise’s crew discovers the unfortunate side effect of two Tribbles in one room.

The stories of Volume 1 , Volume 2 , and Volume 3 are also collected in Star Trek: New Adventures, Vol. 1 .

8. Star Trek, Vol. 4

Medium: comic, issues 13 to 16 (2012)

IDW’s fourth volume presents us with three stories. The first is “Hendorff” about the life of red shirt security officer Hendorff, which you might better know by his Kirk given nickname “Cupcake.” In the story, Hendorff muses about the Kelvin version of events of The Original Series  season 2 episode “The Apple.”

The second story is called “Keenser’s Story” and tells us how he ended up as Scotty’s sidekick.

The third story, “Mirrored,” is the Kelvin Timeline version of The Original Series season 2 episode “Mirror, Mirror.” In it Bones and Scotty have a discussion about alternate timelines. Following that we are transported to a Mirror Kelvin Timeline where there is no Federation of Planets but a Terran Empire, and where Mirror Spock is captain of the ISS Enterprise. Mirror Kirk, however, plans his revenge on Mirror Spock.

9. Star Trek, Vol. 5

Medium: comic, issues 17 to 20 (2013)

It’s flashback time in this fifth volume of IDW’s comic. In “Bones,” written by Mike Johnson and F. Leonard Johnson, we learn how Dr. Leonard McCoy ended up in that shuttle Kirk boards early on in Star Trek . In “The Voice of Falling Star,” written by Ryan Parrott, we discover more about Uhura and her first meeting with Spock. Then, in “Scotty,” we see how a young Montgomery Scott found his interest in engineering. And finally, in “Red Level Down,” it’s revealed that Sulu and Chekov’s lives were intertwined since their time at Starfleet Academy.

10. Star Trek

Medium: video game (2013)

In April 2013, Paramount Digital Entertainment and Namco Bandai published Star Trek , a video game developed by Digital Extremes for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. The game stars the likenesses and voice talents of the cast of the movies. With a story by Marianne Krawczyk, with input from movie scribes Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and comic writer Mike Johnson. It’s set between the comic Star Trek, Vol. 5 and the movie Star Trek Into Darkness , about a year after Star Trek in 2259. The Enterprise encounters a group of Vulcan scientists who want to create a new Vulcan home planet. They however open a rip in space, prompting a Gorn invasion.

The story’s canon status is in dispute. While Krawczyk’s story had input from the Star Trek movie scribes, and Senior Vice President of Paramount Pictures and producer on the game Brian Miller said the story was set in the Kelvin Timeline canon, Roberto Orci later said it was not canon. Probably because the game was panned by critics. Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams said he was “emotionally hurt” by the game’s poor quality and reviews and that it hurt Star Trek Into Darkness by being released just before it. Nevertheless, in 2013, the 24th issue of IDW’s canon Star Trek comic reveals the story of the video game to be canon.

11. Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness

Medium: comic (2013)

IDW’s four-issue prelude to the movie Star Trek Into Darkness , written by Mike Johnson, after a story by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, isn’t as heavily involved with the plot of the movie as Star Trek: Countdown was with Star Trek ’s. The story of the comic chronicles the “Mudd incident” that is mentioned in Star Trek Into Darkness and explains how they got that ship they use to go to Qo’noS. But more importantly, we are introduced to the Kelvin Timeline version of Captain Robert April, who in the Prime Timeline was the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise before Captain Pike and Captain Kirk. In the Kelvin Timeline, this is still true. How is that possible, as the U.S.S. Enterprise was brand new in Star Trek ? Well, April was the captain of a U.S.S. Enterprise before the U.S.S. Enterprise Kirk is the captain of. Yes, in the Kelvin timeline there is an Enterprise between the NX-01 Enterprise and the U.S.S. Enterprise Kirk helms.

Interestingly, the way the comic portrays April’s Enterprise is more reminiscent to the Enterprise we saw in The Original Series . The comic also tells us April’s Enterprise was used before the Kelvin Timeline was created. This could mean that April’s Enterprise was the Kelvin Timeline counterpart to the Prime Timeline’s Enterprise and not the one we see in the movies. Why isn’t Kirk’s Enterprise not called the Enterprise-A then? Theorize in the comments section!

12. Star Trek Into Darkness

Medium: movie (2013)

Again directed by J.J. Abrams, and written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof. It’s now 2259, a year after the events in Star Trek , and we meet the Enterprise crew on the primitive planet Niburu. Captain Kirk and his crew violate the Prime Directive when saving the native tribes people from an impending volcanic eruption. Back on Earth this leads to a demotion for Kirk by a disappointed Admiral Pike. However, when rogue Starfleet officer John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks a Starfleet summit, Kirk and his crew is sent to apprehend him. This leads to revelations of the dark side of Starfleet with which Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans are familiar with, and a Kelvin Timeline retelling of the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .

Paramount Pictures and production company Bad Robot went to great lengths to “cloak” the true name of Cumberbatch’s character. They redubbed promotional scenes, and actors had a hard time talking around it in press interviews, often going to answers like “Cumberbatch plays a character who has previously appeared in Star Trek canon.” This isn’t untrue, as Lieutenant Harrison was indeed a character in The Original Series , appearing in season 1 episodes “Charlie X,” “The Galileo Seven,” “Arena,” “The Return of the Archons,” and “Operation – Annihilate!”

When Kirk and company visit Klingon home planet Qo’noS, something very interesting happens. Qo’noS’ moon Praxis is already destroyed. This might have enormous repercussions for the Kelvin Timeline, as in the Prime Timeline the Klingons where forced to peace talks after the moon blew up, as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . In Star Trek Into Darkness , the destruction of Praxis isn’t seen as something that will halt the Klingons, meaning that those peace talks with the Federation might not occur.

Keep an eye out for a Star Wars easter egg around the one hour and seventeen minutes mark, as astromech droid R2-D2 flies by.

The U.S.S. Vengeance is said to be twice the size of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Which is enormous, as according to the 2009 reference book Star Trek – The Art of The Film the Enterprise is 1,200 meters in length, meaning that the Vengeance would be roughly 2,400 metres in length! It has to be said that there have been a number of contradicting measurements given for the Enterprise’s size, but still, that would mean the ship is still a lot bigger than the Prime Timeline’s U.S.S. Enterprise-E which is 685 metres.

To depict the engineering section, the L.A. Budweiser Brewery was revisited, but also the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, which is used as the Enterprise’s warp core.

While this was the first Star Trek movie in 3D, certain scenes where shot in the IMAX format. These scenes have had a bumpy road getting to home media. At firstthe IMAX version of the movie, which removes the black bars on the top and bottom of your screen, was only available on iTunes. Eventually this was fixed with the Blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Compendium , a collection of both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness . But this release doesn’t have the 3D version of Star Trek Into Darkness . The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of Star Trek Into Darkness does include the IMAX scenes, but also lacks a 3D version.

13. Star Trek: Khan

Medium: comic (2013, 2014)

This IDW five-issue series tells the story of the Kelvin Timeline’s Khan Noonien Singh before and after Star Trek Into Darkness . As we see Khan during the Eugenics Wars, this means this part of his story is set in the Prime Timeline. When Khan is awakened, he is the Kelvin Timeline version, and we see how he got on before the events of Star Trek Into Darkness . Most importantly, this comic explains how Khan goes from being a Sikh, as portrayed by Ricardo Montalban in the Prime Timeline, to the very English Benedict Cumberbatch in the Kelvin Timeline. Something that probably would have been better addressed in the movie.

14. Star Trek, Vol. 6: After Darkness

Medium: comic, issues 21 to 24 (2013)

Volume 6 of the Star Trek comic picks up after   Star Trek Into Darkness , which ended in 2260. The U.S.S. Enterprise is in preparation to embark on a five-year mission into unknown space. Doctor Carol Marcus has joined the crew, and Spock has come under the influence of the Vulcan mating condition known as “Pon Farr.” This calls for a detour to New Vulcan, where Spock’s girlfriend Uhura finds a nasty surprise waiting. Meanwhile, the Klingons are very much not amused by Kirk’s little visit to Qo’noS, and Section 31 is looking to partner up to get their revenge.

The other story in this volume involves the Gorn, and confirms that the story of the Star Trek video game is to be considered canon.

The stories of Star Trek Volume 6 , together with Volume 4 and Volume 5 , are also collected in Star Trek: New Adventures, Vol. 2 , which does not include Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness or Star Trek: Khan .

15. Star Trek, Vol. 7: The Khitomer Conflict

Medium: comic, issues 25 to 28 (2013)

The Enterprise is about to embark on the five-year mission into unknown space, picking up the last new crew members at a starbase, including, to the surprise of Hikaru Sulu, engineering officer Yuki Sulu, his younger sister.

On the planet Khitomer, a new Klingon colony is being set up. However, the colony is soon destroyed by Romulan warships who have acquired some technology from a third party. The Enterprise gets involved and clashes with Klingon ships that have an eerie resemblance to Nero’s Nerada.

Yuki Sulu is a new character that hasn’t appeared before in the Prime Timeline that we could find. It is unknown if her existence is caused by the creation of the Kelvin Timeline or that she just was never mentioned in the Prime Timeline.

You might remember the planet Khitomer from Prime Timeline movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

16. Star Trek, Vol. 8

Medium: comic, issues 29 to 34 (2014)

Volume 8 features three stories. In the first story, “Parallel Lives,” we follow a mission on the U.S.S. Enterprise helmed by Captain Jane Tiberius Kirk. Yes, Jane Kirk. This is a parallel universe to the Kelvin Timeline where the same things happened but everyone is gender swapped. This means that most of the main characters are now female. The story also explores whether Kirk’s contact with Khan’s blood will have repercussions in the future. Eventually, this gender-swapped crew encounters another Enterprise – the Enterprise of Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

In Star Trek Into Darkness , you might have spotted the cyborg-looking crew member on the bridge. This is Starfleet’s first and only Humanoid Mainframe Interface, Science Officer 0718. Where did he come from all of a sudden? “I, Enterprise” explains.

In “Lost Apollo,” the Enterprise’s away team gets stuck on a planet where they find a connection to NASA’s Apollo program.

The stories of Star Trek Volume 7 and Volume 8 are also collected in Star Trek: New Adventures, Vol. 3 .

17. Star Trek, Vol. 9: The Q Gambit

Medium: comic, issues 35 to 40 (2014, 2015)

This story has a lot of connections to The Next Generation era. We return to the Prime Timeline post- Star Trek: Countdown . Q visits Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard on the U.S.S. Enterprise-E. Here Q informs Picard that Spock survived and that his actions created the Kelvin Timeline. Before Q leaves, he tells Picard that Spock’s actions may have saved the Prime Timeline but might have doomed the future of the Kelvin Timeline. Then Q departs to visit the Kelvin Timeline U.S.S. Enterprise, where he takes Kirk on a trip to the Kelvin version of The Next Generation era.

18. Star Trek, Vol. 10

Medium: comic, issues 41 to 45 (2015)

In “Behemoth,” the Enterprise encounters its first alien lifeform in unknown space in a damaged ship. This unknown alien might be their only hope to stop a big threat coming their way.

In “Eurydice,” directly after the events of “Behemoth,” the Enterprise crew find themselves in the unknown space of the Delta Quadrant. Decades of travel away from home and with a low energy supply, they seemingly find help back to Federation space from female alien Eurydice.

19. Star Trek, Vol. 11

Medium: comic, issues 46 to 49 (2015)

Having found a way to get back to Federation space, tensions rise among the crew when the Enterprise gets stuck in a pocket of interphase, a state in which time and space cease to exist. Then the Enterprise gets stuck in “The Tholian Webs.” This story is a Kelvin reimagining of The Original Series  season 3 episode “The Tholian Web.”

Seeing the leadership potential in Lieutenant Sulu, Captain Kirk gives him command over an away team in “Deity.” On the planet, Sulu’s team encounter the native population during a ritual. When their deity shows up, Sulu’s team and the Enterprise have a clash with the Prime Directive.

The stories of Star Trek Volume 9: The Q Gambit , Volume 10 , and Volume 11 are also collected in Star Trek: New Adventures, Vol. 4 .

20. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Medium: comic (2015, 2016)

In 2258, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew are cadets at Starfleet Academy. When Cadet Uhura picks up a distress signal from the U.S.S. Slayton, she calls in some help from the other members of the would-be crew. However, when she gets close to the origin of the signal, Uhura gets stonewalled from further investigation, and the trail goes cold.

Three years later, in 2261, Vulcan Cadet T’laan wants to leave Starfleet Academy as she feels out of place. Her professor persuades her to stay to compete in the Starfleet Academy team in the Centennial Competition between academies from throughout the Federation, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Starfleet Academy. She joins a team consisting of the Andorian Shev, the Monchezkin K’bentayr, and the humans Lucia Gonzales and Grace Chen. During the competition this team also comes across the distress signal of the U.S.S. Slayton and start their own investigation.

21. Star Trek, Vol. 12

Medium: comic, issues 50 to 54 (2015, 2016)

“Live Evil” finds its inspiration in The Original Series season 2 episode “Mirror, Mirror.” When the Enterprise gets caught in an ion storm everything seems normal afterwards, until the Enterprise encounters a planet that hails them as the Imperial flagship. When Kirk leads an away team to the surface, they encounter no other than Khan Noonien Singh, man of peace.

Remember Uhura’s Orion roommate at Starfleet Academy, Gaila, with whom Kirk had a fling in Star Trek ? She is the central character in “Reunion.” When the Enterprise rendezvous with the U.S.S. Tereshkova, Gaila visits her red shirt brother Kai on the Enterprise. All seems fine until Gaila and Kai’s past comes knocking.

22. Star Trek, Vol. 13

Medium: comic, issues 55 to 60 (2016)

“Legacy of Spock: celebrates both the 50th anniversary of Star Trek as well as the late Leonard Nimoy. Set after Prime Spock attended the promotion of James T. Kirk to captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, he intends to join the remainder of the Vulcan species. However, Spock’s father, Sarek, warns him that he should prepare for a cold greeting. The Vulcans want to resettle on the planet Ceti Alpha V, which causes Spock to speak up, as he very well knows that this planet soon will be a desolate place, as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan showed us. Meanwhile, Romulan elements see this as the opportune moment to snuff out the Vulcans…

The series finale of the ongoing Star Trek comic is “Connection.” In this story, both the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise crew and the Prime Timeline Enterprise crew encounter the same anomaly. This causes the minds of crewmembers to swap bodies. The only solution is for both crews to work together in both timelines.

23. Star Trek: Manifest Destiny

Medium: comic (2016)

This four-issue story, written by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott, is the final one before  Star Trek Beyond . The Enterprise encounters a rogue and very aggressive Klingon faction. The Enterprise is on red alert as the Klingons attempt to board the ship. If this situation isn’t defused quickly, war with the Klingon Empire is a high possibility.

24. Star Trek Beyond

Medium: movie (2016)

In 2263, after almost three years into the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission, the Enterprise visits the Federation Starbase Yorktown. When an escape pod is found drifting at a nearby nebula, the Enterprise investigates. The pod’s occupant, Kalara, claims her ship is stranded on the planet Altamid, located past the dangerous and unexplored nebula. When the Enterprise travels to the planet, they are greeted by a powerful, hostile force.

Unlike the previous two movies, Star Trek Beyond is directed by Justin Lin. Writing duties also changed, as Simon Pegg co-wrote the movie with Doug Jung. While Pegg reprises the role of Scotty, Jung also has a role in the movie. He plays Sulu’s husband, Ben, whom we meet on the Starbase Yorktown along with their daughter. While their daughter remains unnamed in the movie, it is possible that she is the Kelvin Timeline version of Demora Sulu, who we saw in the Prime Timeline movie Star Trek: Generations .

There is a black lining to the movie, as two stars from the series died before release. Leonard Nimoy fell into a coma on February 25, 2015, and died February 27, 2015, at the age of 83 of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Star Trek Beyond was dedicated to Nimoy.

Anton Yelchin died in June 2016, at the age of just 27. Star Trek Beyond was the first project of his that was released posthumously, and one of a number of projects dedicated to him. An “in memoriam” was included in Star Trek issue 60.

Released in the year of Star Trek ’s 50th Anniversary, there are multiple hints to the past of the franchise. The movie starts on the 966th day of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s five-year mission, a reference to 1966, the year that Star Trek: The Original Series first premiered on television screens. It also means the five-year mission is almost three years underway, which might be a reference to the three live-action seasons the show got. In the movie, Kirk says that the mission has begun to feel “episodic” – a reference to the episodic nature of The Original Series . Throughout the movie, you will see exactly 50 different new alien makeups, which was rewarded with a Oscar nomination for Best Makeup.

The passing of Leonard Nimoy is addressed in the movie, as Spock learns of the news. Among Prime Spock’s possessions is a picture of the Prime Timeline Enterprise crew. The U.S.S. Franklin and its crew are not only a call back to the Star Trek: Enterprise era, but the Franklin’s registry number NX-326 is also a reference to Leonard Nimoy’s birthday of March 26th. When Kirk asks Sulu if he can fly the Franklin, he responds with “Are you kidding me?” The line is delivered with the same expression and tone as George Takei’s Sulu in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . The name Franklin is also a reference to director Justin Lin’s father, Frank Lin. On the dedication plaque, there is a little bit of space left between “Frank” and “Lin.”

While we are on the subject of Lin’s family, his son, Oqwe Lin, is briefly seen as a green alien child when the Enterprise enters the Starbase Yorktown. The name “Yorktown” is also a reference, as Gene Roddenberry’s early script treatments for The Original Series used the name “Yorktown” instead of “Enterprise” for the name of the starship.

When Scotty discusses the theories around the U.S.S. Franklin’s disappearance, one is a “giant green space hand,” a reference to The Original Series season 2 episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” The hand can be briefly seen during the credits.

When the Enterprise crew disembarks on Starbase Yorktown, you can hear the Starbase’s communication system call out the Federation starship NCC-2893. This is the registry number of the U.S.S. Stargazer, the starship Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s Jean-Luc Picard once commanded before the Enterprise-D. At one point in the movie, Kirk says, “I ripped my shirt again.” This is a reference to the many times Kirk ripped his shirt in The Original Series . At the end of the movie, the main cast gives the iconic introductory speech used at the beginning of both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.

Star Trek Beyond is the fourth movie to be presented in the Barco Escape format, which seems similar to the Cinerama technique introduced in the 1950s. This technology uses three connected cinema screens to “wrap” the picture around the audience. Two screens are placed from the sides of the central screen to the left and right wall, giving a wide, panoramic experience. The Barco Escape Star Trek Beyond trailer on the Barco Escape YouTube channel gives you an idea of what this experience is like.

25. Star Trek: Boldly Go

Medium: comic (2016-)

IDW Publishing and writer Mike Johnson return with this follow-up comic series set after the majority of Star Trek Beyond . The crewmembers have been reassigned or have taken a leave from Starfleet. Kirk, McCoy, and Chekov are reassigned to the U.S.S. Endeavour, and Sulu is reassigned to the U.S.S. Concord, while Spock and Uhura are visiting New Vulcan. Scotty is teaching at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. The cadets we met in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy return and are joined by Star Trek Beyond ’s Jaylah.

Things turn bad when the U.S.S. Endeavour picks up the survivors of an attack on the U.S.S. Concord. Sulu survived and has one eerie message from the attackers: Resistance is futile.

The first volume of Star Trek: Boldy Go , consisting of the first six issues, is available on July 25th.

Star Trek/Green Lantern Stories

IDW Publishing is known for their cross company and cross franchise crossovers. IDW and DC Comics teamed up for two of these crossovers, written by Mike Johnson, starring the cast of IDW’s Kelvin Timeline comics and DC Comics’ Green Lantern comics. The first story is called Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War and the second Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds , which is a direct sequel. It features the  Green Lantern comic cast coming to the Star Trek Kelvin Timeline universe as a follow up of sorts to DC Comics event Blackest Night . Lantern rings choose new bearers amongst Star Trek characters and ignite conflict between the Federation and its enemies.

These Star Trek / Green Lantern stories are set in a diversion of the Kelvin Timeline, which happens between  Star Trek, Vol. 13 and  Star Trek Beyond .

At the moment, IDW’s Star Trek: Boldly Go comic is the torchbearer for the continuation of the Kelvin Timeline. There are talks about a fourth movie, and multiple actors, like Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, have already signed on. Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk might also return for the fourth movie. Producer J.J. Abrams has stated that Chekov would not be recast, but written out of the story, after the untimely death of Anton Yelchin.

But until the fourth movie comes around, we will have  Star Trek: Discovery in the Prime Timeline to take us where no one has gone before…

Read and download the full Den of Geek SDCC Special Edition magazine here!

Robbert de Koeijer

How Star Trek Connected the Kelvin Timeline to the Prime Universe

The most recent Star Trek movies take place in the so-called Kelvin Timeline, but how do they connect to the Prime Universe and franchise canon?

The Star Trek universe encompasses over two dozen films and series spanning 57 years. There are real-world reasons the trilogy of films, beginning with 2009's Star Trek, separates the continuity. One of them was so that modern-day storytellers wouldn't be hamstrung trying to fit their stories into the canon. Yet, after the film series petered out and companies merged, they all connected.

Rather than simply trying to tell a prequel story or reboot the continuity entirely, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman crafted a way to connect the film to what came before. Leonard Nimoy appeared as an older Spock in the film, despite Zachary Quinto playing a younger version of that character. The premise was that the Romulan Sun destabilized, and before Spock could save his alien cousins, the planet was destroyed. With the help of some sci-fi stuff called "Red Matter," Spock and a giant Romulan mining vessel captained by Eric Bana's Nero traveled back in time. When Kurtzman was eventually tapped to kick off the third wave of the Star Trek series , he stuck to what's known as the "Prime Universe" partly because of rights issues. Still, by the time Picard debuted, the Kelvin Timeline and Prime Universe were loosely connected.

RELATED: Strange New Worlds Explores the Lingering Trauma of War With M'Benga

The Kelvin Timeline Is One of Many Alternate Realities in Star Trek

Between 2006 and 2019, CBS Television and Paramount owners Viacom were separate companies. While CBS retained the rights to Star Trek on TV, Paramount was able to hold on to the film rights thanks to the 2009 film. The characters and situations in the movies were off-limits for TV. When CBS and Viacom merged (again), all the rights to Star Trek were under the same corporate umbrella. While there are many alternate timelines and realities in Star Trek , they usually disappear by the end of a specific episode. The Kelvin Timeline persists , and the events in the Prime Universe that inspired it have been canonized. In the run-up to the 2009 film, IDW released a prequel comic series featuring many of The Next Generation characters. While things like Geordi La Forge building the Jellyfish ship may not be canon, the events mentioned in the film are.

When Picard debuted in 2020, one of the reasons he effectively retired from Starfleet was because of the destruction of Romulus. He organized a massive fleet to rescue the Romulan people, but an attack (orchestrated by Romulan spies) prevented it from happening. So, at the end of the 24th century, the planet Romulus is destroyed. This also means Spock disappeared into the alternate past, where he died, as mentioned in Star Trek: Beyond . However, what happened to him and Nero's ship is likely a mystery to Starfleet at that time. But it's not a mystery to the Starfleet of the future.

In the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, the titular ship and her crew traveled 900 years into the future. By the end of that season, an operative from the shady intelligence agency Section 31, played by David Cronenberg of all people, revealed that an alien Starfleet officer from the Kelvin Timeline crossed into their timeframe. The uniform suggested they were from the mid-24th century, around the time of The Next Generation series . This officer revealed the major events of the Kelvin Timeline to the Starfleet of the Prime Universe. They are also aware of the Mirror Universe, where Michelle Yeoh's character was from.

RELATED: The Biggest Threat to Star Trek: Legacy Is Losing Terry Matalas

How Does the Kelvin Timeline Affect Star Trek Canon?

While The Kelvin Timeline is as canon as anything else in Star Trek , it doesn't apply to any other series. As a concept in big franchises, canon is more guidelines for the writers of future stories than for fans. It gives the universe consistency. In fact, even though Star Trek: The Animated Series isn't itself canon, many concepts introduced in the show became essential parts. This means the Kelvin Timeline is as much a part of the canon as the Mirror Universe. It is a separate reality with its own history or future, depending on the storytelling perspective. Still, the events of the Prime Universe mentioned in the films are canon and have affected the shows produced after the movies.

Unfortunately for the Kelvin Timeline, it is stuck in limbo. Should storytellers want to revisit it or perhaps do a big-old multiverse crossover like The Flash movie , it might become relevant. As it stands now, the Prime Universe is still the one Star Trek fans need to care about the most. For now, the three films released in the early 21st century are as Star Trek as it gets while remaining a little pocket universe for folks to enjoy on its own merits.

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Star Trek - Kelvin Timeline

J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot and it's sequels.

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Trek (2009)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , Leonard Nimoy

Votes: 620,481 | Gross: $257.73M

2. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Benedict Cumberbatch

Votes: 497,220 | Gross: $228.78M

3. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 258,634 | Gross: $158.85M

4. Untitled Star Trek: Beyond Sequel

Action, Adventure, Mystery | Pre-production

Plot kept under wraps. The follow-up to Star Trek Beyond (2016).

Stars: Chris Pine , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana , Simon Pegg

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Star Trek: Mapping Out the New “Kelvin” Timeline

Star Trek superfans are sticklers for canon. Star Trek’s official lore spans centuries, from obscure millennia past to the far-flung future of the 31st century. When J.J. Abrams and his production team set out to create a new version of Star Trek in the form of the 2009 film of the same name , they knew they had to address a daunting question. How could they reinvent iconic characters like Captain Kirk , Spock , and Dr. McCoy  without trampling on decades worth of lore?

The answer to that question is the most clever conceit of the current feature film series: Rather than violate canon or create a prequel to the original show, the production team decided to create an alternate reality .

That means the new films are not a reboot of the original Star Trek. Rather, they exist in a separate yet parallel universe to the six TV shows and 10 films that came before. It may seem like a small semantic shift, but it allayed any fears Star Trek fans had that Abrams would barge his way in and obliterate 40 years of existing Trek history.

Even better, Abrams and team actually created a fictional reason for this new timeline (known now as the Kelvin Timeline) to exist, then tied it directly to events that occurred in the original timeline (aka the Prime Timeline).

So how exactly did the Kelvin Timeline come about, and what’s happened since?

Romulus Is Destroyed (Prime Year 2387)

In the year 2387, almost 20 years after the events of The Next Generation , a supernova threatened the entire galaxy. In its path was the planet Romulus , the capital of the Romulan Star Empire . Spock, whose long Vulcan lifespan allowed him to live for over 100 years after Star Trek: The Original Series , promised to help the Romulans. Armed with a substance known as red matter that could disrupt the supernova, Spock took a Vulcan ship to Romulus — but it was too late. The supernova destroyed Romulus. Spock launched the red matter anyway to stop any further destruction.

A Romulan mining ship called the Narada , commanded by a Romulan named Nero , witnessed the planet’s destruction and found Spock. Nero, enraged by the destruction of his planet and the death of his pregnant wife, blamed Spock for what happened. Both the Narada  and Spock’s ship came too close to the black hole created by the red matter. They were both sucked in, with the Narada going in first.

And that’s where the Kelvin Timeline begins…

The Narada and the Kelvin (Kelvin Year 2233)

Over 100 years earlier, in 2233, the Federation starship U.S.S. Kelvin intercepted strange readings on the Klingon border. They went to the source of the readings and found the black hole, with the Narada  emerging from it soon after. The Narada immediately attacked the Kelvin , and Nero realized that he and his entire crew had gone back in time to the 23rd century. George Kirk , the first officer aboard the Kelvin , commanded his ship after the death of his captain.

At the same time, his wife Winona gave birth to a son: James Tiberius Kirk . Only minutes after the future Captain Kirk’s birth aboard an escape shuttle, the Kelvin was destroyed, taking George Kirk with it.

It was this event that sparked the beginning of the Kelvin Timeline. The destruction of the Kelvin didn’t happen in the timeline Nero came from. George Kirk lived to old age and watched his son become captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise . By virtue of Nero’s arrival and the ripple effect it caused, history would be very different in this new universe.

Nero, meanwhile, went into exile, having calculated that because of time displacement, it would not be another 25 years until Spock arrived from the future.

Kirk and Spock Begin (Kelvin Year 2258)

The young Kirk and Spock both began their lives in a new reality. Kirk, raised without a father, became rebellious and was often in trouble with the law in Iowa. Yet he was still gifted. The half-human Spock grappled with his emotions while growing up on Vulcan. He joined Starfleet and became first officer on the Enterprise , under the command of Christopher Pike . Kirk also joined Starfleet on advice from Captain Pike.

In 2258, Nero finally captured Spock Prime. Intent on revenge, Nero used red matter to destroy Vulcan . Starfleet sent an armada, crewed largely by available cadets from Starfleet Academy, in order to find out what was happening. The Enterprise , upon which Cadet Kirk had snuck on board after he was put on academic suspension, arrived late to find the armada destroyed. Nero spared the Enterprise only because he knew the young Spock would be aboard. Pike was captured by the Romulans, but not before he placed Spock in command and appointed Kirk as first officer.

A disagreement over what to do next led Spock to abandon Kirk on a snowy world near Vulcan. Kirk met Spock Prime there and learned about what happened in the other timeline. With the help of Montgomery Scott (Scotty), who was stationed at an outpost, Kirk transported back to the Enterprise and emotionally compromised Spock, forcing him to step down as acting captain. Kirk took command and led the crew to rescue Captain Pike and destroy the Narada . Pike was promoted to Admiral, while Kirk became captain of the Enterprise .

The new crew soon set out on their mission. By that point, the other classic characters of Leonard McCoy , Nyota Uhura , Hikaru Sulu , and Pavel Chekov also joined the crew throughout the course of the mission to stop Nero.

Starfleet’s Militarization (Kelvin Years 2258-2259)

After Vulcan was destroyed, Starfleet — under the command of Admiral Alexander Marcus — began searching distant quadrants of space. Their objective was to find anything they could use to strengthen Starfleet. Not only could that prevent a future disaster like Vulcan, but Marcus also believed that war with the Klingons was imminent. He wanted that war. He wanted to win it, and he believed he was the only one who could. The militarization of Starfleet had begun.

While searching, Starfleet discovered the Botany Bay , a 20th-century spaceship from Earth that carried genetically-engineered humans. These humans, known as Augments , were led by Khan Noonien Singh . Khan and his crew had been frozen in cryosleep since the 1990s, and Marcus awoke only Khan.

Under the new identity of Commander John Harrison, Khan was forced into working for Section 31 , a covert black ops group in Starfleet, to design new weapons and ships that could benefit from Khan’s savagery. Marcus used Khan’s crew against him, but Khan eventually placed them inside the torpedoes he had built and tried to smuggle them to safety. Khan was discovered, and he was forced to flee Starfleet alone.

Khan’s Wrath (Kelvin Year 2259)

Khan believed his crew was dead, so he set out for revenge against Marcus and Starfleet. He bombed a Section 31 base in London, prompting the fleet captains and their first officers to gather in San Francisco. Among those present were Pike, Kirk, and Spock. Kirk had lost command of the Enterprise after violating the Prime Directive , and he was reassigned to be first officer under Pike, who retook command of the ship. Khan attacked the officers and killed many of them, Pike included, giving Kirk his own thirst for revenge.

Khan found refuge on the Klingon homeworld, which was where Marcus — who wanted to use this as a pretext for war — ordered Kirk to take the Enterprise to kill “John Harrison” with the torpedoes Khan had designed. Instead, Spock convinced Kirk to capture “Harrison” and return him to Earth for trial. Kirk then learned that Harrison was really Khan.

Marcus soon arrived aboard an experimental starship called the Vengeance . Never intending for Kirk to make it away from the Klingon homeworld alive, Marcus fired on the Enterprise . Kirk and Khan teamed up to space jump from the damaged Enterprise to the Vengeance , which Scotty had snuck onboard earlier and disabled. There, they could capture Marcus and rescue his daughter, Carol Marcus , a member of the Enterprise crew.

Once aboard, Khan betrayed Kirk, killed Admiral Marcus, and demanded that Spock beam the Augment-filled torpedoes to the Vengeance . Once Spock did so, Khan returned the Enterprise crew members and opened fire. The Enterprise was critically damaged, but Spock played his trump card: He detonated the torpedoes in the Vengeance launch bay, after having Dr. McCoy remove the Augments while they were still on the Enterprise. The Enterprise nearly crashed before Kirk sacrificed his life to save the ship, while Khan crashed the dying Vengeance into the heart of San Francisco.

Spock, enraged at the death of Kirk, chased Khan through San Francisco. McCoy, meanwhile, realized that Khan’s blood had regenerative properties that could return Kirk to life. Uhura transported to San Francisco, where she convinced Spock to capture Khan instead of killing him. Kirk returned to life because of the blood, while Khan was placed into cryosleep once again. One year later, the refitted Enterprise was assigned a new journey: a five-year mission to explore where no one has gone before.

The Five-Year Mission (Kelvin Year 2263)

WARNING: Major Plot Spoilers for Star Trek Beyond Follow!

After spending so much time in deep space, the crew of the Enterprise  became listless. Even Captain Kirk, always the adventurer, thought things were getting a little too routine. A stop at a space station called Yorktown , though, gave them a new mission: rescuing a crew stranded on a planet cloaked inside a nebula . The Enterprise traveled to this strange new world only to be immediately attacked and destroyed by a crew of drone ships. Kirk was the last person to depart the ship, watching the saucer of the Enterprise crash onto the surface from his escape pod.

With most of the crew captured by the leader of the drone swarm, a mysterious alien warrior named Krall , Kirk and the others who weren’t captured regrouped and find their crewmates with the help of a stranded warrior named Jaylah . They ended up boarding the crashed remains of a 22nd-century starship called the USS Franklin , that disappeared in the early 2160s and was never heard from again. The crew repaired the Franklin , which Jaylah had been working on for several years after making the ship her home, and rescued the rest of their crew.

It was then that they learned the truth: Krall was actually Balthazar Eddison, the captain of the Franklin , who had used alien technology to keep himself alive — at the cost of extreme physical mutation. And he had a beef with the Federation: He was a soldier in the Xindi War and the Earth-Romulan War , who felt he was forgotten when peace was achieved and the Federation never rescued his crew. For a century, Krall searched for an ancient artifact known as the Abronath that could power a bioweapon from the planet, and he attacked the Enterprise once he learned it was aboard.

Flying the Franklin , Kirk and his crew followed Krall to Yorktown, where Krall intended to unleash the bioweapon against millions of Federation citizens. Kirk defeated Krall, who was sucked into space and killed. Through his dealings with Krall, who had a similar identity crisis, Kirk came to remember that being a starship captain was his first, best destiny, and that he lived for the adventure with his crew. The crew was given a new starship, the USS Enterprise-A , and they resumed their five-year mission to explore where no one has gone before.

Star Trek Beyond is in theaters now.

The Kelvin Timeline of Star Trek

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Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline

After a temporal incursion, the fate and future of The Federation is forever changed. These are the new voyages of the Starship Enterprise.

• TheTVDB.com List ID 13528
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• Created April 17, 2022 by Imzadi admin
• Modified April 24, 2024 by PolarGeek admin

On the maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the unconventional new captain -- James T. Kirk, recruits an elite team of pilots who must stop an evil being that threatens all of mankind.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

Star Trek Beyond

Three years into its mission the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is adrift as Captain James T. Kirk struggles to find meaning in endless exploration, but things go drastically wrong when the crew encounters a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.

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Characters / Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline

Edit locked, for tropes related to these characters in the "prime" timeline, see star trek: the original series, for the films themselves, see star trek (2009) , star trek into darkness , and star trek beyond ., u.s.s. enterprise & crew.

    James T. Kirk  See his page .

    Spock  See his page .

Doctor (Lieutenant Commander) Leonard "Bones" McCoy

Played by: Karl Urban

Dubbed in french by: alexis victor (2009 and into darkness ), fabrice josso ( beyond ), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: marco ribeiro, appearances: star trek | star trek into darkness | star trek beyond.

• Badass Pacifist : He doesn't see as much action as his crewmates, mainly owing to his position, but McCoy 's nerve and moral strength qualify him.
• Broken Bird : Alluded to as an ugly divorce (and if future movies keep with the original series, being forced to euthanize his dying father and losing custody of his daughter Joanna) has left McCoy with nothing left but his bones.
• Chivalrous Pervert : Not to the extent that Kirk is, but he has shades of this when he and Dr. Marcus are cracking open one of the torpedoes on a deserted planet. Bones : You know, when I dreamed about being stuck on a deserted planet with a gorgeous woman, there was no torpedo ! Kirk : Dr. McCoy , may I remind you, that you are not there to flirt . Bones : So, how can these legendary hands help you, Dr. Marcus? Kirk : Bones...
• Combat Medic : His designated role on most away missions; in Beyond , after being stranded planetside, separated from the rest of the crew and with an injured Spock in tow, he is forced to remove a piece of shrapnel from Spock under less than ideal circumstances (using a jury-rigged phaser and a piece of metal to cauterise the wound), and eventually manages to stabilise him with outdated but still functional supplies found on the USS Franklin.
• The Consigliere : To Kirk. The third film in particular implies that Kirk tends to celebrate his birthdays quietly with only McCoy as company. After the ordeal they had to go through in that film, he also sees fit to actually throw Kirk a surprise party anyway.
• A Day in the Limelight : Gets much more to do, and much more character development, in Star Trek Beyond, after having very little to do in Star Trek Into Darkness. Something of an Enforced Trope , as Urban was considering quitting the series after the second film.
• And in the first film, when he tells Spock the ship's doctor is dead, while dealing with a room rapidly filling with injured patients;
• Dr. Jerk : While he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold , his bedside manner leaves something to be desired, especially when he's treating Kirk.
• Expy : Of Nick "Goose" Bradshaw , at least in the first film. Both serve as the best friend of Kirk / Maverick , more cautious than their friend, and have a family (though McCoy 's relationship with his family is much more strained). On the other hand, Bones doesn't get killed.
• Fascinating Eyebrow : A notable quirk of McCoy which Karl Urban actually possessed in real life before taking on the role.
• First-Name Basis : With Kirk.
• Freudian Trio : The ego as the one functioning as a go-between to Kirk's id and Spock's superego.
• Good Is Not Nice : Bones is a good, decent man, but he's also constantly snarky and almost never smiles.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners : He has elements of this with Kirk, especially in the first movie to the point where McCoy couldn't leave Kirk behind when the latter was grounded due to academic probation.
• Hospital Hottie : A given for a doctor played by the handsome Karl Urban .
• Combined with Curse Cut Short in the third film:
• In-Series Nickname : Kirk coins the nickname "Bones" for him, taking it from a line of McCoy 's. McCoy : The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I've got left is my bones.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : He frequently snarks and complains, but deep down, McCoy is a compassionate, caring man who cares for the welfare of his friends.
• Knight in Sour Armor : Despite McCoy 's cynicism, he never stops trying to do the right thing.
• The Lancer : Shares this role with Spock. He's the serious, cynical counterpart to Kirk's laid back, optimism (if occasional arrogance).
• The McCoy : Duh . Downplayed compared to his Prime Universe counterpart, but Bones often acts as a down-to-Earth adviser for Kirk.
• The Medic : He's the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Enterprise thus is well-versed in all types of medicine and biology. He is responsible for healing the crew as needed.
• My Greatest Failure : Constantly hounds Kirk for his reckless behavior. When Kirk dies and is brought into sickbay during Into Darkness , McCoy is speechless. He walks away from the corpse, sits at his desk and breaks down .
• Perpetual Frowner : Fans have noted that he's always frowning, though deleted scenes show him smiling twice. He also smiles a few times in Beyond .
• Reimagining the Artifact : The nickname "Bones" was originally derived from "Sawbones", a term for doctors and especially surgeons (the full form is occasionally used in the original series). The term has fallen out of use today, so it instead comes from something McCoy says.
• Sarcastic Devotee : McCoy is devoted to Kirk, yet never stops complaining about everything he does.
• The Snark Knight : McCoy 's divorce left him bitter and cynical, which he shows with frequent barbs, usually directed at Kirk or Spock.
• Southern-Fried Genius : A trained and experienced doctor from the south. He even indulges in folksy metaphors.
• Stepford Snarker : In the first shuttle scene with Kirk, it's hinted that McCoy uses sarcasm to hide his vulnerability and sadness over losing everything in the divorce.
• Super Doc : In Into Darkness , he brings Kirk back from the dead with nothing but a tribble and Khan's blood.
• Talks Like a Simile : He drops so many southern-themed metaphors in the sequel that Kirk actually orders him to stop. Spock being, well, Spock, does not entirely get them either.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky : He's a good-looking guy whose dialogue is roughly 50% snark.
• Team Dad : He lectures both Spock and Kirk about their actions, hoping to talk some sense into them.
• Vitriolic Best Buds : With Kirk, heavy on the vitriolic side with Spock.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame : To Spock: Bones : Don't agree with me, Spock. It makes me very uncomfortable.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? : Much like his Prime counterpart, Bones does not like transporters.
• You Are in Command Now : A variation in the first film, where his supervising medical officer is killed and he ends up having to take over.

Lieutenant Nyota Uhura

Played by: Zoe Saldaña

Dubbed in french by: ingrid donnadieu, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: priscilla amorim.

• Adaptational Badass : Uhura's Action Girl qualities get a lot more attention here than in the original series.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl : She's a tall, mature, beautiful girl with long dark hair.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome : Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showed that in the main timeline, Uhura was timid and nervous. In the Kelvin timeline, she's assertive and confident.
• Awesomeness by Analysis : Uhura has keen ears and an eidetic memory when it comes to sound, which makes her as a perfect Communications Officer.
• Badass Normal : No superpowers, but she'll willingly take on Khan, a Super-Soldier , and help take him down if she needs to , and also put herself at risk of being attacked by Klingons. Then there's Beyond , where she runs into a room unarmed that contains two of Krall's mooks. Seven seconds later she's the only one still standing.
• Battle Couple : Her and Spock as they accompany Kirk to a war-torn world in order to track down John Harrison. She also assists Spock during the climactic Traintop Battle with Khan.
• Berserk Button : Unless you want to face her wrath or the Klingons , don't interrupt her when she's negotiating with said Klingons.
• Beware the Nice Ones : Shown in full in the sequel. Unless you want to deal with the woman who battled a Klingon and fired at a superhuman , please don't upset her.
• Big Eater : "Hi. I'd like a Clabmin fire tea, 3 Budweiser Classics, 2 Cardassian sunrises, and a...A Slusho mix, thank you." Heck, Uhura's favorite food is Rokeg Blood Pie .
• Black and Nerdy : Uhura is African and excelled in her academics.
• Brainy Brunette : She has dark hair and speaks (at least) Klingon and three dialects of Romulan.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter : The comics have child Uhura pictured as one with complaining over trivial things and smarting off to her parents.
• Break the Cutie : When she was a teenager, Uhura witnessed her uncle's death. She never told anyone until Spock through their mind-meld.
• Clingy Jealous Girl : Downplayed . The IDW comics show that she can become jealous if another female appears interested in Spock, but even so she remains professional.
• Communications Officer : Upon realizing her qualifications, Pike immediately replaces the then-current communications officer with Uhura.
• Composite Character : Of the original Uhura and some elements of Nurse Chapel.
• Cunning Linguist : She is a xenolinguistics expert. It's her ear for speech patterns that helps identify Krall's true identity as Balthazar Edison.
• Uhura was briefly captured by a Klingon soldier, but managed to free herself and injure him.
• Her main role in Beyond after a nonlethal Heroic Sacrifice strands her with Krall. Significant portions of the film are dedicated to her escape attempts, and she ends up saving Spock when he came to rescue her.
• Dark and Troubled Past : When she was only a teenager, Uhura witnessed the death of her uncle.
• Deadpan Snarker : Uhura : And here I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals . Kirk : Well... not only ...
• Defrosting Ice Queen : Subverted. Uhura is actually a nice and open person, but put up a cool shoulder towards Kirk because of his flirty ways. Double subverted as the movies go on, and her respect and care for Kirk becomes more apparent. Especially after his death in Into Darkness .
• Girly Bruiser : She has no problem going hand-to-hand with a Klingon if she has to.
• Go-Getter Girl : Uhura is determined to become the best xenolinguistics expert in Starfleet. She also is the one who makes the first move in her relationship with Spock.
• Good with Numbers : According to her biography on the Star Trek movie app, she graduated with honors from the Institute for Advanced Mathematics in 2255 where she then enrolled in Starfleet Academy.
• Interspecies Romance : She (a human) and Spock (half-human, half-Vulcan). In the Star Trek (IDW) comics, she made the first move of asking him out on a date.
• Lady of War : Uhura certainly fits a number of the characteristics, especially in regards to her absolute calm, feminine grace and physical ability. She has absolutely no fear of teleporting onto a moving vehicle and firing at adversaries if she needs to.
• Living Emotional Crutch : She and Kirk are this to Spock. She is one of the very few people he opens up to emotionally. Zoe Saldana even describes how she and Kirk are emotional crutches to Spock in For the Love of Spock : Zoe: "Everytime he [Spock] goes into a negative place, or he starts being a little bit of a pessimist, he allows Uhura and Kirk to snap him out of it. And I really like that."
• Magnetic Heroine : The tie-in comic reveals Uhura puts everyone in a good mood. In fact, she's the sole person who can pull a smirk from Spock .
• Minored in Ass-Kicking : She generally stays out of most firefights, but on occasion she'll step in and kick ass.
• Morality Pet : To Spock . Downplayed in that while Spock may come off as aloof and cold, he's not a bad person. But Uhura is one of the very few to make him show his more human side.
• The first film includes a scene of Uhura in her underwear.
• We also get a long shot of her rear in the sequel.

• Nerves of Steel : Facing off against a squad of Klingons with no weapons, and using their native language to avoid violence? That sounds fine. Being beamed onto a moving vehicular transport while it's going at full speed? Not a problem for Uhura. She also keeps her cool when faced with Krall.
• Nice Girl : Don't let her apparent aloofness fool you, Uhura is a friendly, sociable and warmhearted individual. In fact, she told one of her classmates off for punching Kirk, even though he [Kirk] was starting to become an inappropriate flirt.
• Omniglot : According to her dossier at the official Star Trek movie website, Uhura originates from Africa and was the Academy aide for the advanced phonology and advanced acoustical engineering courses. She is proficient in 83% of official Federation languages and regional dialects. She was also Vice President of Starfleet Academy's Chorale Ensemble.
• Passionate Sports Girl : She played competitive racquetball in school.
• Plucky Girl : No one's stopping her from being assigned to the Enterprise .
• Promoted to Love Interest : There were a few scenes between Spock and Uhura in early TOS episodes that could be seen as flirting, but it never really went anywhere. The film, on the other hand, has them in an established relationship.
• Uhura is a wise and well-mannered woman, but she is perfectly capable of handling herself.
• Spock even tells Kirk that intervening in her attempt to use diplomacy with the Klingons will not only incur the wrath of said Klingons, but Uhura herself.
• Further reinforced in the IDW comics when Kirk admitted he'd rather go ten rounds with Admiral Pike than face her.
• Smart People Play Chess : A tie-in comic reveals she was able to beat Spock . In 3-D chess .
• The Smurfette Principle : The only woman among the main cast until Carol Marcus joins the crew in the sequel.
• The Social Expert : The female presence with the most emotional intelligence. According to Kirk, she is able to put everyone onboard the Enterprise in a good mood. She also specializes in communications, and has been damseled more than once (though she likes to fight her way out of these situations.)
• Student/Teacher Romance : With Spock, her profile implies she served as his teaching aide. Confirmed in the IDW comics, but they did not get romantically involved until after her time as his aide was over.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl : The Girly Girl to a few Tomboys such as Carol Marcus and Jaylah.
• Took a Level in Badass : As a Starfleet officer she is already pretty badass, but between the second and third movies she picked up enough hand to hand combat skills to dispatch two of Krall's drone soldiers by herself.
• Trademark Favorite Food : The IDW comics reveals she has a taste for Rokeg Blood Pie.
• Spock tells Kirk that it would be unwise to intervene in Uhura's attempt at diplomacy unless they want to incur the wrath of the Klingons... and Uhura.

Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

Played by: Simon Pegg

Dubbed in french by: cédric dumond, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: cláudio galvan.

• 10-Minute Retirement : He briefly leaves the Enterprise, but later returns helping Kirk and Khan get on-board Admiral Marcus' ship and fighting alongside them too .
• Apologetic Attacker : In Into Darkness , where he apologizes to a Vengeance security guard just before he opens the airlock to allow Kirk and Khan to enter the ship and lets the guard exit the same way .
• Badass Bookworm : Initially, he hadn't been made out as much of a physical guy, but he did pretty well in any case.
• Badass Normal : No superpowers, but he's a good enough fighter to get by, even being able to knock Khan out for a few seconds with a well-aimed stun blast.
• Blatant Lies : When dealing with a Vengeance guard, everything that comes out of his mouth is this. Vengeance Security : The person counting down, what is that? Scotty : I think you're hearing things, mate.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer : He's a bit daft, but he's the one who beamed himself and Kirk onto the Enterprise mid-warp, which is no easy feat.
• Butt-Monkey : He nearly drowns in the first film, and in the second film goes into self-inflicted retirement, gets trapped on the enemy ship, has to face a big goon while trying to open the airlock for Kirk to get inside the ship, is beaten by Khan, and he and Kirk are nearly killed several times while attempting to reach the engine room of the Enterprise .
• A Day in the Limelight : Has a much more substantial role in Into Darkness , where he even goes out into the field with Kirk and Khan at the film's climax.
• Deadpan Snarker : He has his moments.
• Dude, Where's My Respect? : He got mocked for his transwarp theory and when he does actually prove it can be done, the Starfleet Brass promptly confiscated his equation. He's pretty mad about it in Into Darkness , particularly after Harrison used a portable transwarp device to escape after attacking the top officers in Starfleet.
• The Engineer : He quickly takes over as Chief Engineer for the Enterprise .
• In Star Trek Beyond , Scotty goes up to eleven. First, he seems to have learned about being able to use photon torpedoes to store live bodies, as he jury rigs one into an impromptu escape pod. Then he is able to raise a century-old starship from the dead and configure it for atmospheric flight which it was never able to do. Then, finally, he literally goes up to eleven, with Jaylah's assistance, by blasting Beastie Boys at the enemy to disorient them.
• Genius Bruiser : Of the engineering and transwarping kind.
• Grease Monkey : He loves to play around with machines.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners : He and his alien assistant Keenser, to the point where the alien resigns at the same time Scotty does.
• Manly Tears : When Kirk dies from the radiation and he can't do anything to save him.
• Mr. Fixit : Par for the course for the character. The third film makes it absolutely clear; if a machine is broken — he will fix it, if a system is impossible to work around — he will find a way around it.
• Mythology Gag : The admiral in the below Noodle Incident ? Jonathan Archer .
• Never My Fault : He claims something else is responsible.
• Noodle Incident : He tried to prove his methodology on transwarp beaming to a ranking admiral by using said admiral's prized beagle as a test subject. The dog has yet to reappear anywhere, which caused Scotty to be Reassigned to Antarctica on Delta Vega. In the tie-in novel, it reappears on the Enterprise .
• Plucky Comic Relief : Most of his screentime in the first film is devoted to comic relief.
• Properly Paranoid : Those torpedoes that he refused to sign for and temporarily resigned over? Each of them contained a member of Harrison/Khan's crew and would have been used to start a war with the Klingons. He didn't know the former at least at the time, though.
• Sarcastic Devotee : In the second film, he spends most of his time snarking at Kirk, while remaining loyal to the man.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : He resigns from the Enterprise early in the sequel as he doesn't want to transport military equipment that could endanger the lives of everyone on board. That, and he's uncomfortable with the idea of the Enterprise turning into a black ops vessel. Though technically, refusing to sign for warheads with unknown specs, payloads and failure rates is following the rules; as the senior engineering officer, he's following established safety protocols .
• Sixth Ranger : He joins the Enterprise crew later than any other character in the first film.
• Technical Pacifist : He prefers not to fight, but will if the need arises. That said, he insists on keeping his weapons on "stun." Harrison actually calls him out on this, saying that their enemies will have no such qualms.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill : He insists on keeping his weapon on "stun" rather than "kill", and the one time he DOES break the rule, it's A) out of sheer necessity and B) something he looks genuinely sad about doing.
• Trademark Favorite Food : Sandwiches.
• Vitriolic Best Buds : With Keenser. Scotty will yell and berate him, but respects and trusts Keenser's technical prowess.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Calls Kirk out on agreeing to perform black ops and carry unknown warheads in the second film and resigns his commission , as well as citing his anger at Starfleet for confiscating his transwarp beaming equations, which inadvertently lead to Harrison escaping after his attack on Starfleet HQ .
• Why We Can't Have Nice Things : Seems to have this attitude when he returns from the Vengeance to the crippled Enterprise , citing that in his less-than-24-hour absence, Enterprise nearly got itself atomized . Scotty : I've been off this ship one day! One bloody day!

Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu

Played by: John Cho

Dubbed in french by: alexandre nguyen, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: paulo vignolo.

• Ace Pilot : Quite probably one of the best in Starfleet. Kirk: You can fly this thing, right? note  To elaborate, the crew is about to take off in a centuries old derelict that hasn't flown since the very earliest days of human interstellar travel, that they're not even sure can fly . Sulu: You kidding me, sir?
• Action Dad : Star Trek Beyond reveals he has a husband and daughter. And by then, he's still an amazing pilot and fighter.
• Actor Allusion : An unusual case, in that it's referring to original actor George Takei and not to John Cho : this Sulu is married to a man, in reference to Takei's sexuality (which was an open secret almost since the original show was first released).
• Adaptational Sexuality : Takei's Sulu was married to a woman, Cho's is married to a man.
• All Asians Know Martial Arts : Sulu has "advanced hand-to-hand combat training," namely fencing. It should be noted, however, that Iaido and Kendo are both considered "fencing," with Iaido being notoriously real-world-applicable when needed.
• Badass Boast : When he takes over as acting captain, he gives a speech that causes Bones to mutter "remind me never to piss you off." Sulu: Attention, John Harrison. This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise . A shuttle of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced long-range torpedoes currently locked on to your location. You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration. If you test me... you will fail .
• Badass Driver : He's extremely capable both in and out of a vehicle.
• Badass Normal : He can fight off Romulans despite his lack of powers, with a sword. Keep in mind that Romulans and Vulcans share a similar ancestry and are quite tough , to say the least.
• Beware the Nice Ones : His Badass Boast to Harrison displays this extremely well. Lampshaded by McCoy . McCoy : Mr. Sulu, remind me never to piss you off.
• The Big Guy : Not physically, but he's fairly stoic and an excellent fighter.
• For Want Of A Nail : In the Kelvin Universe, the only reason he was on the Enterprise for its first mission was that her assigned helmsman came down with lungworms. He soon demonstrates his credentials and Kirk keeps him on the crew.
• In the first film, he kicks a Romulan into one of the thermal vents on the drill, incinerating him in an instant. He then impales the second one in the back and pushes him off the drill.
• In the sequel, he readily and convincingly threatened Harrison with the experimental torpedoes aboard the Enterprise .
• Happily Married : Sulu has a husband and young child. Notably, even Kirk clearly regards it as a heartwarming moment when he sees Sulu embrace his family.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness : In the reboot comics, at least three secret organizations of varying levels of villainy attempt to recruit him, but Sulu wisely resists.
• Jumped at the Call : Immediately puts his hand up when Pike asks for volunteers to destroy the drill on Vulcan.
• Katanas Are Just Better : Sulu fights Romulans with a folding sword that looks a lot like a katana, though it could also be a saber. He describes his combat training as "fencing."
• Let's Get Dangerous! : Sulu admits his "advanced combat training" is actually fencing, which earns a seemingly-justified Oh, Crap! face from Kirk and a laugh from the audience. In the fight on the drill that immediately follows, Sulu defeats his opponent (while Kirk gets his ass kicked and has to get bailed out by Sulu).
• Master Swordsman : Which he displays while fighting Romulan guards in the first film.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking : As a pilot, he generally doesn't need to do the hands-on work, but easily can on the rare occasion when he does.
• Nice Guy : Quite easily one of the most laid-back members of the crew. That said, he can stand up to you if he so needs to.
• Spanner in the Works : Nero's plan would have worked perfectly had he not forgotten to take the Enterprise's "parking brakes" off when they were warping to Vulcan. The delay allowed the Enterprise to escape the ambush at Vulcan to fight another day.
• Straight Gay : It was revealed that he is married to a man in ']Beyond'' though there was no indication of his sexual orientation in the previous two films.
• Twofer Token Minority : Both the only Asian man and the only confirmed gay man among the Enterprise crew.
• You Are in Command Now : Is given command of the Enterprise after Kirk and Spock leave to arrest Harrison. Sulu refers to himself as "Acting Captain" when he addresses the crew, and later simply as "Captain" when he's trying to intimidate Harrison. Despite some initial doubts on McCoy's part, he pulls off the role with aplomb.

Ensign Pavel Chekov

Played by: Anton Yelchin

Dubbed in french by: nathanel alimi, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: gustavo pereira.

• Action Survivor : In Beyond, after the Enterprise crashes. He spends the second act keeping up with Kirk, and even gets a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Adaptational Intelligence : The original Chekov was pretty sharp, but this version is a Child Prodigy who managed to get a Starfleet commission at the age of 17.
• Affectionate Nickname : Scotty sometimes calls him "Wee Man".
• The Baby of the Bunch : Pavel is the youngest of the crew, being 17 years old.
• Badass Adorable : He can be quite the Badass whenever a crisis occurs. The first movie has Chekov saving Kirk and Sulu through some very skilled transporter use. And just look at him! He's dorky and a Nice Guy .
• Boldly Coming : During Beyond , Chekov is seen coming out of an Orion's bedroom after a fight, is shown to be visibly impressed by Jaylah, and is hitting on an alien woman at the end.
• Break the Cutie : Briefly in the scene where he's beaming the Vulcan elders out and loses Amanda Grayson. Chekov : I'm losing her! I'm losing her! No, I lost her. I lost her. ..
• Casanova Wannabe : In Beyond he's introduced being kicked out of an Orion's bedroom after a lover's spat. In the last scene, he's shamelessly hitting on an alien woman.
• The Cutie : He's a dork and has a face anyone would want to eat up.
• Has a Type : Beyond shows Chekov having a thing for alien women.
• Heroic BSoD : Not for too long though, see Break the Cutie . Briefly goes into another one in Into Darkness after being signed to engineering ( after Scotty quits ) because he had to put on a Red Shirt .
• Innocent Blue Eyes : Displaying his youth and cheerful personality.
• Intelligible Unintelligible : The other characters have no trouble understanding a word Chekov says, despite him having a "Russian" accent thicker than borscht . This is inverted, however, when the computer has no idea what a "nuclear wessel" is. And when the computer can't understand his passcode, because of his mangling of "Vwictor Vwictor". (Incidentally, Anton Yelchin really is Russian-born. The accent is still very, very fake.)
• The Intern : Which would explain how he managed to become a commissioned officer at 17 years old.
• Jack of All Stats : He's smart enough to back up but never exceed Scotty or Spock. He plays Action Survivor to Kirk's hero in Beyond. He's basically able to fill in for the others when needed.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall : When Kirk tells him to put on a Red Shirt , Chekov is visibly worried .
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong : Or at least better at surviving.
• Nice Guy : One of the nicest, most personable members of the crew.
• Plucky Comic Relief : Downplayed, but his accent and energetic nature are Played for Laughs at times.
• Put on a Bus : After Anton Yelchin 's death, it was announced that he won't be recast for the next movie. Still uncertain whether or not The Character Died with Him or Character Outlives Actor . invoked
• Quirky Curls : Contrasting the Monkees-style haircut of Walter Koenig 's Chekov.
• Red Herring Shirt : He is forced to put on a Red Shirt at one point, suggesting he could die at any second . (He even looks appropriately horrified .) Instead, Kirk is the one who ends up dead .
• Teen Genius : In the first film, he's only 17, yet a more than capable crewmember of the Federation's flagship. Captain Pike even calls him a "Russian whiz-kid".
• Chekov manages to level up, relative to his counterpart in the original continuity, by saving Kirk and Sulu through some very skilled transporter use.
• And then he's promoted to Chief Engineer when Scotty and Keenser quit as he had been shadowing Scotty. He manages to save Kirk and Scotty from falling to certain death and assists with rebooting the Enterprise .
• By Beyond he's able to keep pace with Kirk when stranded in the Nebula, provide fire support as part of the Unspoken Plan Guarantee and has become somewhat successful with women.

Played by: Deep Roy

• All of the Other Reindeer : Keenser's intellectual curiosity, technical proficiency and being unusually tall for his species made him an outcast on his home planet. With his family's blessing, he joined Starfleet after meeting George Kirk and Captain Robau, and repairing the Kelvin 's shuttle.
• All There in the Manual : In the IDW comics, Keenser's species are revealed to be named the Roylans and he was a friend of George Kirk's.
• Big Eater : Inverted. He can eat a bean , and he'll be done.
• Bizarre Alien Biology : In Beyond , he comes down with a weird disease that causes him to sneeze highly-caustic green goo . The captured members of the crew use it to eat through a lock during an early intelligence-gathering attempt.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue : In the comics, he can talk at length in his native tongue, but can only communicate in one or two words sentences, noises, or actions in Standard. It's enough for Scotty to understand his point.
• Funny Background Event : While a serious conversation is going on, Keenser seems to form the habit of sitting down on something he really shouldn't, that's taller than he is. This isn't noticed until Scotty looks over and gives his standard response, "Get down!"
• Phrase Catcher : "Get down!"
• The Quiet One : He's said all of one word in English ("Me") in three movies. He was shouting something at Kirk and Spock Prime when they entered the outpost on Delta Vega, but it wasn't very clear.
• Shorter Means Smarter : Played straight in relation to humans, but Inverted when he was at home. Keenser's height is considered tall at his home and he was a lot smarter than his peers.
• The Silent Bob : Able to change Scotty's mind wordlessly.
• Silent Snarker : While he is mostly quiet, Keenser is known to shake his head when Scotty is talking to him.
• Those Two Guys : With Scotty.
• Vitriolic Best Buds : Also with Scotty. The two constantly bicker with one another, and Scotty is frequently telling him to "get down" from really high places, but at the end of the day they're good friends and stick together. Even when Scotty was beamed aboard the Enterprise , he let out a small whine in response to his friend leaving him.
• The tie-in novel based on the original script for the 2009 film reveals that he was originally meant to speak at some length to Scotty, Kirk and Spock Prime. Apparently someone at some point decided it was funnier and more effective if he just looked at them for a really long time.

Dr. Carol Marcus

Played by: Alice Eve

Dubbed in french by: emilie alexandre, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: adriana torres, appearances: star trek into darkness.

• Adaptational Nationality : In this timeline, she was raised in London in order to explain Alice Eve's accent which wasn't present for the original version of the character.
• Break the Cutie : Over the course of the film, Carol discovers that her father is a ruthless warmonger, is helpless to stop him from attempting to murder hundreds of innocent people, has her leg broken by Khan and then watches him brutally murder her father . That said, she holds up fairly well.
• Calling the Old Man Out : "I am ashamed to be your daughter ." The Admiral isn't particularly affected.
• Daddy's Little Villain : Defied. See Calling the Old Man Out .
• Dude Magnet : Just ask Kirk and McCoy for their opinion.
• English Rose : She provides an interesting "Rose-in-space" futuristic variation of this established trope, whilst still retaining the required character traits — she's kind, demure (" turn around, please "), proper, loyal, has a strong strong moral sense and of course, she's beautiful.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold : Contrasting her father .
• Military Brat : Her father's a Starfleet Admiral.
• Morality Pet : To Admiral Marcus. Well, kind of. Carol tries to reason with him not to kill the crew, but he teleports her off the Enterprise and then begins opening fire on the ship.
• Motor Mouth : Once she gets going, Carol can out-talk anyone in the film.
• Ms. Fanservice : Is played by the attractive Alice Eve , and even has a Lingerie Scene partway through the film. note  Writer Damon Lindelof actually apologized on Twitter for this seemingly gratuitous and much-criticized scene. Carol : I said ' turn around .' Now.
• Nice Girl : She's loyal, protective of her friends and crewmembers, who she's only known for a short while, and does her best to always do what's right.
• Nom de Mom : She is introduced as Carol Wallace, "Wallace" being her mother's surname.
• No One Gets Left Behind : She insists on staying to rescue Bones from being blown up by a torpedo rather than let Kirk beam her to safety.
• Plucky Girl : The adult version.
• Put on a Bus : By the time of Star Trek Beyond she's left the Enterprise to work on Project Genesis.
• Red Herring Mole : The way she is written into the story suggests that she may be a mole or terrorist but turns out that this is her father's part and she is one of the good guys.
• The Scream : She belts out a pretty horrifying one when she sees her father's head smushed by Khan .
• Sci-Fi Bob Haircut : She has blond hair and wears a simple bob parted in the middle without bangs.
• Shed the Family Name : Introduces herself as Carol Wallace when she first reports for duty. She justifies this as so that her father does not know that she's investigating why he loaned the experimental torpedoes to the Enterprise .
• Averted. Despite her prime universe counterpart's relationship with Kirk and the fact she's the main unattached female character in the film, her relationship with Kirk never goes beyond platonic (albeit with the potential to become romantic in future films). They're as friendly as Kirk is with any other crewmember, and her arc is more about proving herself a valuable member of the Enterprise crew.
• Played straight with McCoy , when the latter is drafted into helping her open and study one of the new torpedoes .
• Sixth Ranger : To the Enterprise crew.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl : The Tomboy to Uhura's Girly Girl.
• Two First Names : Either "Carol" or "Marcus" can be used as a first name. Even her fake last name "Wallace" is also a first name.

Played by: Melissa Roxburgh

Dubbed in french by: marie tirmont, appearances: star trek beyond.

• Cruel and Unusual Death : Krall uses her to test his new weapon, leading her to slowly distintegrate.
• Face Hugger : Inverted; the back of her head is a set of hands, quite similar to the facehuggers from Alien . Kirk uses them as a place to hide the weapon.
• Sacrificial Lamb : The poor girl existed solely to be killed by Krall. And she doesn't even wear a Red Shirt .

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

• Always a Bigger Fish : She's meant to be the most advanced and powerful ship in Starfleet — until Section 31's flagship, U.S.S. Vengeance , shows up and delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle .
• Beam Spam : Uses an epic phaser barrage to destroy Nero's Macross Missile Massacre .
• In the first one , she takes battle damage but is still capable of warp speed and combat.
• In Star Trek Into Darkness , she's severely damaged to the point of falling out of Earth orbit and nearly crashing before restoring power at the last minute. It takes a year of repairs before she can fly again.
• In Star Trek Beyond , she's finally destroyed .

Captain Christopher Pike

Played by: Bruce Greenwood

Dubbed in french by: bernard lanneau, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: hélio ribeiro, appearances: star trek | star trek into darkness.

The Enterprise's first captain, and later Admiral. He saw the potential in James T. Kirk for greatness and convinced him to joining Starfleet. Ever since, he's been constantly watching over him.

• He and Kirk had no real association in the original timeline outside of the events of "The Menagerie", but here he convinces Kirk to join Starfleet and serves as something of a mentor to him.
• Spock was loyal to Pike to the point he led a mutiny in order to help his former captain, but in this timeline their relationship is purely professional.
• Adaptational Timespan Change : While still Kirk's predecessor, he spends much less time as Captain of the Enterprise compared to the original timeline.
• Badass in Distress : He spends most of the first film as a prisoner of Nero's.
• Badass Normal : Even after enduring torture at Nero's hands, Pike can still save Kirk's life by gunning down two Romulan mooks.
• Benevolent Boss : Pike really wants to see Kirk succeed and consistently encourages him to live up to his full potential.
• Catchphrase : Like many a Captains before and after him - in both timelines at that - this version of Pike also has his own "thing in the chair" whenever he orders the Enterprise into warp: "Punch it."
• Character Death : Killed in a surprise attack in the second movie. He doesn't even get any last words .
• Cool Old Guy : If it wasn't for him, Kirk would've never joined Starfleet.
• Dare to Be Badass : The current page quote. He uses this on Kirk when he was trying to convince him to enroll in Starfleet. Pike: Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives... including your mother's, and yours. I dare you to do better.
• Deadpan Snarker : He asks Sulu "Is the parking brake on?" when the Enterprise fails to go to warp during its maiden voyage.
• Death by Adaptation : He's killed off at the start of the second film.
• Distressed Dude : Through his surrender to save his crew.
• A Father to His Men : His entire crew works really, really hard to save him from the Romulans, especially Kirk and Spock who board Nero's ship to retrieve him. And Pike's definitely got some Parental Substitute vibes going on with Kirk throughout the whole movie.
• Four-Star Badass : He's made an admiral by the end of the 2009 film.
• It's Personal : His death by Khan's hands drives Kirk to pursue him at all the way to the Klingon homeworld .
• The Mentor : He convinces the hero to fulfill his potential and is killed by the hero's Arch-Enemy (albeit in the second film) .
• Mentor Occupational Hazard : While he survives the first film, he falls prey to this trope in Into Darkness .
• Parental Substitute : Pike's relationship with Kirk after he joins Starfleet could definitely be seen as this, particularly as his stepfather is implied to be abusive. And he's grinning like a proud father when Kirk's given command of the Enterprise at the end.
• Reasonable Authority Figure : Immediately raises the Enterprise to red alert after being presented Kirk's suspicions of the Romulan attack, setting aside the fact the latter was on the ship illegally in the first place. In the sequel, he is forced to take action against Kirk for breaking protocol, but does his best to get Kirk a position as first officer, eventually putting enough pressure on his superiors to force them to give in .
• Sacrificial Lion : Is killed early in Darkness to show how dangerous John Harrison is.
• Spared by the Adaptation : Never suffered the training incident that left him with full body paralysis although the torture he suffers at Nero's hand leaves him temporarily in a wheelchair and later reliant on a cane. However...
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome : After surviving the first film, he's killed by Khan in Into Darkness .
• Team Dad : He acts as a mature, reasonable figure to his crew, especially towards Kirk.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Gives one to Kirk when he violates the Prime Directive to save the native species of a planet from an erupting volcano, when he was meant to be merely observing. That said, after chewing him out for it, he fights tooth and nail to get Kirk as his first officer again. Then he dies and Kirk ends up as Captain of the Enterprise again .

Lieutenant Commander/Captain George Kirk

Played by: Chris Hemsworth

Dubbed in french by: axel kiener, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: ettore zuim, appearances: star trek.

• The Captain : Of the USS Kelvin , for about twelve minutes.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart : He's this to his Prime Universe counterpart, who according to Spock at least lived long enough to see his son become captain of the Enterprise. His death had a massive impact on Jim's life and personality, and gave him an entirely different motivation to join Starfleet.
• Disappeared Dad : He died mere moments after Jim's birth.
• Dying Moment of Awesome : He dies ramming the Kelvin into the Narada , disabling the enemy ship and giving the evacuating crew a chance to escape. Pike : Your father was Captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's and yours.
• Face Death with Dignity : He manages to stay calm in his final moments, using his last words to tell his wife that he loves her.
• Killed Mid-Sentence : "I love you so much. I love y—".
• Number Two : As first officer on the USS Kelvin , he was second-in-command to Captain Robau.
• Sacrificial Lion : He dies in the opening sequence of the first film (although he outlives Captain Robau). In his brief time as Captain of the Kelvin, he manages to singlehandedly hold off the Narada 's missile barrages on the evacuation shuttles, and disable the enemy ship.
• You Are in Command Now : Once Captain Robau goes aboard the Narada. Robau: You're captain now, Mr. Kirk.
• You Shall Not Pass! : When the autopilot was damaged beyond repair, Kirk rammed the Kelvin into the Narada and saved the lives of over 800 evacuating crew, including his own wife and newborn son.

Captain Richard Robau

Played by: Faran Tahir

Dubbed in french by: christophe peyroux, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: maurício berger.

• Adaptational Name Change : His name is Pierre in the novel.
• Alliterative Name : R ichard R obau.
• Benevolent Boss : He has a respectful, trusting relationship with his first officer George Kirk.
• The Captain : Of the Kelvin .
• Heroic Sacrifice : "If I don't report back in 15 minutes, evacuate the crew."
• If I Do Not Return : See Heroic Sacrifice .
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice : By Nero.
• Meaningful Name : named for the uncle that introduced Roberto Orci to Star Trek .
• Not Afraid to Die : He admits he's going on Nero's ship to buy them some time and really doesn't expect to come back .
• Sacrificial Lamb : He dies in the opening sequence of the first film.
• Thanatos Gambit : Sacrifices himself in the hope that this will at least buy the crew some time to evacuate to safety.

Winona Kirk

Played by: Jennifer Morrison

Dubbed in french by: cécile d'orlando, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: maira góes.

• Missing Mom : She's never really mentioned after the prologue of the first movie. Kirk's stepfather also mentions that she's offworld when Kirk steals the car. Beyond clarifies that she is still alive, but doesn't offer any specifics beyond that.

Played by: Rachel Nichols

Dubbed in french by: marie zidi.

• Arranged Marriage : As a child, her mother had forced her into an arranged marriage pact with the mantis-like Pacari to solidify a trade agreement. Her father and brother had other ideas and escaped with her to Earth, and sought asylum from the Federation.
• The Cameo : For Rachel Nichols, who worked with JJ Abrams on Alias .
• Green-Skinned Space Babe : She's an Orion, who were the Trope Codifier .
• Hypocrite : She's quite annoyed that Kirk's so flippant about her Love Confession to him, but doesn't seem to notice that he has a problem when she casually mentions bringing many men back to her quarters for sex.
• Interspecies Romance : With Kirk.
• Lingerie Scene : Which lasts for the entirety of her first scene.
• Love Confession : Kirk handles it like a pro . Gaila : Jim, I think I'm falling in love with you. Kirk : That is so weird .
• Ms. Fanservice : The majority of her screentime is spent in her underwear.
• Really Gets Around : Uhura is apparently annoyed at her always bringing guys home. Helps the Orion girls are a race of Dude Magnets .
• What Happened to the Mouse? : Gaila seemingly disappears before the Enterprise sets out on its maiden voyage, and it was theorized after the fact that she was on one of the fleet ships that was destroyed by Nero. The Star Trek (IDW) comics reveal that she was a member of another ship's science crew and her brother is one of the Enterprise 's engineering crew. She joins the Enterprise crew permanently at the end of the arc.

Admiral Richard Barnett

Played by: Tyler Perry

Dubbed in french by: frantz confiac.

• Reasonable Authority Figure : He gives Kirk a fair hearing at his academic tribunal, and at the end of the film, clears him of all charges, as well as giving him command of the Enterprise .

    John Harrison  See his page .

Admiral Alexander Marcus

Played by: Peter Weller

Dubbed in french by: jean barney, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: luiz carlos persy.

• Adaptation Expansion : The only thing we know from TOS is that he's the father of Carol and grandfather of David. Here, as you can tell by the spoiler tags, he's definitely much more important to the plot.
• Ambition Is Evil : By improving the defenses of Starfleet, Marcus has turned into one corrupt bastard .
• He is actually a Bad Boss as he's trying to provoke a war with the Klingons by sending the Enterprise crew off to die, then tries to destroy the ship himself when Kirk finds out the truth. His treatment of Khan is no better; he threatened his beloved crew in order to force him to continue designing weapons for Section 31, then tries to have him killed after Khan goes rogue .
• Big Bad Ensemble : With Khan. While Khan wants to revive his crew of superhumans and subjugate inferior races, Marcus plans to sacrifice the Enterprise so he can start a war with the Klingons.
• Big Bad Wannabe : While Marcus is a credible threat and even manages to kick the shit out of the Enterprise , he becomes nothing more than a tiny little blip on a radar the moment Khan gets his hands on him .
• He's the head of Starfleet, so it's a given. Except he's actually coercing Khan to work for his own ends.
• Though Marcus can also be considered a Big Bad Wannabe : He is most certainly dangerous and has powerful connections, but the moment Khan gets his hands on him, Marcus comes off as nothing more than a little blip in comparison to the pissed-off super-soldier.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing : He initially comes off as a reasonable commander. In reality, he's anything but.
• Broken Pedestal : To Pike. Marcus was the reason why he joined Starfleet, but it's safe to assume that he would have been ashamed of Marcus' doings.
• The Chessmaster : Lacks Khan's hyper-intelligence, but still has the upper hand on him right up until Khan manages to get on the same ship as him with backup. He loses not because Khan's smarter than he is or because Kirk's a better warrior than he is, but because both men manage to work together just long enough to defeat him by the skin of their teeth .
• Chewing the Scenery : During his Villainous Breakdown .
• Continuity Nod : Weller previously played a racist human extremist looking to plunge Starfleet into a war with its neighbors in the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Enterprise . He was willing to fire on Starfleet ships then, too.
• Cool Old Guy : Another cool Starfleet admiral similar to Pike. Except not. What he really is an old evil bastard .
• Cruel and Unusual Death : Khan crushes his skull with his bare hands.
• Da Chief : Gives an exasperated speech to Kirk that "Starfleet isn't about vendetta."
• Dark Is Evil : He commands the pitch-black Vengeance . In addition, the ship features dim lighting and dark uniforms for the crew.
• Deadpan Snarker : "Well, shit! You talked to him."
• Disc-One Final Boss : An unusual example in which he was The Man Behind the Man for Khan.
• Dirty Coward : When Khan attempts to hijack the Vengeance (eventually succeeding) , Marcus makes a run for it, even leaving his daughter behind without a second's hesitation. It doesn't end well for him.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty : Not in the sense of bellowing in your face, but he's not nice and even his apparent attempts to encourage Kirk come off as "Say your piece or stop wasting my time." Of course, it makes sense after The Reveal that Kirk was nothing more than a disposable pawn in his agenda.
• The Dog Bites Back : Harrison/Khan kills him later , after teaming up with the Enterprise (Kirk and Scotty in particular) to overcome him.
• Evil Costume Switch : Compare the clothes he wears in the picture to the clothes he wears when we first meet him. Subverted, however, in that Marcus was pretty much Evil All Along .
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones : Actually does love his daughter Carol, even if he's a backstabbing warmonger, to the point that when he heard Carol's voice over hail (saying she's on the Enterprise ), the Vengeance stops firing on said ship immediately. He also shows some regret when Pike dies.
• Evil All Along : It's what makes him such a Walking Spoiler .
• Evil Counterpart : A supportive Cool Old Guy , like Pike, and an emotional leader who is willing to bend rules to get the job done, like Kirk.
• Evil Is Hammy : Compare his behavior when we first see him to when he reveals his true colors and his subsequent Villainous Breakdown .
• Evil Is Not a Toy : Gets killed by the same superhuman war criminal he tried to use as an agent and then backstabbed .
• Evil Old Folks : He's even older than Pike and is a deceptive and ruthless warmonger .
• Faux Affably Evil : He tends to call Kirk "son" much like Pike did, but lacks the sincerity or charm . Marcus: That's a hell of an apology. But if it's any consolation, I was never gonna spare your crew. Fire.
• Foreshadowing : There was never any love between the Klingons and Starfleet, but it was when the Klingons antagonized Section 31 that got Marcus to consider it a war already. Of course he would. He's a member of Section 31 .
• General Ripper : His ship, the Vengeance , is distinctly designed with a more militaristic feel than the Enterprise . He's also willing to destroy the Enterprise in order to provoke Starfleet into war with the Klingons .
• Hate Sink : He turns out to be a secret member of Section 31 and pretty much caused Khan's Start of Darkness by forcing him to develop weapons and withhold the rest of his crew from him to the point he thought they died and responded by attacking London. Then he has the Enterprise jammed and stuck in space, then threatened to kill them if they didn't turn in Khan, but attempted to kill them anyway to provoke a war with the Klingons in the name of militarizing Starfleet .
• He Who Fights Monsters : In trying to protect Starfleet from what he views as its greatest enemies, he's inadvertently become one of them .
• Hoist by His Own Petard : As Khan tells him before crushing his skull completely : "YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME SLEEP."
• Icy Blue Eyes : He has Peter Weller's striking blue eyes which nicely reflect his cold personality .
• I Did What I Had to Do : Though there's a distinct sense that he's lying through his teeth about it.
• Insane Admiral : In grand Trek tradition, Marcus is really a Blood Knight seeking to start a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. He has no compunction about murdering loyal Starfleet officers in cold blood .
• It's All About Me : He believes that he's the only one who can lead Starfleet in the war he's planning to start. See the quote in Villainous Breakdown for more details.
• It's All My Fault : When Harrison attacks Starfleet, he admits that he feels that everyone who was slaughtered was his fault, especially Pike . He goes even further to say that it was a "tactical risk" when he woke Khan up. However, when it comes to sending Kirk to the Neutral Zone and Klingon territory...
• Jerkass Has a Point : Deconstructed . He's completely correct in his belief that a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is coming and that it's too late to defuse it, so the Federation needs to prepare. However, his arrogance causes him to think he can rein in the dangerous and uncontrollable Khan, while his desperation to give the Federation a head start leads to him committing increasingly amoral acts, like trying to kill the Enterprise crew to cover up his crimes. So while the Jerkass has a point, his Jerkassery causes him to both go overboard and botch the job.
• Karmic Death : Gets killed by Harrison, the agent he tried to sacrifice to start a war with the Klingons .
• Kick the Dog : Aside from his attempted murder of everybody on the Enterprise , there's the fact that he would have bombed Harrison to death with torpedoes that contained his own crew. Even for a man as amoral as Harrison, that's just horrifying.
• The Kirk : To Khan/Harrison's Spock . He is emotional, adventurous, and willing to bend rules to get the job done.
• Knight Templar : Believes he's protecting Earth by starting a war with the Klingons, even though millions will die .
• Light Is Not Good : Early in the film, he wore his mostly white admiral's uniform while manipulating Kirk .
• Living Legend : Pike thinks so. Marcus : Pike always said you were one of our best and brightest. You should have heard him defend you. He's the one who talked you into joining Starfleet, wasn't he? Kirk : Yes, sir. Marcus : Did he ever tell you who talked him into joining?
• The Man Behind the Man : Played with. Khan is still the main villain long after he's left the picture, but Marcus is responsible for bringing Khan into the picture in the first place and is a part of Section 31.
• Manipulative Bastard : He decided to steer Kirk's rage into a course that would ignite a war with the Klingon Empire, first by sending him in a Federation ship to Qo'noS, then by giving him orders to bombard the Klingon homeworld, and finally by sabotaging the Enterprise so that it would be caught by the Klingons. Ultimately backfires on him when key details in his plan are leaked .
• Meaningful Name : His first name, Alexander , means "defender of mankind" while his last name, Marcus , is derived from Mars, the Roman god of war. It fits a man seeking to provoke a war in the name of protecting the Federation (of which humankind is a founding member).
• Milking the Giant Cow : He starts making some pretty forceful hand gestures during his Villainous Breakdown .
• Motive Rant : Subverted. See Never My Fault and Villainous Breakdown .
• Nerves of Steel : When Kirk, Khan and Scotty storm the deck of the Vengeance , Marcus surprisingly keeps his cool when all of his crew are slaughtered.
• Never My Fault : He placed the blame on Kirk for starting a war, but he conveniently leaves out how he was the one who orchestrated the entire thing in the first place.
• No Indoor Voice : Not once does he NOT lower his voice to a more calmer tone, as opposed to Pike or Spock.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis : He holds his fire just long enough to find out what Kirk knows, then opens fire on the Enterprise with everything he's got. He only pauses afterwards when he realises Carol is aboard the ship, but simply beams her aboard the Vengeance before continuing his assault.
• Non-Action Big Bad : The only thing we get to see him do in action is get the Vengeance into full speed and attack the Enterprise . Also, he tries to restrain Carol after she slaps him in response to his treachery. When Khan gets his hands on him, it's clear Marcus doesn't have a hope of fighting back.
• Not Afraid to Die : Subverted. He's pretty confident when Kirk has a phaser to his face, but when Khan gets back up, Marcus makes a run for it. Too bad it doesn't do any good for him.
• First time when Kirk tells him that Khan told him everything . The quote in Deadpan Snarker says it all.
• And the second when Khan finally gets his hands on him and starts crushing his skull, Marcus has a very pained look on his face. And then we hear a chunky 'splodey noise .
• Papa Wolf : He whisks Carol right off the Enterprise when he finds out she's been on there. Of course, he seemed pretty damn willing to leave her to Khan in order to save his own skin.
• Pet the Dog : With his daughter.
• Reasonable Authority Figure : Gives Kirk the go-ahead to hunt down Harrison. Subverted. He only helped Kirk so he could use the Enterprise to start a war with the Klingons.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them! : Marcus in a nutshell. He's more than willing to push the rules and values of Starfleet aside to get into his nasty conflict with the Klingons.
• Smug Snake : In his final scene, he goes on a rant on how Kirk started a war, "forcing" Marcus to step up to lead Earth in response. The arrogance and Blatant Lies are enormous . Not only that, but he didn't take into account that Kirk has a habit of disobeying the rules, meaning he found out the details of his plan.
• The Spook : Hello again, Section 31.
• State Sec : With Khan's genius, Marcus has Section 31 develop high-tech weapons such as the Vengeance . When he commands the ship, he and his personnel are even wearing their own uniforms.
• Tempting Fate : "You better kill me." Kirk won't. But Khan certainly will.
• Two First Names : Either "Alexander" or "Marcus" can be used as a first name.
• The Unfettered : Work with a war criminal to get him to make weapons for you, torture him, mainpulate the crew of the Enterprise , try to get them killed to start a war with the Klingons — this guy is just as relentless as Khan in getting what he wants.
• Utopia Justifies the Means : He's a part of Section 31, so it's a given. He thinks fighting the Klingons and kickstarting a war will result in a safer galaxy for Starfleet and other races. However, all of his ranting and raving ends up coming off as hollow when you take into consideration he worked with a war criminal and attempted to kill off the crew of the Enterprise .
• Villainous Breakdown : Gets a pretty good one going mixed with a Motive Rant , though it all ends up coming off as pretty hollow. Marcus: You better stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk. You better think about what you did on Qo'noS. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet, you killed a Klingon patrol... Even if you got away without a trace, war is COMING! AND WHO'S GONNA LEAD US?! YOU?! If I'm not in charge, our entire way of life is DECIMATED! So, you want me off this ship? You better KILL ME .
• Villain with Good Publicity : He's the head of Starfleet. Who'd ever suspect him of warmongering?
• Visionary Villain : As pointed out by Khan, he wanted to have a much more militarized Starfleet.
• Walking Spoiler : Knowing too much about his character gives away The Reveal that he's a major figure in the villainous Section 31, trying to sacrifice Khan and the Enterprise to both start a war with the Klingons and cover up his own involvement .
• War Hawk : Shown to be a strong advocate of taking action against the Klingons, since he figures it's only a matter of time before they do, and that's before it's revealed that he's actually trying to engineer a war .
• Your Head Asplode : Well, crushed, but it's the same principle and it sure as hell didn't sound pretty .

Lieutenant Thomas Harewood

Played by: Noel Clarke

• Anti-Villain : At the end of the day, he only wanted to save his little girl, and he looked genuinely remorseful before he blew up the Section 31 workhouse he lived in .
• Deal with the Devil : He makes one with Harrison at the start of the film; in return for Harrison giving some of his blood to regenerate his ill daughter, Harewood will suicide bomb a building from Section 31 .
• Knight Templar Parent : He makes a deal to blow up a Starfleet archive and weapons lab in exchange for the means to save his dying daughter.
• Punch-Clock Villain : If all the above tropes didn't give that away, nothing will.
• Single Tear : Shown shedding one right before the bomb blast that kills him .
• The Spook : He's shown as working in Section 31, or at least having a clearance level high enough to go in their buildings .
• What Happened to the Mouse? : It's never revealed what happened to Harewood's wife and daughter after the bomb blast .

Commodore Paris

Played by: shohreh aghdashloo.

• Call-Forward : She may be an ancestor to Tom Paris from Star Trek: Voyager .
• Reasonable Authority Figure : She's very understanding of Kirk's desire to transfer from space exploration to something less active, yet at the same time encourages him to think about his decision and not rush into it. If Pike was Kirk's father figure in Starfleet, Paris is Kirk's maternal figure. She even approves Kirk's decision to decline the admiralty and still be a captain.

Other Characters

Played by: Ben Cross

Dubbed in french by: gabriel le doze, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: mauro ramos.

• Adaptational Nice Guy : He seems to be a better father to Spock than Sarek Prime.
• Cool Old Guy : After barely escaping from the destruction of his homeworld, he manages to pull his son out of a Heroic BSoD .
• Good Parents : From what little screen time we get of him, he appears to be a considerably better father than Sarek Prime.
• Interspecies Romance : Him (a Vulcan) and Amanda (a human).
• Lying by Omission : He claims that "marrying your mother was logical ", a clinically Vulcan response that disappoints Spock. He later clarifies in a more vulnerable moment — it's logical to marry the one you love .
• Not So Stoic : When he tells Spock he didn't marry Spock's mother because it was logical, he shows a sign of deep sadness at her passing and says "I married her because I loved her". In fact, he outright encourages Spock not to suppress his emotions.
• Shipper on Deck : The tie-in IDW comics shows that Sarek supports his son's relationship with Uhura.
• The Stoic : As a Vulcan, this is the default.

Amanda Grayson

Played by: Winona Ryder

Dubbed in french by: claire guyot, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: miriam ficher.

• Dead Alternate Counterpart : While Prime Amanda did eventually pass away, it was likely just from old age while this version was killed decades earlier.
• Good Parents : She's never anything but proud and supportive of Spock.
• Interspecies Romance : Her (a human) and Sarek (a Vulcan).
• Nice Girl : Throughout her entire appearance, Amanda was shown as a consistently kind-hearted woman.
• Sacrificial Lamb : She appears in only three scenes and gets very little character development before dying.
• Two First Names : Either "Amanda" or "Grayson" can be used as a first name.

    Spock Prime (Spoilers)   See his page .

Played by: Sofia Boutella

Dubbed in french by: laëtitia lefebvre.

• Action Girl : A very skilled fighter, and has the most fight scenes out of the various heroes in the movie.
• Alien Blood : After her fight with Manas, she's got a few cuts and bruises that seem to bleed blue blood.
• Buffy Speak : Likely a side effect of English not being her native tongue . She seems to have trouble with understanding human naming conventions (referring to Kirk as "James T." and Scottie as "Montgomery Scottie"), refers to the USS Franklin in which she shelters as her house, and " classical " music on the Franklin as "the beats and the shouting." Her sentence structure and inability to graps certain idioms also comes off as this too, such as when Kirk mentions her traps being "one hell of a welcome mat". Jaylah: I do not know what is a "welcome mat".
• Call to Adventure : Her happy ending involves an offer of entrance into Starfleet Academy courtesy of Captain Kirk and delivered by her sorta-mentor/new friend Montgomery Scott.
• Combat Parkour : She has a very acrobatic fighting style, with lots of spins, flips, and kicks.
• The Comically Serious : Her interplay with Scottie and Kirk features a lot of this.
• Confusion Fu : Uses hologram technology to distract her opponents when she's outnumbered.
• Cowardly Lion : When she met Scotty, she agreed to help him find his friends only so that they would fix "her home" and she could leave the planet behind forever. When she was asked to help rescue Kirk's crew from Krall's concentration camp, she adamantly refused and very nearly abandoned the Enterprise crew. Once Kirk and Scotty gave her a bit of a Rousing Speech , and Kirk proposed a plan with high probability of success that would actually prove very effective , she took point with Kirk and fought like hell. Eventually getting vengance for her father and crew by killing Manas.
• Dark and Troubled Past : Her family were killed by Krall when she was only a child. Ever since then she's been on her own.
• Facial Markings : Black ones that enhance the whiteness of her skin.
• Fire-Forged Friends : With Scotty.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe : Of a whole new species of Rubber Forehead Aliens .
• Had to Be Sharp : She was stranded on that planet as a child. Despite that, she's notorious enough amongst other survivors that they're averse to tangling with her, and she's surrounded her "house" with holographic camo and traps.
• It's Personal with the Dragon : Manas killed her father during their escape attempt, hence why she fights him with passion.
• Jumped at the Call : She's gung-ho to join in anything the Enterprise crew plans — except return to the enemy base from which she escaped before, as seen below.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare : Living in a derelict human ship made her fond of the music library there, which apparently mostly consisted of late 20th century rap.
• Learnt English from Watching Television : Learned to be quite fluent in English after years of living inside the shipwrecked USS Franklin , at least some of which was from "classical music" such as Public Enemy and Beastie Boys .
• Master of Illusion : By virtue of hologram technology, with applications ranging from creating distracting duplicates of herself to camouflaging her "house".
• Ms. Fanservice : Refreshingly averted. Jaylah is played by the very attractive Sofia Boutella, but unlike the female supporting cast of the previous two films, there are no pointless, drawn out lingerie scenes. Her clothes are loose-fitting and practical.
• Never Gets Drunk : At Kirk's birthday party at the end, she's got an impressive number of empty glasses in front of her and still hasn't "had the edge taken off" .
• The Not-Love Interest : As a White Skinned Space Babe with no counterpart in the old Star Trek timeline, it was widely assumed that Jaylah would be a Girl of the Week for Kirk. Turns out there's not even a hint of Ship Tease between them. When it turns out that much of her interaction is with Scotty, naturally people began to wonder if she would be his love interest. Still nope.
• Punny Name : It's a play on "J-Law" , which the creators had used as a placeholder name for the character (see Expy above).
• Refusal of the Call : After the death of her family, she's understandably reluctant to go back to the Hive to confront Krall, instead focusing on trying to escape the planet, to the point she refuses to help when Kirk & co want to launch an attack on the Hive to rescue the rest of the crew. Scotty and Kirk eventually manages to convince her that together they can accomplish what she was unable to do alone.
• Screaming Warrior : Shouts before an Heroic Second Wind on Manas.
• Shock Stick : Her weapon appears to be an electrified staff. It seems to also convert into a sniper rifle.
• Sole Survivor : She's the last survivor of her ship, the rest having been killed by Krall.
• The Stoic : She's a really serious person, and this being Star Trek implies usage as a comedic straight woman .
• Wrench Wench : She's very adept at fixing and utilizing technology, to the point she's restored quite a few of the USS Franklin's basic systems and re-adapted them as perimeter defenses and even an entertainment system, despite it being (to her) completely alien technology.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness : Fitting her escape/trap artist archetype.
• You Killed My Father : Her father was killed by Krall's second-in-command, Manas, during their escape from the Hive. She fights him to avenge her father towards the end of the film.

Crew of the Narada

Played by: Eric Bana

Dubbed in french by: julien kramer.

"James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man. He went on to captain the U.S.S. Enterprise... but that was another life. A life I will deprive you of just like I did your father!"

• Ax-Crazy : His mental stability is one to question at, considering how trigger-happy the dude gets when he's annoyed.
• Badass Longcoat : As with most of the Romulans in the first one.
• Bald of Evil : Nero and the rest of his crew members are all bald save for the female member.
• Berserk Button : He is this when The Federation gets involved with his plans. Somewhat justified because he found out that Romulus blew up during a super nova that Spock didn't get to in time to deploy the Red Matter. And The Federation relied on Spock to deliver the Red Matter to stop said supernova in a specially-commissioned ship built for speed. It wasn't fast enough . Before the moments where he does gets angry and speak himself, he is silent and lets The Dragon speak for him .
• Big Bad : For the first movie.
• Crusading Widower : The loss of his pregnant wife was one of the driving forces behind Nero's descent into madness and villainy. He specifically mentions "the wife who was expecting my child" while interrogating Pike.
• Despair Event Horizon : Those tattoos that Nero and his crew have? Usually, when Romulans are grieving they get tattoos that fade to symbolize that their grief will fade too, but now that their home was destroyed, those tattoos are staying on permanently.
• Determinator : He will stop at nothing to have his revenge...even if it takes a quarter of a century.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo : In-Universe , as he came out of a black hole seemingly out of nowhere to ravage the elder Kirk's ship.
• Disproportionate Retribution : He decides to wait 25 years for Spock to come through the same black hole that pulled him into the past, makes Spock watch Vulcan get destroyed, and then moves on to systematically destroy the other planets of the Federation. All of this is because Spock turned up mere minutes too late to save Romulus from a super nova.
• Ear Ache : At some point in the 25 years between the attack on the Kelvin and Spock Prime's arrival, something took off part of his right ear, as it's missing its point and looks rather ragged.
• Expy : With his backstory and the destruction of Romulus, he's essentially Jor-El if the destruction of Krypton had killed different members of the House of El and if TimeTravel was involved .
• Face Death with Dignity : Before dying, Nero simply closes his eyes and awaits the inevitable.
• Fate Worse than Death : Creates one for Spock (both of them) by forcing him to watch his entire planet blow up, just as he had seen his own planet get destroyed by Spock Prime being just a little too late.
• Faux Affably Evil : "Hi, Christopher, I'm Nero." The invoked Narm Charmy way Eric Bana delivered that line made it sound like he was saying "Hi, I'm Nero, I'll be your villain for this Star Trek movie."
• First-Name Basis : How he treats his opponents.
• From Nobody to Nightmare : He was originally a miner.
• Genius Bruiser : He performed complex mathematical calculations to determine when Spock Prime would arrive in the new timeline.
• Greater-Scope Villain : Of Star Trek Into Darkness , as his actions in the 2009 film is what led to Admiral Marcus' Start of Darkness to release Khan to weaponize Starfleet, which in turn lead to the events of the sequel. He is also considered to be this of overall reboot series, as his actions via Time Travel rebooted the Star Trek universe. If not for Nero, the events of Star Trek Into Darkness would have never happened and the franchise would never got rebooted, in-universe and out.
• Hero Killer : The page quote should say it all. If that doesn't work, then let's thrown in the fact that he blew up Vulcan.
• Honor Before Reason : When his ship is caught in a black hole caused by the Red Matter. Kirk, despite knowing that he killed his father and tried to cause genocide of the Vulcans, offers aid in the hopes that he can change his mind and get over his grudge. However Nero, too prideful and consumed by revenge to listen to reason, states he'd rather die than take his help. So Kirk grants him his wish and finishes his ship off. "I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you!"
• Hypocrite : Nero's idea of preventing the "genocide" of the Romulan people is to commit genocide against the Vulcans and against the rest of the Federation. He's so far gone that the distinction is utterly lost on him.
• Insane Troll Logic : "I prevented genocide!" ... by committing genocide. Doubles as Moral Myopia and Revenge Before Reason . Also, the Federation didn't cause the supernova, they just didn't rescue the Romulans from it, and the Federation certainly can't rescue the Romulans if it's destroyed centuries before the supernova happens. So, Nero's plan wouldn't have prevented the genocide of his people, so much as guarantee it.
• It's Personal : Losing your home-world kinda does that to one's psyche.
• Karmic Death : Nero is ultimately defeated with the Red Matter he used to destroy Vulcan. And likewise killed by the son of the man he himself caused the death of.
• Kneel Before Zod : It's brief, but at one point in Spock Prime's mind meld, he makes Spock Prime kneel before him after he takes the Jellyfish and the Red Matter from him.
• Knight of Cerebus : His arrival prompts the Federation to become significantly more heavily armed , the full ramifications of which are hinted at in the first film and heavily featured in the second.
• Large Ham : It's a Star Trek villain , so of course he is as exaggerated in his anger as possible.
• Meaningful Name : Getting thrown back in time gave Nero a chance to warn his people about the future disaster that is the cause of all his grief, but he didn't do that. Instead, he's fiddling while Romulus burns (in the future).
• Misplaced Retribution : Because of the use of "time travel creates an alternate universe, not actually changing the past" version of time travel and the revelation in Star Trek: Picard that Nero was right about the Federation leaving the Romulans out to dry in regards to the supernova, Nero's attacks on the Kelvin timeline's Federation are this.
• Mood-Swinger : He can go from calm and polite to angry and raging with anger in a matter of seconds; see the third example under Villainous Breakdown for more.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Nero was not one of the nicer Roman Emperors, to say the least .
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond : In his own time: The blue-collar captain of a (admittedly large and spiky) simple mining ship. In the past: The dangerous Omnicidal Maniac commander of an nigh-unstoppable dreadnought capable of wrecking anything Star Fleet or the Klingons can throw at it.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist : While he boasts about creating a Romulan empire free from the Federation, it gets clear he's only interested in revenge on those he blames for the destruction of his world and the death of his pregnant wife. He also never makes any contact with the Romulans of the past, showing his plan has no involvement from them.
• Omnicidal Maniac : He'd like to wipe out the entire Federation .
• Outliving One's Offspring : His wife was pregnant with his child when Romulus was destroyed.
• Psychopathic Manchild : Much of his mood swings come across as this especially... Nero: I WANT SPOCK DEAD NOW !!!
• Revenge Before Reason : He wants to prevent the genocide of his own people by committing genocide on Spock's. Then there's also the climax of the first film, when he sees Spock flying the Jellyfish and trying to destroy it, even though it will detonate the Red Matter. Nero : That ship. Take it out! Romulan : Sir, if you ignite the Red Matter— Nero : I WANT SPOCK DEAD NOW !!!
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge : One which claims billions of lives.
• Red Right Hand : His right ear is missing its tip, and there are scars along that side of his head, likely from an animal attacking him during his time in a Klingon prison.
• Revenge by Proxy : "I did not forget the pain. It's a pain that every surviving Vulcan now shares."
• Say My Name : " SPOOOOOOOOOOOCK!!! SPOOOOOOOOOOOCK!!! "
• Tattoo as Character Type : Cultural. The tie-in comics explain that Romulans mark their bodies when in mourning. The marks normally fade away, symbolizing the end of the mourning period but the Narada crew make their marks permanent to show the depths of their despair in the wake of Romulus' destruction.
• Minimally downplayed in Star Trek: Picard , which deliberately de-canonizes Star Trek: Countdown , when it's revealed the Federation practically left Romulus to die.
• Tranquil Fury : According to the tie-in novel, after witnessing the destruction of Romulus and then getting thrown into the past during an altercation with Spock-Prime , he refused to even speak until the day his vengeance came to fruition... which turned out to take 25 years. Though he did have one notable exception upon learning just how displaced in time he and his crew had become.
• Villain Has a Point : Star Trek: Picard revealed that, when Romulus was threatened by the supernova, Starfleet effectively abandoned them to die as soon as the rescue effort became inconvenient. Nero's anger at the Federation is justified, even if his methods go much too far ( and are aimed at the wrong universe's Federation ).
• Villain Respect : Sort of with Kirk, it starts out that way, but then becomes a Kick the Dog moment. Nero: invoked I know your face, from Earth's history. James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man, who went on to Captain the USS Enterprise. But that was another life. A life I will deprive you of just like I did your father.
• At the beginning of the film, after realizing that he and his crew have been transported over 150 years back in time, Nero is calm for a moment... then skewers Robau through the chest, screaming with fury.
• (re the destruction of Romulus) " IT HAS HAPPENED! I WATCHED IT HAPPEN! I SAW IT HAPPEN! DON'T TELL ME IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! "
• " SPOOOOOOOCK!!! SPOOOOOOOOOOCK!!! "
• " I WANT SPOCK DEAD NOW !!! "
• "What's he doing?" (realizes what Spock's doing) " FIRE EVERYTHING!!! "
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds : The loss of his wife and homeworld drove Nero to violence and insanity.

Played by: Clifton Collins Jr.

Dubbed in french by: david kruger.

• Badass Longcoat : Wears a pretty cool one.
• Bald of Evil : Like almost all of the Romulans in the film.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation : The novel's version is killed by Nero for protesting the destruction of Earth .
• Disney Villain Death : Although, in all likelihood, he was dead before falling.
• The Dragon : He's Nero's second-in-command.
• Evil Gloating : He takes a moment to mock Kirk while having him at his mercy. Kirk promptly shuts him up .
• The transmission: Ayel : Hello. My commander requests the presence of your captain in order to negotiate a cease-fire. You will come aboard our ship via shuttlecraft. Your refusal would be unwise .
• Hoist by His Own Petard : He really should've dropped Kirk as soon as he could, or shot him and then dropped him, instead of giving him an opportunity to grab Ayel's gun.
• Mouth of Sauron : Ayel does the speaking for Nero, as Nero doesn't talk most of the time.
• Neck Lift : He does this to Jim Kirk right over a gigantic pit in the Romulan ship.
• Undying Loyalty : To Nero.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? : Ayel suggests they kill Spock Prime once he arrives from the wormhole, but Nero disagrees. Ayel : And once we've killed him? Nero : Kill him? I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to make him watch.

Krall a.k.a. Captain Balthazar Edison

Played by: Idris Elba

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable : He speaks English with an odd rhythm, skipping normal pauses and dragging out longer words, likely due to his breathing difficulties.
• Aliens Speaking English : He speaks fluent (albeit slow and heavily accented) English, foreshadowing The Reveal that he used to be human .
• Ambiguously Evil : It's unclear whether he was always a heartless Blood Knight or whether he became one due to years of isolation and stealing lifeforce from others . Even Kirk and Commodore Paris wonder which it was.
• At Least I Admit It : Krall watched Kirk's personal logs while spying on Federation transmissions. He considers Kirk weak for feeling listless in the starship captain's life, while Krall boasts that he is better because he knows who he is and what his purpose is.
• Bald of Evil : No hair on this guy's head, except when he was human, before the video logs.
• Beyond Redemption : When Kirk finds out who he really is, he tries to tell Edison about how the Federation views him as a hero for his actions in the Xindi War. Edison rejects Kirk’s word because of how he perceived that the Federation abandoned him and his crew on an uncharted planet. During their final duel, a piece of glass flies in front of him showing his human face in the reflection. Edison ignores his former humanity , and tries to use the glass shard to kill Kirk, forcing Kirk to kick him and his weapon out the airlock, killing Edison.
• Big Bad : Serves as the primary threat to Kirk and co. in Beyond . He attacks and destroys the Enterprise , kidnaps the crew in order to drain their energy to extend his life, and has been keeping tabs on the Federation for decades, waiting for his opportunity to take revenge .
• Bio-Augmentation : The tech left behind by the Neglectful Precursors on the planet gives Krall genetic enhancements that keep him alive and strong at the cost of turning him into a Life Drinker and somewhat taking on the genetic appearance of his victims.
• Bishōnen Line : Justified. Stealing the life of a significant amount of humans both rejuvenates him to his peak fighting ability and causes him to look closer to a human for the same reason he looks like an alien now.
• Blood Knight : Krall despises the idea of peaceful cooperation. He believes that strength can only be found in conflict and hates that the rest of his species abandoned war to become peaceful explorers. His species is human .
• Body Horror : Krall's form is a result of mixing in different alien genomes to keep himself alive, resulting in a monstrous, barely functional body that has become dependant on stealing life from others to survive. Even when he reverts closer to human, his appearance remains warped and he's clearly in a great deal of pain.
• Broken Pedestal : To Starfleet and the Federation, once his treachery is revealed. Commander Paris says he has been looked up to as a hero of the Federation for generations for his role in the Xindi and the Romulan Wars. Of course, it is not the case anymore after he tries to commit genocide and kill everyone in Yorktown .
• Brought Down to Normal : When Krall and Kirk first fight, Krall's strength is superhuman and seems to easily be at least on par with Khan's. However, during their rematch at the end of the film, Krall has ditched his armor and has mostly reverted to his original human form due to draining energy from so many human Enterprise crew members , resulting in Kirk being able to trade blows with him on a more-or-less equal footing.
• Colonel Kilgore : Krall was this back when he was still Balthazar Edison . He claims he was born into a galaxy at war and liked it that way. After his century of abandonment by the Federation , he cracked completely and became a General Ripper who saw all aliens and even peace itself as the enemy to be destroyed at all costs.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget : The tragedy of Krall is that he has clearly forgotten, in his slow descent into insanity , that the purpose of militaries in human society is to defend the nation and its citizens and to achieve the objectives of armed conflict as quickly and efficiently as possible. Of course, Krall understood this once, having accepted the demobilization of MACO and a captain's commission in Starfleet, at least until his stranding on Altamid convinced him he had been cast out . Word for word, Kirk even incredulously points out to Krall that the wars he fought in ended because his side won them (apparently Krall was upset that they accepted the enemy's surrender, instead of genocidally wiping them out completely). He's so far gone now that he feels that war and violence should be perpetrated for the sake of preserving "strength" , whatever that means.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype : Of the Blood Knight . Krall is an example of what happens if a Blood Knight tries to live in a time of peace. He is, at best, unfulfilled , and at worst, desperate to reignite a war to reclaim his sense of purpose.
• Disney Villain Death : When Kirk kicks him out of the airlock into space. Averted in that we subsequently see the bioweapon disintegrating him.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means : Krall wants to destroy the peace and prosperity of the Federation, and commit mass murder, for no better reason than that he is a warrior and a galaxy at peace just isn't the kind of place he wants to live in.
• Elites Are More Glamorous : Was a former member of Military Assault Command Operations (MACO), humanity's foremost special forces before becoming a Starfleet captain.
• Evil Brit : Barely discernible through his alien physiology, but he has the accent. As it turns out, he actually is British.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good : Krall asks Uhura why she sacrificed herself for her captain by detaching the saucer and letting him escape with her and Krall stuck in the remains of the neck section. He seems to have forgotten one of the most important lessons a soldier learns: to sacrifice themselves for their comrades, especially for their leader. Krall would have known this lesson well, back when he was Balthazar Edison, a human soldier.
• Evil Counterpart : To Kirk. Like Kirk, Krall is a Starfleet hero who was given a starship command and exploration mission in recognition of his service. And like Kirk is starting to at the beginning of the film, Krall came to regret his station, lost his sense of purpose and identity, and became bitter towards Starfleet. However, where Krall eventually turned against Starfleet and sought to wipe them out in vengeance for his perceived disrespect and their weakness in seeking peace, Kirk acts to protect lives and recognizes the issues he's coping with aren't to blame on Starfleet.
• Evil Is Hammy : His delivery is pretty intense, though the thick make-up is clearly stopping Idris Elba from going full ham. Until he becomes mostly human again in the climax, and thus angrily shouts to his pleasure.
• Evil Sounds Deep : Courtesy of Idris Elba.
• It could be argued that he is also a much closer-in-spirit take of Khan Prime than the one of this timeline. To wit: he is a a remnant of a much older time. He and his crew are lost on a distant planet, feeling abandoned by Starfleet and is also driven by irrational hatred that just gets himself killed. He even clashes against a Kirk that is starting to feel his age, though actually physically than just through ship-to-ship combat .
• Fallen Hero : Formerly a hero of the Xindi and the Romulan Wars who is still famed within the Federation even a couple hundred years later.
• Genius Bruiser : He's a brutish fighter with Super-Strength , and Krall's got the brains to back it up, skillfully luring the Enterprise to Altamid and outwitting the defenses of Yorktown in preparation of his attack against it.
• Go Mad from the Isolation : Trapped on an alien world with only two remaining members of his crew, he became convinced that the Federation had abandoned them . This has more to do with his transformation from human to monster than the alien Life Drinker tech.
• Handicapped Badass : Despite his superhuman strength, Krall's labored breathing and speech as well as constant slouching and slow deliberate movements indicate he's in less than perfect health. Which makes sense, as he's a century-and-a-half old human who's stayed alive by using life draining technology that has had the side effect of turning his genetic code into spaghetti.
• Krall hates aliens and sees them as the permanent enemy of humanity, yet he is a mishmash of alien parts due to the nature of the tech which has prolonged his life.
• He believes that the idea of strength in unity is baloney and that a single person is stronger than a group. And yet his entire space battle strategy relies on extreme coordination of thousands of individual ships and he couldn't possibly have come anywhere near succeeding without the help of his subordinates Manas and Kalara .
• Ignored Epiphany : As he watches Kirk try valiantly to save millions of lives to stop his alien weapon, Krall appears to hesitate when he sees his reflection in a shard of glass. It causes a single moment of self-reflection , but he immediately shakes it off and tries to stab Kirk with the shard.
• Karmic Death : Killed by his own superweapon which he intended to use on the population of Yorktown station. When the superweapon is finished devouring Krall, the only trace of him left behind is his Starfleet insignia, a symbol of everything Krall came to detest.
• Karmic Transformation : When he was human , he spent his life fighting and hating aliens. It's fitting that the tech he used to keep himself alive for a century also transformed him into a form that he would've hated in his youth as a human soldier .
• Knight of Cerebus : He's perhaps the darkest villain in this timeline thus far. Even Khan had his Deadpan Snarker tendencies, and Nero wasn't without his ham, while there's nothing funny about Krall.
• Kubrick Stare : When he dies, he lets out a mean looking one as the Abronath consumes his body .
• Large and in Charge : Krall stands 6'3", taller than his compatriots Manas (5'11") and Kalara (5'4" . His swarm ship is also larger than the others, with three prongs instead of one.
• Life Drinker : How Krall sustained himself for over a century. He used the leftover alien genetic tech on the planet to allow him to live on by draining the life from other beings. This has the side-effect of him taking on the genetic attributes of his victims. Draining some of the Enterprise crew slowly turns him back into the human form he once was.
• Meaningful Name : His swarm is described several times in the film as "bees". In real life bee swarms are led by queens, however Krall is male, making him a king. Guess what "kral" means in a number of Slavic languages.
• Moral Myopia : Krall sees humanity as having become a Category Traitor to itself by choosing to accept aliens and building diverse communities that include them. He doesn't seem to get that his blood-soaked crusade to incite war is betraying humanity because of all the humans he will kill in the process.
• Motive Decay : Krall started out simply wanting to exact some kind of justice against the Federation for not coming to rescue him, but by the time of the film, it's degenerated into a desire to kill everyone in the Federation for no good reason.
• Motive Rant : Gives Kirk one when it's down to just the two of them fighting over the Phlebotinum Bomb in the climax. His only real motive is that he didn't get to be a warrior anymore after winning his battles and he resents being forced to adapt to peace.
• No Body Left Behind : Krall's body is consumed by the Abronath after he dies.
• No Place for Me There : How Krall feels about the Federation after he fought to protect humantiy and won. He realised that a civilized galaxy was no place for him, but chose the path of making it uncivilized again so that it would fit with his worldview .
• Omnicidal Maniac : He wants to wipe out humanity, starting with the millions of people on Yorktown station just because he hates what the Federation stands for. His own species, in other words, in case the fact he's a psychopath didn't sink in.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten : Once he's revealed as Edison, and once his treachery is revealed, his reputation as a hero of the Federation for his role in the Xindi and the Romulan Wars is permanently ruined .
• Orcus on His Throne : Krall has had the means to leave his planet for some time, but spent centuries trapping and scavenging any ships and their crews to keep his people alive. Justified because he was preparing for the day when he could recover the Superweapon he had been searching for along with finding the perfect civilian target to make an example of, and gaining sufficient intel on his "enemy".
• Our Vampires Are Different : He's an otherwise living person who uses tech to drain the youth and vitality of others, becoming ever more monstrous in the process.
• Powered Armor : It's not made explicit, but Krall's suit has rotating mechanical elements at the shoulders, suggesting it's enhancing his strength. When he's forced to ditch it near the end of the film, he's brought down to near-human levels of strength.
• Really 700 Years Old : He's actually Captain Balthazar Edison, kept alive by life-sucking technology for hundreds of years.
• Red Right Hand : If you look closely, you'll notice that the ridges and protrusions on Krall's face are asymmetrical and almost lumpy, in contrast to the more natural symmetry of his various alien minions. This is an early hint that Krall is not part of a natural alien species, but rather a human mutated by alien technology.
• The Reveal : He's a famed human Starfleet captain, and a hero of The Federation.
• Revenge Before Reason : With all that alien tech including a fleet of swarm ships, he probably could have repaired the Franklin and gotten home long before he went completely crazy, but instead chose to wait and brood over getting revenge against the Federation. Plus, the Federation had no idea that Altamid even existed, much less that the Franklin ended up there. Krall has to send out Kalara to lead them to it. Scotty speculates that the Franklin must have gotten dumped there by a wormhole.
• Sanity Slippage : He was already well on his way off the deep end by the time he made his final log entry as captain of the Franklin , but a century on an alien planet, brooding over his "abandonment" at the hands of the Federation, slowly mutating as he drained the life from other beings have eaten away at Krall's sanity until he became a psychopathic Omnicidal Maniac .
• Scary Black Man : Well, his scales are black, but his skin is blue, and he's plenty scary. After he crosses the Bishōnen Line , he becomes a perfectly straight example, as Idris Elba ditches the makeup.
• The Social Darwinist : Wants to destroy the Federation because he perceives its commitment to pacifism and the common good as creating weakness; only suffering, violence, and war can confer strength. He himself is a career soldier who could not accept a galaxy at peace.
• Sociopathic Soldier : He was a MACO who fought in the Xindi and Romulan Wars who could not properly adjust to a new life as a peaceful explorer and diplomat.
• Space Pirates : A ruthless leader of a moderately sized fleet of small, fast ships meant to inflict the naval equivalent of Death of a Thousand Cuts on his prey. His past is even more in line with actual pirates who rebelled against their governments out of resentment.
• That Man Is Dead : Krall doesn't seem to recognize his own name at first. Then Subverted when he says he missed being his old self. Later when he sees his mostly-human form reflected in a shard of glass, he's visibly confused and then enraged because it reminds him of his century of abandonment.
• Thrown Out the Airlock : His final fate is getting kicked out of Yorktown with the weapon devouring him.
• Transhuman Aliens : Krall's appearance is a side effect of him stealing the appearance of every one of victims, no matter how inhuman. He originally looked like a completely normal human, and draining Enterprise's crew causes him to return to his original body.
• Transhuman Treachery : Now leads the Swarm, and his goal is to hurt his former comrades in the Federation by destroying Yorktown .
• The Unfettered : Krall has a singular purpose and he lets nothing stop him or get in his way. He even prides this in himself and despises Kirk for being The Fettered , as Kirk has cares and doubts and especially a deep connection with his crew. Krall saw Kirk's personal log where he planned to leave the starship captain's life and feels that this makes Kirk weak and a quitter, even though he despises the life Kirk is choosing to walk away from. Krall places the highest virtue in committing to a purpose without fear or doubt, regardless of whether that purpose is noble in Kirk's case, or horrifying in Krall's case.
• Villain Has a Point : Despite his insanity and Blood Knight philosophy, Krall does make one good point, though he misunderstands its significance: He says the Federation is arrogant to assume it can exist without conflict. While the point he wants to make is that Violence Really Is the Answer , the more insightful point is that the Federation will always have to face conflict from the outside and that it should be ready to handle it. If he had emerged a century later in the time of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , he would have felt right at home.
• Virtue Is Weakness : Constantly. He claims unity, peace, harmony, self-sacrifice, and every virtue shown by The Enterprise crew is a weakness he can exploit.
• Walking Spoiler : Knowing anything more than the fact that he's a sociopathic warlord out for Starfleet's blood spoils his true origin and species.
• Was Once a Man : Krall is actually Balthazar Edison, a Starfleet captain from Archer's time . He fought against the Xindi and Romulans in the war. For his service as a soldier, he was made a captain in the newly created Starfleet and given command of a ship to explore the galaxy. His ship was lost on an alien planet and nobody came to his rescue. He found alien tech on the planet to keep him alive in the intervening century at the literal cost of his humanity and sanity.
• Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell : He felt betrayed when Earth helped found the Federation, seeing other alien races as no different from the Romulans and Xindi he had to fight. His isolation with the failure of the USS Franklin turned that feeling into an all-consuming rage, taking the opinion that they were abandoned by the Federation. Finding the technology abandoned on the planet he was lost at drove him to actively seek revenge.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity : Personal logs show that Krall was already a bit unhinged by the time he discovered the leftover alien tech on the planet a hundred years ago. After a century of draining aliens of their life force to sustain himself and being physically warped by it, Krall has completely snapped into Omnicidal Maniac territory.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds : Deprived of his purpose in life, abandoned by the government that he fought for, reduced to horrifying means to stay alive, and mutated into a barely-human monster. It's really no surprise that Edison snapped.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go : While he never actually said it out loud, he still killed a member of the Enterprise crew after he got what he wanted, simply to show that he can.

Manas a.k.a. Anderson Le

Played by: joe taslim.

• Bling of War : Manas' suit glows silver as he starts to drain Sulu.
• The Dragon : Manas serves as Krall's second-in-command and top enforcer.
• Flat Character : All we ever really learn of him is that he obeys Krall without question and that he's sadistic and cruel. The way he urges Krall to "finish the mission" near the end also seems to suggest he subscribes to Krall's Blood Knight soldier philosophy.
• First: (In alien language) "You will die here... just like your father."
• And then after getting hold of her beacon and throwing it away from her: (In alien language) "They will leave you here."
• One-Man Army : He cuts through redshirts like butter and had Jaylah on the defensive for the majority of their fight.
• Railing Kill : Throws a Red Shirt off a catwalk (with the Red Shirt doing a Wilhelm Scream ) as they fall.
• Really 700 Years Old : Like Krall and Kalara, he's been alive for hundreds of years with life-draining technology.
• Shock and Awe : His rifle emits a strong electrical burst which kills an entire catwalk of redshirts.
• Transhuman Aliens : He, Krall, and Kalara are the three surviving members of the USS Franklin , now mutated.
• Transhuman Treachery : The three founded the Swarm and their goal is the destruction of Yorktown .
• Was Once a Man : Like Krall, he was once a human crew member of the USS Franklin .
• Would Hit a Girl : Dominates in his fight with Jaylah. She only defeats him by throwing both of them off a cliff . Fortunately, Kirk (and the transporter beam that already is locked on him) is there to catch her.
• You Killed My Father : Manas killed Jaylah's father, earning her fear and hatred.

Kalara a.k.a. Jessica Wolff

Played by: lydia wilson, dubbed in french by: sybille tureau.

• All There in the Script : Her name isn't spoken in the film, but is shown in the end credits.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing : She's secretly one of Krall's henchmen who deliberately lured the Enterprise into a trap.
• Death by Looking Up : Once it's clear the Enterprise will fall on Kalara, she doesn't even try to move.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her : A literal example, as the Enterprise's saucer section was flipped over to crush her.
• Hate Sink : For taking advantage of the goodness of Kirk and leading the Enterprise to its destruction, along with the deaths of many of the crew. She could've been forgiven if she was being sincere about her crew being held hostage by Krall motivating her to help him. Once she shows her true colours and smugly betrays Kirk, it's supremely satisfying to watch him pull a fast one on her and crush her into paste using the wreckage of the Enterprise .
• Karmic Death : Killed by the crashed saucer of the Enterprise when its thrusters are ignited and it flips over.
• Really 700 Years Old : Just like Krall and Manas, she's been alive for hundreds of years with life-draining technology.
• Smug Snake : She's quite full of herself after she reveals her ruse to Kirk.
• Squashed Flat : She's crushed by the saucer of the Enterprise when it falls on her.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill : Using the wreck of a multi-million ton starship to kill a woman who weighed at most 130 pounds falls into this. We can assume Kalara's remains were well integrated into the terrain.
• Translator Microbes : A computer voice that immediately translates her alien language to English.
• Transhuman Aliens : Like Krall and Manas, she's a former human member of the USS Franklin .
• Transhuman Treachery : Like Krall and Manas, she now assists them in destroying parts of the Federation by playing the Wounded Gazelle Gambit to lure crews into their trap.
• Villainous Breakdown : After smugly betraying Kirk, she confidently tries to snatch the artifact out of its hideout. But when she finds that Kirk had it taken out and given to Chekov beforehand, therefore outsmarting her, she was very furious to the point where she actively tries to kill them both. Also at one point during the shootout chase, she even snarls .
• Was Once a Man : She, like Krall and Manas, was once a human crew member of the USS Franklin .
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit : How Krall has used her for the last century to lure ships to Altamid to capture and consume their crews. After luring the Enterprise to its destruction in Krall's trap, she tries it a second time by claiming to Kirk that she was coerced. Unfortunately for her, crying Wolf doesn't work twice on Kirk. Kalara (through a translator device): Do you believe every sad story you hear? Kirk: Not every. Chekov : (from behind, phaser drawn) Put down the phaser...please.

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James T. Kirk (Kelvin timeline)

• View history
• 1.1 Early life (2233-2255)
• 1.2 Starfleet Academy (2255-2258)
• 1.3 Marooned (2258)
• 1.4 Taking Command (2258)
• 1.5 The Wrath of Nero (2258)
• 1.6 Captain of the USS Enterprise (2258-2263)
• 1.7.1 Other events
• 1.7.2 Gorn Encounter
• 1.7.3 Encounter with April
• 1.7.4 Encounter with Khan
• 1.7.5.1 Encounter with Q
• 1.7.5.2 The Teenaxi Negotiation and a Sense of Disconnect
• 1.7.5.3 The Altamid Ambush
• 1.7.5.4 Battle of Starbase Yorktown
• 1.7.5.5 Listen all y'all it's a sabotage
• 1.7.5.6 Better to die saving lives
• 1.7.5.7 Than to live with taking them
• 1.7.5.8 To the Enterprise. And Absent Friends.
• 1.7.6.1 The Borg
• 2.1 Starfleet service record
• 2.2 Connections
• 2.3 Background information
• 2.4 Appearances
• 2.5 External link

Biography [ ]

Early life (2233-2255) [ ].

Born on stardate 2233 .04, James T. Kirk was the youngest son of George Kirk and Winona Kirk . He was born in space aboard a medical shuttlecraft from the USS Kelvin , delivered just moments before his father's death. He was named after his maternal grandfather (James), and his paternal grandfather ( Tiberius ).

Kirk grew up in Iowa on Earth , living with his mother and uncle Frank in or near the town of Riverside . Life with Winona's brother was difficult for the family, with George Kirk's oldest son expressing frustration with "being a Kirk" in Frank's household, and leaving to live with his grandfather. Young Jim stole his father's antique automobile, which Frank had claimed as his own. Kirk drove it over the lip of a quarry, barely escaping with his life. ( TOS - Operation: Annihilate comic : " Part 1 "; TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek )

As a boy, Kirk enjoyed walking with his eyes closed because "It made old places feel new." He first kissed a girl when he was eleven or twelve, "depending on how you technically define a 'kiss.'" He also went skinny-dipping in the Riverside Quarry . ( TOS - Starfleet Academy novel : The Gemini Agent )

Kirk's rebelliousness continued well into his teens and early twenties, though his academic aptitude scores were off the charts. He attended Riverside Central , where he was kicked off the basketball team in his senior year. ( TOS - Starfleet Academy novel : The Gemini Agent ) In 2255 , Kirk attempted to pick up Starfleet Cadet Nyota Uhura at a bar, and subsequently became involved in a bar fight with four other cadets. The fight was broken up by Captain Christopher Pike . Pike, who was an admirer of Kirk's father and wrote his Academy dissertation on the Kelvin , saw the troubled young man's potential as something that Starfleet needed and encouraged him to enlist, rather than remain "the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest." Though initially refusing, Kirk reported to the Riverside Shipyard the next morning, where he met Leonard McCoy and left for Starfleet Academy . ( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek )

Starfleet Academy (2255-2258) [ ]

As a top-performing Academy student, Jim Kirk was invited to participate in Advanced Tactical Training at Starfleet Command College . In summer 2255, after six months of training, he was elected captain of Team Delta for the final round of ATT testing. Kirk and his Delta teammate Braxim rescued Cadet Gaila when she was attacked by the mysterious serial killer known as the Doctor . During that time, he also began a flirtation with a barista named Hannah , a botany grad student. Kirk saw the Doctor near the Palace of Fine Arts , but the killer moved away too fast for him to follow. When Kirk and Hannah encountered members of a gang called the Mongol Saints , the former used an emergency transporter band to beam Hannah to the Academy shuttle hangar while he used his Starfleet close-combat training on the gang members.

During the ATT Science mission final, Kirk realized that complex, fast-growing plants might be intelligent and ordered his team not to take samples from them. He also realized that the Doctor was a scientist collecting specimens in San Francisco . His team received a positive assessment from their test's programmer - unknown to Kirk, his future colleague Commander Spock . Meanwhile, McCoy, Uhura and Dr. Patricia Park had determined that the Transamerica Pyramid was the Doctor's hideout. Kirk and McCoy entered the building's spire and battled the nanites. They were nearly killed, but the nanites retreated and left Earth after determining that "Assimilation is not advisable at this time". A few days later, Hannah invited Kirk to "study" with her at her apartment . ( TOS - Starfleet Academy novel : The Delta Anomaly )

During the Academy's "dead week" in May, Kirk experienced a mysterious illness which left him with a six-hour gap in his memory. He was charged with fifteen violations of the Cadet Honor Code and became a suspect in a bizarre computerized attack on Cadet Pavel Chekov . The culprit proved to be T'Laya , a Vulcan cadet who became romantically involved with Kirk but was the agent of the Gemini Project , an initiative of the Jolan Movement on Romulus . Assigned as the first officer of the USS Farragut for the Zeta Fleet Training Exercise under the command of his nemesis, Cadet Viktor Tikhonov , Kirk followed T'Laya's suggestion to advise Tikhonov to resolve the Zeta scenario with diplomacy, allowing both sides to succeed. T'Laya said goodbye to Kirk and transported away to a Romulan science vessel . ( TOS - Starfleet Academy novel : The Gemini Agent )

Kirk spent two academic quarters aboard the USS Farragut . In 2256 he earned the Palm Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission for valor by Captain Stephen Garrovick . ( ST video game : Star Trek App ; Star Trek Magazine Issue 58: " Movie Special 2016 ")

Among Kirk's friends at the Academy were Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso , who were both a year ahead of him. Mitchell helped Kirk with his homework assignments and would later claim that Kirk would never have become captain of the Enterprise without him. ( TOS - Star Trek, 1st story arc comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ")

Kirk is in trouble for cheating on the Kobayashi Maru scenario .

While in Starfleet Academy, Kirk had become friends with McCoy. By 2258 , Kirk had already taken the Kobayashi Maru scenario twice and failed. He decided that he would win the third time, with McCoy curious as to how. Kirk managed to cheat the test and succeeded in winning. Spock, who programmed the "impossible" test, was angered at this.

While discussing his cheating ways with his superiors, Kirk stated he didn't believe in a no-win scenario, something his father also agreed upon. During this discussion, it was reported that Vulcan had sent a distress call , and many of the cadets were called into action, including McCoy, Spock, and Uhura, as well as Pike.

As he was under academic suspension, Kirk was not given an assignment, but McCoy injected him with a vaccine in order to give him the appearance of a disease and transfer him aboard the USS Enterprise under his medical care. Once aboard Kirk awoke during tactical officer Pavel Chekov 's mission broadcast, which mentioned a "lightning storm in space" - the same thing the Kelvin had reported just before Nero 's vessel had attacked it. Kirk recognized the link between the occurences and escaped from Sickbay , with McCoy not far behind and attempting to treat his induced condition. He found Uhura, who had mentioned monitoring Romulan signals the night before, and they validated his sentiment about the situation.

Charging to the bridge with Uhura and McCoy in tow, Kirk suprised the command crew, as they did not expect him to be on the ship while serving his suspension. As such, Captain Pike and Spock attempted to have him removed from the bridge and were dismissive of his analysis of their mission. Kirk relayed the story of the lightning storm in space that had occured on the day of his birth - the day the Kelvin was lost - and reminded Captain Pike that he had relayed those events on a dissertation he had written at the academy about the event. Kirk also relayed that the Romulans had a massive ship that had wiped out a fleet of Klingon ships and, when confronted about his evidence, ushered Uhura to confirm the transmission she had translated. Faced with the logic of the intruding cadet and his star communications pupil, Spock conceded that the facts were sound.

As the ship arrived at Vulcan and found the rest of the fleet destroyed, Kirk was proved correct and Pike was then forced to order the shields raised and have the helmsman perform evasive maneuvers to avoid the debris. They found the ship Kirk described orbiting Vulcan, jamming their communications and transporters and lowering a type of drill in the planet's atmosphere. The strange ship opened fire on the Enterprise and quickly inflicted massive damage on the Starfleet ship, but it didn't finish the job. Instead, the Enterprise bridge crew received a hail from the enemy captain, Nero, who insisted that Pike board a shuttlecraft and come aboard his vessel.

Pike had Kirk, Hikaru Sulu , and Chief Engineer Olson make an orbital jump to land on and disable the drill apparatus mining into the planet . He also handed over command to Spock, and left Kirk as first officer . Kirk and Sulu were able to land on the drill, fight off two Romulans, disable the drill, and be transported back to the ship.( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek )

Marooned (2258) [ ]

Kirk just after the elder Spock's mind meld.

After Spock had the Enterprise set course to rendezvous with the remainder of the fleet instead of pursuing Nero's vessel, Kirk protested openly on the Bridge. Spock decided to have Kirk removed from not only the bridge but the ship for his actions, marooning him on Delta Vega . When McCoy insisted he could handle him, Spock replied that this could only be done by placing him in permanent stasis, and even that might not work. Kirk woke up in his pod and climbed out. He climbed out of the hole in the ice and noticed nothing around but snow, ice and coldness. After wandering, he was spotted and chased by a monster. Another, bigger monster ate that one and Kirk was chased again. He desperately tried to escape, fleeing into an ice cave, but it was all for naught: the creature moved right through the cave, knocked him down, and wrapped its tongue around his leg.

However, just as the monster prepared to pull him in, out of nowhere, someone approached it with a torch, and as Kirk looked on in shock, the creature released him and ran away. When the stranger - an elderly Vulcan - turned, he stared for a brief period before recognizing the young man as James T. Kirk, claiming to be his lifelong friend, and, most shockingly, responding to Kirk's insistence that they didn't know each other by identifying himself - as an elder Spock , and mentioning that Kirk, not "himself", would be the Captain of the Enterprise by now in his timeline. Kirk initially didn't believe a word of it, but his attitude changed after this older Spock mentioned Nero. He then mind melded with Kirk to help him explain how Nero had altered history (told that, in addition to the two of them, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were already on the Enterprise , he suggested that the timeline was attempting to "fix" itself), leaving Kirk emotional. Spock also told Kirk that, where he came from, the father this Kirk never knew had been his inspiration to join Starfleet, and had proudly lived to see his son command the Enterprise .

Spock advised Kirk to bring up an emotional reaction from the young Spock, showing him to be in violation of Starfleet Regulation 619 (an "emotionally compromised" commander must resign command - Spock responded to Kirk's obvious unfamiliarity with the rule by recalling that his old friend never cared about such things) in order to take control, and become the Captain of the Enterprise , as he was in the original timeline.

Kirk and Spock traveled to an outpost on the icy planet, and found a man called Montgomery Scott , "exiled" for a failed transporter experiment, who Spock recognized, knowing him from his own timeline. Using transwarp beaming (which the Scotty Spock knew had perfected in the future), Scott and Kirk beamed aboard the Enterprise , and were eventually captured by security (led by the one-time cadet who started the Iowa bar fight three years prior) on the orders of young Spock.

Taking Command (2258) [ ]

Kirk in his first moments as Captain .

With the advice of the elder Spock , Kirk provoked the young Spock to attack him by mentioning the death of his mother and the annihilation of his planet. Told that he had never loved her, Spock attacked Kirk, and though Kirk tried to defend himself, Spock got the upper hand and began strangling him. His father stopped him from killing Kirk.

Spock resigned command and after McCoy told Kirk they had no Captain and no First Officer to replace him, Kirk stepped up and took command based on Pike's orders. Kirk then decided either "we're going down or they are." Kirk was then confronted by the others on the bridge about how he had returned to the ship, but was able to convince them that the older Spock was his benefactor, and that their Spock must not know of the other's existence.

Shortly afterwords, Spock, having regained control of himself after hearing his father reveal the depth of his own love for his wife, then volunteered to go to the Narada to stop Nero, with Kirk letting him, but also stating that he would go too. Spock told Kirk that he would try to stop him with a rule, but Kirk would only just ignore it.

The Wrath of Nero (2258) [ ]

Kirk wielding a captured disruptor aboard the Narada .

Kirk and Spock beamed aboard Nero 's ship . However, instead of beaming in with the element of surprise, they were beamed in the middle of many of Nero's men. Kirk and Spock drew their phasers and a phaser fight ensued, with Nero's men being killed.

Kirk leaps away from Ayel and after Nero

Kirk found Nero and a fight ensued. Nero easily overpowered him and nearly strangled him to death, but upon hearing that Spock had destroyed the drill furiously ran to the bridge, leaving Ayel to fight Kirk. Nero jumped from ledge to ledge and Kirk quickly jumped after him, but slid and hung onto the ledge. Ayel jumped after Kirk and picked him up by the neck, but Kirk grabbed his disruptor - offered last words, Kirk chose "I got your gun!" - and shot him in the chest, killing him.

Kirk on the bridge

Kirk found and rescued Captain Pike, who repaid his savior by taking his disruptor and gunning down two guards before they could shoot the defenseless human, and was beamed off the Narada , and back to the Enterprise where he gave Nero a chance to beam to the Enterprise and survive. After Nero refused, Kirk easily had all weapons fired and Nero was killed, along with the destruction of the Narada .

Captain of the USS Enterprise (2258-2263) [ ]

After the destruction of the Narada , the Enterprise returned to Earth, where Kirk would receive a promotion to Captain, and assignment as now-Admiral Pike's replacement as the commanding officer of the Enterprise . As Captain, Kirk would retain Sulu and Chekov at the helm and navigation stations, while appointing McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura as chief medical officer, chief engineer, and chief communications officer respectively. Kirk also welcomed Commander Spock's offer to remain on board as the Enterprise 's first officer. ( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek )

After his promotion, Kirk also called Hendorff to the conference room to apologize for insulting him. ( TOS comic : " Star Trek, Issue 13 ")

Months after the destruction of Vulcan, the Enterprise set out on a mission to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy . By this time Kirk had recruited Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso to his crew. The ship's encounter with the force field at the edge of the galaxy mutated Mitchell into a superhuman being. Kirk attempted to maroon Mitchell on Delta Vega I , where Mitchell killed Kelso. Kirk was forced to kill Mitchell. ( TOS comics : " Star Trek, Issue 1 ", " Star Trek, Issue 2 ")

While en route with medical supplies to Makus III , Kirk was forced to choose between getting the supplies to the plague-ridden colony on time, or leaving Spock, McCoy and Scott in a damaged shuttle on Taurus II . ( TOS comic : " The Galileo Seven, Part 1 ") Fortunately, Uhura hijacked a shuttle, rescuing the stranded crew members. ( TOS - The Galileo Seven comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

Landing on Deneva while investigating a historical pattern of civilizations destroyed by insanity-inducing parasites, Kirk was pleasantly surprised to be rescued from an attack by his own brother, George Samuel Kirk, Jr. . Despite some residual anger at him for leaving home, Kirk helped his brother rescue his wife and son while Scott rid Deneva of the blastoneurons . Kirk bade goodbye to his brother once again as the Enterprise traveled to deliver specimens of the parasites to Starbase 10 . ( TOS - Operation: Annihilate comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

When the Enterprise crew received a distress call from a Vulcan science ship, one of the attackers escaped with a hostage . He then contacted the Enterprise informing them that he was a survivor of the Narada , and had stolen a red matter sample recovered by the Vulcan scientists, intending to sell it to the Romulan Star Empire . Kirk made the decision to breach the Romulan Neutral Zone and pursue the hostage taker. After being arrested by the Romulans, Kirk tried to explain to the Romulan Senate what happened, but they did not believe him. However, Spock, disguised as a Narada miner, learned the kidnapping was a Vulcan plot to infiltrate the Empire and detonate red matter on Romulus. After the truth was revealed and the plot foiled, Kirk was allowed to return to his ship while the Romulans kept the red matter. ( TOS - Vulcan's Vengeance comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

Returning to Earth after the incident, Kirk chose to detour at Beta III to investigate the story of the Archon that he had heard from a professor. Sulu and O'Neill were sent to a human settlement, but after losing contact with them in an attack, Kirk beamed down. After being attacked by the Lawgivers and discovering their god Landru was a computer from the Archon , McCoy took him to a woman named Ariel who revealed the truth of Landru's Federation origins . Scott disabled the computer, freeing the planet's inhabitants from its control. Afterwards Kirk contacted Pike, who promised to send aid to the colonists. ( TOS - The Return of the Archons comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

Investigating Klingon activity on Iota Geminorum IV , Kirk and Spock fought off the tribbles ' natural predators as Scott and Chekov worked to disable a bomb, all while almost being suffocated by the fast-replicating furry animals. Returning to the Enterprise , Kirk was informed by Pike that San Francisco was overrun by tribbles: Scott explained he had sent the one from Delta Vega back to his nephew Chris . After Spock deduced cold temperatures prevented the tribbles from reproducing, the infestation in ship's engineering and on Earth was contained. ( TOS - The Truth About Tribbles comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

Kirk was ordered to make contact with the indigenous people of Gamma Trianguli VI . He managed to reason with the locals and prevented his away team from dying of poison, lightning strikes, stepping on mines or being eaten by the natives. ( TOS comic : " IDW Star Trek, Issue 13 ")

Other events [ ]

Kirk commanded the Enterprise in battle against Cardassian , Romulan and Klingon forces while traveling through their respective areas of space. ( ST video game : The Mobile Game )

Gorn Encounter [ ]

On Stardate 2259.32, the Enterprise received a distress call from a space station harvesting the power of a binary star. There was too much interference to beam the crew aboard, so Kirk and Spock took a shuttle to rescue the crew. They encountered T'Mar , a childhood friend of Spock, who explained that they were gathering energy to power the Helios device, which would speed up the terraforming of New Vulcan , but unwittingly opened a rip in space. Beaming to New Vulcan, Kirk and Spock met with T'Mar's father Surok , who explained that the station's power from the base was lost after they were attacked by creatures - who called themselves the Gorn - from the Rip. Kirk and Spock entered the locked-down sections of the base to recover the infected survivors, but were unable to stop the Gorn from stealing the Helios device and kidnapping Surok.

On stardate 2259.33 Kirk opted to take the infected personnel to a nearby starbase instead of pursuing the Gorn Commander's ship through the Rip. At the starbase, Kirk, Spock, and T'Mar met with Commodore Daniels , who implied he gave T'Mar the specifications for the device as he knew it would create a wormhole . Suddenly, the Gorn attacked the starbase and kidnapped T'Mar. Just as he was about to be beamed back aboard the Enterprise , Spock tackled the Gorn Henchman, bringing him aboard the ship. Kirk and Spock pursued him to the shuttlebay before he could commandeer a shuttle. Spock mind-melded with the Henchman, learning Surok was killed after confessing he had no insight into the device, but that his daughter would. Kirk had the Henchman imprisoned.

Kirk resolved to enter the Rip. After the Enterprise entered the Gorn's galaxy, Kirk and Spock took a shuttle with Sulu and McCoy to a nearby planet. When their shuttle was shot down, Kirk and Spock used wingsuits to glide to a Gorn outpost and blow it up before infiltrating a base to rescue T'Mar. They found Daniels, who was killed in an ensuing firefight. The Gorn brought Kirk and Spock to the Gorn Commander, who had them taken to an arena to fight his soldiers to the death. Angered by their besting of his champion, the Gorn Commander had Spock infected to fight Kirk to the death. Suddenly, Sulu's shuttle arrived and McCoy shot Spock with a finished antidote, while the Commander fled to his ship with T'Mar and the device.

The shuttle returned to the Enterprise , which had been taken over by the Gorn. Kirk and Spock space-dived to engineering and beamed McCoy and Sulu back on board. They helped Scotty and Keenser reactivate the warp cores , and restored power to sickbay so McCoy could replicate more of the antidote for airborne dispersal. Kirk and Spock headed to the bridge where the Henchman was holding Uhura hostage, demanding Kirk give them control of the ship. Kirk responded by directing their shuttle to crash into the viewscreen, decompressing the Gorn into space.

With only an hour before the Rip would close, Kirk and Spock space-dived to the Gorn Commander's ship, where they disabled the targeting platform to give the Enterprise a fighting chance, and entered the core where T'Mar and the device were being held. Kirk and Spock destroyed the device, defeated the Commander, and were beamed back to the Enterprise with T'Mar. The Enterprise warped back to the Milky Way Galaxy before the Rip closed. In his captain's log, Kirk stated that T'Mar had recovered enough to continue working on New Vulcan, and the Enterprise had been ordered to survey the planet Nibiru . ( TOS video game : Star Trek ))

Encounter with April [ ]

En route to Nibiru, Admiral Marcus recalled the Enterprise to do a survey of Phaedus IV . When they arrived at Phaedus, the Enterprise detected a energy field originating. Kirk, knowing that a civilization at the level of the Roman Empire never shot a energy field into space, decided to investigate this to find out who did this and why. Kirk took Spock, Sulu, and Hendorff to investigate it. As their shuttle descended, it came under fire and was forced to crash land. Kirk and the others survived the crash. Kirk then went with Spock to look around. They were then surrounded by Phaedans armed and equipped with Starfleet equipment and weapons. Kirk then met a man who said he was Robert April , former captain of the USS Enterprise .

At first, Kirk did not believe that he was not Captain April and that he and his fellow Phaedans shot him down. When they came underfire, Kirk and Spock followed him into a cave. Kirk was then briefly taken by April who used it to seal the cave. Kirk did not trust April, despite him giving his phaser back. April then told them that the rulers of the planet attacked them. Kirk then demanded to know why Starfleet thinks he's dead. April just assured him that he was on his side in a funny way as Kirk saw it. When they got to April's home, Kirk demanded to know the truth about April. After April told Kirk how he save the few white Phaedans from the Shadow Phaedans, April asked Kirk about his relationship with his first officer Spock. Kirk told him that it was evolving, to which Spock concur. Kirk was then showed the Shadow's army by April and was told that Sulu and Hendorff were their prisoners. Kirk, angry about April lying to him and losing his mind, promised that after his men were resuced, he would take him to San Francisco to a holding cell.

When Spock ran off to resuce Sulu and Hendorff, Kirk grabbed a phaser rifle and decided to go after him, ignoring April's advice. Kirk then met up with Uhura and April's supplier, Mudd . Kirk then went with Uhura to rescue Spock, Sulu, and Hendorff. Kirk then took April and Mudd up to the Enterprise . Kirk then told April that he would honor his request for food and supplies to help the white Phaedans, knowing that the Shadows were being supported by the Klingons. Kirk was told that April kept this from this because he needed their help. Following their discussion, Kirk ordered April and Mudd to Sickbay to chek on their health. Kirk then talked to spock about his behavior, which has been seen as suicidal since Vulcan's destruction. Kirk says that fine, but should he take unwarranted action again, Kirk would assign him to the boring-est assignment at Starfleet HQ . Kirk decide to forgo punishment, knowing that Uhura would carry it out for him. Kirk then went to sickbay, but April and Mudd was not there. Kirk, Spock and the crew were locked off from bridge, when April initiated Protocol 31 , putting the Enterprise under his command. Kirk then tried to convince April to stop or he would risk starting a war with the Klingons.

When April refused, Kirk, Spock, and Scotty then attempted to take control of the Enterprise back. Kirk and Spock then used the Jeffries tubes to reach the bridge. En route to the bridge, Kirk and Spock were separated when April blocked the jeffries tubes. Kirk then met up with the Uhura, McCoy and the rest of the crew in a room. Kirk then saw a Klingon warship. Just as that happened, Scotty was to turn off and reset the Enterprise . Kirk and Spock were then able to subdue April and Mudd. Kirk was then able to take command back and escape before Commander Kor sent boarding parties. Kirk then questioned April about him trading the Enterprise and it's crew to the Klingons for Governorship of Phaedus. Following that, Kirk saw that April was right about his actions.( TOS - Countdown to Darkness comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ", " Issue 3 ", " Issue 4 ")

Encounter with Khan [ ]

James T. Kirk in 2259

In 2259 , the Enterprise was ordered to the planet Nibiru to observe a primitive civilization. Kirk violated the Prime Directive by exposing the Enterprise' s existence to the planet's natives in order to rescue Spock from a volcano, and after the Enterprise returned to Earth, Kirk was demoted to first officer for his actions and Pike was reinstated as commander of the Enterprise , all on the orders of Admiral Alexander Marcus . Following an attack on a secret Section 31 facility in London by John Harrison , Kirk and Pike attended a meeting at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco . During the meeting, Kirk began to wonder why anyone would attack the facility, and realized that it was to cause the meeting to take place. Harrison attacked the meeting, killing Admiral Pike and then escaping, despite Kirk destroying his fighter. Marcus then placed Kirk back in command of the Enterprise and ordered Kirk to kill Harrison, who had fled to the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS , with 72 long range photon torpedoes .

Khan in 2259

Despite his orders, Kirk was convinced to capture Harrison and bring him to justice rather than kill him, so he led Spock and Uhura to Qo'noS to capture Harrison. Upon arrival, the group was attacked by Klingons, but rescued by Harrison. When Harrison learned the Enterprise had exactly 72 torpedoes pointed at the planet, he immediately surrendered to Kirk. Returning to the Enterprise , Harrison revealed his true identity as Khan, a genetically engineered superhuman who was awakened from his nearly 300-year-long period of suspended animation by Admiral Marcus to develop advanced weapons for a possible future war between the Federation and the Klingons. The torpedoes were found to contain cryogenic pods with Khan's colleagues inside.

The Enterprise was soon intercepted by an unmarked Federation warship, the USS Vengeance , designed by Khan and commanded by Admiral Marcus. Marcus demanded that Kirk hand over Khan, but Kirk refused. The Enterprise attempted to warp to Earth, but was attacked by the Vengeance mid-warp. With the Enterprise severely damaged, Kirk offered to hand over Khan and the 72 cryogenic pods in exchange for the lives of his crew. Marcus refused, revealing that it was his intention all along to destroy the Enterprise . The Vengeance prepared to open fire, but suffered a power outage caused by Scott, who had infiltrated the ship after following coordinates given to Kirk by Khan. Kirk allied himself with Khan and boarded the Vengeance , where they took control of the bridge. Feeling Khan to be untrustworthy, Kirk and Scott tried to incapacitate him but were overpowered. Khan then killed Admiral Marcus and took control of the Vengeance .

Khan negotiated with Spock, beaming Kirk and his boarding party back to the Enterprise in exchange for the 72 torpedoes but planning to destroy the Enterprise . Spock instead beamed armed torpedoes to the Vengeance , keeping the cryo-pods on the Enterprise . The torpedoes incapacitated the Vengeance , and both damaged starships started descending towards Earth. Kirk managed to realign the Enterprise 's warp core, enabling the crew to regain control of the vessel, but suffered fatal radiation poisoning in the process and died. Khan intentionally crashed the Vengeance into San Francisco, where Spock pursued him on foot. McCoy realized that Khan's blood contained regenerative properties that could reanimate Kirk. McCoy ordered Kirk to be immediately cryogenically frozen in order to preserve his brain function. Meanwhile, Uhura aided Spock in subduing Khan. Kirk was then healed with Khan's blood and returned to active duty. ( TOS movie & novelization : Star Trek Into Darkness )

Kirk and Spock then attended Khan's trial, acting as adjunct counsel . Kirk then gave an opening statement at Khan's trial. ( TOS - Khan comic : " Number One ")

A year later, Kirk spoke with April about his, Section 31's, Marcus's, and Khan's plan to start a war with the Klingon Empire . April warned Kirk that the Federation could not peacefully coexist with the Klingons and that Khan was just the start of their plans. ( TOS - After Darkness comic : " Part 3 ")

A week after the encounter with April, Kirk presided over the rechristening of a restored Enterprise . ( TOS movie & novelization : Into Darkness )

Five-year mission [ ]

The ship departed for the first five-year mission of exploration ever attempted by Starfleet. Soon, Kirk was force to change course to New Vulcan to help Spock with his pon farr . ( TOS movie & novelization : Star Trek Into Darkness , TOS - After Darkness comic : " Part 1 ")

The Enterprise at Parthenon 559.

Kirk was then sent to investigate a distress call from a Federation mining team on Parthenon 559 . Kirk and his landing party then found that the miners had stumbled across Gorn and attacked them, leading to a brutal retaliation from the Gorn. ( TOS comic : " Star Trek, Issue 24 ")

Kirk then took the Enterprise to Deep Space K-11 in 2261 , to give his crew a chance to contact their families before starting the five year mission. Before leaving, Kirk brought aboard Sulu's sister, Yuki to the Enterprise . However, as the mission started, the Enterprise intercepted a distress call from the Klingon colony on Khitomer . Kirk then decided to investigate, seeing it as the chance to extend a olive branch of peace to the klingons. Kirk then led the landing party to search for survivors. However, Kirk and the landing party were then captured by the Klingons. Kirk was then brutally interrogated by Commander Kor , who refused believe his mission was just to catch Khan. Kirk was then taken to Qo'nos . ( TOS - The Khitomer Conflict comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

Later that year, following an encounter with an anomaly referred to as a "quantum storm," the Enterprise was transported to an alternate reality and met a female version of himself named Jane Tiberia Kirk. Aside from her gender and the fact that he lost her mother rather than her father as an infant, the female Kirk's life closely paralleled his own. ( TOS - Parallel Lives comic : " Part 2 ")

Encounter with Q [ ]

Kirk meeting Q.

On stardate 2261.34, while using the turbolift to reach the bridge, Kirk encountered a man who he had never seen before. After the man mentioned that Kirk's Enterprise design is much better than "the beige look", Kirk became confused as to his meaning and continued to the bridge. Q then summoned a civilian ship, the Smallwood , and five Klingon warships to test Kirk and his crew. However, Lieutenant Uhura was able to discover that it was an illusion. Q then applauded Uhura's actions. Q then demonstrated his powers by allowing things to phase through him and then talk to Kirk on the Enterprise 's hull about his belief in "no-win scenarios". Q then showed Kirk the day he died in the warp core. Kirk, his crew and the ship were then pushed 108 years into future, to Terok Nor .

Kirk, his crew, and the Enterprise were then taken prisoner by Dominion 's Jem'Hadar troops. ( TOS - The Q Gambit comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ")

The Teenaxi Negotiation and a Sense of Disconnect [ ]

On or around 2263.2, during the penultimate mission of the Starship Enterprise , Captain Kirk attempted unsuccessfully to conclude peace negotiations between the Teenaxi Delegation and the Fibonan Republic . After a brief bout of questionable logic by the Teenaxi, they began to attack the Captain. Since they were only 3 decimeters tall, the attack was less deadly than it could potentially have been, and Kirk was beamed up with only minor injuries (and two members of the Teenaxi Delegation, who remained aboard the Enterprise ).

After recording a log detailing his feelings of isolation during the extended mission, Kirk celebrated his 30th birthday two days early with Dr. McCoy, sharing a bottle of scotch whisky acquired from Chekov's locker. Later that day, the Enterprise docked at Yorktown Station and her crew disembarked, Kirk watching his command crew spread out to reunite with family, friends, and loved ones.

The Altamid Ambush [ ]

The following day, the Enterprise , attempting what her crew believed a rescue mission, was lured by Kalara into the communications-obscuring Necro Cloud nebula , where the ship was ambushed by Krall 's swarm. Though the Enterprise crew fought their ship bravely, her phasers and shields were quickly disabled by the Swarm's suicide ships and other swarm craft quickly severed her warp nacelles, stranding the ship in the nebula. Within minutes, multiple gambits were attempted to save the ship, each quickly countered by Krall, finally cutting away the secondary hull, until Kirk was forced to order abandon ship. Making his way to the severed stump of the secondary hull neck, Kirk fought with Krall to attempt to separate the ship, a task completed by Uhura. Many crew members were killed in the attack and the remainder were captured and brought to the surface by Krall's forces. Finally, Kirk himself escaped his bridge, and watched as the wrecked saucer, finally without guidance, smashed through mountain canyons on its way to rest. The mighty starship Enterprise came to rest on the surface of an alien world.

Rendezvousing with Chekov and Kalara on the surface, Kirk listened to Kalara as she explained that Krall was holding her crew hostage. By this time, Kirk had come to realize that she was, rather than a pawn of Krall, one of his lieutenants and led her back to the wreck of the Enterprise . Pretending to use the downed ship's sensor systems to find Krall's headquarters, he waited for her to send a communications signal to her commander, having Chekov trace the call. Pursued by Kalara and several Swarm drones , Kirk ignited the saucer's thruster fuel and escaped with the ensign as the remains of the saucer rose up and flipped themselves over, burying their killer beneath hundreds of thousands of tons of debris. The hulk continued to burn long into the night, consuming the last of its fuel supply in a funeral pyre fit for a million Vikings of ancient Earth. The Enterprise was no more.

The next morning, Kirk explained to Chekov that while he had seen through Kalara's story, it hadn't been soon enough, but despite his self-proclaimed "nose for danger," he inadvertently walked through a trap, setting off a gas bomb that rapidly solidified into a gel. Discovered by the alien woman Jaylah in company with Montgomery Scott, Kirk was led back to their base of operations: Jaylah's home inside the crashed USS Franklin , thought lost in space a century earlier. The four began formulating a plan to rescue their surviving crewmates. The plan solidified along with Dr. Leonard McCoy and an injured Spock, when Scott's modifications to Franklin 's transporters proved successful in boosting their resolution and reliability enough to ensure a survivable human transport.

Jaylah infiltrated Krall's camp and signaled for McCoy and Spock to be beamed in, to rescue the Enterprise survivors. Meanwhile, Kirk, on an appropriated MACO PX-70 motorcycle, rode a noisy and successful diversion. The drone guards entirely focused on stopping the noisy intruder while their captives staged an escape; several times they shot and disrupted holographs while the actual captain continued toward his goal.

As he was about to signal his own beamout, Kirk noted Jaylah fighting Manas on the roof of one of the slave shelters as the swarm left Altamid, doubling back he jumped the bike, grabbing her as he transported and permitting both of them to be beamed at the same time.

Crashing hard to the transporter deck, Kirk muttered, "Let's never do that again." However, the most perilous part of the mission was about to begin.

Battle of Starbase Yorktown [ ]

Without the opportunity to do more than lick a few wounds, the crew of the late Starship Enterprise prepared to depart Altamid on the now-repaired Franklin . The century-old impulse engines fired to life and the vessel slowly rocked over the cliff it had been sitting on for a hundred years, plummeting into a deep canyon. She reached a controllable velocity just in time to avoid crashing into the canyon floor, and rose again into space.

As the Franklin came out of warp near the starbase , the attack had already begun. Kirk, asking Scott what weapons the ship carried, found to his dismay that she was only equipped with extremely obsolescent pulsed phase cannons and spatial torpedoes . Turning to his command crew for strategies to save Yorktown, he quickly synthesized Spock and Uhura's suggestion that the swarm could be disrupted by discordant noise on a very high frequency radio wave into a plan. Scott and Jaylah wired a music player into the ship's comm system, broadcasting on the swarm's control frequency.

Listen all y'all it's a sabotage [ ]

Flying headlong into the attack wave of the swarm, Kirk sat in the command chair, his nervous state betrayed only by the tight grip of his fingers on the armrest. Jaylah called out that she had found the "beats and the shouting" as the swarm closed in. Kirk called out last-minute orders, finishing with, "Let's make some noise."

Using classical music, "Sabotage," the ship's broadcast succeeded in destroying the swarm with the power of rock. Krall, however, escaped the destruction and Kirk ordered his pursuit into the starbase, doing considerable damage to Franklin 's old but massively overbuilt hull. Intercepting the course of Krall's ship with his own, Kirk crashed the century-old starship into the central plaza of Starbase Yorktown. In spite of his own shipwreck, the Captain had rescued his crew; returning in a different ship than he left in much like Sir Francis Drake seven centuries earlier.

Searching the lower deck for evidence of his presence or his body, Kirk and Uhura discovered the horrifying truth: That Krall was the vanished captain of the Franklin , Balthazar M. Edison. Realizing that Edison's plan was to release the Abronath into the starbase's atmosphere processor, painfully disintegrating every sapient being on the station, he pursued Edison.

Better to die saving lives [ ]

Confronting Edison in the atmosphere processor room, Kirk used the gravitational slipstream near the station's center to knock the mad former captain away from his deadly mission and nearly succeeded, forcing him to another skyscraper tower. However, Edison, tracking the swirl of broken glass, was able to reuse the gravitational slipstream to return to the atmosphere processor, and succeeded in flinging the Abronath into the center. Kirk traded punches with his foe, defeating him decisively, and moved into the chamber to eject the weapon into space.

Than to live with taking them [ ]

As Kirk struggled with the stubborn hatch of the final atmospheric cycle safety, Edison came up behind him, preparing to strike a killing blow - but Kirk kicked him into the activated Abronath weapon, and finally succeeded at triggering the ejection mechanism just before falling himself. Edison was sucked out into space and consumed by his own weapon, and Kirk was rescued by McCoy and Spock in their commandeered swarm ship.

To the Enterprise. And Absent Friends. [ ]

The following day, Kirk's birthday, Dr. McCoy distracted his friend while the survivors of the Enterprise gathered for a surprise birthday party, led by their Captain in a toast to their lost starship and their absent friends who lost their lives in the battle, viewing the fleet's newest starship under construction: The USS Enterprise -A . ( Star Trek Beyond )

Temporary assignment to USS Endeavour [ ]

As Starfleet had no intention of wasting one of its finest captains while his new ship was being built, Jim Kirk was reassigned as the interim CO of the USS Endeavour following the retirement of her previous commanding officer, Captain Derbes . Joining their captain, Leonard McCoy arrived on the vessel as a surgeon under Chief Medical Officer Groffus , a Tellarite , Pavel Chekov as navigator , and Mae Darwin as his helmsman. In his first mission as captain of the Endeavour , he encountered the Borg after they encountered and destroyed the USS Concord . Kirk spoke with his former helmsman and the Concord 's XO, Sulu about the attack. Kirk listened as Sulu told him about the Borg's attack on the Concord . He contacted Starfleet Command for reinforcements.( TOS - Boldly Go comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ")

The Borg [ ]

Kirk learned that the Borg were heading towards the location of the Narada 's arrival and Romulus . After contacting the USS Bradbury , Kirk decided to enter the Romulan Neutral Zone to take the Borg out. Kirk and the Endeavour were able to catch up with the Borg at Outpost Armstrong on the Federation side of the zone. As the Endeavour fought the borg sphere, Kirk and his bridge crew met with the Concord 's captain, Craig Terrell who had been assimilated by the Borg. Terrell warned Kirk and his crew not to interfere with them or they would be destroyed. Kirk pursued the sphere until it went into warp towards Romulus. Kirk, knowing that to enter the zone would be a act of war, decided to assist the Outpost's survivors and then resume his pursuit of the Borg.( TOS - Boldly Go comic : " Issue 2 ")

Kirk, after speaking with his bridge crew and with no response from Starfleet Command, decided to enter the zone to stop the Borg before they reach Romulus. Before entering the Zone, Kirk and his crew were joined by Spock and Uhura, who wished to learn more about the Borg. Kirk, with Spock, Uhura and Valas studied the Borg and their Sphere. They came to the conclusion that the Borg were looking for the Narada due to it's technology that was based off technology collected by the Romulans in the future. Kirk and the Endeavour were able to catch up to the Borg at Quirina VI . Kirk, along with Spock decided to lead a boarding party into the sphere to rescued survivors from Quirina VI and the Concord . Unfortunately, the Borg adapted to Kirk's weapons, took Spock, and forced him to return to the Endeavour .( TOS - Boldly Go comic : " Issue 3 ")

Kirk and the Endeavour were then approached by the IRW Haakona . Kirk surrendered the Endeavour to the Haakona 's commander, Tallus . ( TOS - Boldly Go comic : " Issue 4 ")

Appendices [ ]

Starfleet service record [ ], connections [ ], background information [ ].

• James T. Kirk was portrayed by American actor Chris Pine in Star Trek in 2009 and Into Darkness in 2013 .
• James T. Kirk as a child was played by Jimmy Bennett .

Appearances [ ]

External link [ ].

• James T. Kirk (Kelvin timeline) article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 USS Triumph (NCC-26228)
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 Odyssey class

Why Does Spock Never Talk About His Long-Lost Sister, Michael Burnham?

Star Trek: Discovery introduced a big retcon to Spock's history by revealing an adopted sister; here is why he never mentioned Michael Burnham before.

• Spock made a tough decision to keep his adopted sister a secret to protect the galaxy in "Star Trek: Discovery."
• Spock's history of keeping personal matters private helps explain why he never mentioned Michael Burnham.
• The addition of Michael Burnham to the Star Trek timeline has interesting implications for the Kelvin timeline.

When it comes to Star Trek , there is arguably no character more associated with the franchise than Spock. The Vulcan First Officer became the breakout character of the series and remained a fixture in pop culture. He is one of the few characters to make it past the original pilot for the series and then be a major character on not just Star Trek: The Original Series but original actor Leonard Nimoy returned to play a role in all six live-action films, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the two J.J. Abrams-directed reboots where he passed the baton on to actor Zachary Quinto. In addition, actor Ethan Peck plays a young Spock on both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , making him the character to appear in the most entries in the franchise.

As Spock's popularity grew, creators decided to expand on his backstory. One of the most controversial decisions was the revelation of Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green in the series Star Trek: Discovery . The series established her as the adopted sister of Spock, a human who was raised alongside Spock by his parents, Sarek and Amanda Grayson. This was a major shock to fans as it was a huge retcon to the franchise. Plus, with Star Trek: Discovery originally being a prequel series, the character was never mentioned by Spock or anyone else in the rest of the franchise.

While the obvious answer was the character was not created then, the writers of Star Trek: Discovery came up with an answer that fits within the established Star Trek timeline to explain why she was never brought up again despite her close connection to Spock. This is why Spock never mentioned his adopted sister, Michael Burnham, before.

Spock Vowed Never To Speak of Her or the Crew of the Enterprise to Save the Galaxy

Star Trek: Discovery season one firmly established that Michael Burnham was adopted by Sarek and his wife, Amanda Grayson, following the disappearance of her parents at a young age. Then, in Season 2, she introduced characters like Captain Pike and Number One, who debuted in the original pilot for Star Trek alongside Spock . This raised many more concerns about how nobody ever mentioned Spock's adopted sister. The series provides an explanation in the season two finale, “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2.” The Crew of the USS Discovery is able to take the rouge AI villain Control into the 31st century, which prevented itself from establishing.

The USS Discovery is reported to have been destroyed in action. To prevent another rouge AI like Control from emerging and risking Discovery's sacrifice being in vain, Spock proposed to the surviving members of the USS Enterprise and allies of Discovery to never speak of the ship or its crew again, wiping it from history essentially. This takes place in the year 2258, about eight years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series . This was also years before Spock met many members of the crew he was closely associated with, like James Kirk, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, or Uhura, so they never met Michael Burnham or knew of her existence.

This development creates a new context for viewing Star Trek: The Original Series and all subsequent stories featuring Spock after Star Trek: Discovery . He is keeping the pain of losing his adopted sister, Michael Burnham, to himself, but he also theorizes that the crew of Discovery survived and will emerge alive in the future, which he is proven correct. While Spock does not live to see it, Michael Burnham does get to see Spock's impact on the galaxy in her absence and looks to preserve the Federation her brother defined.

Spock Is Known For Keeping Things From His Friends Before

Spock, being half-human and half-Vulcan, has been known to keep things from his closest friends until it is time to inform them of an important piece of news. This is best summed up in his younger Kelvin timeline, when in Star Trek Into Darkness he informs Captain Kirk that their new science officer is, in fact, Carol Marcus, the daughter of Admiral Marcus. When Kirk asks him when he is going to tell him, Spock replies, "When it became relevant, as it just did."

This is clear many times in Star Trek: The Original Serie s. The first was in the season two premiere, "Amok Time," where Kirk discovers that Spock is bothered to T'Pring and set to be married. Later in that season, in episode ten, “Journey to Babel,” audiences are introduced to Spock’s father, Sarek, for the first time. Kirk was surprised at the announced familial connection between them as it was clear Spock never revealed much about his family to Kirk, and the Captain only gets details from talking to Spock's mother, Amanda. These two incidents show that Spock was never one to talk about himself to Kirk, so it is not out of the realm of possibility to believe that Spock would never mention Michael Burnham in public to anyone.

Star Trek: 10 Facts About Spock You Probably Didn’t Know (Or Forgot)

This also is not the first time that Star Trek has introduced a long-lost, never-before-mentioned sibling of Spock's to the franchise and used his not being the most open with his friends as a way to explain the retcon. The main villain of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is Sybok, who is revealed to be the half-brother of Spock, who is fully Vulcan and has a different mother. This means that Spock had two siblings: an adopted human sister and a half-brother who was fully Vulcan.

When Spock reveals to Kirk that Sybok is his brother, he is left in disbelief and thinks that Spock is lying. Kirk cites he would know if Spock had a brother, and Spock reveals that Sybok and he were raised together after Sybok's mother died. When Kirk asks why he had never mentioned it before, Spock plainly says, "I was not disposed to discuss matters of personal nature." showing that Spock only reveals information when it is absolutely important, even to those closest to him like Kirk. It certainly helps provide an explanation as to why Spock never mentioned Michael before.

Does Michael Burnham Exist in the Kelvin Timeline?

The addition of Michael Burnham to the main Star Trek timeline also creates a new wrinkle for the franchise in terms of the alternate reality created in J.J. Abrams's 2009 reboot, Star Trek . That film features a younger Spock and Kirk meeting at an earlier point in their lives, but no mention is made of Michael Burnham, despite Spock's parents being prominently featured in the first film. In fact, in the Kelvin timeline of films, it seems that the divergent event is what led to her never needing to be adopted.

The USS Kelvin is attacked and destroyed, resulting in the creation of a new timeline in 2233. In the original Star Trek timeline, Michael Burnham's parents did not go missing until 2236, which led to her being adopted and raised by Sarek. Since this is three years after the event of the Kelvin timeline's divergent origin point, it stands to reason the ripple effect in the galaxy meant that Michael Burnham's parents never went missing, and therefore, she was never adopted and raised alongside Spock. In the Kelvin timeline, Spock never had a sister, and Michael Burnham had to live and grow up with her birth parents.

Star Trek 4: Development History & Why It's Taken So Long

This might be an intentional choice by the creators as the showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery is Alex Kurtzman, who also was the co-writer of 2009's Star Trek , which created the Kelvin timeline and established the rules of how the universe works from branching off from the point of Nero's ship coming through the black hole. When writing Star Trek: Discovery , he likely picked the year that Michael Burnham's parents went missing to be set after that stardate, so it could be implied in the Kelvin timeline it altered events to where she would never need to be adopted.

It appears the creators have done a good job providing plenty of in-universe explanations for why Spock never mentioned his adopted sister in the original Star Trek series or in the Kelvin timeline movies.

Check out our interview with Michael Burnham herself, Sonequa Martin-Green, on the final season of Star Trek: Discovery below.

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Published Jul 12, 2023

Kelvin Timeline | 5 Signs You're Like Scotty

Over the course of three films, Simon Pegg gifted us with a fresh take on the iconic engineer.

StarTrek.com

James Doohan's tenure as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott shall forever remain unrivaled, as no one could ever replace the beloved Canadian actor's charm.

Facing the difficult challenge of reimagining the character, Simon Pegg expertly focused on blazing a unique path and injecting his own humor into the Kelvin Timeline's miracle worker. Over the course of three films, Pegg's respect for Doohan's role and dedication to his craft have gifted us with a fresh take on the iconic engineer. Let's see if you possess any traits that might match up with the personality Pegg bestowed upon Kelvin Scotty .

1. Have You Experienced Bad Luck Around Water?

Scotty just can't catch a break when it comes to aquatic adventures. Once Ambassador Spock provided the engineer with the equation for transwarp beaming, developed by his Prime reality counterpart, in Star Trek (2009) , the Scotsman and James T. Kirk employed the data to transport themselves onto the U.S.S. Enterprise . Kirk arrived safely in the Engineering section, but Scotty took a detour through water-filled pipes that almost deposited him into an unfortunately sharp-looking turbine. Saved by Kirk, Scott had to endure damp clothes during his first moments on the prized starship.

Scotty went on to express his displeasure with now-Captain Kirk's decision to hide the Enterprise underwater during the crew's mission to Nibiru in Star Trek Into Darkness . Rather than ask how Kirk and Dr. McCoy felt following a perilous cliff jump, the engineer's first words to his captain voiced his concern pertaining to salt water corrosion. A giant fish that swam passed the vessel's bridge did little to assuage Scott's grumpy mood. Interestingly enough, Doohan's Scotty suffered his own sodden ordeal in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , when he briefly became trapped in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey's flooded hold after the ship plummeted into San Francisco Bay.

2. Do You Have the Soul of a Poet?

Many accomplished poets hailed from Scotland, so Scott's knack for verbal wizardry should come as no surprise. Even after Ambassador Spock assured the engineer that transwarp beaming could be accomplished, Scotty remained skeptical. "The notion of transwarp beaming is like... trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse," the Scotsman emphatically explained. Only Montgomery Scott could describe a seemingly impossible task in such exquisite detail.

A similar situation arose when Kirk and Khan intended to cross a debris field and shoot through a tiny airlock as a means to infiltrate the U.S.S. Vengeance . Already behind enemy lines, Scotty examined the opening's dimensions and assessed the chances for a survivable entry. "It's gonna be like... jumping out of a moving car, off a bridge, into your shot glass," the engineer concluded. Kirk and Khan managed to navigate through the hole, but their rough landing on the Vengeance 's deck demonstrated the truth behind Scott's apprehension.

3. Are You Protective of Your Work Space?

From the moment Scotty first expressed his interest in the Enterprise on Delta Vega, the engineer's admiration for the starship never wavered. "I like this ship! You know, it's exciting," was Mr. Scott's reaction during his initial visit to the futuristic Bridge. Scotty developed a protectiveness over the vessel, as demonstrated by his concern for its exposure to salt water on Nibiru and his willingness to quit rather than risk its destruction by approving Admiral Marcus's mysterious torpedoes in Star Trek Into Darkness . After stowing away on the Vengeance , the engineer became dismayed when he learned about the Enterprise 's low power levels due to the damage it sustained in his absence.

All good things must come to an end, and Krall's fleet brought the relationship between Scotty and the Enterprise to a tragic conclusion. However, despite significant damage and insurmountable odds, Scott did all he could to keep the starship alive during the Battle of Altamid. While ultimately unsuccessful, Scotty's effort demonstrated his tireless devotion to protecting the vessel that he had learned to call home.

4. Do You Have A Compassionate Spirit?

The Enterprise received Scott's unconditional devotion, but the engineer held more than enough compassion for others in his heart. As Scotty spoke to Kirk and Ambassador Spock about his attempt to beam Admiral Archer's beagle from one planet to another, he mentioned the remorse he felt over the fact that the canine had yet to reappear. During the battle between the Enterprise and the Vengeance , Scotty even offered his apologies to a private security officer before sending him flying through an airlock.

The friendship Scott fostered with Jaylah on Altamid epitomized the Starfleet officer's kind spirit. With no family or friends, Jaylah survived alone by relying upon her intelligence and fighting skills. Scotty recognized the solitude that the young woman experienced, convincing her that he and the other Enterprise crew members would never abandon her. The engineer even presented Jaylah with the option to join Starfleet and become an official member of their space-faring family.

5. Have You Always Stuck by Your Best Friend?

First introduced to audiences on Delta Vega, Scott's pal Keenser has stuck with the engineer through thick and thin. Upon Nero's defeat, the Scotsman brought Keenser to join the Enterprise crew. When Scotty resigned his position as chief engineer due to a disagreement with Kirk over Admiral Marcus ' torpedoes, Keenser followed his trusted friend and also left the ship.

Back aboard for the showdown at Altamid, Scott and Keenser became separated during Krall's attack. During the crew's reunion on the U.S.S. Franklin , the pair almost hugged out of pure joy when they saw each other. While the future remains to be seen, I imagine Keenser will be by Scotty's side in engineering on the U.S.S. Enterprise-A .

This article was originally published on January 4, 2019.

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

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Screen Rant

3 star trek captains broke the prime directive to save a planet.

Star Trek's Prime Directive is the most sacred of Starfleet's principles, but Captains Kirk, Pike, and Burnham have all broken it to save a planet.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 6, "Whistlespeak"

• Captain Burnham breaks Prime Directive to save pre-warp planet from extinction, highlighting moral dilemmas in Starfleet.
• Starship captains like Captain Kirk have a history of bending the rules to save civilizations, challenging Starfleet’s non-interventionist policy.
• Despite facing consequences, Captain Pike and Burnham prioritize saving lives over adherence to the Prime Directive, illustrating ethical complexities.

Star Trek: Discovery 's Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is the latest starship captain to break Star Trek 's Prime Directive to save a pre-warp planet from destruction. The Prime Directive represents Starfeet's most sacred principle; noninterference with other cultures and civilizations . Each officer swears to uphold Starfleet's Prime Directive . However, many starship captains and their crews have been forced to bend the rules when it comes to the Federation's non-interventionist policy. Sometimes, a moral obligation to save lives trumps Starfleet's ethical principles of non-intervention, forcing a number of starship captains to break the Prime Directive to save an entire planet.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 2, "Ad Astra per Aspera" revealed that Captain Robert April (Adrian Holmes) broke the Prime Directive twice: once to save the Perricans from an apocalyptic meteor shower, and again to reverse the effects of an extinction-level drought on Na'rel. Some Starfleet captains, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) would argue that this was interfering with the natural development of those societies, while others, like habitual Prime Directive rule breaker Captain Kirk (William Shatner), would argue that Starfleet should share their advanced technology to help others. And it seems that Kirk's predecessors, and his Kelvin Timeline counterpart, would agree with him.

10 Times Star Trek Was Right To Break The Prime Directive

Captain kirk broke the prime directive to save spock and the planet nibiru, star trek into darkness (2012).

The opening of Star Trek into Darkness saw Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) break the Prime Directive to save the life of Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the entire planet of Nibiru . The Enterprise crew were on Nibiru to deploy a cold fusion device inside a volcano, which would prevent a cataclysmic eruption that would wipe out the native Nibirans. While deploying the device, Spock is left stranded inside the volcano, and the planet's strong magnetic field prevents the Enterprise from beaming him out . The only solution, therefore, is to fly the Enterprise directly above the volcano and beam Spock aboard before the device detonates.

Star Trek Into Darkness

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Star Trek Into Darkness is a 2013 movie directed by     J. J. Abrams and starring John Cho, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Part of the Star Trek franchise, this sequel sees Captain Kirk relieved of his duties as commander of the USS Enterprise.

Revealing the USS Enterprise, which was hiding under the sea on Nibiru, was a blatant violation of the Prime Directive because it displayed superior technology to a pre-warp species. Star Trek Into Darkness even teased that the Nibirans would begin worshiping the USS Enterprise as a benevolent deity. Despite having been saved by his crew, an ungrateful Spock reports this Prime Directive violation to Starfleet, leading to Kirk being demoted to being the first officer of Admiral Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) aboard the Enterprise, until the admiral is killed by Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Captain Pike Broke The Prime Directive To Save The Planet Kiley 279

Star trek: strange new worlds season 1, episode 1, "strange new worlds".

Captain Christopher Pike broke the Prime Directive in the very first episode of his spinoff series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . In the eponymous pilot episode, the USS Enterprise was sent to Kiley 279 to investigate the disappearance of Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) and the crew of the USS Archer. During their mission, it was discovered that the Kiley people had inadvertently become aware of the Battle of Control in the Star Trek: Discovery season 2 finale. The knowledge gained from this battle allowed the Kiley to reverse engineer the matter-antimatter reaction that powers most starships to instead build a devastating weapon.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a television series that takes place before the events of the original series and follows Captain Christopher Pike as he mans the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show focuses on this previous crew of the Enterprise as they explore the galaxy with returning characters from Discovery.

To convince the Kiley people that there was a better way, and because they had already been impacted by Federation technology, Pike revealed the USS Enterprise in an attempt to convince the planet's two warring factions to embrace peace . Pike delivered a stirring lecture about World War 3 and how it eventually led to the creation of Starfleet and the Federation. This made the desired impact on the Kiley people, who decided to work together to achieve space travel instead of working against each other. Although noble in his intentions, an enraged Starfleet hardened the Prime Directive because of Pike .

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 4, "Among the Lotus Eaters", Captain Pike had to fix another Prime Directive violation on Rigel VII, caused when his former yeoman Zac Nguyen used leftover Federation technology to seize control of the planet.

What Happened To Star Trek’s Phoenix Warp Ship After First Contact?

Captain burnham broke the prime directive to save tilly and the planet halem'no, star trek: discovery, season 5, episode 6, "whistlespeak".

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's treasure hunt brought Captain Burnham and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) to the pre-warp planet of Halem'no, where the USS Discovery's captain broke the Prime Directive to save her friend, and the entire planet . At the climax of Discovery season 5, episode 6 , Tilly became trapped inside a Denobulan weather tower disguised as a mountain, with a young Halem'nite called Ravah (June Laporte), as the air slowly ran out. Because the tower was built out of tritanium, the USS Discovery's sensors were scrambled, making it impossible to beam Tilly and Ravah out of the tower.

It's possible that Star Trek: Discovery 's Red Directive supercedes the Prime Directive, meaning that Burnham may face no reprisals for her violation, as it was done in the pursuit of the Progenitors' treasure.

The failing weather towers were installed by the Denobulans to generate rain on Halem'no to mitigate the effects of the planet's dust storms and its naturally arid surface. Without the towers, the Halem'nites would become extinct. Captain Burnham, therefore, makes the decision to beam into the tower's control room to reveal the truth to the Halem'nites' spiritual leader, Ohvaz (Alfredo Narciso). While it was a breach of Star Trek 's Prime Directive, Burnham saved the planet from extinction while making sure that she still respected the Halem'nites' spiritual beliefs, keeping Halem'no's natural development largely on track.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: Why The Romulans Were Bald In The J.J. Abrams Movies

A s J.J. Abrams took the helm of the "Star Trek" franchise, there were plenty of twists and tweaks he applied to the point in the timeline when James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) met his green-blooded BFF-to-be, Spock (Zachary Quinto). One detail involved Romulans, the biological cousins of Vulcans, who shared similar eyebrow styles and pointy ears. In Abrams' "Star Trek," the species have a considerably different appearance from what we had seen in the shows previously. Led by Eric Bana's Nero, any Romulan on-screen was bald, bearing facial and head tattoos. While it might appear like a subtle and interesting detail applied to the Kelvin timeline of "Star Trek ," the truth is that the design was so that audiences could tell them apart from Vulcans.

It is certainly a logical approach to making it easier for casual audiences to decipher which pointy-eared alien to keep an eye on. According to TrekMovie.com , back when they were trying to snag any rumor they could in their tractor beam before the film's release, it was confirmed that all actors playing Romulans -- whether Bana, his on-screen number two played by Clifton Collins Jr., or background performances -- had to give themselves a trim. It was slightly before the film's release that a reason was also established for the Romulan's tattoos, which were backed up by a heartbreaking expansion on events set before the film.

Read more: Star Trek Stories That Are Actually Horrifying

A Clear-Cut Explanation Revealed The Romulans New Look

Before the 2009 film's release, IDW Publishing released a four-issue comic book series called "Star Trek: Countdown," exploring the events that led Nero to get his revenge on the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy). As explained in "Star Trek," Nero's blind rage for the legendary Vulcan is born out of the destruction of Romulus, for which he holds Spock responsible. As captain of the mining vessel, the Narada, Nero and the rest of his crew shaved their heads and inked themselves as a sign of mourning for losing their home planet.

As explained in "Star Trek: Countdown #3," a Romulan tradition during a time of loss saw mourners paint symbols onto their skin, and their gradual fading would signify the passing of the sorrow felt as their own life carried on without those who were lost. Nero and his crew, however, made the tattoos permanent, believing that their lives were over when they lost their home and family. As a result, the ink would never fade.

It's an excellent little detail that "Trek" fans may only have been aware of if they snatched up the books before the film's release. Also, along with "Star Trek: Picard," which expanded on  the untold truth of "Star Trek's" Romulans  and the failure of the planet being saved, it certainly paints an even stronger argument as to  why Eric Bana's Nero is the most dangerous villain in "Star Trek" history . 

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