This Was Paul Wesley's 'North Star' For Playing Kirk In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
With "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" set to take flight for at least two more seasons, it's likely we'll be seeing more of Paul Wesley's Captain Kirk in the future. The actor appeared in the season finale of the pre-"Star Trek: The Original Series" era show to play a version of Kirk from a timeline that didn't come to pass, delivering wisdom to Captain Pike (Anson Mount), but also acting more impulsively than his gregarious predecessor may have on his own. While there's no telling how much this potential future Kirk has in common with the actual Kirk, who's still a young lieutenant during the series' main timeline, he nonetheless made a memorable first impression thanks to the "The Vampire Diaries" star's turn in the captain's chair.
Wesley has spoken often in interviews about his characterization of Kirk, which (thankfully) doesn't come across at all like a William Shatner impression, or a Chris Pine one for that matter. Instead, the actor says that when he played Kirk, he thought a lot about the character's number one asset: his strong gut instincts. "A director I was working with on 'Star Trek' said, 'Kirk's the kind of guy that will jump off out of a plane without a parachute and he knows he'll figure out a way to land midair,'" the actor told Variety in an interview about the series.
Kirk trusts his gut
He continued: "Obviously, that's an extreme example. But his instinct, his gut, is his North Star." Fans have seen these instincts in action in "Star Trek: The Original Series" and other Trek properties that see Kirk making split-second decisions, often before dramatic cuts to commercial breaks. Often, his intuition and ability to read people lead Kirk to act fast in ways that save the Enterprise crew from alien cultures who might have had their heads if Kirk didn't say the right thing at the right time. The captain is far from infallible, but his borderline rash behavior is often perfectly balanced out by Spock's (Leonard Nimoy, with Ethan Peck taking on the role in "Strange New Worlds") love of logic.
Wesley said that North Star instinct was an important element of his performance. "It's something that I really wanted to make sure that I captured," he shared. "And then on top of that, he has [an] incredibly good sense of morality. He is someone who I think is selfless for his crew." While Pike and Kirk spend their time together in the season finale looking at the conundrum presented in the original series episode "Balance of Terror" from different angles, Pike's fateful decision seems to be one that leaves Spock's life hanging in the balance. It's a deeply-felt twist, the kind of moral conundrum that would've shattered Kirk's heart had he known the full repercussions of his and Pike's choice.
We still haven't met present-day Kirk in Strange New Worlds
"He's someone that, even though he has his bravado, I think at the end of the day, he has a deep sensitivity, and he cares about doing the right thing," Wesley said of Kirk, describing his sensitivity, morality, and instinct as "pillars" of the character. Though we likely won't see Kirk join the Enterprise crew soon — in canon, he's still at least five years away from taking over, at least as captain — it's safe to say that his best qualities pair well with those of the existing Enterprise crew. Currently, the Enterprise is safe in the hands of precocious cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), charismatic and humane Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), and a slew of competent and driven Starfleet officers including Ortegas (Melissa Navia), M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), La'an (Christina Chong), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn).
While Paramount+ hasn't dropped a teaser for season 2 yet, co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers has revealed that the new batch of episodes will include at least one major James T. Kirk moment: the future captain's official introduction to the first officer who he would ultimately go to the ends of the earth for — Spock. "We think about it every day," Myers told TVLine. "In the moment, when they finally meet, we absolutely make a big moment of it and hope people will enjoy what we come up with." Hopefully, Kirk will get to show off that North Star instinct of his.
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" returns to Paramount+ on June 15, 2023.