Paul Wesley's Best Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Makes A Bold Choice For Kirk [Exclusive]

Set phasers to spoilers: This article discusses major plot details from "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4, Episode 8, "Orders of Magnitude."

The arrival of James T. Kirk on "Strange New Worlds" is a responsibility that actor Paul Wesley has never taken lightly, even if the future captain isn't technically a member of the USS Enterprise crew just yet. That hasn't been much of an issue for the Paramount+ series, which has continually found ways to integrate the classic character into the action every now and then. Perhaps none have been better or more central to Kirk's arc than Season 4, Episode 8, which sees Kirk pushed into the role of acting First Officer on Starfleet's flagship vessel ... but acting with a brash, reckless confidence fully evocative of our captain of old.

But is this truly the Kirk we know and love from "The Original Series" — the one who strutted around with such charm, intelligence, and swagger unparalleled by any officer in Starfleet? Not quite, as Wesley tells it. I recently interviewed the actor over Zoom, ahead of his performance in this week's "Orders of Magnitude." Wesley explained that, despite appearances, this younger version of Kirk still has much to learn:

"I actually don't think he's the Captain Kirk we know and love yet. The Captain Kirk we know from 'TOS' is like this guy that ... I don't know, I'm not trying to make him one-dimensional, but I feel like he understands himself more and I feel like ['Strange New Worlds'] Kirk doesn't understand himself as much. In order to qualify as a captain, he has to show his crew that he's unflinching in his decision-making, in his knowledge of what is right [and] what is wrong, and what they need to do. There's no second-guessing it."

As appealing as "Strange New Worlds" continues to be on a weekly basis, its prequel setting tends to pose a specific challenge for its cast — particularly those who portray famous figures who have larger roles to play across the "Star Trek" canon. Play these characters with too much of a winking, self-aware tone, and you risk pulling viewers right out of the experience. Go too far in the other direction by bringing a stiff, colorless performance to such a lively crew, however, and that's equally disastrous.

To Paul Wesley, the newest episode gave him every opportunity to explore this dynamic to the fullest. When faced with an authority figure like Admiral Simon Reeger (Joe Morton), whose actions in ordering the destruction of an entire planet feel misguided at best, the Kirk played by William Shatner likely wouldn't have even hesitated for a second. This version, however, needed to first encounter an impossible situation like this and understand what it feels like to be cut down to size. That way, he could learn to build himself back up again and take on the next set of difficult circumstances by the horns. According to Wesley:

"I think that [Kirk] had to go through this vulnerability, he had to go through this ... It's like, there's this admiral who's talking down to him, who's basically in many ways making him feel less-than, and Kirk has to play chess and he has to one-up this guy. I think it's an empowering episode for him."

To nobody's surprise, having such potent material to wrestle with is one of the many reasons why "Orders of Magnitude" ranks among the biggest highlights of the season for Paul Wesley. The acting challenge of going toe-to-toe with a legend like Joe Morton certainly played a huge role. As he explained, "I felt like I was doing a play or something. It was a really great one-on-one, just head-to-head episode that I got to do with this really, really brilliant actor. It just gave me a lot to chew on."

But amid all the interpersonal drama unfolding on the Enterprise bridge in this Rob Reiner-inspired episode, one crucial subplot involves the unresolved issues between Kirk, his brother Sam (Dan Jeannotte), and their largely absentee father/career-focused Starfleet officer George. While looking into Admiral Reeger's actions in the past, the brothers Kirk realize that the stalling of George Kirk's career coincides with Reeger's rise — and that contradictory information regarding who actually took command during a famous battle changes everything they thought they knew about their father. According to Wesley:

"And Kirk learns about his father. I think that just being a part of that canon and learning this along with the audiences — because we don't know anything about Kirk's father. We don't know anything. It's such a huge thing for him and his brother to discover. In a way, it provides some closure for Kirk because he always was like, 'I can't believe my dad was not — how am I going to be special if my dad wasn't special?' Then suddenly he realizes, 'Oh, my dad is special and that's why I could be special one day.'"

New episodes of "Strange New Worlds" stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.