by Randolph Johnson

Created on: May 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

No! William Shatner should not return as Captain Kirk! When I was a kid the original series was in syndication on the local television stations, by 5 o'clock in the afternoon I (or one of my friends whose house I happened to be at at the time) would commandeer the set (at the disgruntle of our siblings and parents) and faithfully absorb ourselves into the universe of Kirk, Spock, McCoy along with their subordinate counterparts, whatever premise they were written into to save themselves, the Enterprise or some alien other worldly place.

Even though by today's television standards ST themes are played campy to the extreme, the sheer interest of going someplace aboard a starship that would take you to galaxies far, far away had me locked in front of the tee vee every weekday afternoon. Captain Kirk played the ultimate alpha male (especially if some evil guy or tried to overthrow his authority take his crew or ship) who took on enemies and problems head on and this no self motivated heterosexual male could ignore! He always shot first and asked questions later either with an enemy or female conquest. Like a true space cowboy, his diplomacy always worked. And in real life it made William Shatner into icon himself culminating into Denny Crain and the Priceline Negotiator .but those are two other franchises!

Chris Pine does a great job at making the role his own. He carries the movie in his own unique way in this 2009 advent to the ST franchise. The young James Kirk (portrayed by Jimmy Bennett) is not unlike any boy in his situation, (in the original series you don't get the background of Kirk's youth) rebellious and delinquent! When Chris Pine appears, as Kirk in his twenties, he is just as careless and irresponsible even though his father was legend (of which that overshadows James own life) he is doing what most straight single guys do at his age. Get drunk, chase s and fight. It isn't until Captain Pike (played by solidly by actor Bruce Greenwood) reminds the young Kirk of his family's devotion to Star Fleet and the Federation where he decides to join up.
If I may digress , during my twenties I would go out at night and raise hell then always make it home in time to see the late night reruns of ST: TOS (and then in the eighties came ST:TNG,the nineties, ST:DS9,ST: Voyager and ST: Enterprise, not forgetting the franchise movies either!). So I could definitely relate to Chris Pines' portrayal of Kirk as a young man. During the run of ST: TNG, I enjoyed observing Cmdr. Will Riker, which in my opinion brought some of the Kirk mystique to that Enterprise crew. Don't get me wrong Captain Picard got his share of womanly associations in his command (most every Captain in Star Fleet does, even female Officers too! Eventually, everyone was getting some everywhere in the ST universe!) But he was in no way too confused as such a pursuer as Kirk!

This ST engagment needs to have the new generation of Chris Pine keep the role which was thought up by Mr. Roddenberry and immortilized by Mr. Shatner but since the franchise has a opted to bring in all ST fans with a new younger cast there can only be a place for one of the original "Enterprise" officer(and if you want to find out who it is,see the movie!) but not William Shatner! Sorry Bill!

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