The 47-Year-Old Realization Turning Star Trek Fans Against Captain Kirk

If you ask a room full of Trek diehards what the best Star Trek is, a lot of them will still point straight at The Original Series. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu — the William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei squad — that crew is the gold standard for a reason. But time (and rewatching) has a way of sanding the paint off the legend. Case in point: a recent fan thread dug into Star Trek: The Motion Picture and landed on a take that might sting a little if you grew up idolizing James T. Kirk.

The Motion Picture rewatch that pokes the bear

The first Trek film is famously slower, more philosophical, and more in line with Gene Roddenberry's big-picture vision than the punchier movies that followed. Less pew-pew, more what-does-it- all-mean. It also puts the original crew back at center stage — which, for some fans, makes one early moment hit harder than it used to.

At the top of the movie, Kirk has been bumped up to admiral while Captain Willard Decker — played by Stephen Collins — is actually in command of the Enterprise. Starfleet orders the ship to intercept a massive energy cloud, but the refit Enterprise is still shaking down new systems and has to run tests before it can head out.

Then the transporter malfunction happens. Two officers die during a beam-up — including the Vulcan science officer Sonak — in a quick, nasty bit of body-horror that still lands. Immediately after, Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy is understandably not thrilled about stepping into the transporter himself.

"In The Motion Picture Kirk seems a bit cruel for mocking McCoy's fear of transporters... AFTER TWO PEOPLE LITERALLY JUST DIED IN IT."

That was the gist from one fan, and yeah, you can see the point. When Kirk hears that McCoy wants to see the transporter work before he risks his molecules, he smirks and tosses off a 'That has a familiar ring, doesn't it?' — basically needling his chief medical officer for being cautious, minutes after two crew members were scrambled like eggs.

So... is that a flaw or the point?

The thread didn't land on 'bad writing' so much as 'this is who Kirk is, especially in this movie.' Multiple fans noted that The Motion Picture intentionally paints him as impatient and judgmental — a guy who has to relearn how to lead. There's even another example: after Decker pulls off a save that keeps the Enterprise from being destroyed, Kirk still snipes about Decker 'competing' with him. Bones clocks it on the spot and basically asks if the one competing here might actually be Kirk. Which tracks with a bigger pattern across TOS and the original films: Spock and Bones function as Kirk's conscience, calling him on his blind spots when the ego gets too loud.

• The setup: Kirk is now an admiral, Decker (Stephen Collins) has the Enterprise, and Starfleet sends them after a massive energy cloud — but the ship's overhauled systems need proving.
• The incident: a transporter test goes wrong; two officers die, including Sonak, in a brief but gnarly sequence.
• The moment: McCoy refuses to beam until he sees it work; Kirk cracks a 'that sounds familiar' joke anyway, which reads as cold given the fresh deaths.
• The pattern: later, Kirk needles Decker about 'competing' right after Decker saves the ship; Bones flips it back on Kirk; and historically, Spock and Bones serve as his ethical guardrails.

None of this means Kirk isn't the hero people remember. It does mean The Motion Picture is playing on a different frequency — one where the franchise 's most iconic captain gets knocked off autopilot and has to earn the chair again. When you put the movie in that light, the prickly stuff doesn't feel like a mistake. It feels like the assignment.