This is why Kirk hated the dentist.
Star Trek: Start to Finish
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Happy Birthday, William Shatner.
Kirk’s Empathy
Kirk will and does go to great lengths for those he cares about, and that empathy is what makes Kirk an interesting character.
He is at his best when he’s fighting against long odds to help those he feels responsible for, because it’s when he stops being an action hero and starts being a guy you root for. His empathy is what connects you into the story, because you want him to succeed in his efforts to protect the other characters.
The flip side is Kirk’s empathy for those he’s just met. There are countless episodes where the crew discovers some enslaved group or oppressed minority or hoodwinked populace and Kirk just wants them to be free. His desire for everyone everywhere to have control of their own destiny is the motive force that drives the series, and it reflects the core ideals behind the show: that sixties-America binge of freedom as unadulterated good, as the axis around which everything turns.
That Kirk is a starship captain is the most fitting piece of the puzzle; he is freedom incarnate, zooming around the galaxy doing things that he wants to do because he thinks that doing them is awesome. That his adventures so often find him freeing people from bondage or escaping bondage himself is part and parcel of the enterprise.
Hello, Ma’am. We’d like to ask about your life insurance policy. Oh, you don’t have a policy?
Kirk: Am I disturbing you?
Alien Hottie: What is it you wish?
Kirk: I wish to apologize.
Alien Hottie: I don’t understand, Captain.
Kirk: I wish to apologize that you only have half a shirt. That’s half too much in my book.
Kirk and Spock explain how to properly don a pair of Jack Boots.
These are spirit fingers. And these are gold.
Nona and Kirk bond over their shared love of bad hairpieces.
Boss Kirk of the Fuzzy Hat Gang.
