The movie version of Star Trek from the summer of 2009 would suggest an emphatic “yes”.
The new young Kirk was motoring around the 23rd century in a vintage 1965 Corvette roadster.
The car would be as common as a Roman chariot in that century, but it looked ultra-cool as a road machine instead of a museum piece in the opening sequences.
Young Kirk had the soul of a car guy, and the ethics of a juvenile delinquent when it came to authority.
His attempt to outrun a hover-bike motorcycle cop in the Corvette was probably not his greatest game plan, but it looked good on a movie screen.
The contentious car guy issue with the new Kirk and the more familiar babe-hound Kirk from TV was the altered timeline. TV Kirk was not exactly a great wheel- man. He had a lot of trouble driving stick in a gangster episode in which he attempted to navigate the streets of an Al Capone-style planet in a vintage early 30s Cadillac V-12 roadster.
The altered timeline of the new Star Trek movie franchise means that the producers no longer have to follow the original series’ plot lines. Thus young Kirk can be a car guy in the new movie sequences. Meanwhile it complicates the question of whether Kirk was a real car guy.
The simple answer is yes and no. “Yes, Kirk is a real car guy” if you buy into the new Star Trek where young Kirk cuts his teeth in that ‘Vette. “No, Kirk is a womanizing space jockey” if you watch TV Kirk butcher that manual Caddy gear box in the gangster planet episode.
Either way, both Kirks find plenty of time for recreational pursuits in their spare time.
Jim Sutherland
