Kirk is a fascinating character. A cockspin, a brilliant officer, a guy whose intuition is epic, and a fiercely loyal friend. I think Wesley plays Kirk well, but he is ten years too old to play Kirk at this point. Pine did a good job and I hope we get to see him as middle aged Kirk. Shatner's performance was all over the place. Sometimes cringe and other times absolutely amazing! It was never mediocre. I think the work he did in Undiscovered Country was his absolute best performance. Layered.
In Star Trek 6, I very much feel like Nicholas Meter knew how to work Shatner to get the best. Wesley is about 3 years older than Kirk in TOS. It is a bit weird.
I would say that Undiscovered Country was his best performance overall, but i think his BEST 2 scenes were in The Final Frontier, "I NEED MY PAIN!" and "What does God need with a starship?"
After the Shat, my favorite Kirk is Vince Mignogna. He doesn't imitate Shatner but does a good job of portraying a character with the same personality traits.
@@53kenner I actually really disliked the choice of actors. The guys who played Spock were terrible. It's a good fan production, but the acting was pretty bad. Thanks for commenting!
One thing to remember is that Paul Wesley is playing Lieutenant Kirk, at the early part of his career. He is too old, though ... they should have cast a mature 28-year old or so. Wesley is in his early 40s. Also, I adore Chris Pine's portrayal in Beyond. A more measured but still inspired Kirk. Shatner was greatest in season one and halfway through season two. Somewhere along the line he began "phoning it in" and by season three, half the time he was simply a caricature of himself.
Of the three listed, Paul Wesley has really grown on me by not leaning heavily into William Shatner. He has quickly become an excellent Kirk. Chris Pine did the opposite and leaned heavily into impersonation and was less impressive as a result. (Karl Urban's portrayal of McCoy did the same, but it worked better than Pine for Kirk) William Shatner was a great Kirk only because he originated the role. (I prefer Mount's Pike to Shatner's Kirk or Stewart's Picard in personifying Horatio Hornblower (Roddenberry's inspirationl for the captain character). But, where the heck is Vic Mignogna in your list. Not only did he create Star Trek Continues - finally completing the 5 year mission but he got the Shatner-Kirk down pat in a way that Pine did not. Despite his short run in the role, I would say he was the best, with Paul Wesley putting in performance that could dethrone Migngna in time. But let's be clear there have been 4 Kirks, not 3. Give Mignogna his due. He gave more to the role that anyone since Shatner
Vince made a fan series. I get that he was well loved and produced an amazing fan series but that is all it was. He has been talked about a lot and I may do a video about him independently in the near future, because you are right, he does deserve credit for doing an amazing fan series
@@TrekTrav Sorry, I have difficulty making a distinction, as a viewer, between a highly polished fan series and one made by the likes of Paramount, His portrayal exists, and should be included in discussions on Kirk, regardless of whether a major studio is behind it or not, His series may have been a passion project but it does not make it a less worthy within the Star Trek media universe. (in this case, it is particularly true) Given the choice of watching Continues or Discovery or Voyager, I'd pick Continues every time. We will agree to disagree on the ommission.
@@TrekTrav In complete honesty, I have no issues with female captains. Throughout my career I had both male and female managers/supervisors and invariably, I preferred the women. They were more supportive and less likely to screw-the-pooch in every instance. If I were American, I would also vote for Kamala. No, what you're missing is that the two shows I don't like are generally seen as the most poorly written in the franchise. And THAT is why I don't like them. So let's not insert misogyny where it does not exist to fit your narrative for my point of view.
In the original series, Shatners portrayal of Kirk was soooooo hilariously over-the-top that it almost immediately made Captain Kirk memorable. By the time that we got to the original set of movies, there was little that Shatner needed to do in order to further develop his character. And even the writers of Futurama found Shatner's over-the-top portrayal memorable enough to use it as the basis for their mockingly laughable portrayal of Zapp Branigan.
I agree with most commenters that Paul Wesley is too old to play a young Kirk. I loved Shatner in the movies, never got into the original series, just seemed too fake and sometimes campy for me. Chris Pine kills it as the young Kirk just starting out his career--all the cockiness, bravado, and just enough empathy--all of the characters in the Kelvin reboot movies really nailed their portrayals.
Wesley definitely grew on me in Season 2. He acts the part very well and the writing definitely helped. I just wish he wasn't so skinny.. Pine is also very good, but I didn't love the writing for his character in the movies much. Of course Shatner IS Captain Kirk thru and thru, was there ever any doubt??
I felt the same about Wesley. That Skinnyness really made it hard to recognise Kirk but after a while I got used to it. I think Pine carries the charisma of Kirk really well. He is kind of a mix between Han Solo and Kirk. Thanks for commenting! I hope to see you again soon.
