Star Trek and Shirtless Kirk – Trope and Truth
By Mike Poteet
Other episodes featuring Kirk’s shirt gone, not forgotten
Next, to fix any malfunctions in my memories of Kirk’s wardrobe, I turned to Ex Astris Scientia, who’d previously pursued this very question.
Their blog on the subject pointed out to me these further appearances of shirtless Kirk:
- “Court Martial” – I’d completely forgotten Kirk’s fight against Ben Finney saved him his ship but tore up his tunic.
- “The Enemy Within” – How could I have overlooked this one? Because the shirtless Kirk isn’t the one you might expect—the savage duplicate created by the transporter—but “our” captain, calmly toweling off in his cabin.
- “The Deadly Years” – All the old-age makeup in this one made me forget we see Kirk without a shirt earlier in the show.
- “Journey to Babel” – Of course! A shirtless Kirk tries to check himself out of sickbay after surgery, but Bones will have none of it (though he does finally have the last word!).
- “The Paradise Syndrome” – HE IS KIROK! And he is also out of his shirt but very much in love with Miramanee.
- “The Empath” – I must’ve blocked this one out because shirtless Kirk hangs suspended in the air in a near-Christ-like, “crucified” pose. But it’s not the captain who makes the saving sacrifice this time.
- “Plato’s Stepchildren” – His kiss with Uhura is so deservedly famous, I’d overlooked the fact Kirk’s clothed in a Roman-style toga at the time.
- “Turnabout Intruder” – As it began, so it ended: with shirtless Kirk. But as Ex Astris Scientia points out, Janice Lester is in Kirk’s body at the time, making her “the only topless woman we ever see on Star Trek.”
Add those eight episodes to the 12 I remembered, and the count stands at one score of episodes.
In 20 of 79 original Star Trek episodes—25.3%—Captain Kirk is partially or wholly without his shirt.
After I’d finished my tabulations, I discovered this marvelous compilation of shirtless Kirk moments posted by YouTube user EC Henry in 2018. He left out a few episodes my list contains, but it’s fun to watch.
Just be warned you may never hear Pachelbel’s Canon in quite the same way again…