James Kirk’s final words summed up the character perfectly.
Star Trek: Generations was both the first film in the Next Generation’s line of movies and technically, the last in the original series. After this, no other original Star Trek character would appear in another film prior to the JJ Abrams reboot. Three of those original actors would grace this one, however. Even though the original script had all of them pop up. Instead, it was just James Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov who appeared, played by William Shatner, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig respectively. All three reprising the roles they started 30 years earlier.
It was Shatner, whose character had the biggest impact on the film of the original cast who showed. Stuck in something called the Nexus, Kirk has lived out his best days, until Jean-Luc Picard came crashing through. Picard ends up convincing Kirk to join him on a mission to stop an El-Aurian madman named Soran.
It was a quest that would ultimately end Shatner’s tenure as Kirk, as well as his version of the character. As his character laid dying, Shatner was able to truly embrace his entire run as Kirk in just five words.
"It was fun. Oh my…"
Fun was the perfect way to describe William Shatner’s run with James Kirk
For nearly 30-years, Star Trek was driven by William Shatner’s rogue-like mentality as James Kirk. He defied the entire convention of a Starfleet officer, even if he was the original. Kirk was counter-culture, a punk in a world of suits, he was the one who set the rules just to break them in utter defiance.
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Kirk did it time and time again, and you know what they say about people who demonstrate repeat behavior? They never do anything that many times if they didn’t enjoy it. So it was rather fitting that Kirk would buck the very notion of a perfect afterlife and death itself just one more time, in order to do something insanely dumb. It was what Kirk did best. Help others. Sure, he was a playboy and didn’t always play by the rules but he cared about those around him.
So he’d gleefully leap in front of danger any chance he could, even if it meant his death. To him, life was an adventure, and it was the most fun a person could have. That’s what makes his final words so fitting.
We’re not the only ones who think Shatner’s last few words in Star Trek are worthy of being looked at fondly. The inspiration for this article came from a Screenrant post. They took notice of the “Oh my” portion of the quote, breaking down and dissecting what Shatner meant by those two words.
No, it wasn’t a nod to George Takei, unfortunately.
Those other three words, “It was fun”, was much more Kirk. It was almost like life was a party to him and in his final moments, he was thanking his host for a wonderful time. Saying them to Picard, his de facto replacement in both the series and in the Star Trek fandom, just made it even more meaningful.
“It was fun”.
It sure was.