James Kirk finally debuts on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ in “Lost in Translation”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finally premiered James Kirk in its latest episode “Lost in Translation”.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has finally debuted James Kirk. That’s a weird thing to write, but it’s true. The latest episode of season two, “Lost in Translation” officially debuts James Kirk into the Strange New Worlds canon. Now, you might be wondering, “Kirk (as played by Paul Wesley), debuted in the final episode of season one, what are you talking about?”

And you’d be correct in saying that Wesley’s Kirk did in fact debut at the end of season one. Except, that wasn’t the real James Kirk. See, Wesley’s Kirk is the same character as William Shatner’s Kirk that debuted in the 1960’s Trek series. They’re one and the same.

Except, the Kirk you saw at the end of season one wasn’t the same Shatner-Kirk. That was a different Kirk from a different timeline. Not the one that would go on to fight a rubbery-Gorn.

Then you may be thinking, “What about the Kirk that totally snogged La’an Noonien Singh?”

Still not the same Kirk as the Shatner-Kirk. That one was from an alternate timeline, again. But not the same alternate timeline from the season one Wesley-Kirk. In fact, Wesley has now played three different versions of James Kirk.

James Kirk finally debuts on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

In “Lost in Translation”, Nyota Uhura is dealing with an unknown bout of phantom sounds and hallucinations and isn’t able to figure out why. At the same time, her ship, The US.S. Enterprise meets up with USS Farragut, the ship that features a young first officer by the name of James T. Kirk.

The same Kirk that canonically, would go on to become Shatner’s Kirk in the original series. So despite appearing in two prior episodes as two totally different Kirks, this is the first time that Strange New Worlds has featured the character that Shatner portrayed for decades.