Star Trek fans finally got to see the Brothers Kirk on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has brought in George “Sam” Kirk, the older brother of the iconic Trek character, James Tiberius Kirk. James Kirk is among the most famous characters in all of fiction, rivaling the likes of King Arthur and Sherlock Holmes, rising to a level most fictional characters could never. While James Kirk has always been famous, George Kirk has not been given the same love.
George Kirk was named after his father so that makes it hard to stand alone. That, and due to the fact that the first and then only time we saw the elder Kirk sibling, he was already dead (and being played by James’ actor William Shatner), it’s not hard to see why he gets overlooked. Not only that but George Kirk senior was famously played by Chris Hemsworth, so if you search George Kirk on the internet, you’ll get the Kelvin version played by Hemsworth first and foremost.
So it’s been rough if you’re a George Samuel Kirk fan. Especially when you realize that the Kirk brothers never appeared on-screen together. That was, until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ “Lost in Translation”, where both Kirk brothers were alive and well and interacting with one another.
George and James Kirk don’t exactly see eye to eye
The relationship between the two was never truly explored prior to this episode, and in it, we find out that George and James don’t exactly get along. While James loves his older brother, as we saw in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” where James gives up his entire timeline for a reality where George is alive, George is jealous of James.
So much so that it leads to constant bickering between the two. Clearly, there is affection there, but their relationship is complicated, even more, complicated when you realize that despite carrying his father’s name, it’s James that his father seems to acknowledge more.
These are all elements that the franchise never highlighted originally, and how could you, when the character was literally introduced in the original series already dead? Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a much better depiction of George Kirk.