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Thread: How would you kill the King?

  1. #1
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    How would you kill the King?

    Or atleast that's how he sees himself . . . William Shatner as CAPT James T. Kirk.
    Some people thought how Kirk died was done well . . . most others think that it was one of the worst character deaths ever written.
    So, if you were to kill off the Character of CAPT James T. Kirk, given the events of Generations . . . how would you have killed him?


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  2. #2
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    Well he was abducted by aliens and is now working in a fast food... oh, you didn't mean that one

    I'm not particularly fond of Kirk (you can shoot me now ), but I hate his death in Generation. Hey, killed in a fistfight at two against one crazed elderly scientist ? That would roughly be like Picard dying because of him mistakenly insulting a Klingon Official during a negociation.

    Basically, Kirk dying like he was thought to die in the beginning of Generation would have been more fitting IMHO - dying on board of the Enterprise while saving her crew and lots of innocents along, that would have been great. Otherwise, a heroic death not unlike the Captain in the episode with the Planet Killer (sorry to be that vague, but I guess you all see what I'm talking about), with Kirk ramming the Enteprise-A in some hideously big threat, would have been nice, if not overly original.
    Then again... maybe we could have had Kirk simply retiring and dying of old age among his friends and family. Would be at least a change, as most Trek characters seem to be either ageless or suffering a violent death.
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  3. #3
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    Kirk isn't dead. Go and read the Shatner Star Trek novels

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    "Bridge on the Captain!"

    Sorry, I know it's old, but I just couldn't resist

    The death is quite fine by my book. One thing I would change, though, had I the power, would be a death aboard the Enterprise, surrounded by his crew. I thought this was a lonely death for such an iconic character - far from his friends and ship - but that's also what makes it dramatic.

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  5. #5
    Mysterious disappearance. Duh.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King View Post
    Mysterious disappearance. Duh.
    ...while doing something heroic and self-sacrificial, and involving a really hot scantily-clad alien chick.
    + &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;<

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  7. #7
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    In my game, he was killed by a Romulan grenade (ca. 2370) just before beaming up from the Guardian of Forever's world in 2267...
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  8. #8
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    Oh, that's easy.

    The same way I plan on going out...

    "Go! GO!!!"

    Alone, surrounded by hundreds of swarming enemy troops... holding out just long enough for his comrades-in-arms to make it safely out of range...

    Just as they overwhelm his position, our hero delivers one last, spit-in-death's-eye epithet...

    "You're irrelevant, you cosmic %$#@*&%s."

    ... and detonates the Killeveryoneonium Device.

    Boom. Boom-boom-boom. Boom-boom. BOOM!
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  9. #9
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    Honestly...I would have had him "die alone", as he anticipated in STV. With a history like his, it's always something stupid, like slipping in the shower.

    Better would have been shot in the back in STVI as he saves the president at Khitomer, giving his final speech dying in his comrades' arms.

  10. #10
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    As I see it, Kirk really only had 2 options for how he'd die.

    1) Doing something gloriously heroic. Whether he was ramming a ship down the throat of the planet-killer, or just holding the pass so everybody else could reach the beam-out coordinates, Kirk was trying one heroic risky action too many, and went down saving others.

    2) Old age. Despite his best efforts at glorious suicidal risk-taking, Kirk finally got too old to be allowed to command a ship. Deprived of the only thing in his life that ever really made him feel alive (and young), he starts to wither.

    Either way, Kirk should die alone, just as he predicted. And we should see that, in the end, he realizes that dying alone isn't as bad as he had feared, and he embraces it when the time comes.
    Which gives the option for a poignant scene if you go with the "wither away" option: Kirk dies alone, in a hospital bed, and then we pan back to see that just outside the room, grieving, are Uhura and Sulu and Spock and McCoy and Scotty and Chekov. So, Kirk thought he was dying alone, and was okay with that, but the audience sees that he wasn't alone, and he died surrounded by his family.
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  11. #11
    Just as filmed, makes him more human.

    On a godforsaken planet, trying to fight gravity, and blood loss.

    Not on his ship, since he's shown ships are expendable.

    People aren't and his loss to The Federation is incalculable.

    I thought it was great, thematically, story wise, all of it.
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  12. #12
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    I like spyone's thoughts on Kirk's demise, so here goes an attempt to blend the 2 options:

    Kirk retires. Does the gentleman rancher thing in Iowa for a while. Then one day, some threat appears, something that only he can deal with (the V'ger/Decker composite, or maybe his friend that got god-like powers for example...but I guess someone could just make something up for the story: something off the books that he would understand) and SF calls him up to take up the sword one more time.

    Eventually he finds himself thrust into a command situation. Finally, it is Kirk's spirit (as it always is), no the guns of a Starship, that sway the battle. After giving one of his speeches, and the threat is gone, he collapses on the bridge.

    He's taken to sick bay, where his friends all gather around him. In the end it's just Kirk and Spock/McCoy, and something happens that gets Kirks friend out of the room, and when they return, Kirk is dead. (or, rip off Stargate and have him Ascend!). Cue dramatic music and then funeral montage.
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  13. #13
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    I didn't read the resurrection books, so I don't know how they handled it, but, in Generations, Guinan said that part of her remained in the Nexus (and, didn't that part of Guinan have a conversation with Picard inside the Nexus itself?).

    Somehow, that piece of Kirk left behind in the Nexus somehow escapes. Perhaps he comes to his senses, realizing again his last, best destiny, and it gives him the strength necessary to remove himself from the paradise. He steps onto the bridge of a civilian vessel chartered by Spock himself, because the Vulcan could feel Jim "tugging at their bond."

    Given the strangeness of the Nexus, it certainly is within the realm of possibility that Kirk is "resurrected" in this way. Of course, it would be a complete surprise to everyone in the Federation -- especially those who have seen the gravesite on Veridian III.

    With a renewed lease on life, I could see him using his legendary status to get up to speed on modern technology, get a command, and get back out into space. Who knows, maybe he even finds a way to get Picard promoted and get the Enterprise for himself!

    On killing him, I think the way things were presented in Generations was fine. I don't think it was necessary to kill him at all, to be honest; it didn't really add to the story. I think Kirk is the type of character who, despite his attempts at suicide by heroics, would somehow survive everything and face the one obstacle he truly fears...old age. I think he'd become some form of mercenary adventurer, just for the adrenaline rush, and do that until his body just couldn't perform anymore.

    Then, I could see him find some nice ocean on an out-of-the-way planet, and live on a sailing ship, alone, until either time or the sea claimed him. Not heroic, I know, but heroics alone couldn't kill him...he's tried, you know.
    Davy Jones

    "Frightened? My dear, you are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe! I was petrified."
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sea Tyger View Post
    Then, I could see him find some nice ocean on an out-of-the-way planet, and live on a sailing ship, alone, until either time or the sea claimed him. Not heroic, I know, but heroics alone couldn't kill him...he's tried, you know.
    I'm with SeaTyger on this one.

    Kirk needn't be killed.

  15. #15
    His heart eaten by Kor.
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