No Captain Kirk in Star Trek Online

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 February, 2009

It just wouldn't make historical sense.

Bad news for William Shatner's legions of fans - Captain Kirk is not set to appear in forthcoming MMO Star Trek Online.

That's according to executive producer Craig Zinkievich, who was speaking to MTV Multiplayer. When asked if we might see Kirk resurrected for the game he replied, "You probably will not."

Zinkievich continued, "I think you’ll see events and settings, and relatives of the known characters. But we’re in the future where the majority of the known characters have passed on."

Does the same go for Dr. Spock, then? Well, Leonard Nimoy did help Cryptic Studios to promote the game last August, and it looks like he'll have more to do with it in the future.

"We're going to continue to work with him," said Zinkeivich. "We've been in contact with a number of people who have been involved with the franchise, and it's really cool to talk to those guys."

Star Trek Online is currently in development for PC only, with a release date yet to be announced.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • jaluuk #1 3 years ago

    Let's face it, Kirk was a hammy git.

    Or has he may put it

    kirk WAS a HAMmy GIT

    So long, sucka!

    (p.s first post, marry me Ellie!)
    Edited by 2 at 16/02/09 @ 09:02

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    Apparently this is 50 years after TNG according to one of EGs posters (can't remember who sorry) so Kirk is long dead anyway.

    I hate MMOs but a big enough ST geek to buy this just to try it, it looks interesting. Although if Star Trek invades my life any more Mrs bad09 my divorce me!

    / contemplates DS9 Starfleet uniform

    Oh and on the subject of Kirk guys, the original first series is coming to blu in April \o/

  • bad09 #3 3 years ago

    / fights jaluukto the death in a very fake and camp fashsion

    / jumps in a bird of prey flies around the sun, therefore going back in time - obviously.

    / fights jaluukto the death in a very fake and camp fashsion AGAIN and shouts "Kirk rules!"

  • DFawkes #4 3 years ago

    Of course there's no Kirk, what would anyone expect? It's furthur in the future, and he's dead anyway! You can't just say "He's a Vulcan and lives ages" or "He's travelling through time", he's human and too deceased for time travel.

    I'll be all over this game on release. I'm determined to be the best player on this site at it. I'll sit in my chair at home, peeing in my pants if necessary, and grinding for Credits, Crew XP and tech items until I pass out.

  • Waffleaber #5 3 years ago

    Yes because there's never been any time travel/historical simulations in Star Trek.

    Go on, put Shatner in and give him a song.

  • DFawkes #6 3 years ago

    Well, song might be the wrong word. Play some backing music as he just reads the world off an auto-cue. Do Firestarter.

  • bad09 #7 3 years ago

    "Go on, put Shatner in and give him a song. "

    \o/

  • Dizzy #8 3 years ago

    Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

  • BigE0n #9 3 years ago

    KHANNNNNNNNNN T!

  • DFawkes #10 3 years ago

    One word: Holodeck. Use that, you can have missions where you replay pretty much anything from Trek history. Including a mission where you have to shout "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! " into the microphone to win. And Win is what that mission would be made of.

  • tomjoadsghost #11 3 years ago

    Isnt a shame that we have to live in a world where adherence to canon demands that we cant pretend that generations, first contact and Nemesis just didn't happen.


    apart from anything else Kirk deserved an epic death, not a fatal mishap.

  • DFawkes #12 3 years ago

    I liked Generations, First Contact and Nemesis. I do agree that Kirk deserved more though, though he did die saving millions ofl people. That has to count for something.

  • Kazzahdrane #13 3 years ago

    @tomjoadsghost:

    Generations? Bit poor, but fun.
    Nemesis? Too talky and not very Star Trek-ish. Pretty poor.


    First Contact? Best Trek movie.

    /is only in his 20s so doesn't have much nostalgia for Kirk & Co.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #14 3 years ago

    Star Treks Spock isn't a Dr.

    He is a Mr.

    This guy is Dr. Spock ([link url=http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock)
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Sp...[/link]

    /Strips Ellie of geek credentials.

  • sneetch #15 3 years ago

    I'm planning on making a green skinned female character with a revealing dress and I'm fully expecting that by the end of the newbie zone Kirk will beam in, shag her, leap into the air double kicking some random passer by in the chest before beaming out.

    If this doesn't happen then this is simply not a realistic portrayal of the Star Trek universe.

  • DFawkes #16 3 years ago

    If the random passer by is wearing a red shirt, the double kicking will cleave him in half.

  • Dizzy #17 3 years ago

    Does this mean our character cannot have ripped clothes?

  • viper_h #18 3 years ago

    I accept all Star Trek television and movies as canon up to the end of DS9. This means I discount season 6 & 7 of Voyager, and Star Trek Nemesis. So Data's not dead, Voyager didn't get home with its goody bag of overpowered Borg-slaying torpedoes, and some 7 year old out-of-date holographic doctor hasn't "cured" assimilation.

  • DFawkes #19 3 years ago

    Although I disagree and love pretty much all Trek, there is one thing I'd erase from Nemesis - Admiral Janeway. "Admiral" fucking Janeway. Picard works his shiny head off, saves the entire galaxy in the TNG finale, saves our race more than once, does a long mission with plenty of hard captaining work for years, and gets nothing.

    Some bint gets lost, comes home, Admiral. They can fuck off with that.

  • Mawich #20 3 years ago

    The only rational explanation I can find for Picard's lack of Godhood is that he refused the promotion... or Starfleet Command is practising positive discrimination, and so Picard gets passed over due to being a white male human.

  • DFawkes #21 3 years ago

    "You want to make me an Admiral? Very nice of you, but then I'd be Admiral Picard. As in AP. Armour Points. I don't want to be Armour Points!"

    Only explanation.

  • LiamK #22 3 years ago

    "I accept all Star Trek television and movies as canon up to the end of DS9."

    You can make up your own definitions of "canon" as much as you want. It won't do anything, but if it makes you happy.

  • iokthemonkey #23 3 years ago

    It would be quite cool if during the tutorial you got the Kobiashi Maru test.

  • DFawkes #24 3 years ago

    I'd blow that fucker out of the sky. Or space.

    It would be cool if you could actually pass it, like if you have Computer Bypassing skill up so far you can make it doable, or if you have a high enough Diplomacy skill you can stop the ships attacking. There is a lot of scope in the game for general awesomeness, though keeping it accessible will be key.

  • Hermiod #25 3 years ago

    "Doctor" Spock ?

  • DFawkes #26 3 years ago

    To late Hermoid, JohnnyWashnGo caught that one :p

  • sneetch #27 3 years ago

    I'm always wary of Sci-fi MMOs as so often they're "standard" fantasy MMOs crammed into a space setting. The ship combat sounds interesting but how will the surface/starbase stuff work? Are we gonna beam down into a field and kill 20 level 2 Cardassian Brutes (that are wandering about aimlessly) so we get an update for our [Training Phaser]?

    If we see the following then I'm definitely out "/trade LF crafter with 300 "Polarity Reversing" skill capable of making [Siderian Shifting Phaser] have mats will pay 200 gold pressed latinum!" ;)

  • Jimbob89 #28 3 years ago

    @DFawkes
    Look at it this way, Janeway survived 7 years in unkown territory, 100's of first contacts, defeated the borg and numerous other hostile aliens, all with no back up and coming back home with a perfect ship. It was only right they made her an Admiral in my opinion.

  • DFawkes #29 3 years ago

    I'm okay with that, but why isn't Picard one? I think he's earned it. Sure, Janeway has also potentialy saved humanity from a bunch of stuff, but you can't deny Picard deserves it. It's not even like he'd retain rank to keep his ship, I was under the impression Admirals get to chose the ship (line Riker said in "All Good Things";).

    I won't take away what Janeway did. But here outranking Picard is frankly balls.

  • viper_h #30 3 years ago

    Maybe Picard's a risk, having been assimilated by the Borg and all...

    Oh wait, no... Janeway was assimilated too with no side effects whatsoever. Whoops.

  • kangarootoo #31 3 years ago

    "he's human and too deceased for time travel"

    That is a great line, and probably versatile enough to use in quite a few situations.

  • TriggerHippie #32 3 years ago

    Nonsense. The guy travels the galaxy fist fighting dudes in rubber suits and banging alien chicks. Historical sense? *PUNCH* "Now.....WHERE....diiiiiiid....thathotgreenchickgo?&quo t;

    Stick your prime directive and PC bollocks up your singularity. THIS dude is what the game should be about! :D

    Edit: Myyyy......spellingwasbad.
    Edited by 2 at 16/02/09 @ 16:11

  • bu5hhead #33 3 years ago

    DENNY CRANE !!! Blame it on the mad cow

  • bad09 #34 3 years ago

    "Isnt a shame that we have to live in a world where adherence to canon demands that we cant pretend that generations, first contact and Nemesis just didn't happen.


    apart from anything else Kirk deserved an epic death, not a fatal mishap. "

    Oi! FC rocks top ST movie!

    Nemesis was..interesting...

    Generations was OK but more like a double episode of TNG not a movie. I like Kirk's double death, kind of noble - he dies in sacrifice of the ship, finds out he's in paradise then leaves to fight the good fight again...and dies for real :(

    Although he could have done this in the end....