Top 5 Favorite Captain Kirk Bluff's

Part one of my five part series talking about how awesome the captain's of Star Trek are. Today we start with the main man himself!

Captain Kirk was known for being awesome! Well ok he was known for other things. Like being a horn dog. And the way he would lecture computers until they blew up. But today I want to talk something else awesome about him. One of his best character traits was the way he would outthink his way out of a situation. He never believed in a no win scenario, and it shows. Some of his bluff's and con's are just classic. Only James Kirk could pull these things off. Snatching victory away just when it appeared all was lost.



So today I am looking at my five favorite moments when Kirk tricked his way out of a hopeless situation by outthinking the villain.



#5.The Corbomite Manuever
 

The first and best Kirk bluff. This set a standard which defined his character. It was so clever it was even used again in "The Deadly Years". The set up is pretty straight forward. The alien ship Fesarius is threatening to destroy the Enterprise in ten minutes. Kirk then messages the ship informing them that the Enterprise has a corbomite device installed. If Balok destroys them their ship will be cripples. It's really a brilliant bluf. Then they wait what seemed like an eternity to see if Balok bought it......
Check it out HERE. This is a link to the whole episode just an fyi.












#4.Kirk outthinks Khan from Star Trek II
 

This movie has so many great moments we could be here all day. One of my favorites is how Kirk outthinks Khan just when it looks like he will win during their first battle. Khan is expecting Kirk to send him all the information on Genesis. Instead they dig up the prefix code for the Reliant. This allows the Enterprise to lower the dhields, and blow them away! Fantastic moment among many fantastic moments in this movie.By the way you may wonder why it's so high on my list. I have talked before about how young I was when I saw this, and so many things went over my head. This sceen was one, it took me awhile to appreciate it.
see it HERE






#3.Fizzbin from A Piece of the Action
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes the Kirk bluff isn't a moment of suspense, it's actually played for laughs. This is a weird episode, at least compared to others. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy arrive on a planet which very closely resembles Chicago of the 1920's. The whole planet is run like the mob under Al Capone, with bosses and hits on the street. At one point the three are stuck in a warehouse being gaurded by three men. In order to get out, Kirk deceives one of the henchman with an absurd card game he claims he knows. The scene is played for laughs, and I love how William Shatner plays it. Goofy but no so goofy that he goes out of character. It's a great little moment. The distraction works and they three escape.
see it HERE

 

 

 
#2.Defeating the Orions from Journey to Babel
 

This is one of my favorite episodes. I talked about it once before when I claimed the Telarite villain Thelev was one of the series best. But there are other great things in the show. The stuff with Spock and his parents of course, but I also love how Kirk outwits the Orions during the space battle. The ship is taking a pounding and things don't look good. Just then he cuts the power in the ship so they look dead. This causes the Orions to move in, and at the right moment he tells Chekov to fire ohasers! One shot does it, The Enteprrise wins! Great episode and one of my favorite space battles. .
SEE IT HERE




A tie sort of for #1 because it's the same trick:






#1/A Kirk Threatens to Destroy the Enterprise from Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
 

 

 

Season three wasn't all bad. One of the best moments of the series came from one episode called Let That Be Your Last Battefield when he bluffs the alien Belle to release control of the ship, or he will destroy it. The self destruct scene is played very serious with close ups and reaction shots with tense music. The scene is very strong and Belle breaks just at the last second. Kirk is the epitomy of the old expression "never let them see you sweat" in this scene
See it here




Of course this destruct sequence was used again in an even stronger moment....






#1/B.Destroying the Enterprise from Star Trek III
 

 

"No tricks Kirk!"

I loved that line, you know by this point Kirk was well known for his tricks and Kruge actually acknowledges it. The Klingons are supposed to board the Enterprise while Kirk and his crew go to the Klingon ship. Of course when he and the crew switch places with the Klingons, he fails to let them know that he had in fact set the self destruct. Or that they were in fact beaming to the planet. The scene where they set the self destruct and destory the Enterorise is fantastic! And Kruge's reaction when he puts it together is priceless! Oh and you'll notice the detsruct sequence used is the same as the episode above. Nice!!!


I think that in some ways the desteuction of the Enterprise was even more profound for Kirk then Spock's death. Not that Spock;s death didn't affct Kirk, hardly, but Spock did not die directly because of Kirk's actions. Spock did what he did on his own choice. In Search for Spock, Kirk is directly responsible for the Enterprise being destroyed. Kirk has to accept, as McCoy points out, that he had to sacrifice the thing he loved more than anything to give the rest of them a reason to live. This is actually explored more in the comics and novels set around this movie. For once, he didn't cleanly bluff his way oit of a sitation there was a price. His ship, and his son. Sarek points this out at the end of the film and Kirk confesses had he not tried to rescue his friend, the price would have been his soul. There is some great Kirk stuff in this movie even it it isn't Wrath of Khan.


SEE IT HERE








What else can I say? Kirk was awesome!