Ever since William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk first appeared in , he has become one of science fiction's most recognizable and beloved characters. Over the course of Star Trek's three seasons, Kirk had incredible adventures as Captain of the USS Enterprise. Although Leonard Nimoy's Spock became arguably even more popular than his captain, neither character would be the same without the other. with Paul Wesley bringing new life to the character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: The Original Series, however, undoubtedly made Captain Kirk who he is, and Kirk stars in many of the show's most iconic moments. William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk not only led three seasons of television but also starred in seven feature films, Captain Kirk's dynamic with Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) helped make Star Trek such a phenomenon and is a big part of the reason why TOS remains popular even today. Here is Kirk at his best in Star Trek's TV series and movies.

William Shatner does double duty in "The Enemy Within," portraying two different versions of Captain Kirk. When one "good" and one "evil," the evil Kirk wreaks havoc on the Starship Enterprise. The evil Kirk masquerades as his counterpart, ordering the crew to abandon a landing party on the surface of the planet below.

The good Kirk eventually convinces his other half that they both need each other, and they are sent through the transporter and restored. but his performance remains iconic and it mostly works thanks to the premise of the episode. Evil Kirk's attempted assault of Yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) and Spock's uncharacteristic "joke" regarding the assault are the only black marks on an otherwise solid episode.

In "Amok Time," Kirk grows concerned when Spock begins behaving strangely, eventually prompting the Vulcan to reveal that he is undergoing pon farr and must return to Vulcan. Despite orders to travel to Altair VI, Kirk and Dr. McCoy travel to the surface to attend Spock's wedding, but Spock's fiancée T'Pring (Arlene Martel) demands the kal-if-fee ritual and chooses Kirk to fight Spock.

During the fight, McCoy secretly injects Kirk with a neuroparalyzer that makes him appear dead. but Kirk gets some great moments, too. The fight between Kirk and Spock remains one of Star Trek's most memorable battlesand the whole episode is a great exploration of the pair's iconic friendship.

The courtroom drama has become a staple of the Star Trek franchise, and "Court Martial" stands as one of the show's earliest examples. When Captain Kirk is court-martialed and accused of purposely ejecting a research pod containing Lt. Commander Benjamin Finney (Richard Webb), he faces a court-martial. when the Enterprise computer seems to contradict the captain's version of events, but Spock soon realizes the computer may have been tampered with.

In the end, it's revealed that Finney orchestrated the entire thing as a way to get back at Kirk for a slight from years before. As Kirk and Finney had been friends at Starfleet Academy, Throughout the episode, Kirk stands firm in the knowledge that he did nothing wrong and is ultimately vindicated even as he laments the loss of his friend's sanity.

In hindsight, "Space Speed" is most remembered as the episode that introduces the genetically enhanced tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán). But the episode is a great vehicle for Captain Kirk as well. with all passengers kept in suspended animation. Upon waking, Khan almost immediately returns to his tyrannical ways and attempts to take over the Enterprise.

Khan seduces Enterprise historian Lt. Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue), and although she initially helps him, she later frees Kirk, allowing him to take back his ship. With his intelligence and cunning, Khan remains one of Kirk's greatest adversaries. which Kirk only wins because he uses a makeshift club to knock Khan out. In the end, Kirk strands Khan and his people on the desolate Ceti Alpha V, a decision that will come to haunt the Enterprise captain years later.

In one of Star Trek's funniest episodes, Captain Kirk and his crew visit a planet whose society is based on an Earth book entitled Chicago Mobs of the Twenties. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy get caught up in a gang feud between Bela Okmyx (Anthony Caruso) and Jojo Krako (Victor Tayback). and Kirk eventually uses the Enterprise's weapons to show the gangsters how powerful his people are.

Kirk and Spock both don period-appropriate clothing, speak in classic exaggerated gangster accents, and ultimately help the two gangs overcome their differences. Kirk and Spock's initial confusion about their situation quickly turns into genuine enjoyment as they embrace their inner gangsters. From Kirk's attempt at driving a car (and Spock's trepidation about his driving) to his invented card game Fizzbinn, in "A Piece of the Action."

When the Enterprise faces off against a planet-killing doomsday machine, Captain Kirk must get creative to find a way to stop it. The Enterprise encounters the USS Constellation drifting in space, with the ship's commander, Commodore Matt Decker (William Windom), as the only surviving crew member. As the more senior officer, but his guilt and shock make him unfit to lead. As his final act, Decker steals a shuttlecraft and flies straight into the planet killer in a suicide run.

Although Decker's actions don't destroy the machine, Krik gets the idea to blow up the much larger Constellation within the planet killer to destroy it. and one of his best moments comes when he calmly requests to beam back to the Enterprise even as the Constellation is about to explode. It's an intense moment that illustrates Kirk's obvious faith in his crew, even if they sometimes cut things a little close.

In another hilarious episode of Star Trek, the USS Enterprise visits Deep Space Station K-7 to guard a shipment of grain. While there, the crew visit the station for shore leave, and some of the crew members get into a brawl with a Klingon crew. Meanwhile, that quickly multiplies into hundreds of Tribbles.

Worried that the Tribbles could threaten the grain, Kirk rushes to check on it only to be This scene has since become one of Star Trek's most iconic moments, and William Shatner proves once again that he has a talent for comedy. It's Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) who gets the last laugh, however, when he beams all of the Tribbles onto the Klingon ship.

When the Enterprise encounters a spherical ship from the First Federation, Commander Balok announces his intentions to destroy Captain Kirk's ship. that will destroy Balok's ship if he destroys the Enterprise. Kirk's bluff pays off, although Balok then tows the Enterprise with a tractor beam. Kirk breaks the Enterprise free but still answers the distress call from Balok's now-damaged ship.

Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and navigator Lt. Dave Bailey (Anthony Call) beam over to Balok's ship to discover that the intimidating being they saw on the Enterprise viewscreen was only a puppet. The real Balok (Clint Howard), who looks like a human child,speaking with the voice and intelligence of an adult. Kirk is at his most clever in "The Corbomite Maneuver" and the episode has everything that makes a great Star Trek episode.

"Errand of Mercy" introduces the Klingons, as who proves to be a worthy adversary for the Enterprise captain. In "Errand of Mercy," the Enterprise travels to Organia, a planet that lies on the border between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Kirk tries to convince the Organians that it would be better for them to ally with the Federation, but they refuse to get involved.

When Kor and the Klingons arrive, the Oraganians bow to their rule without complaint, despite Kirk's attempts to get them to rise up. The Organians eventually reveal themselves to be incredibly powerful incorporeal beings, and Kirk (and Shatner) always rise to the occasion when faced with a strong opponent played by a talented actor, and that is on full display here in all of Kirk's exchanges with Kor.

Star Trek's fourth feature film is also its most fun, as With a dangerous probe affecting Earth's power grid, the song of the extinct humpback whale is the only thing that can stop it. Kirk and his crew devise a plan to travel back in time in their captured Klingon Bird of Prey using a slingshot maneuver around the sun.

As Kirk and his crew hilariously try to navigate 1986 San Francisco, they encounter Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), who tells them of a pair of humpback whales that will soon be released back into the wild. All of the main Enterprise crew members get fun moments throughout Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but Kirk is clearly having fun throughout the film, and he's rarely been more charming.

In one of James T. Kirk's most recognizable moments, the Captain of the Enterprise goes head-to-head with a monstrous Gorn. After the Enterprise is attacked by an unknown foe,they pursue the attacking ship into an unexplored area of space belonging to a species called the Metrons. The Metrons send Kirk and the Gorn Captain to the surface of a nearby asteroid,

Kirk quickly learns that he cannot overpower the Gorn, so he expertly uses his surroundings to fend off the Gorn's attacks. In the end, Kirk ingeniously creates a makeshift cannon and severely wounds the Gorn. In a classic Star Trek ending, which impresses the observing Metrons. The Gorn may not look particularly frightening by today's standards, but the story at the heart of "Arena" holds up, and Kirk's decision to show mercy to the Gorn remains one of the captain's best moments.

Upon beaming back to the Enterprise from a mission, later known as Star Trek's Mirror Universe. Now aboard the Terran Universe ISS Enterprise, Kirk and his crew members try to blend in while they search for a way home. In the brutal Mirror Universe, every crew member wears a weapon at all times and promotions often happen because an officer kills his superior.

The Mirror Universe version of Spock, who sports a mustache and goatee, begins to suspect something is amiss with Captain Kirk and his friends. Before he leaves, Kirk urges Spock to take control of the Enterprise and strive for a better future. Spock sees the logic in Kirk's suggestion and agrees to think about it. as he quickly adapts to an entirely new reality and alters the course of that universe's future with a few words.

While investigating a sentient portal called the Guardian of Forever, a crazed Dr. McCoy runs through the portal into the past, drastically altering the future. After Kirk and Spock follow McCoy through the portal, As Kirk and Spock try to blend in while they search for McCoy, Kirk meets a soup kitchen operator named Edith Keeler (Joan Collins) and the two develop feelings for one another. What begins as one of Kirk's most realistic romances soon turns into his most heartbreaking.

Spock realizes that Edith must die to restore the proper timeline. Kirk and Spock prevent McCoy from saving Edith's life and return to their own time period where everything is as it should be. Kirk had numerous romances throughout his Star Trek career, but Shatner wonderfully portrays Kirk's anguish as he watches Edith die and then later beams back to his ship having been profoundly changed by the experience.

"Balance of Terror" remains one of Star Trek's finest hours, and that's largely due to William Shatner's performance as Captain Kirk and Mark Lenard's performance as a Romulan Commander. As the Enterprise explores along the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone, the ship is attacked by a ship equipped with a cloaking device. who look remarkably like Vulcans.

Kirk and the Romulan Commander then engage in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse that Kirk only barely wins. Before he sets his ship to self-destruct, the Romulan Commander laments that he and Kirk could have been friends had the circumstances been different. Again, remaining cool under pressure, shutting down the bigotry thrown at Spock, and offering to save the Romulan survivors even after they tried to destroy his ship.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has long been considered the best Star Trek has to offer, and for a good reason. Wrath of Khan perfectly builds on the story that began in "Space Seed," bringing back a vengeance-seeking Khan Noonien Singh. Wrath of Khan also gives Kirk the chance to reconnect with his former flame Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) and their now-adult son, David (Merritt Butrick), who are both scientists working on the Genesis Device. Although he cannot stop the former tyrant from activating the Genesis Device.

Ultimately, Spock sacrifices himself so that the Enterprise can escape Genesis explosion, saying goodbye to Kirk in one of Star Trek's most famous and heartwrenching scenes. From Kirk's sparring with Khan to his reunion with Carol and David to his final eulogy for Spock,Time and again, Kirk proves to be an excellent starship captain, a clever (and charming) strategist, and a good friend. It's no surprise, then, that his legacy has endured as long as it has, from the earliest days of to today, and likely far into the future.