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Most people are familiar with the iconic James T. (Tiberius) Kirk from Star Trek. But in the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" a tomb stone is created for Kirk that shows his name as James R. Kirk.

Who was James R. Kirk and when did his name change?

Tombstone showing "James R. Kirk: C-1277.1 to 1313.7"

Mithical
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Xantec
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    He's the guy that kept getting James T. Kirk's mail. – Brian Ortiz Mar 28 '12 at 19:59
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    Captain of the Enterprise two parallel universes to the left? – DJClayworth May 27 '13 at 17:22
  • @BrianOrtiz you mean sub-space messages. –  Jul 05 '13 at 23:53
  • Okay. But, who reads tombstones? I mean seriously? Why were you looking at the tombstone instead of Kirk? – user931 Apr 09 '15 at 07:41
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    The text on the tombstone appears to be "JAMES R KIRK", followed by "C 1277.1 to 1818.7"; the second number is probably supposed to be 1313.7, which fits with the stardates in Kirk's log entries.. Assuming the "C" stands for "circa", this could be another indication of Gary's fallibility -- he didn't know when Kirk was born and had to guess. The range is 36.6 stardates, close to Kirk's age of 33 (we know he was 34 in The Deadly Years). The idea of 1 stardate = 1 year was obviously thrown out the airlock in later episodes. – Keith Thompson Oct 14 '16 at 23:40
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    Gary Mitchell was fallible. Either he made a mistake or he was mocking Kirk somehow. – Ham Sandwich Oct 15 '16 at 00:30

5 Answers5

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Straight from Memory Alpha:

According to D.C. Fontana in the introduction for Star Trek: The Classic Episodes 1, when the mistake over the middle initial was discovered, Gene Roddenberry decided that if pressed for an answer on the discrepancy, the response was to be "Gary Mitchell had godlike powers, but at base he was Human. He made a mistake."

Found in the article on Where No Man Has Gone Before and in the section on "Sets and Props".

Then the in universe explanation is that Gary Mitchell forget and the out of universe explanation is essentially Word of God, with the producers saying it's a mistake.

Tango
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    For supposedly having been such good friends with Kirk you would think he'd remember his middle initial. – Xantec Jan 27 '12 at 14:24
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    See my comment here about my learning disability. I can be talking to friends I've had for years and use the wrong name for them and I won't know it until they point it out. (Fortunately, that rarely happens unless I'm very tired because I've learned how to watch for that.) – Tango Jan 27 '12 at 17:52
  • Or he might've just made the K wrong. K and R are very alike after all. – Zibbobz May 02 '14 at 17:24
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    @Zibbobz: K would've been just as wrong as R. :) – Martha May 02 '14 at 17:37
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    @Martha ...Well, I'm only human too. <.< – Zibbobz May 02 '14 at 17:41
  • From the original script: Kirk: BWAHAHA - you got my middle initial wrong, dumbass. How do you not know this - we've been friends for like twenty years... – Chris B. Behrens Jul 10 '15 at 17:49
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    @ChrisB.Behrens: To which Mitchell replies, "No, the R is for Raunchy, you know, that really nasty nickname Ruth gave you at the Academy when she found out you were two-timing her? Yes, my old friend. The ultimate burn, right there on your tombstone." – Tango Jul 10 '15 at 19:23
  • @Xantec: "For supposedly having been such good friends with Kirk you would think he'd remember his middle initial." - I know Star Trek is generally modelled after nowadays' U.S. culture, but note that nowadays, middle initials are just "not a thing" in various cultures, so it is well conceivable they have lost importance for some people in the 23rd century, as well. – O. R. Mapper Jan 12 '17 at 21:48
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James R Kirk is in fact James T Kirk. The out of universe explanation is that in that episode, there was a production goof. The in universe explanation is that the man who created that tombstone, Gary Mitchell, must have misremembered Kirk's middle initial. Everywhere else in The Original Series, he's referred to as James T Kirk.

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Other answers include that "James R. Kirk" was an in-joke between them (the "My Brother's Keeper" novel series), or that "James R. Kirk" was an alternate-timeline version of "James T. Kirk" (Q-Squared). Peter David had run with the idea that the slightly different uniforms and careers (Physicist Sulu?) of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" represented a parallel universe (called "Track A").

Explanations that the uniforms had changed soon after "Where No Man..." are contradicted by Kirk and Helen Noel's uniforms in flashback during "Dagger of the Mind".

gnome
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This episode was the second pilot for the series. The first pilot, "The Cage," was rejected by NBC. It was more than a year before it actually aired. By then, numerous changes had been made to the characters, storyline, costumes, and appearance of the Enterprise. I have heard that for the Blu-Ray release they actually considered changing the "R." to a "T," but decided against it. This is only one of many plot contradictions, errors, and continuity problems that appeared throughout the series' three year run.

Christopher Jay Campbell
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One interesting possible answer to this question can be drawn from a reference in one of the original line of Star Trek novels (which, albeit generally considered non-canon, where often written by people close to the original productions and may give some insight into original plans that were dropped, etc).

In this case, the novel is The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold, which includes a section explaining that "Tiberius" is not part of Kirk's given name, but instead is a nickname that was given to him by one of his Academy instructors and which he later officially adopted in order to remind himself of that instructor's lessons.

If this is accepted as true, then it leaves open the possibility that "R" was the initial of an original middle name that he dropped when adopting the nickname.

Jules
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