Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in Star Trek serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise as captain.

[4][5] Kirk became the first and only student at Starfleet Academy to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking after he reprogrammed the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable.

Kirk became Starfleet's youngest starship captain after receiving command of the USS Enterprise for a five-year mission,[4] three years of which are depicted in the original Star Trek series.

[9] Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence's The Myth of the American Superhero describes Kirk as "a hard-driving leader who pushes himself and his crew beyond human limits".

[10] Terry J. Erdman and Paula M. Block, in their Star Trek 101 primer, note that while "cunning, courageous and confident", Kirk also has a "tendency to ignore Starfleet regulations when he feels the end justifies the means"; he is "the quintessential officer, a man among men and a hero for the ages".

[13]In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Admiral Kirk is Chief of Starfleet Operations, and he takes command of the Enterprise from Captain Willard Decker.

[4] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's novelization of The Motion Picture depicts Kirk married to a Starfleet officer killed during a transporter accident.

Although Kirk is demoted to Captain in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for disobeying Starfleet orders, he also receives command of the new Enterprise, the USS Enterprise-A (NCC 1701-A).

[16] Shatner has since written a series of novels featuring Kirk being brought back to life by a Borg-Romulan alliance to serve as an assassin against Picard, but he is restored to normal and returns to provisional active service in Starfleet, including opposing his Mirror Universe counterpart.

The series takes place in an alternate course of events known as the "Kelvin Timeline"[17] that reveal different origins for Kirk, the formation of his association with Spock, and how they came to serve together on the Enterprise.

[20] Although the film treats specific details from Star Trek as mutable, characterizations are meant to "remain the same"[21] though with Kirk being initially portrayed as "a reckless, bar-fighting rebel"[22] but who eventually matures.

Jeffrey Hunter played the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike, in the rejected Star Trek television pilot "The Cage".

[4] In developing a new pilot episode, called "Where No Man Has Gone Before", series creator Gene Roddenberry changed the captain's name to "James Kirk" after rejecting other options like Hannibal, Timber, Flagg and Raintree.

The character is in part based on C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower hero,[27] and NBC wanted the show to emphasize the captain's "rugged individualism".

[28] Roddenberry had previously used the middle name of Tiberius for the leading character in his earlier television series, The Lieutenant, which was to feature several actors who would later go on to be part of the production of Star Trek.

Jack Lord was Desilu Productions' original choice to play Kirk, but his demand for fifty-percent ownership of the show led to him not being hired.

[30] A comedy veteran, Shatner suggested making the show's characters as comfortable working in space as they would be at sea, thus having Kirk be a humorous "good-pal-the-captain, who in time of need would snap to and become the warrior".

[42] Both Shatner and test audiences were dissatisfied that Kirk was fatally shot in the back in the original ending of the film Star Trek Generations.

[43] An addendum inserted while Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories memoir was being printed expresses his enthusiasm at being called back to film a rewritten ending.

[48] In Star Trek (2009), screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci focused their story on Kirk and Spock in the movie's alternative timeline while attempting to preserve key character traits from the previous depictions.

[53] In preparing to play Kirk, Pine decided to embrace the character's key traits – "charming, funny, leader of men" – rather than try to fit the "predigested image" of Shatner's portrayal.

[55] Pine said he wanted his portrayal of Kirk to most resemble Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones or Han Solo characters, highlighting their humor and "accidental hero" traits.

According to Shatner, early Star Trek reviewers described his performance as "wooden", with most of the show's acting praise and media interest going to Nimoy.

[63] Slate described Shatner's depiction of Kirk as an "expansive, randy, faintly ridiculous, and yet supremely capable leader of men, Falstaffian in his love of life and largeness of spirit".

"[67] Although Roddenberry conceived the character as being "in a very real sense ... 'married' " to the Enterprise,[68] Kirk has been noted for "his sexual exploits with gorgeous females of every size, shape and type";[12] he has been called "promiscuous"[69] and labeled a "womanizer".

[80] Kirk has been the subject of a wide range of television spoofs that aired in many countries, including The Carol Burnett Show and KI.KA's Bernd das Brot.

in the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has become a pop culture icon in its own right, spawning internet memes and is widely parodied and paid tribute to.

[88][89] More recently, in the 2003 remix of 1998’s "That Don't Impress Me Much", Shania Twain puts forth Captain Kirk as one of the unattainable ideals to whom her unappealingly haughty suitor apparently thinks himself equal.

The series' creators feel that "Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest should be treated as 'classic' characters like Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings or even Hamlet, Othello or Romeo.

"[100] James Cawley played Kirk in most of the ten episode Phase II series from its beginning in 2004 before replacing himself with actor Brian Gross.