As part of my gig writing up news stories for the movie blog Spinoff Online, I wind up writing about a lot of the same movies over and over again. One such recent example is the sequel to J.J. Abrams’ 2009 sci-fi epic Star Trek that did the unthinkable in not only making Star Trek awesome to non-geeks but also deftly balanced old school continuity with a solid reboot. I was a fan of the first movie so much so that I own the DVD. With all this talk of the follow-up, I figured it would be a good time to watch the first flick again.

I had forgotten about the opening of the movie which features Captain Kirk’s dad George getting upgraded to Captain for a very short period of time. We discover as he does his best to keep the ship together and execute a mass evacuation that his pregnant wife is on board. George intends to escape with them, but discovers the auto pilot systems have been destroyed and need him to do it himself. George keeps his head together and, while his tenure as Captain is short, he saved hundreds of people, ultimately giving his life for them.

Man, I hope I don’t ever have to make a decision like that, but what an awesome man and dad George Kirk tunred out to be. Noble, honorable, strong, brave, what more can you want in a role model. Sure, his kid turned out to be kind of a hot head, but I think that he’s got potential.