Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3’s Finale – “New Life And New Civilizations”Lt. Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) shared a mind-meld in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s finale, yet the Vulcan Science Officer withheld a great deal of vital, personal information from his future best friend.
Spock suggested a mind-meld with Kirk so that they could act in perfect unison when firing the USS Enterprise and USS Farragut’s phasers at Skygowan. Kirk and Spock’s coordinated phaser blast opened a portal that allowed Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) and Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) to defeat the Vezda (Chris Myers).
At the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s finale, a triumphant Kirk and Spock dedicated themselves to their newfound friendship over a game of 3D chess. Spock teased Kirk about his knowledge of Jim’s questionable past behavior on Orion’s second moon.
Kirk, in turn, horrified Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) because James knows all about her dance lessons with Spock, which led to their romance blooming. To La’an’s chagin, Kirk joked his memory is “like a steel trap.”
Still, whatever Kirk learned about Spock from their mind-meld, the Vulcan’s expertise and mental discipline shielded a lot of crucial information from Jim. Despite their mind-meld, Kirk will not learn these significant details about Spock’s life until Star Trek: The Original Series.
5 Spock’s Broken Engagement To T’Pring
Lt. Commander Kirk learned nothing from their mind-meld about Spock’s broken engagement with T’Pring (Gia Sandhu). Spock and T’Pring were promised since childhood and engaged until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, “Charade.”
T’Pring called off her engagement to Spock, who immediately pursued a relationship (that has since ended) with Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Despite the frequency of Kirk’s visits to the USS Enterprise, Jim’s first time aboard came after T’Pring broke things off with Spock.
Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) won’t learn about T’Pring (Arlene Martel) being Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) betrothed for another half-dozen years after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
In Star Trek: The Original Series season 2’s “Amok Time,” Spock will be in the grip of pon farr and returns to Vulcan to face his fiancée. T’Pring will choose Kirk as her champion in the kal-if-fee ritual, where Spock will ‘kill’ Kirk and finally end his relationship with T’Pring for good.
4 Michael Burnham Is Spock’s Sister
From their mind-meld, Lt. Commander James T. Kirk doesn’t learn – and quite possibly never finds out – that Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is Spock’s sister. Star Trek: Discovery retconned Burnham as Spock’s adopted sister who grew up with him on Vulcan.
As First Officer of the USS Farragut, it’s likely that Kirk has heard of Michael Burnham, who was infamously Starfleet’s first mutineer, and was imprisoned during the Klingon War. Burnham redeemed herself and regained her rank as Commander, then is believed to have died at the Battle of Xahea in 2258.
Star Trek: The Original Series season 2’s “Journey to Babel” reveals how little Captain Kirk actually knew about Spock’s past. There is no reason why Kirk could ever connect Spock to Michael Burnham, and all of this information was never conveyed by Jim’s mind-meld with Spock.
3 The Truth About The USS Discovery
Directly tied to Michael Burnham, Lt. Commander James T. Kirk could not and did not learn the truth about the USS Discovery from his mind-meld with Lt. Spock.
According to Starfleet’s official records, the USS Discovery was destroyed with all hands at the Battle of Xahea, after successfully saving the galaxy from Control, Section 31’s rogue threat assessment A.I. that wanted to commit galactic genocide.
The truth, however, is that Commander Michael Burnham donned the Red Angel time suit and led the USS Discovery and her crew 930 years into the future, to prevent Control from gaining sentience, thus saving the 23rd century galaxy.
Lt. Spock and Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) redacted what really happened to the USS Discovery and Commander Burnham from Starfleet’s records, although Admiral Robert April (Adrian Holmes) did learn the truth.
Even when he becomes Captain of the USS Enterprise, however, Kirk has no reason to ever question the events of the USS Discovery’s ‘destruction,’ which has no relevance to him or his five-year mission, since he can’t connect Discovery to Spock.
2 Ambassador Sarek Is Spock’s Father
At the beginning of Star Trek: The Original Series season 2’s “Journey to Babel,” Captain Kirk meets Vulcan Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard) and his human wife, Amanda Grayson (Jane Wyatt), for the first time.
Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) are both stunned when Spock admits that Ambassador Sarek is his father. This is actually remarkable considering how famous both Spock and Sarek are within Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.
Since Kirk never found out about Spock’s personal life (besides La’an) from their mind-meld, Jim apparently never asked his best friend about his past and childhood on Vulcan. Or, if Kirk did, Spock was very careful about what information he disclosed.
Ambassador Sarek (James Frain) appeared in Star Trek: Discovery, but Spock’s father hasn’t appeared in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This maintains Star Trek canon that father and son are estranged over Spock’s decision to join Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.
Lieutenant Kirk also didn’t come aboard the USS Enterprise for the first time until after Amanda Grayson’s (Mia Kirshner) last appearance in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, “Charades.”
If Amanda or Sarek appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds seasons 4 or 5, it would have to be in an episode without Paul Wesley guest-starring as Jim Kirk to maintain Star Trek: The Original Series canon.
1 Sybok Is Spock’s Brother
Completing Captain Kirk’s complete ignorance of Spock’s family in spite of their mind-meld, Jim never learns about Spock’s older half-brother, Sybok (Lawrence Luckinbill), until Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 2287 – 26 years after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.
Sybok is the product of Ambassador Sarek’s love affair with a Vulcan princess. The brilliant Sybok lived with Sarek and Spock (and possibly Michael Burnham) for a time, before he left and embraced emotionalism instead of Vulcan logic.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 7, “The Serene Squall,” revealed that Sybok became a criminal named Xaverius who is being held in a Vulcan prison, with T’Pring as his warden. Sybok is also married to a space pirate named Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel).
Captain Kirk had no clue about Sybok being Spock’s half-brother until the Vulcan heretic hijacked the USS Enterprise in his mad quest to find God (George Murdock) on Sha-Ka-Ree, the fabled Eden beyond the Great Barrier at the center of the galaxy.