We’ve seen some of the new Captain Kirk’s fighting sprit in some of the new trailers, and according to his Dossier, the new Kirk is an instructor in hand-to-hand combat. This all fits with grand Star Trek history, and so with that in mind, TrekMovie has taken a look back at the original Kirk fight moves in a little something we like to call: TrekMovie’s official guide to Kirk-Fu.
The Kirk Drop Kick
The name pretty much says it all. Kirk would kick an opponent in the chest with both of his legs. This may be an effective method of taking someone down, but it would often result in Kirk falling to the ground along with them.
The Wall of Destruction
Here’s the scene: The Captain and Andorian delegate Thelev, have resorted to duking it out in the halls of the Enterprise. But Kirk knows how to use the walls to his advantage, so instead of just attacking the alien head on, he uses the wall as a jumping off point to fling himself in the alien’s direction – though usually missing and just falling on the floor…
The Human Projectile
Let’s just say the rejected title for this one was the “throw-your-body-horizontally-into-a-group-of-opponents”. Again, this move results in the captain falling to the ground.
Bowling for Bad Guys
Here’s an interesting technique we stumbled upon while watching the TOS episode “The Apple”. I think the idea is to knock over your opponent by taking out their legs. This method used by Kirk is most interesting.
The Smooch n’ Smack
Captain Kirk plays it suave with the ladies in order to catch them off their guard and then smack em’ across the face. Good luck getting a second date there Captain Fabio.
The Cold Boulder
Classic moment where Kirk chucks a rock the size of his head at the The Gorn, which really only makes the giant lizard mad and ends up with Kirk dodging a boulder twice his size. Good thing the Captain is also a skilled geologist to get himself out of this one… Captain Kirk — YOU ROCK!
The Kirk Chop
Is there any dangerous situation that a 1960’s style karate chop can’t solve? One chop to the back of the neck… or side of the neck… or the general shoulder region… produces instant unconsciousness, but only in henchmen. While this was one of Kirk’s favorites, it was also a move utilized by much of the Enterprise crew. Here Bones’ shows that he has learned much from Sensei Kirk.
Fighting Advice from The Shat
Several months ago, William Shatner talked on his vlog about how to perform his signature drop kick. Check out the video below.
Captain Kirk, Master of Combat
Here’s a great video we snagged off of YouTube; it’s a nice compilation of some of our favorite fight scenes.
Star Trek 09 “Fighting Trailer”
In case you missed it, or just want to watch it again (and, who could blame you?) here is a video of the Star Trek TV showing off some new fight moves (this commercial was shown during WWE and UFC, so it has ‘fight’ all over it).
And I was Kirk Fu fighting!
One thing about the articles on this site – they are great fun !!!!
Thanks Kayla !!!
On this topic… I hope that the traditional Kirk fight music (as was played in Amok Time and many other episodes) is included in the score of the new movie.
***SPOILER***
……no Kirk-fu in ST09. :-(
***END SPOILER***
You forgot the best Kirk move of all…
…managing to keep that Tribble carcass from falling off his head in all those fight scenes!!!
Great Job, Kayla…
I will start my training immediately!
See what the “Wall of Destruction” will get you?
A knife right in the back. Smart move, Kirk-O!
Lol, awesome article! Thanks for the laugh.
Chuck Norris humbles himself before Shatner!!
Why doesn’t anyone thought about having a Kirk-Fu school? ^^
Haha! Great article.
kirk-fu ftw
Beautiful. Too beautiful.
#4-
Of course not. That would be fun and something for the fans to look forward to.
lol
“Everybody was Kirk-Fu fighting!
The Shat was fast as lightning!…” xD
Kirk-Fu is awesome and hilarious at the same time! I love it! :D
But…..no double fist punches and dropkicks in the new movie? Too bad xD xD xD
What about Kirk vs. Kruge scene – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkH4oN0OTec ? :D
I still think that hot female officer in the scene from “The Apple” wins for best fight moves….
Kirk/Shat is the man!!
my favourite fight scene is in ‘MIRI’ when spock holds the creature while Kirk wades into him (3 times!) giving him a right going over. i always wondered why they didnt phaser stun him or neck pinch him but who cares – it makes great TV.
long live Kirk- long live the shat
Greg
UK
ps looking forward to pines interpretation of the two handed clenched fist blow to the back. he aint Kirk without that!!
Unless I blinked, you left out Jimmy T. in his red tights showing Charlie how to absorb the energy from the floor. (He did a lot of absorbing in these clips.)
Great stuff!
So fun! I literally laughed out loud watching these clips.
C’mon… just ONE drop-kick in the new movie, as an in-joke for the fans? Please?
Great stuff!!!
Shatner could really fight though!!! He was a bonafied Steve McQueen like baddass who trained with some of the top Karate dudes in L.A.
Kirk Fu is one of the reasons why I think TV TOS should be completely forgotten. It’s the movies that made TOS great and famous, in my opinion.
And Roddenberry himself said when TMP came out that that’s actually how TOS should be.
When people are quoting TOS, they are mostly quoting TWOK with “Revenge is a dish served cold” or “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
You forgot my favorite move: the two handed back punch.
A close second was the fall on the floor, roll onto back, and kick the enemy in the abdomen with both legs.
Vulcan Nerve Pinch? Anyone?
LOL, my brother and I once decided to see if you really could knock someone out by simply hitting them is the back. I tried it… Believe me, it may work for kirk, but in the everyday world… Hehe my brother has anger management problems. He ended up hitting me across the head with a music stand instead of being busy unconscious.
#23 … How wrong you are.
LOVED the fight montage!!! OMFG!! Good to see my all time fav fight sequence of JT vs. that slime Finnegan from Shore Leave!
I may have missed it, but did that montage omit the fight scene of JT vs. Finney from Court Martial??? Another fav!
Loved the ‘wall move’ from Babel!!! Hilarious!!!
Squire of Gothos? Ugh! Worst episode! I’d rather watch 24hrs straight of Way to Eden AND Alternative Factor than that annoying Trelane! ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
27. Well that’s your OPINION. ;-)
Do you love those fights because they are good, or just because they are painfully awkward and you somehow get a kick out of that?
With reference 2 ‘The smooch and smack’….. KIRK IS A TOTAL PIMP!! XD Anyone agree with me?? Bring on the 8th of may!!
Great article Kayla! =D
…good “terminology”!
…but what about the two-handed chop / strike? Classic!
Heh. Great article.
FYI, the TV listings are showing the broadcast debut of “The Cage” for the weekend of 5/2, two weeks from now.
I don’t like these articles that make fun of TOS.
The TOS fight scenes were better than a lot of overblown, exaggerated fight scenes in movies and TV shows today. They were more realistic; they didn’t have cartoonish punching sounds added, they weren’t elaborately choreographed, they were more like real fights – they aren’t “perfect,” but they’re more like reality.
#29—-“Well that’s your OPINION.”
And mine too.
TOS is “the greatest of all time”.
24 – yeah! The double ax-handle! Always worked!
My personal favourite is the “clasp-hands double fist” punch!
One other thing — the James Blish novelizations identified the fighting style as “space karate”.
Oh, man, that’s some groovy shit here.
#38—-It sure was, and it’s still fun to watch.
The Shat doesn’t believe in God, God believes in The Shat!
#24 “It’s the movies that made TOS great and famous, in my opinion.”
,,and your opinion, in this case, would be wrong. TOS was brought back from the dead twice, by the millions that loved it. It was saved by fans, revered by fans, it created a syndicated sensation and turned into a mainstream marketing phenomenon for 10 years before the 1st motion picture ever graced the silver screen.
You’re certainly entitled to an opinion. But it ends when it begins to disregard fact. You can have the opinion that man landed on the moon in a spacecraft called Sputnik in 1953, but it would still be wrong.
And yeah, Kirk-fu rocks!
I’ll take my TOS with a side of cheese. Ha ha. I love TOS for it’s cheesiness. Perfection.
That was the best thing I’ve seen in awhile! LOL!
#23-29
As a fan, what did you see first?
movies, or TOS? Curious?
RE: Mr. X really tho??? What about “Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical but it is often true.” Or how how about “I canna change the laws of physics!” “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a (insert occupation, piece of machinery, and or any combination thereof) ” I’m not saying TOS was the epitome of 60’s TV but it is chock full of some great imminently quoteable dialog
#42—-Some of the episodes are so bad….they’re fantastic!
:)
“Worst Fight Scene Ever”??? More like “Best Fight Scene Ever”!
#45—Let’s put “Mr. X”‘s credibility in perspective.
“Where No Man Has Gone Before”
“Balance Of Terror”
“Space Seed”
“The City On The Edge Of Forever”
“Errand Of Mercy”
“The Menagerie, Part I”
“The Menagerie, Part II”
“Court-Martial”
“Amok Time”
“Friday’s Child”
“Arena”
“Journey To Babel”
“The Enterprise Incident”
“The Tholian Web”
“Mirror, Mirror”
Anyone who believes that the likes of these 15 great television episodes are best forgotten isn’t worth wasting time and effort to convince otherwise, IMO.
There is never any accounting for taste. Judging from his posts on another thread, he’s just bitter that Paramount isn’t doing another TNG movie right now.
This has to be one of my all time favorite threads/subjects ever started.
I think a really good one was missed. The Kirk-making-Colonel-Green-fall-on- his-own-knife move from “Savage Curtain. Right at the very end. Kirk runs down Green, and rather fittingly, and vengefully, and Kirk twists his arm behind his back and trips him backward on his own knife. Then the Klingon and Ghengis Khan turn tail and run then.
Also a killer one is Kirk triple chopping either side of Cloud Williams neck (That was a big part of 60’s hand to hand) in the cell of “Omega Glory”. They evidently taught that one on Gary Seven’s planet too. He beats Spock brutally. Captain Ron Tracy uses it that episode too. Why don’t people acknowledge that episode? I love it! Great episode and move. In fact,..a super, duper one in my opinion.
And to be fair….I always thought that move in “City On the Edge of Forever” should be attributed to McCoy as the ‘McCoy double ricochet chop. It was more a Harlan Ellison or cordrazine (maybe those are both the same thing) induced move.
I always felt the Kirk move against the Air Force guys when he throws his whols body against all of them was drawn and choreographed by Jack Kirby.
Two more honorable mentions are the Decker pounding of the lower spine after doing a groovy stubbly, homeless looking old man, dance with the security guy.
And lastly…everyone talks about the Kirk dropkick (I even used one successfully against a kid on the way home from school in 4th grade. Never bothered me again- true story) – but no one talks about the action afterwards. The Kirk-pounding-the-spine-into-dust move after the drop kick. We used to love that as kids. Never saw anything that cool on TNG.
* a cross over move on different planets and centuries seems to be Khan’s two thumbs behind the ears knock out method that Tongo Rad employed also. (Groooooovy mood. Another one we used to do as kids.
And no—I didn’t forget any. I was just making a short list. I could easily add at least 5 more I would put on the same level.
:)