Star Trek: Kirk's Best Friends

The world of Star Trek continues to evolve from its humble roots as one of the earliest sci-fi shows on television to a pop culture juggernaut that includes movies, shows, video games, and books. Despite the dated look of the original shows, fans still have a lot of love for the vintage series and the characters that it introduced, hence the many Star Trek spin-offs and reboots decades later.

James T. Kirk may have died an admiral, but he lived his life as the Captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series and was one of the show's main protagonists. It wasn't just about the new worlds and life that Kirk explored or the enemies he defeated, but the friends that he made along the way.

Updated March 23, 2024, by Kristy Ambrose: Now that the Star Trek franchise is a few decades old, there have been a few different interpretations of James Tiberius Kirk, but his close friends tend to stay the same. They're often found on the bridge of the Enterprise, but they also have their own adventures throughout the galaxy as they boldly go where no one has gone before. The legacy of Captain Kirk's best friends lives on in modern TV shows, where new actors have taken on these iconic roles and brought them into the 21st century.

apollo green hand grabbing the enterprise, kirk with tribbles, pike in a green shirt

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9 Gary Mitchell

College Buddies

Introduced:Star Trek: The Original Series, S1 E3, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
Played by: Gary Lockwood

The third-ever Star Trek episode shows its age when it comes to the old costumes and cheap sets, but this episode still manages to convey some real suspense and horror despite the rudimentary effects. After encountering a space anomaly, Kirk's old friend from his Academy days loses his carefree attitude and starts to evolve into something malevolent.

Gary lets some information slip about Kirk's early days as a student, revealing the dashing captain might have gone through an awkward phase and was considered by his classmates to be a nerd and a bookworm. This makes his personality change even more terrifying and the stakes for Kirk even higher when he has to decide the fate of an old friend.

8 Hikari Sulu

Head Of Security, Fellow Captain, Friend In Need

Sulu drinks tea on the deck of the Excelsior Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country

Introduced:Star Trek: The Original Series, S1 E1, "The Man Trap"
Played by: George Takei; John Cho

Sulu was one of the new characters added to the cast after the initial pilot. He was an acting Helmsman along with being the Head of Security, which meant that he spent most of his time on the bridge. Eventually, he rose through the ranks to become a Captain himself, and in the last movie to feature the TOS cast, his ship was the USS Excelsior, the first starship to have a trans-warp drive.

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Almost every one of Kirk's harebrained schemes hinged on Sulu's participation and planning, and they became closer as the series progressed. It was partly because of Sulu's security connections that Kirk was able to search for Spock. Later on, Sulu's arrival at the last minute in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country not only saved the former Captain of the Enterprise, but all of Starfleet.

7 Tyree Of The Hill People

A Brother From Another Mother

Tyree Of The Hill People a Private LIttle War Star Trek TOS

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, S2 E16, "A Private Little War"
Played by: Michael Whitney

Some kids go on canoe trips or hikes in the woods, but a young James Kirk trained for survival on the planet Neural, and it's a good thing he made some friends during his visit because they would save his life when he returned 13 years later. Kirk lived as one of the Hill People, and he and Tyree lived together as a family and formed a strong bond.

Kirk recognizes his friend and saves him from an ambush years later, and the attackers are using flintlocks, weapons that they should not know how to develop. It's a Class M planet, and similar to Earth, but the inhabitants never got past the basic hinter-gatherer stage of human civilization. Kirk is suspicious about the Klingon involvement, proves to be correct, and loses his friend over it.

6 Christopher Pike

Mentor And Colleague

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, Pilot Episode, "The Cage"
Played by: Jeffrey Hunter

In The Original Series, Kirk knew Pike fairly well, and it could have been inferred that they were close friends along with having a great deal of mutual respect as colleagues. In the Kelvin timeline, this relationship is deepened with Pike in the position of a mentor and family friend who persuades Kirk to join Starfleet.

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"The Man Trap" was eventually remade as "The Cage," which was a two-part episode that was intended to tie up the Christoper Pike storyline. In modern versions of Star Trek, Pike is no longer an obscure reference, appearing as a supporting character in several episodes of Discovery and as a lead character in Strange New Worlds.

5 Montgomery Scott

The True Saviour Of The Starship Enterprise

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, S1 E3, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
Played by: James Doohan

More commonly known as Scotty to his friends and coworkers, he was the "miracle worker" who made sure that when Kirk's ego wrote a check, the Enterprise had the force and power to cash it. This was something the captain always recognized, and he stuck his neck out for the engineer several times.

Scotty was introduced in the same episode as Kirk's old college friend Gary but was lucky not to suffer the same fate. Sometimes, it's safer to be down in Engineering. He appears again in the Kelvin timeline, where his character is just as dismissive of authority but also protective of the Enterprise as he is in the classic show. He also makes cameo appearances in The Next Generation and Strange New Worlds.

4 Nyota Uhura

A Trusted Crewmate And Talented Officer

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, Pilot Episode, "The Cage"
Played by: Nichelle Nichols; Zoe Saldaña; and Celia Rose Gooding

The Communications Officer might be the most important position on the bridge, so the relationship between them and the captain, along with everyone else on the bridge, is an important one. It requires a level of trust and understanding that goes beyond simple friendship.

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Even the version of Uhura in the Kelvin universe, who might not be considered a friend of James Kirk, is good at what she does. Her keen ear and talented tongue have saved the Enterprise several times, and Kirk respects her even if they aren't exactly best buds.

Several episodes of TOS put Uhura and Kirk together in difficult situations, and they need to rely on each other's skills and resources to escape. Part of that comes from their close relationship as personal friends along with being colleagues.

3 Carol Marcus

Brilliant Scientist And A Former Partner

Introduced:Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn (1982)
Played by: Bibi Besch

The classic series and movies don't include many details when it comes to the relationship between Carol Marcus and James Kirk. What viewers see in Wrath of Kahn is only dialogue and references to what happened decades ago, but it seems they were very close at one time.

David Marcus, Carol's son and fellow scientist who helped develop the Genesis Project, always knew he was Kirk's son but didn't make peace with his father until years later. The Kelvin timeline also includes Carol Marcus, giving her a supporting role in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

2 Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy

The Doctor Always Knows Best

bones on the pleasure planet of shore leave tos

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, S1 E1, "The Man Trap"
Played by: DeForest Kelley; Karl Urban

The first episode in which Leonard appears portrays him as a close friend and confidant to the captain, James T. Kirk, and could be the only person in the galaxy closer to him than Spock. He's the deuteragonist of the secondary main character of the episode that introduces him, and Kirk already knew him well enough to know some details about his ex, found on a strange new planet.

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While Kirk and Spock are saving each other, Bones is the one often using his medical expertise to save them. It's not only his skills as a doctor that are essential, but his iron will and outspoken demeanor. Unlike Kirk's other friends, Bones doesn't attend Starfleet and doesn't have the same respect for protocol, so James knows that his friend chooses to respect and care for him instead of just deferring to the rank.

1 Spock

The Loyalty Of A Vulcan

Introduced: Star Trek: The Original Series, Pilot Episode, "The Cage"
Played by: Leonard Nimoy

Spock was also close to his first captain, Christopher Pike, but his relationship with James T. Kirk went beyond the call of duty in the years they worked together as his second-in-command. There are several memes, fan fiction stories, and "shipping" theories that make them even closer, just as an example of how they appeared to audiences.

James T. Kirk even stole the Enterprise on Spock's behalf and brought him back from the dead. Their friendship is iconic, and Spock's funeral leaves the greatest and most heartbreaking quote from Kirk reading his eulogy:

Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most...human.

Kirk and Spock have saved each other's lives too many times to count, which is one of the reasons they have a strong bond. What they've seen together has inspired a whole franchise of movies, video games, and spin-off TV shows. Even in the Star Trek novels, Spock has referred to Kirk as his brother, his soulmate, showing just how close the half-Vulcan and human are.