TREKCORE > MOVIES > STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE > Main Characters
 

	CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK ACTOR: William Shatner Becoming Chief of Starfleet Operations after the end of the Enterprise’s five year mission, Kirk rose to the rank of admiral; a post he retained for two years. While the Enterprise underwent a massive overhaul and refit, Kirk recommended Captain Willard Decker to succeed him as captain. Kirk was envious of Decker’s new position and hoped to command a starship once again. When a mysterious cloud set a course for Earth, Kirk pressured Admiral Nogura to reassign him as Enterprise captain, given his experience in dealing with unknown life and threats. Kirk reassumed command, relocating Decker (temporarily) as Executive Officer, and eventually, Science Officer. However, Kirk’s unfamiliarity with the Enterprise redesign nearly destroyed the ship when the vessel’s untested engines caused an antimatter imbalance; creating a wormhole which drew in a nearby asteroid. Kirk ordered the rock destroyed with the ship’s phasers without realizing that the new design channelled phaser power through the warp engines; with the engines in a state of imbalance, the phasers were automatically cut-off. Fortunately, Decker countermanded his order and ordered a photon torpedo, instead, which destroyed the asteroid and the wormhole, thus saving the Enterprise. After Dr. McCoy informed Kirk that he was competing with Decker for command of the ship, Kirk relented and began to rely on Decker’s advice as he readjusted to command. Eventually intercepting the cloud intruder, Kirk eventually learned that V’Ger, the alien which dwelled at the center of the cloud, sought it’s creator on Earth. When V’Ger planned to destroy Earth to find it’s creator, Kirk claimed to V’Ger that he could explain why the creator would not answer V’Ger’s call. He discovered V’Ger was actually the long-lost Earth probe Voyager VI and ordered the Enterprise to transmit the data code for the probe which would enable it to complete its mission and join with its creator. However, V’Ger shorted out it’s antennae leads to prevent reception, hoping that it would bring the creator there in person; to join with him. Decker volunteered to join with V’Ger, sacrificing himself to save the Enterprise and Earth. With Decker gone, Kirk declared him as “missing in action” and retained command of the Enterprise.
	MR. SPOCK ACTOR: Leonard Nimoy After leaving Starfleet following the end of the Enterprise’s five year mission, Spock returned to Vulcan to partake in the Kohlinar discipline, which would purge all remaining human emotions from his mind. However, his studies were interrupted when he sensed an enormous intelligence calling to him from space. He left Vulcan and intercepted the Enterprise which was on a course with the alien intelligence he sensed. Captain Kirk ordered his Starfleet commission reactivated and assigned him as Enterprise science officer. Mr. Spock was able to deduce that the friendship messages the Enterprise was sending were too slow for the alien to properly receive as their own message lasted only a millisecond. Reprogramming the ship’s computers to transmit at the proper speed, Spock was able to convince the alien to call off it’s attack on the Enterprise. Learning more about the alien at the center of the cloud, V’Ger, Mr. Spock broke into environmental control, stole a thruster suit, and set off alone to the center of the cloud. There, he discovered the truth about V’Ger, that it was a living machine. When he attempted to mind-meld with the machine intelligence, it overwhelmed him and knocked him unconscious. The brief link was enough to awaken Spock to the fact that simple human emotions were beyond V’Ger’s comprehension, and that it sought it’s creator to ask “is this all that I am; is there nothing more?” He later compared V’Ger to a child; evolving, learning, searching, and insatiably needing. When Decker finally volunteered to join with V’Ger, Mr. Spock claimed it was a birth, “possibly the next step in our evolution.” With the crisis averted, Mr. Spock claimed he had no reason to return to Vulcan and opted to remain with the Enterprise and in Starfleet.
	DOCTOR LEONARD H. McCOY ACTOR: DeForest Kelley Having retired from Starfleet following the Enterprise’s five year mission, McCoy settled into a private practice on Earth. However, when an alien object on a direct course for Earth threatened the Federation, Captain Kirk asked Admiral Nogura to invoke “a little known, seldom used ‘reserve activation clause’”, in effect, drafting McCoy back into service. Bitter at first, he finally warmed to the job after Kirk told him that he needed McCoy, but was still angered to the fact that the new Enterprise’s sick-bay was “like working in a damn computer center.” Serving as Kirk’s conscience, he informed the captain that his competition with Decker over command of the Enterprise could blind him to more immediate and critical responsibilities, which Kirk agreed with.
	CHIEF ENGINEER MONTGOMERY SCOTT ACTOR: James Doohan Chief engineer of the Enterprise, Scotty, along with Captain Decker, supervised the entire refit of the Enterprise, but was dumbfounded when Starfleet pressed her into service incomplete and untested. Nevertheless, he remained resolved to keep the new ship in one piece as it moved to intercept the alien intruder. When the new warp engines caused an anti-matter imbalance, a wormhole was created, which nearly destroyed the ship. Scotty warned Captain Kirk that the same thing would happen again if the problem was not corrected. Fortunately, with the arrival of Mr. Spock, the two of them were able to repair the ship’s engines and bring the ship to full capacity. Somewhat oblivious to the greater workings of the threat the ship faced from engineering, Scotty knew when Kirk ordered self-destruction of the Enterprise that the captain hoped the destruction of the ship would destroy the intruder as well. With the crisis averted, Scotty was pleased to hear that Kirk had ordered the Enterprise to undergo a proper shakedown.
	LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HIKARU SULU ACTOR: George Takei Enterprise helmsman for the majority of the ship’s five year mission, Sulu had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander following the end of the ship’s mission. Remaining as helmsman during the course of the refit, Sulu also assumed command of the bridge during Kirk’s absences.
	LIEUTENANT COMMANDER UHURA ACTRESS: Nichelle Nichols Communications officer of the Enterprise, Uhura had also been promoted following the Enterprise’s return to Earth. When the ship was pressed into service by Starfleet, she delegated most of the crew to their assigned duties in the rush to the launch deadline. When the Enterprise was drawn inside the alien cloud, her photicsonar readings informed the crew that aperture which they entered through had closed, trapping the ship inside. Uhura also transmitted the Voyager VI probe’s transmit codes in an attempt to help Voyager complete it’s mission.
	LIEUTENANT PAVEL CHEKOV ACTRESS: Walter Koenig Formerly the navigator of the Enterprise, Chekov had been promoted to lieutenant and chief of security of the Enterprise during the course of her refit. He was the first to welcome Mr. Spock back aboard the ship and manned the weapons console when the Enterprise first encountered the alien intruder. He was injured during an attack on the ship when his console exploded. Fortunately, Lieutenant Ilia’s empathic powers were able to alleviate his pain and he soon returned to duty.