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Star Trek Into the Darkness has a poster shown below, featuring, someone whom I believe to be Captain Kirk on a mound of dirt and rubble. He's looking out over the London Cityscape (image below).

My first thought was 'What's he doing in london'? The plot is summarised on wikipedia as:

After being called back home, the crew of the Enterprise find a seemingly unstoppable force which has attacked Starfleet and left the planet in chaos. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are tasked with leading the deadly manhunt to capture the party responsible and settle an old score.

It seems as though the reboot will have some connection to London. In the original timeline, did Captain Kirk go to England/London before?

The poster for Star Trek into Darkness. There is a city in the far background with tall buildings resembling those in modern day london.


I've just been corrected on some points in the comments, but I want to clarify: I'm asking about "TOS or novels" not the new film!

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    I think this question will be closed soon, as it asks about things we only don't know because the film isn't out yet.
    – Mr Lister
    Dec 15, 2012 at 22:40
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    @Pureferret I recommend cutting down the question to focus on the key bits of information. I.e. the reboot will have them going to London. In the original timeline, did Kirk go to England/London before?
    – user1027
    Dec 15, 2012 at 22:53
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    I'm uneasy about questions like this because "no" answers are only verifiable by watching all the TOS movies and TV episodes, and reading all 100+ TOS-based novels. Should we only permit questions whose answers have LOGSPACE-sized proofs? :-)
    – Kyle Jones
    Dec 15, 2012 at 23:58
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    Most likely, the person on the poster is Benedict Cumberbatch/the new villain. The hair and trenchcoat seem to fit well.
    – Izkata
    Dec 16, 2012 at 0:53
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    Is there any confirmation that the skyline is London? Upon doing some research there looks to be some buildings that resemble current building in London, however a lot of times when constructing city-scapes that don't actually/currently exist filmmakers will transpose several artifacts from different locations.
    – NominSim
    Dec 16, 2012 at 2:04

1 Answer 1

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The Kirk-era listings for London on Memory Alpha and Memory Beta include:

  • From 1888 to 1891, seventeen women were killed in London by the Redjac entity incarnated as "Jack the Ripper". (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")
    • This takes place entirely on the ship, London is simply referenced
  • During the outbreak of the Black Death in England in the mid-12th century, 11% of the city's population died. (TOS novel: The Entropy Effect)
    • While this is a time-travel novel, the blurb indicates that Kirk is dead while Spock is in the past
  • The London Kings played at Battersea Stadium in the Battersea area of London, until the end of professional baseball in 2042. (ST novel: Federation)
    • In June of 2078, London was engulfed in riots against the Optimum Movement, which had taken political control of England in 2075. Zefram Cochrane visited London in 2078, and while there, was taken into custody by Colonel Adrik Thorsen, along with astronomer Sir John Burke and Monica Burke. (ST novel: Federation)
    • Kirk may have been in London momentarily while rescuing Cochrane; the summary doesn't make it clear where he was rescued from, but the Optimum is an Earth political movement...
  • London was one of the cities affected by the nuclear attacks of 2053. (TLE novel: The Sundered)
    • This novel takes place 5 years after Kirk was presumed dead
  • Mr. Spock hypothesized that the Enterprise was in an alternate timeline when, among other things, a scan sweep of Earth indicated that London was missing. (TOS novel: First Frontier)
    • London is listed under "Locations", and the cover is of Kirk and Spock on the planet's surface

As I have not read any of the novels, I can't be certain - but I would guess the best bet to be First Frontier... In an alternate timeline, where London doesn't exist.

So no, I don't believe Shatner-Kirk has ever actually been to London.

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