[ComicGuy89]

In case anyone just jumped in, huge SPOILER WARNING for Star Trek Into Darkness.

New Kirk is not rubbish. He makes pretty much the same mistakes as every other captain in Star Trek history. Need I remind you how Shatner's Kirk got his crew severely endangered every single movie. And it is incorrect to say the original Kirk did not rely that much on Spock, every single movie in the original had Spock saving the day except the third one, which was when he was missing. At least most of the time, it was Spock's thinking that prevailed. Most importantly, in Wrath of Khan, which this movie builds of, it was Spock's "two-dimensional thinking" observation that helped win the battle.

Into Darkness is essentially a modern Wrath of Khan, a movie that saw Shatner's Kirk fail so drastically that he had to rethink his confidence and his methods. This movie is the same, both are essentially teaching Kirk the true meaning of being captain. In fact, this bit of character development was the whole point, otherwise Pike wouldn't say these to set up the story:

Quote:

You think that you can't make mistakes, but there's going to come a moment when you realize you're wrong about that, and you're going to get yourself and everyone under your command killed.

Also remember Spock's words which, while meant for Spock originally, apply to Kirk in this movie since he never learned that lesson in the 2009 movie:

Quote:

You of all people should know, Cadet Kirk, a captain cannot cheat death... Furthermore, you have failed to divine the purpose of the test. The purpose is to experience fear, fear in the face of certain death, to accept that fear, and maintain control of oneself and one's crew. This is the quality expected in every Starfleet captain.

Breaking down the captain in a situation that gives him no alternative, no way out is a recurring plot point in Star Trek, we've seen it with Picard and other captains. Bonus points if the mess was the result of some bad decisions by the captain in the first place.