10 Things You Never Knew About Star Trek: The Animated Series

5. Kirk's Middle Name Revealed

We all know that Captain Kirk’s full name is “James R. Kirk” because it was on the tombstone Gary Mitchell created in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, and anything on screen is totally canon. See also: Warp 10 from the Voyager episode “Threshold”.

Except, that's not true, is it? As we all know, Captain Kirk’s full name is actually James T. Kirk with the T standing for Tiberius. In the Star Trek '09 reboot, it was revealed that Tiberius was his grandfather’s name.

While the new middle initial was confirmed in the Original Series, what the T stood for was not confirmed until the Animated series. The name is first mentioned in the Animated Series episode “BEM”.

David Gerrold was the writer of this episode and was asked at a convention what the T stood for. Gerrold replied “Tiberius” having recently finished a book on Roman History. Conversations with DC Fontana and Gene Roddenberry were then held regarding the middle initial, placing it into Star Trek History.

In the episode, a Starfleet observer, Bem, puts Kirk and Spock in danger on an away mission which leads to their capture. After escaping and about to defend themselves from attack, Kirk attempts to use his phaser but is stopped by an energy field.

The energy asks them to identify themselves, to which Kirk say his now famous name of “James Tiberius Kirk”.