Okay, this is a pretty cool Kickstarter: Kelley McMorris is illustrating each of the women that Captain Kirk kissed (or was kissed by) in The Original Series. The number is actually smaller than you might think!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/336065921/ladies-of-kirk
How many of the 19 can you name?
(Complements to Bill Theiss, of course, the costume designer for TOS.)
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"… I come for you … "
Only 19? I kind of expected there to be more.
+The Bruce, Mile High Except Kirk never kisses Losira. In fact, anything but.
+David Newman Yes. But if there's a kiss not mentioned, I haven't thought of it.
Kirk flirts a lot, but that doesn't necessarily translate to kisses. And there are a lot of Monster of the Week baddies where nobody gets kissed.
+Dave Hill , that was my point. There was often sexual tension even if there was not actual kissing which probably distorts people's memory of the actual number of kisses.
Actually, a ton of episodes where Kirk isn't macking on the guest starlet come immediately to mind — "The Apple," "Changeling," "This Side of Paradise," "Friday's Child," "Spectre of the Gun," "That Which Survives," "The Doomsday Machine," "Arena," "Bread & Circuses," "Patterns of Force," not to mention the eps where it's one of the other officers (McCoy, Spock, Scotty a few times) who are the romantic spotlight.
It makes me think that the Kirk as Space Cassanova may be unfair. Or it may be that in episodes where there is an opportunity to suck face, he's just over the top about grabbing it.
I understand your including That Which Survives in the group in which Kirk doesn't get all randy, but I'd continue to argue that due to the sexual tension in it, it probably clouds the casual viewer's memory of Kirk's actions.
But before we dismiss the idea of Kirk as the Casanova of the Cosmos (I like that alliteration better though I'm essentially stealing it from you), we might think about it in terms of the body of work. There were 79 episodes aired in the original run and there are 19 space babes. At roughly 25%, that's a pretty high amount of the content to dismiss the popular perception out of hand. If 25% of a book is about solving a murder, I'd have no problem calling it a murder mystery.
+The Bruce, Mile High Fair enough. It's still remarkable that only a quarter of the episodes included Kirk kissing the Girl, even though that's one of the most common memes in TOS (alongside "Kirk drives the computer crazy with logic/illogic, though, to be fair, that only happens, like four times …
Return of the Archons
Nomad
The Ultimate Computer
Wolf in the Fold
… though it nearly happens in "That Which Survives". 🙂
(Mmmmm. Lee Meriwether …)
What's interesting is where the "Kirk falls in love" meme gets usurped by the "Kirk really loves the Enterprise" ("Naked Time," "Elaan of Troyius," at least).
Rewatching the series with my daughter now….if he's not kissing, he's looking at the back end.