Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of actors who have played James Kirk


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. Not really a useful search term, so no redirect. King of &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 03:45, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

List of actors who have played James Kirk

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Insufficient scope for a list. Only two actors have portrayed Kirk in any meaningful sense (is there any need to list William Shatner three times?); I don't think the kid who appears in the new film for one scene really counts, nor would I count an unofficial fan portrayal, but regardless that all adds up to just four entries and nothing that isn't covered at James T. Kirk. Parodies of the Kirk character is something else entirely, but again it's already covered in the main article. PC78 (talk) 07:00, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Film-related deletion discussions.  —PC78 (talk) 07:01, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete I would say merge, but James T. Kirk already has relevant content well covered by a single image and a caption. Really not a large enough scope for a separate article anyway, I wouldn't even expect Memory Alpha to have something like this. Nosleep  break my slumber 07:15, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Clearly, you have never been to memory alpha why don't we merge it into the kirk article? it's a nicely done table, & it is relevant there. i agree that it's likely not with a standalone article page; though we might put a redirect. i'll do it myself, when i get more time, if nobody beats me to it.  since the emphasis is on the actors it might make sense to merge all the shatner stuff into one, but i'm not that familliar with making tables, i mostly just write.  if somebody wants to fix that part, before or after i transfer the thing into the kirk article, please do so. also, they forgot baby kirk! :P  Lx 121 (talk) 09:42, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * follow-up; ok i stayed online long enough to transfer the tables over, & tweak the wording slightly. it looks good; fits in well there. so who really needs to make it to work on time anyway? haha!  i've held off on blanking the page & placing a redirect, since the matter is still under discussion here, though the outcome seems pretty clear.  Lx 121 (talk) 10:08, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Pasting the list into James T. Kirk is rather unhelpful, and does not address this nomination. The list is entirely superfluous to that article. PC78 (talk) 14:52, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * And you deleted it. thank you! ^__^ could you please explain how providing a list of the MULTIPLE actors who have portrayed a fictional character is not relevant to the article about that character?  to be clear; i really don't care if you use a list, a table, or a separate paragraph for each. but at least 4 actors have now portrayed kirk in official material, plus the phase II fan series, plus the parodies, of which only a few the most notable are mentioned.  when you have that many people playing the guy, it makes sense to keep track, &that tiny photo with the caption that's larger than the image is not adequate coverage:  it's not comprehensive, & it's poor wiki-style.  is there some reason you have an agenda here? you seem very dedicated to erasing this material.  Lx 121 (talk) 03:07, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I think PC78's (and mine, and other's) reasons for wanting this material excised are pretty clear here. Making empty statements about someone having an "agenda" beyond that isn't especially helpful. --EEMIV (talk) 04:11, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I have no "agenda"; I think I summed it up pretty well in my nomination above as to why we don't need this list, but if you want another reason then it's because the list gives undue weight to unofficial portrayals and parodies, as well as a largely inconsequential performance by Jimmy Bennet and even Chris Pine who has so far made only one appearance as Kirk. Perhaps you could explain why you feel the need to bypass this discussion by pasting the material into another article, especially when we don't appear to be heading for a "keep" or "merge" concensus. PC78 (talk) 13:10, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Already covered at James T. Kirk. --Anna Lincoln (talk) 07:55, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not enough content, can be included at the main article, and everyone knows that there's only one Enterprise captain who matters (ducks, runs away). Cheers, This flag once was redpropagandadeeds 11:47, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Redirect to James T. Kirk. Superfluous & redundant, with dubious rationale for initial creation (spawned from a content dispute over the degree to which the main article should cover non-studio portrayals of the character). I'm apathetic as to whether the list is deleted, or someone just redirects the thing. --EEMIV (talk) 15:15, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Some other observations, which Lx 121 inadvertantly reminded me of: the List of... content is uncited, which is problematic in and of itself -- but, it's more problematic in this case because it fails to distinguish between actors portraying Kirk-the-character and those playing Shatner-playing-Kirk. The parodies are as much a spoof of Shatner hamming it up as on the character he presents, and this List of... fails to establish context for that explanation/those differences, which're better handled in freer form of the main article. Lx 121 is correct in that the article does not offer a "comprehensive" list of actors who've played Kirk/Shatner-as-Kirk -- a deliberate choice among the editors who regularly work on the article to stick with portrayals that have received significant third-party coverage, rather than every passing fanboy production or animated spoof. Where a spoof or fan portrayal or (obviously) studio portrayal has received meaningful press, it receives meaningful coverage. Those relatively few meaningful portrayals of the character/actor-as-character can be adequately covered in the article; a "comprehensive" separate list I think would too easily devolve into an attempt at an exhaustive list. Sure, lots of folks have played this character -- but very few of those potrayals matter (e.g. even Jimmy Bennett -- brief, passing, and pretty much negligible; same things with most spoofs, certainly the same thing with most fan productions) --EEMIV (talk) 04:11, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Beam this over to Memory Alpha, where such a table will be welcome. At best, this can be described in a couple of sentences in the article about the character.  Make sure to mention stunt doubles (remember when Kirk got split into two people in The Enemy Within?  And William Shatner was seen talking to another guy whose back was turned to the camera?  Special effects circa 1966!). Mandsford (talk) 19:08, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete as entirely pointless. Relevant info is already on the Kirk article. Redirect if you have to, but not worth a merge or anything of that sort. DreamGuy (talk) 20:38, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete - pointless list with all information already in Kirk article. -- Whpq (talk) 17:21, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete as said before, the relevant info is on the Kirk article. Transfer it to Memory Alpha if it's not there already. JuJube (talk) 03:35, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete as per above reasons. Take out the two voice actors (who didn't really play Kirk) and the bit part from the new film (which is quite trivial, two or three minutes on screen?), collapse Shatner's three listings to one and you've pretty much repeated what's on the Kirk article already. Alastairward (talk) 18:03, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Not disagreeing with the delete, but clearly you have not seen the new film. Bit part, two or three minutes, indeed.  Mandsford (talk) 12:40, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I assume he's talking about the kid. PC78 (talk) 12:54, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I assume you're right. Gosh, I feel stupid.  Sorry, Al. Mandsford (talk) 19:10, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I meant the kid, don't worry about it :) Alastairward (talk) 20:08, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.