Star Trek: The Next Generation subtly defied its own established boundaries when Captain Jean-Luc Picard, expertly portrayed by Patrick Stewart, cited the famous Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series. The creators intentionally steered clear of involving Kirk’s legacy to cultivate a unique identity for TNG. Despite being set in the same universe, the show sought to honor its predecessor while marking a distinct narrative path that largely avoided direct mentions of the earlier series or its beloved characters.
Over time, however, as Star Trek: The Next Generation solidified its status as a iconic science fiction series, the initial restrictions on referencing the original series began to relax. Following DeForest Kelley’s guest appearance as Admiral Leonard McCoy in the show’s premiere, notable appearances from Star Trek veterans like Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek, Leonard Nimoy as Ambassador Spock, and James Doohan as Captain Montgomery “Scotty”Scott occurred. Yet, the moment when Captain Kirk’s words unmistakably emerged from Captain Picard’s lips happens in the fourth season of TNG.
Breaking the Rule: Captain Picard Quotes Captain Kirk
Ronald D. Moore Crafts an Iconic Wedding Speech
In the eleventh episode of season four, titled “Data’s Day,”Captain Picard officiates the marriage between Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Keiko Ishikawa (Rosalind Chao). During this ceremony, he opens with, “Since the days of the first wooden sailing ships, all Captains have enjoyed the happy privilege of joining together two people in the bonds of matrimony.” This line closely mirrors Captain Kirk’s words from Star Trek: The Original Series season one, episode fourteen, “Balance of Terror”:
Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all ship masters have had one happy privilege, that of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony.
Ronald D. Moore, who co-wrote “Data’s Day”alongside Harold Apter, infused his long-time love for Star Trek: The Original Series into the dialogue of Captain Picard. During a WonderCon 2025 panel discussing his illustrious career, Moore shared that Rick Berman, the executive producer of Star Trek, was displeased with the overt reference to TOS and requested alterations to Picard’s speech. Nevertheless, Moore decided to retain the quote as it was originally penned, and the line ultimately made it to air without further contention.
Captain Pike Quoting Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Captain Pike Officiates a Wedding in an Alternate Timeline
Interestingly, Captain Kirk’s marriage speech made a return in the season one finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, titled “A Quality of Mercy.”This episode presented an alternate reality in which Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) avoided the disfigurement from delta radiation and continued as the captain of the Enterprise. In this scenario, Pike stood in for Kirk during a wedding ceremony aboard the Starship Enterprise.
However, while Pike did not directly quote Kirk in this instance—likely due to his disorientation from the time displacement—Lt. Angela Martine (Megha Sandhu) reminded him of the quote from Kirk, stating, “that since the age of wooden ships, all shipmasters have had a happy privilege of…”This exchange highlights how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds operates under no similar constraints as Star Trek: The Next Generation once did, enabling deeper connections to the beloved earlier series.