“Lost in Translation” sees James Kirk’s first visit to the Enterprise. The episode features the Kirk brothers bickering — Sam resents that Jim is so darned ambitious — and Jim meets Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Spock (Ethan Peck) for the first time. Sam and Jim talk a little bit about how Jim’s ambitions are a direct result of their Starfleet father, George Samuel Kirk, who once served on board a ship called the Kelvin. 

And with that passing, almost thrown-off line of dialogue, George Kirk has been placed firmly into “Star Trek” canon as having served on board the U.S.S. Kelvin. One might see the reference as a cheeky need for the central “Trek” timeline to reclaim the Kelvinverse for itself. Note, though, that the Abrams “Star Trek” timeline didn’t diverge from the traditional “Trek” canon until the Kelvin was destroyed, so George Kirk’s career on board would be canonical either way. It’s just that in one timeline he survived, and in another, he died. In the original timeline, Kirk’s mother Wynona made it back to Earth and gave birth to James in Iowa. Here, Kirk was born in space. 

Of course, Kirk’s father has multiple histories, depending on which “Star Trek” novel you decide to pay attention to. Plenty of non-canonical sources have traced careers and personalities around George Kirk. According to the 2015 sourcebook “The Autobiography of James T. Kirk” (the Kelvinverse version of the character), Kirk’s father served on board a ship called the U.S.S. Los Angeles before serving on the U.S.S. Kelvin. An early California-class vessel perhaps? Like the ones seen in “Star Trek: Lower Decks”?