Matt Decker IS Will’s father

[EnriqueH]

I’m re-reading TMP novel for the first time since 7th grade or so (around 1989), and I just noticed Roddenberry said Matt was Will’s father.

I thought that it was a common error fans made (including me back in the day) because I read somewhere that they’re not related, but I guess they are after all.

 

[Spock's Barber]

That means..........Will is Matt’s son!

 

[Mysterion]

Has this ever really been in dispute?

 

[Doctor Bombay]

I always knew that, and I think I got it from the novel just like you did.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I sure wish that TMP would have at least made a small reference to the father/son aspect, but that flick missed out on so many other opportunities, too.

 

[Sgt_G]

Movies often leave little details out of the book due to time constraints. No big deal.

Also, a lot of people who went to the movie didn't really watch ST:TOS and thus would have had no idea who Commodore Matt Decker was, so the movie would have had to take even more time to explain it. Most people who read the book are ST:TOS fans and thus understood the connection.

 

[StarCruiser]

A LARGE number of people who watch TMP DID watch TOS - at least where I was.

People forget just how insanely popular Star Trek was in the 1970's. Many conventions were overflowing with fans.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It was a nice Easter Egg for those of us who watched TOS in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Henoch]

If we use the actor's birthdates to compare the character ages, Matt Decker would have been 19 when Will Decker was born. Big but, TMP would have to be set in 2277 for Will Decker to be 30 years old. Certainly doable. If set in 2273, then I doubt Will would be a Captain at 26, and not doable. That or Matt Decker was older than Windom's real age, say about 50 instead of 44 which was his real age. Maybe Matt experienced some time dilation during his space career is another explanation.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I’m re-reading TMP novel for the first time since 7th grade or so (around 1989), and I just noticed Roddenberry said Matt was Will’s father.

I thought that it was a common error fans made (including me back in the day) because I read somewhere that they’re not related, but I guess they are after all.

There's never been dialogue that explicitly confirmed they were related, but it's become such a commonly accepted bit of fanon over the years, it seems like it's practically canon. Kind of like Carol Marcus being the "little blonde lab technician" that Gary Mitchell set up with Kirk, or Saavik being half Vulcan and half Romulan. It seems to fit, it adds a little more history & depth to the characters, it doesn't seem to contradict anything, and it's unlikely to ever be addressed again in a live action Trek production, so why not?

 

[Pauln6]

Some of the background in the novels works well. Other stuff like the second crewman dying on the transporter being Kirk's ex wife really doesn't.

Decker's parentage was in his character write up, like Saavik's, so it has a better pedigree. I'm doing a fan edit of TMP. Is there any other Kirk dialogue talking about a character's father? Maybe I could slot it in somewhere...

 

[Relayer1]

I had absolutely no idea that the Deckers being father and son was in any way contentious.

 

[BillJ]

There's never been dialogue that explicitly confirmed they were related, but it's become such a commonly accepted bit of fanon over the years, it seems like it's practically canon. Kind of like Carol Marcus being the "little blonde lab technician" that Gary Mitchell set up with Kirk, or Saavik being half Vulcan and half Romulan. It seems to fit, it adds a little more history & depth to the characters, it doesn't seem to contradict anything, and it's unlikely to ever be addressed again in a live action Trek production, so why not?

Give the All-Access crew time, I’m sure they’ll be able to break it all.

 

[Mysterion]

it seems like it's practically canon. Kind of like Carol Marcus being the "little blonde lab technician" that Gary Mitchell set up with Kirk, or Saavik being half Vulcan and half Romulan.

Decker and Marcus make sense and fit with the overall onscreen continuity. The Saavik thing, though is unnecessary embellishment, IMO. It's not needed for the character (or the story) and not supported by any on-screen evidence.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I’m re-reading TMP novel for the first time since 7th grade or so (around 1989), and I just noticed Roddenberry said Matt was Will’s father.

I thought that it was a common error fans made (including me back in the day) because I read somewhere that they’re not related, but I guess they are after all.

Perhaps you're thinking of Lt. Stiles in "Balance of Terror" and Captain Styles in STIII: STFS?

 

[EnriqueH]

I had absolutely no idea that the Deckers being father and son was in any way contentious.

I can’t, for the life of me, remember where I read it. I can remember believing they were related, but this one article/book had me thinking otherwise up until yesterday when I was rereading TMP. I’m going to have to find out where I read it.

“Jim, I want this! As much as you wanted the Enterprise! I want this.”

“We are stronger with you than without you.”

 

[Timo]

If we use the actor's birthdates to compare the character ages, Matt Decker would have been 19 when Will Decker was born. Big but, TMP would have to be set in 2277 for Will Decker to be 30 years old. Certainly doable. If set in 2273, then I doubt Will would be a Captain at 26, and not doable. That or Matt Decker was older than Windom's real age, say about 50 instead of 44 which was his real age. Maybe Matt experienced some time dilation during his space career is another explanation.

TMP being set later than 2273 is win-win; the writers certainly seemed to think it was more than 300 years after 1977, the launch date for the first Voyagers. Launching those probes earlier on would make no sense, as they were built to exploit the Grand Tour setup of planets that applied to a 1977 launch, although launching later would be possible if Trek rocketry were a bit better than ours. (If it were a lot better than ours in the 1970s already, though, then there'd be no need for a Grand Tour!)

OTOH, I like the idea of Matt Decker being a tad older than Windom. The writers did their damnedest to give him credibility as Kirk's superior, despite both being skippers of starships: the Commodore rank, the reputation as one of the greats, the age difference. Better milk that to the max. Sure, Kirk can still call Decker a "lunatic" in the same exchange where he considers himself Kirk's "superior", but the power play has to be stacked in Decker's favor, or else Kirk would just order this lunatic locked up.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Qonundrum]

It's a fanwanky tie-in, but given their ages and a direct relation in Starfleet it doesn't not work or become small universe syndrome.

 

[Timo]

Indeed, "Starfleet families" was a thing in TOS already, with Kirk being buddies with youngsters whose dads were influential in the Fleet (and indeed influential in helping Kirk get in). We didn't quite learn that Jim Kirk also had a famous Starfleet dad in TOS yet, but that fact was easy to accept in 2009, after having been "Beta Canon" for ages.

We may further speculate that Kirk had a hand in helping young Willard get a command, and command of the Enterprise to boot. Not fanwanky at all, but rather a believable gesture Kirk would make as the direct consequence of the TOS events.

Small Starfleet Syndrome always lurks just around the corner, though. But in TOS, we can fall back on there existing a small and tightly knit brotherhood of Starship Captains, separate from captains of other sorts who may number in the thousands. And in TNG and the like, the heroes do not personally know every off-hero-ship officer they run into, thankfully enough.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Lance]

The novelization is the only place that confirms it, but it was always more than fanon. There are memos from the production of the aborted Phase II series (where Decker was a regular) which discuss it.

It's a pity the movie never says it, but it always seemed like an obvious link to me. Adds a little extra something else behind the Will/Kirk antagonism. And Will self-sacrifices at the end of the movie just like his old man did with the planet killer.