Give me a Commander Kirk [and a Spock, and an Uhuru] with a little life-experience. A couple wrinkles. Just a few.
40 should be the minimum age for a starship commander.
George Washington was a general at 22. :)
The federation is the equivalent of a navy. I may be wrong, but if you get appointed a rank due to circumstances, and do the job well, they probably won’t demote you.
But somebody, who knows better, can correct me if you can’t keep a rank that you get appointed to.
“I mean, in the future, will 25 year olds really rise up that fast in the chain of command?”
No, just Kirk, because, well, he’s Kirk. I’m not going to let a little detail like that bother me too much, because they did a pretty impressive job with the reboot overall.
Really, I can’t think of another actor besides Pine who could play Kirk and pull it off as well. He managed to capture the essence of the role without it coming off as a cheesy Shatner impersonation, which I think is pretty impressive. So, I’ll forgive them for making Kirk younger, instead of picking an older actor who wouldn’t give as good of a performance.
I would hope by the 23rd century that wrinkles have been ironed out, so to speak.