Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we cover Captain Christopher Pike, a character who has appeared in TOS as well as the Abrams movies and will now be taking a big role in Discovery Season 2, according to the preview trailer this week.
Christopher Pike is the Captain of the Enterprise for 11 years, spanning from 2254 to 2265, which is when Captain Kirk takes over that ship. We see Pike in the original pilot episode The Cage, as this character was intended to be the lead of the show at that early stage. However, the actor Jeffrey Hunter backed out of the role after screenings of the first pilot, and Gene Roddenberry then turned to William Shatner and a new captain for the show we came to know and love.
In The Cage, we see Pike lead a landing party to Rigel VII, and the crew is attacked by the Kalar with several killed and others captured. This weighed heavily on the captain and made him question whether he was fit to continue as a starship commander.
In The Cage, we see Pike lead a landing party to Rigel VII, and the crew is attacked by the Kalar with several killed and others captured. This weighed heavily on the captain and made him question whether he was fit to continue as a starship commander.
QUOTE - from The Cage
"I'm tired of being responsible for two hundred and three lives. I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't. And who's going on the landing party and who doesn't. And who lives...and who dies."
"I'm tired of being responsible for two hundred and three lives. I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't. And who's going on the landing party and who doesn't. And who lives...and who dies."
Later in the first season of TOS, Captain Pike plays an important role in The Menagerie two part episode. We see in this episode a more detailed account of the Captain's capture by the Talosians from the earlier episode The Cage. The Talosians were a telepathic race that can create any number of tempting illusions to keep trapped their subjects in a zoo-like setting. Pike resists the allure of these illusions and saves himself and a couple of female crewmembers who the Talosians were trying to make mate with Pike, again, much like a zookeeper would.
Pike again convinces himself in this mission that he is very fit to be in command, and he goes on to have one of the most decorated careers in Starfleet, including having awards and discovered places named after him. It is in this successful command period on the Enterprise where the USS Discovery runs into Pike and that's where we will pick up Season 2 of Discovery, apparently. Thus, this character is about to become a lot more fleshed out than has been done previously.
Pike was promoted to fleet captain in 2265, which is when Kirk takes over the ship. A few years after this, he is crippled by delta-particle rays when saving cadets on a training vessel from an accident where a baffle plate ruptured on the ship. We see his wheelchair-bound form in The Menagerie. His Abrams timeline colleague turns command over to Kirk as well, while serving as more of a mentor to Kirk this time, but he also suffers a grisly fate at the hands of Khan in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness.
Christopher Pike was played by Jeffrey Hunter, who played in a number of movies in the 1950s and 1960s before appearing on the Star Trek pilot. His career took a downturn following his decision to leave the show, and he sadly died three years later at the age of 42 due to complications from two strokes and a fall. Sean Kenney plays the disfigured wheelchair version of Pike in TOS, Bruce Greenwood played the role in the Abrams movies, and Anson Mount will take the role this year for Discovery.
-----
Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment