Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some terrific new characters to fall in love with and tons of thrilling action and plot twists, but it didn’t quite manage to achieve the mainstream TV re-invention of the franchise that the producers had hoped for. That might all change when season 2 airs in January 2019, though. Not least because Captain Christopher Pike is entering the fray.
Yes, Inhumans star Anson Mount is on board to play the role and the new run will see Pike take command of the USS Discovery under orders from Starfleet. From what we saw of him in the Comic-Con trailer last month, he seems to be a no-nonsense presence, albeit one with a subtle sardonic wit that looks a good fit for the series.
Of course, Trekkies will know that Captain Pike was the captain of the USS Enterprise immediately before Kirk (his command sadly ended with him being crippled and disfigured), and during Star Trek Las Vegas last week, Mount touched on Pike’s presence in The Original Series and how that’s helped him craft this new version of the Captain.
“There is “The Cage” and then there is “The Menagerie,” and those are two very different things. I do kind of play around with this idea that we have this established character and now we are going back, and I am wondering, am I establishing a guy we can see moving forward that ends up making that decision in “The Menagerie,” but in a way that is victorious and self-realizing and not a tragedy. But, that hasn’t really informed me at all.”
Continuing on, he said:
“What has informed me more is growing up and watching The Original Series, and knowing the series and knowing Roddenberry’s work and that if this is Roddenberry’s original guy, he kind of has to be the embodiment of an optimism, the same optimism that Roddenberry had that we are at our most basic, good and curious and adventurous. So, having to put together a guy that covers those bases, but is still not a flat portrait of something that is just a protagonist. Because I am not the protagonist. I am here to augment the protagonist of this show.”
It certainly sounds like Anson Mount has a good grasp on who Pike is and how to portray him, and we’re excited to see what he brings to the table when Star Trek: Discovery returns for season 2.
Again, the rookie outing was far from perfect, but it laid a ton of exciting building blocks and showed lots of potential. Couple that with everything we’ve been hearing about the new run sounding very promising, and we simply cannot wait for January to arrive.