Why Christopher Pike Is Actually the Ideal Starship Captain

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▶Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
02:07 - This Pike, Not That Pike
07:16 - Pike's Tragedy
09:37 - A Tease for a Show That Didn't Exist
12:25 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
19:09 - Pike and His Crew / "Memento Mori"
24:51 - Pike's Finest Moment
29:57 - Pike's Kinda/Sorta Happy Ending
32:11 - Shoutouts, Plugs and Announcements

#startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds #startrekdiscovery #videoessay

[Faction.Paradox]

Yeah if you told me that Mount's Pike was genetically engineered cell by cell in a lab to be the textbook-perfect zenith of Starfleet captains, I wouldn't be shocked

[joanwerthman]

I love your sense of humor. I particularly loved “It’s like Steve Rogers showed up to take charge of the Suicide Squad.”

[zjpeterson]

Introducing Pike to Discovery was a brilliant move after Lorca was revealed to be a secret villain. We in the audience immediately knew to trust Pike because we trust Spock’s judgment and know Spock was loyal to Pike in The Menagerie.

[cbruce]

When I had a leadership job, I kept a poster of the Enterprise near my desk. Not just because it was cool, but to remind me of who my leadership exemplars were. Typically I would lean more "What would Picard do?": remain calm in crisis, listen to my team members ideas, utilize their talents and strengths, and give them their earned recognition.
Then SNW Pike came along and while Picard was great he was also emotionally distant from his crew, while Pike inserted himself as a part of the team he led. I realized that I needed to work on that.
Star Trek has many examples of good leaders, and it even acknowledges that different leadership styles are needed in different situations, as shown in the SNW season 1 finale and pretty much all of DS9.

[ChissHansen]

Watching Strange New Worlds inspired me to rewatch the Menagerie from the original series and, even in the Beep Chair, I can see some of the characterization from Mount in this Pike, particularly in the fact that TOS Pike absolutely refuses to cooperate with Spock's plan, beeping No after No in protest, because it would mean risking Spock's career in Starfleet and even his life if he is found guilty by the court martial. Even after all he went through and all the pain he continues to suffer, he is still willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing for the good of his crew and for the safety of his friend.

[punditsponge]

One of the best things about the beep chair is the reference in Farscape -- Crichton communicates with one of the ship's Diagnostic Repair Drones by having it blink once for yes and twice for no. He subsequently refers to the drone as "DRD Pike."

[skittles]

Christopher Pike really is the Star Trek equivalent of Steve Rogers.

Still waiting for that Sisko/Pike cooking show. 🤣

[larrybliss]

A lot of credit goes to the actor. Anson Mount is majorly gifted. He plays funny so well--he had me in stitches as the cowardly courtier. I am very much looking forward to SNW Season 2.

[LAJ-FC]

I think my favourite part of Pike's character is his leadership style: he doesn't just boss folks around, he plays to people's strengths and helps them live up to their potential by kind of amplifying their voice with his. When he leads a group, he leads them all to do better than the sum of their parts. Now, most Starfleet captains demonstrate this, but I think Pike does so more than others.

My second-favourite part is his major dad vibe. A meeting over breakfast? He's such a dad.

[peopleseethis]

This Pike uses "good dad" as his leadership style and it works so well.

[st.anselmsfire]

This is also one of the many things that make Strange New Worlds such a great prequel: it adds a lot to the original material, and changes your entire viewing of The Menagerie. It really gives you a lot to think about, like, was Spock planning this for ten years? Has Spock been wracking that Vulcan mind for a decade to come up with a way to cheat fate? And then it makes you think about Star Trek II, and all the other things Spock did to cheat fate throughout the series. Strange New Worlds is a great prequel because it's not only great on its own, but it also makes already great source material even better. I love this show.

[davebo]

Not too mention Pike's catchphrase: "Hit it!" You know the producers had to be work shopping that line, and Mount's delivery gets me every time.

[UncleNavi]

The interpretation I hold to is that the crystal didn't *change* anything, it just showed him what the consequences of his actions would be. "If you keep being a good person, you will suffer unimaginably. The wages of virtue are death." And he tries to turn away from this end, but realizes that he can either die by losing the good in him, or by offering himself as a sacrifice.
And he chooses that, three times.
In the last episode of SNW he finally understands that he would face this even if he hadn't known, but most of the season was him understanding why he is important.

[summbuddie]

Pike is probably my favourite as he is a you said “superman without powers”, sometimes I don’t need someone with a dark story or morally grey decision making, sometimes I just want to see a good person do good things without the desire of compensation.

[JeremyKShort]

The Menagerie makes it seem like Spock just learned about Pike being in the Beep Chair, and that he came up with his plan to take Pike to Talos rather quickly. But we now know from Strange New Worlds, since Pike tells Spock about it, that Spock had years to think about that, and certainly had it planned out for some time.

[HVLong]

Thank you for this. Pike's story is amazing. Anson Mount is a gift to Star Trek.

[Shasta--]

I really agree with everything you've said here about Pike. And the fact that he DOESN'T know about the Talos IV ending makes it much more poignant.

[vtmarik]

Something that really draws your eye to how good a Captain that Pike is is in The Elysian Kingdom because of what a complete 180 it is when he becomes the character of the Chamberlain. In the storybook role he is cowardly and conniving and doesn't hesitate to turn traitor against his King and kingdom to save his own hide. It brings his noble qualities into sharp relief when you see him embody the complete opposite of who he is.

[KayleighBourquin]

Ever since I first saw The Cage, and saw Pike lay it all out to his doctor in his quarters, he's been my favourite captain. The now slightly non-canonically aligned but otherwise excellent book "Burning Dreams" by Margaret Wander Bonanno further cemented him as my favourite. Then Bruce Greenwood was note perfect throughout his whole appearance in the Kelvin films, and made me wish the Kelvin timeline had him as captain for most of its run with Kirk as his apprentice, as it were. I was a devastated as Kirk when he was killed.

Then Discovery's second season came along and Pike was just, as you said, the ideal of what a Starfleet Captain should be, the absolute anti-thesis to everything Lorca was. I didn't think my love for the character get any stronger until seeing him on Discovery and then Strange New Worlds.

It makes me somewhat smugly satisfied that I've known how good Pike was for about 30 years, and now all the doubters are finally catching up :P

[chaost]

The hair of Captain Pike makes him one of my favorite captains in Trek for some reason. His epic hair fits his epic personality.