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'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' star Anson Mount on what Captain Pike brings to the big chair
Anson Mount shares what unique traits he thinks his iconic Enterprise character has.
There have been many Starfleet captains in the Star Trek franchise over the decades, and each one of them has brought something a little different to the big chair. In May, a new Star Trek series premieres, Strange New Worlds, that will center on Captain Christopher Pike, the guy who commanded the Enterprise before James T. Kirk did.
Pike, played by Anson Mount, quickly became a fan-favorite when his character (the third iteration to be brought into Trek canon) made his debut in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. This version of Pike and his Enterprise crew were more than just an Easter egg, they serviced and enhanced the drama of that season of television in a way that warranted their own spinoff show. SYFY WIRE recently talked with Mount at the show's junket about what he thinks his character brings to the center seat, including what his “superpower” is, and how a younger Pike might have fared on the infamous Kobayashi Maru test that all Starfleet trainees must take.
“I think that he probably would have been less irked by it than most,” Mount told SYFY WIRE about how Pike would handle facing Kobayashi Maru, the command test made popular in the 1982 classic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. “And seeing the importance of the lesson is probably as much about recovery — how you recover from something like that, from failure. You have to experience failure as a potential leader. I think he would have handled it better than most in terms of how he felt about being put in a no-win situation.”
Pike is also different from other captains that we’ve seen before, and Mount had a specific take on the character from the beginning.
“What I said to [co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers] early on is: 'If Kirk brings boldness, machismo, whatever you want to call it, and Picard brings the brain, I want Pike to bring the heart.' I think his superpower is empathy, which is hand-in-hand with humility. And I think that's what makes him a good captain.”
You can check out Captain Pike’s leadership style, among other things, when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres on Paramount+ on May 5.
