In the beginning, in the "Star Trek" universe, there was only Captain Kirk. At least to the
general public.
When the Starship Enterprise first whooshed across American television screens on Sept. 8, 1966, William
Shatner’s James T. Kirk was the smart leader sitting in the captain’s chair. He was stouthearted.
Eloquent. Curious. Fair. Kennedylike, even. He was a principled explorer committed to spreading New
Frontier values to the 23rd-century stars.
And yet: Kirk could also be something of an interstellar Don Draper — brooding, arrogant, a top-down
manager who earned his privilege but also often presumed it. Despite being progressive for his era, he
could be condescending to anyone but his top righthand men — and sometimes creepily appreciative of the
women he encountered.
But Kirk had actually been preceded as captain of the Enterprise by Christopher Pike — a stoic, vague
figure played by Jeffrey Hunter in a rejected 1964 "Trek" pilot who made only a fleeting
appearance in the original series — mainly so the pilot footage could be recycled. The character
reappeared in two recent movie reboots, portrayed ably by Bruce Greenwood, but was never a foundational
fixture of "Star Trek" lore.
Until now.
"Trek" aficionados were thrilled this month to learn that Pike (now played by Anson Mount), his
first officer "Number One"(Rebecca Romijn) and the still-evolving, pre-Kirk version of
Spock(Ethan Peck) would be following up their season-long stints on "Star Trek: Discovery"
with a brand-new show. Called "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," it is set in the decade before
Kirk takes command.
And as played today by Mount, Captain Pike — now framed through a creative lens that has captured 55
years of captaining by Kirks, Picards, Siskos, Janeways and Archers — may be the finest, most intuitive
leader that the "Star Trek" universe has ever produced.
"Pike’s lack of ego makes him a perfect model of leadership worth aspiring to," Earl said.
Jessie Earl, whose Trek-focused "Jessie Gender" YouTube videos explore social and political
issues, said in an episode about Pike last year. "Pike represents what `Star Trek’ has always been
about: showing us what we could be if we strove to actively pursue and cultivate the best parts of
ourselves."
It’s not accidental that Pike is the son of a father who taught science AND comparative religion — an
embodiment of the empiricism-faith equation that "Star Trek" and its captains have always
espoused. In many ways, in fact — even more so than Chris Pine in the movie reboots — Pike functions as
James T. Kirk 2.0.
Both are utterly principled and committed to their missions. But where Kirk could be arrogant, Pike is
steadfast. Where Kirk was expansive and welcomed attention, Pike is wary of it — but seamlessly claims
center stage when needed. Most of all, where Kirk was deeply committed to his responsibility to ship and
crew — crippled by it, even — Mount’s Pike adds the view of himself as a servant-leader who derives his
sense of command not only from the success of his mission but directly from the successes of his crew.

This is in line with how the captains who came after Kirk reframed the notion of command in "Star
Trek." Each contained ingredients that, in 55 years, led the character of Pike from its 1964
iteration ("I can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge") to the more enlightened current
version ("Starfleet … is a promise. I give my life for you. You give your life for me. And nobody
gets left behind.").
Of the many "Star Trek" sequels and movies that have emerged over the decades, this will be the
first live-action one to take place aboard the starship that started it all — Kirk’s original
Enterprise.
And while television storytelling has come many light years since the original series’ era, to hear the
producers and actors tell it, "Strange New Worlds’ will strive for the sensibility of the original
— a spirit of exploration and optimism, and even nonserialized, single-episode arcs.
They’ll also be exploring the rich history of the original Enterprise itself, a ship so storied that a
mail-in campaign by fans in the mid-1970s led NASA to rename the first space shuttle after it. Lovingly
reconceived to appear in the second season of "Discovery," it is sleek and moody and rich with
the colors and layout that made it so compelling in the 1960s — updated for today’s HD audiences but
holding onto the soul of its low-budget predecessor.
And smack in the middle, in a chair familiar to generations of fans, will sit Christopher Pike, charged
with embodying everything in a half-century of "Trek" that made captains effective and
memorable.
Kirk was a master class in leadership for the 1960s, just as Picard was a thoughtful, more introspective
model for the carpeted, richly paneled bridge of the late-1980s Enterprise-D. But yanking a thinly
developed character from the beginning of "Star Trek" lore and offering him up as a model of
leadership for the 2020s — well, that’s not an easy task. "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,"
expected in 2021, will be doing that every week.
In first developing the character that would evolve into Captain Pike, "Trek" creator Gene
Roddenberry described him this way: "He is a complex personality with a sensitivity and warmth
which the responsibilities of command often forces him to hide."
That was 1964. Today, for this latest captain of the Enterprise, sensitivity and warmth are no longer
hidden. They’re right there front and center, along with all the complexity. And "Star Trek"—
which even in its darkest hours is about building a brighter future — is better off for it.
___
Ted Anthony, director of digital innovation for The Associated Press, has been writing about American
culture since 1990. His younger son’s middle name is Kirk. Follow him on Twitter at
Tweets by anthonyted