Star Trek: Discovery is adding a few faces from the past for its upcoming second season. The headline-grabber is that Ethan Peck’s stepping into Leonard Nimoy’s (and Zachary Quinto’s) shoes to play Spock, but let’s not forget that Inhumans star Anson Mount is also joining the cast as Captain Christopher Pike, one of the few characters with as long a history in this franchise as the Vulcan.
Like Spock, Pike first appeared in The Original Series’ pilot episode “The Cage,” as played by Jeffrey Hunter, in which he was depicted as the captain of the Enterprise. Later episodes of the show established that he was the commander of the ship prior to James T. Kirk. As Discovery is set a decade before TOS, it gives it the perfect opportunity to explore what Pike was really like as a captain and how he differs from his more famous successor.
While chatting with EW, Mount was on hand to touch on what he thinks the big differences are between the two Starfleet captains. For him, it’s a combination of Pike’s love of the rules and his openness to ask his crew for help.
“Kirk has a swagger, and is good at thinking outside the box because he’s a rulebreaker. Pike is very by-the-book. He refers to the Starfleet code of conduct more often than not. What sets him apart from other captains, especially from Lorca, is he knows like any good leader the most precious resources is his crew. when he’s stuck, he’s not afraid to say, ‘I’m lost, anybody got a better idea?’ He uses the bridge as a bigger brain.”
In season 2, Pike will take over as the new captain of the Discovery, following the reveal of Captain Gabriel Lorca’s treachery in the previous run. As Mount says above, and echoed by star Sonequa Martin-Green, Pike will help galvanize the crew together again after their recent trauma and help restore their faith in their mission and each other. And we’ll get to see him in action very soon, as Star Trek: Discovery season 2 blasts onto CBS All Access on January 17th.