- Captain Christopher Pike is tired, stressed, worried, has taken a lot upon himself and, from the sound of things, is very nearly ready to give up command by the time he has a rather poignant heart to heart with the ship’s Doctor in his private quarters just before the Enterprise’s fateful encounter with the Talosians. Not knowing a single detail about their most recent mission or Pike’s Starfleet history up to this point, it feels rather like being dropped in the middle of a much more involved story, I confess. Nonetheless, the weariness and unsettled introspection from Pike on display just before and throughout the ensuing events on Talos are emphatically conveyed, and from this we can only presume recent experiences have been pretty rough on Captain and Crew. Given that he carries himself as already so seasoned at this point in his career, his melancholy begs the question for me all the more so just what series of events could have left him of all Captains so rattled…spooked even.
- Then there is Spock, the very ‘odd duck’ in this whole episode most especially in light of the Spock we will meet again many years later under the command of Kirk in the remainder of TOS. Yes, we all know the real story behind this Pilot in Trek production history, but let’s think it through in terms of story anyway for the sake of consistency. The Spock we meet here under the command of Pike, which mind you takes place as many as 15 odd years before the true opening of TOS, strikes me as very young, literally I suppose…oddly expressive and whimsical…and overall much more Human like in spoken expression and demeanor than we have come to expect from him much later in his life and career. This portrayal in mind, I find where the events of Discovery are heading with Spock and Michael and his family as a whole to be all the more slyly genius. My conjecture is that the Spock with whom Pike and crew have been serving and befriending up to the point of our current proceedings with the Red Angel and the Bursts across the galaxy threatening his very sanity and mental stability is indeed a rather different man than the one who will remain after whatever trauma he is currently experiencing, or one could say has been experiencing since he was a child, is finally resolved. The Spock we find some 10 or 11 years after Discovery under Kirk’s command is, in rather stark contrast to here, exceedingly logical, formal and quite dignified actually, though I would rather sum all that up as becoming quite a bit more mature and more fully developed as an adult and a Starfleet Officer than anything else, albeit with the added backstory elements of his learning disability, familial tensions and seeming mental break adding layers not entirely unwelcome or contradictory to such a wisened and universe-weary countenance. Whatever the case, Spock throughout TOS comes off generally as quite emotionless or at the very least extremely guarded and consistently expresses the Vulcan side of himself more than he ever did the Human side. Therefore, I can only guess deep down he was rather literally changed, or still haunted, or both, by whatever is about to transpire with Michael and his parents and the so-called Angel.
- Pike is as commanding a presence as ever. Less grey in the temples but starting to come into that salt and pepper. And by that I mean to say without a doubt, the beginnings of ‘Space Dad’ are already there 🤓 Jeffrey Hunter was as disarmingly handsome and charismatic a man in this role as Anson Mount is proving to be, and I applaud the casting of both.
- But back to the story: Pike is not yet entirely accustomed to his Number One being a woman, or having females on the bridge period, by his own admission. Here we have the meta commentary on the show’s era and I was surprised to see it so explicitly acknowledged, although to me it does not actually lessen the impact and importance (obviously) of having a female Number One in so prominent a role in the first place. I adore this immensely about the episode. Ms. Rodenberry was a sheer pleasure for the short time we knew her as Number One and I am now even more saddened we never saw more of her in the role. However, that said, by the end of these events with the Talosians I venture to say Pike and his Number One have the beginning of a respect for one another that only grows and becomes more mature in the years up until we see her again during current events, at which point keep in mind she and Pike have presumably completed an entire 5 year mission together during which they were also ordered to sit out a war with the Klingons that very nearly led to the collapse of the whole of Starfleet. Let’s just say, their relationship has surely evolved by the time we see them together again on screen, and the complexity and assuredness of said relationship is already abundantly evident in only the one extended conversation we see between them aboard Discovery thus far.
- The Yeoman is Tilly 1.0: red-headed, precocious, nerdy-cute but smart and seemingly all up in Pike’s business because probably she has a good old-fashioned crush on him. Need I say more…?
- Pike recently fought for his life – a death struggle it was called by the Talosians and we see a glimpse of this in the illusion created by the them. However, I have to presume also that there was far more to the debacle than the small portion recreated, given Pike’s seeming existential crisis and the fact that the Enterprise was transporting so many wounded from said altercation before they investigated Talos. Whatever happened during this last mission, to put it bluntly, sounds as if it was some deep shit most especially for Pike if it is causing him to question or lose faith in his very vocation and profession…
- …which only adds to my overall impression of Pike throughout these events as, ironically, a deeply caring person. When distress or danger is witnessed, he jumps in. Genuinely and without hesitation. This trait is eventually seen in spades during events on Talos, with both Vina and his own crew, and carries over beautifully to what we have seen of his tenure aboard Disco thus far. In fact, in a way this entire character study for me explains a ton about Pike’s current punchiness and bravado, but also figurative survivor’s guilt (again) left over from the most recent Klingon War. However back to the events at hand, at the outset of their encounter with the Talosians, Pike is feeling especially worn, weary and a little sad. Yet the implication following these events and their leaving Talos seems to be that much of his drive to serve the Federation…and to protect those he can protect…is renewed even if his penchant for introspection or melancholy is certainly never far away. And this revitalization is in large part during these proceedings due to the woman we barely knew before she was gone again, Vina…
- Pike was chosen for Vina, it is said by the Talosians, based on her memories, thoughts, feelings and innermost desires, but more than this, the chemistry between Pike and Vina is immediately and genuinely palpable from virtually the moment they saw each other. Granted, Pike was rightfully pissed and angry most of the time he was being held captive by the Talosians and obviously manipulated, however by the time all is said and done and the truth of the events that have been playing out on Talos comes to light…Pike very clearly and truly feels something for Vina and her plight. This is what I personally was left with most profoundly. She does not go with Pike ultimately when he is freed, and Pike does not stay with her on Talos, at least not this time. However, the groundwork for later events – both his behaviors and demeanor aboard Discovery as interim Captain, and his ultimate return to Talos and the woman who left such a deep impression upon him almost a lifetime ago – were all so expertly laid out here in this initial encounter that I cannot help but applaud later Trek writers for pulling on all these strings in such nuanced and achingly beautiful ways. Bravo, honestly.
- Remaining Pike impressions: he is a country fellow – authentic, straightforward, with a piercing gaze and intuition (again, fitting with Discovery). He is tempted to not always be the straight and narrow Captain, but he is a better man than this. That is to say, a thankfully more principled and less cowboyish Captain than Kirk ever was, in my humble opinion. To wit, as revealed by the Talosians in yet one more bid towards the end of these proceedings to convince Pike to remain their captive in illusory ‘Paradise’, Number One has had fantasies about Pike, and henceforth he knows this…and she knows he knows this! 🤣 I had to chuckle at this scene a little bit to be quite honest. However, in all seriousness, it could have come off as so much more juvenile than it actually did in large part because by now Number One and even the young Yeoman have proven to be notable or remarkable women and officers in their own right and this pleased me to no end. Their screen time may have been scant compared to Pike’s, but they received actually many more speaking lines and dialogue between the two of them than even Spock (the irony), and therefore they stood out and had a depth and strength of character I was not expecting. Moreover, the Talosians may have only seen them all as breeding stock, essentially, but Pike and Number One are Starfleet Officers. They may appear here as slightly awkward perhaps in that Pike has been Captain longer than Number One has been a Commander, I get the distinct impression, yet we know these two ultimately reach an extremely close, professional understanding and ingrained respect for one another in the many years thereafter. Hence, all that context lends a certain innocence, for me, to the revelation of her attraction to Pike during the Talosians’ manipulations that would have felt rather more sexist and old-fashioned otherwise. In other words, neither character strikes me as juvenile in the least, thankfully, as written then or now.
- Random Observation: The Enterprise is crippled above Talos, presumably by the Talosians, while events on planet are transpiring. Hmmmmm…what an odd parallel to its later crippling…again…with Pike as Captain just before investigating the Red Bursts. The similarity in description of what happened to the ship is a little uncanny.
- To close, what I read in these last scenes with Pike and Vina on Talos is that, first of all, he deeply understands the meaning or value inherent in reality, not illusion. He knows reality can even have a hardness to it, can in fact be quite harsh and rough. Yet he accepts this about life and his chosen Command once again despite whatever crisis of conscience in which he found himself ensnared before encountering the Talosians. In other words, unlike at the beginning of these events when a part of him is dreaming of escaping the reality of his Captaincy and admonishing himself for failing to live up to standards of perfection that are probably too high to begin with…by mission’s end he once again takes the reigns, with faith and a renewed perseverance and confidence, of his responsibilities and duties to those within his power to help, just as he had sworn to do so when he took his uniform in the first place. All this feels likes excellent preamble to the even wiser and more storied Christopher Pike we will meet aboard Discovery a handful of years later…
Flash Forward:
Discovery 2.1 – Brother – Outline and Notes
Eclogue of Five Worlds 