Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 2 – “Children of the Comet”
Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) has a tragic future however Star Trek: Strange New Worlds hints that Pike can change his destiny – and if he does, would that break Star Trek canon? It was a reluctant Pike who agreed to renew his obligation as Captain of the Enterprise and lead a brand new five-year mission of galactic exploration. Haunting Pike is the imaginative and prescient he obtained in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 of his future the place he turns into horribly disfigured whereas performing a heroic rescue. Strange New Worlds posits the intriguing risk that Pike’s foreknowledge of his tragic destiny may permit him to make a distinct selection in order that he saves himself.
Star Trek: The Original Series‘ “The Menagerie” two-parter establishes that in 2266, Fleet Captain Pike (Sean Kenney) is critically injured whereas saving Starfleet cadets from a radiation leak on an outdated J-class freighter. Pike is bombarded with delta rays that depart him paralyzed and compelled to exist in a mechanized chair that solely permits him to blink a light-weight as soon as to say “sure” and twice to say “no.” Although Pike’s psychological capacities stay intact, his physique is desroyed and Chris is tragically rendered an invalid. To save his former Captain, Spock dedicated mutiny and stole the USS Enterprise to carry Pike to the forbidden planet of Talos IV, the place its psychic inhabitants may restore Chris to a world of illusions. Pike in the end spends the remainder of his life on Talos IV, concluding his story.
However, Strange New Worlds considers how Pike figuring out his future may truly permit him to change it. Although Pike has accepted his destiny that he should primarily die with the intention to save these Cadets sooner or later, his Number One, Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) urged him to not throw his life away so simply. Number One intriguingly argued {that a} doable purpose Pike was given a imaginative and prescient of his destiny by a Klingon time crystal was in order that he may make “a distinct selection, one which saves all of you.” Una believes that foreknowledge of the long run does not essentially lure Pike into that future. The Captain could even be misinterpreting his imaginative and prescient. It’s an enchanting argument on the macro degree as a result of it raises the chance that Strange New Worlds may have Pike select a distinct future altogether.
If Captain Pike does make a distinct selection in 2066 as a result of he has foreknowledge of what is going to occur, it might alter Star Trek canon. But that is the fascinating side of Strange New Worlds being a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series as a result of it raises potentialities that did not exist earlier than. Until Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds, it wasn’t canonically identified that Pike knew his future and who the Cadets had been he saved. Strange New Worlds episode 2, “Children of the Comet,” ends with Pike researching the long run Cadets, who’re nonetheless youngsters in 2259. Pike and Strange New Worlds provocatively wrestle with the idea that Pike can make totally different decisions that would not condemn him to a state of dwelling dying.
It’s certainly doable that additional down the road, Strange New Worlds may have Pike make a distinct selection that may save himself and the Cadets. But it is also doable that Pike’s future is locked and even when he makes an attempt to evade his destiny, he’s certain to finish up in that wheelchair, it doesn’t matter what. The latter would compound the tragedy of Captain Pike and amplify his silent struggling. Yet Strange New Worlds is a science fiction present set in Star Trek‘s universe of infinite potentialities. Is there a means for Pike to avoid wasting himself but nonetheless honor Star Trek canon? Or is Captain Pike doomed to his horrible future no matter how he tries to alter it? These are questions Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could reply sometime, however, for now, Captain Pike is within the prime of his life and has each proper to take pleasure in boldly going the place nobody has gone earlier than.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
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