THE TREKKING CREW
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS
SET PHASERS TO RETRO! MEET THE ENTERPRISING CAST CHARTING THE FINAL FRONTIER IN
WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD
anson mount
christopher pike
NCC-1701/1 COMMAND
Pike not only has a backstory but a forwardstory, too. How big a challenge is that to play?
It’s not common, is it? Usually you’re expected to do acts one through three, and here we have a situation where we know act one and we know act three, and we need to figure out act two. In playwriting, act two is where your problems are. I chose not to feel too much pressure because I’m a firm believer that a different era of a person is a different person. So we got to see Jeffrey Hunter’s early Pike, a very young, rather self-involved character in the midst of an identity crisis. I wanted to bring in a little more seasoned Pike, both as a professional and as someone who has a better sense of themselves.
What does that iconic uniform give you as an actor?
It gives me motivation to go to the gym! Those uniforms don’t hide anything. Eat a candy bar and suddenly there’s a candy bar shape on your stomach!
You get to meet Jim Kirk in season two.
How do you think that’s going to shake up your character?
Pike himself is not even aware of the significance of Kirk, right? He’s going to be discovering this character in real time, hopefully at the same time that we’re discovering what a young Kirk was like.
Are you tempted to follow William Shatner into space for real?
There was a time when I would have taken that ticket in a heartbeat but I am a new father and I don’t believe in taking unnecessary risks with my life right now! There are things I know I will never do and I am content with that. I am aware I will never ride a bull, I will never climb Mount Everest and I’ll probably never go to space. I mean, once the kids get shipped off to college, maybe we’ll readdress that. But by then maybe it’ll just be a very passé thing…
STARFLEET PERSONNEL FILE
REBECCA ROMIJN
UNA CHIN-RILEY
NCC-1701/2 COMMAND
How would you describe the dynamic between Number One and Pike?
It’s funny – alot of us don’t have full backstories for our characters, so as actors we sort of decide for ourselves. We have to take certain liberties when we’re working things out within scenes.