Christopher Pike (Star Trek)
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| Christopher Pike | |
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| Species: | Human |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Brown |
| Eye color: | Blue |
| Home planet: | Earth |
| Affiliation: | Starfleet |
| Posting: | USS Enterprise commanding officer |
| Rank: | Captain Fleet Captain |
| Portrayed by: | Jeffrey Hunter, Sean Kenney |
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This article is about Christopher Pike, the Star Trek character. For the author, see Christopher Pike (author).
Christopher Pike is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe. He appeared in the pilot episode The Cage as captain of the USS Enterprise, and was portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. The pilot was rejected and another was made; the character of Pike was dropped after Hunter decided that he did not want to continue with the series. The character also appeared in the episode "The Menagerie," which recycled footage from the pilot episode and dealt with the consequences of Pike's actions in the pilot on the planet Talos IV. For new footage of Pike as he was 13 years after the events of "The Cage", he was played by Sean Kenney.
Little is known about his personal life history given the limited information in "The Cage". He was from the city of Mojave in North America on Earth and at one point had a horse named Tango whom he liked to feed sugar cubes to.
Christopher Pike is the first captain of the Enterprise to be recognized in the official canon. An episode of the animated Star Trek series of the 1970s revealed that a Captain Robert April predated Pike; however, the animated series is not considered canon and, as of 2006, no canonical reference to April has ever been made.
When first seen, Pike and his crew were recuperating from a mission to the planet Rigel VII during which several members of the landing party were killed by the inhabitants, an incident that filled Pike with so much guilt that he considered resigning his commission with Starfleet and either going back to his home on Earth or becoming an Orion Trader, an occupation which included dealing in the buying and selling of Orion Slave Girls.
The Enterprise was en route to Vega Colony to drop off wounded crew members when it received a distress call from the survey vessel S.S. Columbia, lost 18 years previously. Pike ordered the Enterprise to the planet Talos IV to retrieve survivors.
However, Pike soon learned all but one of the survivors were faked by the Talosians in order to lure the Enterprise crew to Talos. The Talosians made every effort to provide sexual fantasies which might appeal to Pike using the only real survivor of the Columbia, Vina. After escaping the cell with the aid of his first officer Number One and Yeoman J.M. Colt, the Talosians showed Pike Vina's real appearance (as a disfigured older woman); the Talosians saved her life but had no guide on how to repair a human body. Pike requested that the Talosians restore her illusion of beauty and the Enterprise left Talos IV shortly after.
Pike's subsequent career has been covered in non-canon novels and comic books, but all that is known officially is that Mr. Spock served with Pike for more than a decade, implying Pike's tenure as captain of the Enterprise lasted at least that long, and that at some point prior to the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Pike turned over the captaincy of the Enterprise to James T. Kirk and was promoted to fleet captain.
A couple of years later (as indicated in "The Menagerie"), he was severely injured by an explosion from a malfunctioning warp reactor on a J-class starship. The delta ray radiation left him mute, badly scarred, and confined to a wheelchair. Upon hearing of his former captain's condition, Spock made clandestine arrangements (even at the risk of triggering the only death sentence left in Starfleet law) to take Pike back to Talos IV. There Pike was reunited with Vina and ended up living on Talos IV permanently, still crippled, but given the illusion of perfect health. His ultimate fate, however, remains unrevealed.
Spin-offs of the show have made references to Pike: for example, a "Christopher Pike Medal of Valor" was bestowed on Captain Benjamin Sisko for leading the recapture of space station Deep Space Nine during the Dominion War.
The only mention of a mirror Universe version of Pike came in the episode "Mirror, Mirror" where it was revealed that Mirror-Kirk had killed him for command of the Mirror Enterprise.
In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", the Mirror Universe version of Charles 'Trip' Tucker was, like Pike, exposed to heavy delta ray radiation; the alternate Trip even sports facial scars similar to the crippled Pike.
In the Paramount-licensed Star Trek comic book series published by Marvel, Starfleet Academy, Nog and some fellow cadets encountered a solid image of Captain Pike on Talos IV. Its origins were uncertain.
[edit] External link
- Christopher Pike at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek Wiki
| Captains of Star Trek vessels named Enterprise | ||||||||||
| Jonathan Archer | Robert April | Christopher Pike | James T. Kirk | Willard Decker | Spock | John Harriman | Rachel Garrett | Jean-Luc Picard | William Riker | Edward Jellico |
