Not all Star Trek fans know all of Star Trek lore. Nor should they be expected to know all such things, that’s why this video on Captain Pike helps fans.
Full disclosure, I’ve seen as many episodes of the original series as I have Sex and the City. To which to say, not many. I’ve known about Captain Pike in passing for some time, and really got my first dose of him on the 2009 Star Trek filn. I thought he was ok, but he didn’t have the wholesome charm that Anson Mount exudes.
So when SyFy Wire posted another edition of Warp Factor about the doomed Captain, I had to tune in to see it. I wanted a consolidated dose of Pike’s history. In my viewing I ended up doing my own little digging and finding out that Pike was the original captain for the pilot of Star Trek, only to be replaced by James T. Kirk and William Shatner. He wasn’t the only guy to be cut from the show after the pilot, in fact only Spock was really retained upon reshoots.
Usually when that happens it’s a fun trivia note, lost to time. Like the original woman who played Katherine Janeway on Voyager, Geneviève Bujold. She was never seen in the canon and was left to the abyss of cut content left on the editing room floor. Not Pike, however.
In a season one episode, the two-parter Menagerie, Spock returns to Starfleet headquarters to aid his disfigured and hurt former Captain. The initial reveal of Pike was haunting, even for something 60 plus years ago. It’s still a disturbing image to look at. The backstory for how Pike ended up in a wheelchair was then told through the original pilot, originally called The Cage. They repurposed the footage for a whole story arc, which was a brilliant idea.
Even I keep learning new Trek lore details. So if a show like Warp Factor can help educate and bring newer fans up to speed, then fantastic. There are nearly 60 years of content to absorb and consume and sometimes you don’t want to have to sit through dozens of movies and hundreds of television and thousands of hours of content.
Now, the host of the video can be a bit….grating. Especially his “Crusher watch” gag that is in every episode and fails to produce any laughs from yours truly. That doesn’t mean he’s not well-spoken and entertaining. Sometimes less is more, though.
Give SyFy wire’s Warp Factor a shot, you might just enjoy it.