Fans have been split more than ever with the newest incarnations of Star Trek. Discovery’s first season gave most people a bad taste in their mouth, even if it got better in future seasons. Bad reviews, lawsuits, it was an ugly mess for a time. Then Picard got released, as did Lower Decks and now Strange New Worlds and Prodigy are on the horizon. It really feels like Strange New Worlds is going to try to appeal to the older fans by returning to the successful formula of the franchise. They’re even going to bring back a classic character, Christopher Pike, played by Anson Mount, to take the chair.
Mount has become one of the faces of the franchise, alongside Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham), and Doug Jones (Saru). When Mount takes the chair of the U.S.S. Enterprise as Captain Pike will signify a shift in tone for the franchise going forward.
Mount is going to be the guy that a lot of fans on both sides of the line will end up supporting. Why? Because he gets it.
The whole point of Star Trek is that anyone can achieve greatness if they put in the work. So it’s no surprise that Mount was quick to give the big beauty itself the nod that it deserved. After all, many will tell you that the most iconic thing about the original series is in fact the U.S.S. Enterprise. Now, there have been many ships to carry the name Enterprise, but the one that most people think of when they hear the name is the original one from the original series.
The show from the ’60s established the ship forever into the pop culture zeitgeist and now years later, there are light shows being done that depict that very ship.
Strange New Worlds isn’t just a return for some fans who may have wandered away from the product but a welcome home to the ship that started it all.