Star Trek: Strange New Worlds can hopefully give James Kirk and Christopher Pike some meaningful scenes together.
Say what you will about Star Trek 2009 and Star Trek: Into Darkness, some of the best scenes in those films came when they paired Chris Pine’s James Kirk together with Bruce Greenwood’s Christopher Pike. They had instant chemistry and while they were some of the better scenes, we saw so little of them together, that I, and hopefully others, are looking forward to seeing more of the two characters bonding.
We got a bit more of that in Strange New Worlds’ first season. In the finale, Kirk and Pike are forced to combat a serious situation together, as captains of their respective ships while being years into the future.
Eventually, that timeline was erased, but now season two offers up the potential for these two characters to once again bond and get to know one another, just under far different and more familiar circumstances.
James Kirk could benefit from Christopher Pike’s knowledge in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
The relationship between Pike and Kirk isn’t really explored in this timeline, instead, it was Spock and Pike who had known one another for years. Yet, being able to give Kirk and Pike some meaningful interactions could help develop them further.
We know that Kirk and La’an Noonien Singh have some interaction, and even some romantic subtext, at least according to the trailer, but giving Kirk an earlier connection with Pike would only further bolster their eventual encounter in the Original Series.
By no means should the two have some sort of buddy-buddy relationship, as that wasn’t evident in the original series episode The Menagerie, but to impart just a little bit of teacher-like wisdom to Kirk, something that’s tangible and can be traced back to the original series would be a treat for us fans.