Anson Mount has been tapped to play Captain Christopher Pike of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the soon-to-film second season of Star Trek: Discovery. Mount, who was born in Illinois and raised in Tennessee, counts among his many film and television credits Crossroads, Smallville, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Lost, Dollhouse, Straw Dogs and Non-Stop, as well as the recent series Hell on Wheels and Inhumans.
Discovery served up an initial reference to Pike in “Choose Your Pain,” when Saru instructed the computer to comb the Starfleet Database for the most-decorated captains. Pike’s name appeared on a list that included Robert April, Jonathan Archer, Matthew Decker and Philippa Georgiou.
And in the season finale, “Will You Take My Hand?” the crew of the Enterprise was on the way to meet their new captain when they received a distress call. Communications officer R.A. Bryce announced… “Hail’s from Captain Pike, sir.” Michael Burnham quickly connected the dots and commented, “It’s the U.S.S. Enterprise.”
Pike is an iconic Star Trek character, played by Jeffrey Hunter in the first Star Trek: The Original Series pilot, “The Cage,” and then in disfigured form by Sean Kenney in “The Menagerie, Part I and II.” Bruce Greenwood portrayed the alternate universe Pike in both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Star Trek: Discovery’s first season is available on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Space Channel in Canada. It’s available on Netflix in the rest of the world.