Star Trek Revisits Captain Pike's Fate

Star Trek just had Spock revisit the fate of Captain Christopher Pike and set right a long-standing wrong committed by the Federation. SPOILERS for Star Trek Defiant #10 by Christopher Cantwell, Mike Feehan, Pow Rodrix, Maria Keane, Marissa Louise, and Clayton Cowles follow. Captain Pike's adventures as captain of the USS Enterprise are chronicled in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, Star Trek first introduced the character in the two-part Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Menagerie." That episode repurposed footage from Star Trek's unaired first pilot episode, "The Cage," which had Jeffrey Hunter playing Pike in the lead role before producers reworked the series and cast William Shatner as Captain Kirk.

"The Cage" saw the USS Enterprise, whose crew included Number One (Majel Barrett) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), visiting the Talos IV in search of a lost science expedition. They find a planet left barren by conflict but are soon imprisoned by the surviving Talosians, who have developed vast psychic powers. The Talosians have used their gifts to trap the lone survivor of the scientific mission, Vina, and now Captain Pike. They hope to use Pike and Vina to repopulate their planet. The Talosians use their psychic gifts to create a cage of illusion and memory with which they bind their prisoners. The Enterprise crew manages to rescue Pike. The Talosians try to tempt the captain to stay with promises of an ideal, albeit illusory, existence. Pike chooses to leave while Vina remains behind.

Star Trek: Discovery revisited this story in its second season, with Pike (Anson Mount) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) bringing Spock (Ethan Peck) back to Talos IV so that the Talosians could repair Spock's broken mind. Vina even assisted the Enterprise crew in tricking Section 31, which was in pursuit.

However, the definitive statement on Pike's fate has always been "The Menagerie." There, we learn that an accident badly scarred, incapacitated, and in need of a life-support-capable wheelchair to continue living, a fate Pike glimpsed and accepted in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Through the Valley of the Shadow." In "The Menagerie," Spock hijacks the Enterprise to return Pike to Talos IV, defying the Starfleet General Order 7, which forbids visiting the planet under threat of the death penalty. Spock's rogue actions allow Pike to return to Talos IV and Vina, where he lives out the remainder of his life in the fantasy previously promised by the Talosians.

Star Trek: Defiant sets things right for the Talosians

Star Trek: Defiant occurs a century after the events of "The Cage" and "The Menagerie." Fearing the Talosians' ability to manipulate the minds of Federation citizens, Talos IV remains the only planet in the galaxy still under General Order 7. However, the Defiant crew – under Worf's command, and with Spock as First Officer -- have been engaged by Starfleet as off-the-books bounty hunters in pursuit of the time-traveling charlatan Berlinghoff Rasmussen. As Rasmussen is hiding out on Talos IV, the Defiant crew has little choice but to follow.

The Defiant crew soon finds itself in a cage similar to the one that previously trapped Captain Pike. A Talosian tries to manipulate Spock with visions of Pike, first in his chair as seen in "The Menagerie," and then as he appears in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

This is Rasmussen's doing. He's managed to force a Talosian into doing his bidding. The ship Rasmussen stole from Starfleet is damaged, and he hopes to use the Talosian's mental powers to obtain the command codes needed to take the Defiant off of Talos IV.

This is a ruse by the supposedly captured Talosian, who wants to leave Talos IV of his own volition. His people have given up on rebuilding Talos IV and seek to explore the galaxy instead. However, General Order 7 has effectively erected a cage around the planet, preventing them from leaving. The Talosians hope to take control of the Defiant and use it to flee their world.

The Defiant crew eventually manages to escape after the Talosian turns on Rasmussen. Worf refuses to disobey General Order 7 by personally taking the Talosians away from Talos IV. However, he does send Ro Laren and B'Elanna Torres to repair the ship Rasmussen previously stole under the guise of preparing it for Starfleet's retrieval but knowing fully that the Talosians will have used it to depart Talos IV before Starfleet arrives. The Talosians have finally escaped their cage.

Star Trek: Defiant #10 is on sale now.