Remembering Jeffrey Hunter's Captain Christopher Pike

In this video, we take a look at Gene Roddenberry's original vision for a Starfleet Captain. This is a love letter to the first on-screen captain of the USS Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike - with our friend and playwright Lee Shackleford.

[@fourthhorseman4531]

Hunter was great as Captain Pike!

[@cjones3710]

There was the excellent novel in numbered ones Vulcans glory maybe. DC Fontana I forget.

[@andyharris17able]

Fantastic Captain , and actor ...

[@rossydv]

3:22 great line “he’s better at this than he realizes”

[@avenuePad]

This is a fantastic round up of what The Cage and Pike is all about.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Thank you so much. I’m glad you enjoyed!

[@AfterTheSnap]

Absolutely insightful! I kinda wish we'd have gotten more of Hunter's Pike.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Yes! He unfortunately did too young. In and out of universe.

[@calkelpdiver]

@@DiscussingTrek, Yes, he did pass away, but that was after the second pilot was shot. He had film work he wanted to do and his wife pushed him in that direction. So when a second pilot was commissioned about a year later he was unavailable to reprise the role. Roddenberry knew Bill Shatner from other work they had done together and he was available, so... rest is history.

[@SBatts-vn1bd]

Interesting observation. Forbidden Planet? Absolutely! I've always seen that. Pike was more of a battle hardened and grizzled Captain that we've seen in those old war movies. He's exhausted and really angry at something. This pilot was just that a pilot! A rough sketch that needed to be polished up and eventually the show found it's legs and all the necessary moving parts. Shatner's energy particularly in the first season IMO was more of the balance that Star Trek needed in it's Captain.

[@user-sq4jz9up6g]

Hunter was great as Captain Pike Sad he died so young.but Kirk was Captain of the Enterprise

[@martykarr7058]

And he'd probably still be alive if he had been. You see, he was the only actor from "The Cage" that the Execs wanted back, but his wife convinced him to turn it down because he was a "movie actor", and just as stage actors originally looked down on movie actors, movie actors looked down on TV actors. Well instead of his career staying the same, it went downhill to the point he was doing low-budget movies in Europe. In the last one he did, there was a pyrotechnics stunt that went bad, but they said he was OK. Apparently he wasn't and had a fall at home (but only two stairs), was rushed to the hospital and was being operated on for brain swelling when he died on the operating table. So if he had done three seasons of Trek, he would have just wrapped the third season and not been in Europe, and possibly still alive today.

[@sarissegarra9072]

Excellent analysis of Captain Pike's character. I'm a long time Trek fan, being 67 years old and watched the very first episode, "Man Trap." Yet you brought out aspects of Pike's character I had not looked at. Terrific job!

[@thomasmoshier3920]

I’m 65 and I vividly remember setting in front of our RCA color TV watching the “Man Trap” in September 1966. Good times…..

[@brynpookc1127]

I’m 73 and remember watching when the first season aired in black-and-white. Had an argument about it with someone years later and had to apologize when I realized the show was in color, but we didn’t have a color TV yet. Had one by the second season because one of Dad’s westerns went into color and then we could suddenly afford it! 😂😂

[@DiscussingTrek]

@brynpookc1127 love this story!

[@robvangessel3766]

THE CAGE (along with a couple of early Trek episodes when the original series started) was very much like an Outer Limits in tone, style, and intelligence. I believe Robert H. Justman was the producer they brought in directly from Outer Limits to do The Cage, maybe partly accounting for the influence.

[@cdfreester]

You managed to put into the words the same reasons I love Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike and The Cage. To this day, The Menagerie is my favorite episode(s) of Star Trek TOS, for no small reason due to Jeff Hunter.

[@colinbarron4]

I agree. I love both ''The Cage' and 'The Menagerie.'

[@screenplayhouse4932]

I was 11 years old when I saw the DOCTOR MARTINI scene for the first time. It reached into my soul and taught me compassion. I cried for the suffering Captain. It has been a touchstone ever since. The music played in the background of this scene is reused many times in the series, and it HAUNTS us and Kirk. Many moons ago I wrote a spec script called HUNTER'S STAR, about the birth of Trek and it featured this scene within it. Perfectly capturing Hunter's weariness with the industry.

[@komradewirelesscaller6716]

Brings back happy Trek scifi feelings!

[@frank3508]

Captain Pike is an extremely intriguing character and was brilliantly portrayed by the late great Jeff Hunter. Much more grim and brooding than Kirk, and with a more professionally distant relationship with Spock, although Spock's stellar regard, unwavering loyalty, and utmost respect for him were all made abundantly evident in The Menagerie. It was also made very clear in that dual episode that Pike was already a Starfleet legend at that point and was considered one of the greatest starship captains in the entire history of the Federation.

[@windgraceproject]

This is so captivating. Now I need to go back and watch this on my crt tv. Preferably on vhs with poor tracking

[@MichaelAarons1701]

I wish Hunter as Pike could have shared at least one scene with Kirk just to see how they played off of each other.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Agreed

[@STho205]

They are both patterned on aspects of General Savage from "12 O'clock High". Pike the movie version. 1st season Kirk more the TV version. Oh that's also where Alexander Courage lifted the familiar trumpet/trombone chordal progression fanfare.

[@DiscussingTrek]

@STho205 wow. In gonna have to research this. What a bit of knowledge.

[@STho205]

@@DiscussingTrek Pike is pretty much the character of Gregory Peck's portrayal of a complex leader, doing an impossible deadly job, slowly eaten up inside, with only one confidant to council him. Kirk is initially very much like Robert Lansing's portrayal. Young, confident, decorated, fearless and ready to fight any pencil pushing bureaucrat that challenges him...to get the best out of his ship and men. He has two officers advising him. Oh he had two love affairs in only one season. One ended in her fated death. And as for the music....watch S1E29 "V for Vendetta"....Dominic Frontiere (Outer Limits composer) composed that fanfare in 1963 or 64.

[@STho205]

@@DiscussingTrek oh and that episode has an old friend in it as a guest star....it's on YT free

[@STho205]

That was well stated and displayed. Those were my exact impressions as a boy around 1973. I had seen Forbidden Planet on afternoon 50s movie "Big Show" programs... And had seen some Star Trek But when I got to The Menagerie I said....this is Forbidden Planet...The Next Generation. Pike was always my favorite captain...still is (when the new seeies is doing a serious screenplay and not a gimmick parody). I do like that New Pike is portrayed by a handsome actor that looks like Hunter. I also have noticed that in his quarters is an antique Astrogator from Earth Cruiser C-57....instead of an RCA console TV like the 1965 pilot.

[@grahamrich3368]

Excellent review of very early Star Trek -- thank you!

[@KatieF307]

Without a doubt, Hunter was great in the role. Leaps ahead of Shatner. I believe Anson Mount as the new Pike is terrific. I wish they would just commit to having more episodes with the present new world's cast. Okay, in the original series it is canon that Pike is injured, but what if they have an episode where it is revealed that this was just another mental image put in Pike's mind, and others by the Talosians? They could explain that this is what made this race so dangerous. Paramount has a great in in the Star Trek New Worlds, and they would be stupid to throw it all away. I honestly would rather see the STNW episodes or films more than I would like to see another iteration of the Kelvin timeline.

[@DiscussingTrek]

I never really thought about the idea of continuing the movies with SNWs, but that’s an awesome idea. With all new Trek winding down at this point, it seems like that makes a lot of sense. I’m hoping they do the new S31 movie justice too. I can’t wait to hear more on their path forward after Paramount finally makes a deal and things settle down a bit.

[@donovanbradford8231]

So D.C. Fontana wrote a book called Star Trek Burning Dreams and it was written well before even Star Trek Discovery out and it serves as an origin story along with a finale conclusion to Pike's story well worth a read if you're a Pike fan.

[@robvangessel3766]

Dunno if I agree with that. Shatner's aggressive energy was needed for an ongoing series. Hunter was great as Pike - but he'd have had to expand way more if he'd stuck around. No way I could see him stand alongside the cold, calculating Vulcan and find the broad contrasting chemistry that we got from Nimoy and Shatner.

[@maureencora1]

Good Pilot For Star Trek.

[@michaelhall2709]

No footage was colorized. For many years the only known copy of “The Cage” was Roddenberry’s personal black and white 16mm print that he used to show at conventions. During the Eighties a color print was discovered in a film vault at Paramount, which is the version that is seen on home video and streaming today.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Great insight!

[@stephenjackson6111]

I'd love to see some references to Pike's past in Strange New Worlds, including his horse Tango.

[@robvangessel3766]

In that era, Forbidden Planet influenced everyone - until 2001 came along. Those 2 films and Star Wars - for better or worse - are the 3 cinematic watersheds of modern sci fi, each a decade apart, by which all others in the genre would be measured.

[@festo512]

Who else did forbidden planet influence besides star trek?

[@robvangessel3766]

@@festo512 Lost In Space (their robot - my favorite of all time, btw - created by the same designer who did Robby the Robot, as well as the Jupiter 2). Twilight Zone. The Time Tunnel. Many B Sci Fi movies, including a Russian flick called First Spaceship on Venus (1960).

[@rah2287]

👍 👍 Fascinating 😉

[@user-fu9uj7gr4u]

It’s most unfortunate, but we lost one of the handsomest gorgeous guy like Jeffery hunter, he would’ve been the perfect captain of the USS enterprise William Shatner didn’t even come close. If only his wife didn’t object to him doing science-fiction Star Trek would’ve lasted a hell of a lot longer even in the Friday night timeslot I fell in love with him when I was 12 years old imagine liking a guy older than your own father, but then Jeffrey Hunter broke all the rules he appealed to women of all ages. Thanks for this upload you guys and love from all of us on Staten Island, New York.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Thank you so much. He definitely was gone too soon. I’m currently looking for more movies that he’s in.

[@Cyclonus12]

The fact that I'm a decades long Star Trek fan inescapably means I'm a huge fan of the many exploits of the Kirk character over so many years. But that being said, there's little doubt in my mind that if Star Trek had been approved to air after the first pilot, or if Jeffrey Hunter hadn't declined to return for the filming of the second pilot (and if NBC hadn't doomed it to the Friday night death slot, of course), that it would still have been successful. I remember when I was a kid in the late 80s, "The Cage" was offered as a special presentation to TV stations that were airing TNG. I saw a commercial for it, so I made a point of remembering when it was going to air, and even taped it on VHS. That was the first time I'd ever seen that content, as I had not yet seen the "The Menagerie" TOS episodes at that point. But even though I was only 11 or 12, the conversation between Pike and Boyce has has always stuck with me. So, count me among the people who say that given his physical similarities to John Hoyt, and also his undeniable acting talent, Jeffrey Combs should appear in a cameo as Dr Boyce in Strange New Worlds! 🙂

[@johnnybravado7141]

The Star Trek that could've been had Jeffery Hunter been kept on the show. Though William Shatner and Captain Kirk did make the show legend, I'm glad to see that they are finally filling the history gap between the two captains. It's just a shame that we have to first pass through the junkyard that is discovery before we can watch it.

[@anthonyg638]

So sad that JH passed away so young. When I watch Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Rick Dalton's story to me seems like Jeffery's.

[@TammyBeth1015]

Comparing Hunter's version to Mount's, my thesis is that Hunter's is dealing with serious PTSD from having lost (for the first time?) crewmen on the away mission on Rigel. There are some years between the events on Talos and Disco S2 and he's processed his trauma in the intervening years and become more comfortable with the burden's of the Chair, at least until he sees his future and has to deal with that too.

[@clwnprnce1837]

My thesis is that Strange New Worlds felt that a less assertive Pike would be more palletable for many in the modern audience. It is as though current Pike is simply a different character.

[@captainobvious9233]

He was great in the role, but I am glad they didn't keep him as Captain for the second pilot. He would have passed away in the middle or just after the 3rd season and we'd never have the Star Trek movies as they are today.

[@lisanidog8178]

Jeff Hunter was great in the 1955 movie White Feather that was a true story.

[@Trekfanwanda]

I have seen the Cage recently and I think DS9 comes closest to its complex themes- imo 🖖🏽

[@DiscussingTrek]

Agreed! Never thought about but you are exactly right.

[@mrtrek2117]

The orignal series is true Star Trek!

[@DiscussingTrek]

Mr. Trek! We love your work!

[@trhansen3244]

I wanted a Pike like the one in The Cage. Not one who cooks for his junior officers in his quarters wearing an apron who is surrounded by women, all of whom come off as smarter and more capable than him. Ortega would have been written up a dozen times for her blatant disrespect. She talks down to Spock as if he were an imbecile.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Yeah. They definitely made q choice to make Anson Mount more optimistic. Though he does do a fair amount of brooding himself.

[@clwnprnce1837]

The issue isn't the optimism of Anson Mount's Pike,but rather the clueless dad vibe he projects. He IS a good actor who's simply following the direction of the writing. ​@@DiscussingTrek

[@jv-lk7bc]

@@clwnprnce1837 that is the one flaw in SNW - not nearly as bad as in the other TV series -along with some problems in the not-quite-Vulcan Spock-T'Pring relationship. Some people still haven't quite figured out the difference beteen egalitarianism and female supremacy yet. Hopefully they'll chill a bit at some point.

[@donovanbradford8231]

A great breakdown for sure and to me I felt given what Star Trek Discovery started out with the Federation Klingon war we should have gotten Pike as captain and it lasted as a big part of his first five year mission so that when you get to Talso IV Pike makes more sense. Because Pike to me always in rhat episode came off as a war weary vet, who's seen many a friend and comrade dead both under his command and along side his ship and doesn't know if he can do this or not. Also given how many people while not perfect prefer SNW to Disc I think with Spock as the familiar character and a small background on Pike and Number 1 you'd have plenty to play with as far as new characters and possible stories go. If you want more of that kind of Pike I can recommend The Vulcans Glory and Burning Dreams books pre Disco era and written by Star Trek ver D.C. Fontana. Children of Kings is another great Pike crew book as well written as a prequel to the J.J. films but feels more like a TOS era story for sure.

[@brianbaker2455]

Star Trek would have been a vastly different show of The Cage had been accepted as the pilot, I don't think that the show would have been as popular or long-lasting as the show was. I also believe that Hunter as Pike would have been less likely to have been as successful as Shatner as Kirk. The Cage set up an exploration of the responsibility of command and the consequences of action that was never really explored until ST: The Wrath of Khan. It would have been a different show, but who knows if it would have been as successful?

[@silvereagle2061]

I have the "Roddenberry hosted" Cage pilot with some in colour (used in "The Menagerie"), and some in B&W (Not used footage).

[@tomcavanaugh5237]

I believe Anson Mount would be a lot better in the part, if he played it like Jeffery Hunter.

[@catsupchutney]

Bear in mind most of the writers remembered the second world war and were probably veterans.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Excellent point

[@ersikillian]

A leather bound medicine kit...

[@robvangessel3766]

Roddenberry never wrote on the level he achieved with The Cage (and The Menagerie), before or after. The Talosians addiction to using their telepathic powers, a brilliant metaphor for human self-destruction. Scriptwise and thematically, imo, the best Star Trek entry of all time.

[@festo512]

It wasn't a metaphor for human destruction. Rodenberry was saying talosians lived their lives through their prisoners the same way people live their lives through TV characters. Basically rodenberry was saying TV bad.

[@robvangessel3766]

@@festo512 Self-destruction in the sense that they became totally reliant on their addiction, hence the deterioration of their species. The reason Talos IV became forbidden for humans to visit. This was the whole point. The "tv bad stuff" is entirely your own interpretation, and that's fine. But it has nothing to do with Roddenberry's story.

[@festo512]

@@robvangessel3766 Here's a quote from Rodenberry: "The Talosian planet’s “ridiculous” premise of mind control annoyed a great many people, and the objection, of course, overlooks the fact that the most serious threat we face today in our world is mind control-such as not too long ago by Hitler, and what’s now exercised by fanatical religions all over the world and even here in our own country. Mind control is a dangerous subject for TV to discuss, because the yuppies may wake up someday and be discussing it and say, “Well, wait a minute, television may be the most powerful mind control force of all” and may begin taking a very close look at television. to avoid that possibility." Do you still disagree rodenberry was complaining about TV?

[@festo512]

@@robvangessel3766 Heres a quote from Gene Rodenberry: "The Talosian planet’s “ridiculous” premise of mind control annoyed a great many people, and the objection, of course, overlooks the fact that the most serious threat we face today in our world is mind control-such as not too long ago by Hitler, and what’s now exercised by fanatical religions all over the world and even here in our own country. Mind control is a dangerous subject for TV to discuss, because the yuppies may wake up someday and be discussing it and say, “Well, wait a minute, television may be the most powerful mind control force of all” and may begin taking a very close look at television." Do you still disagree Rodenberry was complaining about TV?

[@festo512]

@@robvangessel3766 How do you explain this quote from Rodenberry? "Mind control is a dangerous subject for TV to discuss, because the yuppies may wake up someday and be discussing it and say, “Well, wait a minute, television may be the most powerful mind control force of all” and may begin taking a very close look at television. Most executives would like to avoid that possibility."

[@silvereagle2061]

Great role, but wify put her foot down ... My husband won't do TV. He's a MOVIE STAR.

[@festo512]

You missed the main influence on the cage. Horatio hornblower. A captain who always doubted himself and was awkward around women. Thats why pike acts like that. Rodenberry was copying hornblower. How could you miss that?

[@colinbarron4]

Good point. I read that Roddenberry based the Captain on Hornblower.

[@Knightfall182]

Anson Mount's Pike is the polar opposite of how Jeff Hunter played it...... Almost as if the current Nu Trek regime find Hunter's more militaristic approach to Pike as too 'toxic' for today's liberal audience.

[@jimroyal]

Ah, those nefarious NBC liberals of 1966, who insisted that Pike was too subdued and introspective, which contributed to what they considered to be the overall slow and cerebral tone of the pilot. They wanted the lead to be more engaging, charismatic, and action-oriented, believing this would make the series more exciting and accessible to viewers. So even if Hunter had stayed around for the series, the character would have changed to be more like Kirk.

[@jv-lk7bc]

Mount is not the polar opposite of Hunter. Thats going too far.They did dick with the character too much, its true... but they didn't take it so far that they couldn't dial it back a bit and still pull it off. he's about 6 parts Hunter-Pike, 2 parts obsessed over seeing his fate [which, in fairness, Hunter-Pike never saw], 1 part Kirk, one part Neelix [thats the one that stings] Also, Hunter's Pike was not more militaristic. If anything, Hunter's Pike was less so ...about ready to quit just because one of his people got killed? Mount's Pike is getting ready to fall on a grenade to save his comrades...

[@stevendeans4211]

Jeffery Hunter made a great captain Pike in spite of a bit of a Christ complex.

[@terrylandess6072]

Hunter was obviously the best choice for film, but they weren't making a Star Trek Film.

[@ad61video]

The old stiff humorless Pike doesnt come close to Anson Mount, who delivers a far less combattive captain, he is amiable, flexible yet strong. So good call to go for Shatner who did a fine job.

[@jv-lk7bc]

Shatner's Kirk was well suited for weekly stories. Hunter's Pike would have been great in a few movies.

[@davidlancaster8152]

I like Discoverys Pike. Hunter is solid but stiff. The new Pike is more amicable.

[@DiscussingTrek]

Anson Mount certainly embodies a lot of Hunter. I like the slight differences in both performances!

[@davidlancaster8152]

@@DiscussingTrek 👍 agreed

[@jv-lk7bc]

a little too amicable to be a Starship captain. They're made of sterner stuff. because thats what the job requires.

[@davidlancaster8152]

@jv-lk7bc it was a new job. No paradigms. And his style is impeccable. But you like what you like. It would be like arguing over food. Your opinion is well stated. Fare well ( not like good bye, more like Do good) 😉

[@enceladus3318]

I had high hopes for Strange New Worlds, but the result was a poor retcon with a weak Captain in the center seat. Far from Hunter's Pike and Star Trek, we see a character who rarely takes command as his junior officers answer the call while their leader spoons up a salad in his luxury apartment quarters down below. 😒

[@thomasmoshier3920]

Never cared for Jeffery Hunter as captain of the Enterprise. Too introspective, too moody, too self absorbed. Actually rather dull. It never would have worked. The reason Bill Shatner’s Kirk worked so well is he played off Nimoy to perfection. There was absolutely no chemistry between Hunter and Nimoy. And very little between Hunter and Barrett. The whole episode to me is emotionless and stiff. Phil Boyce was a fine character actor but far too old for the part. Such conversations between Kirk and McCoy had more depth and feeling than those with Pike and Hoyt. The casting of TOS was lighting in a bottle. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy made Star Trek far more than Roddenberry’s “vision of the future.”

[@jv-lk7bc]

"The reason Bill Shatner’s Kirk worked so well is he played off Nimoy to perfection. " thats a good observation.

[@jv-lk7bc]

"conversations between Kirk and McCoy had more depth and feeling than those with Pike and Hoyt." thats pretty unfair. We had 80+ stories to fall in love with the one pair, only one for the other. Of course the one felt like more depth. 80 times more, to be exact.

[@captainspire9094]

Ignoring this key aspect of Pike, the poor too dang fast pacing and the constant need to revisit old stories and screw them up is why SNW was a dumbed down pointless series.

[@jv-lk7bc]

they do have an unfortunate revisionist streak. They really should have left "Balance of Terror" alone. that was not a high point.

[@cjones3710]

The only real Captain Pike. The re cast woke joke stinks