Before Strange New Worlds, the idea of seeing Star Trek Captains Pike and Kirk together was not something that was likely to happen. The episode that ended his future on the show was the re-engineering of the original pilot. Strange New Worlds was able to put these two legends together.
Ask a Star Trek fan about their favorite captain and they are likely to give you a few noble reasons, but they are also likely to insult the other captains that have led generation after generation of Star Trek shows. The other captains we have met have to be flawed in some way in order for our pick to be as genuine as we think they are.
When the first season finale of Strange New Worlds introduced Captain Kirk a little early, I was surprised. Strange New Worlds was going to do its own hero a little dirty now that it had the rights to the most famous Star Trek character. How would the series, already doing so much in its finale, engage with the spectre of Kirk's legacy while putting him up against the captain we've come to know and love?
It almost looked like it would go there. Things take a turn for the worse as the run-through of the plot of Trek iconBalance of Terror reaches a climax from the classic episode. When the Bird of Prey is nowhere to be found after the two ships navigate around the comet, Pike hesitates and is rewarded with a surprise attack from the Romulans, which cripples the Farrwink. After the necessary decision to evacuate the Farragut crew to the Enterprise is made and Kirk thanks Pike for his assistance, the two share a private talk in pike's quarters.
We have seen Strange New Worlds heroes go against each other, but this is the most frank we have seen. Kirk is in the wrong for wanting to have been more tactically aggressive against the Romulans, as he ultimately is in "Balance." A lesser episode would have painted Pike as naive and Kirk as a base, impulsive streak that Starfleet officers should rise against. It would have made Kirk and Pike foils in this regard, but luckily it wasn't what we got. The two captains never argue over who has the right idea, instead they play Kirk and Pikes weaknesses as strengths. The bond of respect we see grow between them is due to the fact that they are both good men with two different approaches.
Both captain's approach didn't work out in this new timeline. The desire to bring the Romulans to the table and negotiate a peace not seen for a hundred years is noble, but it stops him from being as tactically minded as Kirk. Even though he comes so close to finding common ground for the Federation and the Star Empire to build on, his plan couldn't account for the fact that there's a bunch of other Romulans on that ship ready and willing to start a fight. Kirk, who plays up his aggressive tactics by marshaling a fleet of remote mining vessels to act as Federation backup, can't find an opening against the overwhelming aggression of the Praetor and her forces. Sometimes things just aren't going to go the way you planned, and sometimes failure is the only option, as both men's belief in the way out of their situation hit up against a wall. The Romulans are able to start a war with the Federation because the Enterprise and Kirk escaped badly wounded.
Despite that, Kirk and Pike parted ways at the end of the movie. Jim Kirk is as sore a loser as we can think of, but he never brags about how his way would have worked in their farewell. Kirk never gets lambasted over the fact that he didn't provide enough late or escalate the situation to the point it broke as bad as it did. They accepted that the other had different ideas with merit, and shared a regret that they didn't get to know each other sooner.
Strange New Worlds was able to navigate one of its biggest elephants with ease. You could just have the two of them.
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