I have a few idiosyncrasies as a Trek fan and my choice for favorite Captain is definitely one of them. Sure, I dig Kirk, Picard, & the rest of the gang, but my fav has to be Captain Pike. Of course, you probably guessed it by my nom de plum. The original Christopher Pike was played by the late great Jeffrey Hunter and TrekWeb just recently reprinted excerpts from an interview featuring the "first" captain of the Enterprise. The original interview was conducted in 1965 and Jeffrey explains the premise of a scifi pilot that he's filming and how excited he is to be a part of it.

"We run into pre-historic worlds, contemporary societies and civilizations far more developed than our own" Hunter told the interviewer "It's a great format because writers have a free hand - they can have us land on a monster infested planet, or deal in human relations involving the large number of people who live in this gigantic ship."

"We should know within several weeks whether the show has been sold. It will be an hour long, in color, with a regular cast of a half-dozen or so and an important guest star each week. The things that intrigues me the most is that it is actually based on the Rand Corporation's projection of things to come. Except for the fictional characters, it will be like getting a look into the future and some of the predictions will surely come true in our lifetime."

"With all the weird surroundings of outer space, the basic underlying theme of the show is a philosophically approach to man's relationship to woman. There are both sexes in the crew and, in fact, the first officer is a woman"

Jeff was right about one thing, Star Trek has successfully predicted many technological and sociological advances, but unfortunately he passed away before getting to experience any of them. One question I've often wondered is; What would Trek have been like with Captain Pike in the chair? It probably wouldn't be quite the force it is today with its captain's untimely passing, but never-the-less it's something interesting to think about. I think that's probably why I dig Captain Pike so much. It's his unrealized potential.

Thanks to Miles from The Scifi Diner Podcast for sending me a link to the TrekWeb article.

(Source: TrekWeb)