star trek anson mount hair

Anson Mount Sets a High Bar

On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , he's Starfleet's biggest-hearted captain. But here on Earth, he's a thoughtful and down-to-earth "country boy."

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This story contains spoilers for the season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

This small exchange about Captain Pike’s hair is a microcosm of Mount’s genuine humility and charm. Just like Pike wouldn’t take credit for the heroism of Spock ( Ethan Peck ) or the sacrifices of Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Mount isn’t comfortable receiving all the accolades. During our Zoom chat, Mount makes it clear that the success of Strange New Worlds (the most critically acclaimed Star Trek in years) is all thanks to the collaborative nature of the cast and crew. And if you think this Enterprise crew seems like a close-knit family, you’re right. “There’s a lot of trust and camaraderie,” Mount says. “We’re having an absolute blast. We really tickle the shit out of each other.”

Throughout Season One of Strange New Worlds , Pike’s leadership style manifests in family-style meals for the crew, usually cooked up by the captain in his quarters. But these Starfleet family dinners were not invented by the writers of Strange New Worlds ; instead, it came from Mount himself. “Anson started talking to us about how he creates consensus in his life over cooking,” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman tells Esquire . “So we instantly knew what to do with his quarters. In the same way, in a deeper and longer sense, there’s this interchangeability between Patrick Stewart and Jean-Luc Picard. This same thing is happening pretty quickly with Anson. He is Pike. We write toward Anson now.”

In the Star Trek pantheon, the character of Captain Pike holds the unique distinction of being frequently reintroduced . First played by Jeffrey Hunter in the 1964 unused Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” Pike was then reimagined as a tragic figure in the 1966 episode “The Menagerie,” played wordlessly by Sean Kenney. In the J.J. Abrams 2009 Star Trek reboot, Bruce Greenwood embodied an alternate older version of Pike. Then, in 2019, Star Trek: Discovery Season Two beamed in Mount, who at this point in the chronology is living between the events of “The Cage” and “The Menagerie.” Discovery recontextualized Pike’s tragic fate with sci-fi prescience, giving him terrible knowledge of what’s to come. Throughout Strange New Worlds Season One, that concept is revisited, letting viewers who are hazy on Discovery off the hook with another take on this emotional rollercoaster. In the Strange New Worlds Season One finale, Pike flirts with changing his own future history, only to be visited by his finger-wagging alternate future self, who drops him into a “what if?” where Pike remains the captain of the Enterprise and James T. Kirk heads up a different ship.

It’s a lot of Trekkie continuity to juggle in your mind, but even if this season of Strange New Worlds is your first Star Trek ever, you won’t be confused at all. Just before the airing of the finale, Esquire caught up with Mount to discuss the long and winding road of this reluctant space hero and what’s next for Season Two.

Let’s go back to Discovery Season Two. Right now, it seems like a forgone conclusion that Strange New Worlds would happen. But what was it like for you? When did you realize that your extended guest role on Discovery would become something more?

According to Akiva [Goldsman], when he joined Discovery and when they were preparing Season One, he'd only been told, “It's a Star Trek prequel.” He assumed that it was going to be the Pike show. He shows up and he’s like, "Wait, what? What's Discovery ?” He told [CBS], “Well, okay, but you really should do a Pike show.” Then the ideas were rolling around for Season Two, and I had been in discussion with him about Season One for [the villain] Captain Lorca. They hired Jason Isaacs, which I would have as well, but then they thought, “Well, maybe Anson will fit in this one, for Pike.” And that worked.

But they didn’t tell me those conversations [for a spin-off] were happening. Thank God. It was interesting that they were clearly making a tremendous expenditure for the Enterprise bridge set. Ethan [Peck] and Rebecca [Romijn] and I were all like, “It would be a shame to waste all that money." Eventually, we did some shorts. During one of the shorts, I called Alex Kurtzman to talk about something innocuous. I don’t even remember what it was. He phoned me back two days later and said, “Hey, I think we got a show.” They were originally going to try to fast-track it, but then of course the pandemic hit. We didn’t hear anything for a long time.

Back in 1964, Jeffrey Hunter’s version of Pike was a reluctant hero. You revisited that idea during this entire season of Strange New Worlds . Why are reluctant heroes so appealing?

It's something that Joseph Campbell pointed out, right? In his analysis of dramatic structure, there’s a call to adventure. Then the hero must refuse the call to adventure. I’m not sure what that’s about, but I have noticed it quite a bit. Maybe it has something to do with establishing humility. By the way, if you want to watch a perfect implementation of Campbell’s structure, watch Kung Fu Panda . I mean, it’s beat for beat.

Speaking of Campbell, I want to talk about Star Wars a bit. You got on social media a few weeks back and spoke out against the racism Moses Ingram received when Obi-Wan Kenobi debuted. You sort of unified the Star Wars and Star Trek fandoms, saying, among other things, “We, the Trek Family, have her back.” Why was it important to you to say this publicly?

I think it was partially how I was raised. I've never broke to bullies. I have a real stick in my craw about bullies and that's one side of it. The other side of it is that what we do is not only dependent upon a certain level of empathy—it requires an analysis and a covetousness of empathy. When I see that happening to somebody, I don't think that I should be the exception. I don't think it should have made headlines, honestly, that I spoke out. I think it should be expected. I think it should be the norm. What has started to become not necessarily acceptable, but expected in our culture—including the fandom culture—is really concerning to me, because I think that expectation is just a few steps down from acceptance. I don't think we should ever accept that kind of behavior and inhumanity, particularly by people who deal in humanity.

The news is bleak lately, particularly out of the Supreme Court. It’s a stark contrast to Pike in the first Strange New Worlds episode telling us that open and honest debate can get us to a point of peace and unity. Can we get there? How do you view the way forward?

It's very interesting to become a father in this time. I do think we have a tendency to look back at the earlier periods of our history with rose-tinted glasses. We grew up terrified that we would die in a nuclear holocaust, but we don't tend to remember that or talk about that.

But, yes. I think we will get through this. I think that there is such a thing as objective truth and the truth always comes to light, as we're seeing right now. As a culture, as a world, we're still struggling with this new way of being that happened quite suddenly. I don't think anybody really considered all the implications of everyone suddenly having a device in their hand that allows them to communicate with everyone in the world simultaneously and at a moment's touch. I often think that if you were to go back thirty years and tell people about this thing called Twitter, the consensus reaction would be, "Oh, wow. We'll really get together and be organized. We'll finally get over all of our problems.” But no—as it turns out, it just exacerbated our problems. Those who were marginalized are suddenly now a voting block or a disruptor block, or at times a mob. I think we’ll get there, but I think we're still struggling with how to deal with that.

I know another fellow Enterprise captain, Sir Patrick Stewart, often has smart insights into the state of the world. Did you get a chance to talk with him when you both cameoed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ? [Stewart cameoed as Professor X, from the X-Men , and Mount as Black Bolt, reprising his role from the series Inhumans .]

No, he was actually not there! [Laughs] He was shooting Picard . That was a very interesting shoot because my role came up in the reshoots. As you can imagine, several of the actors were quite busy. Patrick was not there. Chiwetel [Ejiofor] was not there. Krasinski's contract wasn't even done. He wasn't there. We had actors playing those roles, knowing that they were going to either be substituting their shots or transplanting faces. I've never done anything quite like that, and I was in disbelief of how well it cut together.

More tricky camera work: in the Season One finale of Strange New Worlds , you played opposite yourself. I think you really nailed this older, alternate timeline version of Pike. But how? What was your process?

Mostly I didn't want to overdo it, because if you talk to most people who are in their seventies or eighties, they will tell you that they still feel like they're in their thirties, other than a few kinks here and there. For whatever reason, I'm what they call an outside-in actor. I start with the body. I just wanted to find the places where the movement was not as easy and the voice was different. It was necessary to differentiate it a bit because I had scenes with myself. It was just necessary for the clarity of the scene. I wanted a voice that sounded like it had given up a little bit after lots of emotional turmoil. So I thought, what would my voice sound like if I had spent a lot of time sobbing and screaming?

In the season finale, Captain Pike meets Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley) in an alternate future. You have this great, understated moment where you just say, “Tell me about yourself, Jim.”

I really love that scene because it was so well written. The writers know where to trust that the audience can do its own work. They don't have to overtly say Pike gets it or is told that Jim should have been in the chair and he's going to end up becoming the captain of the Enterprise . It’s just simple: tell me about yourself . That conveys everything we need to know. Pike understands that his older self wasn’t just showing him he’s the wrong guy in the wrong place. It’s also about showing him who the right guy would be. Pike is thinking, “If this guy is going to carry on my legacy, if he's going to take on my baby, I want to know something about him and see what's beyond the bluster.”

For you, what’s the essential difference between Pike and Kirk?

There are very few things that I’ve learned in making a long-running TV show. But one trick I’ve learned is that no matter what you do, you’re always putting down footprints that you’re going to have to tread again. So, in the beginning, you try to be careful not to press those footprints too deep. You go in saying to yourself, "Okay, just be careful of how much you think you know."

There are very few things that I know for sure. But one thing that I told [showrunner] Henry [Alonso Myers] is that at the end of all of this, we think the defining quality of Kirk is machismo or bravado. The defining characteristic for Picard, perhaps, is intellect. I would like that defining quality for Pike to be the heart. That’s the best I can put it. Hopefully, Pike can give Kirk just enough of that heart for Kirk to avoid making the kinds of mistakes that he makes in this episode.

How will Pike be different in Season Two of Strange New Worlds ?

I would say he’s more resolute after the finale of Season One. He tried out the idea of having his cake and eating it too. It didn't work, and strangely, when he realizes there’s no honorable way out, that’s a relief. The older Pike made it very clear: you still have a choice. But to somebody like Pike, it isn’t a choice. So this is a choice that almost makes itself, and it is a tremendous relief. He doesn't have to worry about it anymore. His job now is to make every day count as much as possible. There's a lot of freedom in that.

How long can you play Captain Pike? It’s a forever thing with Star Trek, right?

I think that's going to depend on where my daughter decides to go to college. [Laughs] If she decides to go to a state school, that's one answer. If she decides to go to Harvard, that's another answer. To be honest with you, this job is a dream come true. But to give the Trek culture something back, I think there has to be a significant body of work to be on par with the Kirk era and the Picard era. Otherwise, I think they will feel shorted.

Personally, I love this job. I'm still trying to convince them of ways to get the job moved outside. I love working outside. I have two problems with the sound stage: first, it’s a black box theater where you’re not just doing an hour and a half play. You’re going in for twelve to fourteen hours, and that can be difficult for a country boy like me. The second reason is a bit more idealistic. I think sound stages are constructed largely to remove chaos from the artistic process, and I firmly believe chaos is an essential ingredient to the creative process. But that’s a high-level problem.

To be clear, I'm really happy. I love our creative team and Paramount has treated us exceptionally well. As you know, we've taken some big swings on this show already. I've just been gobsmacked at how many times the network has gotten it. Even just something like the comedy. Comedy is a risk!

But all of Star Trek is risky, right?

Exactly. Having a core set of values is at times a risk. Akiva [Goldsman] said recently during an interview we did together that “ Star Trek has never been value-neutral.” The easy way for the show would be to be value-neutral, especially right now. But that’s just not what Star Trek is.

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Anson Mount talks Strange New Worlds , fan love for Pike, and having the best hair quiff on TV

The star who plays Capt. Christopher Pike knows he's got great hair.

Executive producer Akiva Goldsman , the man who seems to have his hand in everything Star Trek these days, shares a few words before screening the first two episodes of Strange New Worlds , the latest spin-off series, at the New York City premiere April 30.

He says he believes the universe of Trek has two owners. One is creator Gene Roddenberry, and the other is the collective fans — some of which were in attendance at the AMC Lincoln Square theater, as they mingled in with the cast in their own Starfleet uniforms.

The existence of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , which premiered today on Paramount+, is owed entirely to fans like them. Goldsman and his fellow producers relayed to the gathered crowd that the overwhelming love Trekkies had for actor Anson Mount 's performance as Captain Pike when he first debuted on Star Trek: Discovery in season 2 made the new spin-off possible.

Mount is still floored by all of this days after the premiere. Calling in from Los Angeles on a lunch break during filming of the second season of Strange New Worlds , he says, "I've never had a reaction like that to anything that I've done, and the results of that response have literally changed my life."

Mount speaks more with EW about the fan response to Pike, how Strange New Worlds dives deeper into a major character revelation from Discovery , how The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley was cast as a young Captain Kirk , and, of course, how he just might have the best hair quiff on TV at the moment.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I was talking about you to a friend the other day and we came to the conclusion that you might just have the best hair quiff on television. What do you think about that? ANSON MOUNT: I've been hearing a lot of comments to that effect. That's thanks in large part to our resident hair guru, Daniel Losco.

So what's the secret to the Pike hair? You'll have to ask Daniel.

You haven't tried to replicate it yourself at home? I don't think I could. Honestly, my wife makes fun of me because I hate grooming myself, and so my hair is often in a tangled mess. And my daughter seems to be starting to take after me.

I had seen you briefly from afar at the Strange New World 's New York premiere and after party. Did you get a chance to enjoy yourself? Yeah, we did. We had a really great time there. Most of us had already seen [the show], but to see it projected [in a theater] and to really get to take in the amount of work that they did in postproduction, on CG. And also we had a lot of fans there and to get to see them enjoy it was super special.

Somebody mentioned during the premiere that the fan response to you and to Pike on Star Trek: Discovery season 2 was so tremendous that the producers had to explore a standalone series. What did it feel like to know that? It was all kind of mind-boggling to me, to be quite honest. I've never had a reaction like that to anything that I've done, and the results of that response have literally changed my life. It not only gave me a job during a very difficult time for actors, but it gave me the brevity and the opportunity to have a family, and the courage to have to go forward with having a family. Not every actor is in that position. When you choose to go this path, that is a luxury, not a given.

How far into your work on Discovery did the offer come through to headline your own Pike show? Oh, we were well done with filming. This was as we were in pre-production for the Trek shorts, and it wasn't even an offer. It was just a conversation between me and [executive producer] Alex Kurtzman. He had a soft green light to write a pilot. And then it was a blur of a couple of years after that, between development and COVID. I can't really tell you what happened next, but it is over three years since that conversation happened.

Did it feel like a major shocker to you just being asked to return to this character that I don't know, maybe you thought was done after Discovery ? Was it a shock? Not necessarily, because there had been talk amongst us that it would be a great basis for a show. But that was all in the abstract. So, I guess the reality of it was a shock. For a long time and they didn't really have me or Ethan Peck or Rebecca Romijn under option. So, I started to think maybe they were going to let this go. Then, finally around spring of, I guess it was 2020, they called us and wanted to work out a deal.

I've talked to a lot of critics since the New York premiere and, especially, the ones who love Star Trek in general are really into this show. Many have said that Strange New Worlds feels like it's channeling the original Trek in many ways. Was that the goal for you guys on this show? I'm not sure. I'm not really in a position to make things my goal. But I did know that I wanted to do an episodic Star Trek show. That was very important to me. It was also important that we do something that is based on exploration and fun. I think that everybody was on board with that as well. There was just something in the zeitgeist that people were craving.

I watched the premiere as I'm simultaneously watching Picard with Patrick Stewart. Picard has a line in season 2 where he says, "I refuse to accept an outcome that hasn't already happened." And Pike in Stranger New Worlds is very consumed with and haunted by the vision of his own death that he's had in Discovery. How deep are you guys going to dig into that lingering question of, will this fate actually come to pass? I didn't think we could really do the show without delving into that. The easy thing to do, would've been to just sidestep it or ignore it because it's not the easiest character arc to try to figure out. But to the writer's credit, they decided to tackle it head on and we deal with it throughout the season.

The show feels like a "new world of the week" where each episode explores a completely different planet or species. Do you think there are bigger, more overlying themes that define the journey of season 1? It's sort of a baked in the cake that it is optimistic, first of all. But also that there's something inherently curious in our species. There's something about us that wants, that needs to explore. When NASA says, "We need billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars to put a man on the moon or on Mars," there's a reason that we all kind of go, "Yeah, that makes sense. Let's do that." If you look at it on paper, it doesn't make any sense at all. But there is something in us that needs to reach out to the unknown, to the other. I think that that's the meat and potatoes of Star Trek.

Before Star Trek , you were notably on this other genre show Inhumans . I was curious what your big takeaway from that experience was. I'm not going to talk about Marvel right now. No, sorry to say. I need to support Star Trek in this moment. And obviously there, I can't speak out of school right now about certain things.

It must feel good, though, that you are on a show now, like Star Trek , that has so much fan power behind it. What did it feel like standing in that theater in New York for the first two episodes with fans mingled in costume, ready to experience this? It was a culmination of a lot of things. It's hard to believe that it had been three years of planning and working and finessing. But also, it just felt good to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor together as a cast. I think actors are the kinds of people that really like to give gifts. There's something in us that really wants to peek out from behind the curtain before the show to see the audience. When you have a show that you know they're going to enjoy, it feels like when you get that perfect present for the right person and you can't wait to watch them unwrap it. It feels a little bit like that. And not to be overly confident, but I feel like we've got the right present.

We got the announcement semi-recently that Paul Wesley is going to be playing a younger version of Kirk on this show. Have you had a chance to work with him yet? Yeah. Paul's great. We've had a lot of fun. We welcomed him right into the family immediately. Good guy, and I thought he was well cast.

Is there anything that you can tease maybe about what fans can sort of expect from him? Literally nothing. I can't. It's in my contract to get a finger cut off if I tell you, brother.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episodes, Ranked by Captain Pike’s Hair

Critics and fans alike have hailed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as one of the best Star Trek shows in decades , and there’s really no question why. It’s not the welcome return to Star Trek’s mission-of-the-week structure or the emotionally powerful character moments entwined in each episode. No, it’s Captain Christopher “Daddy” Pike’s hair.

There’s a wise old saying I just made up: The hair makes the space captain. Which begs the question, How did Pike decide on the floof-with-a-pouf for his workaday look? Did he replicate some TRESemmé Mega Firm Control Level 5 Hair Gel one day, grab a round brush, and style his way into Starfleet history?

This question, alas, may forever be unanswered. Pike’s hair, however, continues to stand tall. “He’s No. 1 on the call sheet,” Anson Mount — who plays Pike’s hair — said in reference to his ’do during the Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic-Con. “The hair memes have been fantastic . And really, I don’t know what else to add to that.”

Wherever those luscious locks boldly go, the crew of the USS Enterprise — and we fans — will follow. In recognition of Pike’s hair’s valuable contribution to the United Federation of Planets, we’re ranking Strange New Worlds episodes solely by how incredibly coiffed the Captain’s tresses are. Read on to find out which episodes have pouf for days, which ones could be zhuzhed up a bit, and the few that should be vacuumed up off the salon floor.

10. Episode 108: “The Elysian Kingdom”

It’s hard to give a low ranking to an episode that has Pike wearing medieval garb, especially when he gets the doublet from a telepathic sentient cloud that makes almost everyone on the Enterprise think they’re a character in a fairy tale. Yes, the captain’s outfit is fly and deserves respect. But Pike’s hair is the true villain of the story — the ​​flat middle part does the impossible by making the captain’s chiseled visage look foppish. A great feat, granted, but it’s a hairdo parted poorly.

9. Episode 109: “All Those Who Wander”

Lots of folks die in this episode. Lots! And it’s all because Gorn babies are bursting out of people Alien- style and subsequently killing everyone they come across. What’s even more tragic is that Pike clearly doesn’t bring so much as a comb with him on away missions, and his tresses become progressively uncoiffed as he watches members of his crew die around him.

8. Episode 107: “The Serene Squall”

Pike’s mane gets a bit tangled after he’s taken hostage by some ne’er-do-well pirates who, among other things, clearly lack the meticulous hair regimen that the captain maintains. Even though Pike seems to be enjoying his captivity to some degree — he even gets to cook a scrumptious stew! — his hair flops when faced with the confines of imprisonment.

7. Episode 104: “Memento Mori”

The Gorn really know how to take the pouf out of Pike. This is the first time the captain faces the Gorn, and something about the lizard-like aliens that use other living things as food supply and incubators really deflates the ’do. The Gorn are willing to do anything — even sacrifice one of their ships! — to suss out and destroy the Enterprise . One other thing that appears to be sacrificed in this episode is Pike’s grooming time. The Gorn, it seems, is one of the sole species in the known universe that can bring the Captain’s hairdo down.

6. Episode 101 “Strange New Worlds”

The show’s premiere episode starts with Pike on Earth pulling off a strong IDGAF look while he cozies up with his special Starfleet friend, Captain Batel (aka Wynonna Earp ), and mulls over the knowledge that he’s gonna die a horrible death in a few years. Even though he clearly left his hair wax on the Enterprise , Pike’s downstyle suggests the greatness that lies within his locks.

5. Episode 103: “Ghosts of Illyria”

Pike and Spock spend most of this episode trapped on an abandoned colony once inhabited by genetically altered beings. I don’t know what’s in the air there (Editor’s note: It’s those same genetically altered beings turned into charged particles), but dealing with potential death takes some of the poof out of Pike’s floof.

4. Episode 105: “Spock Amok”

Pike’s hair gets a little extra oomph when paired with the classic green tunic reminiscent of the kind we saw Kirk wear back in The Original Series — a show that first aired in our past but, in the timeline of the Star Trek franchise, is in Pike’s future. Yes, it’s confusing, but Pike’s locks are up to the challenge and seem to have an empathetic wave to them that goes well with both his green ensemble and his diplomatic efforts.

3. Episode 106: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”

Pike reconnects with an old flame in this episode, and even post-coitus, not a strand is out of place. While we don’t see details, there’s no doubt that Pike is a sensitive lover, but given that his bouffant remains immaculate after boffing, it appears the captain is sensitive of his hair when getting his groove on. His tresses don’t even falter when Pike finds out that the lady he’s been lovin’ supports killing a child in order to keep the cogs of her civilization moving ever forward. Few have hair made of sterner stuff.

2. Episode 110: “A Quality of Mercy”

In the season finale, we get to see the ghost of Pike’s future when he’s an admiral with regrets. The years when he avoided an untimely death via radiation poisoning treated Pike well, and his hair still stands tall, even though he has lived through a major war with the Romulans. What’s more, it’s a far stronger hairdo than the one we see sported by a certain James T. Kirk when the two meet in a classic Star Trek time jump and alternate reality scenario. In this episode, we get Daddy Pike wearing his oh-so-tight apron while cooking up some pasta for Captain Batel. His hair, of course, is always on point, even after a bout of lovemaking, cooking, or trying to form a connection with the war-weary Romulan captain.

1. Episode 102: “Children of the Comet”

Strange New Worlds really takes off in the season’s second episode, and Pike’s hair takes off with it. The floof-and-poof is a bit wild in this one — no doubt reacting to Pike’s frustration over having a run-in with a religious group that thinks a comet is a sentient divine being. Pike isn’t having it, and his hair writhes itself into an artfully twisted wave as he deals with the comet’s devotees and, later on, contemplates fate’s seeming immutability as the comet appears to predict the future.

It was this episode when the Captain’s hair fully came into its own, and I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of mousse a replicator could spit out in Stardate 2912.4. Pike’s hair is a remarkable phenomenon — one worth following as it explores new worlds and new civilizations and boldly goes where no pompadour has gone before.

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Screen Rant

Star trek: captain pike's hair gets spoofed in new variant cover.

Star Trek's Captain Pike's amazing hair was a source of fascination, and a new variant cover pokes gentle fun at it.

A forthcoming variant cover for IDW Publishing’s new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds comic gently pokes fun at Captain Pike’s amazing hair. This December, the publisher will unveil the first comic book series based on the hit show Strange New Worlds, airing on Paramount +. The series, titled The Illyrian Enigma , will bridge the gap between seasons one and two of the show, and a variant cover for the first issue by artist Chris Fenoglio captures Pike’s pompadour in all its glory.While not the first captain of the Enterprise chronologically, Captain Pike was the first viewers met. Pike was featured in “The Cage,” the very first Star Trek pilot, which was rejected by the network. However, they felt there was potential in the show and commissioned a second pilot; unfortunately, by the time the second pilot, titled “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” was filmed, Pike actor Jeffrey Hunter had moved on to greener pastures and the captain’s seat went to James Kirk. Pike would make appearances in the original Star Trek series as well as the Kelvin movies. In Star Trek: Discovery’s second season, Pike (now played by Anson Mount), temporarily skippered Discovery for a mission of galactic import. Mount’s interpretation of Pike proved immensely popular with fans, and a show, titled Strange New Worlds , was created. The show has been a massive hit for Paramount+ and IDW is releasing a tie-in comic that sets the stage for the show’s second season. Related: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Repeats a Great Discovery Idea Artist Chris Fenoglio , who recently illustrated the Lower Decks comic from IDW, unveiled his variant cover in a Twitter post. The cover features a close up of Pike’s head, with a special focus on his hair; Pike is drawn in Lower Deck’s unique style . Throughout Strange New World’s first season, Pike’s hair was a subject of fascination for Star Trek fans, inspiring countless memes. Fenoglio revealed the cover was unsolicited; that is, he drew it and submitted it to an editor, blind–and they chose to run it. The cover reveal drew enthusiastic responses from fans.

Captain Pike Redefined Star Trek

Anson Mount’s interpretation of Captain Pike has resonated with fans, who helped make Star Trek: Strange New Worlds one of the most popular shows in the world. Mount’s Pike is a challenge to the concepts of toxic masculinity, showing how to be both a leader and vulnerable at the same time. Fans watched Pike struggle to find his footing in light of learning his ultimate fate during Discovery’s second season finale–and it made for compelling television. While fans cheered for Pike, they were also smitten with his amazing hair–an on-point pompadour. The pompadour inspired countless, good-natured memes across the fandom and Fenoglio taps into it with his variant cover for The Illyrian Enigma . Furthermore, Fenoglio’s cover keeps a Lower Decks tradition of spoofing Star Trek going as well.

Captain Christopher Pike has gone from a one-off character to one of the most beloved across the entire Star Trek franchise and a variant cover for IDW’s new Strange New Worlds comic pokes fun at his amazing hair.

Next: Strange New Worlds Will Finally Reveal a Long Hidden TOS Planet

Source: Chris Fenoglio

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.

• Akiva Goldsman
• Alex Kurtzman
• Jenny Lumet
• Anson Mount
• Christina Chong
• 1K User reviews
• 38 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 32 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Captain Christopher Pike …

• La'an Noonien-Singh …

• Lt. Erica Ortegas …

• Una Chin-Riley …

• Nurse Christine Chapel

• Nyota Uhura …

• Dr. M'Benga

• USS Enterprise Computer …

• Lieutenant George Samuel 'Sam' Kirk

• Jenna Mitchell

• Captain Batel …

• Admiral Robert April

• Captain James T. Kirk …

• T'Pring
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

IMDb's 2024 TV Guide

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• Trivia Bruce Horak , the actor who plays Hemmer, is legally blind, just like his character's species, the Aenar, who are also blind.
• Goofs There are some rank insignia mistakes. Number One is introduced as "Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley" yet she is wearing the rank insignia of a full commander: two full stripes. A Lieutenant Commander's rank insignia is a full stripe under a thin stripe (in TOS it is a full stripe and a staggered stripe). It is not uncommon for a ship's first officer to be a Lt. Commander if they have not been in the position long. Spock at this point is a Lieutenant but he is wearing Lieutenant Commander's stripes; a Lieutenant just has one stripe. La'an is the ship's chief of security and the ship's second officer. She is also wearing Lt. Commander stripes but is addressed as a Lieutenant, but it would make more sense for her to be a Lieutenant Commander. Either way both of their rank insignia are not matching the rank they are addressed by. Ortegas is addressed as a Lieutenant but is wearing Lieutenant Commander's strips. A Lieutenant Commander may be addressed as a Commander or Lieutenant Commander but never as just a Lieutenant, so either her rank insignia or the manner she is addressed by the rest of the crew is in error.

[opening narration]

Captain Christopher Pike : Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

• Connections Featured in Nerdrotic: Woke Hollywood is FAILING, and That's a Good Thing (2022)

Technical specs

• Runtime 52 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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Interview: Anson Mount On How Every ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Episode Is Its Own Story

| September 29, 2021 | By: Anthony Pascale 32 comments so far

The first season of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds wrapped up production two months ago. Although Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck) all appeared in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, this show set onboard Pike’s Enterprise promises to be more akin to the original Star Trek , as we discussed in our exclusive Star Trek Day interview with executive producer Akiva Goldsman . At the same event, TrekMovie also had a chance to talk with series star Anson Mount about the look, style, structure, and production of the show.

A big reveal from the characters video was some visual changes in the uniforms and sets. Are you involved at all on the production side for this show, did you have any input in the new look?

No. I am a hired gun. I leave those decisions to people smarter than myself.

But as a superfan yourself, what did you think about it?

I think it’s great. I think everybody in the design departments did an extraordinary job of marrying the traditional Trek look with something new. But really, the mid-century modern aesthetic is still there and fits in so beautifully with what they’ve done. Especially [Production Designer] Jonathan Lee ‘s work with the sets. And I can’t wait for people to see the Captain’s quarters because they are the coolest Captain’s quarters that have ever been built. [Editor’s Note: See panel recap for more details on Pike’s quarters ]

Anson Mount speaks to TrekMovie at Star Trek Day

Since before production even began, you have talked about how this show is going to be different from Discovery and fit more with The Original Series . Now that you have finished all ten episodes, can you talk about how that manifested?

We wanted our show to be more or less a throwback in every way we could. And that started with making room for the big idea of the week, which meant more of an episodic structure. And so every episode is a distinct story. It’s not that the characters don’t grow or change–that definitely happens. But the star of the show is the ship and the big idea of the week. I like to think of it as a two-hander that way.

With “New” in the name, are we seeing something new every week? Or is it a lot of familiar stuff, like aliens we’ve seen before and that kind of thing?

I’m going to let you discover that on your own. [laughs]

What is it like shooting on the new virtual set?

Good question, I’m glad you asked that. They call it an AR Wall, which I guess stands for augmented reality. It’s wild, man. Imagine an entire soundstage where the walls are all high-definition screens and there’s a ceiling projection. So the CG is done beforehand which makes it a much, much easier day of work for us, not that we needed it to be any easier than it was. Our crew works their absolute tails off for us. And this is just another extension of how much support that we’re feeling across the board. And it’s really interesting to be in these environments because it’s a whole other level of filmmaking than I’ve ever seen before.

Any idea of a premiere date?

Your guess is as good as mine, brother.

Virtual set being used by Discovery and Strange New Worlds (American Cinematographer)

ICYMI – Star Trek Characters Video

In case you missed it, here is just the character reveal video. (And check out our article breaking down all the big news .)

Strange New World s is expected to arrive in 2022. It will be on Paramount+ in the United States, and in Canada it will air on CTV Sci-Fi and stream on Crave. There is no word yet on where fans outside of the USA and Canada will be able to see Strange New Worlds.

More Star Trek Day

There is actually still some more to come from Star Trek Day, including more red carpet interviews, so keep reading TrekMovie for our full Star Trek Day coverage .

Keep up with the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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As someone who rewatched every show this year I do have to say the seasons that worked the least for me out of all the shows were Discovery and Picard because they are just too connected and neither show stuck to landing. I just rewatched Picard a few days ago and while my view of the show is a little more positive, I was watching it thinking man I should be MUCH more into this show than I am. I love being back in the era and with those characters again. But because I knew where it was all going (and nowhere great) it just wasn’t a fun experience to watch it even though I certainly liked a lot of the episodes and it was only ten of them. But I just wasn’t very invested in it because the finale mostly stunk.

On the other hand I had no problems watching all the classic shows, even when their seasons weren’t always great because EVERY season if every show there were always a couple of jewels you can find. And there were actually many I just forgot about, definitely with Voyager. and TOS (mostly season 3). But good or bad, I was always looking forward to the next one because the story could literally be anything and that’s why Star Trek is so addicting to so many of us, the diversity of ideas episode to episode.

But with DIS and PIC, its a lot less of that frankly. Again they both have GREAT episodes, not denying that, but when its all tied to the same story and you didn’t love it, it just doesn’t hold your interest like classic Trek does IMO. I can watch those shows over and over again and do! And its another reason why I’m enjoying LDS so much. You don’t know what you will get episode to episode either.

So I’m happy SNW is going back to that style. It doesn’t mean we’ll get a great show, but hopefully one where you can rewatch more in the future even if its not great.

Completely agree, couldn’t have said it better myself. I am actually very despondent at the massive serialisation of all series now. Doesn’t matter what it is, everything is now ‘interconnected’ in its season or even the entire series.

I really hope that SNW gets more episodes for season 2, as 10 just ain’t enough.

I’ll be very honest, when I first heard Discovery would be serialized its first season, I was very excited. But then I watched it. The Dominion war saga it was not. ;)

Hell.. The Xindi saga it was not.

Yeah I agree. I have not been able to rewatch a single episode of DISC or PIC, just because it’s hard to watch a fragment of a story. And it is especially difficult if that fragment is part of a larger story that ultimately is not satisfyingly resolved. It’s probably why I’ll never go back to rewatch GOT.

I love watching random eps of all the other series’ every other day, and I think that’s where the sense of familiarity and nostalgia comes from for me. It is that experience of being able to have an ongoing relationship with something, even if it comes from the past. It keeps the enthusiasm for Trek well and truly alive as it has this limitless potential to entertain and comfort.

I cannot wait to be able to rewatch episodes of SNWs and hopefully build that type of viewing relationship with the show!

This is an excellent post, Trekutopia. With perhaps the exception of “New Eden,” I can’t see myself going back to watch any episode of DSC (plus I do not like the show overall), and as far as PIC, I don’t see myself going back to watch S1 at all. And, I feel the same about GOT, which I loved watching week-to-week at the time. Hopefully SNW will break this sad trend, as I love rewatching single episodes of (older) Trek, and the writing will be a lot better than we’ve seen so far from these showrunners overall.

This never made much sense to me. Be it standalone, be it slightly serialized, be it heavily serialized I watch what I enjoy a lot, and less so the episode that I find disappointing.

So for example in Berman Era Trek I would watch Best of Both Worlds Part 1, Descent Part 1, Shockwave Part I, Time’s Arrow Part I, all far more often then I would watch the 2nd part of those episodes because I thought all of them were inferior and often very inferior to the first part. Just like if I watch either of the 2 Dominion arcs, I will usually skip episodes like Sons & Daughters, Extreme Measures as two examples. Enterprise I usually skip the 3rd episode of both the Vulcan trilogy, and 3rd episode of the Andorian and Tellerite story because I think again they are much weaker than the other episodes. Enterprise season 3, you won’t see me watch Carpenter Street, you see other episodes that tie into the Xindi arc that I will rarely watch and other episodes that I watch often.

For myself, I do watch less serialized Trek stories than complete standalone, and I do this for one and only one reason. Usually at least 5 nights a week Trek is what I put on when going to sleep. I won’t put in a two parter, three parter, or serialized story because I don’t want to have a need to keep watching.

For myself that is the only real reason serialized shows are watched over all less then standalone.

But that’s entirely my point. It’s one thing if you don’t like a two part story, it’s another when an entire SEASON is tied to a story that you don’t like. When you have 20+ episodes in a season and 90% of them are standalone, its not a huge deal if you skip part 2 of an episode because it’s only a two part story. But when you only have around 10-12 episodes to begin with and they are all tied into a single story, it’s not as easy to just ‘skip around’ because you lose a lot in the episodes themselves.

f you decide to watch episodes 1,4 and 7 of Picard as an example it just feels VERY fragmented because so much of the episodes are connected to what happened to all the episodes you just skipped over. It’s no different then fast forwarding through parts of a movie and expecting to understand everything happening. Because they are 100% serialized, meaning nearly all the episodes and their storylines have been affected by the previous episode in some way.

DS9 is serialized but it’s light serialization compared to the new shows. I just rewatched the entire show a month ago. It’s not really until season 6 (when the Dominion war truly starts) that the seasons are more connected. But even then only a third of the episodes are directly connected to each other in those seasons. BUT yeah I wouldn’t recommend trying to watch DS9 in later seasons if you are newbie either. You would still feel lost in many ways.

And you’re also missing the point it’s very easy to skip over those 2 part stories because you REMEMBER everything in them. BOBW is seared in all our brains at this point even if its 3 decades old. Trust me, 3 decades from now unless you watch these seasons over and over again like you do the classic shows you will start to forget many of the details, character beats and plot lines of the story as a whole and then trying to just watch back a single episode will feel very disjointed by then. Try watching a middle episode of Lost in season 3 or season 5. Or any random episodes of 24 today if you were fans of those shows. It’s not the same. I have literally felt lost trying to watch random episodes of highly serialized shows, especially ones over 10 years old; because I forgot so much of what happened in the overall stories. Some of it come back to me, but it’s really no fun to watch these shows that way.

DIS and PIC are still very new so it’s not that hard to watch it out of order now. In another 10-20 years it will be very different.

Can someone answer this question. To be honest, I’ve grown rather tired of the “sameness” of Star Trek, which is why I love DS9 and consider it far and away the best TREK for breaking form if nothing else. Therefore, why is it assumed that going back to the stand-alone story format, along with, yet again, inserting characters on a star ship exploring the galaxy, will to be creatively successful and automatically make for riveting and interesting STAR TREK stories? Just curious. Not interested in arguing. Was just wondering.

I do not know how successful it will be. But, as someone who started watching Trek with The Original Series when he was five years old, returning to that format, it feels as if I am “Coming Home” to Trek.

Perfect explanation. I feel it the same way, although I was not five but fifteen. For me seeing Mount’s Pike was “coming home to Trek” since the first minute.

For me, I think episodic storytelling opens it up to more of a variety of “high concept” possibilities at a quicker pace. Much like an anthology series, you’re not immediately burdened with the ‘previously on last week’s’ episode’s issues. It’s a fresh start every time, so you can dive right into something like “The Doomsday Machine” or “City on the Edge of Forever” without someone asking about what happened with that big revelation about the Romulans last week or why haven’t you had a memorial service for all those poor red shirts or something along those lines.

It’s like short stories vs. novels. They both have their pluses and minuses, and neither is superior to the other, in my opinion.

So far the high concept sci-fi plot elements haven’t been successful in serialized Star Trek.

Not saying that they couldn’t be, but that they haven’t been.

Every season on Discovery and Picard season one has used very classic Star Trek high concepts, and the fan reaction has found them lame in that format. The season 3 revelation is right in a line of Trek tradition back to Charlie X in TOS, but even many long time fans didn’t get it.

Is it the execution, or is it that something different is needed for successful serialized Trek.

That’s the other issue for me as well. You can’t do the high concept stories and for me, that’s a lot of the type of stories I love. Look at Voyager’s episode ‘Blink of an Eye”. It’s kind of a classic episode at this point and it’s very high concept to watch a planet evolve hundreds of years in just a few days. You can place that story literally anywhere in any season of Voyager because you don’t have to build up any major character beats to tell that story. It’s just another episode of our heroes trying to get out of a strange situation. You can do that same story in TOS, ENT, TNG or DS9 as well. Again pretty much any season of those shows.

Now try and put the same story in any of the seasons of Discovery or Picard first season, just those characters dealing with the same situation. Where could you place it in any of the seasons in Discovery without it completely interrupting the main story and plots you got going on? Sure they can figure out a way to fit it in somehow, but it would feel completely unnecessary and basically just filler because it obviously has nothing to do with the main story.

In some ways that story could actually work as a season long arc, but then the other problem is its not big enough ! No one wants to spend 10 episodes watching a ship just detach itself from a planet even if you have other interesting stuff going on. The stakes feel too low. But in episodic form, the stories can either go really big or really small. In most episodes it’s really about things like the ship saving a planet or a colony, defeating an alien, saving your ship or crew from a crisis (sometimes from an alien ;)) or trying to solve some weird science mystery.

It’s funny to me, a lot of people claim those type of stories is what ran the classic Trek shows into the ground. And now I really appreciate them more today because they still stuck to the basic core of what Star Trek was about: character development and solving a crisis together as a team. Another reason why LDS seems to be more popular because it’s doing those types of stories again. And the stories that LDS do are very small even by Star Trek’s standards most of the time. But they still fall very much in line with older Trek stories. And frankly I think people are starting to appreciate the less is more type of story telling you get out of a simple 22 minute episode versus the ‘WE HAVE TO SAVE THE GALAXY….again!!!’ stories they build up to for 10 episodes.

TNG had 178 episodes, not one had anything to do with saving the entire freaking galaxy. All Good Things probably came the closest and even then it was mostly about saving humanity’s place in it. We gotten that in Discovery for 3 straight seasons now. My guess is season 4 will be more of the same.

I would give anything for a fun story about the ship just getting stuck on a planet where time flows backwards, someone gets zapped to a pocket of another dimension they have to get back or they discover another version of Tilly has been living on a different planet for 50 years. Something that is just fun, weird and kooky and not suppose to think about it anymore after the end credits, like most of TOS, TNG and VOY.

Actually I’m a lot more bothered with the “sameness” of modern “golden age” TV: arc-based storytelling, bleakness and despair, TV-MA imagery…

This is why I simply miss the good old days of classic Trek and other classic TV shows such as Knight Rider, SeaQuest or the campy, goofy 70s classics (Space 1999, BSG OS)…This is why I love The Orville… It is spot-on retro TV…and excellent counter-programming.

There have been countless arc-based shows that – apart from being much too “mature” for an escapist like me – all suffer from the same issues: they suffer from a reduced rewatchability as you cannot pick your favourites AND they heavily depend on the ending, which in most cases is not entirely satisfying, thus ruining the entire experience in retrospect:

NuBSG, Lost, GoT… most modern TV shows that I watched did not deliver, others I gave up long before they even finished (TWD, 100, MITHC etc). I’m only watching two current TV shows outside Trek and Wars: The Expanse and Stranger Things. They are still good but I doubt they will be able to serve a satisfying ending…

That golden age of TV is a gilded age of darkness and melodrama, that is NOT an improvement over tradiitional TV… It’s different, but not my cup of Earl Grey…

Trek being “the same” again? It’s about time, after almost 20 years of no classic Trek available… And I hope there still is amarket for that because MANY people may feel that way after two decades of ongoing adult drama…

but most of those recent shows have been good in terms of character arcs, something standalone doesn’t always do and cannot avoid in the modern tv era

and there was always a little darkness to shows like ‘S1999’, ‘blake 7’,

If a show is great I don’t mind Long form storytelling. The problem with discovery is that it hasn’t been great.

For me exploring other planets in a ship is the basic main concept of trek and I immensely enjoy that concept. It breeds creativity and imagination and tickles that sense of adventure and exploration that humans inherently have. It is also more satisfactory as you have a beginning, middle and end of a story instead of constantly and needlessly dragging it out. Now some might think that “episodic” storytelling is too simplistic, but I don’t necessarily think that something being simple is bad. We should stop associating simplicity as something negative. Sometimes the simplest answers are the best ones.

If the writing is good, there won’t seem to be oversimplification. Instead – the unknown will open our minds.

That’s a bit of the problem with serials – if you know too much, you want to know more. But is more actually satisfying?

Some good answers and points. The problem I see is this notion that TREK hasn’t worked because of the serialized format. The serialized format certainly hasn’t hurt shows like Twin Peaks, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Black Sails, The Sopranos, The Wire and a host of others. Good writing is the issue. Not the format the story is being told with. It’s pretty iffy that these same TREK writers and producers will be able to bring any more quality to stand-alone stories than to serialized ones. Plus, with so many TREK episodes out there already, you increase the number of stories per season we have already been exposed to countless times already in TREK. I see an increase of “sameness” already built in by returning to this format. I wish them success.

I consider DS9 to be the best post TOS show. And I did like that it was different.

But I think the reason there seems to be hope or excitement for SNW stems from how terrible all the SH shows have been up to this point. The serialized shows have all been awful and the comedy wasn’t funny. So expectations are awfully low and seeing how the recent serializations have failed I think a lot of viewers are happy to see Trek return to a tried and true format. Personally I don’t mind the serialized season. Enterprise did the Xindi season quite well. I’d love to see something different. And am willing to give points to SH for trying. They’ve just been trying and failing. So perhaps the old format might be just what they need to turn the corner and start making decent Trek.

All this puritanical virtue signaling in this comment section is so quintessentially American and bizarre. And I love how quickly people are to wrap it up in some correlation with episodic television.

As many others have said in the comments here, I am so excited to get back to episodic TV with Strange New Worlds. The self-contained stories in a single episode does lead to more repeat-viewing.

Here’s hoping it’s good!

IMHO, one of the problems with season-long stories is that they always seem to hang on a massive issue. They always want to reach for movie proportions, with some kind of galactic catastrophe as the big theme.

But that gets tiring to watch, over and over again.

It becomes unrelatable.

There are many things I like about DSC and Picard, but the whole “everything is at stake for everyone everywhere” in each season needs to be toned down.

Bring the stories back down to a scope that means something to the viewer.

Ok so I’m going to say it, since it looks like nobody else is going to… Mr. Mount is looking quite buffed compared to his Discovery days. I noticed this in a previous Trekmovie article that had his picture. Maybe he’s been victim of the dreaded Covid weight-gain syndrome, like so many of us, or he just hit the gym… I would thing the latter is more likely.

where you see buff I see lard

Well… I was being polite… I see you prefer the direct approach

He looks quite a bit older and heavier than in Disco

“[Anson Mount] looks quite a bit older and heavier than in Disco.”

On TOS, the costume people had to periodically make new shirts for Shatner, because of what they called “Captain Kirk’s equator.”

I do think the uniforms look a little better. And I’m hoping the Enterprise herself is brighter, too. I want to see an update but really hoping it evokes the feel of “The Cage”.

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Anson Mount Is Leading With Heart

Star Trek 's resident Boy Scout brings empathy to the Enterprise.

Being a captain on Star Trek puts an actor in rarified company. Depending on exactly which series fans consider to be part of the canon, there are about a dozen of them, including Michelle Yeoh's Captain Philippa Georgiou, Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham, and, of course, both Chris Pine and William Shatner (and now, Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley) taking the mantle of James T. Kirk. But Anson Mount, currently in the command chair on the USS Enterprise in Paramount+'s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , says that while it's an honor and a privilege to be part of that elite club, what sets his character, Christopher Pike, apart from his brothers and sisters, is that he doesn't put logic, diplomacy, or "balls" (his words) behind his duties to explore the final frontier, he puts empathy and heart at the core of going where nobody's ever gone before. 

SNW , which debuted in 2022 and returned with its sophomore season earlier this month, reunites Mount and his crew, including Rebecca Romijn, as his Number One, Una Chin-Riley; Ethan Peck as the pointy-eared and suddenly sexy Vulcan, Mr. Spock; and breakout Celia Rose Gooding as the newly promoted Ensign Nyota Uhura (yes, that Uhura). The new season continues the series's commitment to old-school Trek , with an episodic "planet of the week" approach in lieu of its predecessors' sometimes overwrought season-long arcs. As a Trekkie himself ("I started watching this show when I was 7 years old," Mount shares. "I started watching with my mom. She's the one who introduced me."), Mount is elated to be back in uniform and give fans the fun and adventure that they've come to expect.

"I don't think there's a day on set that goes by that I don't look around and go, 'I cannot believe I'm on Star Trek .' And then, it's like, 'I can't believe I'm the captain of the Enterprise,'" Mount says of the continued reverence he has for the role he's made his own. Pike has appeared in previous series, going all the way back to the '60s with Jeffrey Hunter's version in an unaired Star Trek pilot , “The Cage,” and later with Sean Kenney in an episode in 1966. Other than Mount, fans are probably most familiar with Bruce Greenwood's take on the character in J.J. Abrams's Pine and Zoë Saldaña -fronted timeline. "I feel so lucky, it's so surreal to me. It was so far afield of anything that I felt I could touch, it wasn't even on my bucket list. So then, when it happened, I was like, 'Oh, of course, this is my dream job.'"

There's no shortage of adventure in SNW , but Mount is quick to point out that there's also heart behind it — and fans are just as quick to the draw to trace that emotion to Pike. It's not unusual for a starship captain to have close friendships with his crew (see: Picard and Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan and Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway and Tuvok, played by the charismatic Tim Russ), it is unusual to see the crew sitting down for a meal with their leader in his quarters. That family dynamic is the center of SNW and a grounding throughlines between episodes that span genres like fantasy and horror in addition to the show's steady foundation of science fiction.

"When I was meeting with the writers at the beginning of all of this, I said, 'One of the very few things that I know about Pike is that he had pretty good parents and he had great teachers,'" Mount says. "And so that is something that has lived with him."

Mount explains that the camaraderie is apparent when the cameras aren't rolling, too, but brings the focus back on Pike's unique leadership style, saying that he's above all, a mentor. Mount, who was a Boy Scout and still keeps in touch with his Scoutmaster after more than two decades ("His name is Ervin Upchurch and he still means a lot to me," Mount shares. "Just went and had brunch with him and his family and that was great."), says that Pike is driven by a desire to lead with his heart, knowing full well that he'll always put his crew first, even if it means that he won't be there to lead them one day.

"Pike very much feels a responsibility to pass on the knowledge. That his job is not just to be the boss, to educate those who are going to be coming after him. His downfall later in life is going to be because he jumped in to save younger officers from death," Mount says. "I also know that when someone comes to his office to speak to him, there is nothing more important than the crew member that's right in front of him. Those are the only things I know."

It's a marked difference from the men and women that have come before him. He lays it all out, putting Pike shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow leaders, but in a different place when it comes to what's underneath the bravado. He shares that in the beginning, he told the writing team that it was easy to see what differentiated Pike from his peers — and they nailed it.

"My gut is that if Kirk represented — for lack of a better word, balls, or machismo, and if Picard represented brains, I want Pike to represent the heart," he says. It goes back to his days as a Scout, he adds: "I think it's an incredible organization. I think that children are meant to be outside and it's how I first learned leadership, actually. Now that I think about it, it was by gaining rank in the Boy Scouts and having people that were serving under me and learning how to deal with that. I had never really put those two things together."

Before he beamed into the Trek universe on Discovery , Mount had already stacked his IMDb page with cultural touchstones. Hell on Wheels , a Western that ran on AMC for six years, had him slinging guns and sporting long hair (a drastic shift from his Pike quiff, which has already become the stuff of Trek legend and meme fodder ). He also cemented himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Bolt, who made appearances in the series Inhumans and Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. And an entirely different audience may remember him as the man behind the wheel in Britney Spears's cinematic debut, 2002's Crossroads .

"It comes up every now and then. In the first 10 years after I did it, I swear I thought it was going to be carved on my tombstone," Mount says of Ben (no last name) and acting alongside Spears. It's about time Pike eclipses that iconic role (the hair comes up again, with Mount joking, "That's why I kept it so short in Crossroads . I didn't want to have upstage Britney."), and with the continued success of Strange New Worlds , it very well may be "Hit it!" — Pike's signature phrase — etched on his tombstone.

There are lightyears between that film and Mount's current mindset, which hones in on the gratitude he has for Trek , its fans, and the chance to have fun on a show that's willing to play.

"I believe that little internal sense of mischievousness and fun is key to my work, particularly. And those are the spaces in which I have really reveled," he says. "Getting to do a Western was a dream come true and I want to do another one. Again, we're talking about a genre and this job is meta in the sense that we're actually playing with multiple genres. So, I get to play a lot. We have episodes from season 1 I could point at and say, 'This is our horror episode, this is our fantasy episode, this is our mystery episode,' and it goes on and on."

There will be plenty of time for Pike and his crew to play. Paramount announced that the show got picked up for a third season , meaning there are more captain's logs to fill and more planets of the week to explore. It also affords Mount more time to ensure that his crew can be proud of their place in Star Trek history, giving those die-hard fans and newcomers a reason to keep tuning in.

"I'm a longtime Trekkie, so I want our contribution to be a significant contribution to Trek canon, whatever that means," he says. "I'm really happy with the show and I hope that it continues for a while so that we can make that contribution."

Read on for Mount's hot take on the "best TV show ever made" (spoiler: it's not a Trek series), the not-so-embarrassing and iconic first album he ever owned, and a polarizing pick for the best bagel.

How do you take your coffee? Iced decaf coffee with oat milk.

Do you believe in astrology? No. That sounded a little critical, but no.

Who is your favorite villain? Oh god. Oh, man. Favorite villain of all time? Fuck. It's one of those questions where, you know that two hours from now, I'm going to go, 'Dammit, I wish I'd thought of that, because I really like a great villain.' I'm going to try to stick to film and TV on this one. I mean, it can be argued that Walter White was a villain. That was a pretty incredible performance. I think that Breaking Bad is probably the best TV show ever made. So, I'm going to go with Walter White.

What was the first album you ever owned? This is embarrassing to admit: It was Michael Jackson's Thriller on vinyl.

Anson Mount

What is your favorite book? The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. They say that no one has written the great American novel, but I think he wrote the greatest Southern novel.

Where is one place that you've never been that you really want to go? Japan. I don't know what it is, but I've always been fascinated with Japanese history and Japanese culture. The one academic course I took during graduate school was History of the Samurai. It seems like a fascinating place. I'd love to visit.

Is there an outfit you regret wearing? You're talking to a guy who hates shopping. I wear jeans until I can't wear them anymore, they're falling apart. This shirt is from Target. I don't really think too much about that stuff. 

There was this one time, actually, a friend of mine reminded me. I was directing a short film in my twenties that I was also acting in and I was playing a clown, like a circus clown. This was back when the Meatpacking District was kind of sketchy. Now, it's the trendiest spot in Manhattan.

So, we were shooting, we had a location in the Meatpacking District and [it was the] middle of the day, broad daylight. And the guys in the crew thought it would be funny if they drove off in the production van and left me stranded in the middle of the Meatpacking District dressed as a clown. I had to call them. I didn't have anything with me. Apparently, I was like, "OK, haha. Very funny. Leave the clown in the Meatpacking District. I get it. Come back and get me."

What is your favorite kind of bagel? I would say onion.

When was the last time you cried? The last time I cried was when I watched ... It was something really silly and my wife was laughing at me. What was that? Oh, man. It was the end of Dungeons & Dragons . It was a really sappy, happy ending and it got me.

Who is your favorite Hollywood Chris? My favorite Hollywood Chris? I'll go with Chris Walken.

Do you have any memorable dreams? I have a recurring dream that I am back in college. And it's funny because for a long time — I loved my college, I went to the University of the South Sewanee, it's called Sewanee now, Sewanee: the University of the South — and for a long time after graduating, I had this dream that I was back at Sewanee and I always woke up and I was like, "Oh man, that was such a good dream," because I missed the place. And I do. But these days when I have that dream, I'm like, "Oh god, I can't believe I have to put up with this shit." I have to do what ? I have a class in psychology? Give me a break, man. Just give me the damn degree so I can give back to my career.

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Published Oct 16, 2018

Captain on the Bridge: Anson Mount

Anson Mount is boldly going where only a few men before him have been… into the shoes of Captain Christopher Pike. The actor will portray the character in the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Discovery . Mount, who hails from Illinois and grew up in Tennessee, earned a degree in theater from Columbia University in New York City. He made his television debut in Ally McBeal and has amassed numerous film and television credits, among them Crossroads, Smallville, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Lost, Dollhouse, Straw Dogs, Non-Stop, Hell on Wheels and Inhumans . Mount is set to join William Shatner for Christmas with the Captains , to be held December 7 and 8 at the Star Trek: The Original Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York. Mount will sign autographs, pose for photos and participate in an intimate Pike on the Bridge Q&A session. StarTrek.com sat down with the easygoing Mount this past summer, during his time at Star Trek Las Vegas , where he told us about his Trek experience so far, discussed upcoming projects and more…

What’s your experience at Star Trek Las Vegas been like? Have you ever done anything like this?

This is my first Star Trek -specific convention. I've done Comic-Con a couple of times, but that's a whole other thing. That's like a media marketing festival now. This is much more intimate, and, yeah, it's great. As someone was saying to me earlier, you get paid to come to a place where people just want to walk up to you and tell you how wonderful you are. It's kind of a no-brainer.

Are you sensing the excitement people have for seeing you in action as Pike on Discovery ?

Very much. There's a lot of expectation that makes me a little nervous, but it's kind of wonderful. I've never been so known for a role that has not been shown yet.

How did you get here? Did you audition for the role? Was it an offer?

I auditioned. I had auditioned... I was close to getting Lorca, actually.

I’ve got to say, they hired the right guy. I'm a big Jason Isaacs fan. I was a fan of Jason Isaacs before he did that role. I actually just watched The Death of Stalin on the plane on the way here. He's fantastic. But, with Pike, I think we'd had a good time meeting and talking and everything (about Lorca). When this role came around, they were like, "Hey, is Anson available?" My team said, "Yeah." They said, "Will he audition?" I was like, "Of course, I'll audition." I don't want to be miscast in something. It felt good to them, it felt good to me, and we decided to do it. I've got to say, I was very excited to get the role, and then it was surreal for a while. It's still surreal.

We can't talk too much about it, but in general, based on what we've seen in the past from your predecessors, what excites you about the character?

It's always great to play somebody you like. I'm not particular. As an artist, I'm not particularly partial to that, but it's a great side benefit when it happens. I'm not so concerned with characters being likable so much as understandable. I hope that Pike is both. The thing that we all knew from the beginning, the only thing we really knew, is that he needed to be the everything that Lorca was not. I think that there's enough track laid for the character that that's backed up by the mythos. That's already in place. I'm learning about him as I go. We're learning about him as we go. We've been feeling it out, redirecting, re-calibrating here and there to see what feels right. It's great to be on a show that can afford to do that, to take the time to really develop a role the right way. It's not always like that. When you establish a character on TV, you tend to be careful about choices that you make because you're making them for a long period of time. You start with very general things. I know he probably had good parents, and he definitely had good mentors. And he knows that his greatest resource as a captain is his crew.

How much did you watch Jeffrey Hunter's performance, or Bruce Greenwood's, just to get a feel for what they did in advance of you taking on Pike as a character?

I'd seen Bruce's (Pike) in the theater a while back, and then I had not seen “The Cage” until I got this role. I just wanted to see the background. I didn't particularly think I resembled Jeffrey Hunter, at first, and then I happened to come across a picture of him playing Jesus, and for a second I thought I had come across a picture of Cullen Bohannon (Mount’s character in the acclaimed series Hell on Wheels). That's when I went, "Oh, OK. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, I guess there is a resemblance." It's funny; I steal a lot as an actor, but I didn't really want to steal anything from any of these guys. For some reason, I felt like I needed to be respectful of what was there, but make it my own.

You also met Star Trek ’s other Captain Pike, Sean Kenney, earlier today here at STLV …

What a lovely guy. Sean is such an old-school Hollywood guy.

And you met Jeffrey Hunter’s son as well, recently, right?

Meeting Jeffrey Hunter's son, Chris, was incredible. He traveled all that way to Comic-Con just to tell me he thought his father would be happy with me being cast.

Were you a Star Trek fan at all over the years? Or are you relatively new to it?

Oh, yeah. I grew up with The Original Series in syndication. I've seen every episode multiple times. Then, The Next Generation started when I was in high school. After about the third season is when I went to college, and that’s when I went into a lock box for the next eight years.

We have no idea how long you’ll be on Discovery, but in theory, how ready are you for a long run if it works out that way?

I guess I've gotten to the point in my life and my career where I don't really think about those things.

Yeah. I've worked very hard. My 20s was a nightmare of worry and my 30s was a period of training myself to be present. My 40s have been an enjoyable experience of being able to be in the present and not have to muscle myself into the present. I just sort of got used to doing it and not... I guess at a certain point you realize, "Oh, wait, we live in a country that doesn't have a debtors’ prison, and I'm not going to starve to death. Everything's going to work out." I don't really think about that too much.

You're walking in the door in season two of Discovery , meaning that this group had been together for more than a year already. How welcoming to you were the cast and crew?

Oh, my God, incredible. It's hard to be the new kid. They've just made me feel welcome from day one. It starts from the top down. Sonequa Martin-Green is one of the most-hospitable, loving, warm, elegant and vivacious people I've ever met in my life. She really brings a tremendous amount of energy, work ethic and respect to the set. When you see your number one working that hard – and when I say number one, I don't mean Number One in the Star Trek sense, I mean number one on the call sheet… When you see your number one working that hard and never complaining, you can't either. She leads by example.

Did you wrap anything else before starting on Discovery , that's going to be coming out in the near future?

I shot a movie last fall called Midnight Climax , that is with a first-time writer director who also comes from a military intelligence background. This guy, Joseph Sorrentino, is... I think this guy's got it. They're still finishing up the movie in post now. I play a northern behavioral psychiatrist working in Mississippi in the 1960s.

Tell us about your podcast…

It's called The Well , and our website is www.thewellpod.com . I am the co-host with my friend, Branan Edgens, who's a filmmaker and comes from an effects makeup background. The elevator pitch is that it's kind of like Radiolab, but instead of stories about science, it's stories about creative thinking. We come at it from all different angles, from not just artists, but we have a biologist, a football coach. We've got astrophysicists. Doug Jones is going to do an interview with us. People should check it out.

Lastly, how excited are you for the Christmas with the Captain event in December at the Star Trek: The Original Series Set Tour ?

That sounds like a lot of fun to me. And I think the fans will love it.

Christmas with the Captains

It'll be Christmas with the Captains, as William Shatner and Anson Mount are set to beam down to Star Trek The Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, on Dec. 7 and 8. Shatner will be available for autographs, photo ops and, by popular demand, will host several Captain on The Bridge intimate Q&A chats, while Mount will also be available for autographs and photo ops, and will be doing a Pike on The Bridge event.

Tickets are on sale now. Go to www.StarTrekTour.com for additional details and to purchase tickets.

Star Trek: Discovery on Blu-ray

Star Trek: Discovery: Season One will arrive on Blu-ray and DVD on November 13 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution. The four-disc Blu-ray and DVD collections, available to U.S. and Canadian fans, will feature all 15 first-season episodes of the CBS All Access series, as well as featurettes and other special features that will include cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and deleted and extended scenes.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are currently streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 are also available on the Pluto TV Star Trek channel in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Discovery is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck Boldly Go Back to Franchise’s Roots in New Series

By Joe Otterson

Joe Otterson

TV Reporter

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“ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ” breaks new ground among the more recent “Trek” shows by going back to the old ways — that is to say that the show is much more episodic as compared to the heavily serialized “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.”

In an interview with  Variety , series star Anson Mount said that the idea of the show following that format was always the intention of its creators and allowed the cast to “get ourselves out of the way a little bit.”

“I like to think that Pike is not the star of the show,” said Mount, who plays Captain Christopher Pike. “The star of the show is the Enterprise. I wanted our show to serve as more of a metaphorical platform for not things to preach about, but things to think about. And I think it has that sense of adventure like the original series, where you wouldn’t even know where you were going to be at the beginning of the episode, much less the end. We wanted to reinvigorate that sense of excitement.”

That is not to say, however, that things from one episode will not carry over into others. “The show is episodic but the characters have memory,” as Mount puts it.

That is clearly demonstrated in multiple points of “Strange New Worlds,” in particular in Pike’s grappling with the knowledge of his impending paralysis. In “Discovery,” Pike got a glimpse of his own future that was first seen in the original series, with Pike confined to a brainwave-operated wheelchair and only being able to communicate via a blinking light. At multiple points in “Strange New Worlds,” that knowledge causes him considerable stress.

“My take on it was it would have been boring to look at it as a question of identity and fear for what it meant for myself,” Mount said. “The more interesting question is if Pike is more concerned with how it’s going to affect his ability to be a captain. And that, in a strange backdoor way, is tied up in his identity.”

Another story that carries on through multiple episodes is Spock’s relationship with the Vulcan T’Pring. Spock, played admirably by Ethan Peck , is in a “very fragile and delicate place in his development.”

“He’s more vulnerable than he’s ever been in his life — human vulnerable,” Peck said. “So I think there’s a lot of experimentation ahead of him. How much is too human? What is too Vulcan? How should this problem be approached? I think it’s a really exciting time in his life where you see him explore these extreme sides of himself.”

Interestingly, both Peck and Mount have been living with these characters since 2019 when they first appeared on “Discovery” Season 2. That means that they have been connected to the “Star Trek” universe as long as the cast of the original series was at first, considering the original show only aired for three years.

“It’s a crazy thing,” Peck said. “When a character reaches the level of cultural importance that Spock has… to be associated with that is kind of confusing and strange, but at the same time, it’s been the most incredible journey. I’m so grateful to be a part of it even though it has come with all of these strange effects of being scared to screw it up and not to meet fans’ expectations.”

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” debuts on Paramount+ on May 5. 

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O Captain! My Captain! Anson Mount of 'Star Trek: Discovery' dishes on possible return of Capt. Pike

Christopher Pike was the highlight of 'Discovery' Season 2, so what are the chances of a dedicated spin-off series?

Go on admit it, when the announcement was made in April 2018 that actor Anson Mount would be joining the cast of "Star Trek: Discovery," most of you were probably wondering who Anson Mount was. His biggest television role prior to this was probably in the 1860s period drama "Hell on Wheels," but he has also appeared in the shows "Inhumans," "Conviction" and he even starred opposite Robert De Niro in the movie "City by the Sea."

His journey to beloved Trek character began in January 2019 and he was quickly accepted with open arms into the "Star Trek" community. And, despite only appearing in one season so far, Mount quickly made his mark playing the firm, fair and unflappable Captain Pike. So how does Capt. Pike feel about "Star Trek" ?

"Oh, you're talking to a Trekkie here," he told Space.com, not mincing any words.

Related: 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 3: What we know and what we hope for  

Space.com caught up with the Tennessee-born actor while he was relaxing on his porch with his mom, Nancy Smith, a former professional golfer.

"She's to blame actually," he laughed. "When it [Star Trek: The Original Series] started syndication on local TV here, she's the one who turned it on and told me I had to watch this. I asked her why and she told me it was about this group of people who fly around the galaxy and meet different aliens each week. And at first, I thought that's a terrible idea for a TV show and then I very quickly got hooked and I've been a huge fan ever since."

Capt. Pike is a key figure in "Star Trek" lore. He served on three Federation starships before being assigned to the USS Enterprise as Capt. Robert April's first officer. After five years, he was promoted to captain and was given command of the Enterprise (April was promoted to commodore) where he would serve as the ship's commanding officer for 15 years before the command of the Enterprise was transferred to James T. Kirk. During his tenure in Starfleet, Pike was considered to be one of the most highly decorated starship captains in Starfleet history. 

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"I was actually talking to them earlier in the year about the role of Captain Lorca and then they very wisely hired Jason Isaacs, who was great and did a much better job than I ever could have. But then when Pike was coming around, they called up and said, 'Hey, there's this other role, a new captain, would you mind putting yourself on tape?'

Related: The 'Star Trek: Discovery' search for Spock comes to a head in 'Light and Shadows'

"And I said, 'of course.' And they sent me dummy scripts. So the character's name on the dummy scripts was Captain Parker. And I thought, 'Well that's a terribly unimaginative name for a captain. All right, fine. I'll do it.' And I put myself on tape and then they called back the next day and they said, 'Okay, doing it and it's Captain Pike." And I just about fell out of my seat," Mount said.

Unfortunately, the character of Capt. Pike has a tragic, preordained fate in "Star Trek" history. 

Ten years after the events that we saw unfold in "Star Trek: Discovery" Season 2, Pike — who has been promoted to fleet captain — is severely injured while rescuing several cadets from a baffle-plate rupture onboard a J-class training vessel. The delta-ray radiation leaves him paralyzed, unable to speak, badly scarred and forced to use a brainwave-operated wheelchair for mobility.

In the pilot episode of "The Original Series," Pike was the captain of the USS Enterprise. In the episode, entitled "The Cage," the Enterprise is en route to the Vega colony to deliver medical supplies but makes a stop to respond to a mysterious distress call coming from the crashed survey ship the SS Columbia on Talos IV. An away team beams down, but Pike (played then by Jeffrey Hunter) is abducted and held in a zoo-like cell. The Talosians take control of his mind, creating various illusions based on pleasure and pain in an "experiment" to observe his behavior. 

Later, in "The Original Series" two-part episode "The Menagerie" (S01 E11 & E12) the now-paralyzed Pike requests that he return to Talos IV and live out the rest of his life in the "Matrix"-like, illusion-induced dreamworld that the Talosians can offer, rather than be forever physically restricted in his cumbersome wheelchair. 

While this destined ending is tragic, what life would've unfolded for Christopher Pike if the training accident hadn't happened?

Related: 'Star Trek: Short Treks' Review: Did Spock Just Laugh in 'Q&A'?

"I would want the best for him, certainly," Mount said. "One of the few things I felt that I knew instinctively about Captain Pike coming in to play the role is that he probably had good parents and he definitely had good mentors … I think he would take a gracious retirement at some point. And I just think he'd probably end up teaching at Starfleet if not being the Dean," he laughed.

Mount himself graduated from the University of the South, Tennessee, in 1995. He collected his MFA in theater from Columbia University in 1998 and went on to study acting at the Michael Howard Studios, also in New York City.

While Mount is new to the franchise, there's certainly a lot of "Trek" to look forward to. "Discovery" Season 3 recently wrapped and Season 4 is rumored to be shooting back-to-back with Season 5, starting in July. "Picard" Season 2 has also been confirmed , "Section 31" has been given a second season (although principal photography for Season 1 has been delayed) plus there's "Lower Decks," the Nickelodeon series, which is thought to be called "The Prodigy," possibly a new movie directed by Noah Hawley and, rumor has it, two new, additional (so far unnamed)live-action shows. 

In fact, when "Star Trek" overseer Alex Kurtzman said at the "Picard" press tour in January that two more live-action shows were planned, fans quickly reacted en masse on social media sharing their enthusiasm for one of these series to be about Capt. Pike, Ensign Spock (Ethan Peck) and First Officer Number One (Rebecca Romijn).

Related: 'Star Trek: Discovery's' Ethan Peck talks about filling Spock-size boots

Kurtzman told The Hollywood Reporter that "the fans have been heard. Anything is possible in the world of 'Trek.' I would love to bring back that crew more than anything. It was a huge risk for us. One of the most gratifying things is to see how deeply the fans have embraced Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise. The idea of getting to tell more stories with them would be a delight for all of us."

When asked about this, Mount laughed, "I keep having to dissuade people from the idea that actors know anything.

"These decisions are usually made by people that you and I have never met and may never meet. And they have to determine how they want to go forward with the franchise and if I can continue to serve in that capacity, I'd love to do that. But they've got a lot of fish to fry and they've got a lot of spreadsheets to consider. I'm just happy that I don't have to do that. Because I'd be terrible at it.

"But I mean you're talking to a Trekkie who, I mean, just to sit in the captain's chair is one of the rarest honors of being a modern actor. Not a lot of people have been asked to do it. I'm certainly grateful that I was entrusted with that responsibility. And yes, of course I'd love to continue to occupy that chair. I'm not going to grouse around and be aloof about it. I'd love to."

"Star Trek: Picard" is currently airing on the paid subscription streaming service CBS All Access in the US, and in Canada on Bell Media's Space and OTT service Crave. The show is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries worldwide. New episodes air within 24 hours of the premiere on CBS All Access and Space in the US and Canada, respectively.

Fans in the US can now watch "Star Trek: Picard" for free on CBS All Access using the code "GIFT." The code is valid through April 23, so you'll have to act soon to binge the series.

Seasons 1 and 2 of "Star Trek: Discovery" and a host of other original and archival CBS television shows are also available on CBS All Access. Subscriptions start at $5.99 a month. 

• New 'Star Trek' series 'Section 31' to start filming when 'Discovery' season 3 wraps
• 'Star Trek: Picard' gets a Season 2 ahead of january 2020 series premiere
• 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 3: What we know and what we hope for

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Anson Mount on 'The Virtuoso', Working With Anthony Hopkins, and 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'

The actor also talks about the long process of getting the film made.

From director Nick Stagliano and writer James C. Wolf , the noir thriller The Virtuoso follows a professional assassin ( Anson Mount ) whose latest assignment sends him to a small town with only a cryptic clue and an order from his mysterious boss ( Anthony Hopkins ) to get the job done. Once there, he must avoid any possible danger and uncover all deception while relying on his instincts to put together the pieces and single out his mark.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Mount talked about loving The Virtuoso script, how he connected to this character, the moment he pushed to get into the film, his experience working with co-star Anthony Hopkins, and how he felt about the film’s ending. He also talked about getting to play Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and how he feels about the show’s episodic nature.

RELATED: 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Showrunner Says It Will Mimic the Original Series' Episodic Format

Collider: The way this story unfolds is with such an interesting approach to the storytelling. When you first read the script, was that evident on the page?

ANSON MOUNT: Yeah. The best scripts are the ones where you put it down and you go, “Oh, my God, all we’ve gotta do is shoot.” It was one of the tightest scripts that I’d read in a long time, so I knew I had to do it.

Did you also know, at the time, that Anthony Hopkins would be a part of it?

MOUNT: No. Nick sent the script, and I’ve known (director) Nick [Stagliano] awhile. We had tried to collaborate on something, a decade previous, that just never worked out. He sent it me to me and said, “Hey, do you wanna be in it, and do you wanna produce it with me?” I said, “Absolutely.” All we had was him and me and a script. That was it. Thanks to his tenacity, he was like, “The Mentor is Anthony Hopkins. We’re gonna work this out.” It took awhile, but we got there, and then everything else just fell into place.

Did you actually believe him when he said that to you?

MOUNT: It was a long process. I knew the script was going to Anthony because Anthony and I are at the same agency. That helped a little bit, to make sure it got in front of him. And then, it was just a process of working it out with Anthony’s schedule, which is considerable, as you might imagine.

What was it about this character that you immediately connected to? What did you see in him that you felt you could bring to it?

MOUNT: A lot of times, you get a script and you see the exterior spine of the story that happens out in the world is very clear. And then, you have to come up with and imagine or create what the interior journey for your character is. This one was ready-made. It was just so clear what this was about, from an interior point of view. This was a guy who had been raised by a psychopath to believe that he was the same. And then, he makes the first big mistake of his life and a person dies, and then he starts to break his own rules and he doesn’t understand why he’s doing it. As the viewer, you realize that he’s developing a conscience and he doesn’t know what it is. It was so clear in the script. There was no work for me to do. We literally just had to shoot it.

I loved the small moment of you, early on, practicing how to smile and trying to be more natural with it.

MOUNT: Thank you. I really pushed for that because it wasn’t in the script. I managed to wrangle a little bit of time to get that first scene in which he does that on the schedule. And then, Nick decided to throw it into another scene. I thought it worked really well. It was so important to me for that to help establish the character. Particularly before spending time with The Waitress, we have to understand something about what his relationship to the world and other people has always been.

This is a movie that’s full of characters that present themselves one way on the surface, but are really someone else, deep down. As an actor, is there a fun in playing scenes that have that kind of duality and unpredictability?

MOUNT: People have always asked me, “Why is playing a villain or an anti-hero more fun?” I think it’s pretty clear. It’s because you never have to worry about what their agenda is. It’s very, very clear. It is often with the hero or the protagonist or the everyman that sometimes that sometimes is not so clear or has to be ironed out in the performance, and it doesn’t always get there. There’s a lot of freedom to play, when you know exactly what their agenda is, in every moment of the script.

How did you actually find the experience of working with Anthony Hopkins? How did he challenge you as a scene partner, as you were actually looking into his eyes?

MOUNT: The thing is, I watched that scene and I think it came out so well, but it’s so weird to think about the fact that between set-ups and even between takes, we were just cutting up and telling jokes and trading stories. They’d have to wave to get our attention, so that they could move us in the direction of the cameras because we were having so much fun. We hit it right off. I obviously have a tremendous amount of respect for him, an actor, but as a human being, he has maintained this childlike sense of wonder at life that I really admire and I hope that I can manage to keep in my own life for that long. We just have a lot of the same questions about life, love, the craft, and everything. He’s one of the most emotionally open, giving people that I’ve ever worked with.

I love that we’re going to get to see more of your Captain Pike with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . When you signed on to do Star Trek: Discovery , did you know that it would evolve into what it has, or has that been surprising?

MOUNT: No. Funny enough, I only found out after Strange New Worlds was picked up that, early in the days of planning Discovery , Akiva Goldsman, who’s our showrunner, had lobbied to be on Discovery because he’s a huge Star Trek fan. Akiva is so busy in his film career that he didn’t need to add a TV show, but he wanted to do Discovery . All he had heard about was that it was going to be a pre-Kirk show, so he assumed it was a show about Captain Pike. He gets in the writers’ room and he’s like, "Wait, what?! This is a different show. Okay, all right. We can play with this, but we’ve gotta do another show." So, he was lobbying for it and lobbying for it and lobbying for it. I got lucky enough to be cast in the role for Season 2 of Discovery, and they didn’t tell me any of this, thank God, because I would have been far too nervous. I just thought it was a one season gig and that was it.

I thought you were an unexpected casting choice for that, but I loved you in the role, so I’m glad that there was a way to keep exploring that.

MOUNT: Yeah, and thank you for saying that. Honestly, I’ve never felt such embrace from a fan base, on anything I’ve done. It is really night and day, and I’m very thankful to everyone with Gene Roddenberry and CBS, and Alex [Kurtzman] and Akiva for putting a huge amount of trust in me to be able to do it.

What are your thoughts on the series being episodic? How do you feel that works to the advantage for this particular show?

MOUNT: Well, I think that Star Trek is, by nature, episodic. Now, that doesn’t mean that Star Trek can’t be other things. Star Trek can be a lot of things, as we’ve seen in every iteration of it. But classic Trek is really founded on the big idea of the week, and the big idea of the week needs room to breathe. In serialized structure, you’re trying to take care of so many relationships that there doesn’t tend to be a lot of room for that. Now with that said, I think Discovery does a phenomenal job with that structure and I was very fortunate to be a part of it. Normally, serialized is my taste, as an actor, but this really felt like it needed to be episodic.

When you first read the ending of The Virtuoso , what was your reaction? Did you feel like it was an earned and deserved ending? Did you wish it had played out a different way? Did you feel like it was exactly what it should have been?

MOUNT: I inherited this thing from my mother, who drives me crazy when we watch movies, because we’ll be a half an hour in and she’ll turn to me and tell me the ending, and she is always right. I’ve developed some of that, so I was like, “Okay, how much of this is me and my mother, and how much of this is gonna be obvious? I don’t know.” I did work with Nick to throw in a couple more curve balls, the largest of which is the character admitting his own doubts, where we, the audience, have doubts. Then, you’re subsuming the same questions and not inadvertently treating the audience as dumber than you are, and then they trust you more. By and large, there weren’t huge changes. Just a few little tweaks, here and there.

The Virtuoso is in select theaters and everywhere you rent movies on April 30, and is available on Blu-ray/DVD on May 4.