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What I already know about Pike

I've never seen TOS, so I know Captain Pike mostly from the Kelvin films. However, being a trek fan on the internet, I've gleaned some info hear and there about Pike

  • I know he was captain of the USS Enterprise before Kirk
  • Something about being captured on Talos
  • I know this was all part of the original TOS pilot episode "The Cage" and later reworked into TOS somehow

What am I expected to already know about Pike

I just watched DIS season 2 episode 7 "Light and Shadows" and Burnham and Spock are I guess headed to Talos and I get this feeling that maybe I'm supposed to know more about Pike and Talos before this. DIS takes place before TOS so I just always assumed that TOS wasn't "required reading" before watching DIS.

  • Does any TOS Pike stuff occur before this?
  • Is there any TOS Pike stuff I'm supposed to know before continuing with DIS season 2?
  • If so, what TOS episode(s) am I supposed to watch before continuing with DIS season 2?
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    It's not obligatory - I suppose you could obtain an old novel "Vulcan's Glory" by D.C. Fontana that covers the Cage era. She worked on the original series so fiction by her could be considered the next best thing to actual canon. Especially since you are watching Discovery - <cringe>
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 20:15
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    It occurs to me you could use a timeline. Roughly and by a modern dating convention - The Cage occurs in 2254. Discovery 2257. The Menagerie 2267. So Discovery Pike's vision of the future is his accident in TOS 2267. The Menagerie reviews the events of the Cage in a "found footage" way.
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 21:13
  • Note that, according to The Cage, Spock visited Talos with Pike, so it makes sense that he is quite familiar with it.
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Nov 16, 2020 at 11:55

2 Answers 2

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You don't really NEED to know it, but if you are curious you should watch the episode The Cage and the two part episode "The Menagerie" (in that order) . But besides the Pike story there are only few references towards other Star Trek Media. Season 3 Episode 3 for example is highly connected to Star Trek DS9 (but sadly filled with major continuity errors), but you would get the plot without seeing those older episodes.

The Cage gives back ground information about the inhabitants of the planet, and The Menagerie is about a crippled near-death captain Pike who returns the planet where he could survive and lead a normal life with a woman he has feelings for.

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    There's no reason to watch both The Cage and The Menagerie. All the information from The Cage was later shown as flashbacks in The Menagerie.
    – Daniel Roseman
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 12:47
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    @DanielRoseman a true fan would want to watch both if you ask me.
    – A.bakker
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 12:54
  • Does any of that happen before DIS s2?
    – RedCaio
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 19:29
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    @RedCaio The Cage happens before, The Menagerie happens after. DIS S2 Pike has visions of the events of The Menagerie and The Menagerie has flashbacks to The Cage.
    – A.bakker
    Commented Nov 12, 2020 at 19:33
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If you mean what you should know about Captain Pike in anticipation of the Strange New Worlds series, then forget the Kelvin timeline.

Captain Pike wasn't originally going to be part of Star Trek canon - the pilot episode The Cage filmed prior to TOS and featuring Captain Pike was not originally shown. However, footage from it was subsequently used to form the two-part original series story The Menagerie, which brings the character and the story into canon.

With Captain Pike being a major character in Discovery there are basically three things that cover Captain Pike's story in the Prime universe. In production order those are:

  • The Cage
  • The Menagerie
  • Discovery

I would recommend watching them in that order if you haven't already seen Discovery. If you have, you'll enjoy the old episodes just as much.

As the events of The Cage had evidently happened before the events in Discovery, the chronological order of Captain Pike's adventures in the Prime universe is:

  1. The Cage
  2. Discovery
  3. Strange New Worlds
  4. The Menagerie

This presumes that the upcoming SNW does not cover and go beyond the events of The Menagerie.

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