Usually main Trek characters have pretty well established birthdates, at least the year, or within a very small range. Spock is born in 2230, Kirk is born in 2233, Picard in 2305, etc. These dates have been pretty consistent (at least since the Spaceflight Chronology was thrown out). Usually they're based at least somewhat on the actor's actual age, but there are exceptions, most notably in the case of Picard, who is about 12 or 13 years older than Patrick Stewart.
But trying to nail down Christopher Pike's age is... difficult. Partially because for the longest time, we only had The Cage (and the original production notes) to go on, partly because we've seen him at differing points in his life, and partially because we've had three different significant versions of him (not counting Sean Kenney's, which was just an extension of Hunter's).
So "The Cage" takes place in 2254, and was filmed in 1964. Production notes tell us that the character of Pike (previously Captain April or Captain Winter) was intended to be "about 34." Jeffrey Hunter was 37 or 38 at the time of filming, and "The Cage" certainly gives the impression that Pike is a man in his mid-to-late 30s. It would give us a birthdate of around 2220, and (again, once the Spaceflight Chronology dating scheme was abandoned), that remained roughly consistent for many years. IIRC, the novel Burning Dreams specifically says 2219, a couple of sources say 2221 or 2222 I think, but all roughly in the same ballpark.
Then we come to the Kelvin timeline's portrayal of Pike. They wanted to make him more of a mentor/surrogate father figure to Kirk, and even though we're dealing a "compressed" timeline, and a 25 year old Kirk in 2258, a late 30s Pike just wouldn't fit that role. So we get a Pike in his fifties, with then-52 year old actor Bruce Greenwood (who I personally loved in the part), and background material for the films giving Pike's birthdate as 2205.
Given the nature of the divergent timeline, that date should hold true for the Prime reality as well. But it would mean that Pike was 49 during "The Cage", and while I could imagine Hunter's character being in his early 40s, almost 50 seems a huge stretch (even considering the Picard/Stewart age difference).
Now we come to Discovery, back in Prime, and giving us again an "older" Pike, though only 3 years or so past "The Cage." Anson Mount is pitch-perfect in the role, and I have no trouble viewing his portrayal as an extension of the original character. He was 45 when he started filming DISCO, and, relatively, almost a decade older than Hunter was when he played the part. That would probably work better if the gap was, you know, more than three years in universe, but still it does seem to "split the difference" between the Hunter and Greenwood versions well enough. Extrapolating back from Mount's age, we'd get a birthdate for Pike of circa 2212, which is a little older than he seems to be per "The Cage," but not unreasonably so.
The biggest problem, though, comes from Pike saying he and Georgiou were contemporaries at that Academy. We know Georgiou's birthdate, 2202, and her years at the Academy -- 2220 to 2224 -- from her service record, and that tracks well with Michelle Yeoh's age. Initially, I thought that maybe she could have been a senior or post-grad instructor when Pike was a freshman or sophomore, but Pike's line about Georgiou "having every regulation memorized by the second week" would indicate they were classmates. This means Pike had to be born circa 2202, as well. Even if Pike entered the Academy at 17 (or 16 if we're stretching it), that would still give a birth year between 2202 and 2205. Close enough to match with Greenwood's age, I guess, but... wow, really out for Hunter, and even off for Mount (unless we take the Picard/Stewart gap into consideration).
Certainly if we go with the original idea for Pike, a man in his mid-30s in 2254, there's no way he could have been at the Academy at the same time as Georgiou, who graduated in 2224, when he would have been about five years old at best.
I'm hopeful that Strange New Worlds will give us something definitive, but even then, it's still going to be awkward, no matter how you look at it. It really seems the best way to reconcile things is to assume that Pike is about 50 years old in "The Cage" instead of the intended 35ish.
What do you all think?
But trying to nail down Christopher Pike's age is... difficult. Partially because for the longest time, we only had The Cage (and the original production notes) to go on, partly because we've seen him at differing points in his life, and partially because we've had three different significant versions of him (not counting Sean Kenney's, which was just an extension of Hunter's).
So "The Cage" takes place in 2254, and was filmed in 1964. Production notes tell us that the character of Pike (previously Captain April or Captain Winter) was intended to be "about 34." Jeffrey Hunter was 37 or 38 at the time of filming, and "The Cage" certainly gives the impression that Pike is a man in his mid-to-late 30s. It would give us a birthdate of around 2220, and (again, once the Spaceflight Chronology dating scheme was abandoned), that remained roughly consistent for many years. IIRC, the novel Burning Dreams specifically says 2219, a couple of sources say 2221 or 2222 I think, but all roughly in the same ballpark.
Then we come to the Kelvin timeline's portrayal of Pike. They wanted to make him more of a mentor/surrogate father figure to Kirk, and even though we're dealing a "compressed" timeline, and a 25 year old Kirk in 2258, a late 30s Pike just wouldn't fit that role. So we get a Pike in his fifties, with then-52 year old actor Bruce Greenwood (who I personally loved in the part), and background material for the films giving Pike's birthdate as 2205.
Given the nature of the divergent timeline, that date should hold true for the Prime reality as well. But it would mean that Pike was 49 during "The Cage", and while I could imagine Hunter's character being in his early 40s, almost 50 seems a huge stretch (even considering the Picard/Stewart age difference).
Now we come to Discovery, back in Prime, and giving us again an "older" Pike, though only 3 years or so past "The Cage." Anson Mount is pitch-perfect in the role, and I have no trouble viewing his portrayal as an extension of the original character. He was 45 when he started filming DISCO, and, relatively, almost a decade older than Hunter was when he played the part. That would probably work better if the gap was, you know, more than three years in universe, but still it does seem to "split the difference" between the Hunter and Greenwood versions well enough. Extrapolating back from Mount's age, we'd get a birthdate for Pike of circa 2212, which is a little older than he seems to be per "The Cage," but not unreasonably so.
The biggest problem, though, comes from Pike saying he and Georgiou were contemporaries at that Academy. We know Georgiou's birthdate, 2202, and her years at the Academy -- 2220 to 2224 -- from her service record, and that tracks well with Michelle Yeoh's age. Initially, I thought that maybe she could have been a senior or post-grad instructor when Pike was a freshman or sophomore, but Pike's line about Georgiou "having every regulation memorized by the second week" would indicate they were classmates. This means Pike had to be born circa 2202, as well. Even if Pike entered the Academy at 17 (or 16 if we're stretching it), that would still give a birth year between 2202 and 2205. Close enough to match with Greenwood's age, I guess, but... wow, really out for Hunter, and even off for Mount (unless we take the Picard/Stewart gap into consideration).
Certainly if we go with the original idea for Pike, a man in his mid-30s in 2254, there's no way he could have been at the Academy at the same time as Georgiou, who graduated in 2224, when he would have been about five years old at best.
I'm hopeful that Strange New Worlds will give us something definitive, but even then, it's still going to be awkward, no matter how you look at it. It really seems the best way to reconcile things is to assume that Pike is about 50 years old in "The Cage" instead of the intended 35ish.
What do you all think?
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And I'll need to take a look at that thread. I somehow missed it when I was searching to see if this had been brought up before. As for Boyce, I've always pictured him as being in his 60s (or older) during "The Cage." John Hoyt was 59 or so, and I love the actor and the character, but his face is too weathered to be 51 even by 1960s "standards" of aging. With "the Picard factor," he could be in his mid-70s for all we know, though during TOS, they definitely seemed to operate under the assumption that 23rd century humans lived about as long as 20th century humans, rather than TNG's longer lifespan and apparently slower aging post-30 or so.
