Captain Pike of the Discovery -- or maybe not...?

[Blue Squadron]

I have trawled the threads about Discovery S2 (and some of them are getting very long and convoluted now!) but I haven't yet seen this raised as a question. If you would care to follow the logic...


Things we know:

Discovery, under acting captain Commander Saru, is en-route to Vulcan to meet her new CO.

The Disco picks up a distress call; it turns out to be from the Enterprise.

Pike has beams over to the Disco.

Pike takes command of the Disco under a hitherto unknown regulation, which Saru makes clear is only intended to be implemented in extremis.

Pike assures Sure that this *IS* an extreme emergency.


The trailer implies that Pike will become the appointed captain of Discovery, even down to him changing into the "standard" Starfleet blue uniform of the time. We all know, however, that trailers can be cut to show or imply anything the bosses have asked the editors to show...

Just a thought:

Pike has effectively commandeered Discovery, albeit under a valid Starfleet regulation. To me, this rather suggests that Enterprise was on a mission, had a problem, sent out a distress call to which Discovery responded. In order to complete his *urgent* mission, Pike has left Enterprise (and whatever problem she has) under the temporary command of his XO "Number One" and has taken Discovery as an alternative means of completing his mission. Fair enough, and of such things are Sci-Fi drama series made and, in time, the two ships may yet work together on whatever this is.

The implication, however, is that Starfleet's *appointed* captain for the Discovery, to replace Lorca, is still awaiting her arrival on Vulcan and is *not* part of this detour story involving Pike!

It will be interesting to see how this becomes clear from the scripts of the full episodes. It is, of course, possible that Pike was indeed the captain waiting at Vulcan and he was trying to cut down the waiting time by having Enterprise take him half-way to meet the Disco -- but the plot device of the distress signal and the very specific use of a regulation authorising him to take emergency command would seem to very much count against this. Why would you need to use such a regulation to take command of a ship to which you were already appointed? That makes no sense to me!

What does the Trek BBS hive mind think?

 

[F. King Daniel]

My impression is that Pike is an interim commander and that Disco's actual new captain is still waiting on Vulcan.

I wonder where Sarek is in all this, he was on the bridge waiting to see Vulcan again (I'm guessing in the Discoverse it's a 2-minute journey from Earth like ST'09) but isn't in any if the season 2 clips we're shown.

 

[Timo]

It seems Pike's own ship (widely known as such - he's not a compulsory ship-swapper, it seems) has been hurt - the trailer shows workbees swarming all over her while the Discovery warps away. Changing ships would thus make sense, even if Pike were forced to swap his powerful Constitution for something much less capable. But Pike was able to meet the Discovery; probably he could also have limped to a starbase and commandeered the Galactic Dominator if that met the specs of the urgent mission better. He would probably have the clout regardless of the circumstances: he has already made it to the Great Starship Captains list and all.

Pike choosing to rendezvous with the Discovery specifically might mean he needs the special abilities of that ship. The spore drive is supposedly still there, only sealed off until further notice. What else is special about the ship? She was never said to be fast or powerful, but she's the top science platform out there according to Saru.

Or is it relevant that there are two relatives of Spock aboard?

In any case, if Pike wants the Discovery because she is special, we will see a big mission completed, and it may well take a full 13 episodes. After which Pike is either off, or stays, depending. In-universe, he should hand over the Enterprise to Kirk eventually. But there's time for him to return.

If Pike just wants a generic ship until his gets repaired, we will probably still see the big mission completed in thirteen eps, but in-universe logic will then dictate Pike's return to the Enterprise.

We don't know if Pike ever had any hope of completing his mission with his own ship... The Enterprise being in disrepair need not necessarily be the reason Pike wants to get rid of her, then.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Blue Squadron]

Yes, all plausible. I guess my main point is that while there is a lot of discussion around Pike becoming Disco captain and Number One taking the E, if you follow this logic then actually it's all irrelevant!

The talk about canon violations and such like always generates more heat than light but in this case it's particularly pointless if it becomes apparent that the "Pike on Discovery" storyline actually boils down to to senior officer, with a specific urgent mission, temporarily commandeering another vessel in order to complete that mission. His appointed commission remains the Enterprise (with his XO acting in his place until he returns) and the new commissioned captain of the Discovery is still cooling his heels on Vulcan, presumably slightly irritated that some Consitution-jockey just boosted his ship to go off and play somewhere!

While Pike *may* have been looking specifically for the Disco, the fact that they responded to a general distress call from the Enterprise rather suggests that he just grabbed the first Sarfleet vessel that came along in order to continue his mission, and the dialogue would seem to support this (although, again, that's just the editing for a trailer). Maybe Pike just got lucky when it was the Disco that turned up? The fact that Sarek and Burnham are both on board and that Spock seems to be somehow involved is just the sort of fortuitous plot-device that keeps happening in Trek. I guess we can accept that and move on... (!)

I wonder if we'll even get to meet the proper new Discovery captain this season?!

 

[Timo]

We will see. We never met the supposed XO Kirk left ashore in ST:TMP, say - those folks aren't all that interesting or important by themselves, and their omission from the actual plot further downplays their importance. But if a third skipper is needed for the third season, then the writers can take delight in "tying together loose ends" if they don't come up with anything more interesting.

Much will depend here on how urgent this mission really is. What we see so far sheds no light on that. The whole galaxy turns into a red light district? Might be grounds for immediate action - but Starfleet traditionally hasn't been able to do much about "the whole galaxy". Traveling to those red dots probably takes the better part of a week even at hyperduper speeds (as long as the spores are on vacation); surely Pike and Starfleet brass could take one day off to discuss things through, before deciding whether Pike should go at all, whether he should take this ship or that, or whether somebody else should go.

What might make this urgent? I gather the Enterprise being hurt is intimately tied to the crisis, so Pike may be very close to the crisis point spatially here, and so is the Discovery now. Perhaps one of those dots is right atop the heroes, and is what hurt Pike's ship in the first place? In that case, we can ditch the idea of the Discovery being especially suited for the emission. But OTOH we can declare the ship extremely central to the events, too, as the whole crisis may be the doing of Spock, and may focus on the location of Sarek or Burnham for that reason alone. It's Pike who is coincidental to this all, then...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tuskin38]

I wonder where Sarek is in all this, he was on the bridge waiting to see Vulcan again (I'm guessing in the Discoverse it's a 2-minute journey from Earth like ST'09) but isn't in any if the season 2 clips we're shown.

He was spotted in the Production Trailer a few months back.

He probably goes over to the Enterprise when Discovery heads off.

 

[Mudd]

From watching the trailer I assumed that this was a temporary assumption of command in response to an emergent situation. That's what's conveyed.

 

[ITDUDE]

I wonder where Sarek is in all this, he was on the bridge waiting to see Vulcan again (I'm guessing in the Discoverse it's a 2-minute journey from Earth like ST'09) but isn't in any if the season 2 clips we're shown.

He went to meet Chuck Cunningham

 

[KennyB]

There's a military thing called a TDY...….temporary duty. Orders are cut......you go, then you return to your home base. That's my take on this. He is never officially given Discovery he just is the CO for a bit. No big deal.

 

[DaveyNY]

I would imagine that the main plot of Season 2 is probably still tied into the Spore Drive and what physical effect using it has had on the universe in general.

This is probably the main reason why Pike is taking the Discovery and the distress call is just some sort of a happenstance.

 

[eschaton]

We know Anson Mount is main cast all season. This means, presuming it's a temporary assignment (which it has to be, given he has to get back to Enterprise to hand it off to Kirk) that the entire season deals with the "mystery" which was unveiled in the trailer.

It also implies that the season might take place over a very constrained time frame (weeks to months, not the better part of a year) and that almost all the action is going to take place far from the Federation (since Pike's not going to let the crew do "normal" missions in the middle of solving the galactic puzzle.

 

[Kane_Steel]

They have the option of making Captain Pike the series Captain for Discovery, for a while.

Pike's 5 year mission just ended on Enterprise. The ship could go in Drydock for some years, for refit.

Spock is likely to join Discovery as well.


When Pike retakes command of the Enterprise in the early to mid 2260s, Discovery's mission would be done. I hope the ship gets destroyed TBH, otherwise the Sporedrive engine becomes an awkward elephant in the room.

 

[Lord Garth]

If Lorca was Captain for Season 1 and Pike is Captain for Season 2...

... and there's a third Captain for Season 3, I think we're going to have a new Captain every season. Until it's Saru or Burnham. If it's Saru then he probably won't work out and it'll ultimately be Burnham.

 

[Ithekro]

If they go back to what equates to a week or two weeks per episode, except when it takes multiple episodes to tell a specific plot, than Pike will be gone from the Enterprise for about three to six months.