According to Wikipedia, when Jeffrey Hunter played Captain Pike, he was 39 years old (episode is set in year 2254) When Bruce Greenwood played Pike (2008-2009 filming), he was 52 years old, according to wiki. The movie is set mainly in 2258. As soon as I saw the movie, I recognized an immediate age difference, and wondered how that was going to be explained, if the two universes were identical before Nero's arrival. Some sources I looked at gave Pike's birthdate as 2218... that would make Pike 37 years old when we meet him in the bar in Iowa, but Greenwood is obviously significantly older than that ... is there an in-universe explanation anyone can come up with for the age difference, or do we just chalk it up to that it was actually an alternate universe before Nero arrived, or just assume Pike in TOS looked really young for his age, and was actually in his late 40s, early 50s? It was just something I was curious about ... I know it isn't a big deal, but I enjoy the creative ways fans are able to come up with creative explanations for logic gaps in plotlines, so I was wondering how this one could be explained?
Captain Pike's age difference in new universe?
- Thread starter Cadet49
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I just say actor age does not equal character age. Maybe Pike Prime had a face lift!
Similarly, I remember reading somewhere that Zefram Cochrane was supposed to be in his thirties during First Contact...
Similarly, I remember reading somewhere that Zefram Cochrane was supposed to be in his thirties during First Contact...
I just say actor age does not equal character age. Maybe Pike Prime had a face lift!
Similarly, I remember reading somewhere that Zefram Cochrane was supposed to be in his thirties during First Contact...
Haha ... yeah, I was going to mention the Zefram Cochrane thing in my original post ... still can't get my head around that one ... :-)
The U.S.S. Kelvin's destruction was probably a flashpoint for a second Romulan War, this time with the Federation, meaning life was a heck of a lot more stressful for Pike when he graduated from the Academy.
The Kelvin seems to have been historically significant for him to have studied, done a thesis on, or whatever. Starfleet obviously loses ships from time to time, so there must've been something more to it. And the writers wanted a significant event to diverge universes, with convenient place to put Kirk's birth too.
The Kelvin seems to have been historically significant for him to have studied, done a thesis on, or whatever. Starfleet obviously loses ships from time to time, so there must've been something more to it. And the writers wanted a significant event to diverge universes, with convenient place to put Kirk's birth too.
The proper explanation (without any of my fan-fic speculation 
) is simply, Pike's birth year is fanon not canon.
As in, there's nothing onscreen which ever stated his age. Just a suggestion in a book somewhere. Burning Dreams, maybe. Or using the actual age of the actor and applying that to the Star Trek universe.
However, I'm pretty sure Scott Bakula was older than Archer was.
Patrick Stewart younger than Picard was supposed to be.
Ten years has passed for Shatner, who was playing Kirk 2 or perhaps 2 and a half years older in the Motion Picture
) is simply, Pike's birth year is fanon not canon.As in, there's nothing onscreen which ever stated his age. Just a suggestion in a book somewhere. Burning Dreams, maybe. Or using the actual age of the actor and applying that to the Star Trek universe.
However, I'm pretty sure Scott Bakula was older than Archer was.
Patrick Stewart younger than Picard was supposed to be.
Ten years has passed for Shatner, who was playing Kirk 2 or perhaps 2 and a half years older in the Motion Picture
^ Indeed! Also, I do not feel that a character's age at any point should be correlated too closely to the actor's age at the time. IRL -today- individuals of the same age may look quite a bit older or younger than their contemporaries. When we take into account that the future humans in Trek have quite a long lifespan compared to our current lifespan (McCoy was 136 years old [I believe] in "Encounter at Farpoint"), the variance in appearance would undoubtedly be even larger.
Fanon, obviously, but fanon that requires much less to implement than a whole Second Romulan War: Perhaps Prime Pike experienced an event (damage to one of the ships he was assigned to in his earlier Starfleet career) that involved a decent amount of relativistic travel, and that event never happened to NuPike because of changes that occurred after Nero's arrival.
The only onscreen reference to Pike's age is Mendez' comment that he is about the same age as Kirk. That would make him about 33 in 2267. So, he would have been about 20 at the time of "The Cage." Jefferey Hunter was about 19 years too old to play the part!
Anton Yelchin should have been nuPike. Or Zac Efron. Or that kid that played McLovin.
Didn't that actually mean that Pike was that age during the events of The Cage/Menagerie?
Nope.
Pike was canonically about Kirk's age. And this was coming from a guy [Mendez] who was played by a 39 year old actor.
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^ Alrighty then, Pike was Kirk's then-age *when promoted*, and we don't know when that was. 
And yet Spock served with him for 11 1/2 years.
Nope.
Pike was canonically about Kirk's age. And this was coming from a guy [Mendez] who was played by a 39 year old actor.
I know, right? Maybe they could do a scene in the sequel where nine year old Pike becomes a captain.
At least the age would have been right. I'm just sticking to the canon here. Does no one care about Star Trek but me?>!?
Agreed. Plus, Winona Ryder is only about 3 or 4 years older than Zachary Quinto but yet, played his mother.
Pike appears far older in the new universe due to overwhelming lifelong stress, brought on by never having the chance to meet Captain Robau, his hero and man-crush.
The official Star Trek movie website says Pike rose to captaincy in just 8 years - which means he must have entered Starfleet Academy at age 1.
I think we can just dismiss Mendez's line about Pike and Kirk's ages. In Cage/Menagerie, Pike is obviously older than 20+ anyway.
