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Just how old is Capt Pike? (based on 1 line in Saints of Imperfection)

Captain Pike says in the recent Discovery episode that he met Georgiou at the academy, that she won drinking contests yet knew every regulation by week 2.

The first hint we ever got to Pike's age was Commodore Mendez telling Kirk he was "about your age" in the Menagerie. Going by Kirk being 34 in the Deadly Years, people speculated Pike was born as close to 2233 as possible while still being a realistic age to be captain of the Enterprise in 2254. Novels put his birth year at 2219, which is a good way of making Pike a realistic 30 something captain at the time of The Cage.

But Pike going to the academy with Georgiou?? Memory alpha says Georgiou went to the academy from 2220-2224. Mendez's line about Pike being around Kirk's age has now been practically destroyed, and we'll have to assume Pike was born around the same time as Georgiou in 2202, making him 30 years older than Kirk, and a 50+ year old man at the time of The Cage.

We also now must assume that since Pike's entrance to Starfleet predated the Kelvin timeline divergence, things like Carol Marcus' dad, Alexander Marcus, recruiting Pike happened to prime Pike too.

It would better have been better if Georgiou was Pike's instructor for a class, not his classmate.

Why did the writers feel the need to age Pike this much?

Mendez' "about your age" remark doesn't make sense in that episode. Isn't Spock's evidence a flashback to "thirteen years ago..."? Pike doesn't seem twenty or twenty-one in "The Cage"! Or DSC, for that matter.

I take it as Mendez is an old guy who lumps everyone younger than himself together, and Kirk, being respectful, sees no need to make a pointless correction. (Source: I'm an old guy who lumps everyone younger than myself together.)

Pike is probably closer to Mendez' age.
 
Mendez' "about your age" remark doesn't make sense in that episode. Isn't Spock's evidence a flashback to "thirteen years ago..."? Pike doesn't seem twenty or twenty-one in "The Cage"! Or DSC, for that matter.

It's not that bad in context. It's a conversation, after all - what Mendez say is in response to what Kirk says.

Mendez: So you haven't heard? Do you even know Pike?
Kirk: Yes, I first met him when he got the Fleet Captain braid.
Mendez: He was a strapping young fellow back then, much like you.
Kirk: I do know him, Sir, he gave this ship to me, d'oh! Spock knows him, too. Knew even back then.

Until now, we have been dealing with the idea that Pike and Kirk would have been born about a dozen years apart, making them "the same age" at key moments of their intriguingly similar lives.

The idea of Pike being a classmate of Georgiou's adds at least another decade to that, though, and possibly two. So "lumping together" gets less and less attractive as an interpretation. But Pike being a student of Georgiou's keeps it at manageable levels, allowing Pike to be only a decade or less older than Kirk during those key moments (getting a ship of one's own, promotion to Captain).

Timo Saloniemi
 
Guys, guys, I think some of us might be obsessing over this a bit much :P Yes, Trekkies do have this reputation, but several times have there been mention through this thread of many plausible explanations of Christopher Pike's age.
 
Plus, considering that we’ve discounted other information from displays (like “Chief Engineer Stamets” having tardigrade biology), maybe we should just assume that Pike isn’t older, but that Georgiou is younger.
 
I have a strong suspicion after the revelation in the recent episode that Pike's age was changed to match Leland, not Georgiou if (spoiler for Light and Shadows)
Leland really killed Burnham's parents.

That way, Pike can go toe to toe with Leland in a way he couldn't do if he were only a kid when Leland did the deed.
 
Good point. The change need not be all that extreme, though.

Michael Burnham isn't all that young when we see Sarek adopt her, which is right after Leland's deed. It happens sometime in the 2230s, but probably towards the end. How old would Agent Leland or Ensign Pike need to be to make a difference? Pike could still be ten years Georgiou's junior in this setup, when previously we assumed he was about twenty years her junior, and thus "Kirkish" in the 2250s when getting his Captain braid.

Timo Saloniemi
 
No, "Brother" doesn't establish that. The only relevant date in the personnel file shown there is that Pike took command of the Enterprise in 2250. That's why this thread is about inferences from the line about him drinking with Georgiou at the Academy. If it comes down to interpreting ambiguous lines of dialogue, that one is up for grabs just as much as Mendez's.

(And Anson Mount doesn't look remotely close to 55.)
He moisturises.
 
Pike was 38-40 in The Cage, 2254.

Most are falsely assuming that Georgiou was the same age as Pike during her starfleet training years.

She could have been an older cadet like McCoy in ST09, and Tilly on STD...who looks 30ish.

During the Saru flashbacks, Georgiou in her Lieutenant years looked around 40.
 
Pike was 38-40 in The Cage, 2254.

Most are falsely assuming that Georgiou was the same age as Pike during her starfleet training years.

She could have been an older cadet like McCoy in ST09, and Tilly on STD...who looks 30ish.

During the Saru flashbacks, Georgiou in her Lieutenant years looked around 40.

I said the same thing. I don't care what read-outs from S1 say. I go by what I see and that makes the most sense.
 
Or you could just assume they are different versions of Pike... which makes more sense.

The aging up of Greenwood's Pike makes less sense.
 
The aging up of Greenwood's Pike makes less sense.

I chalk that up to dramatic licence since they wanted Pike to be a Father Figure to Kirk instead of a Big Brother. The movies are always wonky.

Zephram Cochrane in First Contact looks like shit for someone who's supposed to be 33. I've known people their 30s who look pretty bad, but they were on some pretty serious drugs and were missing several of their teeth. They'd never be able to build anything let alone invent warp drive.

So I just go with suspension of disbelief.
 
Balancing the Scales (Series, Actor, age at filming, est. date):
  • CAGE Hunter 38 in ~2254
  • ST09 Greenwood 51 ~2261
  • DSC Mount 45 ~2257
  • TOS Kenney 22 ~2266 :wtf:

Star Trek (2009) is mostly in 2258.

So, if we went by the actors' ages, Greenwood-Pike would be born in 2207, Mount-Pike would be born in 2212, and Hunter-Pike would be born in 2216...

... I'd split the difference and say Pike was born in 2212. Hunter's Pike still works as being 42 in "The Cage".

And I'm surprised. Bruce Greenwood when he played Pike wasn't that much older than Anson Mount is playing him right now. But Anson Mount looks like he's in much better shape.

So, Disco Pike took better care of himself than Kelvin Pike. I don't know if there's anything to this -- and I might be wrong -- but judging by Bruce Greenwood's voice, it sounds as if he's a smoker, or at least was a smoker. He also might've spent a lot of time out in the Sun.
 
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IMDB says Greenwood quit smoking after the pilot of Nowhere Man in 1995.
I'm surprised he was only 51 in Star Trek 2009. I thought he was much older than that.
 
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