Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Showrunner Reveals Whether A Pike TOS Story Will Be Revisited

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Henry Alonso Myers has opened up about whether the Paramount+ series will revisit a Christopher Pike-focused episode from The Original Series.

Star Trek: The Original Series’ first pilot, titled “The Cage,” was filmed in 1964, but NBC was unimpressed with the episode and commissioned another pilot instead, resulting in 1966’s “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” However, “The Cage” was later repurposed into the two-part episode called “The Menagerie,” thus allowing Pike, the previous captain of the USS Enterprise, to be spotlighted. Decades later, the possibility exists for “The Menagerie” to be updated within Strange New Worlds, where Anson Mount plays Pike.

Matt Mitovich from Matt’s Inside Line questioned Myers, who created Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with fellow showrunner Akiva Goldsman, about this subject at today’s Television Critics Association event. Myers’ answer, as seen below, indicated that while Strange New Worlds revisiting “The Menagerie” isn’t off the table, it’s been more important for him and the rest of the show’s creative team to provide brand-new material for fans:

A key part of our journey sends us towards the things that we know are going to happen but hopefully, for all of our viewers, there will be some surprises that hit you along the way. Why should we show you the thing you already know? We want to show you the thing that you don’t.

“The Menagerie” utilized a large chunk of “The Cage” for a frame story that saw Spock abducting a now-scarred and paralyzed Pike to take him back to Talos IV, and subsequently facing a court-martial for his actions. The two-part episode’s past events took place years before what Mount’s Pike went through in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is also a prequel to The Original Series, there are still ways that the show could potentially put its own spin on the court-martial portion.

Pike learned in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 about the tragic fate that awaited him when he touched a time crystal on Boreth. As such, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could similarly look ahead to what happened in the “present day” storyline of “The Menagerie,” which ended with Pike being allowed to live the rest of his life on Talos IV with Vina and the Talosians. This could be accomplished by Pike somehow experiencing another vision of the future, or as a more traditional flashforward.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds previously ventured into The Original Series territory with its season 1 finale. “A Quality of Mercy” depicted an alternate version of “Balance of Terror” where Pike was still captain of the Enterprise after he averted his future accident. The timeline was restored to normal at the end of the episode, though Strange New Worlds has continued to explore time travel/manipulation with episodes like “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and “Those Old Scientists.”

If updating “The Menagerie” is truly on the table, there’s a limited amount of time for that to happen. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premieres on Paramount+ Thursday, July 23, and like the previous seasons, it will comprise 10 episodes. Then, Strange New Worlds season 5 will wrap up the show with a six-episode run at a yet-to-be-announced date.

Release Date

2022 – 2027-00-00

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman

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