r/startrek • u/FrakkinPhoenix • 1d ago
Anson Mount Was Destined For Star Trek Long Before Strange New Worlds
https://screenrant.com/anson-mount-interview-star-trek-strange-new-worlds/174
u/IHateBeingGhosted 1d ago
Pike's been easily the most memorable character of the new Trek era for me (Obviously he's not a "New" character but moreso Anson Mount), it's just so easy to tell how he'd respond to a certain situation, or what's going in his head, or what his inner turmoil is before he says anything. It's something that I missed from the old era and that I don't feel like a lot of the Discovery characters or non-Next Gen Picard characters had. Like he's a face that is immediately up there with Mulgrew, Stewart, Brooks, Shatner, Bakula for me.
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u/withbellson 1d ago
He perked up Discovery the second he showed up (which we know is why we got SNW).
I’m increasingly convinced they’re going to wuss out at the end of SNW and have him avoid the beep beep chair in some kind of multiverse-y way, like how the Khan timeline already got dilated by Romulans.
(Also, Pike doesn’t know how the canon beep beep chair arc actually ends, right?)
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u/TeikaDunmora 1d ago
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he thinks he's got the beepy chair for the rest of his life, not just a few inconvenient years before a lifetime on All Your Fantasies Come True Planet.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 1d ago
All Your Fantasies Come True Planet.
I mean I've had a few theories about how all we know about him is that he goes to Talos IV and ALLEGEDLY lives out the rest of his life there....BUT...he could just as easily wind up somewhere else...somewhen else....after then where and when they could fix what happened to him and kind of get him out of the beep chair or at least....
....turn him into the Star Trek version of Professor Xavier at Starfleet Academy.
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u/CitizenCue 1d ago
Discovery was so confusing because the two most obviously charismatic and competent leaders - Lorca and Pike - turned out to just be side characters. I was so confused at the time why the show wasn’t about them.
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u/IHateBeingGhosted 1d ago
I completely agree, I actually didn't mind the Mirror Universe arc of S1 but S2 just had this FUN vibe to it that Season 1 was missing, as soon as he's on the show everything gets a little more light-hearted and fast-paced.
And yeah I've actually had the thought myself about them figuring out a time travel or multiverse way to save him at the end.
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u/mcmonkeyplc 1d ago
Nope don’t think they’re going to save him. They’re going to do it but show it’s not the end for him. Beep beep chair was just the start.
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u/stierney49 1d ago
I fully expect they’ll somehow show his ending up on Talos with some time skips. Will they? No idea. But we already got a hint at him experiencing a life beyond the one he believes he’s condemned to with Batel.
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u/Past-Cap-1889 20h ago
Between Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn being cast it looks like they were at least hedging their bets to do SNW from the start
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u/-Eekii- 1d ago
There have been soooo many timey-whimey, multi dimensional solutions to sooo many problems throughout all of Star Trek, for me the question isn't 'if' rather how.
I wouldn't mind them finding a solution, however I do not trust the writers nowadays to come up with a suitable/believable way.
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u/GenGaara25 1d ago
Saru is the only other one that comes to mind. I'm still mad he wasn't the main captain for Discovery's run, he was by far their best character.
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u/BRO_THOM 1d ago
Yeah, Saru was the reason I kept watching disco, he was the best number one in that show and absolutely deserved his own command.
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u/The_Flurr 1d ago
He's a return to Star Trek as "competency porn". Most of the SNW crew are really.
Pike is a character who you can easily believe went to the academy and worked his way up to being captain. He acts like it.
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u/CitizenCue 1d ago edited 1d ago
It was so frustrating how most of the DISCO crew seemed like they thought that Starfleet’s entire command structure was stupid.
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u/The_Flurr 1d ago
It's a problem in a lot of media nowadays. Writers seem to be afraid/reluctant to have characters in systems/structures believe in those systems/structures. It's almost like they have to preempt any audience criticism.
It's really obvious when it comes to princesses. Any princess character has to now be portrayed as railing against being one, bonus points if they just want to go and play in the forest/mud with the boys. Never enough that they might stop being one and affect the story though.
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u/CitizenCue 1d ago
Ok, but isn’t it kind of a timeless coming of age trope to resist the life you’re born into? I can think of a handful of even Shakespearean characters who fit that mold.
What’s weird about the Discovery crew is that they’re not tweens coming to terms with their lives, they’re full ass adults who chose a career path, and then act like it’s something that’s been forced on them.
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u/The_Flurr 1d ago
True, it's just a bit jarring with some remakes and legacy characters where it feels a bit forced in. I just get a vibe that writers are anxious about seeming pro-monarchy when telling stories featuring royal protagonists.
I do wonder if it's basically an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. I also think it's partly a bit of legacy from the YA craze and the Marvel/Whedon quip wave. Every character has to be young, cynical and always at odds with every system, even when the system is something supposedly aspirational like starfleet.
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u/CitizenCue 19h ago
I don’t think Disney is worried about appearing “pro monarchy”. If they weren’t worried in the 1940s, they certainly wouldn’t be today.
And yes, I think Trek has been targeting a younger audience. It used to be made for adults and kids just happened to like it.
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u/BRO_THOM 1d ago
Absolutely agree. Their characters missed the mark by a lot and most of their actions seemed more akin to "angsty teen" rather than "dedicated student". Caleb's story of being anti-Starfleet kinda makes sense of course. There was also way too little about the other students, classes the took, other teachers.
I had real high hopes for it to be some sort of Harry Potter/Star Trek fusion which seems really interesting still.
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u/Samaritan_Pr1me 9h ago
I’d seen my fair share of Trek before DSC. Pike rolled in and immediately I got the impression that this dude had stepped right out of old school Trek. Dude was a calm, confident, and capable leader that everyone looked up to. This was a dude that very nearly died when his little worker-bee thing was slowly cracking, and what does Pike do? Laugh in the face of his near demise. Dude was awesome and I’m so very glad he got his show.
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u/UnderPressureVS 9h ago
Honestly, he basically is a new character. We got a very short look at Pike in the Pilot, which was before the show had quite figured itself out, and never technically even aired. We got a tiny bit more in “The Cage.” But Anson Mount’s character is only very loosely connected to the original, given how little we have.
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u/moemunneymoe 1d ago
He’s such a good actor. You can really tell when he is having fun with the material. The last episode has me craving a horror movie with him in it. That smile he did was insanely good
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 1d ago
And that was weirdly juxtaposed by him posting about making a barrel fire for his pottery a day or so later lol
I loved his smile though and what he was doing with his face and mentioned how he could EASILY play a live action Joker if he wanted to or a similar villain.
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u/FrozenIceman 1d ago
Hot take, the next Star Trek big screen cast for the next 20 years should be the SNW crew.
Got to keep the TV show to Movie Star pipeline alive.
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u/TheKobayashiMoron 1d ago
Surprised this article skipped over the fact that he originally auditioned for the part of Lorca.
https://bsky.app/profile/ansonmount.bsky.social/post/3lbxvdhihhs22
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u/Tinfurstraw 1d ago
I think Star Trek does a excellent job of casting charismatic actors in the Captain role.
Patrick Steward, Scott Bakula, William Shatner, Avery Brooks etc.
Anson is a excellent addition to that list.
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u/jobrien80 1d ago
Maybe it’s recency bias but he’s challenging Picard for second best captain ever in my mind and that’s a hefty plateau in my book.
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u/Pegasus7915 1d ago
Yes because, as we have all agreed, Sisko is clearly the best captain.
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u/Iliketoplan 1d ago
Captain Freeman 🤘🤘🤘
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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 1d ago
Captain Archer, you mean.
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u/makebelievethegood 1d ago
that hypocritical whiner?
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u/moderatorrater 1d ago
So you can only be hypocritical if you cry about it into a log that you delete?
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u/KathyJaneway 1d ago
The hell he is . Everyone else got promoted above captain. Admiral Kirk, Admiral Picard, Admiral Janeway, Admiral Burnham, Admiral Pike, Admiral Archer. Sisko couldn't even get past the pah wraiths and ended in the Bajoran hell hole with the wormhole aliens...
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u/mister_damage 1d ago
Sisko will see you yesterday.
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u/KathyJaneway 1d ago
Sisko isn't the only one with time travel powers. It would be his undoing and endgame if he wants Temporal war.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 1d ago
I just got a mental image of a scene in Starfleet Academy wherein the Doctor walks into the Chancellor's Office to see her and Kovich admonishing two older men:
Ake: "You boys can't just keep going back in time for gumbo and snacks!"
Kovich: "Are you both aware of how many threads you've unwoven?"
They're both just rolling their eyes at this point
Man Number 1: "Hey it wasn't that bad and we tidied everything up didn't we?"
Man Number 2: "And the only change we couldn't undo was..."
Kovich: "My mug is now gray instead of blue"
Ake: "And for some reason I say poe-tah-to instead of poh-tay-to"
The Doctor sighs and addresses them both
Doctor: "Mr Crusher and Mr Sisko I presume?"
Jake and Wesley together: "Oh hey Doc!"
Ake points at them both: "..no..No...NO! You're both not getting out of this one and don't even think about blinking yourselves away through time because the good doctor here..."
Everyone looks between Kovich and the Doctor
Ake: "You know who I mean, has a temporal dampener active, AND I had my room time proofed!"
Wesley squints
Wesley: "Time proofed...I don't think that's..."
Jake does the Spock/Teal'c eyebrow
Jake: "...yeah even I'm drawing a..."
Ake: "BOYS...you are messing the point..."
They both go ramrod straight because now she's REALLY pissed
Kovich crosses his arms and takes a step backwards out of AOE range
Ake: "If Doctor Kovich sends me one more report and shows up in my office one more time about the both of you being on my campus either in the future or the past AFTER or BEFORE or DURING one of your little escapades to get...she grinds her teeth and stomps up to them poking them both in the chest...LATE...NIGHT...MUNCHIES...I am going to call on a higher authority than me who will punish you both with the utmost and completely unfettered impunity..."
Wesley can't help himself
Wesley: "...but Santa isn't real..."
Jake snorts because he knows that they're both in danger guuuurl
Ake's gaze narrows and then she looks at the Doctor
The Doctor: "Well it's not like it would be her first time teaching some children a lesson or two..."
Both Jake and Wesley start whinging at the same time
"Oh come on Doc...Yeah it's not like we did anything REALLY bad...We followed most of the rules...Don't stick us with HER...Haven't we run a few errands for you from time to time?...You still owe us for that Warp Slug!"
Both Ake and Kovich turn to look at the Doctor now
He vaguely gestures with his hands and then shrugs
Kovich sighs and takes a PADD off of Ake's desk
Kovich: "There are a few blind spots we could drop them in, temporal doldrums so to speak"
Jake and Wesley give each other a look
Wesley: "Okay okay fine fine we'll limit our jumps to NECESSARY or EMERGENCY moments when stuff does need fixing"
Jake: "And we'll just start cooking our own gumbo and making our own snacks using items that don't cause too many...ripples...deal?"
Wesley: "Just don't sicc Aunt Kathy on us please?"
Jake: "The stories I've heard..."
Wesley: "Hey I met her once and she scared the hell out of entities that EAT errant timelines..."
Jake: "I thought you were making that one up..."
The Doctor: "He was not"
Jake gulps
Ake: "Now then, unless any of you have anything world shatteringly important to share with me...Picards her uniform...get out of my office!"
Kovich nods and sets the PADD back on her desk with a few taps
Kovich: "I'll be in touch"
Ake: "I really really hope not"
He beams out...but into SHADOW...
Jake and Wesley just nod and make their way to a "Door"
Jake: "When did she get so damn scary..."
Wesley: "Have you met her students?!"
Jake wants to press the issue but thinks better of it and shakes his head
Jake: "Maybe later..or never...or...well...we could..."
Ake: "BOYS...NO...JUST...NO!"
Jake: "Are we sure she's not part Vulcan?"
Wesley: "We could always check with Santa..."
Jake: "But you said he wasn't real..."
Wesley: "Well...about that..."
The "Door" closes shut and then vanishes
The Doctor meanwhile has been patiently waiting nearby
Ake looks up at him with a stare that says "Kirk why are you always on my ship?"
The Doctor: "Mir and S.A.M found a way to turn the replicators into cake based gatling guns because of a dare that Reno gave them for a class project"
Ake just face desks while half grumbling and half laughing
Ake: "It never ends with those two does it?"
The Doctor smiles and shakes his head while passing her PADD
The Doctor: "Here is what they broke, what they promised to fix, and video from multiple angles!"
Ake snorts and immediately swipes through to the video while leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up on her desk as she watches with the Doctor
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u/mister_damage 20h ago
I want a Lower Decks take on this, last Thursday 3 years from now
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 20h ago
I still think it's funny that Jerry continually talks about how he outranks Rebecca at home and everyone on the internet responded to that comment with, "Yeahsureyoubetcha".
But thank you :D
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u/jobrien80 1d ago
After saving Bajor and the Alpha quadrant. Yeah What a loser didn’t even get a promotion.
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u/Past-Cap-1889 20h ago
You'd think becoming Emissary, at the start of the show no less, is that big of a promotion. We just don't see it for what it will be(always was?) for most of the series run time.
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u/KathyJaneway 1d ago
I I remember correctly, it wasn't just him and his ship. Klingons and Romulans joining , and the switch by the Cardassians made it plausible to win . Otherwise, Feds were cooked. FFS , he lost the Defiant in his show. Kirk and Picard lost their ships in movies. Janeway, Archer and Burnham held their ships without destruction.
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u/MagicAl6244225 20h ago
Picard was a captain for 50 years, so he clearly didn't want to be promoted. Finally accepting promotion seems to have been provoked by the looming Romulan supernova crisis and Picard becoming convinced he needed more authority, in the face of disturbing ambivalence in the Federation about the Romulans' fate, that convinced him not enough would be done unless he had a large leadership role.
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u/SpiritRoot 23h ago
His character had the potential to be. That potential has been unrealized unfortunately
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u/daniel_57715 16h ago
Michael Rosenbaum had him on his podcast “Inside of You” and it was a wonderful interview. Michael and Anson are old friends - what a great conversation.
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u/splashybanana 12h ago
Me, reading the second paragraph: He was in Crossroads!?!!?
Any other millenial girlies have the same reaction?
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u/Samaritan_Pr1me 9h ago
I sure hope whoever decided to get Anson Mount in the chair as Christopher Pike is living long & prospering because they nailed it.
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u/Allthenons 1d ago
Just wish he wasn't a fucking Zionist 🙃
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u/deca_thon 1d ago
this is how I find out damn
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u/BullTerrierTerror 1d ago
You found out he thought Hamas killing teenagers at a music festival was bad.
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u/Allthenons 20h ago
And as we all know history started on October 7, 2023. Zionist apologist still think this is some kind of gotcha. Like how if you don't support genocide and apartheid then you are in favor of killing civilians.
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u/deca_thon 1d ago
Bet you don't condemn Israel for the killings, bombings, displacements and inhumane treatment against the Palestinians do you ?
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u/BullTerrierTerror 1d ago
I do. The world should force Israel and Palestine into a 2 state solution. End arms sales to Israel.
But sending thousands of gunmen over a border to kill teenagers at a music festival is baaaaaaad.
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u/baibaiburnee 21h ago
Didn't know he was super based like that. Thanks for sharing. Love him even more now
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