Anson Mount would love to play Captain Pike again in his own Star Trek show

Actor Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels) burst onto the Star Trek scene in season 2 of CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery. Mount played Captain Pike, the guy who captained the Enterprise before Kirk — the character was played by Jeffrey Hunter way back in the original Star Trek — but spent the majority of the season on the bridge of the Discovery, attempting to solve the mystery of the time-traveling Red Angel.

However, it was another Starfleet captain that Mount first auditioned for. He first tried out for the role of Captain Lorca in Discovery season 1, a part that eventually went to Jason Isaacs, “who was great and did a much better job than I ever could have,” as Mount told Space.com. “But then when Pike was coming around, they called up and said, ‘Hey, there’s this other role, a new captain, would you mind putting yourself on tape?'”

"And I said, ‘of course.’ And they sent me dummy scripts. So the character’s name on the dummy scripts was Captain Parker. And I thought, ‘Well that’s a terribly unimaginative name for a captain. All right, fine. I’ll do it.’ And I put myself on tape and then they called back the next day and they said, ‘Okay, doing it and it’s Captain Pike.’ And I just about fell out of my seat."

Mount’s turn as Pike was received very well by fans, and when showrunner Alex Kurtzman announced at the Picard press tour earlier this year that there were two more live-action Trek shows in the works, they let it be known that they wanted a show about Captain Pike, Spock (Ethan Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn).

Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 — Ep#214 — Pictured (l-r): Samora Smallwood as Lt. Amin; Anson Mount as Captain Pike; Rebecca Romijn as Number One; Ethan Peck as Spock of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Photo Cr: Russ Martin/CBS ©2018 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

If Mount were to land his own Trek show, it could only cover a span of about 10 years, since that’s when Captain Pike suffers life-altering injuries after rescuing Starfleet cadets aboard a training vessel. In the original Star Trek series, Pike was seen horribly scarred, unable to speak, and bound to a wheelchair he could operate with his brainwaves. Eventually, he requests to be taken to Talos IV, where an alien species could put him in an illusion that would allow him to live out the rest of his life as if he’d never been injured.

Mount, who is a massive Trek fan, watched the original series as a child and knew about what happened to his character. But if there’s an alternate reality where Pike was never in that accident, the actor already knows how he’d like to see the story go.

"I would want the best for him, certainly. One of the few things I felt that I knew instinctively about Captain Pike coming in to play the role is that he probably had good parents and he definitely had good mentors…I think he would take a gracious retirement at some point. And I just think he’d probably end up teaching at Starfleet if not being the Dean."

So has Mount been contacted to reprise the role of Captain Pike? “I keep having to dissuade people from the idea that actors know anything,” he said. Excellent non-answer, sir.

"These decisions are usually made by people that you and I have never met and may never meet. And they have to determine how they want to go forward with the franchise and if I can continue to serve in that capacity, I’d love to do that. But they’ve got a lot of fish to fry and they’ve got a lot of spreadsheets to consider. I’m just happy that I don’t have to do that. Because I’d be terrible at it."

Okay, fine, but if asked, would he jump back into the role? “I mean you’re talking to a Trekkie who, I mean, just to sit in the captain’s chair is one of the rarest honors of being a modern actor,” Mount said. “Not a lot of people have been asked to do it. I’m certainly grateful that I was entrusted with that responsibility. And yes, of course I’d love to continue to occupy that chair. I’m not going to grouse around and be aloof about it. I’d love to.”

Star Trek: Discovery season 3 is set to air at some point this year, “coming soon.”

Meanwhile, Star Trek: Picard just finished its first season. You can stream them both on CBS All Access.

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