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Or sign-in if you have an account.Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Courtesy, Paramount+.After spending more than five years exploring the outer reaches of the universe as Captain Christopher Pike on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, actor Anson Mount quickly learned not to question the infinite expanse of the writers’ imaginations.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorSome of the weirder goings-on that the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise have encountered over the years may have seemed a bit quirky and bewilderingly high-concept on paper. In Season 2, a crossover episode with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks had characters appear as cartoons. Fan favourite Subspace Rhapsody, also in the second season, offered the somewhat alarming spectacle of Capt. Pike, Spock, and their crewmates spontaneously burst into song after an accident involving a quantum probability field, which had them expressing themselves and acting out their duties through elaborate musical numbers. Early on, there was a time when Mount would approach showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers after receiving an unorthodox script and ask, “Are you sure this is going to work?” Eventually, he stopped.“Every single time I did that, those episodes I was nervous about, would pop in terms of our numbers, in terms of audience reaction and in terms of the overall result,” says Mount, in an interview with Postmedia. “They are tremendously brave writers. They take a lot of risks and Paramount, to its credit, really did not interfere. They let us do a lot of good stuff.”Judging from the first four episodes of Season 4, which premières on Paramount+ on July 23, the writing team has not lost its nerve. Without giving away too many spoilers, the tone and content run the gamut. The opener is an epic adventure featuring time travel, existential who-made-who questions about creation and dinosaurs. The second is a cerebrally creepy horror story about pain, guilt and the power of fear. The third is a goofy comedy that offers a “Dude, Where’s My Car?” premise. The fourth draws on a storyline and cinematography from a classic film in Hollywood’s golden years.“I really like being kept on my toes creatively, forced to do different kinds of homework,” Mount says. “Genre became a fun way of speaking creatively with the writers, these sort of what-if conversations. Akiva and Henry are very collaborative writers, and they would regularly come to the actors holding area between setups and say, ‘Hey, what have you guys not done that you want to do?’ Genre just became a way of talking about that. But then in practice, what happened was that genre became different vehicles for getting at the strange new world of any given character’s emotional journey. We never do genre for its own sake. We only use it as a vehicle to get to the place where we’re going.”Until he boarded the Enterprise, Mount was probably best known for playing the conflicted Civil War-era anti-hero Cullen Bohannon during his five-year stint on the Alberta-shot western Hell on Wheels. In 2018, he was cast as Captain Pike in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery before taking the helm for Strange New Worlds in 2022. It was a spinoff from Discovery, but soon found its own audience. The series acts more or less as a direct prequel to the original series and takes place a decade earlier.This allowed writers to introduce younger versions of beloved characters such as Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Scotty (Martin Quinn) and Kirk (Paul Wesley.) Pike’s dramatic character arc was a key plank in Season 3. His tragic story was revealed in the original Star Trek series. His ultimate fate was to suffer a disfiguring injury that puts him in a wheelchair, unable to speak or move. This was revealed to him in Star Trek: Discovery, which meant he knew he was living on borrowed time.… It was not the ending that I foresaw in my head. But there are benefits to it and I can’t tell you what those are. I can’t get any more specific than that.However, the trippy ending of Season 3 had him parting ways with love interest Captain Marie Batel (played by Wynonna Earp’s Melanie Scrofano). She leaves Pike to become the otherworldly “Beholder,” but before doing so, reveals to him an alternate future where they married and enjoyed a full and long life living happily ever after.“These writers are really good at throwing us curveballs and the one that got thrown was that you have this character who knows his own third act,” Mount says. “He pretty much settled with the idea that the journey is the destination and he is going to suck the marrow out of the time he has left. Then he is given this amazing gift of a full life from Marie before she parts. So now he is (relieved) of this tension. The question becomes if the journey is the destination, is it a true journey without an end.”Whatever the case, Mount’s own journey in the Star Trek universe has come to an end, at least for now. While fans have 10 episodes of Season 4 and six in a truncated fifth and final season to look forward to, production in Toronto has ended for both seasons. Mount acknowledges that finding a satisfying finish after a five-season run is a near-impossible task for any series. Everyone has their own ideas of how it should end. He can’t reveal details, of course, since Season 5 isn’t expected to air until 2027. But he says ending a series is one of the hardest tasks for any writer.“It’s a no-win situation,” Mount says. “So, no, it was not the ending that I foresaw in my head. But there are benefits to it and I can’t tell you what those are. I can’t get any more specific than that.“There are going to be a lot of fans who do like the ending quite a bit. For reasons I can’t talk about now, there’s so much more I wanted to do that is hard to do in six episodes. So I definitely don’t blame the writers in any way.”Besides, as many actors who have entered the Star Trek universe already know, these characters tend to get second, third or fourth acts through new projects. Actors tend to reunite regularly for conventions as well. Trekkies will keep them alive.“The first thing a fan said to me was, ‘Welcome to the family,” Mount says. “That betrays both a sense of ownership over the space as well as the warmth that they feel toward the people in the franchise. I appreciated it then, and I still do now.”Season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is now streaming on Paramount+. New episodes are available on Thursdays through to Sept. 24. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. 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