Greenwood’s Pike Vs. Hunter’s Pike
2 min readBruce Greenwood (Captain Pike) shared his memories of his Star Trek experience, from the initial phone call from J.J. Abrams, to differences between Jeffrey Hunter‘s Pike and his Pike.
The call from Abrams came out of the blue to Greenwood, who nevertheless jumped at the opportunity to be involved in Star Trek XI. “I wasn’t aware that J.J. knew I was on the planet,” Greenwood said. “Why would he? But he called me out of the deep blue … and wow, OK, sure I’ll come in! I’d love to do it.”
There were differences between the Pike played by Greenwood and the Pike played by Hunter. “I think the fundamental difference between the two, the Hunter Pike and the Greenwood Pike … is the dilemma that Jeffrey Hunter’s Pike had is entirely different from my dilemma and Hunter’s thing that he was terribly ambivalent about is his place in the Federation, he was really torn about whether or not he wanted to go back and have an authentic smaller life or the large life of a commander. And that is not the dilemma of the Captain Pike in this Federation.”
Greenwood’s concern was with Starfleet’s training of officers. “He [Pike] does have second thoughts and misgivings about the way Starfleet is training his officers and the kind of officers they produce. In that they’re very ‘by the book.’ The very ‘by the book’ products that they turn out may not be, by the end of the day, be what’s required of a great leader. So he keeps his eye out for that kind of young man, and as it happens, Kirk seems to fill that bill.”
The rest of the audio interview can be heard by heading to the link located here.