#space mom and dad make sad edgy vulcan smile

[ichayalovesyou]

Spock & Pike :D

I don’t think I can stress enough how EXCITED I am by the potential of Strange New Worlds has for showing a really awesome, wholesome, healthy father-son relationship between Captain Pike and (Lieutentant? Or possibly Lt. Junior Grade) Spock. I mean, Spock’s gonna be in his early thirties, and that is barely an adult by Vulcan standards (which I’d imagine put him at a physical age of 25ish with his mixed heritage) regardless, he’s still pretty young! Him baby!

Something that caught me off guard that actually rubbed me the right way about Spock & Pike (and to a smaller extent Spock & Una) despite on the surface seeming out of character, is that he’s visibly happier and more relaxed around them! The fact that he admitted to smiling when Pike basically comes to rescue him speaks VOLUMES. I mean, he wouldn’t admit anything resembling that to Jim or Bones until they had been friends with him for years!

I mean by the time we get to TOS, Spock still struggles with a lot of inner-conflict and has trouble opening up to people. And we kinda get a small taste of how much worse that was for him when he was younger through Discovery (TAS and the AOS movies too). He’s still more stable and confident in himself in TOS than anywhere else beforehand, and considering Sarek isn’t... a great dad. I can only imagine Pike (and Una too probably!) had a LOT to do with it.

Pike seems like exactly the kind of mentor/father figure Spock would need to get where he is! There’s so much love that’s clearly there already (the unusually emotional display from Spock, Pike calls Spock “our boy” to his mom and older sister for crying out loud!) I only think it’s almost a shame that we aren’t seeing the first Pike five-year-mission to see how we got from the way he is in the turbolift with Una to where we see his and Pike’s relationship in Disco. Although I’m sure we’ll get flashbacks considering how intensely important Talos IV is to Pike’s arc.

Plus, it’s so rare, that you get to see a well done, healthy father-son type character relationship in TV shows these days, or at least not ones where the mentor doesn’t immediately die or turn evil (or something between). We already know what happens to Pike occurs after he & Spock part ways so there’s no risk of that in Strange New Worlds. (I actually have a theory that Spock does find out Pike already knows will happen to him, which has TONS of character development potential, such as Spock’s “the needs of the many” doctrine having some more heartbreaking context. It’d also give the conversation they have at the beginning of The Menagerie more depth, but I digress.)

Even Star Trek barely touches on that kind of character dynamic (and the only healthy one that comes to mind is Sisko and Jake, and if you want something even MORE sidelined, Rom & Nog) Star Trek does love it’s daddy issues, this would be an interesting change of pace. It would be the first time we’d get to see that sort of thing happen between two major characters in a Star Trek show (I feel that it’s clear by the promo pics that Pike, Una & Spock are intended to be SNW’s “triumvirate”). I would just love to see it, especially since SNW has promised a lighter, more optimistic Starfleet than what we’ve been getting lately.