Christopher Pike

Christopher Pike was a 23rd century Starfleet officer. He was captain of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) for many years, as the immediate predecessor to later Captain James T. Kirk, succeeding Captain Robert April.

Early life
Christopher Richard Pike was born in Mojave, California on Earth in the year 2219.

Academy
Pike attended Starfleet Academy, and graduated in 2241 at the top of his class. Fellow members of his class included Lucien Murat, Akiko Torunaga, and Kadish of Vulcan, all of whom also became Starfleet legends. (TNG novel: The Forgotten War)

Early career
As a Captain, Pike's third command was the USS Yorktown, where he first met Dermot Cusack, and the mysterious Number One. (TOS novel: Vulcan's Glory; Star Trek: Early Voyages)

In 2251, Captain Robert April announced to the UFP Grand Assembly that he was stepping down as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise. Pike was given command of the Enterprise, bringing  Number One with him as his XO, and Cuscack as captain's yeoman. (TOS novels Final Frontier, Vulcan's Glory)

Enterprise
Pike commanded the Enterprise for a total of thirteen years, including two five-year missions.

In 2251, while on leave at Earth, he met Janeese Carlisle and fell in love. Though forced to leave her as she was entering Starfleet Academy, they maintained subspace contact over the next two and a half years. When the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2254, he learned she was in love with another man, and was nearly driven to bitterness and disappointment. (Vulcan's Glory)

Encounter at Rigel
In 2254, Pike led an Enterprise landing party to Rigel VII, in which they were attacked in an apparently abandoned fortress of Kaylar warriors. Three crewmen, including Pike's own yeoman, were killed, and an additional seven, including Spock, were injured, some severely. The loss weighed heavily on Pike, with all the strain and overwork that followed he began to question his own continuance as starship commander. The ship then set out for Vega colony to hospitalize the sick and injured, but intercepted an old-style radio-interference distress call carrying the call letters of the SS Columbia, a survey expedition from the American Continent Institute which was lost in the Talos star group in 2236.

The Talosian Incident
At Pike's reluctant command, the ship diverted and traced the signal to the crash site on Talos IV. After an initial encounter with supposed survivors, including an out-of-place young beauty named Vina, it was revealed that native Talosians had used telepathy to create the illusion of an encampment, all the survivors except Vina were dead. Captain Pike was overpowered and kidnapped, and placed in a Talosian zoo where they attempted to get him to mate with Vina to create a population of illusion controlled human servants. They forced Pike to relive old memories, and placed him in illusionary scenarios of lives he could have if he abandoned his career as starship captain. The scenarios including reliving the fight on Rigel; a picnic on Earth with his favorite horse, Tango; and an illusory day in the life of an Orion slave-trader, dealing in green animal women. When Pike refused to mate with Vina, the Talosians began to take steps to convince Pike to breed with other females of his crew; to this end, Yeoman Colt and Pike's first officer, Number One, were captured. Pike escaped, however, and after a standoff, convinced the Talosians to restore the disfigured Vina's illusion of health and beauty while letting the humans of Pike's crew free.

The Talosians believed this violent reaction made humans unsuitable for breeding and agreed. Although the experience with the illusory worlds restored Pike's confidence in his command, it was recommended that all contact with the Talosian's powers be restricted. General Order 7 was enacted, threatening the death penalty should any travel there, for fear of the Federation falling to illusory indulgence. (TOS: "The Cage")

Promotion and Tragedy
After a long tour as Enterprise captain (11 years of which were spent with junior science officer Spock as a loyal member of his crew), Pike was promoted to fleet captain in the mid-2260s when Kirk took command. Only a few years thereafter, Pike was aboard a training vessel, an old J-class starship, when a baffle plate ruptured and exposed many helpless trainees and cadets to delta radiation. Pike dragged many cadets from the danger, but in the process was hopelessly crippled by the rays. The disfigured Pike was put on a form of advanced life support which sustained his withered body and life functions, but was too weak and incapacitated to ever move or respond to physical stimuli again. A wheelchair that was tuned to his brain could use blinking light signals to respond to simple queries in the affirmative or negative, but that was the extent to which he could communicate.

Return to Talos
In 2266, Commander Spock devised a plan to divert the Enterprise (which he was now first officer of, under Kirk) to Starbase 11, where Pike was hospitalized, with a fake message. Spock's intention was, risking execution if caught, to deliver Captain Pike to Talos, where the Talosians could tap Pike's mind with telepathy and illusions, so he would be spared dying helpless in that dead body.

On Talos, he was reunited with Vina and became a "cultural observer" for the Federation. With the help of the Talosians, Pike lived out a life of illusion in which his devastating handicap no longer existed. (TOS: "The Menagerie")

On Talos, Pike and Vina lived a life of illusion, freeing them from their ruined bodies. But soon, the illusions came to feel empty to them. So, Pike, still an explorer at heart, looked for a way to give his life meaning again. He found it in the abandoned technology of the Talosian race. He studied their history, their rise to power eons ago, and their fall when the illusions they had created consumed them. Pike also learned the Talosians mental abilities. With the Talosians' help, he repaired the equipment that had manipulated the environment long ago, and started the world back on the road to new life. The Talosian robots even built a home for Pike and Vina in a reclaimed part of the surface.

Pike also studied the ancient Talosians' medical techniques. Using them, he and Vina finally were able to have the only thing missing in their lives -- a child. Phillip Joshua Pike was born in 2276, ten years after his father had returned to Talos.

In 2289, then-Captain Spock made a return visit to Talos. He had been sent by Starfleet to offer Pike a way to return home -- to undergo an experimental proceedure that would put Pike's brain inside a partly-cloned, partly-bionic body. After Phillip attacked Spock out of fear that his father would leave forever, Pike refused the offer, and remained on Talos with his wife and son. (TOS comic: "Door in the Cage")

Final fate
When contact was made with the Talosians in 2373, they informed Starfleet that Pike and Vina had been dead for the last fifty years. No corroborating evidence was ever produced, and no mention of Phillip was made. The fate of Christopher Pike and his family remains a mystery. (Starfleet Academy comic)

In Memoriam

 * The Christopher Pike Medal of Valor was named in Fleet Captain Pike's honor. Benjamin Sisko and Solok received the award in the 24th century.
 * There was also a shuttlecraft Pike carried onboard USS Enterprise-D.
 * On the planet Cestus III, there is a Pike City, which has a baseball team named the Pike City Pioneers.
 * In 2336, a Decker-class starship, the USS Christopher Pike (NCC-6003) was named in his honor.
 * A second vessel named after Pike was launched in 2368, the Galaxy-class starship USS Christopher Pike (NCC-72091).

Biographical timeline

 * 2219 Born in Mojave on Earth.
 * 2236: The SS Columbia crash-lands on planet Talos IV, only one survivor named Vina.
 * 2245: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched under Captain Robert April.
 * 2250s: Christopher Pike takes over command of the Enterprise.
 * circa 2252: Spock begins his service on the Enterprise under Captain Pike's command, becoming a loyal and long-serving officer.
 * 2254: The Enterprise under Captain Pike, is involved in a violent conflict on planet Rigel VII, three crew members, including Pike's yeoman, are killed and seven are injured; Upon setting out for Vega, Captain Pike and the Enterprise receives distress signal from Talos.
 * 2260s: Captain Pike is promoted to fleet captain, the Enterprise is turned over to the command of Captain James T. Kirk in 2264
 * 2266: Fleet Captain Pike is bound by delta rays to the wheelchair by an accident aboard the cadet ship. He is taken by Spock and the Enterprise to Talos IV, goes into retirement and lives with Vina in illusory bliss.
 * 2276: Son born on Talos IV.
 * 2320s: Dies, according to the Talosians in 2373.