Strange New Worlds Season 3 Gives Captain Pike A Moment We've Never Seen In Star Trek Before

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 3 premiere of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

"Star Trek" always has a way of pushing its characters to the limit. Whether it be a physical threat on the level of the devouring Gorn, a profound difference in philosophy unspooling over the course of an entire episode, or something else altogether, there's no shortage of challenges and obstacles lurking in wait throughout each quadrant of the galaxy. Season 3 of "Strange New Worlds" picks up in the immediate aftermath of last season's cliffhanger finale and, by the end of the hour, comes up with an elaborate solution to explain why one of the franchise's biggest villains goes missing in the future. But though the Gorn may be gone, the scars they left behind remain. Indeed, Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) learns this in a moment we've never seen from him in "Star Trek" before.

Normally a man of science, Pike's experience watching his lover Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) go through her near brush with death turns him — even just for a second — back into a man of faith. Over the course of the premiere, both Spock (Ethan Peck) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) struggle to remove the Gorn implants from Marie's body. Only some outside-the-box thinking and cutting-edge science manage to prevent tragedy, though the patient isn't fully out of the woods just yet. And when the Captain finally gets a chance to check in with her as she lies unconscious, he does something completely unexpected ... though not entirely out of character.

When he begins to recite the Lord's Prayer out of pure desperation, it's only the latest instance of Pike's reinvention in modern "Star Trek" — both in "Strange New Worlds" and "Discovery."

It's not every day that Starfleet officers are portrayed as people of faith, particularly in a future where religion is generally treated as a relic of the past and a holdover from less enlightened times. While "Strange New Worlds" has received most of the credit for putting a modern spin on old franchise traditions in recent years, it was "Discovery" that dipped its toe in as thorny a subject as it gets in "Trek." In the process, we learned some fascinating tidbits about Captain Pike's backstory as well.

Back when Pike, Spock, Number One (Una Chin-Riley), and the rest of the USS Enterprise crew initially appeared in season 2 of "Discovery," one of their first adventures involved a revelatory trip to the Beta Quadrant in episode 2, titled "New Eden." There, the starship discovered remnants of a human colony in deep space where one couldn't possibly have been established — dating back to over 200 years before warp technology had even been invented. The circumstances of their origins revolved around the mysterious, time-traveling "red angel" (eventually revealed to be the mother of Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham in disguise), who saved a group of humans from certain death during the nuclear holocaust of World War III and ferried them all the way to the planet Terralysium halfway across the galaxy. But this act would go on to have far more spiritual ramifications, influencing this "new" society of survivors to develop a religion amalgamized from all the various belief systems on Earth.

When the Discovery's away team interacts with this underdeveloped and sequestered world, it's Pike who first recognizes their main structure resembles a church, and it's his Catholic upbringing that informs much of his arc in this episode. Unlike the much more logically-minded Michael Burnham, Pike is much more accepting of their religious beliefs when they credit the divine for their salvation. And when one skeptical colonist suspects their origins, Pike ultimately makes the call to break General Order 1 (a precursor to the Prime Directive) and reveal the truth ... despite shattering all his beliefs in the process. This complex push and pull with religion continues in "Strange New Worlds."

Despite only taking up the briefest of scenes in the "Strange New Worlds" premiere, Captain Pike's (somewhat begrudging) willingness to rely on the core religious tenets of his youth in a moment of crisis speaks volumes. Anyone who was similarly raised in a household of faith can certainly relate. No matter how long ago we first learned those childhood lessons, no matter how much we've followed them in the years since, and no matter if we might've chosen to reject those beliefs entirely, these things have a way of coming back to us when we least expect it. For a show all about the importance of science and the pursuit of rational knowledge, "Strange New Worlds" makes a very intentional statement through Pike's devotion to Marie. Amusingly, of course, he doesn't even make it through more than the opening line of the "Our Father" prayer before Marie wakes up. But is that a statement on the needlessness of prayer ... or one about the power of it? In vintage "Star Trek" fashion, the scene lends itself to multiple interpretations.

Could "Strange New Worlds" be setting this up as a recurring thread throughout its third season? Religion has always been a crucial thematic underpinning among many of the various "Star Trek" movies and shows over time, so this would merely be another link in a decades-long chain. What may set this apart from other "Star Trek" material, however, could be the level of nuance and complexity that the show's writers may very well choose to explore. If the season 3 premiere is any indication, Pike's lifelong struggle with his own faith isn't anywhere close to being resolved. Even more intriguingly, there are plenty of other options beyond Pike that the series' creative team could use as a vehicle for these lofty ideas as well. We know we can expect more screen time for at least one fan-favorite character, so perhaps future episodes can take full advantage of the ensemble cast in any way they see fit. The possibilities are truly endless.

New episodes of "Strange New Worlds" season 3 stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.