The eternal geek argument over who was the best Star Trek captain - Picard or Kirk - will never be truly settled. And since I have gone back and forth on the question myself far too many times, I'm glad there is a new option in the oldest Trek captain of them all: Captain Christopher Pike in Strange New Worlds.
It's not just because of that astonishing head of hair and the quite astonishing charms of Anson Mount, although those are certainly major factors. It's because he's decent and square and happy to take advice because he knows he's got the best team in the universe standing on the bridge with him.
He's a great cook and a stern leader and an empathetic soul who can also admit when he is wrong, and even though he knows his own future, and how horrible it is, he still has hope, and doesn't let it stop him being his best self. Just because it's going to be dark doesn't mean you can't bathe in the light while you can.
There is a lot of talk around toxic masculinity, because it is an actual thing that needs to be sorted out before it kills us all, but Pike is the opposite of that. He is a kind of antidote masculinity, a role model that is worth following because fuck it, the world is a little short of the required kindness right now, and we could all use some more examples.
You know it probably won't end well for those characters who don't have a further destiny aboard the Enterprise, but they also slowly getting the classic gang together - Spock, Uhura and Scotty are all accounted for. And the series they all feature in has a definitive end, announced recently. But I could watch Pike and his crew bring a steely kindness to the universe forever.
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