10 Most Tragic Star Trek Characters

Christopher Pike was originally depicted as the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek’s first pilot, The Cage. However, since this episode wasn’t seen by TV audiences until 1988, his first appearance on the show was after he was severely injured helping cadets escape their damaged vessel, showcasing his remarkable courage and dedication.

Pike was reintroduced to TV audiences on Star Trek: Discovery's second season when he temporarily took command of the Discovery. During the course of the season, he is shown his own future while visiting the Klingon planet Boreth to retrieve a time crystal. He was given the choice of leaving empty-handed and avoiding his fate or taking the crystal and accepting it. He took the crystal as it was vital to his mission, although he remained troubled by his fate.

In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode A Quality of Mercy, Pike considered changing his fate. However, after being shown an alternate timeline by a potential future version of himself, he learned that if he avoided his accident his actions during a border crisis with the Romulans would doom the Federation to a protracted war while actions suggested by James T. Kirk would prevent it.

Therefore, Pike elects to keep his fate as written, sacrificing his own quality of life for the Federation, for Spock, and for the future to play out for the best. If knowing that one is facing a difficult future, yet accepting that for the greater good doesn't count as a tragedy of Shakespearean levels, then what does?