The characters of Star Trek keep the franchise going, regardless of the ret-cons and alternative timelines. Christopher Pike, who was Captain of the iconic ship Enterprise before Kirk took the helm, was a relatively obscure character until being featured in a supporting role in the 2009 movie. He played a major role in the second season of Discovery, and was so popular that he got his own spinoff, Strange New Worlds.
Captain Pike isn't just a footnote in the history of the Star Trek IP to be brought forward as convenient fanservice. He was the main character in the pilot episode of Star Trek and was much more conflicted about the nature of his job than the younger and more optimistic Kirk. There's a lot more that even dedicated fans don't know about Captain Christopher Pike.
7 He's From Mojave, California
The image of a figure on horseback riding across the California desert is worlds apart from the picture of an idyllic Iowa cornfield, and that's the point. Christopher Pike isn't a farm boy, but a literal, old-school cowboy who could have been lifted from America's distant past.
From the start, the kid who grew up with his horse Tango on the border of the Mojave Desert has more of an edge to him. Thanks to the "magic" of the Keepers, the audience can see some of this past, hearing about it through dialogue or exposition while he's being held captive on Talos IV in the classic pilot episode.
6 He Was The Second Captain Of The Enterprise
Pike was the Captain of the Enterprise before Kirk, but he wasn't the first. Before him, there was Captain Robert April, and this old-but-new character seems to be coming out of hiding much the same way that Pike did.
Captain April has made one live-action appearance in the pilot of Strange New Worlds, which might be some foreshadowing for future appearances. He was played by Adrian Holmes, an actor noted for his gravitas. Before that point, April's only other role was in the animated version of Star Trek, "The Counter-Clock Incident" in which he was voiced by James Doohan, the actor who played Scotti in TOS.
5 There's A Medal Named After Him
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It's called the Christopher Pike Medal of Valor, and it was mentioned in the Deep Space 9 episode entitled "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" in which both Benjamin Sisko and his rival, Solok, accepted the award.
The medal is designed with the original colors of the Starfleet uniforms: red, green, green and gold, and blue. It's decorated with the Latin saying, "sic semper tyrannis," or "Thus always to tyrants," a line that recalls Brutus of Julius Caesar and the old state motto of Virginia.
4 He Wanted To Quit Starfleet
The subtext of the whole pilot episode is that Pike has been shaken up by a recent mission gone bad and wants to quit Starfleet completely. Their most recent mission, an unspecified task that brought them to Rigel VII, had gone poorly and had cost several lives. Pike speaks to the doctor about it in the opening scenes, and it's similar to the conversations that Bones and Kirk would eventually have.
The exact details of the mission are never described, only that Pike is doubting his leadership abilities over it. It makes for a more interesting but complex story as he's fighting the Keepers of Talos IV along with his own self-doubts.
3 His Pilot Episode Was Rejected
Despite all the positive reviews that "The Cage" gets in retrospect, part of the reason the character of Pike was replaced was that audiences didn't respond to the main character the way that the writers and showrunners were hoping. There was a lot that producers and writers liked about the show but Pike, unfortunately, wasn't one of them.
Sharp-eyed viewers will see other more subtle changes in later episodes, such as the female XO morphing into Nurse Chapel and Vulcans becoming a lot more stoic. "The Menagerie" was a TOS episode that would recount Pike's adventures on Rigel 5 by using the lore and footage of the original pilot, a unique idea at the time.
2 Star Trek: The Early Voyages
Star Trek: The Early Voyages was a series of Marvel comic books that told the story of the Enterprise before they were drawn to Talos IV. The series lasted for a year, from 1997-1998, coming to an abrupt end when Marvel lost the rights.
The overall story eventually led up to the events of "The Cage" and in an interesting twist, was told from the point of view of Yeoman Mia Colt. She would eventually become captain of her own ship and feature in later stories about Pike.
1 Captain Colt And The Exeter
After her tenure on the USS Enterprise, Yeoman Mia Colt would go on to become a Captain. Her ship was the USS Exeter, and for those that already know some of the lore, it was an accident on this ship that injured Pike and confined him to a wheelchair.
Captain's Log: Pike was released in 2010, making it one of the recent entries in the Star Trek comic book library. It chronicles the incidents aboard the Exeter that included a training exercise gone wrong and a real-life encounter with an aggressive Halogian starship. The ship was already old and in rough shape, which is partly why the plates didn't hold.