Posted in: Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, strange new worlds

Star Trek: Anson Mount, William Shatner Have Some Fun with TOS Meme

Star Trek stars Anson Mount (Strange New Worlds) and William Shatner (The Original Series) have back-and-forth fun with a Jeffrey Hunter meme.

Published Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:37:06 -0500

by Tom Chang

Comments

As we loom closer to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season three and knowing Anson Mount's time in the franchise as Captain Christopher Pike will only last as long as his series runs on Paramount+, the actor decided to share a meme involving his earlier predecessor, the late Jeffrey Hunter, who originated the character in the unaired The Original Series pilot "The Cage". The caption has Hunter Pike saying, "Bad news, Spock. Next episode I'm being replaced by a dude whose overacting could probably make even you laugh out loud" with a still featuring Hunter and Leonard Nimoy, the only cast member who retained his role into the final TOS cast as the Vulcan and science officer, Mr. Spock.

Star Trek: Anson Mount & William Shatner Poke Fun with TOS Meme — Anson Mount in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. William Shatner in Star Trek: The Original Series. Images courtesy of Paramount

Star Trek Enterprise Captains Poke Fun at Each Other With Matching Wit

Tagging, the 94-year-old Canadian legend, Mount wrote, "Yo, [William Shatner]… not sure who this one is aimed at but I got yer back if you got mine, homie." Shatner replied," Thank you and I have yours but between us; I'm sure it's about you. 😝" Pike is an enigma in Star Trek lore in that the character was initially replaced with Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk along with a new crew aside from Spock, but the footage from "The Cage" was repurposed for the flashback heavy "The Menagerie" that brings the pilot into proper canon, and Spock at a court martial hearing after trying to assist his previous captain back to Tallos IV, a planet forbidden to travel by the Federation.

Mount was introduced in season two of the Paramount+ series Discovery, which was initially set in the pre-TOS era before given a proper spinoff of his own in SNW as Discovery bolted to the 32nd century, alongside Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck, who play Una Chin-Riley and Mr. Spock, originated by Majel Barrett Roddenberry and Nimoy on TOS. SNW is a reimagining of sorts of what could have happened if creator Gene Roddenberry was allowed to retain his original vision.