Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 1 - "Strange New Worlds"
Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) knows his own dire future but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds seems to get the timeline of his tragic accident wrong. Picking up months after the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Strange New Worlds sees a reluctant Pike once again take command of the USS Enterprise. Joined by Number One, Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), and Science Officer Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), Pike leads the Starship Enterprise on a new five-year mission of deep space exploration. But even Una and Spock can see that Pike is a changed man haunted by his dark future.
Star Trek: The Original Series' two-parter, "The Menagerie," established that in 2266, Fleet Captain Pike is critically injured saving a group of Starfleet cadets during a starship accident. Pike is bombarded with delta rays, which left him unable to speak or move and confined in a specialized chair. In 2267, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) risked the death penalty when he mutinied and stole the Starship Enterprise to transport Pike to Talos IV, where the psychic aliens who reside there used their powers to allow Pike to live out the remainder of his life in an illusionary state. However, Star Trek: Discovery season 2 delivered a twist to Pike's well-known TOS fate: in 2258, the Captain learned of his future thanks to a vision he received in the Klingon monastery on Boreth. This compounded Pike's tragedy because he knows his destiny is to save many young lives at the cost of his own.
In Strange New Worlds' premiere, Spock reaches out to his Captain because the Vulcan can plainly see that Pike has been "a changed man" ever since he returned from Boreth. Pike confided, "I know exactly when and how my life ends" to his Science Officer and friend, but when Spock asked when his accident will happen, Pike answered his accident is "almost a decade away." Yet Star Trek: Strange New Worlds begins in 2259, which means that it will be 7 years at most before Pike's heroic sacrifice to save the Starfleet Cadets. This is considerably less than "a decade," and Pike said his vision gave him the exact time and date his accident will occur. So, did the Captain of the Enterprise (and Strange New Worlds) make a mistake with his own timeline?
Perhaps the reason why Pike spoke so vaguely to Spock about when his accident happens instead of sharing the full details with his Science Officer highlights the difference between humans and Vulcans in Star Trek. A Vulcan like Spock, or an android like Data (Brent Spiner), would naturally convey precise details when asked - and is usually told to not be so exact. Pike giving Spock a non-specific response that his accident is "nearly a decade" away is a very human-like handwave meant to reassure his Science Officer that it's still far off and his accident is nothing to be concerned about in the immediate future. After all, Chris' sad destiny is still to come well after the Enterprise's five-year mission is over, but it's a Sword of Damocles hanging over Captain Pike in Strange New Worlds.
Yet Strange New Worlds' revelation that Pike knows the exact date and time of his future accident is fascinating. To the audience, Pike's vision in Star Trek: Discovery only appeared to be a harrowing glimpse that lasted a few stark seconds. Strange New Worlds retconned it so that the Klingon time crystal gave Pike the full, grim download of his terrible accident. If Pike knows everything about his future, this presumably includes the names of every Starfleet Cadet he is destined to save. With that much foreknowledge, including the choice that taking steps to change his future likely means condemning many young lives to die, it's no wonder Pike took extra long shore leave and considered not returning to Captain the Enterprise at the start of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.