Star Trek: Discovery newcomer Anson Mount, who takes on the role of Captain Christopher Pike in the upcoming second season of the show, isn’t just an actor — he’s also a nascent podcaster, hosting “The Well” for the last year with co-host Branan Edgens.

In today’s new episode of “The Well,” Mount shared some reaction to his first few weeks spent in Toronto on the Discovery sets, and his entry in to the Star Trek franchise, seemingly recorded during the filming of Episode 202, directed by Trek luminary Jonathan Frakes.

It’s crazy, man. Getting cast in ‘Star Trek’ is not like getting any other job. It’s also like a right of passage that very few actors get to enjoy.

It’s nuts, ’cause you’re not just joining a cast, you’re joining a cultural touchstone… a big family. It’s amazing. Jonathan Frakes, who played Number One in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ he’s our current director for Episode 2.

Mount also referenced his time on AMC’s Hell on Wheels, where he co-starred with Next Generation and Deep Space Nine alum Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien) for several seasons of the cable drama.

Of course I worked with Colm Meaney [on ‘Hell on Wheels’], and they’re constantly asking about Colm, and Marvin Rush, who was the [director of photography] on ‘Hell on Wheels,’ shot a lot of ‘Star Trek.’

Lastly, Mount also spoke about his reaction the scale of production on Star Trek: Discovery, luckily accompanied by his faithful dog, Mac, during the time away from home.

It’s also the biggest production I’ve ever been a part of, and I don’t just mean TV production — I mean, like, anything. We take up six soundstages, it’s enormous… the sets, just the whole machine of it all, sometimes running two [shooting] units at once.

The hours are killer. Really long hours. (Laughs) I’m up here with [my dog] Mac, and Mac has been very patient with the process — he gets a lot of attention on set. He snores at inopportune times, as usual.

We’re still waiting to get a good look at Mount in the role of Captain Pike, only glimpsed briefly in the early-production teaser video released by CBS Television Studios two months ago — hopefully we’ll see more of Pike sometime this summer.

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Meanwhile, though current production on Discovery Season 2 is about to go on break after the unexpected departure of series showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, CBS is still moving ahead to keep Discovery in the Emmy conversation, releasing several videos this past week to highlight the work of the series’ makeup and prosthetics teams.

Here’s how Klingon L’Rell (Mary Chieffo), augmented humanoid Airam (Sara Mitich), and Andorian Shukar (Riley Gilchrist) are changed from their human to alien personas.

Keep coming back to TrekCore for more Star Trek: Discovery news as it breaks!