In last night’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Christopher Pike’s ill-fated future finally caught up with his character’s present mission in a moment decades in the making — and today, actor Anson Mount shared some insight into how that all came together in “Through the Valley of Shadows.”

During Captain Pike’s visit to the time crystal vault on the Klingon world of Boreth, the officer gets a shocking vision of the cadet training mission disaster first described back in “The Menagerie,” and Mount found himself recreating the scarred, mutilated version of Pike first portrayed by actor Sean Kenney back in 1967.

 
On this week’s The Ready Room, Mount talked about how he viewed Pike’s choice to accept his horrible fate:

Having a good handle on canon myself, I think, I was very appreciative on how the writers handled it. It was so smart, primarily because I think it turns Pike’s third act [in “The Menagerie”] more of a triumph then a tragedy by making it an active choice on his part.

The one thing I knew about Pike is that he probably had good parents and he definely had good mentors. He’s emotionally intelligent enough and idealistic enough to know that when you say you’re going to do something, you do that thing. You live up to your word.

To be presented with a situation where you can escape a horrible fate if he turns his back on the ideals he has pledged to uphold… it’s not really a choice. Because if you don’t live up to your word, what are you? As they say, ‘If you gain the world but lose yourself, in so doing, then you are nothing.’

He saw pretty clearly what he had to do, and I came out of that loving the character even more.

And before you think that the delta radiation-scarred version of Captain Pike was played by some unnamed stand-in, the actor went into detail about his experience being turned into a melted, wheelchair-bound invalid.

[The makeup] gave me an even greater appreciation for Doug Jones and all of our creature actors. It was an interesting process — I’d done some prosthetics before, but more for wounds and stuff like that, never something that covers the entire body, or at least torso-up.

It was a process I was very happy to go through, [but] I’ve done that now and never want to do it again! [laughs] It’s not that bad. It beats digging ditches! But the hours of sitting there do require a sense of inner calm, and patience. For me, doing it the first time, I was able to sit back and watch these incredible craftsmen and artists use me as their canvas. So it was enjoyable from that angle, but I’m sure after several months of it that would get old!

It’s a labor-intensive, many-stage process, and when you go through it, you do see why it takes so many hours. And it’s not just like [once it’s on] you’re good for the day, there’s a maintenance that goes on througout the shooting day when you’re not rolling camera. There’s people wanting to glue this, paint that, adjust this, take out your contacts, put your contacts back in… it’s a tough job.

“Through the Valley of Shadows” co-writer Erika Lippoldt also shared this photo of Mount rehearsing the Pike-meets-Pike sequence with a dummy (alongside director Doug Aarniokoski) on the Discovery sets in preparation for the episode, noting that the updated take Pike’s chair was designed by series creature creator Neville Page.

Finally, Mount also shared a few notes about the shooting schedule for the visit to Boreth — a combination of on-stage filming and location shooting at Knox College at the University of Toronto.

We shot [the time crystal sequence] on many different days, for many different things. Me being in the Klingon monestary with the time crystals was shot on one day, the hallway [scene] between my older and younger self was shot on another day in another location, and then certain aspects of the present-day Pike was shot in the same location but a week or two later than that. You have to figure out what’s necessary for each of those pieces, and how to get yourself back to that [emotional] place.

[The monestary] was part of the University of Toronto — gorgious, gorgeous architechture in there. And of course, a lot of elements that are added either through set construction physically or additions made with CG later on.

In the full interview, Mount also discusses his love of the original Star Trek series (a show he’s watched in full more than three times), working with Klingon guest star Kenneth Mitchell, his first encounter with Star Trek fans at last year’s Creation convention in Las Vegas and more.’

Star Trek: Discovery returns next week with the penultimate episode of the season, “Such Sweet Sorrow.”