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- “You didn't deceive anyone, Vina. I felt it too. But you are here now. This is real!”
- — Pike, Discovery.
Pike/Vina is the het ship between Captain Christopher Pike and Vina from the Star Trek fandom.
Canon
The Original Series
The pilot episode of the Original Series, The Cage follows Captain Pike's crew, as they land on a planet called "Talos". The crew believes that there are survivors there from a crash landing eighteen years prior. Pike is deeply worried for his crew after he lost three man, including one of his great friends because of a bad call he made, even considering resigning after they finished the mission.
When they find the survivors, he meets a young, beautiful girl, who is introduced as Vina, and whom he immediately feels attracted to. However the survivors camp soon turns out to be a trap, and illusion, and Pike is captured by the native aliens. He meets Vina again, in another illusion, and at first, the girl claims to be an illusion too, however Pike soon realizes, that she is indeed a real human, also held on the planet, and the Talosians try to use them to mate. He tries to protect the girl, even asking the Talosians to hurt him instead of her, and later confirms that he feels strongly drawn to her, and Vina also tells, that she had fallen in love with him. At the end of the episode, a clever move from Number One saves both Pike and Vina, but when he asks the girl to accompany him to the Enterprise, Vina says no, and reveals that she was terribly injured during the crash landing, and only able to stay seemingly healthy and beautiful because of the Talosian illusions. Pike says he understands the decision, and the Talosians create an illusion for her that the Captain stayed on the planet.
In The Menagerie I-II. it is revealed that Pike was injured, paralyzed and deformed after a terrible incident, left in a wheelchair, only able to communicate through a flashing light. Spock tries to get him to Talos, risking death penalty, and with the help of the Talosians he is able to do it - there, they ask Pike if he wants to return to the planet, which he replies yes. At the end of the episode we see him reunited with Vina, through illusions, healthy once again.
Discovery
Pike meets Vina again between the events of the Cage and the Menagerie, when Spock receives help from the Talosians. Vina appears in his ready room, and at first he is startled by her. Later he reveals that he thought a lot about their relationship, and wished she could have gone with him. Vina tells of the illusion the Talosians created, that he stayed with her, and apologizes for deceiving him in the first place, to which Pike replies that "she didn't deceive anyone" and "he felt it too". Later Vina helps Pike save his friends, asking him to trust her but let her go, showing that despite the time they spent separated, they were still in love.
Quotes
- “There's something I need to say. When you came to Talos, I'd been alone for so many years. I never imagined happiness or love. And when the Talosians decided we were...unsuited for each other...when you left, it was worse. Because I knew what I'd lost.”
- — Vina to Pike, Discovery, If Memory Serves
Fanon
Despite the fact that it is canon, Pike and Vina is not a popular ship. The main reason for this is most likely that the original meeting of the couple in the Cage is quite unsettling, Pike was deceived, held hostage, tortured, and almost forced to mate with the girl. It can be a reason, that the Cage was originally a pilot episode, meaning that Vina would have been an episodic character, who never appears again - the fact that she became the main love interest of Pike could come from the fact that the Menagerie episodes simply reused the material from the pilot. Discovery increased the acceptance of the fandom towards the pairing a little bit, since in the episode If Memory Serves Vina is shown to be much more mature, and understanding towards the captain, and Pike is shown to be deeply in love with her - however many still think that an honorable character like Pike could never take advantage from a girl like this.
There are few fan fictions dealing with the couple, and it is mostly referenced as a past relationship, with another pairing as the main ship. They are more popular in fan vids, particularly Pike tributes.
The main rival of the ship is Pike/Number One, but basically any other ship involving Pike is mostly incompatible with his relationship with Vina.
Fandom
FAN FICTION Pike/Vina tag on AO3
Trivia
- The characters are played by different actors in the Original Series and in Discovery. ** In the Original series, Pike is portrayed by Jeffery Hunter and Vina by Susan Oliver, while in Discovery they are played by Anson Mount and Melissa George.