Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Thursdays on Paramount+Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 10: "A Quality of Mercy" Quotes
Captain Pike: Is this some kind of...
Admiral Pike: ...joke? No.
Captain Pike: How am I supposed to believe...
Admiral Pike:...that I'm really you?
Captain Pike: You ever gonna let me get a word in edgewise?
Admiral Pike: I knew you were going to say that. Does that help?
Admiral Pike: Your first pony was named Sir Neighs-A-Lot. He broke his leg in a rainstorm. Your parents had to put him down. And you cried for a week. Ever tell anybody that?
Captain Pike: It's hard when your tragic backstory starts with...
Admiral Pike: ...a silly name.
Causality is complex.
Admiral Pike
Admiral Pike: This is serious. This is end of the world stuff. Now, I know that you would never put your own fate before the fate of the galaxy. And that's how I convinced the Klingons to let me show you instead.
Captain Pike: Instead... of what?
Admiral Pike: You know the Klingons. Nothing they wouldn't rather solve with a bat'leth.
Spock: I would posit that in this present you were never injured in the training incident thus you remained captain of the Enterprise putting you in charge at a crucial moment in the ship's existence.
Pike: A moment where the whole future hangs in the balance.
Spock: All we can surmise is that in the Prime future, some other captain of the Enterprise must've commanded it differently thus it is imperative that you do not change what you would normally do on the ship.
Pike: I thought we were trying to avoid a terrible future.
Spock: We are trying to discover why this future is -- in the estimation of your older self -- worse.
Pike: So the only way to discover the terrible future is to live it.
Sam Kirk: Jim was always at the top of his class. He's smart and highly skilled, obviously. But he's not above relying on charm or even luck.
Pike: Sound like a wild card?
Sam Kirk: A whole deck of them.
M'Benga: I vote against war.
Ortegas: So do I. I just think that means killing Romulans.
Pike: We may have different points of view, but do not question my combat readiness, Captain.
James Kirk: I'm saying, caution means you're not going to put everything you have into the punch, and that's a good way to lose because your enemy will see that and act accordingly.
Typically, no one can know the future in the moment. One can only follow one's instincts and hope the truth will present itself.
Spock
Romulan Commander: You don't remember a time without war, but I do. Who wins an endless war with the Federation?
Subcommander: We will, Commander.
Romulan Commander: An endless war, by definition, can never be won.
Pike: I am Captain Pike of the Federation starship Enterprise, and you are?
Praetor: You may address me as Praetor. It is customary to kneel.
Pike: As I'm not Romulan, you'll forgive me if I don't.
