Captain gets Star Trek nod

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Anson Mount

New Star Trek leader Anson Mount had an emotional encounter with the son of the actor who originally played the role of Captain Christopher Pike.

The Crossroads star plays The Original Series character on the new season of Star Trek: Discovery and he reveals a handshake from the son of Jeffrey Hunter, who died in 1969 just four years after playing the role in the classic sci-fi series' pilot episode, was all the validation he needed before he started shooting the show.

"Chris Hunter came to Comic Con just to meet me and tell me that his father would've approved and that meant and - I'm almost getting choked up talking about it - that meant so, so, so much," Anson tells Entertainment Tonight. "Chris, if you're watching, thank you. I wish you were here. We made sure to introduce him at our panel at Comic Con... That was the most incredible moment."

Meanwhile, co-star Anthony Rapp also had a very special encounter with a fan at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

He tells the news show, "There was one person in particular who literally said it (series) had saved his friend's life. That his friend was having some suicidal thoughts, and he took his friend and he sat him down and he watched.

"He said, 'Let's take you through some of these episodes that talk about really deep, personal things and it just helped ground him and really saved his life'.

"To be witnessing part of something that does that for people is really overwhelming."

And Sonequa Martin-Green also explains the popular sci-fi show helped a British fan come to terms with his racist upbringing.

"I met a white man in England and he stopped me at a convention and he said, 'I come from a very racist family, very, very racist. I watched all of season one and I didn't even realize you were black until the end'," the actress, who plays Michael Burnham, explains. "And he didn't mean that he didn't see my color.. but he meant, 'I saw myself in you completely'.

"He said, 'The journey I went on really changed me and now I feel like I can teach my kids and I can finally break the cycle of racism in my family'."

The encounter brought Sonequa to tears.

"He was like, 'Oh, I didn't mean to make you cry'. I was like, 'Are you kidding me? That's the most amazing thing.'"