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- This is a landmark episode<\/strong> in a couple ways \u2013 the only two-parter<\/strong> in the original Trek series, but more significantly a clever story within a story<\/strong> that allowed the show\u2019s producers to use almost all of the footage from the original pilot, despite its having an almost completely different cast from what became established for the series. (The only common character was Mr. Spock.)<\/li>\n
- On the other hand, while the new envelope story cleverly summons the original pilot footage as something that happened on an Enterprise voyage 13 years before, that voyage, its encounter with aliens who can manufacture illusions, is rife with hoary pulp sci-fi clich\u00e9s<\/strong>: big-skulled telepathic aliens; sword-wielding barbarians on an exotic planet; a green alien woman who is nevertheless alluring and perhaps irresistible to human males; reptilian monsters with big teeth.<\/li>\n
- Furthermore, the theme as developed by the envelope story undercuts itself. I\u2019ll get to that later, in Part 2.<\/li>\n
- The frame story takes the Enterprise back to Star Base 11, site of the previous episode, \u201cCourt Martial\u201d, some 60 days later, given stardates 2950.1 and 3012.4. For once the timing of the ship\u2019s coming and going is plausible.<\/li>\n
- The enhanced graphics are especially effective in the early scenes as our crew beams down to Star Base 11\u2014see image above.<\/li>\n
- The frame story is clever but a tad padded<\/strong>. We get a scene in the starbase \u201ccomputer center\u201d with Spock skulking about and then nerve-pinching a technician, just so he can insert and play pre-manufacturing voice tapes to direct commands to the Enterprise. Keying off \u201cCourt Martial\u201d, however, Spock\u2019s manipulation of such voice messages via various \u2018tapes\u2019 (colored pieces of square plastic he inserts into computer panels, as seen is many episodes) is at least consistently plausible. How did he manufacture them? Well, he\u2019s Spock.<\/li>\n
- As Kirk and McCoy wonder about the puzzle of the message that drew the Enterprise to Starbase 11, despite the latter\u2019s insisting such a message was never sent, they start to suspect Spock. McCoy insists that Spock, as a Vulcan, is \u201cincapable of telling a lie.\u201d Really? I\u2019m not sure this is plausible, psychologically, among any social species, which could not endure without routine use of at least \u2018white lies\u2019. It\u2019s an example of how Vulcans, and Spock, in this series, are idealized almost past the point of plausibility\u2026representing some kind of perfect human that could never exist in the real world.<\/li>\n
- It\u2019s curious that the approach to the planet Talos IV (site of the Enterprise visit 13 years ago) is \u201cthe only death penalty left on the books.\u201d Because first, that the Federation still has a death penalty at all; and second, because what we find out about Talos IV is really so so so dangerous? Perhaps\u2026<\/li>\n
- Trek physics<\/strong>: As Spock essentially hijacks the Enterprise and heads it for Talos IV, Kirk, left back on Starbase 11, follows in a shuttlecraft, just like the Galileo 7, along with the base Commodore Mendez (Malachi Throne). So\u2026 does the shuttlecraft have warp drive? Surely the Enterprise is using warp to transit from the starbase to Talos IV, another star system presumably many light years distant. The shuttle has trouble keeping up on its \u201cion engine power,\u201d suggesting not. How then could the shuttle have expected to catch up the Enterprise? (In later episodes, e.g. 2nd<\/sup> season\u2019s \u201cMetamorphosis\u201d, the implication was that the shuttle did have warp drive, to transit from one star system to another.)<\/li>\n
- There\u2019s a slight glimpse of Spock\u2019s quarters in one scene here, but revealing very little \u2013 nothing like the full exposure we get in 2nd<\/sup> season\u2019s \u201cAmok Time\u201d.<\/li>\n
- As Kirk and Mendez arrive aboard Enterprise, and Spock has himself arrested, and then requests immediate court martial\u2026 the screen comes on in the courtroom (a rearranged Enterprise briefing room), and we see the footage of the first Trek pilot \u201cThe Cage\u201d, starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, with John Hoyt as the ship\u2019s Doctor Boyce, and Majel Barrett (later Nurse Chapel in the series cast) as the ship\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> in command, \u201cNumber One\u201d.<\/li>\n
- In the opening moments of this scene, showing the bridge crew responding to odd signals, we have Number One say, \u201cNo, it\u2019s something else. There\u2019s still something out there.\u201d That second line has, for some reason, become embedded in my mind as an iconic line. There\u2019s still something out there.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Trek astronomy<\/strong>: As Spock, on the 13-year-ago Enterprise, reviews records of the earlier Earth expedition out here, we see a photo of the Pleiades \u2013 a well-known astronomical star cluster \u2013 as he talks about the Vega colony. We\u2019ve just heard about this Enterprise\u2019s encounter at Rigel VII. Never mind the Pleiades photo, this is the first of several, I think, infelicities of interstellar astronomy committed by Star Trek<\/em>. The show wasn\u2019t as ignorant about space and astronomy as other TV shows, e.g. Lost in Space<\/em>, but the show was casual in its use of familiar star names without bothering about the plausibility of where those stars actually lie in the galaxy. That is: Rigel is a star in the constellation Orion, a very large star some 863 light years from Earth\u2026 and Vega is a star in the constellation Lyra, a smaller star nearly as bright as Rigel because it\u2019s much closer to Earth at only 25 light years \u2013 but in virtually the *opposite* direction from Earth as Rigel. In no way is it plausible for the Enterprise, having fought a battle at Rigel, to head for recovery at Vega. (Why not just stop off at Earth?) This kind of thing happened again and again, every time the show resorted to using familiar star names.<\/li>\n
- In the next scene, ship\u2019s doctor Boyce visits Captain Pike\u2019s cabin, as the captain expresses stress and regret \u2013 as Kirk would do in \u201cBalance of Terror\u201d \u2013 and Boyce fixes him a\u2026 martini! It\u2019s long been taken for granted, but it\u2019s interesting how Trek assumed that alcohol would be present 300 years from now. Though not tobacco. (Apparently IIRC there was a push by a certain NBC advertiser to have the crew the Enterprise smoke cigarettes, but Roddenberry nixed that.)<\/li>\n
- As Boyce says, serving Pike the drink, in a famous line: \u201cSometimes a man will tell his bartender things he\u2019ll never tell his doctor.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Anachronisms: in one scene on the bridge a report comes literally printed out, out of a slot; in the transporter room, the junior technician, an Asian, is wearing eyeglasses (though he doesn\u2019t in a later scene).<\/li>\n
- It\u2019s mentioned in these scenes from the original pilot that the Enterprise had only 203 crewmen. The premise changed.<\/li>\n
- Spock\u2019s character had a ways to become crystallized; as the landing party wanders around the planet Talos IV, they find a plant with bluish leaves, and when Spock touches them, he smiles.<\/li>\n
- And when the landing party finds the survivors\u2019 camp, one of the junior officers brags about how quickly their new ships can travel: \u201cThe time barrier\u2019s been broken!\u201d. Perhaps a consideration about how technology changed over 13 years; more likely another premise that changed.<\/li>\n
- And then the young woman among the survivors, Vina, tempts Captain Pike with the \u2018secret\u2019 of how they survived \u2013 leading to Pike\u2019s capture by the alien Talosians. This is the first appearance of the famously recognizable \u201cVina\u2019s theme\u201d, a sultry vocal that would later be repurposed in many guises.<\/li>\n
- At this point Part 1 ends.<\/li>\n
- Music, for \u201cThe Menagerie, Part I\u201d, tracked. But much music was kept from the pilot \u201cThe Cage\u201d, including \u201cVina\u2019s theme\u201d. More notes about music tracks to come in a later post.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Blish’s adaptation: see post for Part 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a clever 2-part story within a story that uses footage from the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”, Spock hijacks the Enterprise to take the earlier captain of the Enterprise, Captain Pike, to the forbidden planet Talos IV. … Continue reading
- On the other hand, while the new envelope story cleverly summons the original pilot footage as something that happened on an Enterprise voyage 13 years before, that voyage, its encounter with aliens who can manufacture illusions, is rife with hoary pulp sci-fi clich\u00e9s<\/strong>: big-skulled telepathic aliens; sword-wielding barbarians on an exotic planet; a green alien woman who is nevertheless alluring and perhaps irresistible to human males; reptilian monsters with big teeth.<\/li>\n