The Cage

This is one of my very favorite episodes, and I've always wondered what a Star Trek with Captain Pike would have been like. It has excitement, suspense, and even a thinking plot. It definitely works much better as a stand-alone episode than it does as a backdrop for "The Menagerie". In that capacity, it is used as a flashback to propel a very odd story where Spock commandeers the Enterprise to deliver a badly injured Pike to what appears to be a morally bankrupt race so he can live out an illusion of a normal life. Very un-Spock like IMHO.

That said, it seems apparent to me that Gene Roddenberry lifted some very obvious plot ideas for this pilot from the Twilight Zone episode "People Are Alike All Over". He even borrowed actress Susan Oliver who appeared in that episode in a similar role and a with a similar name ("Teenya" vs "Vina").

Season 1, episode 0. This is the original pilot episode of Star Trek. It is copyrighted 1964, was completed in 1965. It was released on VHS in 1986 and first aired on television in 1988. This episode was reworked into the season 1, two part episode (episodes 11 & 12) called "The Menagerie". "Where No Man Has Gone Before" became the pilot episode for Star Trek TOS by orders of the network.

This pilot is much like the Star Trek we all come to know but not with Captain James T. Kirk commanding the Enterprise, instead it is Captain Christopher Pike in command.

The Vulcan Mr. Spock is in this episode - played by Leonard Nimoy - but the character is a bit different. Here we have a young, eager to learn Spock instead of the well seasoned and logical Spock that we all know from the rest of the episodes.

Majel Barrett is in the pilot as Number One. After this episode Barrett played the role of Nurse Chapel and the voice of the ship's computer.

The Cage was considered to be partly lost, only known footage to survive was from The Menagerie, outside of some b&w footage Roddenberry had made on 16mm for reference purposes - that must have been put together to create the 1986 VHS tape because in 1987 a film archivist found an unmarked and must 35mm of The Cage with the unused trimmed footage. Using the Menagerie, 35mm with the cut scenes, the archivist put the film back together - thus we have a fairly good restoration of The Cage today.

Recommended viewing for Star Trek fans and Sci-Fi fans in general. The Cage does have a lot of things that made Star Trek "Star Trek" but with some noticeable differences.

I am fond of this episode that was once thought lost.

8.5/10

As Mr Spock would say - "Fascinating". I'd only ever seen this pilot episode when it was very cleverly spliced into the Series One two-parter "The Menagerie", but it was great to view it at last as a stand-alone programme. This is the way "Star Trek" might have turned out if this introduction had caught on originally with the commissioning powers-that-be, which only adds to the interest as the keen Trekkie looks for the similarities and dissimilarities between what we have here and what would come to be only a couple of years later when James T Kirk, Bones, Scotty and all joined Spock, the only retained character from "The Cage" on the Enterprise.

So we get the familiar Enterprise craft and bridge, all the sound effects and devices like phasers, transporter and communicators. There are no real titles as such however, likewise the famous theme music isn't played from the outset and of course there's no "captain's log" either. Interestingly Captain Pike uses the phrase "Engage" which skipped Kirk but ended up in the vocabulary of the next captain, Picard, played memorably by Patrick Stewart.

With the exception of Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike (who sadly died only a few years after this was made) and naturally Leonard Nimoy as Spock, I'm not sure I'd have retained any of the precursor characters here, but obviously I might be doing the actors a disservice through the simple expedience of unfamiliarity. Susan Devine makes for a pretty temptress to the smitten captain.

Anyway, the story itself is terrific, suitably out of this world, delivering a thoughtful but imaginative narrative with as much psychology to ponder as action to thrill to.

Proof that Captain Kirk did in fact boldly go where man had actually gone before.

I went to a Trekie revival in the late 1970's hosted by Gene Roddenberry, in person, the series creator. When I first saw this listed here, I was confused by the September, 1966 air date. This episode never aired on NBC or any network originally. If it has been shown intact, it has only happened in later years.

At this revival, Gene showed only the black and white version of this as at that point, the color one had been lost and all he had was the black and white. It was shown on a large arena screen and was on film. He talked about the fact it had never aired and that NBC had decided against running this series based on The Cage.

Gene used The Menagerie two parter as a way to air the pilot later. When the series began, it did not air first. He said that his purpose for the series went totally over the NBC execs heads. That is no surprise as NBC often was the second place network and sometimes fell to number three of three during the late 1960's.

Gene Roddenberry originally pitched this series to NBC as Wagon Train to The Stars, based on his experience writing westerns like Have Gun, Will Travel.Often success would come to NBC by accident. The accident here is that they gave Roddenberry a second chance to start this show.

That is what happened with Star Trek. Star Trek established the teenage generation following for NBC at the perfect time here as NBC would accidentally follow it up with other series this demographic liked. In no small part Rowan & Martins Laugh-In, an experiment in modern comedy-variety series succeeded because frustrated Trekies were looking for more network fare that was not conventional.

Star Trek's fresh, bold, where no man has gone before theme became a credo at NBC as they went very far out later to keep this audience for many years. The Cage is the ultimate place for all this to begin.

Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) heads the U.S.S. Starship Enterprise in this pilot that the Powers that Be passed on, forcing Gene Rodenberry to make a second pilot with Wialliam Shatner as Kirk as well as making the new version more action oriented, less cerebral and ditching the idea of a woman as second in command. But that would all come later as this review is on the topic at hand. The unaired pilot deals with Pike being held captive in a glass cage by alien beings who possess the powers of mind illusions. It's in both black & white, as well as color (the parts that would be lated integrated into "The Menagerie" 2-part episode of Star Trek) It's more thought-provoking, less "action-packed" then the later series would end up being. And I throughly enjoyed it. This original version can be found as an extra on the Season 3 DVD set of Star Trak by the way.

My Grade: B+