Episode Title: The Menagerie Part 1
Air Date: 11/17/1966
Written by Gene
Roddenberry
Directed by Marc
Daniels
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” Hagan
Beggs as Lieutenant Hansen Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Sean Kenney as Fleet Captain
Christopher Pike (disabled) Eddie
Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley Frank Da Vinci as Guard Julie Parrish as Miss Piper
Brett Dunham as Guard Tom Lupo as Security Guard Malachi Throne as Commodore José
Mendez James Holt as Starfleet Officer George Sawaya as Chief Humboldt Jeffrey Hunter as young and
healthy Captain Christopher Pike
Majel Barrett as Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José
Tyler Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Second Class J.
M. Colt Clegg Hoyt as Transporter
Chief Pitcairn Ed Madden as
Enterprise Geologist Adam Roarke
as C.P.O. Garrison Susan
Oliver as Vina Meg Wyllie as
The Keeper Malachi Throne as
The Keeper (voice) Georgia
Schmidt as the First Talosian
Robert C. Johnson as the First Talosian (voice) Serena Sande as the Second
Talosian Jon Lormer as Dr. Theodore Haskins Leonard Mudie as the Second
Survivor Anthony Jochim as the
Third Survivor Michael
Dugan as The Kaylar
Robert Phillips as Space Officer (Orion) Joseph Mell as Earth Trader
Ships and Space
Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 11, Shuttlecraft SB11-1201/1
Planets: unnamed planet that hosts Starbase 11,
Talos IV
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The episode begins on Starbase 11 where the big three
of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy beam down for a surprise visit. They are greeted by a young woman who says
that the Starbase’s commander, Commodore Mendez, is wondering why they are
here. I would wonder too if I were them,
considering everything Kirk went through here last episode this should be the
last place he would want to hang out.
Captain Kirk however is surprised at their surprise. He says that the Enterprise was summoned here from a transmission from his
predecessor, Fleet Captain Pike.
 |
| Yeoman confused at their presence |
The
trio goes to see the Commodore, who has changed since last episode. I suppose Commodore Stone received a promotion and transfer for his excellent handling of the Finney incident. The new commanding officer, Commodore Mendez,
is shocked at their claims. Kirk doesn’t
see what’s so amazing about getting a message from Fleet Captain Pike.
Commodore Mendez says it’s impossible.
Kirk asked why that is the case, Mendez then gives him a look which
would probably be the same if Kirk told him that Spock had received a
communication from Santa Claus. Mendez
then says, “You really don’t know do you?”
He finds it strange that Kirk doesn’t know the latest news on Pike
seeing as there has been some subspace chatter about it for months, and not to
mention he was just here last week when he was court-martialed. Granted Kirk might have been distracted at
the time but one expects a highly respected decorated Starfleet Captain to be up on
current events. Mendez then has to tell
Captain Kirk the horrible truth of what happened to his predecessor.
 |
| Commodore shows the Enterprise crew Captain Pike |
The
Commodore takes the trio down to the medical facility, while there they talk
about Captain Pike. Mendez describes
Kirk as being around Pike’s age. I guess
in the Commodore’s world “around the same age “means 15 or so years
distance. The Commodore is right however
describing that Kirk and Pike’s share very similar traits; it’s almost like
their fictional characters who were created by the same man who was basing them
on Horatio Hornblower.
Commodore
Mendez explains that Pike was inspecting an old class J starship that was being
run by a number of Starfleet cadets. The
plates ruptured exposing the crew to delta rays. Pike ran in there and pulled
every cadet he could out of the ship, but he overexposed himself wrecking his
body. Captain Pike is now completely
paralyzed and horribly disfigured. He
has to be kept in a life-support wheelchair that can be slightly controlled by
his brain waves. He can move the chair
forward and backwards a little bit, with his vocal cords burnt out the chair
allows him to communicate by signaling yes or no.
When
the four of them enter the room Captain Pike is looking out a window, he then
turns his wheelchair to face his guests.
His heavily scarred face is stuck in position the only thing that gives
away his emotion is his eyes. Mendez
informs Pike that he has visitors and Pike refuses to see them in his depressed
state he’d rather just stare out the window all day than being surrounded by
men who can talk to him but he can’t talk back.
Spock asks to remain a request Pike grants.
When
the two of them are alone Spock tells Pike that it is only four days at maximum
warp from here. Pike starts flashing
“no” with his wheelchair but Spock is determined to help his former Captain,
even if the Captain does not want him to risk it.
 |
| Ever the hero, Captain Pike does not wish Spock to risk his life to save his. |
Later
in the conversation amongst Captain Kirk and Commodore Mendez the subject of
Talos IV comes up for no other reason then is about to be important in the
plot. Kirk mentions that General Order 7
prohibits any starship for any reason going there. Commodore Mendez reminds Kirk that is the
only death penalty they have left on the books.
He then says only Starfleet command knows why, however even though he’s
only a Commodore he actually has access to it and will share it with Kirk. When the Captain opens the top secret
document he must be really disappointed because this isn’t much interesting written
except for the fact that the Enterprise actually went there when it was under the command of Pike.
Why is
this penalized with the death penalty? That seems a bit extreme. I realize the crew did not have a fun time
when they were there and I also understand the Talosians can be a little
dangerous, maybe even a lot dangerous given their telepathic and illusion
making abilities, but killing people just for going there seems to be rather
over-the-top.
The
Captain and Commodore also argue about the origin of the communication received by the Enterprise. Kirk says if Spock claims to have received a communication
that he did and Mendez is saying that’s all but impossible. Mendez is willing to look a little harder but the
deck is going stacked against them.
Unfortunately
for Kirk, it turns out he’s wrong. Spock
did lie and he goes into the communication room, assaults some Starfleet
personnel, and then tricks the Enterprise
to think Captain Kirk is sending it on a secret mission. Spock then abducts Captain Pike, tricks McCoy
into returning to the Enterprise so
he can care for him, and takes off with the ship stranding Captain Kirk at the
Starbase.
 |
| Spock revealing to McCoy that Pike is on the ship |
Captain
Kirk doesn’t take such a thing lying down. With Mendez he takes a shuttlecraft and heads
after his ship; it is a hopeless effort but Kirk still has some faith in Mr.
Spock’s devotion to duty. That faith is
rewarded Spock stops the Enterprise
in order to pick him in the Commodore up.
Then Mr. Spock places himself under arrest with the security personnel
and admits that he stole the ship. But
he has sabotaged the ship’s system enough that they are headed to Talos IV on auto pilot and
cannot be manually overridden.
What a
strange is Mr. Spock hands temporary operational command to this week’s
replacement for Lt. Sulu as opposed to Mr. Scott who last I checked is
technically next in command of the ship after Mr. Spock. It’s a moot point as Kirk arrives to take
command of the ship right away.
Kirk
now has to hold a hearing into the actions of Mr. Spock which is ripping him up
inside especially since just last week Mr. Spock testified so elegantly at his
own court-martial. And court-martial is
what Mr. Spock wants. He waives his right
to a hearing altogether and asks to just move to the court-martial phase, Kirk
refuses because it has to be at least three officers of command rank to conduct
a court-martial. Spock reminds his
Captain that there are such three. For
Captain Pike is still on the active-duty list.
So the
court-martial opens up with poor old Captain Pike dragged out to
participate. The Commodore demands to
Mr. Spock explain why he is doing this.
Spock asks if that question is officially part of the record, the
Commodore acknowledged that it is. With
that we come to the point of this episode: Mr. Spock pulls out “The Cage.”
 |
| When being court martialed on Star Trek make sure to have another episode to watch |
As the episode-in-the-episode begins the Commodore objects right away, claiming that
no such recordings have ever been made on a starship. I find that to be an odd claim considering
just last week in Kirk's court-martial we saw video very similar to the bridge
scene that we’re seeing right now. One
thing is clear however the person who decided the paint scheme for the bridge
of the Enterprise in the time of
Captain Kirk is a far superior talent then the person who is designed it back when
Captain Pike was in charge. Kirk
probably just makes better personnel choices.
Mr. Spock has Captain Pike confirm that what we are seeing is genuine
and that the images that are being shown are being shown as they happened. Mendez does not want to continue, but Kirk
wants to see more and Pike breaks the tie in Kirk’s favor.
“The first scene opens on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, the crew notice sensor reading of some unknown object out in space but they can’t pick it up on their view screen. It turns out that it wasn’t an object at all but a radio waive designed to fool ship sensors to think it was an object. Captain Pike says that it was an old-fashioned distress call that was designed to track attention. Spock is able to trace the signal to planet Talos IV. He reports that is an M class planet[1] and it is possible that there are survivors. Pike however doesn’t think this is likely given that the message was very old. Whoever sent it probably died or was rescued long ago. Pike said they had their own “sick and wounded” and decided they should stay on course to the starbase they were already headed for. Once that was settled they could come back just in case.”
Notice the line about ‘not use to having a
woman on the bridge’ was edited out.
 |
| The Bridge of the Enterprise for the first time. |
“Captain Pike suddenly realizes he is being way too dark and moody to stay on the bridge and decides to go be dark and moody in his quarters instead. While there he calls the Doctor to come see him. Not because he is sick but because he knows Boyce will bring booze. Doctor Boyce brings the booze and Pike pretends to be surprised. The two drink and Pike starts crying in his martini about how his last mission went and how he lost people under his command. He feels guilty and wants to quit his job and go retire back to Earth or become a merchant. He wants to do something other than what he is doing, while the Doctor thinks he just needs a vacation. Just then a call from Mr. Spock interrupts their drinking to tell them they have located survivors. It’s a good thing that Pike only had one drink because now he has to organize a landing party.
 |
| "So I heard you were being a dink on the bridge?" |
“ Captain Pike organizes his landing party and leaves Number One in command of the Enterprise. The away team uses the transporter, a mode of transportation that would become the staple of the series being used for the first time. They transport far enough way as not to startle the survivors and then they walk to the camp. When they get there they find a group of old scientists and a young beautiful woman named Vina.
"Pike really likes Vina and she feels similarly about him. She is not at all shy coming outright and saying what a fine specimen of a man he is. The lead scientist explains Vina was a child when they landed and she spent her whole life among aging scientists”
I have to admit when the
camera cuts to the Talosians Commodore Mendez comments about not being real
footage starts to make sense.
“While everyone is packing up, Vina takes Pike over the hill. Pike probably thinks he is about to get lucky and is completely unaware of these large headed Talosians who have been watching him this whole time. In an instant the camp and all its survivors disappear. One of the Talosians appears from under the hill and zaps Pike with a weapon knocking him out. They take him underground while the remaining landing party, led by Lts. Spock and Tyler try to free him by blasting the hill with their hand lasers, but to no avail.”
 |
| Vina wants that fine specimen of a man she is looking at! |
 |
| "You can't take our Captain! Oh, you can." |
As we come to the end of
the episode it is revealed that the images are coming from Talos IV
itself. The Commodore uses that as an
excuse to stop watching “The Cage.” Captain Kirk is removed from his command because
his ship is in contact with the forbidden world. Mr. Spock objects pointing out that Captain
Kirk knew nothing of what was going on. The
Commodore points out to Mr. Spock that the captain is responsible for the
actions of his men. Which is a rule that they must’ve made up yesterday, because when Ben Finney was caught sabotaging the ship nearly killing everyone aboard after he faked his death no one thought of
holding Captain Kirk accountable for it.
If anything they thought he was vindicated.
This
episode ends with Mr. Spock begging Captain Kirk to please watch the end of the
episode because it was a great episode that should be viewed. Or because he needs it understand one or the
other.
Additional thoughts: As you can guess when it comes to two-parters I’m
going to be reviewing them with each part being its own episode. The only exception to this will be in series premieres and finals. This will be
useful for later series are going to use two-parters for their season
finals.
I
have a special place in my heart for this episode when I first watched Star Trek as a kid I would occasionally
catch episodes on the sci-fi channel. In
my day when I first started watching it was Star
Trek: The Next Generation that was on all the time, from seeing the films
however I myself preferred the original series but only got to watch it
rarely. Then came Columbia House, and I
was able to order the entire series. I
got one tape a month with two episodes on it in the first one they sent me was The Menagerie parts 1 and 2. So for brief while this episode was the only
episode of Star Trek I had and I
ended up watching quite a bit.
I
do think that the episode is a clever way of including the events from "The Cage" to be incorporated into the greater canon of Star Trek. Otherwise it
would have just gone down as a forgotten and failed pilot.
I
have a theory that they were not paying attention to the Starbase numbers in
each of these episodes considering this is supposed to be the exact same
Starbase that we encountered in the immediate previous episode. Although in some ways it could be made to
make sense. In this episode Kirk seems
behind of the times or least not keeping up with Starfleet gossip. Since space does not allow for instant
communication in the same way we have in the 21st century where we
are all on the same planet, living in the Federation is more like it was during
the old West where news may take months to spread. It could’ve been their trip in the previous
episode to this very Starbase is where Spock learned of Pike’s condition. After all it looks like Spock had been
planning this for quite some time.
FINAL GRADE 3 of 5
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