Episode Title: The Menagerie Part 2
Air Date: 11/24/1966
Written by Gene
Roddenberry
Directed by Robert
Butler
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 Malachi Throne as Commodore
José Mendez James Holt as Starfleet
Officer 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: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Talos IV
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The episode starts with a quick recap reminding the
audience of everything that happened in the previous episode, even showing a bonus
scene of Spock pleading guilty to all the charges put to him. At the conclusion of the previous episode
Commodore Mendez, having received confirmation that the images were indeed
coming from Talos IV, took command of the Enterprise
and ended their viewing of “The Cage.” Spock now tells the Commodore tough,
they still don’t have physical control of the ship and the Keeper is now in
control of the viewscreen. So they will
continue to watch and I will quote from my own review of “The Cage.”
 |
| You don't want to continue to watch, well logically explain to me why I should care. |
“When Pike wakes up he finds himself in a cage in what appears to be a zoo. The Talosians come out to examine him and they communicate using thought patterns that even Pike can here. Despite Pike being able to understand their form of communication the Talosians seem to be talking more at him than with him as they regard him as some sort of creature for their entertainment. Pike demands to know what is going on and what their plans are and the Talosians think that is funny. The one known as “the Keeper” shows off his telepathic skills by predicting what Pike will do before he does it. They leave and Pike is placed in an illusion putting him back on Rigel VII where he had been weeks before. It was in this place that he had his disastrous mission and members of his crew died. Here Vina, the same woman from before but with a new dress and longer hair, is acting as the damsel in distress who Pike must protect. Pike defeats the Rigelian warrior just like he did in real life, then he is back in the cage with Vina. He tries to get information out of Vina but she speaks to him in riddles.
“Back on the Enterprise Number One takes command with the determination that would terrify studio executives and test audiences alike. A woman in command of men?!? Even women in test audiences wondered why she wasn’t allowing one of the boys to take charge. While the senior staff discusses options Boyce tries to continually warn them what they are facing beings that can read their minds and create illusions so powerful they are like reality. He echoes what Vina told Pike, even if it is not real they will still feel it.
“Number One ultimately decided on the old US Grant belief that doing something was always better than doing nothing. And a giant laser cannon powered by a starship’s engines is an awful lot of something. However as they continue to blast the top of the hill nothing happens, or as the Doctor says maybe something did happen but they aren’t able to notice.
“While his crew was blasting a big rock with lasers, Captain Pike continued his adventure in his cage of make believe. The one consistent thing in each fantasy is the beautiful Vina who Pike comes to believe must also be real and prisoner like him. She advises him on how to deal with their captors but also begs him to comply warning they can be punished with their own nightmares brought to life. The Talosians are pleased as Pike becomes protective of Vina.
“They are given different fantasies to try out. In one fantasy the couple is put in an ideal domestic situation where they are husband and wife, who live on Earth, and ride out on Pike’s horses for daily picnic lunches. When Pike starts calling it out for not being real it causes Vina to think she has figured out what is bothering Pike. She rationalizes why none of the previous fantasizes worked for him. Everything before was pulled from his memories places he has been to before, where a person’s fantasy is about what they cannot or should not have. With that the world transforms and Pike is now a wealthy merchant trader and Vina is dancing Orion slave girl. This works for a moment but Pike then tries to leave with Vina following him.”
 |
| Vina a damsel for Pike to save! |
 |
| Vina a wife for Pike to love! |
 |
| Vina a sexy slave girl for Pike to do what ever he wants with. |
There
are breaks from the viewing for the tribunal to ask questions about Talosian
motivations, discuss their thoughts on Orion Slave Girls, and at one point Captain Pike
faints. There is also a point where the
Talosians stop broadcasting for some unknown reason that is never really
explained but is just used as an excuse to show a unanimous guilty verdict by
the tribunal (which I don’t understand the point of at all seeing as we all saw Mr.
Spock pleading guilty in the beginning at the recap.) However the tape roles again and we all
forget everything that has just happened.
“ In his conversations with Vina, Pike starts to learn something about his captors. At first he thought they captured him for their entertainment purposes to live experiences through him. Vina tells him that the Talosians use to live on the surface but a horrible war brought them underground. Pike reasoned the found physical life limited so instead they concentrated on their mental power. Over time they become the big-headed masters of illusions. Vina says it’s a trap that they are stuck living the experiences of others and have forgotten how to work the machines of their ancestors. Then Pike learns the actual reason he was captured: they don’t want him to entertain them they want to rebuild their civilization with Vina.
“Vina tries to explain that they are to be like Adam and Eve. With that knowledge Pike has discovered an undeniable truth. For all their telepathy and illusion making powers, the Talosians are an exceptionally stupid people. They are so dumb that it is arguable that in the first episode Star Trek introduced us to the stupidest creature they would ever create. As one later Star Trek character would say 'How can you be so dumb with heads like that?'
“It is really hard to conceive how stupid the Talosians, as a group, would have to be in order to believe that they could create and entire planetary population with just two people. Why did they believe this? Because Vina told them the story of Adam and Eve? Did they find a copy of the Bible on the ship she crashed in? Did they read the rest of it? I assuming not since they didn’t try steal one of Pike’s ribs to grow a woman.
“With the Vina not winning Pike over the Talosians grow more desperate. As the crew of the Enterprise attempts another landing party the Talosians arrange that only Number One and Yeoman Colt are transported down right into Pike’s cage. This actually is a better idea in terms of creating a world population. If Pike reproduces with three women at least the next generation will only be required to marry half-siblings and not full ones. However the Talosians are not thinking this way they expect Pike to choose between them.
“Vina understands and is angered by Talosians bringing in the new women. She berates both of them leading Number One to mention that she went over Vina’s ship manifest and the only Vina in there was an adult. As she begins to do the math the Keeper and his agents show up. He demands Pike makes a choice and he begins to compare the new arrivals. The Keeper points to Number One’s intelligence as good reason to choose her because she will provide intelligent offspring. The Keeper also points out Number One often has him as the object of her fantasies. He then mentions that the Yeoman also fantasizes about him and that she has ‘usually strong female drives.’
“Number One and Yeoman Rand had hand lasers that were set aside for being drained of power. As Pike and his trio of women sleep however the Keeper himself sneaks in the cage and tries to steal them. Pike however catches him, the Keeper tries make himself appear as a creature but Pike isn’t buying it. Pike then tries one of the lasers on his cage. When it doesn’t work he points it at the Keeper’s head explaining he thinks the lasers are working but they are keeping them from seeing it. The Keeper gives in but it is all just a ruse to the prisoners to the surface so the baby making and world building can begin. This scene once more demonstrates the Talosians intelligence and stupidity, they are smart enough to lure their prisoners to the surface but dumb enough that they still think Pike can choose one of the females and start a civilization.
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| More women, right idea |
“Number One startles the Talosians by setting her laser to self-destruct that and when they scanned the Enterprise’s data base they also found the humans incompatible with captivity. With this the Talosians give up and decided to let Pike and humans go. Vina, however, tells Pike that she cannot leave with them. As the two other women beam back up to the ship, the Talosians show Pike why Vina couldn’t go. Now if you thought the Talosians were dumbest creatures in the galaxy going into this you discover that there is a level of stupidity in the Star Trek universe that you didn’t even know was possible. Vina isn’t young and beautiful. She was a young woman when her ship crashed and she had barely survived the Talosians helped as best they could but as they had never seen another human, and weren’t too particularly bright to begin with, all they ended up with was a mutilated Frankenstein type woman.
“So the Talosians thought they could create an entire planetary population with one healthy man and one horrible disfigured and mutilated middle aged woman! "Everything works" according to Vina but with all due respect how can she know? She hasn’t had much of an opportunity to become pregnant and I wouldn’t trust the word of Talosians. Not because I thought they were lying but because they are not smart meaning they are probably just wrong.”
 |
| The Talosians were betting their future on this woman's reproductive capabilities. |
Upon
seeing the secret of Vina, Captain Kirk instantly knows why it is Mr. Spock had
risked so much to bring his former captain here. If Captain Pike were to go to Talos IV the
Talosians could probably do for the injured Captain that they were already
doing for Vina. With that in mind
Captain Kirk turns the Commodore only to see him vanish. The Keeper, directly communicating with
Captain Kirk, tells him that the Commodore ever since the shuttlecraft was
there only as an illusion, and Captain Pike is free to come to their planet
where he can live a life as if the injuries that befell on him never
happened at all.
 |
| Kirk speaks with his predecessor one last time |
With
that we get word from Starfleet that they too have seen the Talosian
transmission, and in a one-off exemption have chosen to pardon Spock and give
Captain Kirk free reign to what he sees as best. Kirk confirms with Pike that he wants to go
and Spock takes him away to the transporter room. Kirk gives a passing jab about Spock’s giving
into emotion. To which Spock replies he
has been logical about the entire affair.
On the viewscreen Captain Kirk gets to watch Captain Pike have his
reunion with Vina.
 |
| Happy ever after! |
Additional Thoughts: The first part of this
story contained mostly new material with a few clips from “The Cage,” this part
however is really just “The Cage commentary track.” We get to basically learn Captain Kirk’s
opinions on the only episode of the series that he was not present for. Come to think of it that is a good commentary
track idea: having an actor play their character while commenting on an episode. I don’t know if anyone has ever done that.
There
are some noted differences from the unedited The Cage. Here are some of the
changes that I noticed in part two:
·
Vina’s comments about her headaches in the
domestic fantasy have been removed.
·
The comments from Pike’s illusion trader friends
about the nature of Orion slave women have been removed and replaced by comments
from Commodore Mendez.
·
The final scene on the bridge we get neither
Dr. Boyce’s sarcastic remarks nor Yeoman Colts inquiring about who would have
been “Eve.”
·
The most important change is instead of Vina
running off with a fictional version of Captain Pike for herself, that scene is
shown as the real Pike joining Vina in the land of illusion where they were
young and healthy.
Now about that last part, given
that scene is so dramatically changed in what it is supposed to represent to us we
must ask: which one of these is canon? I
would say probably the second one as that one was actually broadcast
on TV the first one wasn’t. However, can
they both be canon? Did Vina have her
own fictional Captain Pike to hang out with these 13 years the real Captain Pike
was off living his life in the real world?
If so how’s the real Captain Pike going to compete with a fictional
version of himself created out of what Vina considers to be ideal? Does the relationship not work out and
instead they both get a fictional Pike any fictional Vina instead of the people they
both really are? No, no, no! They lived happily ever after that’s my
ending and I’m sticking with it!
Of course the true losers here are
the Talosians. As previously stated my
belief in their stupidity increased by a factor of ten upon learning the truth
of Vina. They really thought that she
was going to be a mother of a new generation to continue on their civilization
with her age and deformed body. I
imagine the arrival Captain Pike must grant them excitement they probably think
they can start getting their civilization back on track with their Adam
returning to join their Eve to be parents of a new generation of surface
dwellers committed to continuing the Talosian culture. They are going to be so disappointed.
So why again is there a death
penalty for going this place? I think
were supposed to believe it is something to do with their power of illusion,
but in all honesty I think the reason they prohibit any starship from going
there is they believe at Starfleet Command that there is a chance the extreme
stupidity of the Talosians could potentially be contagious. And not wanting to see their collective
average IQ drop 30 or 40 points
Starfleet Command have instead chosen to
protect their people by imposing such drastic measures.
Despite its flaws “The Menagerie” was
a creative and clever way to include the original rejected pilot into the early
canon of Star Trek. It gave the
relatively young show a bit of a history.
Captain Kirk not being the original captain and having predecessors was
one of the things I thought was really cool about the original Star Trek when I
was first watching it. Granted when I started watching it The Next Generation was on, but being able to name a captain other
than Kirk and Picard was something that could be used to impress the casual
viewer.
FINAL GRADE 4 of 5
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