1.11 & 12 — “The Menagerie-Parts I & II”
Wow, they have done a lot with this story. The two-part episode is way more interesting than it would have been to just run “The Cage” as a lost story of the Enterprise or something. The result: Star Trek‘s first Hugo award.
I’m interested in the star burst on the uniforms of the Starbase officers. Huh? Do we ever see those again? I like the dress uniforms in the court martial scenes.
That is a cracking good makeup job on the actor playing Capt. Pike. It’s not Jeffrey Archer, but I didn’t realize that on first viewing (I guess that’s the reason he was made mute). The make-up work is not just gruesome, it’s expressive and affecting in the court martial scenes. Was not having access to Archer a lucky accident? Of course, it’s impossible to look at Pike’s life support chair and not to think of Davros. For the record, Davros was introduced in 1975, and “The Menagerie” aired in November of 1966, so Dr. Who copied Star Trek.
I was touched by Kirk’s absolute faith in Spock, and then by Bones’ defense of him when Kirk finally begins to privately question the facts. This is great writing, and shows that they had really thought out the relationships between the characters in advance, instead of letting them develop as the show goes on, as in TNG. I like the lighting on Spock to spotlight his dilemma when Kirk makes his “all in” move in the shuttlecraft. There are other delightful small details. You still can’t fix the brain in the 23rd century. I love Scotty’s reaction to the news that they can’t disengage the computer control–he shakes his head in disgust and rushes offscreen to fix it.
When we get to the footage from “The Cage,” it’s interesting to see the way the scenes play differently in the new context. The scene between Pike and the doctor plays much better as a break from the action in Part I than it did at the beginning of “The Cage,” where it provided an anticlimatic start that got us off on the wrong foot with Pike. I like Pike as a character more than I did having to think of him as the lead of the show.
In the Talos scenes, I missed somehow that the Keeper calls the vision of Hell which they show to Pike “A fable once learned in your childhood.” They slipped that piece of blasphemy right by the NBC censors. I also liked “Since you’re not real, there’s not much point in continuing this conversation, is there.” Oh, snap!
I notice that viewscreens in the future have low resolution and poor color fastness. Just how powerful are these Talosians? The reveal with Commodore Mendez works in context, but can their power and knowledge really stretch so far as to be able to fool Kirk at interstellar distances, in the uncontrolled environment of a Starbase? The mind boggles.
Repurposing the ending where Pike is shown going off with Vina is devilishly clever. The new ending argues that for every thing there is a season. A life of pleasant illusion is repugnant to Pike in his youth and health, yet it is what he returns to for his ultimate reward. Since Hell is a fable, is this what we are to think of Heaven? A retreat into paradise existing only in the mind? Anyway, the time for rebellion is evidently over. It reminds me of a certain character’s (the Rogue Demon Hunter) last words in the series finale of Angel.
Best line goes to Spock: “There’s no need to insult me, Captain.” What did you think?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
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