la cage star trek

The Cage (episode)

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When the Enterprise answers a distress call, Capt. Pike encounters manipulative aliens. ( Original pilot )

• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.2 Story and script
• 3.4 Production
• 3.5 Visual effects
• 3.7 Reception and aftermath
• 3.8 Continuity
• 3.9 Apocrypha
• 3.10 Production timeline
• 3.11 Remastered
• 3.12 Home media format releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Guest star
• 4.3 Co-starring
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stunt doubles
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7 References
• 4.8 Library computer references
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

Captain Pike on the bridge

It is 2254 , two weeks after a battle on Rigel VII that left seven crew members injured and took the lives of three USS Enterprise crewmen, including Captain Christopher Pike 's yeoman , the ship encounters a space distortion on a collision course, according to helmsman José Tyler . It turns out to be an old radio distress signal , "keyed to cause interference and attract attention." The crew says it was sent eighteen years earlier from the Talos star group , but first officer Number One notes they have no Earth colonies or vessels that far out. Pike declines to investigate without any indication of survivors but proceeds to the Vega colony to care for the crew's own injuries.

Pike calls the Enterprise 's chief medical officer , Dr. Boyce , to his quarters but Boyce instead fixes Pike a martini to induce Pike to talk about the battle on Rigel VII. Pike has been thinking of resigning , burdened with making lethal decisions, but Boyce counsels against it. The science officer Spock interrupts on the intercom that a follow-up message from Talos IV indicates there are eleven survivors. Pike returns to the bridge and orders the ship to Talos, at "time warp, factor seven." He encounters a comely young woman, J.M. Colt . The ship's first officer, a woman named Number One, says Colt is the captain's replacement yeoman. Pike expresses discomfort with "a woman on the bridge," assuring Number One that she is an exception, as she's " different, of course. "

Pike leads a landing party to the surface of Talos IV and finds the makeshift campsite of a disheveled group of male scientists from the crashed survey ship SS Columbia . The scientists identify themselves as an expedition of the American Continent Institute and Lieutenant Jose Tyler describes technological advances while they have been marooned, particularly in the time barrier being broken. A beautiful young woman approaches them. She is Vina , born almost as the group crash-landed on the planet. Vina strangely tells Pike he is a "prime specimen" – as three aliens with huge, pulsating heads watch the landing party through a viewing screen.

Boyce provides his medical report to Pike and reports that the survivors are in good health, "almost too good." The scientist Theodore Haskins offers to show Pike their "secret," and Vina leads him away from the others. Vina suddenly vanishes, along with the scientists and their camp. Talosians render Pike unconscious and abduct him through a doorway in the rock. The landing party fires laser pistols at the door to no avail and Spock advises the ship via his communicator that this " is all some sort of trap. We've lost the captain. Do you read? "

Pike wakes up without his jacket, communicator, and laser, inside an underground cell with a transparent wall, through which he sees several creatures of different species in nearby cells. Several Talosians arrive and make callous scientific observations about him, which he perceives not through sound but telepathy . They note that Pike is more adaptable to his new surroundings and prepare to begin "the experiment."

Pike and Vina enjoy an illusory picnic outside Mojave

The Talosians intend to make Pike experience illusions based on his memories, in order to interest him in Vina. The first illusion returns Pike to Rigel VII, with the new task of saving Vina. Pike is not interested in participating, telling Vina he is " not an animal performing for its supper, " but he is interested in learning the parameters of the illusions and of his captivity. Nevertheless, he manages to survive the illusory attack from the Kalar and is returned, with Vina, to his cell.

He learns from Vina that the Talosians have severely weakened their world and themselves by reliance on their telepathic powers. They want Captain Pike and Vina as breeding stock for a new, stronger race to repopulate the barren surface of the planet. The Talosians punish Vina for revealing this information to Pike.

The Talosians provide him with a vial of liquid nourishment and insist that he consume it, even offering to make it appear as any food he wishes. Pike proposes to starve himself instead, which results in the Keeper punishing him with an illusion of being surrounded by scorching flame and threatens to punish him more severely for continued disobedience. Pike appears to relent by consuming the liquid, but then displays another outburst of attempting to break through the containment, unexpectedly startling the Keeper. Pike realizes that the Keeper was unable to read his mind during his outburst of anger and tries to inquire more as to why this is. The Keeper, still unable to probe Pike's mind, attempts then to distract Pike by changing the subject to Vina. Pike relents again, and the Keeper reveals that Vina was the sole survivor of the Columbia crash and confirms what she inadvertently revealed previously – that Pike and Vina were being kept to propagate Humanity and repopulate Talos IV. The conversation ends with Pike demanding that the Talosians punish him instead of her, since he is the one being uncooperative, which the Keeper regards as an excellent development in their relationship.

Vina appears as an Orion slave girl

The next illusion is a pleasant picnic just outside Pike's hometown of Mojave , with Vina attempting to entice Pike with the familiar setting, but with Pike still resisting, knowing that all of it is just a mere illusion. Vina then realizes that scenarios with which Pike is already familiar have not been successful in enticing him to cooperate, and surmises that he might be more easily swayed by a forbidden fantasy. The Talosians next tempt Pike by making Vina appear as a dancing Orion slave girl .

The Enterprise landing party and Vina

The Enterprise tries without success to channel the starship 's power to the surface to blast a way to Pike. Then Spock locates the Talosians' power generator and prepares a landing party . However, only the females (Number One and Yeoman Colt) are the only ones transported, as the Talosians seek to give Pike a choice of mates; and their weapons and communicators appear not to work. Vina resents the competition; Number One says records indicate Vina cannot be as young as she appears.

As the rescue attempts have failed, Spock orders the Enterprise to leave orbit, but the Talosians immobilize it and scan its records, convincing Spock that the ship's utility to the Talosians is at an end and that they will now "swat… this fly."

Pike determines that any strong emotions keep the Talosians from controlling his mind and uses this to his advantage. While Pike feigns sleep, the Talosian magistrate tries to recover the female officers' lasers from the cage. Pike seizes the magistrate and ignores the illusions. He reasons that the malfunction of the lasers was itself an illusion and uses the laser pistol to compel the magistrate to stop deceiving him. He now sees that they had blasted away the wall of the cage on their first attempt.

He escapes with the women to the surface and sees that the blasting operation on the door had also succeeded, despite an illusion made to appear otherwise. But the communicators still don't work, and the Talosian says that the original goal was to put the group on the surface. Pike offers himself as a captive for the freedom of the others and the Enterprise , but Number One begins a "force-chamber" overload of her laser pistol, intending to destroy herself and her shipmates to thwart the Talosians' plans. She tells the Talosian magistrate that it is wrong to create a whole race of Humans to live as slaves.

The magistrate's aides arrive, presenting the summary of the ship's records. The records have shown that Humans possess a "unique hatred of captivity," even when pleasant, making them too dangerous for the Talosians' needs. The magistrate does not apologize for the imposition but concedes that they will now become extinct. Pike asks if commerce or cooperation might not restore the planet, but the magistrate replies that Humans would learn the Talosians' power of illusion and destroy themselves, just as the Talosians did. The crew members are free to go, but Vina says she cannot join them. After the others transport aboard, the Talosians show Pike Vina's true appearance: underneath the Talosian illusions, she is badly deformed from the crash of the Columbia . They were able to make it so that she could remain alive, but could not restore her appearance. The Talosians agree to take care of Vina and they provide her with an illusory Captain Pike to keep her company.

Pike returns to the bridge, reassuring Dr. Boyce that he is completely refreshed for work, and waving off a query from Yeoman Colt about whom he would have chosen as a mate, as well as accusing the doctor of being a "dirty old man" for inquiring into the meaning of Colt's remark. The Enterprise departs.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Check the circuit. " " All operating, sir. " " It can't be the screen then. "

" Records show the Talos star group has never been explored. Solar system similar to Earth; eleven planets. Number four seems to be… class M. Oxygen atmosphere. " " Then they could still be alive even after eighteen years. " " If they survived the crash. "

Pike and Boyce

" Sometimes a man'll tell his bartender things he'll never tell his doctor. "

" Chris, you set standards for yourself no one could meet. You treat everyone on board like a Human being except yourself. "

" I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't. And who's going on the landing party and who doesn't. And who lives. And who dies. "

" A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on, and licks it. Or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away. "

" We both get the same two kinds of customers. The living and the dying. "

" It's just that I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. " (Number One looks surprised) " No offense, lieutenant. You're different, of course. "

" You appear to be healthy and intelligent, captain. Prime specimen. "

" There's a way out of any cage, and I'll find it! "

" But they found it's a trap. Like a narcotic. Because when dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating. "

" I'm a woman as real and as Human as you are. We're like Adam and Eve. "

" No, please! Don't punish me! "

" You overlook the unpleasant alternative of punishment. "

" You either live life – bruises, skinned knees and all – or you turn your back on it and start dying. "

" But we're not here. Neither of us. We're in a menagerie, a cage! "

" A curious species. They have fantasies they hide even from themselves. "

" A person's strongest dreams are about what he can't do. "

" Can you believe it? Actually like being taken advantage of! "

" The women! "

" Since you resist the present specimen, you now have a selection. Each of these two new specimens has qualities in her favor. "

" Although she seems to lack emotion, this is largely a pretense. She often has fantasies involving you. "

" The factors in her favor are youth and strength, plus unusually strong female drives. "

" Wrong thinking is punishable. Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination. "

" With the female of your choice, you will now begin carefully guided lives. " " Start by burying you? " " That is your choice. "

" It's wrong to create a race of Humans to keep as slaves. "

" The customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity. Even when it's pleasant and benevolent, you prefer death. This makes you too violent and dangerous a species for our needs. "

" No other specimen has shown your adaptability. You were our last hope. "

" She has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant. "

" Who would have been Eve? " " Yeoman! "

" Eve? As in Adam? " " As in all ship's doctors are dirty old men. "

" What are we running here, a cadet ship, Number One? Are we ready or not? " " All decks show ready, sir. " " Engage! "

Background information [ ]

• The title of this episode was changed during production from "The Cage" to "The Menagerie". However, when the two-part episode " The Menagerie, Part I " and " The Menagerie, Part II " (which reused almost all the footage from this episode) went into production, the title of this installment reverted to "The Cage". ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 10; [1] )
• Although the episode has a title, and is universally referred to as "The Cage", no episode title actually appears on screen, with the only title used in the credits being "Star Trek".

Story and script [ ]

• The genesis of this episode was the first of twenty-five proposed stories in Gene Roddenberry 's series outline Star Trek is... . The description of the plot concept that became this episode (initially titled "The Next Cage") read, " The desperation of our series lead, caged and on exhibition like an animal, then offered a mate. "
• During an early May 1964 meeting wherein Gene Roddenberry and Herbert F. Solow pitched the series to television network NBC , Jerry Stanley – NBC Program Development Vice President – asked to hear more about the idea for the series' pilot episode. Solow later reflected, " I asked Gene to explain. He did, very succinctly describing the premise of 'The Menagerie'. " Neither Grant Tinker – who was also present at the meeting and was, at the time, NBC Vice President of Programs, West Coast – nor Jerry Stanley was convinced to agree to a series deal with Roddenberry and Solow. Just as Roddenberry was about to leave the room, Solow made a last-ditch attempt to persuade the NBC executives, stating, " If you give us a commitment for a ninety-minute script instead of one hour, and we make the pilot, you can always run it as a TV special and recoup your investment if it doesn't sell as a series. Besides, I'm not leaving this room until you give us a script order. " This was enough to sway NBC's stance and the executives agreed to make a deal. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 6, 19-20)
• This episode's premise was not the only concept that NBC considered for the series' pilot. Herb Solow explained, " They wanted to hear more stories before one of them was chosen for the pilot script. We had more meetings, and Gene gave them more stories. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 20)
• This episode's narrative style was selected after Oscar Katz , the president of Desilu Television at the time, personally pitched four different narrative approaches to the NBC executives. Whereas the first two-story types primarily focused on events aboard the Enterprise and the third option featured a planet whose inhabitants were much like Humanity of either the past or the future, the fourth type involved a planet that was highly different from Earth and was inhabited by people who were likewise very different from Humans. NBC chose the fourth type, the hardest to produce, as they wanted to challenge Desilu by making it as hard as possible for that studio to prove the series was doable. Explained Katz, " I tried to talk them out of it, because I knew it was going to be expensive and, even more, I felt that it might not be representative of the series. But they couldn't be talked out of it. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 11)
• The plot idea for this episode underwent further development in early May 1964, after NBC vice-president Mort Werner provided Gene Roddenberry with US$20,000 in development money to write three different story outlines based on the Star Trek format. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 41-42; The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 10) With so much at stake over the trio of episode outlines, Roddenberry diligently labored away at them, obsessing over each page and every word. He spent a month writing the outlines as well as several weeks revising them, after which he finally turned the pages over to NBC. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 33) The outlines had been forwarded to the network by the end of June 1964 and the particular outline for this episode was dated 29 June ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 45 & 47). The other two candidates were "The Perfect World" aka "Visit to Paradise" (which became " The Return of the Archons ") and "The Women" (which became " Mudd's Women "). ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed., p. 34) Following the submission of the outlines, NBC took several days before announcing their choice of "The Cage" as the pilot-to-be. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 33)
• The episode's story outline consisted of 26 pages. [2] In those pages, the name of the Enterprise 's captain was Robert April (as it was in the series outline Star Trek is… ). He was the only one of his crew whose name was to be changed, as the episode continued to evolve. Also, the Talosians were crab-like aliens (their species remaining unnamed, though they were commonly referred to as "crab-creatures"), and their planet was "Sirius IV". The outline is fully transcribed in The Making of Star Trek (pp. 47-65).
• Some of Gene Roddenberry's initial thoughts for the episode's illusory scenarios had to be altered or scaled back due to production and budgetary realities. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• Hours after NBC greenlighted the pilot (a duration that Gene Roddenberry and Herb Solow spent ironing out some of the "twists, turns, and bends in the plot"), Gene Roddenberry set to work on writing the teleplay. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 36; Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 20-21) As he wrote the first draft script, he spared no thought for the practicalities of producing what he was writing about, such as the episode's laser cannon, instead leaving such realistic considerations until later. Noted Herb Solow, " The network draft wasn't for shooting, the network draft was for selling. When we got the order for the pilot film, then we'd face the budget problem head on. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 20-21)
• Gene Roddenberry did, however, care about the believability of the script. To this end, he initiated a period of intensive scientific research and began an acquaintance with Harvey P. Lynn , a physicist from the RAND Corporation who served as Roddenberry's unofficial technical adviser on the pilot. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 74, 76-77)
• During the remainder of the summer and into the early autumn of 1964, major effort was invested in the development of the shooting script, the intention being that it was to later be submitted to NBC for approval. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 78) The first script draft was dated 8 September 1964 . ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 11) In that version of the episode, the captain's name was still Robert April, though both the Talosians and their homeworld of Talos IV received their eventual names. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 91-95)
• It was also the initial draft of the episode's teleplay that changed the Talosians from resembling crabs to becoming small and slim humanoids with elongated heads. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 93) This alteration was made because the production staff realized the aliens might seem too much like the bug-eyed monsters of "1950s horror movies," the antithesis of what Gene Roddenberry wanted the more intellectually-minded Star Trek to be. Depicting the extraterrestrials as crab-like creatures would have not only run a good chance of making them look unconvincing but also would have been prohibitively expensive, two deciding factors in the adjustment of their form. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 008)
• According to Majel Barrett , the first character introduced in the script was Number One. " That was the first character Gene wrote into the script, " Barrett stated. " Captain April was not an afterthought because he knew he had to have a captain, but the first character that was described was Number One. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , p. 43)
• The episode's first draft script had an opening scene in the hangar bay where Captain April, whose character at this stage was a tad older than Captain Pike was later written, is inspecting new crew members. He remarks disapprovingly to the doctor, at one point, about the young age of some of these officers. " Something, " Roddenberry later wrote in a memo, " that Jim Kirk , the boy wonder of the Academy , never would have done. " In this same scene, April sees a number of badly-wounded crewmen off the ship, onto a space shuttle or taxi from the Human colony of Antares . Among these departing officers is an uninjured former navigator named Crowley who April is sending back in disgrace, because he fired on friendly aliens. The officer argues that they were monstrous in appearance and asks how he could have known that they were intelligent enough to have weapons. These protests are met by a stern but subdued dismissal from the captain, who quietly orders, " Get off my ship, mister. " ( The Making of Star Trek ; The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., pp. 11-12)
• While scripting the episode, Gene Roddenberry developed a habit of being somewhat possessive about story ideas, to such a degree that Herb Solow considered this quality to be excessive. " As Gene completed the first-draft pilot script, " Solow remarked, " he unfortunately became overly protective of his new baby. " Furthermore, Roddenberry began to frequently lay claim to the input of others. " A new side of Gene slowly appeared: ownership of ideas, " commented Solow. " If a good story or series point came from anyone, be it NBC, [Desilu's agent] Ashley-Famous, or Desilu, Gene Roddenberry appropriated it. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 21)
• A copy of the episode's first draft script was sent from Gene Roddenberry to Harvey P. Lynn, shortly prior to 14 September 1964. On that date, Lynn responded with correspondence of his own – a letter that included many comments on the script draft. Concerning the docking scene, Lynn proposed a theoretical docking method and a suggestion that the name Antares, since it refers to a sun unsuitable for the habitation of Humans, be substituted with "a more vague name" such as Tycho, Fabricus, or even Lynnicus (the latter name clearly being offered as an in-joke). Additionally, Lynn took the liberty of suggesting that the shuttle or taxi might be from a ship similar to the Enterprise and that that vessel had recently departed from Earth, which Lynn observed would correlate well with the introductions of both Tyler and Yeoman Colt. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 90-92) The docking scene was excised from the script in a revised draft, and Roddenberry notified Lynn of the scene's exclusion in a letter sent on 24 September. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 96-97)
• Though the first script draft referred to Talos IV as being located at the "edge of the universe" and stated that Earth was "at the other end of this galaxy," Harvey P. Lynn rejected these notions, advising Gene Roddenberry that traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other would take an impossibly long time and encouraging him to switch the latter reference to "far away in this galaxy." ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 92, 94) Evidently, Roddenberry ultimately minimized the references to the far distance between Earth and Talos IV; of the two such references, the first was deleted while the second remained.
• Harvey P. Lynn recommended that Talos IV be stated to be in either Sigma Draconis, Eta Cassiopeiae, or HR 8832 (aka Gliese 892 ), owing to both their proximity to our solar system and the fact that it is unknown whether any of them have any Earth-type planets. Other astral names that Lynn requested be changed were Epsilon VII, Orion, and Rigel 113, which he suggested substituting with Draconis, HR 8832, and Vega 113, respectively. A similar idea that he presented was changing Orion traders to Centaurian traders. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 92, 95) In his reply on 24 September, Roddenberry expressed an interest in having the names of the stars in this episode be ones that were familiar to the audience. " This is why I've avoided such terms as 'HR8832,' etc, " he explained. On the other hand, he conceded that the continued use of Rigel and Orion could still be substituted, in the final shooting script, with names such as Vega, admitting that such names – while being more appropriate from a scientific perspective – were also possibly just as familiar. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 97) Comparing the second revised final draft script (dated 20 September 1964) to the episode's final draft indicates that Roddenberry ultimately replaced Rigel 113 with Rigel VII. Neither the same script draft nor the actual episode contain reference to Epsilon VII, though they also evidence that Roddenberry ultimately excluded not only HR 8832 but also Draconis and Vega 113.
• Due to Harvey P. Lynn's influence, the SS Columbia is said to have been lost in the same "region" as the Talos star group, rather than the same "quadrant" as that star system, and the gravity of Talos IV was altered from "1.3 of Earth" to less than Earth's gravity. Lynn submitted the latter suggestion on the basis of the Talosians' appearance and proposed that Talos IV have a gravity that was 85% as powerful as Earth's. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 92) In the episode's final version, it is said to be "0.9 of Earth."
• The character of Geologist was known as Astroscientist in the first draft script, but this was also changed on the recommendation of Harvey P. Lynn, who opted for "Geologist" because he believed it was a more specific title. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 93)
• In the first draft script, the illusory Columbia survivors had more dialogue than they do in the episode's final edit. For instance, it was established that the survivors' distress call had been a directional beam. Harvey P. Lynn, however, proposed that it would be more likely for the survivors' signal to have been a broadcast beam, owing to the increased probability that such a beam would be intercepted. Solar batteries were mentioned by at least one of the survivors too, but Lynn opposed this by suggesting that the illusory Human instead say, " After we could no longer use the ship's power, we switched to automatic batteries and started praying. " ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 93) This dialogue was evidently later cut or omitted entirely.
• Harvey P. Lynn also made some notes on the specifics of several elements that were intended to continue to be featured in the forthcoming series (such as lasers , for which he submitted four alternative names, though Gene Roddenberry maintained that he wanted the name to stay as it was, due to the high odds that it would be recognizable to viewers). ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 94, 97)
• Executives at Desilu were also included in the revision process. Herb Solow explained, " Finally, all the top executives received copies of our pilot [script] to read, review with others, and comment on. I personally walked the Star Trek pilot script into [Desilu president and actress] Lucy [Ball] 's dressing room and handed it to her. 'Lucy, this is the Star Trek pilot script. There'll be lots of changes, so if you have any comments, let me have them, because there'll be ample time to implement them.' Lucy never mentioned the script […] I know Oscar [Katz] read his copy of the pilot script, but he never offered any comments [either]. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 22)
• The second revised final draft script of the "The Cage" indicates, as does the episode, that Spock, José Tyler, and others had been wounded in the fighting on Rigel VII – events which took place just prior to the action in "The Cage". The script includes stage directions for Spock to be limping and for Tyler to have a bandaged hand.
• As late as 20 November 1964 (in the second revised final script), the captain's name was James Winter.
• Even though Gene Roddenberry was open to some of Harvey P. Lynn's suggestions, his possessiveness over plot ideas affected his interactions with NBC. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 21) The script's final draft was ready to send to the network by the end of September 1964 and the proposed shooting script was submitted to NBC in the last week of September. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 90, 99) Herb Solow offered, " Gene and I met with NBC to get their script comments. He took offense at most of them, at times unnecessarily so. Some ideas were really good. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 21) However, Roddenberry was pleased with the network's general reaction to what he had written, the major stumbling block between them, at this point, being a specific dream sequence that Roddenberry had scripted. NBC warned against overly focusing on the sequence, wary that the message concerning what is reality might be lost on the audience. Numerous other, minor alterations were requested, but NBC more-or-less gave their approval for the episode to be filmed. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 99)
• By the time this episode's script was completed, Gene Roddenberry's initial concept for the installment had been greatly changed by suggestions from Desilu and NBC. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 22) The teleplay also reflected the input of the numerous scientific advisers who Roddenberry had consulted. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 90) Having finished writing the script, Roddenberry asked Robert Butler to read it. Butler later remembered his reactions to the teleplay; " I remember thinking it was a terrific yarn, but that it was somewhat obscured because it was such a showcase script. 'The Cage' showcased such solid, good and fascinating science-fiction disciplines, examples and events, that it was, I thought, a little obscure. The story was somewhat remote. " ( Starlog , issue 117, p. 55)
• By the time filming began, the name of the Enterprise 's commanding officer had finally been changed to Christopher Pike. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 115)
• Prior to the making of this episode, Gene Roddenberry already knew that he wanted to cast both Majel Barrett – who he had in mind when originally developing the character Number One – and Leonard Nimoy as Number One and Spock, respectively. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 23; Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 2 , p. 82) All three had previously worked on The Lieutenant , a series that had been produced by Roddenberry and had featured appearances from Barrett and Nimoy. ( Star Trek Memories , pp. 43)
• Casting director Joseph D'Agosta had also worked on The Lieutenant . At a point after Star Trek had been greenlighted but did not yet have a casting director, Gene Roddenberry called D'Agosta and eagerly invited him to fill that production capacity. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 213)
• The casting process began at a time when the script revisions were under way and the captain's name was still Robert April. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 41; Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 11 , p. 26) However, because Joseph D'Agosta was meanwhile at 20th Century Fox, his work on the episode was indirect. " I cast it on the phone, " he explained, " by just suggesting films to look at and what actors to see, and I relayed all this through a young man named Morris Chapnick , who was Gene's assistant. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 213) Chapnick, yet another production staffer who had worked on The Lieutenant , had first become aware of Star Trek when Roddenberry had told him about this pilot. ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 100-101)
• Majel Barrett was cast as Number One before both Leonard Nimoy and Pike actor Jeffrey Hunter were cast in their roles. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 23) Alternative actors that were considered include Lloyd Bridges for the Captain Pike role, Martin Landau for the Spock character, and Yvonne Craig for the guest star role of Vina. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 11 , p. 26; [3] ) DeForest Kelley was considered for the roles of both Dr. Boyce and Spock. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 98; Star Trek Memories , p. 44) Even though Leonard Nimoy was always Gene Roddenberry's first choice for the Spock role, he often said that he would have instead approached Martin Landau to play the role, if Nimoy had been unavailable. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 11 , p. 26)
• Robert Butler was involved in many of the casting decisions for the episode, including the selection of Peter Duryea as José Tyler. Butler later recalled, " I was very much in on the casting of the supporting people […] I remember trying to get a freshness and colloquiality in those characters and not have them all be rigid and pasteboard leading men. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 6 , p. 53)
• Robert Butler was happy with the casting of Peter Duryea, Majel Barrett, and Susan Oliver as Vina but had some difficulty with Jeffrey Hunter playing Pike. " I certainly knew of him and found him to be a real co-operative good guy, " stated Butler. " He was a little heroic and a little stiff, and I tried to modify that a little bit. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 6 , pp. 53-54)
• In his introduction for the 1986 VHS release of "The Cage" (which can now be seen on the DVD version in the third season set), Gene Roddenberry noted that he refused to cast his crew what the network dubbed "sensibly," which according to Roddenberry meant "all white." This was indirectly contested by Herb Solow in the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , in which he states that Mort Werner deliberately encouraged NBC to show racial diversity and integration in its programs.
• In general, the pilot gave its cast a good impression of how good the potentially forthcoming series could be. Laurel Goodwin , who was cast as Yeoman J.M. Colt , remembered, " The whole gang of us knew this show was going to go along wonderfully well. We were all so involved with our characters. There was no doubt in my mind that this would be a successful show if they could just get good stories. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , p. 59)
• Leonard Mudie , who has one line of dialogue as one of the Columbia survivors, was a veteran of dozens of films dating back to the 1930s. He was 81 when this sequence was filmed, and he died the next year. He was the second-oldest actor ever to appear on the original Star Trek and the first to pass away.
• Although male voices were dubbed in for the Talosians, all the Talosian actors were actually women. (This is, unfortunately, not correct. Felix Silla (January 11, 1937 - April 16, 2021) played one of The Keepers; he was not just a background image to show how small they were.) Robert Butler and Gene Roddenberry struck upon using this casting method at about the same time as one another, Butler reckoning that it would lend the Talosian characterizations an alien-like androgynous quality. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 97) Roddenberry believed that the lighter builds of females might suggest that the Talosians had allowed their bodies to atrophy while instead choosing to concentrate on advanced brain development. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ) Upon searching for suitable performers to play the parts, Roddenberry scoured Hollywood for short actresses with faces that he deemed to be interesting. ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 15) Meg Wyllie was cast as the Talosian Keeper on Butler's recommendation, they having previously worked together. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 98)
• Clegg Hoyt played the transporter chief, Pitcairn, but his voice was dubbed in by Bob Johnson. Johnson was the voice on the tape (and disc) in the TV series Mission: Impossible .
• Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett are the only actors to appear in both this episode and the final episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , " Turnabout Intruder ", where Barrett played her most regular role, Nurse Chapel .
• Malachi Throne ( Voice of The Keeper ) featured not only in this episode, Leonard Nimoy's first Star Trek appearance, but also appeared during Nimoy's final TV Star Trek appearance, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Unification II ".
• This is the first of six Star Trek instances in which Leonard Nimoy appeared without William Shatner, the other five being TAS : " The Slaver Weapon ", TNG : " Unification I " and " Unification II ", and the films Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness .
• Mike Dugan , who played the illusory Kalar warrior, was actually a stunt performer. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• After the crew beams down to the planet surface of Talos IV , Spock is seen limping as he walks toward the singing plants. It has been mistakenly stated that Nimoy had suffered an injury prior to filming. In fact, Nimoy's limp here was feigned, in accordance with the script. ( The Making of Star Trek [ page number? • edit ] ) José Tyler similarly appears with a bandage around his hand. Both injuries were meant to reference the recent mission-gone-wrong that Pike speaks to Boyce about.
• Because Jeffrey Hunter (who played Pike) was playing a very controlled, internalized character, Nimoy felt the need to bring in some energy and animation onto the set. ( Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime ; et al.)

Production [ ]

A moment from production on this episode

• The making of this episode despite the fact that best estimates for the pilot originally placed its production cost as more than US$500,000 represented a considerable gamble for Desilu, which was a small, ill-equipped studio at the time. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 41) Nervous about this situation, NBC set out to monitor the progress of the pilot, keeping a check on the project's schedule and cost. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 36)
• Oscar Katz announced NBC's go-ahead to produce the pilot at a Desilu board meeting, after which Herb Solow fielded questions from the board. He explained that, although the pilot was going to cost more than NBC gave the studio, Desilu had no way of knowing how much more until after the revised script had been budgeted. Solow later mused, " The board was nervous. Production of a ninety-minute science-fiction pilot was an expensive business move, a risky business move. " As the meeting went on, Solow gave assurances that it was possible for Desilu to produce the show and tried to maintain a positive demeanor as he answered more questions about the imminent pilot. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 23)
• At first, it was uncertain how a production crew could be assembled to handle such an ambitious and complex episode as this, though Gene Roddenberry and Herb Solow immediately ruled out the crew that regularly produced Desilu's The Lucy Show , which starred Desilu President Lucille Ball. " As professional as the crew was, most of them would be of little help when confronted with the overwhelming demands and technical requirements of the planned Star Trek pilot, " explained Solow. " Basically, Gene and I were faced with the job of building a production unit from scratch at a time when the availability lists from the unions were scant or empty. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 27)
• Besides Gene Roddenberry and Herb Solow, the first production staffer to be assigned to this episode was Robert Butler. He was chosen by Roddenberry and Solow, following extensive talks with both NBC Programming and Alden Schwimmer, the boss of Ashley-Famous. NBC was satisfied with the decision, Butler having established himself as a director on numerous television series in the 1960s (including The Lieutenant ). ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 27 & 13) It was Gene Roddenberry who asked Robert Butler to helm the episode. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 6 , p. 52) Both Roddenberry and Solow regarded Butler as highly dependable. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 27) However, Roddenberry's extreme protectiveness over the episode clashed with Butler's impression of the script as being somewhat obscure. Butler later reflected, " I discussed whether or not people would get it. I could tell at that point that Gene was so consumed with it that he couldn't have heard any objections. " ( Starlog issue 117, p. 55) The director also said, " I remember trying to suggest to Gene that we ought to do some straightening out, or at least we should discuss it, and I remember thinking that Gene was too far into it, so I just gave up. " ( Trek: Deep Space Nine , p. 43) Butler wanted Roddenberry to change the title of the show from " Star Trek " to " Star Track ", feeling that the former was too pretentious, tedious, inert and boring. ( Starlog issue 117, p. 55; [4] ) " In that discussion, and others regarding the story's obscurity, Gene was not in the mood to receive any such input, " remembered the director. ( Starlog issue 117, p. 55)

A set design for the Talosian cage, as sketched by Matt Jefferies

• After Robert Butler was drafted, some key members of the art department were also sought out. These were Pato Guzman , the art director from The Lucy Show , and Matt Jefferies , who was hired as the episode's assistant art director. Jefferies was initially assigned to design the Enterprise 's exterior, with Guzman deciding upon the look of the sets. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 27-28; The Making of Star Trek , pp. 78-79) One of the environments that Guzman designed was Captain Pike's quarters. ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 11) When he left amid the episode's pre-production phase (specifically, in October 1964), Guzman was replaced by Franz Bachelin , a veteran art director. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 101; Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 35) One set that was designed by both Guzman and Bachelin was the planet surface of Talos IV. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) However, Matt Jefferies also worked on designing the sets, such as the cage-like environment that serves as the episode's namesake. ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 5) In fact, much to his frustration, designing the Enterprise 's exterior initially delayed Jefferies from planning the episode's sets. ( Star Trek Memories , p. 32) A great deal of effort went into scheming the sets, on paper, while the installment's shooting script was in development, spanning late summer and early autumn of 1964. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 78)

Theiss adjusting Oliver's wardrobe on the set of "The Cage"

• Costume Designer William Ware Theiss was fortunately available and was hired on the pilot with the task of designing, on a very limited budget, costumes that had to be different from any seen before on television. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 28)
• In early October 1964, Robert H. Justman was interviewed for the post of associate producer on the pilot but turned it down, fearing that his post-production knowledge was not as extensive as it had to be for the episode, a response that lead to Byron Haskin instead being recruited as the pilot's associate producer. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 28-30; "The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) Justman meanwhile went back to working on The Outer Limits , on which he had worked with Byron Haskin.
• The Star Trek pilot still required an assistant director. " The first Star Trek pilot needed a good one, " clarified Herb Solow. " I didn't want to use any first assistant [director] who'd worked with Bob Butler in the past, feeling that too much familiarity might be a disadvantage on this mind-boggling science-fiction pilot. " After Solow consulted producer and director friends (including his college classmate James Goldstone ) around Hollywood (irritatedly referring to the pilot as "a bitch"), he found that Robert Justman was the highest recommended candidate. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 31) Solow then convinced Leslie Stevens , Justman's boss on The Outer Limits and other projects, into permitting a temporary transfer of Justman to the Star Trek pilot, saying, " With prep time, the shooting, and some wrap-up, figure I'd be borrowing him for no more than a month at the most. " Stevens wanted Justman to serve as assistant director on his upcoming Esperanto language horror movie, Incubus , which coincidentally starred William Shatner . However, pre-production of Incubus went overdue, so Stevens loaned Justman to Desilu. Justman likewise believed his assignment on Star Trek was not going to be longer than six weeks and, when he returned to Desilu, he was surprised to find that no final shooting script was yet available for him, the teleplay undergoing one of Gene Roddenberry's many rewrites of the script. Justman began his work after he read through the latest rewrite, initiating the schedule and budget "breakdown" process. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 32) His role as this episode's assistant director made Justman responsible for a virtually endless series of critical production details. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary )

Filming the parkland scenes

• When Director of Photography William E. Snyder became available, he brought his own camera crew and "lighting" gaffer with him. Although some sources cite Jerry Finnerman as having been the camera operator on this episode, the actual cameraman was Richard A. Kelley , according to both Robert Justman and the original crew sheet for the episode. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 36)
• Locating a makeup supervisor who was equipped to tackle the pilot involved a challenging search. " It was apparent that we needed the best makeup man we could find, " explained Robert Justman. " There were numerous 'appliances' [latex or rubber prosthetics] that would have to be designed, built, and affixed, on a daily basis, to the actors who would portray non-Human aliens […] Most makeup artists didn't have the prosthetic expertise we needed. " Also, Desilu had no makeup department of its own. Justman spoke about the project with Fred Phillips , a busy makeup man who had worked with him on The Outer Limits and several previous series. " I managed to spring him long enough to do our pilot, " concluded Justman. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 36)
• Purchasing a laser cannon for this episode was of some difficulty. Herb Solow once commented that it was " tough to go down to the local hardware store or gun shop and buy one. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 20) The laser cannon prop was ultimately a modified camera dolly. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• The weirdness of Gene Roddenberry's requirements startled some of the advisors he attempted to consult. " Well, it was all so new and strange to them, " Roddenberry observed. " Like you call some unsuspecting production man on the phone, and he says, 'Hello,' and you say, 'What does it cost to paint a girl green?' You get a long silence! " ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 77)

Majel Barrett screen-testing Orion make-up for this episode

• When doing makeup tests for Vina as an Orion slave girl, Majel Barrett was used as a willing test subject. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 40) " I was cheap, I was there, and our guest star was not! " Barrett laughed in retrospect. " She would have had to be brought in and they would have had to test it [on her], and there just wasn't the money. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , p. 43) This took place early in the episode's preproduction phase and it was Fred Phillips who applied the makeup to Barrett. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ) However, the footage of these tests kept coming back without the green skin being visible. Puzzled by this, the makeup crew kept painting the actress again and again with other shades of green, hoping it would be visible on film. This went on for a period of three consecutive days. Afterward, the makeup artists discovered that the film processing lab was "de-coloring" her because they didn't know she was supposed to be green. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 40; The Making of Star Trek , pp. 77-78)
• The first filmed scene from "The Cage" (and of Star Trek ) – the sequence with Dr. Boyce and Captain Pike sharing a martini – was filmed on Friday, 27 November 1964 . ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary )
• Only a short stretch of corridor was built for this episode. This set can be seen, in its entirety, during the scene in which Pike heads through a passageway into his "cabin" (or quarters), passing a young couple. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary )

Pike and the humanoid bird in a cut scene

• The animation of two of the specimens in the Talosian menagerie – the anthropoid ape and the humanoid bird – was provided for by Janos Prohaska . ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ) The ape creature originally appeared in The Outer Limits episode "Fun and Games", without its facial hair. Prohaska was brought in by Robert Justman, who had worked with him previously on the series. The owl-like bird creature, entirely designed and built by master craftsman Wah Chang , also appeared in a later episode of that series, "The Duplicate Man". ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 9 , pp. 71-72) Still, "Roddenberry's weirdness" of it all continued to befuddle Director Butler, as he recalled. " I remember there was some chicken – some killer fowl – being locked in some cell somewhere, and I'm talking to this stuntman – it's crazy, me talking to this Janos Prohaska, [who was] Hungarian or something…[saying], "Janos, okay that's good, baby, now try this." And there's this big chicken – this killer chicken – or some equivalent. I mean, it was nuts. " ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed, p. 60) Needless to say, the extended scenes were not utilized in the pilot as presented.
• One of the imprisoned species is seen only by its shadow; the last cage in the zoo contains a large crab-like creature with huge claws. This was a shadow puppet, rendered with several fingers silhouetted against a lit background. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• The Talosian seen down the corridor as Pike looks at all the imprisoned creatures was a dwarf ( Felix Silla ). This gave the appearance of great length to what was actually a short, forced-perspective hallway. Bob Justman came up with this idea when they realized the budget wouldn't allow them to build a large hallway. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p 47)
• The Talosian headpieces – complete with their bulging veins and small, round ears – were also created for this episode by craftsman Wah Chang, who (like Robert Justman, Byron Haskin and Fred Phillips) had previously worked on The Outer Limits . ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) The head prosthetics were blended into the actresses' own facial features by Phillips and his makeup staff. ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 15)
• The Talosians' elevator landing was built on a platform, allowing room for the lift to descend without having to excavate below the soundstage's floor. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary )
• A matte painting created by noted matte artist Albert Whitlock was used to portray the Rigel VII fortress, though these exterior shots also involved the filming of live-action footage on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back lot. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )

Makeup artist Fred Phillips turning Susan Oliver into an Orion slave girl

• While Susan Oliver was wearing her green Orion slave girl makeup, she became very tired. A doctor was called to the studio to give her a vitamin B shot. He went to her dressing room where, not having been informed of her appearance, he was greatly surprised to see that her complexion was green. The doctor was so flustered, in fact, that it took him nearly five minutes to simply identify an area to administer the shot. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 78)
• The spearhead Pike uses to kill the Kalar on Rigel VII was a recycled prop from RKO Pictures . It measured approximately thirty inches in length and was seven and a half inches wide. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 011)
• Robert Butler said in an interview with Star Trek Monthly that he wanted some dirt and rust on the sets, but Roddenberry vetoed this idea, claiming that everything must be clean and shiny. In another interview, Butler claimed that this was his basic reason for disliking Star Trek overall, calling it "too square-jawed, heroic" and "too worthy and clean" for his taste. ( Star Trek Monthly issue 6 [ page number? • edit ] )
• The landing party jackets in this episode were fastened by long strips of black Velcro running down the entire length of the inside flap, visible in some of the scenes.
• The belts were grey-colored elastic-type bands that had metal hook/clip fasteners at the front which held the communicator and hand weapon. They were worn over the shirt but under the jacket, at the waist.
• When indicating the region of the Talos group on his viewscreen, Spock calls up a photograph of the Pleiades Cluster .
• The scene inside the Rigel fortress was one of the last scenes to be shot for this episode. It was filmed on 14 December 1964 . Gene Roddenberry was present during the filming and model maker Richard C. Datin, Jr. also payed a visit to the set, presenting the three-foot USS Enterprise study model to Roddenberry, it eventually turning out to be a full-fledged filming model onto its own. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary , [5] )
• This was the single most expensive episode ever created for the original Star Trek series. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) According to several sources (including the The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 17), NBC spent US$630,000 on this episode. According to Majel Barrett, however, there was only US$168,000 available for the pilot. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , p. 43) The episode's preproduction costs were reduced thanks to the use of rear-screen projection for images on the Enterprise 's main viewscreen. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) Based upon extensive research author Marc Cushman had performed on the internal studio documentation used at the time, he has reported the budget and total cost at $452,000 (hugely debunking Barrett's earlier statement) and $616,000, respectively. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed., p. 64)

Visual effects [ ]

Datin (l) taking delivery of the eleven-foot studio model

• Howard Anderson Company , the company responsible for all visual effects or "opticals" as they were called at the time, subcontracted the build of the Enterprise studio model to Richard Datin. Datin himself built the above-mentioned small three-foot that was originally intended to serve as a study model, but which ended up being used for filming nevertheless. The actual large eleven-foot filming model he himself had to sub-contract to Production Models Shop due to time pressure and lack of space in his workshop. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 132 , pp. 51-53 For a far more detailed treatise on the two models, see: Constitution -class model
• The opening shot of this episode was filmed with the use of frame-by-frame stop-motion animation, in order to allow for the transition between the footage of the Enterprise model and the shot that was taken on the set for the starship's bridge. Due to the movement of the space vessel, the shot was necessarily very intricate and extraordinarily difficult to produce. It was created by the Howard Anderson Company. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary ) The shot used the eleven-foot model of the Enterprise , while the other ship shots of this episode involved the three-foot miniature of the spacecraft. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ) The shot was the very last to be produced and the only one where the large model was utilized, as it was only delivered to Anderson's on 29 December 1964 , after all other footage had approximately been completed a week earlier. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 132 , p. 54) The text commentary for "The Menagerie, Part I" refers to the shot's creation as " an outstanding achievement in television visual effects. "
• The opening establishing shot of the Enterprise was reused in several early episodes: " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", " The Corbomite Maneuver ", " Mudd's Women ", " The Man Trap ", and " Charlie X ". The starship, traveling at warp speed, is depicted in a unique effect that was never re-created for the series; the camera "sidles up" to the Enterprise model and "swoops over" the top of the primary hull. Combined with this shot are two space effects: one of a stationary star field and the other of a star field moving rapidly, from right to left. The completed effect is meant to suggest that "local" stars are flying past the Enterprise while the great "backdrop" of the galaxy remains motionless. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , 1st ed., pp 90-91)
• The effect of the laser cannon firing was an animation produced by the Howard Anderson Company. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• Majel Barrett felt that her perceived lack of "special effects" in this pilot episode was an indication that the finances provided for the pilot "didn't go very far." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , p. 43)
• Upon first hearing the theme tune for this episode (which went on to serve as the theme music for the original Star Trek series), Robert Butler was impressed. He later reminisced, " The music was good; I remember that theme song was quite wonderful […] I remember liking it when I heard it. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 6 , p. 53) Alexander Courage provided not only this thematic composition as well as the episode's score but also created the sounds of the singing plants . ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary , TOS Season 1 DVD ; et al.)
• The musical score of this episode has been released on CD, tied with the score of the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The first official release came in 1988. It was later expanded, restored and remastered for disc 1 of the Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection .

Reception and aftermath [ ]

• One of the first occasions on which word of this episode reached the press was following NBC's approval of the pilot script; while Gene Roddenberry and Herb Solow were celebrating the confirmation during lunch with their daily Cobb salad at the Hollywood Brown Derby on Vine Street, Dave Kaufman – a television reporter and columnist for Daily Variety – passed by their table on his way back to his office and Solow notified him of the news. However, the cheerful Kaufman replied, " I knew it before you did. " After leaning over to engage Roddenberry in a handshake, Kaufman repeatedly asked who would be producing the pilot, doubting that Desilu was up to the task. Roddenberry and Solow acknowledged Kaufman's remarks and he wished them good luck before exiting. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 26-27)
• The first view of the completed pilot was at a special screening for the episode's cast and crew. " I remember the screening and the special effects and the makeup were just perfect, " remarked J.M. Colt actress Laurel Goodwin, " Everyone was applauding when we saw the transporter effect put together. When you shoot it, of course, they just stop the camera and you walk off. But on film, it was so great. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , p. 59)
• NBC rejected the episode, following its production, and declared it was "too cerebral." Robert Butler found he could relate to this statement. " Apparently, the network, at its level, was feeling exactly as I did, " he remarked. ( Starlog issue 117, p. 55) According to Gene Roddenberry, he had a similar response to the news. " I sort of understood [NBC's verdict], " he said. " I wrote and produced what I thought was a highly imaginative idea, and I realized I had gone too far. I should actually have ended it with a fistfight between the hero and the villain if I wanted it on television […] because that's the way shows were being made at the time. The great mass audience would say, 'Well, if you don't have a fistfight when it's ended, how do we know that's the finish?,' and things like that. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 10) Besides finding the episode too intellectual, NBC also cited criticisms such as the presence of a female first officer on the bridge and the character of Spock being too alien for audiences of the time. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 6 , pp. 14, 20, 52; et al.)
• However, the "myth" of the network wanting to eliminate the female first officer was debunked by Herb Solow and Robert H. Justman in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story . In the book, they state that NBC supported the idea of a strong woman in a leading role, they only rejected Majel Barrett, feeling the actress is not talented enough to pull off such a role, and "carry" a show as co-star. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 60)
• NBC was also not satisfied with the majority of the actors. They wrote, " We also think you can do better with the ship's doctor, the yeoman and other members of the crew ". Solow decided to hire a full-time casting director for the next pilot, and eventually the series. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 60-61)
• Another aspect of the pilot which NBC was very worried with, was its "overall eroticism", most notably the "scantily clad green dancing girls with the humps and grinds". This was a major factor for not choosing " Mudd's Women ", which dealt with "an intergalactic pimp selling beautiful women hookers throughout the galaxy", to be the second pilot. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 59-61, 65-66)
• Oscar Katz was pleased with this pilot episode. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 10) However, Lucille Ball was seemingly uninterested in it. Herb Solow offered, " The day the completed pilot was screened for NBC on the West Coast, I walked into Lucy's dressing room to tell her NBC's reaction. The pilot script was still there, apparently untouched. " ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p. 22)
• DeForest Kelley viewed this episode around the same time it was being shown to studio executives. He told Gene Roddenberry, " Well, I don't know what the hell it's all about, but it's either gonna be the biggest hit or the biggest miss God ever made. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 18 , p. 18)
• Despite the numerous nitpicks they had with this episode, NBC made the extraordinary (and, at the time, rare) move to order a second pilot, " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". For that subsequent pilot, the briefing room , transporter room and bridge were kept much the same as they are in this historic first attempt (although the bridge doors and other bridge features were painted red, and several smaller modifications were made). However, the only actor to be reused from this episode was Leonard Nimoy. In reference to Number One and Spock, Gene Roddenberry once joked about how he kept the alien character and later married the woman, noting, " I couldn't have legally done it the other way around. " ( Inside Star Trek ) Majel Barrett commented, " To be fired from the job and then see it come back 30 years later made me feel kind of good, but at the time I wasn't happy. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , p. 43)
• After Jeffrey Hunter's wife convinced the actor that science fiction was "beneath him," Gene Roddenberry – planning to cast William Shatner for the second pilot – arranged for himself and Shatner to watch this episode in Los Angeles. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , pp. 10 & 16) " When I walked out [of the viewing] I remember thinking it was a very imaginative and vital idea, " Shatner recalled. " I thought everybody took themselves a little too seriously. " Shatner not only thought that the episode lacked humor but was also of the opinion that its cast had overacted their parts, to the point of being unrealistic. " That was my impression, " he admitted, " and we spoke about that. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 16)
• Fred Freiberger was highly impressed with the episode and, in 1988 , he expressed surprise that the outing had been rejected by NBC. " I fell in love with [it] […] To me, 'The Cage' was pure science fiction, " he enthused. " That's what the show should have been […] 'The Cage' was what the series was all about. At that time people didn't accept it. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , pp. 162-163)
• In her 1994 autobiography Beyond Uhura (pp. 139 & 140), Nichelle Nichols comments on this installment, stating, " Viewing it today […] the show stands as the purest earliest representation of what Gene hoped Star Trek would achieve. " She also characterizes the episode as " not only the basic pattern for countless future Star Trek episodes but a blueprint for the future of civilization " and describes the episode's conclusion as "an intelligent, peaceful resolution."
• In 1996 , Grace Lee Whitney cited this as one of her favorite TOS episodes (along with " Charlie X ", " The Devil in the Dark " and " The City on the Edge of Forever "). ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 19 , p. 32)
• The following year, Majel Barrett similarly named this as one of her two favorite episodes of TOS (the other being "The City on the Edge of Forever") and said that she thought both of them "are more Star Trek than anything else that has been conceived." Of this episode specifically, she enthused, " I thought it was beautiful. People still ask me, 'What is your favorite episode? no question, it would have to be 'The Cage' […] [It] was pure Star Trek . " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 27 , pp. 43 & 44)
• A black-and-white 16mm print of this episode was owned by Gene Roddenberry and was shown by him at speaking engagements and conventions. One of these events was "Tricon" – 1966's World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, Ohio – whose attendees included Allan Asherman , a future writer of Star Trek reference works. Due to popular demand, the black-and-white version of this episode was shown after "Where No Man Has Gone Before". ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., pp. 1 & 3) The event was the first convention that Roddenberry took the Star Trek pilots to. ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 11) Asherman later wrote how he had been impressed by the "serious and imaginative detail" in this episode, a facet he believed it shared with the later pilot. He went on to comment, " In addition there were the laser cannon opticals, the superb Talosian makeups, and another interesting musical score. Its most outstanding characteristics were the intelligence of its story, its polished production values, and the performances of its actors. " ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., pp. 1, 3)
• The master color 35mm negative of "The Cage" was cut into the master negative of "The Menagerie" in 1966, and the trims not used were subsequently lost. No color or 35mm print of "The Cage" was known to exist, only the black-and-white print owned by Gene Roddenberry, who continued to exhibit the footage at various Star Trek conventions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.
• "The Cage" was initially released on home video in late 1986 , in celebration of Star Trek 's 20th anniversary. The release was a combination of the color footage used in "The Menagerie" and the additional scenes in Roddenberry's black-and-white print. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ; et al .)
• In 1987, film archivist Bob Furmanek discovered the missing trims from the color 35mm negative of "The Cage" at a Hollywood film laboratory, and saw that they were returned to Paramount. However, the soundtrack trims were not found. When restoring "The Cage", Paramount used the soundtrack from "The Menagerie" for most scenes, and the soundtrack of Roddenberry's 16mm print (which was of lower audio quality) for the restored trims. [6]
• A full-color version of this installment was aired on 4 October 1988 , with a two-hour special called The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation To The Next bookending it. The special was hosted by Patrick Stewart and traced the history of Star Trek from "The Cage" throughout the first season of TNG and the beginnings of production for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . The opportunity to broadcast "The Cage" in its original form came when production of Star Trek: The Next Generation was interrupted due to a Writers' Guild strike. The broadcast filled in for two of the four hours missing from TNG's truncated second season .
• The Keeper's voice ( Malachi Throne ) used in "The Cage" was modified for "The Menagerie", in which Throne guest-starred as Commodore Mendez. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary ) When the color and black-and-white versions were spliced together in 1986, The Keeper's original voice was heard in the black-and-white footage and the altered voice in the color footage taken from "The Menagerie". This voice discrepancy persists in the "restored" all-color version of "The Cage" in the TOS Season 3 DVD set, even though it would have been entirely possible to substitute the original audio from the 16mm print for the Keeper's lines in footage taken from "The Menagerie". Conversely, the remastered version included on the 3rd season Blu-ray Disc set has the Keeper's dialogue from the black and white footage digitally pitched up to more closely match the altered voice track heard in the color footage.
• This episode's depiction of the Rigel VII fortress is one of the most-recognized and celebrated matte paintings in Star Trek history. The same painting was reused (unaltered) in the third season, as Flint 's home in " Requiem for Methuselah ". In addition, the large moon in the background of the painting was the inspiration for a song called " Moon over Rigel VII ", which Captain Kirk recommends as a campfire song in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . ( citation needed • edit )
• Footage of the asteroids from the beginning of this episode was reused later, in " Mudd's Women " and " The Doomsday Machine ".
• Throughout most of the first and second seasons, the "singing plant" sound heard on Talos IV became the standard background noise on various planets. Beginning with " Spectre of the Gun ", a different, warbly sound was used for a number of the remaining shows. The sound was used as the transporter beam sound effect in the series proper.
• In his introduction for the 1986 VHS release of "The Cage" (which can now be seen on the DVD version in the third season set), Gene Roddenberry noted that he wanted no-one aboard the Enterprise to smoke. This was despite the fact that tobacco advertising was a major revenue source for the television networks in 1964. Even one of Star Trek 's sponsors, during its first season, was Viceroy cigarettes. (All tobacco advertising was banned from television and radio on 1 January 1971 ). Seventeen years later, Patrick Stewart would appear on-screen smoking a cigarette in " The Big Goodbye ", although Picard was shown choking on it.
• Herman Zimmerman commented: " From my point of view, Gene Roddenberry created, without being maudlin, an eternal idealization of the future. The characters that he created came out of his imagination pretty much whole cloth. You could compare "The Cage" to Sign of Four , which was written by Arthur Conan Doyle . Sherlock Holmes and Watson and Moriarty and Lestrade and the Baker Street Irregulars have a charm and an identity that are immediately discernible from that very first novel ". ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , pp 5-6)
• Zimmerman found similarities between "The Cage" and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's pilot episode, " Emissary ". Zimmerman commented, " 'The Cage' was a brilliant piece of science fiction work – especially for when it was done. 'The Emissary' is equally as good. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , pp. 40-41)
• The same was true (if only for one scene) for Michael Piller , who commented, " I haven't seen 'The Cage' in years, but what brings to mind the memory of it is the imagination that takes you out of that locked cage – Gene's imagination. It takes you into green fields and the picnic and Susan Oliver and those wonderful moments. I would be lying if I did not say that image was with me when I wrote " Emissary ". I don't remember much about it. I don't remember the story, but I remember that friendly green pasture. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 19)
• In a 1993 interview, Rick Berman revealed, " I've never seen 'The Cage'. I've seen little pieces of it. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 23, No. 6, p. 22)
• When this episode was re-released on VHS in 1996, Star Trek Monthly  issue 16 , p. 57 rated the episode 3 out of 5 stars (defined as "Warp Speed") and regarded it as a "now classic story."
• Similarly, Cinefantastique scored the episode 3 out of 4 stars in 1996. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, p. 26)
• In their 1998 book Trek Navigator: The Ultimate Guide to the Entire Trek Saga (p. 29), co-writers Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross both individually rate this episode 4 out of 5 stars (defined as "Classic!").

Continuity [ ]

• This episode is difficult to reconcile with canon in many instances. For example, Spock smiles and uses several Human expressions (for example, "buzzing about down there"), which he seldom does in subsequent episodes and films. In the series, he instead has the emotional control and genius level intellect present in the character of Number One here. This change was actually due to the fact that, in contrast to Jeffrey Hunter's portrayal of Captain Pike, Leonard Nimoy found William Shatner as Captain Kirk had his own energy, animation, and exuberance, so Nimoy felt like he was able to be more reserved and internalized in the series than in this pilot. ( Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime , et al.) Nonetheless, the scene of Spock smiling was included in " The Menagerie ", with Kirk later making a brief reference to Spock's emotions, though the moment itself is not commented upon directly.

Spock's smile when he encounters the singing flower on Talos IV inspired Michael Chabon to write the Star Trek: Short Treks episode " Q&A "

• More than half a century later, Michael Chabon wrote the Star Trek: Short Treks episode " Q&A " to provide an in-universe explanation for the differences between Spock's behavior and manner in this episode and in the rest of the original series. ( "Michael Chabon Explains His New Short Trek 's Connections to The Next Generation and Picard" at SyFy Wire ) Chabon wrote that "apart from the ears and the gull-wing eyebrows, the Spock who served under Captain Pike was nothing like the Spock who later launched a thousand zines."
• Pike tells the Talosians that he's from a stellar group "at the other end of this galaxy," which, in modern Star Trek parlance, implies that Talos IV is deep in the Beta , Gamma or Delta Quadrants – anywhere but the Alpha Quadrant which it is established as being in in " If Memory Serves ". This does not seem likely, especially because the SS Columbia was lost for only eighteen years and, having traveled at less than light speed, must be relatively close to Earth. In fact, Harvey P. Lynn , who served as Gene Roddenberry's unofficial technical adviser on the pilot, told him that traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other would take an impossibly long time. ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 92)

The Enterprise

• Tyler implies that faster-than-light (FTL) travel is relatively new. He tells one of the scientists that they can get back to Earth quickly. " The time barrier's been broken! Our new ships can… " Earlier, with an expression used only once in the series, Pike orders FTL speed to Talos IV by saying, " Our time warp, factor 7. " Basically, this establishes that warp speed is not only FTL, but also "negates" the time dilation effect about which Einstein theorized in his Special Theory of Relativity. Of course, later Star Trek canon establishes that Zefram Cochrane "discovered" the space warp in the mid-21st century. "The Cage" takes place two centuries later, in 2254.
• Spock's cry of " Switch to rockets , we're blasting out! " is very anachronistic – there are no direct references to rocket engines in the episodes to come.
• Dwight Eisenhower , John F. Kennedy , and Lyndon Johnson make the only contemporary presidential appearances in an original series episode here, as images in the Talosian download of the ship's computer .
• As opposed to the electronic clipboards used in the regular series, Pike uses a very 20th century metal clipboard. A television also appears in his quarters.
• A "captain's hat" can be glimpsed, in passing, on top of that television, although Pike never wears it, and after this pilot, the hat was never seen again, though similar caps later appeared in Star Trek Into Darkness and in Carol Freeman 's ready room in Star Trek: Lower Decks .
• Landing party jackets also vanished after "The Cage", but returned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , also appearing in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . Star Trek: Enterprise was the only other television Star Trek that depicted hats and a variety of environment-specific outerwear being regularly issued to crew members.
• Judging by the shape of the wall and the window, Pike's quarters seem to be directly below the bridge; there are no other curved windows on the saucer section of the model.
• The bed in Pike's quarters was far too short for Jeffrey Hunter. His feet are extending well beyond the end of the mattress, as he briefly reclines on it.
• The sign next to the door of the captain's quarters reads simply "Captain." When the series went into production, Captain Kirk's name was put on the nameplate outside his quarters.
• The pants that the crew wear have a very conspicuous pleat down the front and seem to be a shade of dark blue-grey.
• At the end of "The Menagerie, Part II", Kirk sees Pike and Vina – with their illusions of youth and beauty – running off, hand in hand. This is an example of the reused footage from this episode. Here, it is an illusion of Pike who the Talosians have provided for Vina to keep her company. In "The Menagerie, Part II", it is the "real" Pike (or rather the non-physical consciousness of the now-disabled Pike) rejoining Vina to start a new life.
• In one brief part of the first transportation sequence, the transporter chief's assistant is a man wearing glasses , but the scene changes and he appears without them. This is one of only three occasions where Starfleet officers are shown wearing corrective eyeglasses.
• Although Pike cites the crew complement as 203 other lives besides his own, the Enterprise 's total crew complement was increased to 428 in " Charlie X ", and 430 in later episodes. DIS : " Brother ", however, confirms that, at the time of Pike's mission, the ship had 203 crewmembers.
• This episode's depiction of a parkland near Mojave is the only time that 23rd century Earth is ever seen in the entirety of the original Star Trek series. Given that this is merely an illusion created by the Talosians, the first appearance of the real Earth of the 23rd century was in TAS : " One of Our Planets Is Missing ", in which scenery from Earth is shown to a cloud creature from the ship's library computer . However, it is not shown in live-action until Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 .
• "The Menagerie, Part II" establishes that, following the events of this episode, the Federation imposed General Order 7 on the Talos system, preventing anyone from ever approaching the planet again, under penalty of death .

Apocrypha [ ]

• Star Trek: Early Voyages #4: " Nor Iron Bars a Cage " (from Colt's point of view)
• #9: " Return to the Forbidden Planet "
• #10: " Return to the Forbidden Planet, Part 2... A Prelude to War "
• Star Trek Annual (DC volume 2) Annual #2: " The Final Voyage "
• Pocket TOS : Legacy
• Pocket TOS : Burning Dreams
• Roddenberry actually almost uses the term "forbidden planet" ( the one forbidden world in all the galaxy ) in his teleplay for "The Menagerie", thereby coming close to admitting how much of "The Cage" was actually "stolen" by him from the 1956 movie of that name, including: setting the action in the 23rd century; the visual design of the starship (the flying saucer design of the C-57D spaceship in the movie becoming the saucer section of the USS Enterprise ); the military organisation of the crew; their Navy-style uniforms; setting the action on an alien planet; the planet's name Altair IV, which became Talos IV; the mental powers of the Krell, which became (only slightly altered) the mental powers of the Keeper; and the energy weapons of the Cruiser's crew, which became the Star Trek hand phasers. The 1956 film also uses, as its main cast, the spaceship's captain, first officer, and medical officer: the command structure which Roddenberry lifted as the basis for the main cast on Star Trek .
• Additionally, a few novels have theorized as to the cause for the vast differences between Spock's highly emotional behavior in this episode and his reservedness in the regular series of Star Trek . Examples of this include Spock possibly not having complete control of his emotions at that point, as he was still quite young, and that he achieved full control of his emotions by observing Captain Pike. In fact, the novel Burning Dreams establishes that indeed, whether Pike liked it or not, Spock did consider him a mentor and so Pike tried his best to live up to that assignment. Burning Dreams also establishes that Spock yelled early in his career because he was under the mistaken impression that Humans couldn't hear him unless he did. The novel The Fire and the Rose establishes that Spock was simply emulating Human behaviors such as smiles, and that there was truly no emotion behind his own smile. He eventually stopped though when his crewmates came to distrust him, believing him not to be truthful about himself to them.
• Burning Dreams delves much deeper not only into Pike's life before and after Talos, but also Vina's, establishing her to have been a singer and a dancer, who was lovers with the real Theodore Haskins. In fact, before the Enterprise 's arrival, she spent much time in illusion, dreaming that Columbia had successfully returned to Earth and she led a dance troupe afterward. The novel also establishes that Vina stood up to the Talosians, demanding that they never refer to her as a 'specimen' again and she was just as important as them, perhaps moreso, because their plans for Pike depended on her. During the Rigel VII illusion, she played the "damsel in distress" role effectively, although she hated female characters that screamed like she had to do.
• A cat version of "The Cage" was featured in Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats .

Production timeline [ ]

• Series proposal, " Star Trek is... ": 11 March 1964 – Mentions story idea "The Next Cage"
• Rough draft outline: 25 June 1964 [7]
• Pilot story outline: 29 June 1964 ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 47)
• Final draft outline: 8 July 1964 [8]
• Final draft outline: 22 July 1964 [9]
• Teleplay titled "The Cage": 31 August 1964 [10]
• First draft script: 8 September 1964 ( The Star Trek Compendium , 4th ed., p. 11)
• Revised draft script: on or shortly before 24 September 1964 ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 96)
• Revised teleplay: 6 October 1964 [11]
• Color Makeup Tests at Desilu Culver Stage 15 : 17 November 1964 ( Call sheet )
• Second Revised Final Draft script, titled "The Menagerie": 20 November 1964 [12]
• Day 1 – 27 November 1964 , Friday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Int. Pike's quarters
• Day 2 – 30 November 1964 , Monday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Int. Briefing room , Corridors
• Day 3 – 1 December 1964 , Tuesday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Int. Transporter room
• Day 4 – 2 December 1964 , Wednesday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Bridge
• Day 5 – 3 December 1964 , Thursday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Bridge
• Day 6 – 4 December 1964 , Friday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Orion courtyard
• Day 7 – 7 December 1964 , Monday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Ext. Talos IV surface
• Day 8 – 8 December 1964 , Tuesday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Ext. Talos IV surface
• Day 9 – 9 December 1964 , Wednesday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Ext. Talos IV surface
• Day 10 – 10 December 1964 , Thursday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Ext. Talos IV surface ; Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Talosian monitoring area
• Day 11 – 11 December 1964 , Friday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Pike's cell , Talosian menagerie
• Day 12 – 14 December 1964 , Monday – 40 Acres "Arab Village" backlot: Ext. Rigel VII fortress
• Day 13 – 15 December 1964 , Tuesday – 40 Acres "Arab Village" backlot: Ext. Rigel VII fortress
• Day 14 – 16 December 1964 , Wednesday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Pike's cell
• Day 15 – 17 December 1964 , Thursday – Desilu Culver Stage 15 : Int. Pike's cell , Hell-Fire illusion
• Day 16 – 18 December 1964 , Friday – Desilu Culver Stage 16 : Int. Orion cavern , Ext. Mojave parkland
• Score recorded: 22 January 1965 ( citation needed • edit )
• Network rejection: February 1965 ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary )
• Color "trims" discovered: 1987 ( citation needed • edit )
• Premiere airdate: (complete color) 4 October 1988 ( citation needed • edit )
• First UK airdate: 19 August 1992 (BBC Genome Radio Times listings magazine )

Remastered [ ]

The Enterprise translucent bridge dome, as seen in the remastered episode.

• Originally intended for airing in syndication on 26 April 2008 , the remastered version of the episode was removed from the schedule the week before its intended airdate, but was rescheduled for 2 May 2009 , partly as a tie-in with the release of Star Trek . [14] The remastered episode is also included in the TOS-R Season 3 DVD and TOS Season 3 Blu-ray sets, along with the original 1986 color-black/white release presented by Gene Roddenberry in its original ("unaltered") format.

Home media format releases [ ]

• US Betamax release (one-episode tape, Paramount Home Video ): Volume 51 , catalogue number 60040-01, November 1986
• US LaserDisc release (two-sided disc): Volume 27, catalog number LV60040-106, October/ November 1986
• Original US VHS release: November 1986
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 1 , catalog number VHR 2207, release date unknown
• US Betamax/VHS release (one-episode tape, Paramount Home Video ): Volume 80 , catalog number 60040-99, 1989
• UK VHS release as "The Cage" All Colour Collectors Edition (CIC Video): catalog number VHR 2374, 2 July 1990
• US LaserDisc release (two-sided disc): Volume 42, catalog number LV60040-99* , 11 October 1991
• Japan LaserDisc release (two-episodes disc): As part of the Star Trek - Log 1 collection, catalog number PILF-1615(16), 10 November 1992
• US VHS re-release in color: 15 April 1994
• UK VHS re-release: As part of the Star Trek - 30th Anniversary Trial Pack collection: 2 January 1996
• UK/German LaserDisc release (two-episodes disc): As part of the Star Trek - The Pilots collection, catalog number PLTES-34071 (UK)/PLTGB-34561 (Germany), April 1996
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.1, 24 June 1996
• US DVD release (two-episodes disc): Volume 40 , 11 December 2001
• US/Europe DVD release (two versions single-disc): As part of the TOS Season 3 DVD collection, 14 December 2004 (US)/ 6 December 2004 (Europe)
• US/Europe remastered DVD release (two versions single-disc): As part of the TOS-R Season 3 DVD collection, 18 November 2008 (US)/ 27 April 2009 (Europe)
• US/Europe Blu-ray release (two versions single-disc): As part of the TOS Season 3 Blu-ray collection, 18 December 2009 (US)/ 22 March 2010 (Europe)
• US/Europe Blu-ray release (five-episodes disc): As part of the Star Trek: The Original Series - Origins Blu-ray collection, 10 September 2013 (US)/ 2 September 2013 (Europe)

Links and references [ ]

Leonard Nimoy as young Lt. Spock

Starring [ ]

• Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike

Guest star [ ]

• Susan Oliver as Vina

Co-starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as "Mister Spock "
• Majel Barrett as Number One
• John Hoyt as Phil Boyce
• Peter Duryea as José Tyler
• Laurel Goodwin as J.M. Colt

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Sam Bagley as Columbia survivor
• Barker as 4th Talosian
• John Burnside as bridge engineer
• Carol Daniels as Communications crew woman
• Mike Dugan as Kalar
• Joe Evans as Columbia survivor
• Carey Foster as Orion servant girl ( deleted scene )
• Sandra Gimpel as Talosian
• Clegg Hoyt as Transporter Chief
• Anthony Jochim as 3rd Survivor
• First Talosian (voice)
• Transporter Chief Pitcairn (voice)
• Jon Lormer as 1st Survivor
• Edward Madden as Geologist
• William McCarter as Columbia survivor
• Joseph Mell as Earth Trader
• Leonard Mudie as 2nd Survivor
• William H. O'Brien as Columbia survivor
• Robert Phillips as Space Officer
• Anthropoid ape
• Humanoid bird
• Adam Roarke as 1st Crewman
• Serena Sande as 2nd Talosian
• Georgia Schmidt as 1st Talosian
• Felix Silla as 3rd Talosian
• Malachi Throne as the Keeper (voice)
• Meg Wyllie as the Keeper
• Bridge crewman #1
• Bridge crew woman
• Bridge engineer #1
• Columbia survivors #8 , #9 , #10 , and #11
• Command officer in corridor
• Four Orion colony musicians
• Guards #1 , #2 , and #3
• Orion slave master (deleted scene)
• Sciences officer
• Sciences officer in briefing room
• Sciences officer in corridor
• Transporter technician
• Two civilian crewmembers
• Two laser technicians
• Two Orion servant girls (deleted scene)

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Sandra Gimpel as stunt double for Meg Wyllie
• Robert Herron as stunt double for Jeffrey Hunter

Stand-ins [ ]

• Charles Bidwell
• Carol Daniels

References [ ]

2236 ; 2254 ; 24-hour clock ; acting captain ; address ; Adam and Eve ; adaptability ; adult ; advice ; age ; alternative ; American Continent Institute ; ancestor ; animal ; answer ; apology ; armor ; artisan ; artist ; atmosphere ; backpack ; bargain ; bartender ; battery ; battle-axe ; beauty ; big cities ; blood ; bluff ; boasting ; brain ; bravery ; breeding stock ; bridle ; bridge ; briefing room ; bruise ; building ; business ; button ; cactus ; cadet ship ; cage ; call letters ; canyon ; captain ; captivity ; cell ; century ; chance ; chicken ; chief petty officer ; childhood ; children ( offspring ); choice ; circuit ; class M ; clipboard ; clothing ; coffee ; collision course ; colony ; color ; Columbia , SS ; commander ; communicator ; community ; computer ; condition ; confusion ; conjecture ; contact ; continent ; conversation ; countdown ; course ; creating ; creature ; custom ; customer ; danger ; day ; death ; deception ; deck ; desert ; desire ; destination ; devil ; dignity ; distress signal ; doctor (occupation); doctor (title); dream ; dress ; Earth ; emotion ; encampment ( camp ); engage ; engine room ; engineering deck ; Enterprise casualties ; entry ; escapism ; evasive maneuvers ; evil ; experience ; experiment ; fable ; fabric ; family ; fear ; feeling ; flesh ; fly ; food ; fool ; forced chamber explosion ; forced landing ( crash ); form ; fortress ; frustration ; geological lab report ; geologist ; glasses ; gravity ( g ); green ; hair ; hand ; hand laser ; hat ; hate ; head ; headache ; health ; Hell-Fire ; helm ; hereditary ; " hold on a minute "; hole ; home ; hope ; horse ; horseback riding ; hour ; hull ; Human (aka Human being ); Human history ; hunger ; husband ; husband-wife relationship ; hybrid ; hyperdrive ; ice ; illusion ; Illyrian ; image ; indication ; inert element ; information ; inhabitant ; injury ; intelligence ; intention ; intercraft ; jailer ; judgment ; Kalar ; keeper ; knee ; knoll ; landing party ; laser cannon ; laser weapon ; library ; lie ; lieutenant ; life ; life span ; limitation ; love ; luck ; lunch ; mace ; machine ; magistrate ; magnetic field ; martini ; Mary Lou ; mate ; measurement ; medical report ; memory ; memory capacity ; menagerie ; mental power ; message ; metal ; metal fabric ; meteoroid ; meteoroid beam ; microrecord ; mile ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mind ; minute ; mission ; Mojave ; mutual cooperation ; mutual dependence ; name ; narcotic ; NC ; neck ; need ; Nguyen, Zac ; nitrogen ; nuclear weapon ; nourishment ; officer ; olive ; opinion ; orbit ; Orion ; Orion colony ; Orion slave girl ; overload ; oxygen ; pair ; parent ; parkland ; passion ; pen ; percent ; permission ; person ; physical appearance ; physical prowess ; picnic ; picnic basket ; picture ; pike ; Pike's mother ; place ; planet ; plant ; power ; power generator ; preliminary lab survey ; printout ; probing ; problem ; proof ; protectiveness ; protein complex ; pulp ; punishment ; quality ; quarters ( cabin ); radio ; radio-interference distress call ; radio wave ( radio beam ); reality ; reason ; recipe ; record ; red ; reflection ; region ; Regulus ; report ; resignation ; respect ; responsibility ; rest leave ; Rigel VII ; Rigel VII moon ; risk ; rock ; rocket ; saddle ; safety limit ; sand ; sandwich ; scientific party ; scientist ; scouting party ; second ; secret ; shield ; ship's captain ; signal ; singing plant ; situation ; size ; slave ; society ; Sol system ; soul ; space ; space vehicle / spaceship ; speaking ; species ( race ); specimen ; spectrography ; speed of light ; star system ; stellar group ; starvation ; " steady as we go "; strength ; subject ; sugar ; supper ; surface ; survey expedition ; survey vessel ; survivor ; sword ; sympathy ; table ; Talos star group ; Talos system ; Talos system's stars ; Talos IV ( moon ); Talosians ; Talosian ancestors ; Talosian observers ; Tango ; tape ; technician ; telepathy ; television ; theater ; theory ; thermos ; thing ; thought ; thought record ; thought transmission ; thousand ; threat ; time barrier ; time computation ; time warp ; time warp factor ; town ; trade ; trader ; transporter ; trap ; travel ; tricking ; tuna ; universe ; USS ; Vega colony ; vegetation ; vein ; vessel ; vial ; viewer ; Vina's parents ; volunteer ; Vulcan ; wall (transparency); war ; warp drive ; warp factor ; warrior ; water ; weapon ; week ; white ; wife ; window ; word ; wreckage ; wristwatch ; year ; yeoman ; youth ; zoo

Library computer references [ ]

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) library computer : Africa ; Alaska ; altimeter ; American Civil War ; American Revolution ; Anchorage ; Andromeda Galaxy ; Antarctica ; antenna gear box ; Arabian Peninsula ; Arabian Sea ; Arctic Circle ; Asia ; astronomical unit ; Atlantic Ocean ; Atlas-Agena ; Australia ; Battle of Hampton Roads ; Bering Sea ; Black Sea ; bronchial tube ; Canada ; Caspian Sea ; Central America ; command antenna ; cosmic dust detector ; diaphragm ; daisy ; Delaware ; Dumbbell Nebula ; Earth sensor ; Eisenhower, Dwight D. ; electrostatic analyzer ; Explorer S-55 ; Europe ; eye ; flower ; gallbladder ; gamma-ray spectrometer ; Hawaii ; high-gain antenna ; high resolution camera ; Hong Kong ; infrared scanner ; intestine ; ion chamber ; ironclad ; Jackson, Stonewall ; Japan ; Juneau ; Kennedy, John F. ; kudu ; Kyoto ; Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson at Chancellorsville, The ; Lee, Robert E. ; Lincoln, Abraham ; liver ; long range Earth sensor ; Los Angeles ; Luna ; lunar capsule ; lung ; Lyman-alpha telescope ; magnetometer sensor ; Mariner 2 ; Mars ; Maryland ; Mercury ; Mexico ; micrometeoroid satellite ; mid-course motor ; Monitor , USS ; New Orleans ; Nimbus 1 ; North America ; North Pole ; omnidirectional antenna ; optic nerve ; orbit ; Orbiting Geophysical Observatory ; Orbiting Solar Observatory ; Pacific Ocean ; particle flux detector ; Pioneer 5 ; Pleiades Cluster ; Point Barrow ; polar orbit ; Portland ; President of the United States ; primary sun sensor ; probe ; radiometer ; radiometer reference horn ; Ranger 5 ; Ranger 7 ; Ranger program ; retrorocket ; rib ; rocket ; San Francisco ; satellite ; secondary sun sensor ; skull ; Sol ; Sol asteroid belt ; solar panel ; Sol system ; South America ; South Pole ; Soviet Union ; star ; star chart ; stomach ; Talos I ; Talos II ; Talos III ; Talos V ; temperature control louver ; temperature control shield ; thermal control van ; Tokyo ; trachea ; TV camera ; United States of America ; Venus ; viola ; Virginia ; Virginia , CSS ; Washington, George ; Washington, DC ; wildebeest ; yaw control nozzle

Remastered : Africa ; Asia ; Australia ; battery ; Brazil ; Aldrin, Buzz ; Andromeda Galaxy ; Apollo CSM and LM ; Apollo mission ; atomic bomb ; Battle of Fort Hindman ; Bikini Atoll ; Blair, Montgomery ; Blue Marble, The ; Brooks, Jack ; Canada ; carbon dioxide ; Chase, Salmon P. ; China ; Colombia ; Earth ; Earthrise ; docking port ; Eisenhower, Dwight D. ; Emancipation Proclamation ; eye ; fuel ; Fat Man ; First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln ; fox squirrel ; Gray's Anatomy ; Great Egret ; heart ; helium ; Hughes, Sarah T. ; India ; Indian Ocean ; International Space Station ; Iran ; ironclad ; Jupiter ; Kennedy, Jacqueline ; Kennedy, John F. ; Kilduff, Malcolm ; Johnson, Lady Bird ; Johnson, Lyndon B. ; life support system ; Lincoln, Abraham ; lionfish ; Luna ; lungs ; maple ; Mexico ; Mongolia ; Moses ; Moses Showing the Tables of the Law to the People ; muscles ; NGC 602 ; nitrogen tetroxide ; oxygen ; Peru ; Rayburn, Sam ; ribs ; rose ; Russia ; Saturn ; Saturn V ; Seward, William H. ; Small Magellanic Cloud ; Smith, Caleb B. ; South Africa ; Soyuz ; space shuttle ; steamship ; Ten Commandments ; Thomas, Albert ; United States of America ; V838 Monocerotis ; Valenti, Jack ; Vina's parents ; Vostok 1 ; water ; Washington, George ; Welles, Gideon ; Wright Flyer ; Yosemite Falls

External links [ ]

• " The Cage " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Cage " at Wikipedia
• " The Cage " at the Internet Movie Database
• " The Cage " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

Screen Rant

Strange new worlds' number one timeline: when does "the cage" happen.

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Star Trek Actor Has Funny Idea To Bring Back Strange New Worlds’ Singing Klingon

I can’t believe it took me 7 years to finally watch hbo’s best mystery drama from the last decade, what happened to robert shinn from netflix's dancing for the devil.

Number One (Rebecca Romijn) returns to the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, but it's not necessarily because of the events of Star Trek 's original pilot, "The Cage." Starfleet arrested Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley in the SNW season 1 finale, but the trailer for Strange New Worlds season 2 revealed that she's back aboard the USS Enterprise. While audiences could have easily assumed that Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) would be able to free his second-in-command from prison, it's still surprising that Una's freedom has already been revealed ahead of the season 2 premiere.

Interviewed about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 in the latest issue of SFX Magazine , showrunner Akiva Goldsman spoke about why Una's fate was revealed in the trailer. However, Goldsman's explanation may not tally with the established continuity for the character of Number One and her service aboard the USS Enterprise. In response to Una's appearance in the SNW season 2 trailer, Goldsman said (via SlashFilm ) that " We all know that Number One is on Pike's Enterprise for 'The Cage', right? " which perhaps hints that "The Cage" happens after Strange New Worlds . While Number One is indeed on Pike's Enterprise during "The Cage", there may be confusion to clear up about Una's Star Trek timeline.

RELATED: Strange New Worlds’ Trailer Ignores Season 1’s Cliffhangers For The Better

Number One's Strange New Worlds And Star Trek Timeline

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 takes place six years after the USS Enterprise's first visit to Talos IV in "The Cage," meaning that Number One's presence on the bridge during "The Cage" is before the character's appearances in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 and Strange New Worlds . In an effort to understand what was happening to her brother Spock (Ethan Peck), Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) visited the planet Talos IV in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. This established that the events of "The Cage" had happened in 2254, three years before Spock's disappearance in Discovery . However, Strange New Worlds season 2 could delve deeper into Una's backstory as a genetically engineered Illyrian , and perhaps "The Cage" factors into Number One's history in a previously unknown way.

In SFX , Akiva Goldsman also intriguingly spoke about Strange New Worlds being bound by and how the series addresses Star Trek canon: "We will body check canon when we need to, and we have. We've moved some folks around in terms of timelines, we put some folks together who aren't necessarily canonically together at the same time, we pull some things forward because ultimately story wins." Goldsman referenced Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) being part of Pike's Enterprise crew, which hadn't been established in prior canon, but this also could hint that Strange New Worlds may toy with past events and possibly create shifts in what fans believe is established canon. Perhaps the events of "The Cage," including when it happened, may be reassessed by Strange New Worlds season 2.

Strange New Worlds Sets Up Big TOS Events

Rather than leave everyone where they were for "The Cage", Star Trek: Strange New Worlds charts the crew's adventures from Talos IV to the arrival of Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series . SNW season 2 will continue to explore the rise of Lieutenant James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), following Pike taking an interest in the young officer in SNW 's season 1 finale. Pike's foreknowledge of his tragic accident and the importance of the Kirk and Spock dynamic will presumably drive SNW 's setup for big TOS events. Star Trek canon has already established that Pike leaves the Enterprise to become Fleet Captain before the tragic accident that he spent SNW season 1 trying to avoid.

Therefore, the other big Star Trek plot point left to explore by Strange New Worlds is Number One's eventual departure from the Enterprise. Viewers know that Una Chin-Riley isn't Kirk's Number One in Star Trek: The Original Series so it will be interesting to see where she turns up. The most likely outcome is that, after being exonerated in the season 2 premiere, Una will eventually prove herself worthy of her own command in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds eventual series finale. Una's departure from the USS Enterprise for a new starship could also see Captain Chin-Riley promote Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) to become her Number One.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres Thursday, June 15 on Paramount+.

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The Cage: The Star Trek Pilot That Wasn’t (Quite)

“The Cage” was the original Star Trek pilot that later became part of the double episode “The Menagerie,” which was first broadcast in November 1966. “The Cage” had received the green light two years earlier, in September 1964. Months of preparation had gone into it. Gene Roddenberry had rewritten the story again and again, obsessing over every detail. Production costs were estimated to be in excess of half a million dollars — an extraordinary high amount for a television series pilot at the time, especially for a small studio like Desilu.

By the time the episode was completed, costs had soared to $630,000. Roddenberry admitted that it was an “abnormal amount”, but argued in The Making of Star Trek :

We had to realize that we were building the interior of a spaceship, doing complex opticals of ships in flight and transporter effects and so forth, all props had to be built from scratch, all costumes had to be designed from scratch. To be quite honest, I don’t think the “powers that be” at the studio were aware of how much we were spending until after it was spent. But we spent it making a good product.

The network’s executives were less sure. When they watched “The Cage” in February 1965, almost ten months after they had first expressed an interest in Star Trek , they turned it down.

Not because they didn’t like it. To the contrary, NBC was impressed with Roddenberry’s work. But they felt the show would go over the heads of most of their viewers. Star Trek , they thought, was “too cerebral.”

“Looking back,” Roddenberry recalled in The Making of Star Trek , “they probably felt that I had broken my word.” He had pitched Star Trek as a “wagon train to the stars”, but “The Cage” was light on action and adventure.

I had known the only way to sell Star Trek was with an action-adventure plot. But I forgot my plan and tried for something proud.

Roddenberry’s casting choices raised some eyebrows. Not everyone was sure if the audience would accept a female first officer and a racially mixed crew. On this, Roddenberry stood his ground. “This approach expressed the ‘message’ basic to the series,” he wrote.

We must learn to live together or most certainly we will soon all die together.

The character of Spock was particularly unappealing to NBC. “They were afraid his satanic appearance would repulse people,” according to Roddenberry. He was adamant about keeping the Vulcan.

My own idea on that was, in a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate. And this is exactly what Spock is trying to do. Literally tens of thousands of letters have come in to Spock, saying, “Yes, I understand. I’ve had the same problem all my life.”

Keeping Spock was clearly the right choice. He became the most popular character of the franchise by far.

Roddenberry did relent and give up his female “Number One”. Her role was deemed “too domineering” and her cold and logical attributes were given to the alien science officer instead.

The decision to eliminate “Number One” wasn’t the network’s, Producers Herb Solow and Robert Justman reveal in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story . NBC supported a strong female lead but didn’t think Majel Barrett — Roddenberry’s girlfriend and future wife — could pull off the role.

Other female actors you may not have noticed played the Talosians. Their voices were dubbed by men. The episode’s director, Robert Butler, reckoned it would lend the Talosians an alien-like androgynous quality. Roddenberry suggested that the women’s lighter builds might suggest that the Talosians had allowed their bodies to atrophy while concentrating on the development of their brains.

Costumes and makeup

“The Cage” introduced two of Star Trek ’s most iconic alien looks: the green-skinned Orions and the pointy-eared Vulcans. Both were created by makeup artist Fred Phillips, who would stay with Star Trek for many years.

Click here to learn more about Phillips; here to learn more about the Orions, and the trouble they had keeping keeping them green; and here to learn more about the creation of Spock.

Another Star Trek regular who came on board for “The Cage” was costume designer William Ware Theiss. Click here for his story.

Another interesting piece of this story is that “The Cage” had largely been lost in the 60s and 70s. I saw Gene Roddenberry speak in the late 70s/early 80s, and one of the high points of his talk was a screening of a black-and-white version of “The Cage” which was apparently the only full version they’d found at the time. In the mid-80s, I purchased a VHS version of “The Cage” that switched between color and black-and-white, with the parts that had been used in “The Menagerie” episodes in color and the other parts in black-and-white. Of course, now the full episode is available in full color, though I don’t know whether that means they eventually found a color version of the whole episode, or if they colorized the black-and-white version.

It wasn’t “colorized”. In 1987, film archivist Bob Furmanek discovered the missing trims from the color 35 mm negative of “The Cage” at a Hollywood film laboratory, and had them returned to Paramount. I have the laserdisc release from 1991 of the all-color version. You can see the new color footage had a bit more contrast to them than the parts used from “The Menagerie”. The sound was still from the black-and-white print, so it was more scratchy during those scenes as well. They used that cut again with minor clean-up for the DVD release in the early 2000s. And, finally a proper restoration was done to make it all look and sound consistent for the Blu-ray release.

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Published Nov 26, 2017

"The Cage" Rolled Camera 53 Years Ago

It all started with "The Cage"... and "The Cage" started on this day, November 27, in 1964. Yes, that's when production commenced on the first pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series . We all know the saga: Gene Roddenberry’s initial stab at Trek – which was rejected by NBC, but impressed them enough to order a second pilot -- included some of the elements that fans came to know and love, but it also in many ways differed tremendously from what viewers saw later upon the premiere of “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” StarTrek.com , to mark the moment, has gathered together some facts, figures and anecdotes about “The Cage”:

Hunter In, Hunter Out

Roddenberry tapped Jeffrey Hunter to star as Christopher Pike, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise . Hunter, following NBC's rejection of "The Cage," exited Star Trek , exercising his contractual right not to do “ Where No Man Has Gone Before .” Hunter passed away in 1969.

Starring... Graves? Coburn? Taylor?

Pre-Hunter, the character was going to be named Captain Robert April or possibly Captain Winter. Among the other actors whose names were at least considered for the part by either Roddenberry or NBC were James Coburn, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., George Segal, Patrick O’Neal, Peter Graves, Rod Taylor and a Canadian fellow named William Shatner.

The Cost of a "Cage"

NBC spent $360,000 to produce "The Cage.”

The Nimoy Connections

As Spock, Leonard Nimoy betrayed just a touch of emotion, smiling broadly in one scene, per the director's instructions. Nimoy had guest starred previously on Roddenberry’s series, The Lieutenant . He also, quite fascinatingly, shared the screen for a moment with William Shatner in “The Project Strigas Affair,” an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that aired on November 24, 1964.

Co-Starring DeForest Kelley as Spock?

Nimoy won the role after it was reportedly turned down by DeForest Kelley and Martin Landau. As history would have it, after Star Trek concluded its run, Nimoy joined the cast of Mission: Impossible … following the departure of Martin Landau.

Pick One Mr. Roddenberry...

Majel Barrett played Number One, the ship’s second in command. The story goes that NBC, when they OK-ed a second pilot, compelled Roddenberry to pick either the pointy-eared alien or the female first officer; having both was out of the question. Barrett, who went on to marry Roddenberry, later portrayed Nurse Chapel and provided the voice of most of the computer systems heard throughout the Trek shows and movies. Barrett-Roddenberry passed away on December 18, 2008, not long after voicing the Enterprise computer one last time for Star Trek (2009) .

A Very Different Bones

Dr. Phillip “Bones” Boyce was embodied by John Hoyt. Portions of his performance can be seen in “ The Menagerie ” two-parter. Trek was but one credit in a long and prolific career. Many TV viewers of a certain age remember Hoyt as Grandpa Stanley Kanisky on the sitcom Gimme a Break! He passed away on September 15, 1991 at the age of 85.

Spot the Differences

The outfits are markedly different between “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” as are the sets. Case in point: The Starfleet insignias in the original pilot are much subtler and less visible than those used later.

Where Be The Red Shirts?

Here are a few familiar, beloved Trek bits not on view in "The Cage": Captain Kirk, of course. But there were also no phasers, tricorders or red shirts.

A First Among Firsts

"Check the circuit" was the first line of dialogue uttered in "The Cage," and the honor went to Leonard Nimoy.

She's Still Standing

The only surviving member of "The Cage" cast is Laurel Goodwin, who played Yeoman J.M. Colt. The actress, following Hunter's departure, was not asked back for "Where No Man Has Gone Before." It was, she told StarTrek.com in a 2016 interview, "very painful." Yet, she still can lay claim to her tidbit of Trek immortality. "I'm the last man standing," she told us. "Yep. Yep, yep. I have to say, it's really quite wonderful, particularly now, at my age, to know that in some small way the work is still there, still alive, that it’s not something everybody has forgotten about."

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The Cage Star Trek – Season One --> The Cage

Christopher Pike and the U.S.S. Enterprise investigate a crash site on Talos IV, where the captain is imprisoned by powerful telepathic aliens and studied.

Star Trek Celebrations: Pride Is A Wonderful Tribute to the Franchise's LGBTQIA+ Characters

• Star Trek Celebrations: Pride celebrates diversity with new stories by top talent in the Star Trek franchise.
• The anthology honors a tradition of positive representation and reflects the evolution of LGBTQIA+ characters in Star Trek .
• IDW's new anthology captures the hopeful spirit of Star Trek with stories exploring the meaning of queerness in the franchise.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek Celebrations: Pride!

IDW’s new Star Trek Celebrations: Pride is a glorious celebration of the franchise’s various LGBTQIA+ characters. The Star Trek franchise is built upon the concepts of tolerance and an appreciation for diversity. Indeed, the franchise blazed a trail when it came to representation. This tradition continues into the current Star Trek media, stronger than ever. Star Trek Celebrations: Pride celebrates this tradition with all-new stories by today’s top talent.

The Star Trek franchise is built upon the concepts of tolerance and an appreciation for diversity.

Star Trek Celebration: Pride features stories by Steve Orlando, Vita Ayala, Mags Visaggio, Stephanie Williams and Hannah Rose May. The stories run the gauntlet of the Star Trek experience. The first story, “Errant Knight,” follows Kelvin Sulu as he attempts to free the crew, and be a family man. Some of the franchise’s lovebirds go on their first date in Celebrations: Pride : Raifi and Seven of Nine deal with snotty colleagues in “Lady Luck,” whereas Lower Decks ’ Beckett Mariner and Jennifer have a rendezvous on Risa.

Other stories feature Nurse Chapel and Discovery’s Jet Reno and Paul Stamets.

Star Trek Paved the Way for Positive Representation on Television

Star trek showed persons of color in positions of power.

Star Trek revolves around diversity and tolerance, showing an evolved humanity who has learned to celebrate their differences rather than fight over them.

Star Trek revolves around diversity and tolerance, showing an evolved humanity who has learned to celebrate their differences rather than fight over them. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry built diversity into the franchise from the beginning. Star Trek’s first pilot, “The Cage,” featured a woman in a position of power, something unheard of and several years ahead of its time. According to legend, viewers in the test audience took umbrage at a woman giving orders, but regardless, the concept of equality was off and running in the Star Trek franchise.

When Star Trek finally made it to television in 1966, it shattered the minds of American audiences by showing a Black woman, Uhura, as a competent and high-ranking officer. Actress Whoopi Goldberg, who herself would go on to appear on Star Trek, credits Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols as her inspiration, and Nichols’ performance even drew raves from Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. It continued this representation streak by introducing Sulu, a Japanese man, as well as a Russian, Chekov, at the height of the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union.

Star Trek Initially Dropped the Ball on Queer Representation

Star trek: deep space nine broke the mold.

The premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 continued to blaze new paths in representation by introducing a blind person, Geordi La Forge, who would become an icon to the disabled community. Yet in many ways, The Next Generation dropped the ball on further attempts at representation, particularly in the LGBTQIA+ community. According to some sources, a first season Next Generation episode was set to explore gay life in the 24th century, but was dropped due to being perceived as “stereotypical.” Part of the franchise’s reluctance to embrace the LGBTQIA+ laid with executive producer Rick Berman.

Star Trek Confirmed Tasha Yar Is Queer with 1 Surprising Romance

Star Trek fans have long speculated that Tasha Yar was an early queer hero, and while it took decades, the franchise eventually agreed.

That did not stop Star Trek: The Next Generation from making attempts at telling LGBTQIA+ stories, such as the fifth season episode “The Outcast,” but these attempts were few and far between, again owing to Berman’s management. Fans clamored for years for a thoughtful gay character, but it never materialized. In 1993, Berman, along with Michael Piller, created Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The first Trek show created without Roddenberry’s input, Deep Space Nine was a darker, more grounded take on the franchise, and also made its biggest inroads in representation for the queer community.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Secretly Queered Up the Franchise

Berman-era star trek was still behind the times.

Rick Berman was still very much in charge during Deep Space Nine’s seven-season tenure, meaning any attempts at introducing a gay character had to be coded. Garak, the Cardassian master-spy-turned-tailor, was coded to be bisexual, with a massive crush on Doctor Julian Bashir, another character of ambiguous sexuality. In several interviews, Garak actor Andrew Robinson said he played Garak as such. Jadzia Dax, the station’s Science Officer, was a member of the Trill species, and has become an icon for transgender Star Trek fans. Deep Space Nine explored the impact of a host changing genders in several episodes.

Although Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine was later revealed to be queer, her sexuality was never outright explored on the show, again thanks to Rick Berman. Likewise, Star Trek: Enterprise did not feature a gay character, despite growing pressure from fans. Other science fiction and fantasy franchises were introducing compelling LGBTQIA+ characters to great acclaim, but Star Trek had seemingly fallen behind the curve, ironic for a media property celebrating the Vulcan concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Enterprise ended in 2005, and Trek still had no queer characters.

Star Trek's First Gay Character Arrived on Its 50th Anniversary

The decision to turn sulu gay was controversial at the time.

All of that changed in 2016 with the premiere of Star Trek: Beyond. The film, set in the “Kelvin” timeline created by JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek , revealed Sulu to be gay, and in a relationship with a child. Turning Sulu gay was highly controversial, largely because the character had always been portrayed as hetero. It was done as a tribute to George Takei, the openly gay man who first brought Sulu to life. Takei himself weighed in on the controversy. Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg explained the change using techno-babble, but it was still contentious.

Star Trek's Kelvin Timeline Accomplished a Major Starfleet First

Star Trek's Kelvin timeline changed the face of the franchise forever, and it also accomplished a major first, a century before the Prime timeline.

Furthermore, the Kelvin films are set in an alternate timeline distinct from the Prime Star Trek, which makes the canonicity of Sulu being gay even more muddled. The Kelvin films end with Beyond, leaving Sulu’s family life unexplored, and Star Trek Celebrations: Pride picks this thread up and crafts a fun and engaging story out of it. It proves that stories with a queer Sulu can work, and represents one of the Kelvin timelines many missed opportunities. It might seem that Star Trek once again dropped the ball on LGBTQIA+ representation.

Star Trek Returned With Discovery --And A Host of Queer Characters

Discovery, lower decks and strange new worlds make up for berman era inadequacies.

In 2017, Star Trek returned to television with the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, which featured several queer characters. Among them were Engineer Paul Stamets and his husband, ship’s physician Doctor Hugh Culber. Jet Reno would join the ship in the show’s second season, and has been a presence on Discovery ever since. Discovery continued to break new ground in its third season, introducing the franchise’s first transgender and non-binary characters in Gray and Adira, respectively.

The current crop of Star Trek shows has made up for the franchises previous lack of representation.

The current crop of Star Trek shows has made up for the franchise’s previous lack of representation. Star Trek: Lower Decks ’ Beckett Mariner is pansexual, and was at one point in a relationship with the Andorian Jennifer. Despite getting off to a rocky start, the two became one of the show’s best couples, and Star Trek Celebrations: Pride shows their first date, as well as featuring them on a variant cover. Although no longer together, the two paved the way for better representation in the franchise. Nurse Chapel, of Strange New Worlds’, has been revealed as queer too.

Star Trek Presents a Hopeful View of Humanity, and the Future

Idw's new star trek anthology honors gene roddenberry's vision.

And now, Star Trek Celebrations: Pride celebrates all of them with excellent stories by top creators, some of whom are making their franchise debut. The creators in this anthology explore what it means to be queer in the Star Trek franchise. The stories are hopeful, keeping with the optimistic spirit that is also a hallmark of Star Trek . Although the franchise struggled with LGBTQIA+ representation for years, it has since made bold strides forward, and Star Trek Celebrations: Pride brings them together for one of the year’s most memorable Pride specials.

Star Trek Celebrations: Pride is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

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Recap / Star Trek S1 E0 "The Cage"

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The original Pilot Episode of Star Trek: The Original Series . Written by Gene Roddenberry and produced in late 1964, it preceded the series itself by a good two years. While this pilot was not considered to have been a success at the time, the network executives did like it enough to finance a second pilot episode. And you all know how well that turned out.

The episode begins with the USS Enterprise (under the command of Captain Christopher Pike) on a routine patrol. Pike is suffering from self-doubt, having just come from a mission where a number of his landing party were killed in action (including his close friend and Yeoman).

The ship receives a belated S.O.S from survivors of an Earth spaceship that crashed on the nearby planet Talos IV some time ago. Once they arrive on this barren and desolate planet, they find a ragtag bunch of survivors, but something doesn't feel quite right about them. While the landing party does a thorough examination of the group, a young woman named Vina lures Captain Pike to a secluded spot, where he gets zapped by humanoid aliens and taken deep underground.

The survivors vanish, having been revealed to be an illusion created by the alien Talosians. Captain Pike has been placed inside a zoo. The Talosians aim to pair him off with Vina, who is in fact the only true survivor of the earlier spaceship crash. While the aliens use their telepathy to try and bring Pike and Vina closer together, in illusionary versions of his recent near-death encounter, his home city of Mojave back on Earth, and a Orion slave harem; the crew of the Enterprise attempt to breach the underground complex and rescue their kidnapped captain.

The Talosians finally kidnap two further females from the Enterprise crew, giving Pike the choice of three potential mates. The Enterprise 's female first officer sets her hand phaser to self-destruct, forcing the Talosians' hand and giving them no option but to let the three of them go. Pike watches sadly as the true extent of Vina's injuries are revealed, explaining why she cannot come with them.

Footage from this unaired pilot was later re-edited as a two part regular episode called "The Menagerie", where the events were presented as something that had happened to a former crew of the Enterprise , ten years prior to the start of the main series. The original version, however, eventually made its broadcast premiere in 1988, as part of the TV special The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next , which previewed the writers' strike-delayed second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . "The Cage" was also the last of the digitally remastered TOS episodes to air, debuting the week before Star Trek (2009) opened in theaters.

Star Trek (2009) takes place in an Alternate Timeline and predominantly takes place at about the same time as this episode, reimagining Pike as played by Bruce Greenwood and a mentor figure for Kirk before showing the change of command. In the main timeline Captain Pike is recast with Anson Mount as the USS Enterprise shows up at the end of the first season of the prequel series Star Trek: Discovery , Pike appears in the second season. Thisis chronologically about two years after the events of this episode. In 2022 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuted, set shortly after the events of Discovery and about seven years before the first season of TOS.

"The Cage" provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adam and Eve Plot : The Talosians kidnap Captain Pike, and then Number One and a female yeoman (Colt), to act as breeding stock. To avoid it being a "polyg" situation, the Keeper mentions that "with the CHOICE of female...", in keeping with 1964 TV broadcast standards, but what would have been done with the two women Pike didn't choose is unclear. Had the Talosians intended to produce a race of human servants, it'd have made sense to have Pike sire children with ALL THREE of them. At the end, safely back aboard the ship, Yeoman Colt, her "unusually strong female drives" and curiosity getting the best of her, asks her Captain WHO would have been "Eve", much to Number One's annoyance. Number One: "Offspring" as in... he's Adam.
• Aggressive Negotiations : Pike tries to negotiate the life of the Magistrate for his crew's freedom and to Take Him Instead but Number One threatens mass suicide before they respond.
• Alien Blood : When threatening the Talosians, Pike wonders along about what color their blood would be. Pike:  I'll break out of this zoo somehow and get to you. Is your blood red like ours? I'm going to find out.
• Alien Geometries : The alien prison has weird angles and perspectives (done purposefully with optical illusions), and also Bizarrchitecture : slanted walls and weird shapes. Notably, the form of their monitor display is in a really weird shape.
• Aliens Are Bastards : Pike certainly thinks so and he's right, at least at the start. Then we learn the Talosians do just as many benevolent things as they do malevolent. They saved Vina's life, try to find a suitable man to keep her company as she's lonely, and, later on , allow Pike to peacefully retire with them to be with Vina after he's also disfigured.
• Alien Sky : The first illusion where Pike is placed has a lilac sky dominated by an immense moon and distant ringed planet.
• All Planets Are Earth-Like : Of course there is a planet that is conveniently "Class M" (Trek for Human Habitable). Spock: Solar system similar to Earth, eleven planets. Number four seems to be Class M, oxygen atmosphere.( In the series proper, "oxygen-NITROGEN" atmosphere is used, anyone familiar with the Apollo I tragedy knows the extreme fire hazard of a pure oxygen atmosphere! )
• Spock is shown to be limping when the party first beams down to Talos IV. According to the script, Spock was one of the crewmen mentioned as having been injured on Rigel VII.
• A few novels have theorized as to the cause for the vast differences between Spock's highly emotional behavior in this episode and his reservedness in the regular series. Examples of this include Spock possibly not having complete control of his emotions at that point, as he was still quite young, and that he achieved full control of his emotions by observing Captain Pike. In fact, the novel Burning Dreams establishes that indeed, whether Pike liked it or not, Spock did consider him a mentor and so Pike tried his best to live up to that assignment. The novel The Fire and the Rose establishes that Spock was simply emulating Human behaviors such as smiles, and that there was truly no emotion behind his own smile. He eventually stopped though when his crew mates came to distrust him, believing him not to be truthful about himself to them.
• Ambiguous Gender : Enforced: Producers went out of the way to ensure ambiguity to the point of dubbing male voices over the female actors.
• Anatomically Ignorant Healing : Vina turns out to have been left disabled and disfigured by the Talosians' well-intentioned efforts to heal her — they were able to successfully restore her to physical health, but their unfamiliarity with human anatomy led to them putting her back together as a scarred hunchback.
• Baby Factory : The aliens present the women to Pike so he can "choose" the best specimen for intelligent offspring .
• The Bartender : Dr. Boyce brings some alcohol with him during his visit to the Pike's quarters, and mixes him a martini as a part of the captain's Epiphany Therapy . Boyce: Sometimes a man will tell things to his bartender that he'd never tell his doctor.
• Beneath the Mask : The Talosians put Captain Pike in a fantasy where he's a decadent Orion slave trader with a Green-Skinned Space Babe dancing erotically for him. Earlier Pike had been griping about The Chains of Commanding and let slip a thought about giving it all up to be an Orion merchant. Vina: A person's strongest dreams are about what he can't do . Yes, a ship's captain, always having to be so formal, so decent and honest and proper. You must wonder what it would be like to forget all that.
• Bizarre Alien Biology : Inverted with the Talosians. They've never seen a human before Vina and have no idea how to properly heal her injuries beyond making her basically functional.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead : The Talosians, who want Captain Pike to breed them a race of slave workers, offer him blonde fellow captive Vina and, later, his own crewmembers — the coldly intelligent Number One ( Brainy Brunette ) and his pretty female yeoman (a redhead with "unusually strong female drives").
• Blue-and-Orange Morality : Although they keep sentient beings enslaved For Science! , the Talosians aren't exactly evil; they just don't understand why humans hate being held captive. When they do figure it out, they release the humans — not out of respect for their desires, but because their hatred of captivity makes them unsuitable for the Talosians' plans.
• Body Horror : Downplayed, but real Vina has been left scarred, withered and exaggeratedly hunchbacked as a result of her ship's crash.
• Book Ends : The Crash-Into Hello is replayed again at the end, with Captain Pike repeating his exact same words.
• The Bridge : Ur-Example ! Although movies and series with crews in space are known (see Forbidden Planet and Lost in Space ), on The Bridge most action revolves around the Captain's Chair as the center of the bridge.
• Yeoman Colt; ironically her presence makes Captain Pike uncomfortable as he's not used to having a woman on the bridge. note  Colt actress Laurel Goodwin ultimately became the last surviving credited cast member to perform in the episode, dying in 2022 at the age of 79.
• Averted and Lampshaded HARD by Number One, who gives Pike a Death Glare until he leaves the bridge.

• The Captain : Roddenberry confessed he styled the captains on Horatio Hornblower . The Captain is the Hero Protagonist to whom everything happens around him.
• The Chains of Commanding : Pike lays out how tired he is of being responsible for the lives of his crew, and making decisions that include "who lives, and who dies".
• Characterization Marches On : Spock's emotional outbursts, such as his joyful reaction to hearing the singing plants on Talos IV and his panic when he realizes the women have been kidnapped, contrast with his later deliberately emotionless persona. According to Spock's actor Leonard Nimoy , this is because he felt that Spock needed some warmth to balance out how Hunter played Pike. At this point, Spock was just supposed to be an alien, "probably half Martian". Vulcan heritage and stoicism weren't part of his character yet. He is also a fairly minor character in the plot, serving as third in command after Pike and Number One and not having much of a focus on his personality compared to the others or Dr. Boyce.
• Cool Starship : The Enterprise itself, the basis for the whole series where they use it to travel through the stars. But note that is our only look at the Pike-era Enterprise, distinguished by the spikes on the red warp nacelle caps.
• Crash-Into Hello : Introduces Colt, embarrasses the Captain, and establishes her as a one of the possible Love Interests .
• Cross-Cast Role : Although male voices were dubbed in for the Talosians, the Talosian actors were actually women. Robert Butler and Gene Roddenberry struck upon using this casting method at about the same time as one another, Butler reckoning that it would lend the Talosian characterizations an alien-like androgynous quality. Roddenberry believed that the lighter builds of females might suggest that the Talosians had allowed their bodies to atrophy while instead choosing to concentrate on advanced brain development. Upon searching for suitable performers to play the parts, Roddenberry scoured Hollywood for short actresses with faces that he deemed to be interesting. Character actress Meg Wyllie was cast as the Talosian Keeper on Butler's recommendation, as they had previously worked together.
• Crystal Spires and Togas : Deconstructed with the Talosians. Their manner of dress and their city is very elegant, but they're also completely detached from any kind of adventurous spirit, not understanding why anyone wouldn't choose a pleasant dream over unpleasant reality, and being unable to grasp the more primal emotions.
• Damsel in Distress : Complete with medieval dress , screams and ineffectual defense. Might actually be a Deliberately Distressed Damsel as she already knows it is All Just a Dream .
• Despair Event Horizon : The Talosians reach this point with the failure of their plan: Captain Pike: And that's it. No apologies. You captured one of us, threatened all of us... Talosian: Your unsuitability has condemned the Talosian race to eventual death . Is this not sufficient?
• Pike's fantasy of being an Orion trader is implied to be this, as he mentioned it during his gripe session with his doctor. " Glistening green. Almost like secret dreams a bored ship captain might have..."
• After beaming Number One and Colt down to Pike's cell as alternate mating choices, the Talosian Magistrate tells him that Number One's Ice Queen demeanor is a façade and she's often had fantasies about him, while Yeoman Colt has assumed the captain was out of her reach , "but now is realizing this has changed ".
• Dirty Old Man : The doctor pointedly inquires about Colt's impertinent question "Who would have been Eve?" Boyce: Eve as in... Adam? Pike: Adam as in all ship's doctors are dirty old men.
• Distress Call : One of these kickstarts the plot, with a radio wave keyed to trigger the sensors of a passing vessel (it initially appears to be an oncoming object) thereby drawing the attention of its crew. In a subversion, Pike's initial response is to ignore the signal on the grounds that a 20 year old distress signal with no indication of survivors doesn't warrant changing course, so the Talosians send another indicating that there are survivors in distress.
• Double Entendre : The Talosians comment that Yeoman Colt has "unusually strong female drives." One assumes they weren't referring to an urge to shop.
• The Dulcinea Effect : Pike correctly deduces that the Talosians are trying to make him feel protective of Vina so that he'll fall in love. However, after he points to the illusions that cast her as a Damsel in Distress , he protests against their treatment of her in the real world, proving that their ploy is indeed working.
• Dying Race : The Talosians. Turns out being able to create illusions indistinguishable from real life but better makes you largely uninterested in real life.
• Early-Installment Weirdness : Everything, from the characters, to the uniforms, to some details of the USS Enterprise itself. Some of it could be explained through changing uniforms and refits, but some dialogue like their Faster-Than-Light Travel being described as both "Time Warp Factor 7" and "Hyperdrive" before it settled into being a Warp engine in the series proper.
• Enemy Scan : To properly get to know the capabilities of humans, the Talosians scan through the ship's computer to learn all about them.
• Energy Weapon : The huge laser cannon that gets wheeled out on the planet surface to use as a Laser Cutter during the Enterprise crew's attempt to break into the Talos compound.
• Epiphany Therapy : Dr. Boyce's attempts to help Captain Pike get over his Heroic BSoD . Boyce: A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he... turns his back on it and starts to wither away. Pike: Now you're beginning to talk like a doctor, bartender. Boyce: Take your choice. We both get the same two kinds of customers — the living and the dying.
• The Evils of Free Will : The fact that humans would prefer death to any form of captivity is a sticking point on why they are unsuitable for the Talosians' plans. Pike tries to console the Keepers, suggesting some sort of mutual cooperation to solve their population problem. The Keeper, however is savvy enough to know what will happen if humans eventually acquire the Talosian power of illusion . All of this at least explains why there is a General Order forbidding any contact with this planet.
• Expy : The main crew members have identifiable counterparts in the series that eventually developed. Pike is an early version of Kirk, Number One was combined with Spock , Dr. Boyce is early McCoy , and Colt is early Rand. Of course, this pilot came first, so it's technically the characters of the eventual series who are the expies. The notion of referring to the First Officer as "Number One" returned in Star Trek: The Next Generation .
• Face Palm : Vina does this when Pike gets punished for thinking wrong thoughts.
• Facial Dialogue : When the captain refuses to respond to the distress call, a couple of blueshirts exchange a puzzled shrug after he leaves the Bridge.
• Failed Pilot Episode : Zig-zagged . On the one hand, the network rejected this as the pilot for ST:TOS and ordered another one which led to the show that started the franchise. On the other hand, this episode was repurposed as a two-parter in the series, making it canon. On the other other hand, season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery would feature Pike, Spock, and Number One along with the Enterprise , which would lead to them getting their own show — so in a sense, this pilot did get its own show, just a few decades later than anyone thought.
• Fantastic Flora : Talos IV's surface is home to turquoise plants that emit eerie, almost singing sounds, which give the planet a distinctly alien atmosphere. Pike and Spock touch them to discover what exact sound each leaf produces.
• Fate Worse than Death : Rather than allow Pike to submit to Talosian captivity, Number One puts her phaser on overload to destroy all three of them. Vina elects not to retreat underground either, since it would mean the Talosians would just grab another man later.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell : The Talosians invoke the feeling of being tapped in a fiery Hell on Pike any time they want as punishment, and threaten to outdo that trauma if they have to.
• Food Pills : With a slight variation: all the nourishment Pike needs is in liquid form in a small slender glass.
• While talking with Doctor Boyce, Captain Pike talks about the battle on Rigel Seven and two activities he might partake in after retiring: going on a picnic on Earth or becoming an Orion trader. Each of these is used as the basis for one of the telepathic illusions the Talosians use on him later.
• Throughout the episode it's implied that Vina is not who she seems. At first this seems to be explained by her pretending to be a Talosian illusion in hopes of more easily seducing Pike; then Number One offhandedly mentions that, rather than Vina having been born right as the Columbia crash-landed on the planet, she was listed on manifests as an adult crewman. This foreshadows her true appearance, that of a much older, deeply scarred and disfigured woman.
• Glassy Prison : One wall of the cells the humans are kept in is made of a crystal material, so the specimens can be put on exhibit and analyzed.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe : The Trope Codifier . Although strictly speaking, Vina is only pretending to be a green-skinned space babe. However, she's still the first one ever seen in Star Trek .
• Happy Place : The aliens construct visions of Pike in "Happy Places", back home and as an Orion slave trader (actually a Psychological Torment Zone , as he is perturbed and runs out of the harem), but Pike immediately knows it's All Just a Dream .
• Heroic BSoD : Captain Pike is going through one of these when the episode begins, having lost several crewmen (including his personal yeoman) on a mission.
• Humans Are Special : The Talosians desire humans for their adaptability, but then they access the records of the Enterprise and conclude that humans have "a unique hatred of captivity" that renders them unsuitable for their purpose.
• Ice Queen : Number One, whom Vina sarcastically compares to a computer when she's kidnapped as another potential mate. There are several hints that this is a façade however.
• Inertial Impalement : How Pike finishes off the barbarian in the illusory battle.
• I Need a Freaking Drink : Inverted, Boyce implies to Pike: "YOU need a freaking drink!".
• In Medias Res : The story begins as the Enterprise has completed a mission that resulted in serious casualties and is returning to base.
• Instant Sedation : The aliens spray a gas in Pike's face and he falls down to the ground immediately.
• It Only Works Once : As Pike foiled their plans for breeding a Slave Race , the aliens just give up and accept the fate of their failed civilization . To be fair, they indicate they had already tried out several other species (possibly the ones Pike saw in the zoo) but none of them had shown the same adaptability as humans. Pike was their "last hope".
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure : Pike doesn't know Vina and doesn't especially like her, but he objects when she's punished for his lack of cooperation. This is all part of the Talosians' plan to make him breed with her, because it causes Pike to feel empathy for Vina over her unjust punishment.
• Knockout Ambush : Pike was led by Vina where the aliens surprised him, knocked him out with a gas, then took him away.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine : Averted. It's rare where scientists are not portrayed in labcoats, and in this case they appeared in normal clothes, but ragged and tattered.
• Loafing in Full Costume : Averted; Captain Pike is shown passing by a couple of off-duty crewmembers dressed in civies.
• Lost in Transmission : A distress message inexplicably just "fades" away before it can explain a certain crucial danger. Rather than concealing a crucial plot point, this was just a lure by the Talosians to Pike, who had previously turned down answering the earlier (and genuine) Distress Call .
• Love at First Sight : Both Pike and Vina are attracted to each other and explicitly say so.
• Lured into a Trap : Pike is coaxed to walk right into a trap where the aliens capture him. Vina mentions that he's been feeling tired, and Pike is noticeably distracted by her , so he's likely not as alert as he should be.
• Magical Security Cam : When the crew are greeting the survivors, the aliens see the scene through an alien monitor, but there are no cameras or devices that anyone can see.
• Male Gaze : There's a shot of an off-duty female crewmember walking away from the camera in a pleated skirt.
• Master of Illusion : The Talosians force Captain Pike to partake in a series of illusionary worlds. When he resists, they are also able to punish him with a Fire and Brimstone Hell and then believably threaten to go deeper into his mind for experiences even worse ! Similarly, the Enterprise crew actually easily breaks into the Talosian base, but their powers of illusion made it appear that they'd been doing no damage at all, so they didn't realize they'd succeeded until Pike was already released.
• Meaningful Background Event : Lt. Tyler, the navigator, is shown wearing a bandage on his right hand/wrist. Although it is never acknowledged, but it presumably happened during the landing on the previous mission on Rigel VII.
• Mind Probe : The aliens probe Pike's mind and discover "excellent memory capacity". This is not shown and the Captain does not seem to even notice or show any signs of the probe.
• Mind Rape : Pike is tortured with visions of fire and brimstone .
• Moving the Goalposts : Pike agrees to pick an illusion to share with Vina if she answers his questions. After she does, he says that he made a "bargain with someone that didn't exist" and it doesn't count, which forces her to admit that she was lying about being yet another illusion.
• My Brain Is Big : The aliens have very visible bigger craniums with pulsing veins, which give them great mental power. Spock: Look. Brains three times the size of ours. If we start buzzing about down there, we're liable to find their mental power is so great they could reach out and swat this ship as though it were a fly.
• My Greatest Failure : Pike is troubled by the fight at Rigel 7 where he lost three crew and seven were injured. He claims It's All My Fault , establishing a Guilt Complex (he is tired of being who decides "who lives and who dies") so bad he is in Heroic BSoD and considers retiring. Boyce does respond with the typical You Did Everything You Could .
• Named After Their Planet : Talosians. From Talos IV.
• No Name Given : Majel Barrett's character is referred to throughout simply as "Number One".
• Nondescript, Nasty, Nutritious : One of the "sustenances" given to Pike while in the holding cell is a glass of blue mystery liquid, which the Talosian Keeper claims contains a "nourishing protein complex". They compensate for its blandness by using their mental powers to make it seem like whatever food is desired.
• Not Like Other Girls : When Pike complains about how unused he is to having a woman (Yeoman Colt) on the bridge, he says that Number One doesn't count. He doesn't seem to realize that she is apparently insulted at the way he differentiates her from other women.
• Number Two : Number One, actually, who goes by no other name in the pilot. Spock is present but is not the First Officer as he would become when the show went to series. (He appears to be third-in-command behind Pike and Number One, as he takes command after Number One is abducted, but this isn't definitely established in dialogue.)
• One of the Boys : How Captain Pike treats Number One regarding her presence (as a woman) on the bridge.
• People Farms : The aliens try to make Pike "breed" with any female, and were planning to make them a Slave Race to rebuild the surface of the planet.
• Pet the Dog : After their plan fails, the Talosians release Pike without harm, but allow Vina to have an illusion of him staying with her. They also refuse Federation aid to prevent other races from falling into the same trap that they did.
• A failed one, in fact, but it showed enough promise for the network to commission a second pilot.
• Trope Namer ! When asked for an example of a pilot of a show, this episode is commonly used as an example.
• Plot Twist : Survivor Rescue plot is actually Aliens Want to Breed Us .
• The Power of Hate : Pike lunges at the glass wall of his cell, causing the Keeper to flinch. Since the Talosians can read his thoughts, and should have known he was going to do that, he deduces that his powerful, 'primitive' emotion was able to block their telepathy. Pike then concentrates on feeling intense hatred for his captors.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide : The Talosian Keeper tries to get Pike to release him by threatening to destroy the Enterprise . Vina confirms that he's not bluffing about his capability — the Talosians' illusion power could reach the orbiting starship and trick the crew into operating the wrong controls — but it turns out that he's bluffing about his willingness to follow through on the threat.
• Psychic Static : The Talosians can't read "primitive" emotions like anger or violence, so Pike uses that as a Psychic Block Defense . However Vina points out that it's impossible to maintain such emotions over a long time.
• Raised by Dudes : Vina claims to be this at first, acting awkward and unfeminine around Captain Pike because she was raised by a group of old male scientists.

• Recycled with a Gimmick : The start of the Horatio Hornblower In Space subgenre of sci-fi. Pike's ruminations on choosing which crewmen will live and die are remarkably similar to Hornblower's thoughts on being a Valkyrie "chooser of the slain" in Hotspur.
• Red Alert : A red flashing light goes off and an alarm sounds when the ship seems to be in danger, but the alert is not vocally called.
• Refusal of the Call : Pike refuses to answer an eighteen year-old Distress Call because they have their own wounded to take care of (it's also implied that Pike is tired and his morale is low after recent events). Only when another message arrives confirming that there are survivors in need of help does he order the Enterprise there.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens : The Talosians have entire rubber heads. They are more elaborate than later makeups in the series, and they also cast female actors but dubbed-over male voices in an attempt to make them more alien.
• Same Language Dub : Clegg Hoyt played the transporter chief, Pitcairn, but his voice was dubbed in by Bob Johnson, who was the voice on the tape (and disc) in Mission: Impossible .
• Script-Reading Doors : Dr. Boyce knocks on the door and it opens automatically before the Captain responds.
• Secret Underground Passage : Actually an elevator, but the doors are hidden from view, camouflaged as a rock wall, and they do lead underground.
• Shrug Take : Right after Captain Pike refuses to look for survivors and leaves the bridge.
• Signature Sound Effect : Averted (in later episodes) with the "singing" plants of Talos IV. Pike and Spock verify (in a lovely bit of non-verbal acting) that the plants are the source of the low, eerie wailing heard in the surface scenes. Future episodes re-used the same sound on many — if not most — of the other planets the crew visited, without explanation.
• Sole Survivor : The aliens confess there was an actual crash of an Earth vessel, but with only one survivor, Vina.
• Space Clothes : The Talosians (and Vina) wear shiny, silvery clothes. Averted with the crew of Enterprise, whose uniforms are deliberately mundane.
• The Spock : An Ur-Example . The Stoic , computer-mind character was supposed to be Number One, a female. As Roddenberry said, the network didn't want a woman in a position of power (the executives denied this), so he passes the traits to Spock.
• Stay in the Kitchen : Pike starts to chastise Colt when she interrupts him, explaining that he asked for the report. He then openly says he is not used to women on the bridge.
• Strictly Professional Relationship : Colt: Sir, I was wondering. Just curious. Who would have been Eve? One: Yeoman! You've delivered your report.
• Subspace Ansible : Averted; the distress call has taken eighteen years to reach the Enterprise 's current position.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands : The Talosians seem perfectly capable of seeing everything that goes on in the cell as well as reading minds, but the Keeper doesn't see Pike waiting to ambush him. Probably masked by Pike's anger and treachery. That should have been a big, fat, hint to the Talosians that the humans would prove unmanageable, but they might have been too desperate to save their race to recognize the hint.
• Technobabble : Spock's initial utterance sounds too simple, but it is used to establish that something "Techy" is going on. First Star Trek words recorded. Spock: Check the circuit.
• Technology Marches On : An in-universe example. The consoles on the Enterprise bridge are here fitted with what look like personal computer printers (which print out messages on paper), and the Yeoman is seen using a clipboard with paper sheets on it. The beam weapons are called lasers instead of the later phasers. And the weapon used in the attempt to blast the Talosian entrance is a bulky device transported from the ship instead of ship-mounted weapons. By the time of the series proper, both would be replaced by more futuristic devices. Medical science is presumably more primitive than it's portrayed in TOS, as Pike doesn't even speculate about the possibility that Vina's disfigurements might be repairable with Trek -era medicine. But technology has also already marched on, as one crewman enthusiastically says to the "survivors": space travel is now incomparably faster than 18 years before. Nearly 60 years later, things like printers and paper on clipboards would seem "old school", but Science Fiction tends to predict the future with things we're still familiar with. Besides, the special effects involved in showing hi-resolution imagery on something like an iPad were somewhat beyond even what a high-budget movie could do in those days.
• Telepathic Spacemen : The Talosians are telepathic, and it's how they create their illusions.
• Teleporters and Transporters : To avoid the hassle and cost of showing travel by shuttle, the Landing Party travel by the Transporter.
• 10-Minute Retirement : Albeit only an illusory one for Captain Pike, indulging in activities he talked about. As soon as He's Back! on duty: Pike: What are we running here, a cadet ship?
• This Is the Part Where... : The Talosians note that, after hurling himself in frustration at the glass, Pike will now threaten them with the power of his starship . Hearing this, Pike chooses a more diplomatic (but equally futile) approach.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works : Pike tries throwing a sword at the barbarian during the illusory battle; it hits at the right angle and with enough force to embed itself in the barbarian's back.
• Too Good to Be True : Pike realizes too late that the Columbia 's heroic survivors they've seen were just playing into their ideal fantasies. Also, Boyce suspects something fishy is going on, as all survivors are in perfect health.
• TV Telephone Etiquette : Mr. Spock calls on the ship's video intercom to deliver exposition and cuts the call immediately.
• Between Pike and J.M. Colt in particular. According to the Talosians, possibly also Number One.
• This was the entire purpose of the Talosians capturing Pike: to get him to develop enough tension with Vina that he would give in and help them breed a new race to reclaim the surface.
• Unusual Ears : Mr. Spock is alien, of course. Don't you see the Pointy Ears ?
• Wagon Train to the Stars : Ur-Example . This was the first pilot presented to the network to show this concept.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside : After Number One and Yeoman Colt beam down, the Keeper punishes Pike for "wrong thnking." While the two are wondering what is going on, Vina just cradles her head in her hand. She knows that Pike is being punished and while it seems like a couple of seconds, for him the punishment could be lasting for hours.
• Your Heart's Desire : Orion women are presented as a dark male fantasy come to life . They're exotic , animalistic Sex Slaves , from a culture where they actually want to be taken advantage of so you don't have to feel guilty about doing so. Orion slave trader: Suppose you had all of space to choose from, and this was only one small sample. Wouldn't you say it was worth a man's soul?
• Your Mind Makes It Real : According to the Talosians, Pike could visualize the vial of nourishment liquid provided by the Talosians as any meal he wished. Presumably, as long as he was able to somehow forget that it really was nothing more than a vial of blue liquid . Whether Pike's mind could fool his GI tract enough to turn it into dietary fiber, OTOH...

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.

• Akiva Goldsman
• Alex Kurtzman
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• Anson Mount
• Christina Chong
• 1K User reviews
• 38 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 33 nominations total

Episodes 31

• Captain Christopher Pike …

• La'an Noonien-Singh …

• Lt. Erica Ortegas …

• Una Chin-Riley …

• Nurse Christine Chapel

• Nyota Uhura …

• Dr. M'Benga

• USS Enterprise Computer …

• Lieutenant George Samuel 'Sam' Kirk

• Jenna Mitchell

• Captain Batel …

• Admiral Robert April

• Captain James T. Kirk …

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Did you know

• Trivia Bruce Horak , the actor who plays Hemmer, is legally blind, just like his character's species, the Aenar, who are also blind.
• Goofs There are some rank insignia mistakes. Number One is introduced as "Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley" yet she is wearing the rank insignia of a full commander: two full stripes. A Lieutenant Commander's rank insignia is a full stripe under a thin stripe (in TOS it is a full stripe and a staggered stripe). It is not uncommon for a ship's first officer to be a Lt. Commander if they have not been in the position long. Spock at this point is a Lieutenant but he is wearing Lieutenant Commander's stripes; a Lieutenant just has one stripe. La'an is the ship's chief of security and the ship's second officer. She is also wearing Lt. Commander stripes but is addressed as a Lieutenant, but it would make more sense for her to be a Lieutenant Commander. Either way both of their rank insignia are not matching the rank they are addressed by. Ortegas is addressed as a Lieutenant but is wearing Lieutenant Commander's strips. A Lieutenant Commander may be addressed as a Commander or Lieutenant Commander but never as just a Lieutenant, so either her rank insignia or the manner she is addressed by the rest of the crew is in error.

[opening narration]

Captain Christopher Pike : Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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Technical specs

• Runtime 52 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
• Dolby Digital
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There was a mixed bag of news on the injury front regarding three key Dodgers over the weekend.

Young right-hander Bobby Miller raised some eyebrows with a velocity drop in his second minor league rehabilitation start, third baseman Max Muncy confirmed a setback in his recovery from a right rib-cage strain, and veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw took the first significant step in his recovery from offseason shoulder injury.

Miller, out since April 13 because of shoulder inflammation, gave up four earned runs and five hits in 3 ⅓ innings with no strikeouts and one walk in his second rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga at Lake Elsinore on Saturday night.

Miller reached his workload target, throwing 65 pitches, 38 for strikes, but the velocity of his four-seam fastball, which averaged 98.3 mph in his first three starts for the Dodgers this season, fell to 95-97 mph, which is “a couple miles per hour lower than what is typical for Bobby,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Yet Miller, 25, said before Sunday’s game against the Colorado Rockies that he felt fine physically.

“I don’t know why there was a little bit of a velocity drop,” Miller said. “It could have just been an adrenaline thing. There was not much adrenaline at all. … I felt fine. I feel ready. I mean, leading up to [Saturday], everything felt really locked in and the velo was there. I don’t know why it wasn’t [Saturday]. It could have just been mechanics.”

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Roberts had not talked to Miller before meeting with reporters Sunday morning, but he said he was told by athletic trainer Thomas Albert that Miller’s velocity dip “had nothing to do with health. So for me … I don’t think it was too concerning.”

Miller, who went 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in three starts before going on the injured list, is scheduled to make at least one more rehab start, for triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday, with a target of 80 pitches and six innings.

“I just want execution on every one of my pitches,” Miller said. “The command of my off-speed pitches wasn’t very good [on Saturday]. I know my velocity will be there, so I’m not worried about that.”

Muncy, who was batting .223 with a .798 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, nine homers and 28 RBIs in 40 games when he went on the injured list May 17, sounded more discouraged about his immediate outlook.

The slugger needed only two weeks to recover from a similar oblique strain in 2021 and thought he’d return for a three-game series in New York against the Mets last week.

But Muncy said he felt a “twinge” in his rib cage while taking batting practice in Arizona during the Dodgers’ last trip and has been shut down indefinitely from most baseball activities.

“It felt great. It felt normal. I was taking ground balls and throwing across the infield and didn’t feel a thing, so we progressed to swinging,” Muncy said Sunday. “I had two good days of full batting practice, where I didn’t feel anything at all. And then the third day, it flared up. It’s one of those things where my body was telling me to slow things down.”

To say Muncy is frustrated with the setback would be an understatement.

“We’re just sitting here,” Muncy said. “I don’t think anybody has a timetable, because we can’t really put one on it. [An oblique strain] is probably the worst injury you can have as a position player because you can’t do anything.

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“You can’t strengthen it. You can’t strengthen the area around it. You can’t do anything with the rest of your body because you have to involve your core to do that. You have to just sit and let it heal, and that’s where we’re at.”

The outlook for Kershaw seemed more encouraging after the 36-year-old’s fastball touched 88 mph during a 20-pitch simulated inning in which he faced three batters Saturday, a workout that Kershaw likened to “basically the first step of spring training.”

Kershaw will throw a two-inning simulated game with Rancho Cucamonga later this week while the Dodgers are on the road. If he follows a normal six-week spring training progression without setback, he could return in mid-July.

“Right now, we’re way ahead of schedule, which is really encouraging,” Roberts said. “He came out of it feeling good, feeling strong. There was no tentativeness. I didn’t see him guarding anything. He felt free and easy.”

Kershaw, a three-time National League Cy Young Award winner and the 2014 NL most valuable player, threw all three of his pitches — fastball, slider, curve — on Saturday, the first time he faced hitters in his rehab.

“The shoulder feels healthy, now it’s just a matter of building the pitches back up and getting ready to go,” Kershaw said. “From here, it’s like a spring training. Build up an inning every five or six days or so and see where we’re at.”

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Mike DiGiovanna has been covering Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Times since 1995 and spent 19 years as the Angels beat writer and two seasons on the Dodgers. He won Associated Press Sports Editors awards for game-story writing in 2001, feature-story writing in 2017 and breaking news in 2019. A native of East Lyme, Conn., and a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, he began writing for The Times in 1981.

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Rachel Maddow Sets ‘Ultra’ Season 2 Podcast Premiere Date, Exploring New Chapter in the History of America’s Radical Right (EXCLUSIVE)

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Rachel Maddow is back with another deep dive into the history of America’s radical right with the second installment of MSNBC podcast “Ultra.”

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“Demagogues are not a new thing in our country, nor are their extreme, even violent, anti-democratic tactics,” Maddow said in a statement. “Our history shows that fighting back against them can be dangerous work. Season 2 of ‘Ultra’ is a story about mostly forgotten American heroes who knew the risks to themselves if they took on these forces, but also the risk to the country if they didn’t.”

Season 1 of “Ultra” — which ranked No. 8 on Apple Podcasts’ list of the most popular new shows in 2022 — documented the history of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government and end democracy in the midst of World War II, along with the members of Congress who supported the movement. The show was the first podcast to receive the Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism award. Last year, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment optioned the film rights for “Ultra.”

Maddow is the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which airs live Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC and is available in a podcast version, after she scaled back to a once-per-week TV schedule in 2022 . She also is on standby to lead breaking news and special coverage for MSNBC and has continued to expand her presence across the NBCUniversal’s platforms.

“Ultra” Season 2 will be available on major audio platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn. In addition, as part of the new MSNBC Premium offering on Apple Podcasts ($2.99/month and $29.99/year), subscribers will receive early access to new episodes each Friday starting June 7 along with ad-free listening and bonus content.

NBCUniversal News Group’s other original podcasts include “Prosecuting Donald Trump,” “Southlake,” “Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead*,” “The Girl in the Blue Mustang,” “American Radical” and “The Chris Hayes Podcast.”

Listen to the trailer for “Ultra” Season 2:

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