"Star Trek" The Cage (1966)

Director:

Robert Butler

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

September 1966 (Season 1, Episode 0)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Capt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions.

Plot Keywords:

Illusion | Spacecraft | Pilot Episode Has Different Cast | Hell | Teleportation

Cast

Jeffrey Hunter	...	Captain Christopher Pike
Susan Oliver	...	Vina
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Majel Barrett	...	Number One
John Hoyt	...	Dr. Phillip Boyce
Peter Duryea	...	Lieutenant Jose Tyler
Laurel Goodwin	...	Yeoman J.M. Colt

Runtime:

64 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Canada:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock was the only character from the first pilot to survive into the series. The ship's first officer character, Number One, was rejected for the series by the network because she was female (according to Gene Roddenberry), or because of her lack of acting ability (according to Desilu production chief Herbert F. Solow). Actress Majel Barrett (Roddenberry's girlfriend at the time and later wife) was recast as Nurse Chapel. When the pilot was recycled as the two-part series episode "The Menagerie", it was established the events in this episode take place 13 years prior to the events of the "Star Trek" (1966) series.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Captain Pike is abducted, remaining crew members fire a barrage of phaser weaponry at the portal; in each of the three attempts, the exact same effect results. Parts of the entryway get blasted out, and then with each succeeding blast, the exact same thing happens to the "door." In addition, though one of the crew fires his phaser from a different location than Tyler and Spock, his shot appears to be coming from the same location as Tyler's.

Quotes:

Captain Christopher Pike: If you were in here... wouldn't you test the strength of these walls too? There's a way out of any cage, and I'll find it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Trek: New Voyages: Come What May (#1.0)" (2004)

A groundbreaking sci-fi movie in its own right

"The Cage" might have ended up as a TV-movie had NBC decided not to try again with a 2nd pilot and then go to series. If so, then "The Cage" would have been the best sci-fi movie since "Forbidden Planet" (to which it is clearly indebted)--all the more remarkable because it was made on a limited television budget and the poor facilities of Desilu Studios.

Yet Roddenberry's vision yielded a story that overcame the plastic and wooden sets and the hastily put together special effects, to give us our first look into his "Star Trek Universe"--a futuristic united Earth, which has finally been put right enabling mankind to set out for the stars.

We're so accustomed to that ST Universe by now, that we may forget how truly visionary it was for 1965: A giant warp-powered starship that looked truly futuristic and beautiful, not some cliche rocket shape. The bridge, the very model of a well-designed command center, to be eclipsed only by the sets of "2001: A Space Odyssey" three years later. The transporter. A female second-in-command and a mixed-gender crew. And most important of all, believable, multi-dimensional characters who are supported by all that futuristic technology and special effects, rather than playing second fiddle to them. Roddenberry's staunch insistence on believable characterization was what separated all the Star Trek series from any other sci-fi series--and is what has enabled the Star Trek franchise to last nearly 40 years.

While the Captain Pike character didn't survive into the second pilot or the series, it also represented a fascinating departure from the TV heroes of most past TV series--something you might see in a big-budget first-run movie rather than a TV pilot film. Pike is depressed and just plain burned out from the constant strain of command, and he is seriously contemplating resigning from Starfleet altogether because he just can't take it anymore. Like any harried, burned-out white-collar worker of today, he has unrealistic dreams of just going home at a young age to retire early, or maybe starting his own business, or anything to get him out of that captain's chair. The adventure he has in "The Cage" acts as his redemption, giving him a live demonstration of Dr. Boyce's statement that no matter how tempted a man may be to pack it in and give up on life, he must find a way to meet life on its own terms, not run from it and hide in daydreams of a life that in the end isn't really for him.