"Star Trek" The Menagerie: Part I (1966)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Marc Daniels

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

17 November 1966 (Season 1, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

While visiting a Starbase 11, the Enterprise is hijacked by Mr. Spock leaving Captain Kirk but abducting...

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Captain Christopher Pike (archive footage)
Susan Oliver	...	Vina (archive footage)
Malachi Throne	...	Commodore Jose Mendez
Majel Barrett	...	Number One (archive footage) (as M. Leigh Hudec)
Peter Duryea	...	Lt. José Tyler (archive footage)
John Hoyt	...	Dr. Boyce (archive footage)
Adam Roarke	...	C.P.O. Garrison (archive footage)
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
James Doohan	...	Scott
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Sean Kenney	...	Injured Pike
Hagan Beggs	...	Lt. Hansen
Julie Parrish	...	Miss Piper

Runtime:

50 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:

The only 2-parter in the Star Trek canon.

Goofs:

Plot holes: Just before their first visit with the injured Capt. Pike, Commodore Mendez asks Kirk if he knows Pike. He then states that Pike was about Kirk's age. However, the plot of the episode is about an incident that happened 13 years before, when Spock was Capt. Pike's science officer. This would make Pike a 21-year-old starship captain.

Quotes:

Vina: [to Pike] You appear to be healthy and intelligent, captain. A prime specimen...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly: Part 1 (#4.18)" (2005)

The original pilot revisited - Part One

It is a well known fact that when Gene Roddenberry first pitched Star Trek to NBC, the original pilot episode, The Cage, was rejected for being "too cerebral". When the series was given another chance, Roddenberry thought it would be fun to establish the events of the rejected episode as canon, and did so by writing The Menagerie, which has the unique distinction of being the sequel to what was still, at the time, an unaired episode.

This time, rather than exploring a new planet, Kirk and his crew are on Starbase 11, paying a visit to the former commander of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike (Sean Kenney), now horribly disfigured and paralyzed because of an accident. Pike joins his successor on the starship, where an unpleasant surprise awaits: Spock, who used to serve under Pike, has effectively hijacked the vessel and set the course for Talos IV, a planet which is off-limits (the punishment is death) since Pike and Spock's last visit there, 13 years earlier. Naturally, being a logical creature, Spock turns himself in and arranges a court-martial so that he can justify his actions.

There's no need to say more about the plot, since the rest will play out in Part 2. What really impresses is how Roddenberry creates the connection between The Cage and the rest of the Star Trek universe, by coming up with a particular type of flashback (to say more would be too much) that allows everyone, on screen and off, to see what could have been of Trek, had NBC not turned down the original project. In particular, it's fun to see Jeffrey Hunter (who was unable to return in The Menagerie) play Pike as a more serious captain than Kirk usually is and Nimoy's early days as Spock, whose personality hadn't been fully established yet: this is the only time in the entire series that everybody's favorite Vulcan spontaneously grins.

In short, not just a great "mystery" episode, but also a treat for those who can't be bothered to track down The Cage in its original form (it's available as part of the Season 3 box set).