The Menagerie: Part II (24 Nov. 1966)

At Spock's court martial, he explains himself with mysterious footage about when Capt. Pike was kidnapped by powerful illusion casting aliens.

Director:

Robert Butler

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry (creator)

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Jeffrey Hunter

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
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 José Mendez
Majel Barrett	...	Number One (archive footage) (as M. Leigh Hudec)
Peter Duryea	...	Lt. José Tyler (archive footage)
John Hoyt	...	Dr. Boyce (archive footage)
Laurel Goodwin	...	Yeoman J.M. Colt (archive footage)
Adam Roarke	...	C.P.O. Garrison (archive footage)
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy (credit only)
James Doohan	...	Scott (credit only)
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura (voice)
Sean Kenney	...	Injured Pike
Hagan Beggs	...	Lt. Hansen

Storyline

Spock's court-martial board views the video stream from Talos IV of Captain Pike's imprisonment 13 years earlier and of the Enterprise's attempts to rescue him. The Talosians, using their powers of mind-reading and illusion, place Pike in worlds from both his memory and his imagination. The one constant is Vina, the beautiful blonde survivor of a crashed Earth ship (the other half of a Talosian plan for a captive Adam and Eve). Number One's attempts to liberate Pike result in her and Yeoman Colt's capture (additional breeding stock for the Talosian plan), but when the humans and Talosians learn more of each other, the situation takes a turn neither side expects. As the Enterprise approaches Talos IV once again, Kirk and the court watch the past unfold and learn the real reason for Spock's mutiny.

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Plot Keywords:

second part | 23rd century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 November 1966 (USA)

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Just as the Talosians have Capt. Pike re-enact his experiences on Rigel VII, there is the following situation: We (the TV viewers) are watching the court-martial (via TV) on the Enterprise; the court is watching the Talosians of 13 years before via their view-screen; and the Talosians are watching Capt. Pike relive his visit to Rigel VII via their view-screen.

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Goofs

When the Enterprise approaches Talos IV we see a close-up of Lt. Hansen sitting at the helm. In the next wide shot of the bridge Lt. Hadley occupies his place.

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Quotes

Dr. Boyce: It was a perfect illusion. They had us seeing just want we wanted to see - human beings who'd survived with dignity and bravery, everything entirely logical, right down to the building of the camp, the tattered clothing, everything. Now, let's be sure we understand the danger of this: The inhabitants of this planet can read our minds; they can create illusions out of a person's own thoughts, memories and experiences, even out of a person's own desires - illusions just as real and solid as this ...

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Connections

Referenced in South Park: 4th Grade (2000)

User Reviews

The original pilot revisited - Part Two

When NBC turned down the original Star Trek pilot The Cage, which still had Leonard Nimoy but starred Jeffrey Hunter instead of William Shatner, many people assumed that episode was gone forever. They were wrong: not only can it be seen on the Season 3 DVD, it was actually incorporated into two other episodes of the series, as part of Gene Roddenberry's attempt to acknowledge the episode's existence on-screen. The merger comes to a head in the second part of The Menagerie, arguably one of the best Star Trek episodes, or at least as far as the first season is concerned.

Picking up from the end of Part One, Spock's court-martial continues, and the officers judging him (including Kirk) are offered a visual testimony of what happened 13 years earlier, when Pike was imprisoned on Talos IV, the now forbidden planet Spock is trying to bring him back to. As the images, which are revealed to be mental projections coming from the Talosians themselves, progress and the truth about Pike's harrowing experience is revealed, Spock's motive becomes clearer and the mystery gets closer to its rather surprising conclusion.

The main interest of the episode lies in the fact that it features very little of the regular cast: about 70% of the footage is archive material from The Cage, featuring Jeffrey Hunter as Pike and Leonard Nimoy as a more "human" Spock (yes, you read that correctly). This extended flashback is a clever trick used by Gene Roddenberry to tie his two visions of Star Trek together, uniting what could have been with what actually came to be. Remarkably, from what can be seen here, the "first draft" turned out to be every bit as riveting as the final version, except for the absence of one James T. Kirk.

As a standalone mystery story, The Menagerie holds up beautifully. It's the heartfelt inclusion of the previously unaired footage, however, that lends it that extra emotional punch. In fact, it's a bit of a shame Captain Pike wasn't brought back in some other form when Roddenberry rewrote the pilot script: it would have been fun to see the character interact properly with Kirk.