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

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Robert Butler

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

24 November 1966 (Season 1, Episode 12)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Spock's court martial views the video stream from Talos IV of Captain Pike's imprisonment 13 years earlier and the Enterprise's attempts to rescue him...

Plot Keywords:

Second Part | Federation | Space | Starship | Computer

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	...	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

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 original pilot 'The Cage' was directed by Robert Butler and the new framework story by Marc Daniels. Since Part 1 consists mostly of framework and Part 2 is primarily made up out of 'The Cage', Daniels received directing credits for the first part and Butler for the second. The same applies to the crew listed during the end credits: part 1 lists the regular series crew, part 2 those of the pilot.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Lt. Hansen calls down to Mendez at the court martial when the Enterprise arrives at Talos IV by calling for "Commander". However, Mendez's rank is "Commodore", two rank levels above "Commander".

Quotes:

Vina: Let me... please you.
Captain Christopher Pike: Yes, yes, you can please me. You can tell me about them.

Movie Connections:

Features "Star Trek: The Cage (#1.0)" (1966)

Kirk Observes his Predecessor in Action - part two

This continues the plot of part one, with most of the episode consisting of Spock, Kirk, commodore Mendez and the crippled Pike (played by another actor, not Jeff Hunter) seated in a conference room watching movies of one of Pike's past missions. This may sound quite boring, but viewers had the opportunity to see how two separate suspenseful plots would conclude - the one with Pike in the past and the one with Kirk and Spock. This doubled impact was especially true if a viewer had never seen the original pilot "The Cage." Footage from "The Cage" dominated this second part, consisting of about 70% of this episode (whereas this was the case for the wraparound portion in the first part).

There was at least one unexplained delay during the showing of these space home movies as the 3rd act ended, as the images stopped being transmitted. This allowed the script to throw in some more jeopardy as Spock was found officially guilty by the 3 ranking officers as they waited for the show to continue. Yep, things still looked pretty grim at this point: Spock still seemed to have betrayed his current captain - Kirk - and faced a death penalty (I do wonder how it was done in the 23rd century - death by phasers? That would probably be painless). But, to Roddenberry's credit, he managed to throw in a little whammy towards the end of his wraparound tale which probably surprised the audience and made complete sense in view of what kind of aliens Pike had faced during his past mission. I think Kirk forgave Spock a bit too quickly as the episode ended and all the 'death penalty' threats evaporated too easily, but Pike's final scene and final fate here is about as good as science fiction gets.