The Cage 

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

Director:

Robert Butler

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (created by), Gene Roddenberry

Stars:

Jeffrey Hunter, Susan Oliver, Leonard Nimoy

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Captain Christopher Pike
Susan Oliver	...	Vina
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
Majel Barrett	...	Number One (as M. Leigh Hudec)
John Hoyt	...	Dr. Phillip Boyce
Peter Duryea	...	Lt. José Tyler
Laurel Goodwin	...	Yeoman J.M. Colt

Storyline

This is the pilot to the series that would star William Shatner. Only in this version there is different Captain, Christopher Pike, and with the exception of Mr. Spock, an entirely different crew. Now it begins when the Enterprise receives what appears to be a distress message. But when they get to the planet where the message was sent from, they discover that the supposed survivors were nothing more than illusions created by the inhabitants of the planet, for the purpose of capturing a mate for the one genuine surviving human, and Captain Pike is the lucky winner. While Captain Pike tries to cope with the experiments and tests that the aliens are conducting on him, his crew tries to find a way to rescue him. But the aliens' illusions are too powerful and deceptive (at first).

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Plot Keywords:

illusion | torture | picnic | man horse relationship | rider horse relationship | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Paramount Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 November 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Cage

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$630,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to William Shatner's book "Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) Memories", Lloyd Bridges was approached to play Captain Pike, but refused because he didn't feel like taking part in an outer-space series.

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Goofs

The Enterprisereceives a radio transmission from the SS Columbia, making a forced landing in the Talos star group. Captain Pike decides not to investigate until a follow-up message only a few minutes later indicates that there are crash survivors. But later events establish that only one person survived, far to badly injured to have sent any message at that time. Thus the second message was false, but could not have been sent so quickly after the first message.

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Quotes

Vina: When dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating. You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit, living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought record.

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Alternate Versions

Aside from the alternate versions released on video, the version currently airing on cable TV is edited down to the sixty minute format for the syndication market (47 minutes without commercials).

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Connections

Referenced in The Captains (2011)

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Soundtracks

Star Trek Theme (Original TV Series Version)
(uncredited)

User Reviews

history in the making

Just think...if Jeffrey Hunter had wound up playing the Captain in Star Trek, he might be alive today. Hunter died in 1969 from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, probably caused by an explosion that imploded instead during a film he was working on in Europe. Interesting thought.

The Cage was the most expensive pilot in NBC history to that point. Though the Star Trek idea had its supporters, the network couldn't see past its nose to pick up the series. They did, however, agree to a second pilot with some changed elements - like a woman who was second in command. The reasons why Hunter did not do the next pilot have been debated. A friend of Hunter's stated that Hunter's wife, Dusty, thought science fiction was low class and didn't want him involved in the show. And, according to Shatner's book, she also made unreasonable demands of the producers.

It's worth remembering that back in the '60s, science fiction, space movies, etc., did not have the "A" status that they do today. B movies only became A movies after Star Wars.

The Cage is a not only very good but touching, and of course, it's fascinating to see "Star Trek" before it became a cult classic. The story concerns a planet that exists basically on Mind Control, and the inhabitants in charge capture Pike in the hope that he can help replenish their race with an earth woman who is there as a result of a ship crashing. Susan Oliver is the woman.

During the run of the series, in order to recoup some of the costs of this fabulously expensive pilot, it was incorporated into a two-part episode, with another actor playing the now near-vegetative Captain Pike.

I love seeing films such as this that were done before all the special effect technology became available, because they were done in such innovative and imaginative ways. The Cage is worth a look to see the genesis of a show that became part of our culture.