TOS - 1.15 - The Menagerie Part I

Whilst I included “The Cage”, the original Star Trek pilot, in this Trekathon, it had been rejected by the network, leading to some reconfiguration of the series and an almost completely different cast, most obviously a new captain. This made it impossible to simply use “The Cage” as a regular episode with production of the first series proving problematic due to lengthy script developments and episodes exceeding their budget. It was actually a very clever idea to therefore re-use material from “The Cage” as flashbacks, reducing the amount of new material needed and to maximise this benefit across two episodes and thus leading to the only two-part story within the Original Series. It is fortunate that one character did survive from “The Cage” into the series proper, allowing the story to tie into Spock’s earlier career on the Enterprise.

I was aware of the background to “The Menagerie”, and was therefore somewhat surprised as to how little material from “The Cage” is actually used within the first episode (the flashbacks don’t start until almost 30 minutes in). Instead, the bulk of the episode concerns Spock’s plan to hi-jack the Enterprise and use it to transport Captain Pike to Talos IV. Spock’s actions in the episode are rather shocking with his lying, faking of orders and especially his fight with a perfectly innocent crewman but it is interesting that Kirk does not regard him as above suspicion for the odd things that are going on. This is in contrast to McCoy, who sees Spock as a much simpler character and is therefore completely wrong in his assessment of what Spock is capable of doing. This leads to a weakness of the two-part format since Spock’s actions at this point do indeed seem somewhat out of character. Yes, we are told about his loyalty to Pike, but nothing that we have seen nothing so far that has justified his actions, especially when Pike himself refuses Spock’s help.

Aside from Spock, Pike is the other linking factor between the new and old material. Pike is here, disfigured and disabled after being exposed to delta rays when rescuing cadets after an accident on a starship. He is now confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak and communicating only via a flashing light. It is a tragic fate for the character, and one that is probably more effective in retrospect given how likable the character was in Discovery (which did of course tie very much into this episode when Pike there saw a vision of this future) given that Jeffrey Hunter’s performance in “The Cage” isn’t really that engaging. Pike is here played by a new actor, Sean Kenney, who has been given some remarkable make-up that is effective in making him look suitably disturbing, as well as convincingly an older version of Hunter.

Spock’s plan involves abandoning Kirk at Starbase 11, although the captain gives chase in a stuttlecraft, accompanied by Cdre Mendez, the commander of the Starbase, making for a somewhat highly ranked crew, especially given Kirk’s high risk strategy to put himself at risk and force Spock to rescue him. This is at least successful in causing Spock to surrender and explain what his doing through a court martial being convened and allowing Spock to start showing “The Cage”, which is a little disconcerting as first as we cut straight from Spock as he has now been established to the shouty and emotional version from the original pilot. The material included here does including a surprising amount from from before the Enterprise actually gets to Talos IV such as the scene between Pike and Dr Boyce in his quarters that does feel very much like padding in this context.

The ending of the episode is surprisingly low key. Yes, the stakes have been raised with the revelation that Spock is receiving the transmissions from Talos IV and with the effect of putting Kirk at risk of execution as well as himself (which does all seem to be something of an exaggeration of the rules relating to contact with the planet as explained earlier in the episode), and there is still the on-going mystery of Spock’s motivations. But it is a bit odd to a modern viewer that there is no big cliff-hanger moment to convince viewers to tune in next time – only a caption slide just to make clear that there is more story to tell.

Planetary Gazetteer

See “The Cage” for details on Talos IV. The Enterprise visited the planet some 13 years prior to “The Menagerie” (and it is the only starship to have done so). Since then, Talos IV is the subject of Starfleet General Order 7 which means that it cannot be visited by any vessel with the death penalty as the punishment, making this the only remaining capital offence. This does seem to something of an over-reaction from Starfleet.

We return to Starbase 11 (as seen in “Court Marial”). The planet on which it is located is still not named.

Starship Spotting

Pike suffered his injuries when conducting an inspection of an old Class J starship that was being used for cadet training.

Kirk uses a Class F shuttlecraft to follow the Enterprise from Starbase 11. In the original episode it is just numbered (it is Starbase Shuttlecraft One), rather than having a name like those used by the Enterprise (although  the CGI model used in the remastered version of the episode is labelled as the Picasso).

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given for the present day events – 3012.4 and 3012.6. There are no Stardates retrospectively added to the flashbacks (the use of Stardates was established after "The Cage").
• Sulu is absent; his position at the helm is again taken by Lt Hansen who returns from “Court Martial”.
• The shortcomings of the production order are apparent with “The Menagerie” following immediately after “Court Martial” given that both featuring scenes on Starbase 11 and both concerning senior Enterprise officers being subject to a court martial. As well as the repetition, this apparently leads to a sudden turnover of staff on Starbase 11 with this now commanded by Cdre José Mendez rather than Cdre Stone as in the earlier episode (although Mendez wears gold rather than the red worn by Stone so it is possible that they could be commanding different parts of the Starbase). 
• Spock served under Pike on the Enterprise for 11 years, 4 months and 5 days. It is confirmed that Pike was Kirk’s immediate predecessor as the captain of the Enterprise.
• There is an utterly random moment when Kirk is introduced to Miss Piper, a crew member on Starbase 11 who knows the captain since they have a mutual friend, Lt Helen Johansson. This exchange and connection seems to have absolutely no relevance to the episode, so the precise point of it is somewhat unclear. The mention of Lt Johansson makes Kirk a little nervous, but it is not exactly surprising that there is yet another woman in his past.
• Pike is now a Fleet Captain, not a rank that we have heard of previously (checking subsequently I see that there is only one other Fleet Captain to appear anywhere within any Star Trek series).
• There is some clever casting with Malachi Throne playing Cdre Mendez. Throne has provided the voice for the Talosian Keeper in “The Cage” which meant that he was conveniently available when new dialogue was required for that character to enable it to repurposed within the context of the new story. The Keeper’s voice is electronically distorted here in order to hide the fact that this is the same actor.