The Menagerie, Part I

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The Menagerie, Part I)

A perfect example of where constraining the art with budgetary concerns led to the mother of all invention, pushing our characters into a dramatically different situation and adding copious levels of history to an already unfolding saga - they could never have guessed how long it would continue to be added to, but if thirteen years prior to the episode sounds like a long time, just ponder a moment on the fact of fifty years into the future, and the saga is about to continue, having barely been away in any of the fallow periods since. And it all started with this. Well, it all started with the story this episode envelops and uses as its excuse the challenge to finally utilise the unseen original pilot. It was a masterclass in resource management, to give it a dull monicker, but nevertheless demonstrated Roddenberry's genius at… I don't want to say penny-pinching, but certainly taking advantage of every last asset he could (later to be seen in his side business selling off Trek-related merchandise!). No doubt he wanted the first ever episode of Trek to be seen by the public instead lying unused in some vault, never to be admired for its innovations and invention, and most of all, its high quality storytelling. It wouldn't be until the 1980s that it would be shown in its entirety on TV as 'The Cage,' but thanks to this, the first and only two-part episode of Trek (we have it to thank for setting a precedent for the likes of 'Best of Both Worlds,' 'Scorpion,' 'Dark Frontier' and many other 'event' episodes that became a new weapon of power in Trek's storytelling arsenal), we're given much of the episode to enjoy.

What's so great about it is that it made the previous existence of the Enterprise and Spock canon when the series was still live, since 'The Cage' languished in obscurity at this time, and finally gives Roddenberry's desire for the ship to be one with a history, in stark contrast to so much in TV that is about the 'new,' the 'latest,' the experimental vessel, the unknown quantity. It's a different outlook, and again shows that Gene thought very differently to the majority, making him able to devise such a popular and long-lived universe that could still be filled in for decades of TV and film. But it could all have gone so badly wrong because with this episode you're literally comparing Captains and crews of a ship that had become beloved, and if the characters didn't live up to the ones viewers had come to know on the series, they might well be derisory of this 'old footage.' Actually, I wonder if audiences even knew that this hadn't been shot specifically for the episode - they must have marvelled at how different the familiar Enterprise looked: doors no longer red, a far more muted colour palette, long-necked viewers all over the place and darker-hued uniforms with insignia so much smaller than the ones on the series, while the Communicators were so much larger and the Phasers had a completely different design. And Spock, somehow he even looks younger!

The genius of the episode is in Spock's accounting for every variable, as a good Vulcan would (a Sherlock Holmes attribute), and even when things go wrong, with Kirk and Commodore Mendez pursuing in a shuttlecraft (another excuse to use that excellent set, though I wonder what name it had?), then running out of fuel, stranded in deep space, forcing Spock to rescue them (why did it have such low fuel and oxygen reserves? I suspect it wasn't fully powered up, but had been commandeered at short notice to enable swift pursuit). Spock, as in a little way are the viewers, is asked to choose between his Captains, both current and former, but finds a way to be loyal to both: he's given the choice to turn over control of the ship and save Kirk's career, which Mendez uses as a pawn against the Vulcan's conscience, saying that a Captain is responsible for whatever goes on under his command, and so Kirk will be for what Spock is doing - or save Pike's life, doomed to live out his days paralysed in a robotic chair having led an active, fulfilling life as Captain and Fleet Captain. It's great that we are made to feel that choice, too. Do we root for the apparently betrayed Kirk, who stood up for the integrity of his First Officer only to find Spock lied and stole his ship, or do we even care about the, nonetheless terrible, position of Pike, someone we don't even know and have no connection to beyond sympathy for his tragic accident in the midst of heroic self-sacrifice (Spock may have learned something from him there)?

We don't have reason to care about Pike at first, but as the story unfolds and we see how young and full of vitality he was thirteen years before, and how much Spock respects him, and then we see the personal doubts that pop him into three dimensions in one simple scene, we understand what a character he is. It's amazing Roddenberry was able to create two such brilliant Captains (three if you include Picard, though many added his colours after Gene's involvement diminished on 'TNG'), and even more that in one scene between a Doctor and his Captain, we learn so much about him. Despite having watched 'The Cage' only a few months ago, and expecting to zone out when we got to those clips of the story, I was just as enthralled as ever. It could be said that 'The Menagerie' is one of two clips episodes in Trek (the other being the dire 'Shades of Grey' from 'TNG,' another money-saving episode that didn't have the benefit of an extra pilot to fill in the gaps!), and may be almost the only example of that type of episode to be as enjoyable as an ordinary 'new' episode. Out of many series' that have used the technique ('Stargate SG-1' and 'Starsky & Hutch' to name two), only the 'Starsky & Hutch' episode 'Partners' stands out as being enjoyable.

The great thing is that you're not really being asked to divide your loyalties as a viewer, you're being gifted with the living history of this ship. Pike is a shadow of his former self, you don't compare the contemporary Pike with Kirk, but you care about him anyway because Spock evidently does. It's impressive that the characters and visuals of the pilot don't clash in a negative way with the series, probably because they were so expensively done, and so well written that we instantly get these people: the Captain at a crossroads of his life, the Doctor who knows just how to give advice (and may even be my favourite of the three we saw on 'TOS,' as controversial as it sounds - his style and wisdom in just that one scene in the Captain's Quarters alone is strong enough to make him an unforgettable character), Number One, visibly depressed at having to stay on the ship, but doing her duty anyway, and the fresh-faced young crewmembers, full of energy and brightness. That they still seem genuine and interesting, even when placed within an episode that has James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy and an older Spock, shows them as having just as much potential as the newer characters that had become so familiar this deep into the season. It's also rather good fun to realise, probably for the only time in Trek history, that you're watching a Trek episode alongside Trek characters, a novelty that would be very hard to repeat! I love that the filming is noted as being impossible for a ship to record in such detail, to which Spock at first refuses to explain, but eventually it's revealed that the Talosians are sending this transmission.

We don't know much, if anything, about the Talosians in this episode, I don't think they even speak, but you can just tell from their huge craniums and self-satisfied gaze that they would have the power to record such intimate and narratively stimulating scenes beyond the capability of human technology (and things do sound very human-centric - Kirk even says something about there being no problem from aliens at one point, which sounds very odd!). And yet… in just the previous episode we're shown very detailed recordings of the Bridge, including a closeup of Kirk's inputs on his Command Chair! Did they forget about that? Kirk also says tapes can be altered to say anything or nothing, but in 'The Conscience of The King' the identity of Kodos is close to hinging on a voiceprint match. My theory is that, in fact, 'Court Martial' was what inspired this episode - they must have seen they could write and pull off a stagey court episode with recorded clips as evidence and decided to do the exact same thing, only this time it would be for Spock instead of Kirk, and the clips would be from the first pilot instead of new footage. It helped that 'Court Martial' was one of the best episodes produced to that point in the season, and unsurprising that they didn't actually show them back to back as this one does seem slightly derivative of the previous. Or it should do, but because much of the episode is focused on Spock's devious actions to kidnap Pike and take over the Enterprise, whisking it off on a top secret mission (the 'TNG' episodes where Data goes berserk or is undercover, such as 'Brothers' or 'Clues' are powerfully reminiscent: when a straight arrow 'goes bad' and uses all his considerable skill and resource to undermine the chain of command and his friends, it's highly compelling!), the hearing sessions don't take up as much running time as might be expected.

Indeed, the episode is much more about Spock and his tactics to accomplish his goal. Even Pike, the only one who knows all, is vehemently against Spock's actions, though you speculate it's because of his own self-sacrificial nature not wishing the Vulcan to ruin his career and especially his life in taking the trip to Talos IV, the only crime which carries the death penalty! The fallacy of Vulcans being incapable of lying must have been birthed here, with McCoy's heated defence of his usual sparring partner to Kirk. But if logic is the driving force then it must be clear that if it is logical to deceive, then a logical person would lie in that circumstance. I just watched an old 'Babylon 5' episode ('There All The Honour Lies'), which dealt with the same idea: the Minbari don't lie unless it's to save the honour of their clan (a contradiction in terms, to say the least!), and it is this exception to the general rule, or the assumption made by McCoy, that Spock uses to do what he feels he must. And he uses all his faculties to carry out the takeover, whether pushing around the technician in Starbase 11's Computer Operations Centre (probably a reuse of Engineering - he should have just nerve-pinched him right away!), using recorded tapes to create the voices that will give him the authority to take the Enterprise, and calmly, brazenly, taking command, beaming Pike aboard and leaving Kirk behind! Then, to cap it all, when he does allow Kirk and Mendez to catch up, he arrests himself and orders Security to confine him to quarters! But still the ship moves inexorably towards the forbidden destination.

It's nice that they went back to Starbase 11, which we'd seen in the preceding episode, although Commodore Stone has been replaced by Mendez. Perhaps this was because of Stone's inability to see Kirk's innocence and maybe someone higher up in the service felt someone had to take a fall for the whole incident, but it does seem remarkably fast turnaround for a Commodore to be replaced like that. Of course we don't know exactly how much time passed between the episodes, but it can be assumed they returned to the Starbase from being in the general area. I love it whenever they use the limited effects capabilities of the time to produce something beautiful, such as the image of the buildings stretching into the distance, while Starfleet crew wander in front of them, a seamless melding of set and matte painting that shows the ingenuity of the production at the time. Before all the pomp of the hearing aboard the Enterprise, where everyone (except Scotty!), wears dress uniform, we see a badge worn by Starbase personnel, a round gold star or many-petalled flower, but Mendez' and Miss Piper's badges looked slightly different, I thought.

Being a product of the sixties there are of course going to be some inconsistencies with the modern world and the main one would have to be McCoy's admittance of bafflement with the brain, saying that they've learned to tap into any organ of the body except the brain. He would be somewhat proved wrong even in the series' run, when he was able to remove Spock's own brain (in 'Spock's Brain,' funnily enough!), although I suppose you could still state the case that that was a purely physical operation and the Doctor was referring more to the intricacies of the organ. But people locked inside their own minds have been able to communicate for real, and although his comments are pretty accurate that the brain is the last organ to be fully understood, great strides appear to have been made, and are continuing to be discovered in medicine and surgery, so that you'd think by the 23rd Century, should humanity still continue as it is now, the brain would be fully mapped and understood. The huge chair Pike is confined to with his limited vocabulary of two lights for 'no' and one for 'yes,' is also rather anachronistic and limited, even if it does have some coolness about the aesthetics of a matte black finish and steel rimmed buttons. If the distaste of Mendez is common when he says Pike is kept alive mechanically, you wonder why they forced him to keep living if he was naturally going to die, which is one of those typically Trek issues ripe for exploration: at what point should technology be switched off and someone's natural existence be allowed to end, and on the other side, how far can reliance on machines and computers allow us to survive?

Those aren't issues discussed in the episode, and it may have been simply that Christopher Pike was such a legend of his day that they wished to reward him by doing everything possible to keep him alive in his almost vegetative state. For a character that appeared so little in the entirety of Trek onscreen, it's telling how well remembered he is. There's a fascination about who the Captain of the Enterprise was before Kirk (and to some extent who was before him, though Robert April, the first Captain, hasn't actually ever been officially made canon, his only appearance or reference being in non-canon 'The Animated Series'), which has led to Pike going down as this almost mythical figure, only enhanced by his self-doubt in 'The Cage,' and the last appearance he made, in 'The Menagerie, Part II.' But he had enough of a reputation that the Kelvin Timeline films chose to incorporate the man into 'Star Trek XI' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' and while that was a different universe, with a much older, more confident Pike, it was a delightful return for such a great character, and arguably Bruce Greenwood was the best actor in those films, and a tragedy that they killed him off, his presence greatly missed in 'Beyond.' Setting the next Trek series in the Pike era suggests that we'll almost certainly see more of him in 'Discovery,' and if we do I only hope whoever they find to play the role will be able to live up to the fine performances of the tragically short-lived Jeffrey Hunter, and Bruce Greenwood, and not just a stunt to use the name for brand recognition… I should also say that Sean Kenney as the paralysed Pike also made his mark in the role, somehow evoking the emotion of the man even though his face had to be in constant, mask-like stillness.

It wasn't kept a secret that this would be a two-parter, as the 'Part I' was visible in the opening title, but the ending, with Kirk standing in the empty hearing room aboard the Enterprise, as the closing titles begin, was hauntingly effective as he wonders what will become of Spock, himself and all of them. The words 'To be concluded next week' come up and the first cliffhanger was born. If Spock, Kirk and McCoy are forced to share air time with the previous cast of the series, we also see Uhura and Scotty in evidence, both doing their usual duties, with Uhura on the Bridge and Scotty operating the Transporter. No sign of Sulu, who's replaced by Hansen, when it would have been completely normal for Sulu to have answered Spock and been at the Helm station, so I wonder why they didn't include him. Once again it shows they didn't consider anyone part of the main cast except for the main three names. I would have thought Scotty would have the expertise to counteract Spock's computer control, but the Vulcan always had an impression of deep knowledge of ship's systems (as in 'The Wrath of Khan' where he saves the ship). Oddly, this would have been a good reason to write Scott out of the episode as had been done in some of the recent ones, or even show him trapped on the Starbase with Kirk, Spock acknowledging his skill by making sure he wasn't aboard to interfere, just as he tricks McCoy into boarding so Pike will have the best care possible on the journey.

They don't shy away from showing Spock's more emotional outlook in the records of the Talos mission, when his raised voice in scenes on the Bridge or his grin at the singing plants on the planet could have been edited out to be more in keeping with the Spock we know. Except, from reviewing the first half season of episodes I discovered that he's actually not as unemotional as I'd remembered, with many an outburst or overreaction, contrasted even more by the moments when he's completely cool under pressure, and at odds with his crew mates' animosity towards him for lack of empathy. We don't even see Spock reacting in disgust at his own behaviour, but then that would be counterintuitive and I expect he logically accepted his past as a learning experience he'd moved on from. There does seem some discrepancy in time, however, as he says the events we witness took place thirteen years ago, and he served with Pike for eleven years. So how long has he been under Kirk and was there another commanding officer between Pike and Kirk? Or did he transfer, or take a leave of absence? He and Kirk do appear to be fairly comfortable with each other when we first see them, so it could be the five year mission had already been running a good couple of years when we first see it, which would mean that far from missing the last couple of years, we actually missed the first two!

Mr. Leslie can only be seen in the corridor during Spock's announcement, though it could be one of the other Leslie's as he's wearing gold instead of the usual red, and I think it might even have been stock footage from an earlier episode. I liked hearing of 'Operations' on the Starbase as it's the first we hear of Ops, something that would be so integral to 'DS9' and 'Voyager.' The portable disc reader with its incorporated viewer is becoming quite common now that I've recognised it a few times - here, there's one sat on the computer bank at Starbase 11's operations centre where Spock is fiddling with the voice commands. His zip is visible again: when he's on the Enterprise Bridge leaning over his console, though I would have thought they would have become hidden by this stage! And you could be forgiven for thinking the guy at the back of the Landing Party beaming down to Talos IV in the flashbacks was a MACO, for the huge backpack he had to carry, except we learnt from 'Beyond' that the organisation had disbanded long ago. It's surprising that this is as good an episode as it is, even when you know 'The Cage,' and in a way it might be improved by its place within another episode because it legitimises it even more and confirms the visual look of Starfleet a good few years before what we're witnessing. The 'envelope' idea was sterling, and they didn't lay back and fob us off with a substandard excuse for playing old clips, even if they were new to the audience, but put the very friendship of Kirk and Spock into question, the most honest, upright, dedicated officer apparently going rogue: history, mystery and mastery, all in one package. A great combination!

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