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Star Trek - The Original Series: The Cage (Pilot) [VHS]

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Be advised, there are two versions of this video available, and this is not the one to buy. Paramount released this under the assumption that the only extant print of the original pilot was in black and white, and they combined it with the color footage used in The Menagerie. A few years later, a color print surfaced and was released. For some reason, Paramount continues to market them both. Amazon has the full-color version available, its ASIN is B000003K1B. Also, the black and white/color version is Volume 1 of the original video series; and the full color is Volume 99. So to get the most out of the amazing dancing green babe, buy the color one!

I've bought this video from Amazon, and I can tell you it's great! It's the un-aired, pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series", with an introduction and conclusion by creator Gene Goddemberry. This episode was the one that was created to show how the product was, but it seems that the company didn't liked it (don't be surprised, Superman was rejected at the beginning too) and the episode was never aired on TV. During the episode, it switches from Black and White to Color and vice-versa several times, and so we can contrast how the episode was originally from Gene Goddemberry and a more appropriate version of the episode. The plot: The Enterprise has found some survivors of a previous crash of another starship, and comes to the rescue. But it was just an illusion created by some ultra-intelligent aliens who wanted to make tests on the captain, and some others things I won't tell you so I don't spoil the fun... Just don't think that this episode can be dull just for being old, it's a great episode. However, they could have switched from B&W to Colors less times and make the ending a little better, but anyway, it's a great episode. If you're a Star Trek fan, you just can't miss this one... END

Those who are expecting the usual Kirk, Spock, and McCoy will be strangely surprised by this pilot episode for classic Star Trek.

Featuring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, this episode really began what was to become the phenomenon of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry asked the networks if they wanted a "Wagon Train to the Stars". When he got the go-ahead from NBC, he made this episode to show execs what he had to offer. It's almost a wonder that a second pilot ever got made. Gene was not afraid of taking chances - he had a woman as second in command ("Number One") and a multi-ethnic crew far before the term "politically correct" ever was even heard of. NBC execs wanted Gene to get rid of the female second in command and "do something about those ears", and Gene responded with the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Star Trek, to my knowledge, is the only show that has ever been granted a second chance like that.

This episode is worth watching. Gene filmed both an introduction to the episode and an epilogue after the episode that really add to your understanding of what makes this episode stand out. Some people say Jeffrey Hunter was kind of wooden, but I enjoyed his sense of wonder, as was evidenced by the very short scene on the planet where he discovers the "singing plants". Spock is completely out of what was to become his character - he even shouts "The Women!" when the Talosians only allow the two females from the Enterprise to beam down to Pike's location. And Dr Piper has a few things in common with McCoy - he even deals out the occasional medical martini. Some of these characters will undergo further development later.

But it's the story that stands out. Although by SF standards, the "Adam and Eve" plot is trite and overused, the fresher spin on it provided by the Talosians with their great mental powers allow it to not be as stale. Their ability to make people believe their fantasies are real really make the show. Anyone who isn't a little turned on by the Green Orion Slave girl dance is brain dead. And there's even some back story to characters we will never see again with Pike's horse and his memories of another battle on another world.

This episode will eventually be cut up and reused in the only classic Trek two-parter, "Menagerie", but I'd recommend this VHS and DVD not only to classic Trek lovers (who will =have= to have it to complete their collections) but to general SF fans - it's fun to see where a classic show actually begins.

Paramount misplaced the original color negative of this pilot, and had to combine color footage that was used in the two-part ST episode The Menagerie with the remaining footage in a 16mm black and white work print of The Cage. Wouldn't you know, shortly after that patchwork b&w/color version was released, they found a complete 35mm color print, and put it out on home video. By all means look for the all color version.

The only way to view this video is with your mind firmly locked into the historical context. When Gene Roddenberry first proposed the Star Trek series to network executives, the American television viewers were in the midst of their love affair with the western. Therefore, he described the proposed series as "wagon train to the stars." However, that is not what he gave them, and there were some objections, so a second pilot was requested.
The idea of a woman second in command was immediately rejected and while the crew of the pilot was not as integrated as the later ones, there are people of other races shown on the ship. The acting was not well done, Spock is smiling and emotional, there are some bad gender clichés and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike is beset with self-doubts. Therefore, William Shatner, cast as a more swashbuckling Captain Kirk, replaced him.
Nevertheless, from this episode, it is possible to see how the Star Trek idea could spawn a series of major films and three subsequent very successful and long-running television series. For Star Trek has always been about the exploration of human ideas.
Fresh from a mission where the Enterprise suffered casualties, Captain Christopher Pike is facing intense self-doubts and is talking about resigning. The Enterprise encounters a distress signal from a scientific ship that has suffered severe damage and then a follow up message that there were survivors marooned on a planet that could support life.
The Enterprise goes to the planet and apparently finds survivors. However, it is all an illusion created by the inhabitants of the planet so that they could capture Captain Pike. Countless years before, a war had devastated the surface of the planet and the inhabitants of the planet want Captain Pike to be paired with the lone survivor of the crash, a female, so that they could repopulate the surface. Captain Pike rebels at being a specimen and eventually is released. Some parts of this pilot were incorporated into the two-part episode "The Menagerie" of the original series. The parts that were used in the episode are in color and the remaining segments are in black and white.
In this episode, we see matter transporters for the first time, the swooshing sounds of the doors of the Enterprise, an alien regular member of a ships crew, intelligent interactions with a different species and a spaceship that appears to function without a lot of meaningless flashing lights. The dialogue isn't quite up to Star Trek standards, but it is pretty good when you consider the historical context.
The number of network television firsts that took place on Star Trek is most impressive. From the first swear word, to blacks in positions of authority to the first inter-racial kiss, Star Trek set new and generally higher standards for what would appear on commercial American television. It all started with this series pilot, so it is also a piece of history, the first in a series of dynamic stories about humanity reaching for new worlds to explore, but not necessarily conquer.

This first episode of Star Trek (which didn't air) was the best. It was grander than an episode, it was more epic, with special effects and sets far surpassing the quality of the original series. Jeffery Hunter had a powerful screen presence and it is somewhat regrettable that he didn't continue to act in the series (but that would have meant no Shatner and we wouldn't want that). The story is excellent, very captivating. A look at what could have been if the pilot had sold.

For "Star Trek" fans, this tape is - or at least, should be - required viewing, because this, my friends, is where it all started. Back in 1965, when he was trying to switch his focus from Westerns such as "Have Gun, Will Travel" to science fiction, Gene Roddenberry created his vision of a multiracial, sexually equal, peaceful future world, in which humanity took its rightful place out in the universe, with this rarely seen pilot, which was rejected by NBC for having been "too cerebral" - i.e., not violent enough. The starship Enterprise has an unfamiliar crew - a captain played by Jeffrey Hunter, and a mysterious and beautiful woman, known only as Number One, whose icy calm and mysterious presence predates the super-competent heroines of today (Scully, Xena, Buffy, etc.) by 30 years - but thankfully, Leonard Nimoy's immortal Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock, is on board, although his jarringly emotional line readings seem bizarre to Trekkers who admire his later lack of visible passion. Talos IV is a war-ravaged planet, visited by the Enterprise crew, which is the home to telepathically powerful, but physically frail creatures, who wish to repopulate their shattered society by capturing Hunter's Captain Chris Pike (less stirring than William Shatner's James Kirk, but sympathetic and effective) and forcing him to mate with Vina, an orphan girl played by Susan Oliver; incredibly realistic illusions are employed as weapons against the spaceship's crew, but of course, you know who's going to win the contest, in the end. You can see how the show was evolving - energy weapons are referred to as "lasers" and the Enterprise uses "time warps" to get across vast space distances; perhaps most unusual for 1965 was not the use of aliens or persons of color, but the appointment of a woman to the second-in-command shot, something that made the network nervous back then - although "Deep Space Nine" would later put Major Kira in a similar role, it was just too far-reaching for Roddenberry to do so in the sexist Sixties. Check this show out; it's got action, humor, beautiful women, cool aliens, and of course, it's the first voyage of the starship Enterprise - what more do you need to know?

Until 1964, "TV science fiction" meant kiddie fare--Captain Video, ray guns and bug-eyed monsters. Then along came Gene Roddenberry and his "'Wagon Train' to the stars", a quirky little series proposal called STAR TREK.

Not the "Star Trek" you know, mind you. This "pilot" episode (a test film designed to sell a series) may take place on a recognizable starship "Enterprise" and feature an embryonic version of Spock, but there the similarity ends. Captain Christopher Pike (played stiffly by Jeffrey Hunter) heeds an eighteen-year-old distress call coming from the planet Talos IV, where he finds a crude camp of aging, ragged survivors--and one beautiful young woman. He discovers too late that it is all a ruse, an illusion generated by the large-skulled Talosians. Pike finds himself a prisoner in a sort of interplanetary zoo, where the Talosians intend to breed him with the lovely young woman, Vina. While trying desperately to escape, he discovers the sad truth about the Talosian race--and Vina herself.

This first effort failed to sell the series, of course, and in retrospect it's not hard to see why. Leonard Nimoy had not yet found his character--he shouts his lines and on at least one occasion (heaven forbid) smiles. Jeffrey Hunter appears to sleepwalk through his part at times, while overemoting in others. However, John Hoyt, as the original chief medical officer Phillip Boyce, foreshadows many of the later character traits of Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Roddenberry, in the introduction, tries to tell us that Majel Barrett as "Number One" did not go over well because people were unused to seeing a female in a position of responsibility, but it is more likely they just did not like Barrett herself. She comes across as wooden and lacking in personality.

Still, "The Cage" shows great promise--the story itself is on a par with many of the later series episodes, and is in fact superior to some. The effects, though crude by today's standards, were astounding for 1964 (the pilot cost close to an unheard-of $500,000, and it shows). It was good enough to impress NBC executives--although they rejected the proposed story as "too cerebral", they encouraged Roddenberry to try again, with a different cast and more action. The result was the successful second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before"--and a legend was born.

The viewer may be annoyed by the constant shifts from black and white to color (the missing color footage was found and restored years after this video went on the market--the rest was used in "The Menagerie") but it's worth the trouble to see how the most successful franchise in television history began.

Oddly enough, the idea that a network would order a second pilot for a failed series proposal is not as unusual as you may believe. The same year "The Cage" was filmed, rival CBS ordered yet another failed pilot remade with a mostly-new cast. Maybe you've heard of it--"Gilligan's Island." Oh well, you win some, you lose some...

Gene Roddenberry introduces this 48 minute pilot episode and explains that it consists of a combination of color footage dubbed from the two-part TV episode entitled "The Menagerie," plus b&w footage, which he said was all that remained of the original pilot. Perhaps in the quarter-century since, that entire show, which NBC execs REJECTED, has been reconstructed in full color (not sure on that).

Roddenberry's 1964 sales pitch of "Wagon Train to the Stars" fell like an anvil on buyers who expected all mindless action and were instead given a fairly cerebral, philosophical initial offering. Fortunately for us, despite NBc's dissatisfaction a second pilot was ordered, but with certain cast changes. Majel Barrett (Mrs. Roddenberry) was sacked as first officer ("Number One"), and replaced by Science Officer Spock (whom Roddenberry refused to part with). Barrett would resurface once the series was safely established, as Nurse Chapel.

Yeoman Rand (the troubled Grace Lee Whitney) took over for Yeoman Colt (Laurel Goodwin). Dr. Boyce (John Hoyt) was relieved by a younger 'Bones' McCoy (DeForrest Kelly) and of course, Capt. Pike's command chair got taken over by James Kirk (Bill Shatner). Other new crew members (soon to be famiiiar faces) were Sulu (George Takei) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Engineer Scott and Ensign Chekov were not yet in this retooled show.

Those familiar with "The Menagerie" will note that the Tallosians had more male-sounding voices in the Hunter pilot. With intercutting between b&w and color footage the main alien's voice keeps changing pitch. Also here is something that always confused me in "The Menagerie."

In the two-parter, it's revealed to Capt. Pike that the lone crash survivor, Vina is in reality terribly disfigured, which is why she freely chooses to stay with the Tallosians. Pike asks that her beauty be restored, then comes the baffling answer "She will be given that... and more." We never see what the "more" is. In "Menagerie," quadriplegic Pike is beamed to the surface where, now physically whole, he's reunited with the lovely Vina; they supposedly live happily ever after with the Tallosians. In the original pilot however, "...and more" means the aliens create for Vina an illusory Pike and the real captain returns to his ship.

It's a good ending.

Too bad Jeff Hunter didn't stay with the show in some capacity. For one, he probably wouldn't have died from after-effects of a film set explosion. Also, he had an undeniable dignity and was sure handsome as anything!

It's not often you get to own television history of what was to become a Star Trek phenom. Reading the back of the box "Airdate:Never shown on TV!" in red ink is something! Many people make comparisons between Pike and Kirk. Everyone says it's the acting of William Shatner vs. Jeffrey Hunter with Hunter's Pike seeming to think too much vs. Shatner's Kirk being more energetic. Shatner replaced Hunter so Kirk was written to be more energetic, have more fight scenes, being the womanizing captain in nearly every episode. Personally I think Jeffrey Hunter was cuter than Shatner was. There are two things prophetic about the Cage. Telosian illusion is comparable to Holodecks in Star Trek The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine which is interesting because no one could've predicted Star Trek would sell later until it did, and the scene where Captian Pike is forced to relive a battle and getting knocked down by that really tall warrior in bad need of an Orthodontist going after Vina, Jeff Hunter passed away because of a fall five years later. This tape is from someone's collection and I'm amazed how well it was taken care of with only it's bottom edges slightly worn. Sure could use some lessons from them on proper tape cover care even with a case. The late Gene Roddenberry does a little background information in the beginning to explain some things. He seemed so nice. What I've always found amusing about The Cage when I've seen it in the Menagerie is near the end when the Keeper's voice suddenly lowers and slows. Or...is it just a Telosian illusion.