A Guest Blog by Mindless-Droid

This week we go back to the beginning of Star Trek with The Cage or actually before the beginning. The Cage was the original pilot episode that the network rejected. This week I thought I would take a look at the actual episode and next week discuss its amazing history.

After a dangerous mission on Rigel VII the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike is on its way to the Vega colony to recover when it picks up a distress call from an Earth vessel The SS Columbia that disappeared eighteen years ago. Without proof of survivors Pike decides to ignore the call but a second message indicating survivors changes his mind. On arrival at Talos IV Pike leads a landing party to the surface and discovers the survivor’s camp but it is an illusion placed in the crew’s minds by the native Talosians and Pike is captured and taken underground. As the Enterprise crew tries to figure out a way to rescue their captain Pike learns that he is a specimen in a cage which he may never escape.

A quick little observation if you notice the details several crewman have bandages from the ships encounter on Rigel VII which sets up the discussion between Pike and Boyce. I like how they set up the relationship between Pike and Dr. Boyce. You get a sense that they have served together awhile and that they are good friends. It was also a great way to show Pike’s concern for his crew and how the weight of command falls on him this would be important later in the episode. A nice bit of foreshadowing and when Boyce talks about two kinds of customers the living and the dying it is a nice parallel to the Human civilization and the Talosians. Their discussion also has some nice foreshadowing.

I always liked Number One her character is very interesting and the first in a long line of Roddenberry’s forward thinking and optimistic vision of the future. Arriving at Talos IV we get our first look at the transporter room and a beam down. The idea of beaming down to a planet was actually a cost cutting device it was much cheaper and easier to create the transporter effect then to land the ship on a new planet each week. There is a slight mistake when Tyler talks about the time barrier being broken if faster than light travel was only just discovered then there would be no way the Columbia could have gotten this deep into space but that’s what recons are for and it really is a minor mistake given the time the episode was produced.

The first look at the Talosians and the eerie music surrounding them really pushes home the idea of an alien culture. The makeup and effects of the Talosians was really well done from their large heads indicating superior mental abilities to their pulsating veins as they used that mental ability really made them alien but not over the top monster of the week alien.

The laser guns were a nice prop and precursor to the hand phaser. The laser canon tied to the ships power was a prop I wish we would have seen again in the series. I like the eerie music as Pike observes the other aliens in the Talosians menagerie.

The briefing on the Enterprise is another good way they showed how powerful the Talosians mental powers could be it set the table for what was to come. The next scene is the first complex illusion the Talosian force on Pike and you get an idea of their real motivation. Vina is the only constant on the planet and the only survivor that wasn’t an illusion. The Talosians were forced underground due to war centuries ago and in the confined space focused on developing their mental abilities but at the cost of everything else. It is the Talosians goal to breed a stock of humans as basically slaves to serve their civilization as they have become too dependent on their illusions and have forgotten the basics of living as Vina explains they can’t even maintain the machines left by their ancestors.

A quick aside Susan Oliver who portrayed Vina was an accomplished pilot in real life with quite an impressive resume. The matte painting of the Rigel VII castle with the large moon behind it is quite impressive and would be seen a lot during the run of the series in the closing credits. During the fight sequence I like how Pike fights the illusion trying to maintain his reality. Those Talosians sure are creepy. I like the contrast between Pike and Vina Pike resisting the lure of illusion and Vina who has succumbed to it. When the laser canon fails Boyce is right about the Talosians making it appear that it failed but would that mean one or more Talosians would have to concentrated constantly to maintain the illusion.

The scene as Vina explains the Talosians history is quite interesting but it gives Pike confirmation of his suspicions. The one thing I don’t get if Vina is real how the Talosians make her disappear in that scene and previously on the surface. I’d have made the vial with the nourishment turn into shrimp and steak but it shows Pike’s determination not to give in to illusion. Next Pike is taken home to Earth as he discussed with Boyce in his cabin earlier by the Talosians and the lure of living an illusion with Vina becomes harder to resist. It’s also one of the only times we see Star Trek era earth in the series.

Pike resists and suspects that emotion of hate and anger block the Talosians mental abilities but as Vina explains it is hard to keep up and that the Talosians wear you down with punishment and temptation as Pike now whisked away to Orion where Vina is now the infamous Orion slave girl and I know that song will be stuck in my head for a couple of days now. Pike has resisted every illusion so the Talosians aware of the Enterprise beaming down a rescue party fool the crew in to only beaming down Number One and the Captains Yeomen so Pike has a selection. Through it all though Pike is shown to be determined to escape.

Back on the Enterprise Spock determines that all is lost and attempts to leave but the Talosian prevent them from doing so. Spock even orders rockets to be used to escape another out of place reference but understandable given it was the pilot.

Pike’s determination pays off and he along with Vina and the others escape to the surface but it is what the Talosians wanted. Pike shows his devotion to his crew as he volunteers to stay as long as the ship is safe. The Talosians having scanned the Enterprise’s memory banks realize that the human need for freedom makes them unsuitable for their needs and frees them. Pike offer diplomatic solution but the Keeper says that humans would learn the Talosians power of illusion and destroy themselves too. Vina decides that she will stay and to prove that her desire is an honest one the Keeper show Pike her true appearance. She was badly injured and deformed to the point of great discomfort in the crash as the Talosians didn’t know how to put her “back together” and the Talosians gave her an illusion of beauty. As Pike prepares to leave the Talosians show him that Vina has the illusion of happiness with him.

I really like this episode. I can understand why the network at the time turned this down as it was something other than what science fiction had become at the time. It was much more then just the monster of the week. The pilot was truly a ground breaking moment even though it was at first rejected it opened the door for the actual series. The Talosians were very interesting aliens and in the end not as evil as you thought they were. I liked this crew of the Enterprise and it’s interesting to think what the series would have been like had the network approve this pilot. Since there are no red shirts in this episode none were harmed actually no one was harmed except the warrior on Rigel VII. Next week a look at the history of Star Trek’s beginnings.

A Guest Blog by Mindless-Droid

This week’s classic Star Trek episode is Turnabout Intruder. It is the last episode of season three and the last episode of the original series. The Enterprise answers a distress call from a scientific expedition on Camus II. Upon arriving the landing party finds only three survivors. One of which is Dr. Janus Lester an old flame of Kirk’s who despises Kirk for her inability to achieve command of a starship. Leaving Kirk alone with Lester the others leave to see to an additional survivor. While alone Lester who is not injured traps Kirk in an alien machine that can transfer the life essence of an individual from one body to another. Lester uses the machine to switch bodies with Kirk and take his place as Captain of the Enterprise.

Although Lester knows the ins and outs of a starship captains duties her hate for Kirk and her insanity prevent her from pulling off the ruse. After Spock becomes suspicious of Lester in Kirk’s body he goes to Kirk in Lester’s body and using the Vulcan mind meld learns the truth. After Spock tries to free Kirk/Lester a court martial is ordered by Lester/Kirk. After hearing Spock’s story and seeing Lester/Kirk’s irrational behavior the crew refuses to obey her orders and she loses control of the mind transference briefly. Dr. Coleman Lester’s accomplice says that the only way for the transference to remain permanent is for Kirk/Lester to die. During the struggle in which Coleman and Lester/Kirk try to kill Kirk/Lester the transference weakens and is eventually reversed.

I really like the re-mastered planet shot. Camus II now has rings like Saturn. Other than that this is really a forgettable episode. The part of the episode that just makes it bad is the statement by Lester that “Your world of starship captains doesn’t admit women” something that goes against what Star Trek’s vision of the future embodied. I guess one thing you could say is that Shatner’s performance as Lester trapped in his body had that campy sci-fi feel but that doesn’t even make the episode watchable. At least no red shirts were harmed in the final episode. It is too bad the series was canceled before its time and didn’t get a proper ending. Just like another great sci-fi animated series did recently. At least they made up for the lack of a nice ending with Star Trek VI.

With this being the last episode of the original series I can’t help but to wonder what could have been. Star Trek was ground breaking. It wasn’t just another monster of the week sci-fi show. Had the network gotten behind the series and given it another season or two had they not played musical chairs with its time slot and had they given them the resources to make the show the best it could be the future of Star trek could have been much different. Unfortunately we’ll never know. The third season had its flaws but we wouldn’t have even gotten that had it not been for a fan letter writing campaign that saved Star Trek for another year.

I wonder what the people who made the decision to cancel the show thought back in the early seventies as syndication kicked in and Star Trek grew and grew instead of fading away.

One additional thing concerning the post cancelation pre movie era. I would like to recommend a book called Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series. It covers the time in the seventies where Star Trek was going to be brought back to TV but eventually morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The book explains how a new network was to be formed with Star Trek as its flagship. It goes on to tell the story of the proposed series and how it eventually became the film. There is concept art interestingly enough some even done by Star Wars icon Ralph McQuarrie, the show’s writers bible first drafts of In Thy Image which would become the movie and scripts of the first proposed thirteen episodes several of which were adapted and used in The Next Generation.

A Guest Blog by Mindless-Droid

This week’s classic Star trek episode is All Our Yesterdays. The Enterprise heads to a planet whose star will go nova in three hours and finds everyone gone except the librarian of the planet. The library happens to be a time machine and Kirk hearing cries for help inadvertently steps through the time machine into the past. Spock and McCoy attempting to find the captain are also accidentally sent back to a different point in time. As time runs out they must each find a way back before the sun explodes trapping them in the planets past forever.

Most people’s reviews I read like this episode but I for one find it filled with illogic to coin a phrase. First off I’m not one for time travel in the Trek universe. Okay City is great but The Naked Time should have been linked to Tomorrow is Yesterday because after that episode we are in a three day earlier alternate time line and I can forgive the non-chalet way we slingshot around the sun to save the whales because well colorful metaphors, newclearar wessels (spell check had no suggestions for that one) and it was just plain fun. We won’t mention Assignment: Earth.

Now seriously how did the Enterprise find out that the star would go nova and in three hours no less? Who told them? I’m no expert in stellar physics but even in the Trek universe would it be possible to predict to the second when a star would go nova. Anyway their scans show everyone is gone so they beam down anyway. After finding out there is nobody left why not just move on it would seem that the Sarpeidions got out of dodge. A quick side note one thing that this series always had was really cool planet and star system names. Let’s say that they found the planets inhabitants still there what would they have done anyway with only the Enterprise how many people could they have saved? We’re here to rescue your planet but we can only take a couple hundred people the whole mission makes no sense.

Next we meet the librarian. A librarian named Mr. Atoz get it A to Z and we go round and round asking questions getting vague answers so that the hero’s don’t know it’s a time travel library. Another thing that bugged me the Sarpeidions can manipulate time but didn’t have space flight capability seems a bit odd. Back to Mr. Atoz first he doesn’t recognize an alien in Spock and if everyone had left why was he still there if he sent the last person off why not just pop in his disk and be gone it’s not like he had to lock the place up or anything it would be vaporized in a couple of hours.

So Kirk hears a scream and steps through the time portal Spock and McCoy follow him through and get transported to a different place without changing the disc but later we see Atoz change the disc before he can escape. Then Kirk can talk to Spock and McCoy through the time portal through the library through the time portal into the other past what?

Spock has now figured out that the Sarpeidions have escaped into the planet’s past which brings up a whole new set of questions. In The City on the Edge of Forever McCoy’s one simple act changed all of history now you have an entire planets population mucking around in the past. You would think the library would be blinking in and out of existence. With so many people you would think someone would accidentally alter the timeline somewhere along the line. What if some person escaped into the past and accidentally stops the person who discovers time travel from discovering the secret and all of a sudden the whole planet reappears in the present. I could hear the collective “Ah crap” from the entire population.

This episode was the Spock gets the girl episode. Being transported 5000 years in the past Spock takes on the characteristics of the Vulcans of that time without logic he falls for Zarabeth who they meet and who has been imprisoned in the past. This is another point that I didn’t like if the Atavachron prepares you to enter the time you choose and Spock wasn’t prepared for that time period wouldn’t he stay as he was? Also his phaser won’t work because of the time period but the tri-corder does. Kirk trapped in the Salem witch trial period of the planets past had some good moments. When the locals heard him calling out to Spock and McCoy Kirk called McCoy Bones that was pretty funny just like Catspaw when the skeleton was hanging next to McCoy and he called him Bones.

So Kirk convinces the prosecutor to take him to the portal and he returns to the library and forces Mr. Atoz to help him find the period into which Spock and McCoy have been sent. They find the right disc just as Spock and McCoy reach the portal nice coincidence. At first Spock tries to push McCoy through and remain with Zarabeth but he can’t get back alone because they had come through together why that is who knows. So after a tearful goodbye Spock and McCoy return to the library. Mr. Atoz switches discs and makes his escape into the past. Spock assures McCoy that all is as it was and with time ticking down why are they standing around kibitzing get back to the ship time is running out and Scotty is having a cow. Anyway McCoy says to Spock that it did happen meaning Spock’s emotional behavior. Spock admits it but says that she Zarabeth is dead, dead and buried. Okay here’s another thing she was banished alone in the past who buried her. Well they make it back to the ship just in time as the star explodes and the Enterprise warps away.

A couple of bits of trivia. The re-mastered shot of Beta Niobe exploding is pretty cool and the effects were based upon actual photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. No red shirts were harmed in this episode actually no other crew member is seen in this episode although we do hear Scotty on the communicator. This was the last adventure of the Enterprise according to the Star date even though it aired before the episode Turnabout Intruder.