Writer: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Robert Butler
Producer: Gene Roddenberry
The original Star Trek series debuted fifty years ago this September, on NBC. I've been a huge fan of the show since around first or second grade, and while Deep Space Nine is undoubtably my favourite, the original incarnation has always come a close second. I've started watching the original series with my wife, who has seen many of the episodes on television reruns before, but never made a point of going through the series. We're going in production order, so we started with the original unaired pilot of the series, "The Cage".
I've written Star Trek reviews before, but they were more like short capsule reviews of a series at a time. This time I thought I'd try to go more into depth with each episode.
"The Cage" is definitely prototype Star Trek. In the 52 years since it was produced, it still ranks as one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking installments of the franchise, but it also feels weird in places. It's "the road not taken", similar enough to Star Trek as a whole, but different enough from the series that followed that it feels like it could be an episode from a different TV show.
If you watch this right after the 1956 feature film Forbidden Planet you'll immediately see the resemblance and the inspiration from that feature, to the point where this could almost be a spin-off. If you're familiar with the original series, this pilot is a bit bizarre, but undoubtably fascinating.
The whole cast is different, except Leonard Nimoy as a very young seeming Spock. And even Spock is different, shouting orders and even smiling at one point. The doctor character is like a prototype McCoy, but much older, and the other characters are sort of recognizable prototypes as well -- the yeoman who has sexual tension with the captain, the cocky young helmsman.
But the Captain and First Officer characters are totally different. Jeffrey Hunter plays Captain Christopher Pike as a much more internalized, doubt-ridden, introspective character than Captain Kirk would be. The character arc of the episode is largely an examination of his depression. Faced with the burden of command, he wishes for an escape from responsibilty, and gets his wish when captured by a race of telepathic aliens who keep placing him in illusionary fantasies for experimental purposes. The episode ultimately comes to state that hardship and difficulties, and overcoming them, are what make us human -- to ignore that means to ignore life and have a kind of living death. When I watch the episode, I can't help but think of the hardcore gaming generation, and the escape from reality into fantasy. It's amazing how much the episode still has to say about the human condition half a century later.
"Number One", who never gets a proper name, is an intelligent, analytical woman played by Gene Roddenberrry's mistress at the time, Majel Barrett. A woman second-in-command of a starship in 1964, she represents a fascinating lost opportunity. What would it have been like if Star Trek had gone to series with a character like that? She's enigmatic in the episode, clearly extremely competent, and never undermined except in a few moments by the Captain or the aliens. But never by anyone junior to her in the command structure.
The production value is very high - it's an extremely well produced episode, in many places looking better than the series itself. The overall look of the show is darker, more sedated, perhaps more "realistic" than the pop art colorful nature of the eventual series. The costumes, sets, and props have a more expensive feel than the show -- even if the design elements feel a bit more dated, like a 1950s idea of the future more than a 1960s one.
"The Cage" does have its problems. As intelligent as its script is, the network was perhaps right in judging it too "cerebral". Its very slow paced at times, often building up tension and suspense only to suddenly drop it for long, sluggish dialogue scenes. Its moments of genuine excitement are too few and far between. And because the episode focuses so intently on Pike, it's hard to get a read on the other characters and an idea of what they'd be like on a weekly basis. Heck, because the episode gives Pike an arc where for most of the episode he no longer wants to be a ship's captain, only deciding at the end of the show that it is indeed the life for him, it's hard to get a read on what the series' lead would have been like week to week! It's an impressive and thought provoking production, but it's a bad pilot.
Which is why it was rejected. NBC didn't like it -- didn't like Jeff Hunter, didn't like Roddenberry's mistress in a lead role, didn't like the lack of action. But they still liked Star Trek, and in an unprecedented move, asked for Roddenberry and the crew at Desilu to try again. This time with William Shatner in the lead, and many other overhauls in cast, look, and concept. The rest was history.
But "The Cage" remains an irresistable "what-if" for the franchise, and must-see viewing for any diehard Trekkie.
Rating: 3.5 out of 4
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