Believe it or not, I've never watched the pilot in its entirety. Yes, I've seen "The Menagerie" a bunch of times so I know the story. I've also talked about how that episode is mostly a bore! But I’ve never watched the pilot as it was intended. is it better in its original, unedited form? Let's discuss. And, no. We’re not discussing SNW here.
Plot Synopsis:
Captain Pike, exhausted after a recent disastrous mission, is ready for a break. The Enterprise picks up a distress call from an Earth vessel from the planet Talos IV.
The landing party find survivors including a young girl named Vina. However it turns out that it was all an illusion and the Talosians have tricked the crew to kidnap Pike. The only one who is real is Vina.
After putting Pike through various hallucinations to test Pike compatibility the crew manage to infiltrate the cage and rescue Pike. Turns out the ship crash was real but only Vina survived, but disfigured. The Talosians realize Pike is to aggressive for there needs and Pike allows Vina to stay in her illusion of normalcy as he returns to the ship.
Guest Stars:
Malachi Throne was originally the voice of the keeper but it was changed for “The Menagerie”. I also need to talk about how freaking amazing the always wonderful Susan Oliver is in this. She has a million things to do here from being a slave girl to dealing with old age makeup to dumping exposition and knocks them all out of the park. She was a legend and it’s not hard to see why.
Episode pros
It’s really cool to hear the traditional opening theme, and I swear this version is different than one used for the series proper. Especially loved the cue leading to the closing credits, well done!!
Even though it’s an early version of the character we would know and love. It’s still Spock. And Leonard Nimoy is good as usual. Majel Barrett also rocks as Number One it’s to bad we never learned more about her. Actually all the characters are solid even if I still don’t know the names of the yeoman or the helmsman. Pike and Vina have good chemistry the scenes where Vina is explaining the plot are nice.
In “The Menagerie” the final scene is supposed to be Pike joining Vina. Here, it’s an illusion the Talosians are creating for her using his image. Like it better in The Menagerie, gives both a much happier ending.
Gotta give props to the makeup in the Talosians. It’s not easy to pull off the cliche big brain look but it was well done here. Some stuff does hold up. The Orion slave girl scene is fantastic (love that music) and so much better here than in Menagerie where it’s butchered and talked over. It honestly never made an impact there, here it absolutely did! Also the makeup effect on Vina’s true form at the end holds up.
The story is good just a lot of dialogue and the action doesn’t help much since it’s pointless. It would have been a fine episode, just not a pilot. I admit it’s not as bad now when I was a kid and it was an excruciating slog.
Episode Cons
So yeah, that’s a long hour. it’s not hard to see why this failed as a pilot much like “Encounter at Farpoint” we’re thrown into the action before we have any idea who anyone is! Not even some narration explaining the ship and its mission. Now it’s fine but I imagine in 1966 people would have been confused. Then we get the wonderful scene between Pike and DrBoyce which means nothing because we haven’t known Pike for five minutes yet. Yeah yeah it’s plot setup I get it. Decent acting I admit. By the way the doctor gets a bit to much dialogue, doesn’t this ship have science officers?
The episode grinds to a halt when the Talosians are, torturing? Pike. The flashbacks have action and some nice visuals but I mostly just don’t care. I usually give up around the horse scene. Is it me or can you cut those hallucinations and miss nothing?
Jeffrey Hunter is excellent but Pike is a little too emotional. You could argue that’s part of the story but I miss the more reserved Kirk. Even at the end he seems so annoyed on the Bridge, snapping at everyone. Where’s the friendly banter we’d get later? If this had become Star Trek, would we still be talking about it 60 years later??
And this isn’t fair but some of the “tech” is ridiculous. Paper reports? A clipboard? Come on! And we make fun of the discs the series proper used. And don’t get me started about the comments about women Pike makes. The ship itself feels incomplete, which makes sense it is a pilot. The Bridge is solid but could be a touch bigger with a little softer gray and some red to break it up. You know, like they did for the actual series!
Fast Foward Moment:
Toward the end there’s a bit cut out of “The Menagerie” that has Spock about to take the Enterprise out of orbit and abandon Pike, but he can’t. It’s a stupid moment and even for this episode is out of character for Spock. “ ah well guess I’m in command now!”
Final Thoughts:
NBC was right. Too slow, to boring. It was way too soon for a deep psychological profile of our captain. But the effects, the music, the excellent (if slow) story and characters—the seeds are there that would create a show so iconic we’re still talking about it 60 years later.
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