Review The Cage (1966)

[Doctor Omega]

Your thoughts and views on this, the first ever episode of Star Trek....

Capt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions.

On to the next episode....

WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/where-no-man-has-gone-before-episode-2.3559/

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

It really is a great story, and would have made for a very different program. Unfortunately, that show most likely wouldn't have made it on TV at that time, so it's probably for the best that it didn't make it to series. For once, the studio heads were right, if for the wrong reasons. The show was too cerebral, and not action driven enough for audiences in the sixties. I would have loved to have seen what the show might have been, and maybe someday we'll see that story done properly (although, honestly, I'm sick to death of prequels in the STAR TREK franchise).

 

[Doctor Omega]

There was a limited comic run with this crew.....

 

[Gavin]

One of my favourite Star Trek novels was The Rift by Peter David, which presented what was effectively a 2 part story of an encounter with an alien species on the other side of a rift in space that opens every 33 years. The first encounter was with Pike and his crew and 33 years later Kirk and co visited. It definitely made me interested in seeing/reading more about Pike's Enterprise adventures.

 

[michaellevenson]

I've got to say I agree that the powers that be were right to ditch this. Spock isn't the great character we know him to be.
I rarely indeed watch this, The two parter, The Menagerie is how the events on Talos IV are best remembered.

 

[Doctor Omega]

 

[johnnybear]

Star Trek was one of the greatest television series of all time! In fact everyone has been trying to imitate it for the last fifty years including it's spin-offs TNG,DS9,VOY and ENT (I'm not sure what Discovery is trying to do but it ain't proper Trek) without the same effect or feeling! The original series had great effects, great stories as well as an eerie feeling in most of the shows! Who could forget The Bumheads on Talos IV in The Menagerie, or The Gorn in Arena, or The Salt Vampire of The Man Trap as well as The Romulans and The Klingons as returning foes in the series! The special effects were updated a while back and although some of the planets do look better, the ships do not! I still prefer the show as it was made back in 66-69!
JB

 

[Doctor Omega]

Yes, I hate the way that they have zoomed in on those episodes to get a widescreen effect, while losing the top and bottom of the picture. Just dumb. And I too am quite content with the old effects. Some of the c.g.i. work seems a bit self-consciously superior, but in fact will probably date more than the original work in a few years.

 

[Doctor Omega]

STAR TREK 1.1 & 1.2 VHS Intros

Re-released in 1996-97 on videocassette, three episodes per tape, each volume contained an exclusive introduction by James Doohan & George Takei (Walter Koenig joining them for Seasons 2-3). Stories appeared in production order with 'The Cage', 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', 'The Corbomite Maneuver', 'Mudd's Women', 'The Enemy Within' and 'The Man Trap' being discussed here.

 

[johnnybear]

I had taped the shows off the TV to varying effect so in the early 2000s I discovered twenty odd tapes from the original releases in a sci-fi shop in Bedford and after a while I eventually got the lot! But I don't think I'd have liked the commentary at the beginning of the episode to be honest. I prefer that as an extra on a set which can be ignored if needed!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Very entertaining though I must admit, Doc!
JB

 

[Doctor Omega]

They could have livened it up with a bit of honesty though, JB...

DOOHAN: (Smiling.) The next episode is the first one where I had to work with that scene-stealing b******, William Shatner! Or Shitner, as we preferred to call him.

 

[johnnybear]

Shitner? Shitner? That's too much!!! I thought that Doohan and Shatner got on okay to start with anyway as seen in some of their mistakes tapes from the sixties might have implied!
JB

 

[Doctor Omega]

Agreed, JB. For all Shatner's faults, I think he nailed the truth when he said that the supporting cast began to retroactively delude themselves that the original show was planned as an ensemble cast, a la TNG. Not helped - as he pointed out - by the adoration at conventions. I think it particularly went to Takei's head, with his pushing for a CAPTAIN SULU series, even though I think he is actually fairly limited as an actor. (Nick Meyer dragged greatness out of him for a few seconds in UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, but I thought he was awful in the FLASHBACK episode of VOYAGER, with what I saw as his faults on view.)

So yes, I think the dislike of Shatner was perhaps always there, but hidden behind forced jollity, hence the seemingly good times on the mistake tapes, but that whatever resentments their were got magnified out of all proportion when TREK became a phenomenon and the cast suddenly felt cheated.

In her book, BEYOND UHURA, Nichelle quoted (roughly) this....

SHATNER: Well, we all laughed and joked....

NICHELLE: No, Bill! You laughed and joked. And everybody else just went along....


Walter - at least - had the honesty to admit to him that they, the cast, were partially responsible for all the misery, because not one of them had ever dared confront him, due to fear of getting discreetly chucked off the show.

Walter wryly says in his book that the consequences from the fear of power are perhaps sometimes worse than actually just confronting the power itself, because he will now never know if Shatner would have backed down or not in his selfish behaviour.

 

[johnnybear]

Shatner may have been right though in his theory that he was the star back then! In the sixties and seventies you had many a series where there was one lead or maybe two or three but any of the rest of the team were just there for enhancing the look rather than any credible input! Later on of course the team show took off and the single lead actor became a thing of the past but it wouldn't have worked back then!
JB

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

I have no doubt that Shatner was, indeed, hired on as the star. However, I find his attitude towards others during the time to be self-indulgent. The aforementioned moments where he pulled rank to get more attention drawn to him because of his jealousy of Nimoy's popularity, his insistence that he do the Uhura kiss, etc. I know, it was a different era of television, but still, he isn't innocent.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Oh yes. I think Robin Curtis summed it up fairly well, where on STAR TREK III, she said he gave off an attitude to all of the supporting cast, including herself that "I am up here - and you are down there".

Many people have spoken of his taking over of the direction of episodes - and always to his advantage. Even in his last scene in STAR TREK VI, where Gorkon's daughter was the focus of the scene. He held up the whole production until Nick Meyer refocused the scene, so that he was the central character.

Selfish to the last.

But I do think that he became - to a degree - a scapegoat for the supporting cast's own failings and limited talents.

Why blame themselves for a faltering career, when they could blame Shatner?

But yeah, clearly a charming man - until you work with him.

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

But I do think that he became - to a degree - a scapegoat for the supporting cast's own failings and limited talents.

Why blame themselves for a faltering career, when they could blame Shatner?

For some, I don't know if it was failings or limited talents, so much as a combination of typecasting and racism (limited parts for Asians and Blacks outside of stereotypical roles, at the time, and even today). Nimoy was a great actor, and had rave reviews for his stage work. But in the minds of viewers, he was Spock. Nichols has done some other non-genre work, but was there anyone who saw her acting range over her portrayal of Uhura?

Walter, on the other hand, never was a strong actor, and proved that he is a much better writer. He was hired on to ST for his looks anyway. And as we said, he has admitted that the cast put a little too much blame on Shat for their troubles. But even saying that, Shat took too much control over the show and did have an overbloated ego. So no, he can't be faulted for their own careers, but he can be faulted for being difficult to work with.

 

[Doctor Omega]

I think Jimmy Doohan had a particularly terrible time of it.

That must have been terrible, to go from being a versatile voice man, constantly in demand, to - as he put it - people at the casting office saying "Hi Scotty!" the moment he walked in.

Shatner has since claimed that he actually suggested Doohan for the role of the engineer, having known him in Canada years before.

Which would mean that Doohan spent years hating the guy who helped get him the job in the first place.

Bit of an ironic tweak to the saga.

If true.......



28:15 for Shatner's claim......

 

[Doctor Omega]

Harlan Ellison told of how Shatner went out of his way to befriend him.

"I fell for it" said Ellison.

Shatner had actually heard that Ellison was writing a first class script and wanted to be the first one to read it.

Ellison, charmed by the Shat, invited Bill round to read the script of CITY as soon as he had finished it. Shatner read it over and over again, quietly in Harlan's house. Then said it was brilliant. And left.

Turns out he had been line counting and - seeing Leonard had maybe one or two more lines than himself - immediately went to the producers and said that there needed to be changes or Bill might have - ahem - some problem performing in it.

Ellison remained angry at Shatner for the rest of his life.

All from Ellison's huge, sprawling foreword in this scriptbook. He takes no prisoners. Even Joan Collins gets it! Hardly surprising when she wrote in her biography that "I played a social worker who was in love with Hitler".

Rodenberry is the main focus of Harlan's ire. And from all I have read, deservedly so.