The Menagerie: TOS Season 1 Episode 11 & 12

Plot Synopsis

This is certainly an interesting episode, the original pilot "the cage" was only shown to the television executives. They wanted to repackage that episode and deliver it to the public, so they combined it with another story and made it a two-parter. According to the wikipedia page, with all of their special effects they were having trouble getting things done on time, so this not only kept them from wasting the footage of the original pilot, but it also gave them some breathing room.

We start the episode with the enterprise coming to a starbase, which is apparently an unscheduled visit. Kirk insists that they were called there and the guy in charge of the starbase insists that it didn't happen. Kirk says the only possibility is that Spock lies, which is impossible since he's Vulcan. Of course, he's half human, but that part of him is repressed so it still seems impossible. We soon find out that indeed Spock is behind all of this as he sneaks around and uses recordings of various voices to take control of the Enterprise.

The reasons for doing this are not immediately clear, but we do know that it has something to do with Captain Pike and the forbidden planet Talos 4. Breaking the quarantine is the only thing left that still holds the death penalty. Captain Pike was seriously injured in an accident, he was saving children from a fire, or building collapse, or...something, I forget. The point is, he helped a bunch of people but got really hurt in the process. He is confined to a wheelchair and can only communicate through beeps (one for yes, two for no) but his mind works perfectly.

Shortly after Spock has taken the Enterprise and is en route to Talos 4, Kirk figures out what is going on and follows in a shuttle, he won't be able to catch up, but once he runs out of fuel and is stuck Spock goes back to pick him up and submits for a court marshal. But he has the computer set to autopilot to go to Talos 4, and he somehow tied the engines in with life-support so it can't be canceled. We proceed with the trial in which Spock shows evidence which basically consists of showing The Cage interspersed with scenes of the trial. 

The rest of it was pretty much the same except for the ending. In the Cage, when they let the Enterprise crew go and the girl stayed, a copy of Pike was left there for her to love. In this episode, they seemed to just let the Enterprise crew go and she stayed there, apparently alone. Then they cut back to the ship and Pike was sent down the the planet to be with the Talosians who could give him the illusion of having a body, and effectively escape the confines of his broken body. Then they cut to the same scene with Pike and the girl. I like this ending much better, as the illusion of Pike staying behind always made me a bit uncomfortable.

Characters

Spock: This may or may not be the first time we've seen this, but they talked about how Vulcan's can't lie and therefore Spock shouldn't be able to, but he might be able to break this as he's half human. (Episodes 4 and 5 mentioned that he was half human, but I don't think it has mentioned that Vulcans can't lie yet)

Enterprise: Again, not exactly a character, but learning things about the ship sort of fits in the same category. We learn that the events of The Cage happened 13 years ago, but the opening credits say the ship is on a 5 year mission. I never really thought about it before, but I guess the ship had been around longer in the past, and it is just embarking on this particular 5 year mission recently. I had always assumed that the 5 year mission started when the Enterprise was first built, apparently not.

Rating

8/10

Intense Debate Comments

I've decided to remove intense debate and go back to the default blogger comments. Of course, ID holds your comment threads hostage so you will stay with it, but luckily I don't have too many. I have taken screenshots and edited them into the bottom of their posts so they won't be lost.

Mudd's Women: TOS Season 1 Episode 6

Plot Synopsis

This episode starts with the enterprise chasing an unknown ship. It wasn't responding to any transmissions and tried to get away. It fled into the asteroid belt of whatever solar system it was in at the time, with so many asteroids in one place one eventually hit and destroyed the ship, the enterprise crew had trouble beaming them out in time and even used up most of their lithium crystals to do it. Two things here, why lithium instead of dilithium? I'm curious to see if this is something they later change and say that the ships were always powered by dilithium, or if the switch from lithium to dilithium is an upgrade at some point. Second, asteroid belts don't work that way! They might be close together on a map of the solar system, but they are really far apart at the scale of a starship.

Anyway, they beam off the people on the ship, who were Mudd and 3 beautiful women. The women had a very strong effect on all of the men on the ship, they want these women and can be very easily manipulated. We knew something was up pretty quick when Mudd quietly told the women to make sure they wouldn't get a medical scan, but the stopped himself and just said that it was sure not to happen, the expectations was that even if it comes up, they would have no trouble distracting the doctor and convincing him not to do it.

The crew really wants to find out what is up, and they interrogate Mudd and find out who he is. With the use of a lie detector they find out he is a criminal and keep him confined to his quarters, the women however are permitted to wander around. No problem, the girls should be able to take over the ship in no time, the problem is the one who was supposed to take control of Kirk couldn't go through with it. But Mudd is a resourceful man, he found out that the ship was heading to a mining planet to get some replacement crystals. He made contact on his own and told them about the women that they could potentially have for wives. This will make a quick acquisition of new lithium crystals difficult.

So they barely get to the planet, they even have to put themselves in a decaying orbit, it was the best they could do. They have a limited amount of time, and although Kirk tries to be tough, he really had no choice but to let the girls and Mudd go down to the planet to be with the miners. But in the meantime we have learned what is up with the girl's beauty. It turns out that they have been taking some illegal drug that makes them beautiful, and I guess gives them power over men (unless the power is simply a direct result of their beauty, I wasn't clear on that).

On the planet one of the girls (the same one that didn't want to betray Kirk) wasn't interested in the miners anymore, and didn't take her drug. She became plain looking and then the beauty drugs are revealed to the man she was meant to marry. He was pissed about it, but before he can say much the woman says he's not really looking for a wife, but for "this" and she grabs the drug and takes it. She becomes beautiful quickly. The miner complains that she is only beautiful because of the drug, and Kirk reveals that he had replaced the drug with a placebo. She's beautiful again be she has confidence, it was in her the whole time. Can I vomit now? Anyway, the two of them are happy and the enterprise gets its crystals.

Characters

McCoy and Spock: I've been talking about their interaction a bunch lately. In the past I have said that they seem to hate each other. At the end of this episode they snipe at each other a little bit but it seems to be more in fun than previously. Perhaps the actors are hitting a stride.

Enterprise: While not exactly a character, it is a fact about the ship so I figured I'd put it here. We learn in this episode that the enterprise runs on lithium crystals as I mentioned above.

Rating:

5/10

I thought this episode was only okay, I was debating between a 5 and 6. The asteroid thing and the annoying ending with the "it was just your confidence" pushes it down to a 5 for me. What do you think?