Okay, about now you must be thinking that I've gone nuts.  And, perhaps I have.  For you see, once again, I've played with the boundaries of "Odd Cinema" board statement of 'Things You've Never Seen Before.'   I mean, who has not seen an episode of the Original Star Trek?  It's not as popular as it's hard to avoid.

But, one has to realize the power this show had.  While it's definitely not genre-defining (no matter how many people claim it is), a lot of work did go into it and it shows most of the time.   And it did do it's share of thought-provoking stories ("Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" comes to mind, even in the dismal third season).   So, even in an age where we frown upon men in goofy outfits and bellbottoms, one has to admit that of all the Treks, the Original (yes,  even with Shatner) still is the closest and the best of everything Trek.

All the other stuff?  Well, let's not talk of that.  At all.

My reason for doing "The Menagerie" is twofold:  First, it's the only two-part episode ever done for the Original Series, which isn't all that common for a '60s show.  In "The Wild, Wild West's" run there was only one real two-parter, something called "Night of the Winged Terror."  Second, this episode is a 'bottle show:' a term coined by the original "Outer Limits" makers for an episode they did cheaply so they could control their budget for bigger (and better) shows.  "The Menagerie" is the ultimate bottle show.  For, you see, "The Menagerie" is not a completely new episode.  For everyone who isn't at least an advanced novice in the field, our experiment today borrows a great deal and is a sequel to the original and unaired Star Trek pilot, "The Cage."

Back when I was younger, I bought a copy of "Star Trek Memories," the official (?) biography of Shatner + Ghost Writer telling of the exploits of the show.  While I'm now at this late date curious of some of the content, I am inclined to believe a good part of it or lend some credibility to it.  "The Cage" was the original pilot for Trek and had an entirely different crew, including the Captain.  However, NBC hated the pilot for some reason and told Gene Roddenberry to dump the whole cast except for Leonard Nimoy (Spock, of course) and the guy who played Captain Christopher Pike (whose name escapes me at the moment).  However, Roddenberry ended up letting the man who was Pike go because of a disagreement, supposedly with 'Pike's' model wife, who was extremely picky about how her husband would look on camera.  Hence came Shatner and so on.

However, this pilot was still lying around when Roddenberry was still putting together Trek in it's very first season.  From what "Memories" says, ol' Gene was kicking his own ass to get shit done.  So, instead of putting all this hard work rewriting and rewriting two more episodes, he wisely decided to take "The Cage," give it a more literary name (Menagerie means Cage, by the way), and write about a full episode's worth of material around it.  Hence, the "Menagerie" was born, and all the money wasted on "Cage" saved some time for Roddenberry to do more episodes.  Hence, the ultimate 'bottle show' and a haphazard sequel to "The Cage."

The episode starts with Spock convincing Kirk (if I really have to tell you who plays these roles, you should go back to deepest parts of the rainforest) to land the Enterprise at a certain Starbase because the previous captain, now Fleet Captain Pike, requests so.  But this couldn't have happened:  you see, Pike was caught in an exploding ship and while saving lives was hideously burned and nearly killed.  Now he exists in a wheelchair that keeps him alive artificially, allows him some movement, and only allows him to communicate through a light that tells 'yes' or 'no.'   So how could he communicate to the Enterprise?  Kirk and the Starbase Captain go around on this as Spock expertly doctors up voice commands and hijacks the Enterprise, along with Pike and McCoy (the Doctor of the Enterprise, in case you're ripe in the head).  Supposedly following orders from 'Starbase,' Spock convinces everyone that they are under classified orders to go to Talos IV.  Why?  Well, wait, the answer is coming.

Kirk and the Starbase Commander follow in pursuit in a shuttle craft but the shuttle craft is hardly a match for a Starship.  Not far into the chase, Spock finds that the shuttle is too far to safely retreat.  Defeated, he surrenders himself to McCoy and awaits his trial for mutiny.

The trial can only be held by three commanding officers.  However, the Starbase Commander requests that the Enterprise goes back to the Starbase so they can find a third officer.  Spock, in a curious move, informs both Kirk and the SC that Pike is still a high-ranking officer, due to the fact that the SC didn't have the heart to officially demote him.   So, the trial begins.  And Spock's defense is a bunch of clips from "The Cage," showing a briefer and more interesting version than the current video release has.  And, to be honest, I can see why the NBC guys passed on "Cage."  It's boring as hell.  It's no "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and certainly isn't as interesting.   While an interesting look at how a show was supposed to look at first, it's certainly not entertainment in any way.  Sadly, this is where "Menagerie" fails:  I kept expecting the parts with Kirk and Spock then the misadventures of Talosians and Pike.

Basically, Spock wants to take Pike back to Talos IV because aliens there have supreme mental powers.  These powers create illusions that seem real to whomever they want to.  Back during 'Cage,' Pike was kidnapped by the aliens and held as breeding stock for Vena, a Starship crash survivor.  Vena, of course, tried to whoo Pike with various illusions from the famous Green Orion Dancing Girl to a damsel in distress.  Sadly, Vena was none of these things:  in reality she was hideous and scarred and 'pieced together but (the Talosians) didn't know what a human looked like."  So, at the end of the "Cage," while Pike was let go the Talosians 'gave' her the illusion of what she wanted: Pike.   However, since Pike is now just an active brain in a 'vegetating body,'  Spock wanted to give his old captain the chance to live the rest of his life in some semblance of reality.  Despite the mutiny charge and the fact that Talos IV was quarantined off, due to penalty of death (!).

So, after the Enterprise drops off Pike on Talos IV for the rest of his life (they reuse the footage of Vena being tricked by Talosians for Pike's farewell, ironically), the SC disappears.  Apparently, he was an Talosian illusion as well, the real him still at the Starbase.  The character of Spock is deepened a little bit, the character of Pike is finally ended, and life goes on.  The End.

RATING:  Quite interesting on many levels.  But, excluding the Green Orion Dancing Girl footage, the "Cage" material is lacking.  But the rest of the episode holds up.  Sometimes, I guess executives do know what they are talking about.  Three and a Half Stars out of Four.