November 6, 2025 • 51 mins
Today, we go way back to the 1960s. Women are entering the workforce, the civil rights movement is going strong, and America is ramping up for the famous “Space Race”. First, Jason and Rosie are recapping the very first episode of Star Trek “The Cage,” then they discuss the themes of this episode, and finally, they discuss the unaired pilot episode shot in 1964.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning, today's episode contain spoilers for the original the historical
pilot of Star Trek the original series titled The Cage. Hello,
(00:26):
and name is Jason and I'm roseay Night, and welcome
back to Xtravision of the podcast where we dive deep.
It's your favorite shows, movies and pop culture coming in
from my heart, where we'll bring you three episodes a week,
plus news on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode, beat me up, Scotty or not, because
Scotty is not in.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
This episode and that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today we are revisiting the first episode of the Star
Trek the original series, called The Cage. Now there is
no Kirk here. This is Captain Pike. So come with
us as we kickstart our trek through Trek. You can
think of this as our own episode two because if
you enough of you listen and the feedback is good,
we will be back with more Trek in the new year.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And of course, Star Trek is a landmark sci fi
property in only three seasons, which is kind of like
mind boggling to think about, Like the original show only
ran three seasons, even the fact that it was made
after this up ordered pilot that we're going to talk
about right, then cut up and used for the actual
on air pilot. This pilot was received and kind of
(01:32):
disastrous fashion, although it is quite good and you could
see a lot of the strands that became the vibe
of Original Trek here. Just the fact that it got
made and made such an impact in its only three
season run means that it's simply one of the most
important sci fi properties ever, and we're delighted to be
(01:54):
talking about it. I mean, it's like a show that
I think I've talked about this a lot. When I
was like in middle school and started getting really into
staying up late, especially on summertime, and on the weekends,
they would play Star Trek on the local TV station
back to back with Get Smart, so it'd be like
(02:15):
two episodes of Get Smart, which is which was a
thirty and then an episode of Star Trek and then
two episodes of Star Trek or something like that. So
it'd be like from nine to ten it was like
Get Smart, and then ten to midnight it would be
Star Trek. And that's how I watched all of the
original Star Trek, just like in weird orders and just
(02:37):
like it, and it was so fun and I was
absolutely delighted by it and became like a big part
of my just like every night experience when I was
that age. How did you first get into try?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I actually loved that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That was your experience because England had a very similar
version of it, which was basically you would have five
thirty PM Neighbors, six pm Simpsons obviously the best, then
six point thirty you'd hope it was Fresh Prince of
bel Air, but if it wasn't, then it was usually
Star Trek and that would run for like a solid
(03:15):
three hours. So I saw all different versions of Star Trek.
I saw the original series, I saw Voyager. I saw
a really terrifying episode of Deep Space night and about
nightmares that came to life that had me up for
like a week, And yeah, I just I think this
is such an interesting show. I'm so happy we're able
to finally start digging into it because this was always
our dream. Was like, if we're going to cover Star Trek,
(03:36):
we're just gonna do it from the beginning, like there's
no way that we're doing like choppy kind of bits
and bobs, and people have always wanted us.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
To cover it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So yeah, I'm really excited to cover it, and basically
this is the rundown of the episode. Solid recap because
this episode is crazy, really long. It's a wild breaks
basically every rule of pilot writing, which I love. Then
we're going to talk about the themes, which here are
very much like leadership, women in the workplace, surveillance, propaganda. Also,
(04:07):
those themes die into why the show didn't necessarily get
made in this form too, so we will talk a
little bit about the history and the production of the pilot,
as well as how this led to the original Real
Star Wars pilot. Depending on which version you watched when
you were a kid, that will either be The Man
(04:27):
Trap or Where No Man Has Gone Before, which were
the two episodes which aired out of order as pilots.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And Yeah, it's gonna be great. We're gonna dig in.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So this is track through Trek now a quick production
note which I'm very happy to say because I love
holiday season. So this holiday season we are going to
be sharing some shorter stocking.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Stuff for episodes with you.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
With so many great shows and movies coming out this
next few months, the episodes will help us cover some
extra content, including books and comics that we wouldn't necessarily
be able to get onto our normal episodes, so stay
tuned for these stucking stuff is starting the week of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The first three cap all Right Star Trek the original
series series one the Cage. We open in Space the
Final Frontier, although, as we will discuss later in our
little factoid section, we don't get the iconic Space the
Final Frontier narration from our Captain Kirk because it is
not Captain Kirk as Captain Pike. We're on the bridge
(05:24):
of the starship Enterprise, though Captain Chris Pike and his crew,
including Science Officer Spock, receive a warning of an incoming signal.
It's a very old distress signal, like the old type,
and apparently there was a ship like eighteen years ago,
the SS Columbia, that was lost out here, and so
they're thinking, oh, this is it. Pike is like, well,
(05:47):
guess what. We're not going to check it out, though.
We have to go to Vega, and unless there are
survivors down there, or any evidence that there could be survivors,
we're not going to go because it was a long
time ago. Were gonna deal with a.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Crash right now.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Kind of a persnickety like no from Christopher Pike, who
then goes to his quarters and you discover why Captain
Chris Pike is in such a busy mood. It's because
they had just been through a battle on Rigel for
and lost people. And doctor Haskins comes in to Christopher
(06:23):
Pike's quarters, and it's very clear right away that doctor
Haskins is an older guy and Pike are like it's
like a mentor mentee or just like a shoulder to
like lean on kind of relationship with doctor Haskins. He
comes in with his little doctor case, opens it up
and starts making a martini for the cat, which is
which festival I shouldn't have but that's okay, shouldn't happen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But also so Star Trek coded like so much of
what is interesting about this episode is though it is
very introverted and kind of way more serious.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It does establish a lot of the kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Like groovy things that would go on to kind of
cement Star Trek storytelling, whether that's romance, whether it's unexpected drinking,
whether it is kind of the mundanity and brutality of
war combined with kind of the craziness of a sci
fi adventure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
A lot of it is here, and it is.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, it's very interesting that this is where Roddenberry chose
to start.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Let's be real, way ahead of its time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
This is like a fifth season kind of version of
Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, that's very, very true. So Pike is like, he's
feeling really bad about the fact that they lost people
on Rigel and the stress of command is wearing on him.
He's really beaten down by the whole thing, and he's like,
you know, I'm thinking about hanging it up. I'm thinking
about hanging up the cowboy hat, the spurs, the whole thing.
(07:52):
I'm feeling washed. I don't want to do this anymore.
And then Doc is like Doc, who is clearly kind
of like his therapist as well as medical doctors, like
why don't you just I don't know about that, Like
what drink your martini? And then like let's sit on that,
don't make any rash judgments. Then Spot calls with news
guess what, cap there are survivors. We just we got
(08:13):
another message from this distress signal and there are survivors.
So Pike is like, fine, we'll head to Tallows. Pike
is like a high strung guy. He's on the bridge
a Yeoman comes in with the orders that he himself
told her to bring at five am, and he's like,
why are you here, guy, I talk you interrupt me
(08:34):
on the fucking bridge and and she's like, I'm just
bringing you the reports that you told me to bring
it this very time. And he's like, all right, sorry
about that, Yeoman, but I'm just not used to a
woman on the bridge. I don't think there should be
women on the bridge. And then he looks over and
he's like, oh, yeah, my second in command number one
is a woman.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
There's a Woman's like, but not you, number one of
you know.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know what I mean, you're acceptable. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Also this is Michelle Barrett Rodin Brie, who is Jean
Rodenbree's wife and who would go on to play many
different characters of in Star Trek where Rodin Breed kind
of write her in, but this was obviously meant to
be a huge role for her. And as you will,
we will get into Pike was not the only one
(09:20):
upset to see a woman on the bridge.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Pike gets the science support and basically this planet is Earth, like,
they can land. They don't need any other you know,
breathing helmets or anything like that. So Pike is like, Okay,
it's gonna be me. Spock and four other Red Shirts
were going down there. Number One, you're in command, although
(09:45):
he the implication is kind of that he doesn't think
number one it would be safe for her to go
down there, and maybe she couldn't handle it, but he
also puts her in charge, you know, without a second thought.
So it's it's a quite complex kind of view of
Christopher Pike. They go down there. It's a rocky planet,
(10:07):
very desert like. Pike and Spok are like intrigue. They're
these little blue leaves that amid a sort of frequency
that we just never go back to that but it's
very mysteriously. Chrisms very interested in it. And after looking
around for a while, they find the survivors camp and
the survivor of the Columbia. They're all old as shit.
(10:29):
They're like, you know, they look like eighteen sixties prospectors,
you know, their hair all wild, giving.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
More looks in the time machine like that, like cavemen.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So they're like, what's going on with Earth? And Pike
and Spok are like Earth is great, just like you
left it there are new technologies now where we can
like fly here faster than light. So there's a lot
of cool stuff, but you know, we'll get you out
of here. So they are preparing to remove the survivors
to the ship when they meet Vienna, who apparently was
(11:06):
a child when the Columbia crashed, and so now she's
like this beautiful blonde, nineteen or twenty year old woman,
and Pike is immediately like thrown that there's this hottie
like out here on tallows. Meanwhile, somewhere else, a group
of bald, veiny headed aliens or like watching this whole
(11:27):
scene unfold in their cave, and the leader makes some
sort of signal we can't hear them speak and we'll
figure out why soon to his two like lieutenants, and
they head off. Pike is packing helping pack stuff up
so they can all go back to the Enterprise, and
they're almost ready to go, and Vena's like, hey, I
can't help, but noticing you're a man of prime breeding stock,
(11:48):
He's like it's like what, and then she goes like,
I think it's time to show you our secret and
he's like okay, And meanwhile the doc is noticing that
the survivors, despite their bedraggled look are like very healthy,
almost too healthy. He's looking like good.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, looking great, Like what's gotten shilling down that for
a long time? Are you really survivors or are you
members of this strange society?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The leader of the of the bedraggled Columbia survivors then
is like, well, that's because of some kind of secret
that you're not ready for, which is what. It's like what?
And then that guy, the leader of the survivors, tells Viena, Hey, Vena,
go take Captain Pike somewhere private to show him the secret.
(12:36):
And so Pike is like, okay, let's go around the
corner and go to this rock out crupping and she's
like okay, ready, here it is and he's like what,
I don't see anything, And then she disappears and the
aliens come out of the cave and stun Captain Pike
and they take him prisoner. The rest of his crew
is like trying to blast through the door, but it's
no good. They can't they can't get him. The door
(12:57):
is apparently made of some super strong material. Spock radio
is the strip. He's like, hey, it's a trap. They've
got the captain. We're leaving. Pike wakes up in a
cell and he's in like this extensive underground cave base
in this clear walled cell, and he can see Pike
like this kind of bear pig creature with its ash
(13:21):
cheeks exposed, like walking around and other like weird creatures,
like a huge rooster.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
The aliens come in and they stare at Pike, and
Pike is like, listen, I'm the captain of the USS Enterprise.
Our mission is totally peaceful. I'm a very experienced space captain,
and you should let us out. Let me out. And
the aliens are like, look, how simple this organism is
(13:48):
a very simple, like dumb creature. They still speak with
their mouths and stuff, and they were easily tricked by us,
and isn't that isn't that interesting? And then Pikes starts
to get like gangster with it. He's like, listen, I've
got fucking We've got phasers, we've got like laser cannons,
we've got the tor the space torpedoes, we've got all that,
(14:10):
like we could destroy this place, like, don't get into
it with us. And the aliens, meanwhile, are still talking
with themselves like, watch now he's gonna get mad and
threaten us. And watch now he's gonna now he's gonna
try and break the glass. Watch this, this is it's
a law clear.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I also want to say huge another huge change here,
or ironically a law change that really sets up one
of the most continuously talked about canonical, uh hypocritical kind
of things about Star Trek, which is the idereas you
go you don't leave anything behind, you don't change a planet,
(14:53):
you don't attack a planet.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
It's a peaceful situation that Pike is not in. That sage.
Pike is like, I'm gonna blow your show. What are
you gonna do it?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Boy?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It Now Honestly, that actually happens a lot, even though
the Federation are not meant to do that. These motherfuckers
are always getting involved in other people's business. But very
funny to a Pike kid just immediately be like, I'm
gonna blow up your planet, let me go, And then
the aliens are like, oh, okay, we've had that one before.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, So the aliens are like, okay, this one is
quite spirited, and we'll begin with the experience quite soon.
Spock and the crew back on the enterprise or studying
the planet to try to figure out, like what can
we do, and they realize that the underground aliens like
trick them set them all up. The doctor points out
that the aliens must have some sort of telepathy and
(15:40):
ability to project illusions into their minds, and right now
they might be doing that, Like we can't trust anything
we're doing. They use this illusion of Vena the hottie.
Actually he doesn't mention this there, but like that was
a big part of it. So Number one wonders, like, oh,
I wonder what the aliens want, Like what could they
possibly want? Spots like I don't know, but he does
(16:02):
figure just based on his readings that the aliens must
have three times at least three times the brain power
of their own. Yeah, that's why they're so big. So
Number one is like, okay, well, here's my idea. Take
let's take some of the cannons out of the ship,
let's bring them down to the surface, and let's just
drill our way through the door.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Meanwhile, thousands of aliens, off camera but mentioned, are simultaneously
probing Pike's mind and looking at his memories and just
reading him like a book. As he searches for a
way out, and they find out about the recent events
on Rigel and his guilt about that, and they decide
(16:45):
to use that memory again and his own guilt against him.
Suddenly Pike is like on Rigel and Vina is there
begging like Pipe help me, Oh my god. Pike is like,
he knows immediately, like this is an illusion. You're from
the planet, Like we're back on the planet. This is
not happening. But he's also I'm in my cell and
(17:05):
this must be some sort of space zoo. But then
the space barbarian that apparently killed Pike's crew members shows
up and starts going fucking ham and Pike is like,
fine enough, like this I just instinctively like I have
to fight this barbarian. And a lot of it is
because of his own very period correct feelings of must
(17:28):
protect woman from yes barbarian.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
To that really interestingly, even though he knows Vena isn't
really real, but yeah, he even he even speaks to.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The aliens about that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So this is again establishing a much more complicated understanding
of gender and masculinity than most shows at this time,
which would obviously go into shape kind of the legacy
of Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So Pike does manage to kill the barbarian and then
Poofy's back going to sell with Vena and Venus hugging him,
and the aliens are watching like absolute freaks outside the glass,
and Vina's like, listen, and here the innuendos are like
so strong, it's crazy to think, like in the sixties,
what this must have felt like. Of course this was
(18:18):
not this pilot was not aired, but you know, it's
a very similar kind of innuendos. In the later series,
Vina is like, listen, am I real? Am I not real?
I can be as real as you want, like anything.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, She's like, maybe a woman be real?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, what kind of woman have you fantasized about? Like
I can be that. I could be anything that you
want in the whole world, Like you know, just use
your imagination. We could do that. And Pike is like, interesting,
that's an interesting thought. And I'm not saying no, But
how do I keep the aliens out of my mind?
Do you know any way?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I want? Like they won they want to be in
my mind while I'm banging.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, I think I do.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And her reaction, even though she doesn't say there's a
way to keep them out. Her reaction tells him there
must be some. Meanwhile, outside of the cave number one
and the rest, they're drilling with those ships cannons and
they go full power and they don't see any change
in the door. Doc points out that again, they're like, hey, uh,
(19:18):
we don't know what to trust down here, Like they
could be fucking with our minds right now and we
would not know, So just be aware of that. Pike
is chatting with Vena about the mind control and Vina's like, fine, fine, fine,
if you promise to share whatever your most secret sexual
fantasy is so we can live it together, I will
(19:41):
tell you, like how to keep the aliens out of
your mind. So she then tells him, Okay, the aliens
went underground because of war, and that's underground over centuries,
they developed them mental powers. But then they got their
mental powers are so strong that they just got trapped
in a maze of their own fantasies and delusions that
they project apparently into each other's minds and everything and
(20:05):
and so they're just kind of like a lost species.
She confirms that there is this is a zoo and
and then it becomes clear, Okay, we need a pair
of humans, but like, where would the woman come from?
Is Vienna even real? And Vina's like, no, I'm real,
and again I can be like much realer in any
way you want. But then all of a sudden, she
(20:27):
screams and disappears in the big head alien like apparently
like just made her disappear.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We don't sucked him, sucked her back into his big
butt slash testical brain uncle something like that. I did
think this was actually very evocative and a great moment
when she is, you know, talking to Pike and they
kind of have this like picnic projection, and she sort
of says to him, like, just tell me any fantasy,
whatever your.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Dream is, let me live it with you.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Because I think she is aware that she doesn't really exist,
but in that way, maybe they would let how to
stay alive.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I was very ebucative.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And again the creepy, haunting, existential kind of throwaway moments
that made star Trek what it is being seeded hit because.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Then she just doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, because there's like deeper There are deeper complexities as
you drill down into Starturek, which makes it very interesting
even for the period. So Pike is, you know, how
do I escape from here? He's trying to figure it out.
He can't. The aliens come over and they feed him.
It's feeding time. They give him just like a gross
(21:34):
like a flagon of a gross nutrient liquid, and the
alien is like, you gotta eat that, and if you
don't eat it, we're going to torture you with various
torture illusions. And now Pike is. Now Pike is really
fascinated because he's like, why not just make me think
I'm really hungry? Yeah, you can't do that, can you? Like?
(21:59):
There must be to what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And the alien's like, why not just make him have
sex with Bena if they do that?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
But they can't, And just so this sudden, I guess.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So the Alien's like, listen, motherfucker. You keep thinking like
that and you're gonna You're gonna regret it. All of
a sudden, Pike is like, oh yeah, bitch, And then
like rushes at the glass and the alien is flinches,
and Pike is like, Aha, that's interesting, Like you got
scared when I rushed the glass. You didn't know I
(22:29):
was gonna do that. You can read my mind, but
you didn't know I was gonna do that. Aha, So
now what's really what is going on? The alien won't
stop talking about Viena, like Viena Vienavina, Like don't you
like her? Since she hot? Like do you want something else?
Like what's going on? Like what we want you to
be happy here? And we made this like very young
(22:50):
girl that is like totally interest you and why don't
you want that? And we sense that, like you're protective
towards her, so like it's got to be working on
some level. All of a sudden, Pike finds himself in
that illusion that you were talking about with Ana. He's
back on earth with his two horses and he's talking about,
oh yeah, I still go riding around here all the
(23:10):
time and YadA, YadA, YadA, And it's definitely working on Pike,
like he's getting sucked into it.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
It's kind of like, oh, well, maybe it's not too bad.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's clearly based on the conversation that he had back
with the about Rigel and the events of Rigel with
the doc and the aliens. Clearly thought, oh, here's here's
an example of him wanting to like stop being the
captain of the ship. Maybe we use that to get
him out of this, and so Pike. But Pike can't
let it go. He's talking with Viena about the illusion.
(23:38):
He's like, what are they up to? What do they want?
And Venus like, fine, okay, listen enough, I'll tell you
and then we can do weird sex shit, okay, whatever
you want. The aliens can't read like base primitive emotions
like hate. They never really expand on what other emotions.
Possibly they can't read, but definitely hate, anger, strong anger feelings.
(24:00):
You can't do it and the only like and Vena's like,
the only issue with that is like it's hard to
keep that up for a long period of time. Pike
is like, listen, Vina, you're hot as hell, okay, And
from the moment I came down to this planet, I thought,
here's like a hot twenty year old in space. And
I'm like, i gotta like I'm feeling stuff, but like
(24:24):
I'm a captain of a ship. And Vena's like, well,
you know, we can do it again for the fifteenth time.
We can do whatever you want. Yeah, and then boom.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Also, can I just say, guys, this this episode of
it sounds like a lot is happening.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It's because this pilot is over an hour long.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It's like there is there is a lot of conversation
about whether or not Pike is going to have sex
with this imaginary woman.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So then the aliens are like, Okay, let's just get
very explicit with the sexual part of this, right, So
the illusion changes to like a white person's idea of
like a near East stern like space middle Eastern court
from the medieval times, with like a green dancing woman
and music that suggests like a harem and you know
(25:10):
that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, very orientalist.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Captain Pike is sitting at at a table with these
two other like lecherousue guys who are like, oh, yeah,
I love this planet. I love coming here. It's fucking
you know anything you want, Like it's great. And then
he the guy, the guy like directly in the Pike's right,
says literally like, you know what I love about the
women on this planet? They actually like being taken advantage
(25:34):
of a holy shit, And Pike is like, he's looking
at Vena Vina is the green skinned one's because.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
She also looks like hella old when in the green
skin it's like a totally different look.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I feel like they didn't understand the nature of pikes
like innocence, Like he was being drawn to this kind
of innocent, picnic fashion.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But it doesn't mean he's not enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I mean he's definitely getting aroused. Like it's a very
complex performance because Pike is both like trying to keep
it legit and professional, but he's also like, damn, like,
you know, I'm in space brothel with green skin alien
who wants me like and finally he's like, I gotta
(26:22):
that's it. I'm leaving. So he leaves the like dance area,
and he's finds himself trapped all of a sudden. I
guess he was like going to storm off to like
jack off in the bathroom or something it seems like,
but what it seemed like, But he finds himself trapped
and Vena' is there and she's looking at him very erotically. Meanwhile,
(26:42):
we cut to the surface. Spot A Number one are
their Their plan now is beam ourselves directly into the
base with a strike team. It's me Spot number one,
Yeoman and three others and we'll get in there with
our phasers and we'll break him out, and only Number
one and the yeoman who got yelled at earlier get
(27:04):
in and they get into a Pike cell and Pike
gets like, insanely the Vina excuse me, it gets insanely
jaeolus at me, like what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
What?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Like I was so we were so close. I've been
working on this like he's my guy, and now you
two fucking bitches broke, ugly, ugly, broke, broke let YouTube,
dumb bitches, show up, your ruin out, I'll hang now.
The aliens show up and they're like, okay, Pike, look
at what we got you. Okay, we understand Vina. Now
(27:39):
maybe we don't know how to create the illusion right,
and she's not everything you wanted, But now we got
number one, your direct report who she's an older woman
and it seems like she has a very cold exterior,
professional exterior towards you. But guess what she fantasizes about you,
Captain Pike.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
This was wild.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Number one is like you, I can't believe you just
did that, snitches around, and then she goes to and
then they go and the yeoman who you screamed at earlier,
obviously younger, prime breeding like, and I gotta tell you this,
she loves sex.
Speaker 7 (28:16):
It's the aliens literally tell this the Christopher Pike like,
she loves sex, okay, and Pike is like, I got
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Respect for Captain Pike in this moment, because Captain Pike
responds to none of that. He's just like, listen, when
I get my fucking hands on you, you son of
a bitch. He's like, don't be talking about those women
like that. I'm gonna fucking rig your little fucking neck
and the aliens your alien neck. Alien then sends a
(28:48):
bolt of pain through Pike's mind, like fuck off. Pike's like.
Pike then tells his number one in the Yeoman like, listen,
they can't keep your mind hateful, like they can't read that.
They can't read hate. And Number one is probably like,
believe me, I'm already there.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
She's like I'm that also as well, Like I thought
this was really interesting because then I was like, oh,
is this why they get everyone horny on the planet.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Because that like it's hard to be hateful if you're
just really horny. But yeah, I mean number one, they
ain't reading shit. She's pissed.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yes, So on the ship Spock is now in control,
and he's like, fuck number one, fuck the Yeomen, fuck Crystaler, Pike,
We're out of here, Like this is crazy. We get Federation,
we gotta go, man Federation. We are out, Captain Spock,
you can call me that now. I'm out of here. Pike. Meanwhile,
and I'm not even sure what happened here. This feels
(29:39):
like something that would have been edited. I mean, this is,
as you mentioned, a long running episode that would have
been cut down to forty two or something like that
for television. So what happens is an alien is like
crawling into the cell for unclear reasons, and Pike, who's
like sleeping, manages to catch him and fucking drags of
(30:01):
it in the cell and he starts like ringing this
alien's necks, like stop doing the fucking illusions, and the
alien's like, listen, I'll destroy your ship unless you let
me go. We can do that. We can put crazy
illusions in your cruise mind and they will destroy it
for us. Meanwhile, on the ship, the aliens are like
(30:22):
in everybody's minds and they're downloading like all the information
that they can get about the ship and Earth history
and all that Pike is then takes out his phaser
and he's like, I'm gonna fucking blow your fucking testicle
brains out, and he marches the alien of the cell
and it's like, take me back to the fucking service now.
And Pike tells Number one contact the ship, tell him
(30:44):
we escape. The alien says, listen, just stay here, okay,
pick one of these females and repopulate the planet. Like
what's the big deal? It would be great, come on,
And Pike is like, listen, send number one and Yeoman
back to the ship. Here's the deal, and I'll stay
here with Vina and we'll make it happen. So and
(31:05):
it's unclear in this moment whether he's legit or or
he's tempted, or if this is a ploy. Number one
sets a phaser to explode while he while Pike is
making this deal and is like, I'd rather us all
die than we live down here like zoo animals and
the other aliens show up and they're like, listen, we
(31:25):
have all the enterprises records and all the memories from there.
It's a crazy That species is crazy, Like they are nuts.
They don't like to live as slaves. They are very violent,
maybe too violent than what.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
We're used to.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And so the boss aliens like, Okay, we made a mistake.
You guys are too wild, like kind of crazy. You
can go like no harm, no foul, sorry about the
whole thing, but you guys can go. And Pike is like, well,
let me take Vina and if she wants to come,
and she's like, I can't. And it's unclear if wait
is she reel?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Is she like?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
What is going on with na Yeoman and Numero Uno? Back?
Go back up to the ship. Pike stays on the planet.
They look back and they're in the transporter and where
the Pike, Pike is down there just chatting up. Vina
all of a sudden turns like really old and messed up.
And it turned out that after the crash, the aliens
(32:22):
were like, we don't know what a human is. So
they like fixed her put her back together, and they
put her back together like all lumpy and shucked off,
and Pike's like, nah uglay yeah. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, and you know who, You're gonna stay here
like it's fine.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pike is like, so Pike is like, listen, I'm gonna
go back to the ship. It was really nice meeting you.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Sorry we didn't get to me.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I had a great time with you.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
And so she walks off and then Pike like goes
to the alien and is like, listener, feel like she's
beautiful again? Can you do that for me? Like it's
really terrible.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
He's like, this is off. Shut the truth like the
macersions a guy.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, make her feel beautiful again, because I feel like
really fucking bad for her. And so Pike goes back
up to the ship and business as usual. The yeoman
comes again with the daily report and Pike yells at
her again and then she's like, but it's the report
and he's like, oh yeah, that's fucking fuck. Yeah, you're right,
(33:31):
my mom sigh you. She then as she's leaving, is like,
can I ask you, Christopher Pike, who would you have
chosen between me and number one? Wild question? What set
the back off the ship? And then Doc Haskins is
(33:52):
looking herround like what the fuck happened on this planet?
And then we go to the credits. Incredible wild Up
episode never aired, but is the historical pilot for Star Trek.
Let's go to break and then we will talk about
the themes, discuss some of the themes and the things
we saw in this.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Episode, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Okay. Very fascinating episode because I think it does a
couple of things, and I think for me, the themes
of this are really one the responsibility of leadership, Like Pike,
is it a crisis when we meet him, is it
a crisis of confidence about whether he wants to continue
doing this and whether he's the man for this job?
(34:50):
Having just lost people on rigel in a way that
makes it makes you feel like he's feeling like I
could have done should I have done something different? And
those people would still be alive. It's also a very
interesting performance from Hunter because his portrayal of Pike is
definitely like a moody Yeah, he's very handsome, but he's
(35:14):
also like generally more stressed out and on the edge
of burnout. Like he's not the kind of swashbuckling, charming
Captain Kirk that we're going to get. And I think
that's probably a note from the studio is like, make
this guy less like existentially troubled. And then I think
(35:37):
quite clearly the role of women in society in the workplace, Yeah,
all over this because you're clearly not meant to think
when Pike flips out on the Yeomen and says women
should be on the bridge, you're not meant to be
agree with him, because everything in this episode tells you
that Pike's wrong about that. Like Number one is great
(35:57):
take when she takes over the ship, she plays a
id role in rescuing Pike, even though we then go
to There's also this other layer where the show also
doesn't really interrogate whether women have any other value besides
being hot.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
No, there's a huge part.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And I also think that the stuff with my Gel
and playing Number one is really interesting because it is
this duality of Gene Roddenbury being like, yeah, women are
sexy and men want to fuck them, and that's really important.
But also when Number one takes over, there is like
no fanfare, no hype.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
She just does it. She has good ideas, and I think.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
That there was something there that he would he really
wanted to explore, and so did Margel probably. But interestingly,
I think there's two things here that tell us a
lot about where NBC was at, because there are multiple
characters who are set up here as could have taken
over from Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike. Obviously number one
(37:04):
is one of them, but NBC had actually asked her
to be removed when they reshot the pilot because they
said no one would believe a woman could hold the
position of second in command. Now, honestly, sure, crazy thing
to say at the time, but we get it and
led to you know, different kinds of casting, including Michelle
Nichols as Yes, the communications officer Hura that would you know,
(37:28):
change American TV forever and even inspire Martin Luther King.
But it's very interesting that even in a show where
they're having that conversation when they reshot the pilot, that
was one of the things they wanted to take out
of it.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
It's quite interesting. I also think that you know clearly
what Roddenberry is working through here too, is like, Okay,
women are entering the workforce. Mm hmm, how can we
work with them and also like not want to fuck
them like that is It's like very much part of
(38:05):
this episode is like, okay, you're two direct two of
your direct reports like wanna fuck captain, but one of
them who is like not letting on in a very
professional manner that she would ever have those thoughts and
the second one who's kind of a freak. And also
this is sixty six. He's being made, so this is
like summer of love. Stuff is like bubbling, you know,
(38:26):
the sexual revolution, the whole hippie free love thing is
like coming. And that's quite clear that the Yeoman is
meant to kind of symbolize that rising generation with for
your sexual attitudes. And you know, roden Berry, I think
is trying to say, like, okay, guys, how do you
deal with this? Women are in the workplace now? Like
what do you do? How do you how do you
(38:49):
manage these tensions that of having women here and how
do you keep it professional? And I think it was
from that perspective a really interesting episode, despite the fact
that again Pike at the end when he sees that
Vita's old, is like, you know what, uh forget it,
(39:11):
but but I love targeting.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, He's like, look, he's like, this is this is
where we're at.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And as with any old guy who made stuff, you know,
Geene Roudenbury has had his own controversies and stuff through
the years. And the truth is, look, the episode has
such a great interesting kind of complexity to those conversations.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
But ultimately at the end, it's like, well, a woman
is valuable as long as she's hot, Like she can
join the ship if she's hot.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
She can't join the ship if she's lumpy, even though
it's the twenty third century and we have a doctor,
you know, so no lumpy, no lumpy space princess here.
So yeah, it's very interesting. But I will say I
do just think like how cool.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
That this exists.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Like you can currently watch this on Paramount Plus, even
though Google results will tell you otherwise, but it is
listed on Paramount Plus as the first episode of Star Trek,
and it is so beautifully shot, it's so weird, it's
so long, Like it doesn't feel like it should have
been able to launch a series that the series that
it did. But actually when you go back and you
(40:14):
look and you watch those forty five minute episodes that
are really esoteric or later episodes, you know, the Deep
Space nine stuff where there's a lot of a hollow deck,
you know, like and lots of like Shakespearean weirdness, Like
a lot of that is seeded here by just how
unconventional it is. Jason revisiting this, what is like your
(40:37):
biggest takeaway as we step into potentially, you know, covering
the official pilot that people got to watch in sixty seven.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
That it's good sometimes studio notes are good, you know,
And that while I probably would not agree with a
lot of some of the probably many of the things
the studio critiqued about ron Berry, it created a better
(41:05):
product because it made him have to figure out how
to make a lot of these complex and very cutting
edge societal sociological ideas more palatable, more mainstream, more graspable.
And I think they did a good job of that.
Like it's impossible to not watch Pike and then ab
(41:28):
Pike with Kirk. You know, Kirk love being Kirk. There
are moments in the run of Star Trek where Captain
Kirk is like feeling the weight of being the captain,
but honestly, he loves it. That guy loves sitting in
the chair.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
I do think it's very funny that one of the
biggest takeaways they had was like, Okay, so if the
captain does get to go to an alien planet because
he doesn't work with those women, make sure he's kissing him.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Make sure he's fucking them, because because Cork is a lover,
Cork is like he's having an alien relations It's very
clear that they leaned into that aspect, right. It's like, okay,
you know, we kind of like to think where Kirk
has to choose between three women, one of whom want
to be utilusion, but what if going pike rather, but
what if going for a you know forward, the captain
(42:15):
actually you know, starts missing around with some of these aliens.
I also think that though they don't talk about the
more you know, honestly almost utopian philosophical mission of Starfleet
in this episode, you could sense it here in the
sense in the fact that, you know, the Enterprise tussles
(42:39):
with these Telosian aliens who imprison their captain and almost
make him live in a zoo with a lumpy woman, and.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
At the end of it, the humans are just like, okay,
we're leaving, like that that was that happened, and it's
a clash of cultures and societies. But there's no reason
to like nuke your whole planet, like live and let live.
We're at Eagre and see you later. It was a
misunderstanding basically, and that ethos will be much further distilled
(43:11):
in the actual Star Trek. Well, they talk about like
what the mission is and to your point, as you
talked about earlier, like how important the mission is of
it's a mission of peace, et cetera, and of studying
life across the galaxy in the universe, but not like interfering,
and you get a sense of that here, whereas in
any other kind of space adventure of the era this
(43:34):
would lead to like, Okay, blow the.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Step, come up, hut it up, or put them in
space prison or something. So I like that you pointed
out Also, I mean, I think this is well known
by this point, but hey, if you're on this track
through track with us, we do now have a new
version of Captain Pike, who was inspired by the Cage,
who is in strange in your world's played by Anson
(43:57):
might Mount, and the ideas that us seeing the Pike
era explorations that occurred before Kirk. So I also like
that now this is very clinical and has even been expanded,
And that would happen because they would recut some of
the pilot to act as flashbacks to kind of explain
(44:17):
away some of it with Jeffrey Hunters, some of it
not because Jeffrey Hunter was like, nah, I've done one pilot.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
I want to do movies and just turn them down.
So and of course that gave us William Shattner.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
But yeah, if this sounds interesting and you want to
see more from your kind of introverted, strange sexy pike,
well guess what that.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Is very much the world of Strange New World.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
So that's one of the newest Star Trek series that
is taking from this classic episode.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Let's take a quick break and we'll be back with
the back matter.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
A quick history of this pilot, and.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
We're back. Some quick facts about the Cage. The Cage
does not begin as you noticed it, as we talked
about with the iconic Star Trek mission statement on the
five year journey to explore Strange New World, seek out
new life and civilizations at Boldigo, where nowhere no man
has gone before. That would be for the actual first pilot.
(45:29):
The aired pilot of Star.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Trek NBC began filming the Cage on November twenty seven,
nineteen sixty four. Hilariously, they would then go on to
cool the pilot to cerebral, too intellectual, too slow, and
not enough action. Not to mention, and this is pretty
crazy cost five hundred thousand dollars for that episode.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
But you know what I got to say, Sure, wop
in price stag for the time, but guess what.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Guys looks great, really looks beautiful HC TV.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Like this shit stood up.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
I mean, this kind of tells you how how Titanic
television was at the time. It's kind of like hard
to think about now, but there were three channels period,
and so while five hundred thousand is a whopping amount
of money for nineteen sixty four, it also tells you
the kind of like resources that they were throwing around
(46:22):
Rather than rejecting the series outright after this, I guess
you could say disastrous pilot that cost five hundred thousand dollars,
the network gave notes recommissioned a second pilot, which ended
up being Where No Man Has Gone Before, which led
to the eventual series order for Star Trek, which came
in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Even though NBC never officially added we did get the
classic The Menagerie, which is one of the early Star
Trek episodes. That this would have probably been the way
that they put them on the BHS is they put
them with two episodes, so you could imagine that this
somewhere where they thought if they ever did er it,
they would double up. They recycled a law of the footage,
(47:05):
and then they actually had to hire, as I mentioned,
a guy called Sean Kenny to come back and play Pike,
because Jeffrey was like, Hey, I'm doing movies now, guys,
which I love.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
And he was like in a coma, I believe like
Sean k Well the Pike. The Pike of that version
was like brain dead, so like they you could get
away with him looking a little different. Even though NBC
never actually air The Cage of the Menagerie, took a
bunch of the footage from this episode and then cut
(47:38):
it into the existing episode that was going to air
that was now called The Menagerie. Geen Roddenberry had the
black and white workprint the sixteen millimeter from the original
thirty five millimeter negative and was able to salvage a
bunch of scenes from that for The Menagerie. This left
(47:59):
Roddenberry's copy is the only known surviving version. When the
VHS version raised his version of the Cage.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
I want to find that.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
In nineteen eighty seven, this is what I was touching
on with Bob Fernach.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Basically, he found an unlabeled film.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Canister returned it to Roddenbury and then that allowed Rodenberry
to make it possible to complete a full color version,
and the restored color version was broadcast on October nineteen
eighty eight, the first ever television airing of The Cage,
and it was hosted by Patrick strew Up.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Baba Star Trek. The original series ironically has two episodes
that count as series premiers. After the rejected pilot The Cage,
NBC premiered Star Trek on September eighth, nineteen sixty six,
with The Man Trap, in which the Starship Enterprise faced
a monster called the Salt Vampire. Very spooky episode. However,
(48:53):
while the Man Trap wasn't the first Star Trek episode there,
it wasn't supposed to be the series premiere. Star Trek's
second pilot is called Where No Man Has Gone Before,
and it was the third episode broadcast on NBC, and
the Man Trap ended up premiering first because I loved
just production stuff, so they aired it first, even though
it was supposed to go after dude, Where No Man
(49:13):
Has Gone Before?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Such a classic bit of Hollywood chaikhaneri like we have
that with so many animated shows where we still don't
know what the official NBC version or Cartoon network version
was meant to be, and then they added, you know,
the release version. I love that kind of stuff. It's
weird as heck. Okay, so good production. Note Cage was
actually filmed at Desolu Production Studio, and Star Trek would
(49:36):
continue to film on that lot at least until the
end of sixty four.
Speaker 3 (49:42):
If you're wondering how Roddenberry kind of got.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Into TV, well, he was in Westerns, which were obviously
the biggest thing of the time before Sci Fi, and
his show was particularly inspired by NBC to ABC series
The Wagon Train from nine fifty seven to ninety sixty five,
and in his original Star Trek pitch, he actually used
(50:05):
the wagon Train as a reference. The format is wagon
Train to the Stars, the sci fi creator wrote in
his initial pitch document built around the characters to travel
to other worlds and meet the Jeopardy and adventure which
become our stories, very similar to what would become that
opening kind of spiel for Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
And that's how you do it, by the way, like
you say, hey, it's like wagon Train in space and
it worked. Morris Chapnick who became Rodenberry's assistant and was
a future longtime Paramount executive, recalled his first, uh you know,
encountering of the star trek idea, admitting that, oh, it
was the wagon train pitch, part of the pitch that
(50:47):
gave me like something to hold on to. Quote, I
know anything about outer space, but the wagon train of
the stars that I understood, and that's how it got sold.
Jane Robert or like, that's the way you do it. Well,
that's it for the pilot episode of Trek through Trek. Hey,
you want to hear more, let us know. Next up
(51:08):
on Extra Vision, we have another episode of Exit Vision
group chat with our reactions to Dan Tractorbers, Predator bad
Lands and Gearmo del Toro's Frankenstein and a little bit more.
That's it for this episode. Thanks listing, bye x ray
Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and
is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kolefman.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kauffman.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Special thanks to Saul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi Our discord moderate though
Warning, today's episode contain spoilers for the original the historical
pilot of Star Trek the original series titled The Cage. Hello,
(00:26):
and name is Jason and I'm roseay Night, and welcome
back to Xtravision of the podcast where we dive deep.
It's your favorite shows, movies and pop culture coming in
from my heart, where we'll bring you three episodes a week,
plus news on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode, beat me up, Scotty or not, because
Scotty is not in.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
This episode and that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today we are revisiting the first episode of the Star
Trek the original series, called The Cage. Now there is
no Kirk here. This is Captain Pike. So come with
us as we kickstart our trek through Trek. You can
think of this as our own episode two because if
you enough of you listen and the feedback is good,
we will be back with more Trek in the new year.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And of course, Star Trek is a landmark sci fi
property in only three seasons, which is kind of like
mind boggling to think about, Like the original show only
ran three seasons, even the fact that it was made
after this up ordered pilot that we're going to talk
about right, then cut up and used for the actual
on air pilot. This pilot was received and kind of
(01:32):
disastrous fashion, although it is quite good and you could
see a lot of the strands that became the vibe
of Original Trek here. Just the fact that it got
made and made such an impact in its only three
season run means that it's simply one of the most
important sci fi properties ever, and we're delighted to be
(01:54):
talking about it. I mean, it's like a show that
I think I've talked about this a lot. When I
was like in middle school and started getting really into
staying up late, especially on summertime, and on the weekends,
they would play Star Trek on the local TV station
back to back with Get Smart, so it'd be like
(02:15):
two episodes of Get Smart, which is which was a
thirty and then an episode of Star Trek and then
two episodes of Star Trek or something like that. So
it'd be like from nine to ten it was like
Get Smart, and then ten to midnight it would be
Star Trek. And that's how I watched all of the
original Star Trek, just like in weird orders and just
(02:37):
like it, and it was so fun and I was
absolutely delighted by it and became like a big part
of my just like every night experience when I was
that age. How did you first get into try?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I actually loved that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That was your experience because England had a very similar
version of it, which was basically you would have five
thirty PM Neighbors, six pm Simpsons obviously the best, then
six point thirty you'd hope it was Fresh Prince of
bel Air, but if it wasn't, then it was usually
Star Trek and that would run for like a solid
(03:15):
three hours. So I saw all different versions of Star Trek.
I saw the original series, I saw Voyager. I saw
a really terrifying episode of Deep Space night and about
nightmares that came to life that had me up for
like a week, And yeah, I just I think this
is such an interesting show. I'm so happy we're able
to finally start digging into it because this was always
our dream. Was like, if we're going to cover Star Trek,
(03:36):
we're just gonna do it from the beginning, like there's
no way that we're doing like choppy kind of bits
and bobs, and people have always wanted us.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
To cover it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So yeah, I'm really excited to cover it, and basically
this is the rundown of the episode. Solid recap because
this episode is crazy, really long. It's a wild breaks
basically every rule of pilot writing, which I love. Then
we're going to talk about the themes, which here are
very much like leadership, women in the workplace, surveillance, propaganda. Also,
(04:07):
those themes die into why the show didn't necessarily get
made in this form too, so we will talk a
little bit about the history and the production of the pilot,
as well as how this led to the original Real
Star Wars pilot. Depending on which version you watched when
you were a kid, that will either be The Man
(04:27):
Trap or Where No Man Has Gone Before, which were
the two episodes which aired out of order as pilots.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And Yeah, it's gonna be great. We're gonna dig in.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So this is track through Trek now a quick production
note which I'm very happy to say because I love
holiday season. So this holiday season we are going to
be sharing some shorter stocking.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Stuff for episodes with you.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
With so many great shows and movies coming out this
next few months, the episodes will help us cover some
extra content, including books and comics that we wouldn't necessarily
be able to get onto our normal episodes, so stay
tuned for these stucking stuff is starting the week of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
The first three cap all Right Star Trek the original
series series one the Cage. We open in Space the
Final Frontier, although, as we will discuss later in our
little factoid section, we don't get the iconic Space the
Final Frontier narration from our Captain Kirk because it is
not Captain Kirk as Captain Pike. We're on the bridge
(05:24):
of the starship Enterprise, though Captain Chris Pike and his crew,
including Science Officer Spock, receive a warning of an incoming signal.
It's a very old distress signal, like the old type,
and apparently there was a ship like eighteen years ago,
the SS Columbia, that was lost out here, and so
they're thinking, oh, this is it. Pike is like, well,
(05:47):
guess what. We're not going to check it out, though.
We have to go to Vega, and unless there are
survivors down there, or any evidence that there could be survivors,
we're not going to go because it was a long
time ago. Were gonna deal with a.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Crash right now.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Kind of a persnickety like no from Christopher Pike, who
then goes to his quarters and you discover why Captain
Chris Pike is in such a busy mood. It's because
they had just been through a battle on Rigel for
and lost people. And doctor Haskins comes in to Christopher
(06:23):
Pike's quarters, and it's very clear right away that doctor
Haskins is an older guy and Pike are like it's
like a mentor mentee or just like a shoulder to
like lean on kind of relationship with doctor Haskins. He
comes in with his little doctor case, opens it up
and starts making a martini for the cat, which is
which festival I shouldn't have but that's okay, shouldn't happen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But also so Star Trek coded like so much of
what is interesting about this episode is though it is
very introverted and kind of way more serious.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It does establish a lot of the kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Like groovy things that would go on to kind of
cement Star Trek storytelling, whether that's romance, whether it's unexpected drinking,
whether it is kind of the mundanity and brutality of
war combined with kind of the craziness of a sci
fi adventure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
A lot of it is here, and it is.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, it's very interesting that this is where Roddenberry chose
to start.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Let's be real, way ahead of its time.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
This is like a fifth season kind of version of
Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, that's very, very true. So Pike is like, he's
feeling really bad about the fact that they lost people
on Rigel and the stress of command is wearing on him.
He's really beaten down by the whole thing, and he's like,
you know, I'm thinking about hanging it up. I'm thinking
about hanging up the cowboy hat, the spurs, the whole thing.
(07:52):
I'm feeling washed. I don't want to do this anymore.
And then Doc is like Doc, who is clearly kind
of like his therapist as well as medical doctors, like
why don't you just I don't know about that, Like
what drink your martini? And then like let's sit on that,
don't make any rash judgments. Then Spot calls with news
guess what, cap there are survivors. We just we got
(08:13):
another message from this distress signal and there are survivors.
So Pike is like, fine, we'll head to Tallows. Pike
is like a high strung guy. He's on the bridge
a Yeoman comes in with the orders that he himself
told her to bring at five am, and he's like,
why are you here, guy, I talk you interrupt me
(08:34):
on the fucking bridge and and she's like, I'm just
bringing you the reports that you told me to bring
it this very time. And he's like, all right, sorry
about that, Yeoman, but I'm just not used to a
woman on the bridge. I don't think there should be
women on the bridge. And then he looks over and
he's like, oh, yeah, my second in command number one
is a woman.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
There's a Woman's like, but not you, number one of
you know.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
You know what I mean, you're acceptable. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Also this is Michelle Barrett Rodin Brie, who is Jean
Rodenbree's wife and who would go on to play many
different characters of in Star Trek where Rodin Breed kind
of write her in, but this was obviously meant to
be a huge role for her. And as you will,
we will get into Pike was not the only one
(09:20):
upset to see a woman on the bridge.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Pike gets the science support and basically this planet is Earth, like,
they can land. They don't need any other you know,
breathing helmets or anything like that. So Pike is like, Okay,
it's gonna be me. Spock and four other Red Shirts
were going down there. Number One, you're in command, although
(09:45):
he the implication is kind of that he doesn't think
number one it would be safe for her to go
down there, and maybe she couldn't handle it, but he
also puts her in charge, you know, without a second thought.
So it's it's a quite complex kind of view of
Christopher Pike. They go down there. It's a rocky planet,
(10:07):
very desert like. Pike and Spok are like intrigue. They're
these little blue leaves that amid a sort of frequency
that we just never go back to that but it's
very mysteriously. Chrisms very interested in it. And after looking
around for a while, they find the survivors camp and
the survivor of the Columbia. They're all old as shit.
(10:29):
They're like, you know, they look like eighteen sixties prospectors,
you know, their hair all wild, giving.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
More looks in the time machine like that, like cavemen.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So they're like, what's going on with Earth? And Pike
and Spok are like Earth is great, just like you
left it there are new technologies now where we can
like fly here faster than light. So there's a lot
of cool stuff, but you know, we'll get you out
of here. So they are preparing to remove the survivors
to the ship when they meet Vienna, who apparently was
(11:06):
a child when the Columbia crashed, and so now she's
like this beautiful blonde, nineteen or twenty year old woman,
and Pike is immediately like thrown that there's this hottie
like out here on tallows. Meanwhile, somewhere else, a group
of bald, veiny headed aliens or like watching this whole
(11:27):
scene unfold in their cave, and the leader makes some
sort of signal we can't hear them speak and we'll
figure out why soon to his two like lieutenants, and
they head off. Pike is packing helping pack stuff up
so they can all go back to the Enterprise, and
they're almost ready to go, and Vena's like, hey, I
can't help, but noticing you're a man of prime breeding stock,
(11:48):
He's like it's like what, and then she goes like,
I think it's time to show you our secret and
he's like okay, And meanwhile the doc is noticing that
the survivors, despite their bedraggled look are like very healthy,
almost too healthy. He's looking like good.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, looking great, Like what's gotten shilling down that for
a long time? Are you really survivors or are you
members of this strange society?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The leader of the of the bedraggled Columbia survivors then
is like, well, that's because of some kind of secret
that you're not ready for, which is what. It's like what?
And then that guy, the leader of the survivors, tells Viena, Hey, Vena,
go take Captain Pike somewhere private to show him the secret.
(12:36):
And so Pike is like, okay, let's go around the
corner and go to this rock out crupping and she's
like okay, ready, here it is and he's like what,
I don't see anything, And then she disappears and the
aliens come out of the cave and stun Captain Pike
and they take him prisoner. The rest of his crew
is like trying to blast through the door, but it's
no good. They can't they can't get him. The door
(12:57):
is apparently made of some super strong material. Spock radio
is the strip. He's like, hey, it's a trap. They've
got the captain. We're leaving. Pike wakes up in a
cell and he's in like this extensive underground cave base
in this clear walled cell, and he can see Pike
like this kind of bear pig creature with its ash
(13:21):
cheeks exposed, like walking around and other like weird creatures,
like a huge rooster.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
The aliens come in and they stare at Pike, and
Pike is like, listen, I'm the captain of the USS Enterprise.
Our mission is totally peaceful. I'm a very experienced space captain,
and you should let us out. Let me out. And
the aliens are like, look, how simple this organism is
(13:48):
a very simple, like dumb creature. They still speak with
their mouths and stuff, and they were easily tricked by us,
and isn't that isn't that interesting? And then Pikes starts
to get like gangster with it. He's like, listen, I've
got fucking We've got phasers, we've got like laser cannons,
we've got the tor the space torpedoes, we've got all that,
(14:10):
like we could destroy this place, like, don't get into
it with us. And the aliens, meanwhile, are still talking
with themselves like, watch now he's gonna get mad and
threaten us. And watch now he's gonna now he's gonna
try and break the glass. Watch this, this is it's
a law clear.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I also want to say huge another huge change here,
or ironically a law change that really sets up one
of the most continuously talked about canonical, uh hypocritical kind
of things about Star Trek, which is the idereas you
go you don't leave anything behind, you don't change a planet,
(14:53):
you don't attack a planet.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
It's a peaceful situation that Pike is not in. That sage.
Pike is like, I'm gonna blow your show. What are
you gonna do it?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Boy?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It Now Honestly, that actually happens a lot, even though
the Federation are not meant to do that. These motherfuckers
are always getting involved in other people's business. But very
funny to a Pike kid just immediately be like, I'm
gonna blow up your planet, let me go, And then
the aliens are like, oh, okay, we've had that one before.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, So the aliens are like, okay, this one is
quite spirited, and we'll begin with the experience quite soon.
Spock and the crew back on the enterprise or studying
the planet to try to figure out, like what can
we do, and they realize that the underground aliens like
trick them set them all up. The doctor points out
that the aliens must have some sort of telepathy and
(15:40):
ability to project illusions into their minds, and right now
they might be doing that, Like we can't trust anything
we're doing. They use this illusion of Vena the hottie.
Actually he doesn't mention this there, but like that was
a big part of it. So Number one wonders, like, oh,
I wonder what the aliens want, Like what could they
possibly want? Spots like I don't know, but he does
(16:02):
figure just based on his readings that the aliens must
have three times at least three times the brain power
of their own. Yeah, that's why they're so big. So
Number one is like, okay, well, here's my idea. Take
let's take some of the cannons out of the ship,
let's bring them down to the surface, and let's just
drill our way through the door.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Meanwhile, thousands of aliens, off camera but mentioned, are simultaneously
probing Pike's mind and looking at his memories and just
reading him like a book. As he searches for a
way out, and they find out about the recent events
on Rigel and his guilt about that, and they decide
(16:45):
to use that memory again and his own guilt against him.
Suddenly Pike is like on Rigel and Vina is there
begging like Pipe help me, Oh my god. Pike is like,
he knows immediately, like this is an illusion. You're from
the planet, Like we're back on the planet. This is
not happening. But he's also I'm in my cell and
(17:05):
this must be some sort of space zoo. But then
the space barbarian that apparently killed Pike's crew members shows
up and starts going fucking ham and Pike is like,
fine enough, like this I just instinctively like I have
to fight this barbarian. And a lot of it is
because of his own very period correct feelings of must
(17:28):
protect woman from yes barbarian.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
To that really interestingly, even though he knows Vena isn't
really real, but yeah, he even he even speaks to.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The aliens about that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So this is again establishing a much more complicated understanding
of gender and masculinity than most shows at this time,
which would obviously go into shape kind of the legacy
of Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So Pike does manage to kill the barbarian and then
Poofy's back going to sell with Vena and Venus hugging him,
and the aliens are watching like absolute freaks outside the glass,
and Vina's like, listen, and here the innuendos are like
so strong, it's crazy to think, like in the sixties,
what this must have felt like. Of course this was
(18:18):
not this pilot was not aired, but you know, it's
a very similar kind of innuendos. In the later series,
Vina is like, listen, am I real? Am I not real?
I can be as real as you want, like anything.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Yeah, She's like, maybe a woman be real?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, what kind of woman have you fantasized about? Like
I can be that. I could be anything that you
want in the whole world, Like you know, just use
your imagination. We could do that. And Pike is like, interesting,
that's an interesting thought. And I'm not saying no, But
how do I keep the aliens out of my mind?
Do you know any way?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I want? Like they won they want to be in
my mind while I'm banging.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, I think I do.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And her reaction, even though she doesn't say there's a
way to keep them out. Her reaction tells him there
must be some. Meanwhile, outside of the cave number one
and the rest, they're drilling with those ships cannons and
they go full power and they don't see any change
in the door. Doc points out that again, they're like, hey, uh,
(19:18):
we don't know what to trust down here, Like they
could be fucking with our minds right now and we
would not know, So just be aware of that. Pike
is chatting with Vena about the mind control and Vina's like, fine, fine, fine,
if you promise to share whatever your most secret sexual
fantasy is so we can live it together, I will
(19:41):
tell you, like how to keep the aliens out of
your mind. So she then tells him, Okay, the aliens
went underground because of war, and that's underground over centuries,
they developed them mental powers. But then they got their
mental powers are so strong that they just got trapped
in a maze of their own fantasies and delusions that
they project apparently into each other's minds and everything and
(20:05):
and so they're just kind of like a lost species.
She confirms that there is this is a zoo and
and then it becomes clear, Okay, we need a pair
of humans, but like, where would the woman come from?
Is Vienna even real? And Vina's like, no, I'm real,
and again I can be like much realer in any
way you want. But then all of a sudden, she
(20:27):
screams and disappears in the big head alien like apparently
like just made her disappear.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We don't sucked him, sucked her back into his big
butt slash testical brain uncle something like that. I did
think this was actually very evocative and a great moment
when she is, you know, talking to Pike and they
kind of have this like picnic projection, and she sort
of says to him, like, just tell me any fantasy,
whatever your.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Dream is, let me live it with you.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Because I think she is aware that she doesn't really exist,
but in that way, maybe they would let how to
stay alive.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I was very ebucative.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And again the creepy, haunting, existential kind of throwaway moments
that made star Trek what it is being seeded hit because.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Then she just doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, because there's like deeper There are deeper complexities as
you drill down into Starturek, which makes it very interesting
even for the period. So Pike is, you know, how
do I escape from here? He's trying to figure it out.
He can't. The aliens come over and they feed him.
It's feeding time. They give him just like a gross
(21:34):
like a flagon of a gross nutrient liquid, and the
alien is like, you gotta eat that, and if you
don't eat it, we're going to torture you with various
torture illusions. And now Pike is. Now Pike is really
fascinated because he's like, why not just make me think
I'm really hungry? Yeah, you can't do that, can you? Like?
(21:59):
There must be to what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And the alien's like, why not just make him have
sex with Bena if they do that?
Speaker 3 (22:06):
But they can't, And just so this sudden, I guess.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So the Alien's like, listen, motherfucker. You keep thinking like
that and you're gonna You're gonna regret it. All of
a sudden, Pike is like, oh yeah, bitch, And then
like rushes at the glass and the alien is flinches,
and Pike is like, Aha, that's interesting, Like you got
scared when I rushed the glass. You didn't know I
(22:29):
was gonna do that. You can read my mind, but
you didn't know I was gonna do that. Aha, So
now what's really what is going on? The alien won't
stop talking about Viena, like Viena Vienavina, Like don't you
like her? Since she hot? Like do you want something else?
Like what's going on? Like what we want you to
be happy here? And we made this like very young
(22:50):
girl that is like totally interest you and why don't
you want that? And we sense that, like you're protective
towards her, so like it's got to be working on
some level. All of a sudden, Pike finds himself in
that illusion that you were talking about with Ana. He's
back on earth with his two horses and he's talking about,
oh yeah, I still go riding around here all the
(23:10):
time and YadA, YadA, YadA, And it's definitely working on Pike,
like he's getting sucked into it.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
It's kind of like, oh, well, maybe it's not too bad.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's clearly based on the conversation that he had back
with the about Rigel and the events of Rigel with
the doc and the aliens. Clearly thought, oh, here's here's
an example of him wanting to like stop being the
captain of the ship. Maybe we use that to get
him out of this, and so Pike. But Pike can't
let it go. He's talking with Viena about the illusion.
(23:38):
He's like, what are they up to? What do they want?
And Venus like, fine, okay, listen enough, I'll tell you
and then we can do weird sex shit, okay, whatever
you want. The aliens can't read like base primitive emotions
like hate. They never really expand on what other emotions.
Possibly they can't read, but definitely hate, anger, strong anger feelings.
(24:00):
You can't do it and the only like and Vena's like,
the only issue with that is like it's hard to
keep that up for a long period of time. Pike
is like, listen, Vina, you're hot as hell, okay, And
from the moment I came down to this planet, I thought,
here's like a hot twenty year old in space. And
I'm like, i gotta like I'm feeling stuff, but like
(24:24):
I'm a captain of a ship. And Vena's like, well,
you know, we can do it again for the fifteenth time.
We can do whatever you want. Yeah, and then boom.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Also, can I just say, guys, this this episode of
it sounds like a lot is happening.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It's because this pilot is over an hour long.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It's like there is there is a lot of conversation
about whether or not Pike is going to have sex
with this imaginary woman.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So then the aliens are like, Okay, let's just get
very explicit with the sexual part of this, right, So
the illusion changes to like a white person's idea of
like a near East stern like space middle Eastern court
from the medieval times, with like a green dancing woman
and music that suggests like a harem and you know
(25:10):
that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, very orientalist.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Captain Pike is sitting at at a table with these
two other like lecherousue guys who are like, oh, yeah,
I love this planet. I love coming here. It's fucking
you know anything you want, Like it's great. And then
he the guy, the guy like directly in the Pike's right,
says literally like, you know what I love about the
women on this planet? They actually like being taken advantage
(25:34):
of a holy shit, And Pike is like, he's looking
at Vena Vina is the green skinned one's because.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
She also looks like hella old when in the green
skin it's like a totally different look.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I feel like they didn't understand the nature of pikes
like innocence, Like he was being drawn to this kind
of innocent, picnic fashion.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
But it doesn't mean he's not enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I mean he's definitely getting aroused. Like it's a very
complex performance because Pike is both like trying to keep
it legit and professional, but he's also like, damn, like,
you know, I'm in space brothel with green skin alien
who wants me like and finally he's like, I gotta
(26:22):
that's it. I'm leaving. So he leaves the like dance area,
and he's finds himself trapped all of a sudden. I
guess he was like going to storm off to like
jack off in the bathroom or something it seems like,
but what it seemed like, But he finds himself trapped
and Vena' is there and she's looking at him very erotically. Meanwhile,
(26:42):
we cut to the surface. Spot A Number one are
their Their plan now is beam ourselves directly into the
base with a strike team. It's me Spot number one,
Yeoman and three others and we'll get in there with
our phasers and we'll break him out, and only Number
one and the yeoman who got yelled at earlier get
(27:04):
in and they get into a Pike cell and Pike
gets like, insanely the Vina excuse me, it gets insanely
jaeolus at me, like what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
What?
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Like I was so we were so close. I've been
working on this like he's my guy, and now you
two fucking bitches broke, ugly, ugly, broke, broke let YouTube,
dumb bitches, show up, your ruin out, I'll hang now.
The aliens show up and they're like, okay, Pike, look
at what we got you. Okay, we understand Vina. Now
(27:39):
maybe we don't know how to create the illusion right,
and she's not everything you wanted, But now we got
number one, your direct report who she's an older woman
and it seems like she has a very cold exterior,
professional exterior towards you. But guess what she fantasizes about you,
Captain Pike.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
This was wild.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Number one is like you, I can't believe you just
did that, snitches around, and then she goes to and
then they go and the yeoman who you screamed at earlier,
obviously younger, prime breeding like, and I gotta tell you this,
she loves sex.
Speaker 7 (28:16):
It's the aliens literally tell this the Christopher Pike like,
she loves sex, okay, and Pike is like, I got
a lot of.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Respect for Captain Pike in this moment, because Captain Pike
responds to none of that. He's just like, listen, when
I get my fucking hands on you, you son of
a bitch. He's like, don't be talking about those women
like that. I'm gonna fucking rig your little fucking neck
and the aliens your alien neck. Alien then sends a
(28:48):
bolt of pain through Pike's mind, like fuck off. Pike's like.
Pike then tells his number one in the Yeoman like, listen,
they can't keep your mind hateful, like they can't read that.
They can't read hate. And Number one is probably like,
believe me, I'm already there.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
She's like I'm that also as well, Like I thought
this was really interesting because then I was like, oh,
is this why they get everyone horny on the planet.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Because that like it's hard to be hateful if you're
just really horny. But yeah, I mean number one, they
ain't reading shit. She's pissed.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yes, So on the ship Spock is now in control,
and he's like, fuck number one, fuck the Yeomen, fuck Crystaler, Pike,
We're out of here, Like this is crazy. We get Federation,
we gotta go, man Federation. We are out, Captain Spock,
you can call me that now. I'm out of here. Pike. Meanwhile,
and I'm not even sure what happened here. This feels
(29:39):
like something that would have been edited. I mean, this is,
as you mentioned, a long running episode that would have
been cut down to forty two or something like that
for television. So what happens is an alien is like
crawling into the cell for unclear reasons, and Pike, who's
like sleeping, manages to catch him and fucking drags of
(30:01):
it in the cell and he starts like ringing this
alien's necks, like stop doing the fucking illusions, and the
alien's like, listen, I'll destroy your ship unless you let
me go. We can do that. We can put crazy
illusions in your cruise mind and they will destroy it
for us. Meanwhile, on the ship, the aliens are like
(30:22):
in everybody's minds and they're downloading like all the information
that they can get about the ship and Earth history
and all that Pike is then takes out his phaser
and he's like, I'm gonna fucking blow your fucking testicle
brains out, and he marches the alien of the cell
and it's like, take me back to the fucking service now.
And Pike tells Number one contact the ship, tell him
(30:44):
we escape. The alien says, listen, just stay here, okay,
pick one of these females and repopulate the planet. Like
what's the big deal? It would be great, come on,
And Pike is like, listen, send number one and Yeoman
back to the ship. Here's the deal, and I'll stay
here with Vina and we'll make it happen. So and
(31:05):
it's unclear in this moment whether he's legit or or
he's tempted, or if this is a ploy. Number one
sets a phaser to explode while he while Pike is
making this deal and is like, I'd rather us all
die than we live down here like zoo animals and
the other aliens show up and they're like, listen, we
(31:25):
have all the enterprises records and all the memories from there.
It's a crazy That species is crazy, Like they are nuts.
They don't like to live as slaves. They are very violent,
maybe too violent than what.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
We're used to.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And so the boss aliens like, Okay, we made a mistake.
You guys are too wild, like kind of crazy. You
can go like no harm, no foul, sorry about the
whole thing, but you guys can go. And Pike is like, well,
let me take Vina and if she wants to come,
and she's like, I can't. And it's unclear if wait
is she reel?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Is she like?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
What is going on with na Yeoman and Numero Uno? Back?
Go back up to the ship. Pike stays on the planet.
They look back and they're in the transporter and where
the Pike, Pike is down there just chatting up. Vina
all of a sudden turns like really old and messed up.
And it turned out that after the crash, the aliens
(32:22):
were like, we don't know what a human is. So
they like fixed her put her back together, and they
put her back together like all lumpy and shucked off,
and Pike's like, nah uglay yeah. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, and you know who, You're gonna stay here
like it's fine.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Pike is like, so Pike is like, listen, I'm gonna
go back to the ship. It was really nice meeting you.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Sorry we didn't get to me.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I had a great time with you.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
And so she walks off and then Pike like goes
to the alien and is like, listener, feel like she's
beautiful again? Can you do that for me? Like it's
really terrible.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
He's like, this is off. Shut the truth like the
macersions a guy.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, make her feel beautiful again, because I feel like
really fucking bad for her. And so Pike goes back
up to the ship and business as usual. The yeoman
comes again with the daily report and Pike yells at
her again and then she's like, but it's the report
and he's like, oh yeah, that's fucking fuck. Yeah, you're right,
(33:31):
my mom sigh you. She then as she's leaving, is like,
can I ask you, Christopher Pike, who would you have
chosen between me and number one? Wild question? What set
the back off the ship? And then Doc Haskins is
(33:52):
looking herround like what the fuck happened on this planet?
And then we go to the credits. Incredible wild Up
episode never aired, but is the historical pilot for Star Trek.
Let's go to break and then we will talk about
the themes, discuss some of the themes and the things
we saw in this.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Episode, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Okay. Very fascinating episode because I think it does a
couple of things, and I think for me, the themes
of this are really one the responsibility of leadership, Like Pike,
is it a crisis when we meet him, is it
a crisis of confidence about whether he wants to continue
doing this and whether he's the man for this job?
(34:50):
Having just lost people on rigel in a way that
makes it makes you feel like he's feeling like I
could have done should I have done something different? And
those people would still be alive. It's also a very
interesting performance from Hunter because his portrayal of Pike is
definitely like a moody Yeah, he's very handsome, but he's
(35:14):
also like generally more stressed out and on the edge
of burnout. Like he's not the kind of swashbuckling, charming
Captain Kirk that we're going to get. And I think
that's probably a note from the studio is like, make
this guy less like existentially troubled. And then I think
(35:37):
quite clearly the role of women in society in the workplace, Yeah,
all over this because you're clearly not meant to think
when Pike flips out on the Yeomen and says women
should be on the bridge, you're not meant to be
agree with him, because everything in this episode tells you
that Pike's wrong about that. Like Number one is great
(35:57):
take when she takes over the ship, she plays a
id role in rescuing Pike, even though we then go
to There's also this other layer where the show also
doesn't really interrogate whether women have any other value besides
being hot.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
No, there's a huge part.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And I also think that the stuff with my Gel
and playing Number one is really interesting because it is
this duality of Gene Roddenbury being like, yeah, women are
sexy and men want to fuck them, and that's really important.
But also when Number one takes over, there is like
no fanfare, no hype.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
She just does it. She has good ideas, and I think.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
That there was something there that he would he really
wanted to explore, and so did Margel probably. But interestingly,
I think there's two things here that tell us a
lot about where NBC was at, because there are multiple
characters who are set up here as could have taken
over from Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike. Obviously number one
(37:04):
is one of them, but NBC had actually asked her
to be removed when they reshot the pilot because they
said no one would believe a woman could hold the
position of second in command. Now, honestly, sure, crazy thing
to say at the time, but we get it and
led to you know, different kinds of casting, including Michelle
Nichols as Yes, the communications officer Hura that would you know,
(37:28):
change American TV forever and even inspire Martin Luther King.
But it's very interesting that even in a show where
they're having that conversation when they reshot the pilot, that
was one of the things they wanted to take out
of it.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
It's quite interesting. I also think that you know clearly
what Roddenberry is working through here too, is like, Okay,
women are entering the workforce. Mm hmm, how can we
work with them and also like not want to fuck
them like that is It's like very much part of
(38:05):
this episode is like, okay, you're two direct two of
your direct reports like wanna fuck captain, but one of
them who is like not letting on in a very
professional manner that she would ever have those thoughts and
the second one who's kind of a freak. And also
this is sixty six. He's being made, so this is
like summer of love. Stuff is like bubbling, you know,
(38:26):
the sexual revolution, the whole hippie free love thing is
like coming. And that's quite clear that the Yeoman is
meant to kind of symbolize that rising generation with for
your sexual attitudes. And you know, roden Berry, I think
is trying to say, like, okay, guys, how do you
deal with this? Women are in the workplace now? Like
what do you do? How do you how do you
(38:49):
manage these tensions that of having women here and how
do you keep it professional? And I think it was
from that perspective a really interesting episode, despite the fact
that again Pike at the end when he sees that
Vita's old, is like, you know what, uh forget it,
(39:11):
but but I love targeting.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, He's like, look, he's like, this is this is
where we're at.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And as with any old guy who made stuff, you know,
Geene Roudenbury has had his own controversies and stuff through
the years. And the truth is, look, the episode has
such a great interesting kind of complexity to those conversations.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
But ultimately at the end, it's like, well, a woman
is valuable as long as she's hot, Like she can
join the ship if she's hot.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
She can't join the ship if she's lumpy, even though
it's the twenty third century and we have a doctor,
you know, so no lumpy, no lumpy space princess here.
So yeah, it's very interesting. But I will say I
do just think like how cool.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
That this exists.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Like you can currently watch this on Paramount Plus, even
though Google results will tell you otherwise, but it is
listed on Paramount Plus as the first episode of Star Trek,
and it is so beautifully shot, it's so weird, it's
so long, Like it doesn't feel like it should have
been able to launch a series that the series that
it did. But actually when you go back and you
(40:14):
look and you watch those forty five minute episodes that
are really esoteric or later episodes, you know, the Deep
Space nine stuff where there's a lot of a hollow deck,
you know, like and lots of like Shakespearean weirdness, Like
a lot of that is seeded here by just how
unconventional it is. Jason revisiting this, what is like your
(40:37):
biggest takeaway as we step into potentially, you know, covering
the official pilot that people got to watch in sixty seven.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
That it's good sometimes studio notes are good, you know,
And that while I probably would not agree with a
lot of some of the probably many of the things
the studio critiqued about ron Berry, it created a better
(41:05):
product because it made him have to figure out how
to make a lot of these complex and very cutting
edge societal sociological ideas more palatable, more mainstream, more graspable.
And I think they did a good job of that.
Like it's impossible to not watch Pike and then ab
(41:28):
Pike with Kirk. You know, Kirk love being Kirk. There
are moments in the run of Star Trek where Captain
Kirk is like feeling the weight of being the captain,
but honestly, he loves it. That guy loves sitting in
the chair.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
I do think it's very funny that one of the
biggest takeaways they had was like, Okay, so if the
captain does get to go to an alien planet because
he doesn't work with those women, make sure he's kissing him.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Make sure he's fucking them, because because Cork is a lover,
Cork is like he's having an alien relations It's very
clear that they leaned into that aspect, right. It's like, okay,
you know, we kind of like to think where Kirk
has to choose between three women, one of whom want
to be utilusion, but what if going pike rather, but
what if going for a you know forward, the captain
(42:15):
actually you know, starts missing around with some of these aliens.
I also think that though they don't talk about the
more you know, honestly almost utopian philosophical mission of Starfleet
in this episode, you could sense it here in the
sense in the fact that, you know, the Enterprise tussles
(42:39):
with these Telosian aliens who imprison their captain and almost
make him live in a zoo with a lumpy woman, and.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
At the end of it, the humans are just like, okay,
we're leaving, like that that was that happened, and it's
a clash of cultures and societies. But there's no reason
to like nuke your whole planet, like live and let live.
We're at Eagre and see you later. It was a
misunderstanding basically, and that ethos will be much further distilled
(43:11):
in the actual Star Trek. Well, they talk about like
what the mission is and to your point, as you
talked about earlier, like how important the mission is of
it's a mission of peace, et cetera, and of studying
life across the galaxy in the universe, but not like interfering,
and you get a sense of that here, whereas in
any other kind of space adventure of the era this
(43:34):
would lead to like, Okay, blow the.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Step, come up, hut it up, or put them in
space prison or something. So I like that you pointed
out Also, I mean, I think this is well known
by this point, but hey, if you're on this track
through track with us, we do now have a new
version of Captain Pike, who was inspired by the Cage,
who is in strange in your world's played by Anson
(43:57):
might Mount, and the ideas that us seeing the Pike
era explorations that occurred before Kirk. So I also like
that now this is very clinical and has even been expanded,
And that would happen because they would recut some of
the pilot to act as flashbacks to kind of explain
(44:17):
away some of it with Jeffrey Hunters, some of it
not because Jeffrey Hunter was like, nah, I've done one pilot.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
I want to do movies and just turn them down.
So and of course that gave us William Shattner.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
But yeah, if this sounds interesting and you want to
see more from your kind of introverted, strange sexy pike,
well guess what that.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Is very much the world of Strange New World.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
So that's one of the newest Star Trek series that
is taking from this classic episode.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Let's take a quick break and we'll be back with
the back matter.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
A quick history of this pilot, and.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
We're back. Some quick facts about the Cage. The Cage
does not begin as you noticed it, as we talked
about with the iconic Star Trek mission statement on the
five year journey to explore Strange New World, seek out
new life and civilizations at Boldigo, where nowhere no man
has gone before. That would be for the actual first pilot.
(45:29):
The aired pilot of Star.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Trek NBC began filming the Cage on November twenty seven,
nineteen sixty four. Hilariously, they would then go on to
cool the pilot to cerebral, too intellectual, too slow, and
not enough action. Not to mention, and this is pretty
crazy cost five hundred thousand dollars for that episode.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
But you know what I got to say, Sure, wop
in price stag for the time, but guess what.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Guys looks great, really looks beautiful HC TV.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Like this shit stood up.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
I mean, this kind of tells you how how Titanic
television was at the time. It's kind of like hard
to think about now, but there were three channels period,
and so while five hundred thousand is a whopping amount
of money for nineteen sixty four, it also tells you
the kind of like resources that they were throwing around
(46:22):
Rather than rejecting the series outright after this, I guess
you could say disastrous pilot that cost five hundred thousand dollars,
the network gave notes recommissioned a second pilot, which ended
up being Where No Man Has Gone Before, which led
to the eventual series order for Star Trek, which came
in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Even though NBC never officially added we did get the
classic The Menagerie, which is one of the early Star
Trek episodes. That this would have probably been the way
that they put them on the BHS is they put
them with two episodes, so you could imagine that this
somewhere where they thought if they ever did er it,
they would double up. They recycled a law of the footage,
(47:05):
and then they actually had to hire, as I mentioned,
a guy called Sean Kenny to come back and play Pike,
because Jeffrey was like, Hey, I'm doing movies now, guys,
which I love.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
And he was like in a coma, I believe like
Sean k Well the Pike. The Pike of that version
was like brain dead, so like they you could get
away with him looking a little different. Even though NBC
never actually air The Cage of the Menagerie, took a
bunch of the footage from this episode and then cut
(47:38):
it into the existing episode that was going to air
that was now called The Menagerie. Geen Roddenberry had the
black and white workprint the sixteen millimeter from the original
thirty five millimeter negative and was able to salvage a
bunch of scenes from that for The Menagerie. This left
(47:59):
Roddenberry's copy is the only known surviving version. When the
VHS version raised his version of the Cage.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
I want to find that.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
In nineteen eighty seven, this is what I was touching
on with Bob Fernach.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Basically, he found an unlabeled film.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Canister returned it to Roddenbury and then that allowed Rodenberry
to make it possible to complete a full color version,
and the restored color version was broadcast on October nineteen
eighty eight, the first ever television airing of The Cage,
and it was hosted by Patrick strew Up.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Baba Star Trek. The original series ironically has two episodes
that count as series premiers. After the rejected pilot The Cage,
NBC premiered Star Trek on September eighth, nineteen sixty six,
with The Man Trap, in which the Starship Enterprise faced
a monster called the Salt Vampire. Very spooky episode. However,
(48:53):
while the Man Trap wasn't the first Star Trek episode there,
it wasn't supposed to be the series premiere. Star Trek's
second pilot is called Where No Man Has Gone Before,
and it was the third episode broadcast on NBC, and
the Man Trap ended up premiering first because I loved
just production stuff, so they aired it first, even though
it was supposed to go after dude, Where No Man
(49:13):
Has Gone Before?
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Such a classic bit of Hollywood chaikhaneri like we have
that with so many animated shows where we still don't
know what the official NBC version or Cartoon network version
was meant to be, and then they added, you know,
the release version. I love that kind of stuff. It's
weird as heck. Okay, so good production. Note Cage was
actually filmed at Desolu Production Studio, and Star Trek would
(49:36):
continue to film on that lot at least until the
end of sixty four.
Speaker 3 (49:42):
If you're wondering how Roddenberry kind of got.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Into TV, well, he was in Westerns, which were obviously
the biggest thing of the time before Sci Fi, and
his show was particularly inspired by NBC to ABC series
The Wagon Train from nine fifty seven to ninety sixty five,
and in his original Star Trek pitch, he actually used
(50:05):
the wagon Train as a reference. The format is wagon
Train to the Stars, the sci fi creator wrote in
his initial pitch document built around the characters to travel
to other worlds and meet the Jeopardy and adventure which
become our stories, very similar to what would become that
opening kind of spiel for Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
And that's how you do it, by the way, like
you say, hey, it's like wagon Train in space and
it worked. Morris Chapnick who became Rodenberry's assistant and was
a future longtime Paramount executive, recalled his first, uh you know,
encountering of the star trek idea, admitting that, oh, it
was the wagon train pitch, part of the pitch that
(50:47):
gave me like something to hold on to. Quote, I
know anything about outer space, but the wagon train of
the stars that I understood, and that's how it got sold.
Jane Robert or like, that's the way you do it. Well,
that's it for the pilot episode of Trek through Trek. Hey,
you want to hear more, let us know. Next up
(51:08):
on Extra Vision, we have another episode of Exit Vision
group chat with our reactions to Dan Tractorbers, Predator bad
Lands and Gearmo del Toro's Frankenstein and a little bit more.
That's it for this episode. Thanks listing, bye x ray
Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and
is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kolefman.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kauffman.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Special thanks to Saul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi Our discord moderate though
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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