THE CUTE FURRY CREATURES FROM HELL HAVE RETURNED AND NOW THEY GROW BIG!!!

 

Episode Title:  More Tribbles, More Troubles

Air Date: 10/6/1973

Written by David Gerrold

Directed by Hal Sutherland

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”, Captain Koloth, and Korax        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          David Gerrold as unnamed Ensign          Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones            

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, unnamed Federation scout ship, two unnamed robot ships

Planets: none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the USS Enterprise escorting two robot ships to Sherman’s Planet where there has been an outbreak of famine.  The robot ships are carrying shipments of the grain quintotriticale which is known to grow so well at Sherman’s planet before whatever caused this famine.  I assume whatever caused the famine had nothing to do with quintotriticale as they wouldn’t be bringing more of it if it had completely failed in just two years.  It must have been a weather-related disaster I imagine.   

Robot ships

The Enterprise gets a distress single from a Federation scout ship.  Kirk orders his ship in on the rescue.  The scout is being attacked by Klingons, the Enterprise moves in and demands the Klingons stop. The Klingons ignore them but Scotty is able to beam the pilot out of his ship before it is destroyed.   The Klingons then turn their attention to the Enterprise and in doing so release a powerful new weapon that immobilizes the Enterprise and shuts down her shields and weapons. It turns out they are fighting Captain Koloth again and he demands they surrender the pilot or prepare to be boarded.  Spock realizes that the power being used to shut them down is so draining that it also prevents the Klingon ship from doing anything offensively while they have it activated.  Kirk refuses Koloth’s demands and since they still have control of the robot ships, he sends them both at ramming speed.  The Klingons try to expand their energy weapon, but it overwhelms them and they have to shut it down.   They manage to damage one of the robot ships but our forced to retreat.

Jones with new tribbles 

With the Klingons gone Scotty can finally get the transporter to complete.  Once complete the crew are once again face to face with Cyrano Jones and his bag of tribbles.  They are quite shocked to say the least. The last they saw of him he was picking up tribbles at the K-7 space station.  Now he is free trying to sell more of them.  However, he claims that these new pink tribbles are different, they don’t multiple like the others do, they only grow fat when they consume food.  McCoy later confirms this.  When asked how he got rid of all the tribbles at the space station Jones introduces them to a “glommer.” The species that eats up tribbles rather quickly. 

The Tribble eater

Since one of the robot ships was damaged and can’t warp, the Enterprise is forced to take on the cargo.  There is so much of it that it takes up a great deal of room.  Almost every hall way in every corridor has buckets of grain.  The Klingons return and the Enterprise quickly fights them off.  They don’t try their new weapon leaving Spock to speculate that they might not be able to just yet.  During the battle the storage units of grain get knocked over and the tribbles get a feast, growing nice and big.  This new breed of tribble is creating its own level of nuisance.  In addition to that the other robot ship is damaged forcing the Enterprise to take it in tow. 

Oh no! Now its Tribble food

 

The Klingons return a third time and with their new weapon working.  With no robot ships to entrap the Klingons their ship is stuck.  When Kirk looks for suggestions, Spock says that they “might throw tribbles at them.”  This gives Kirk and idea he has Scotty use the transporter to once again take the majority of their tribble population and transport it on to the Klingon ship.  The Klingons get the surprise of their life when they head to their transporter room to invade the Enterprise only to find the transporter room overwhelmed with giant tribbles.  Koloth contacts the Enterprise and explains that they only wanted the glommer and they could keep Jones.  Kirk accepts the plan that doesn’t require that they hand over one of their citizens to their enemies. 

Fat Tribbles 

As they proceed to Sherman’s Planet McCoy discovers the truth about the new tribbles.  The giant tribbles are in fact tribble colonies.  When McCoy injects one of the giants it breaks down into tiny tribbles, however they are tribbles that have been sterilized.  The Klingons are not so lucky before the giant tribble colony broke down; its size scared the glommer.  Back on the Enterprise, Kirk tries to break up one tribble colony and gets buried in tribbles for the second time in his life, but this time no carcasses.  

Additional thoughts: After being off the air for four short years the cast was brought back to make Star Trek again, only this time in animated form.  To this we owe to the magic of re-runs! As the number of TV stations grew, they needed content.  So, they started running re-runs of shows no longer on the air. So, Star Trek returned to the small screen and it was doing so much better in the second, third, and fourth go rounds.  With its popularity growing fans started asking for new Star Trek content.  Thus, Star Trek: The Animated Series was born.

The Enterprise under attack!

Like its predecessor series, the Animated Series was aired out of order in an attempt to grab the largest audience they could.  However, as I have already established, with classic Star Trek, I am a production order person, and therefore I will be watching these for review in production order. Or as I like to call it, the true order.

The Klingon ship under command of Koloth

So, I generally enjoyed episode, I did notice some animation errors, like Mr. Scott having a mustache randomly appear on his face and go away.  Also, at one point Scotty had a captain’s rank insignia on his sleeves.  Speaking of rank insignia when did Dr. McCoy get his promotion? He is wearing commander stripes throughout the episode. I kept expecting them to revert to his normal lt. commander stipes but it never happened.  I haven’t seen this series since I was a kid so I am interested to see if that tiny detail stays.

McCoy in a commander's uniform!

It is telling that the first episode they decide to make upon their return is a sequel episode.  Nothing says “we’re back to continue what we started” like the follow up to an earlier story.  Considering how popular the original “The Trouble with Tribbles” was it was a great decision to start there.  They have had a sequel episode before with “I, Mudd” from season 2 to follow up “Mudd’s Women” from season 1.  You could argue “The Menagerie” was but I don’t consider a Part 2 a sequel just the second part and “The Cage” to which the episode was following never aired.  

I really enjoyed the battle with the Klingons.  It was fun and exciting.  It also showed off Kirk’s skill as a tactician with his use of the robot ships and the tribbles against the Klingons.  Poor Koloth, twice he messed with Captain Kirk and his Enterprise crew and each time walked away with ship invested with tribbles. How insulting for such a proud warrior.  You don’t mess with the best Koloth!

The Klingons’ new weapon was interesting but I also like how the plot disposes of it.  Otherwise, we would wonder every time we see them why they aren’t using it.  The power drain and the fact that it seemed to paralyze the user as well as the victim earn it a spot on the failed inventions list.

Poor Captain Kirk once again buried in tribbles.  That was a very funny easter egg that I greatly enjoyed.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

THE TV SHOW THAT NEVER WAS

 Episode Title:  Assignment: Earth  

Air Date: 3/29/1968

Written by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley and Rocket Base Technician    Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Robert Lansing as Gary Seven          Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln       Don Keefer as Cromwell        Morgan Jones as Colonel Nesvig               Bruce Mars as First Policeman         Ted Gehring as Second Policeman              Paul Baxley as Security Chief           Barbara Babcock as Beta 5 Computer  and Isis (voice)              Bob Johnson as                 Ground Control (voice)            Edwin Rochelle as  Man With Newspaper April Tatro as Cat Girl

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Earth

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is in orbit around Earth in year 1968. (Present time when this episode aired.)  They have come back not by accident nor are they on a mission to fix the timeline from damage caused by some reckless time traveler.  No, they are here strictly to do historical research.  Historians of the 23^rd century are curious to how exactly Earth survived the chaotic year of 1968.  (I have to say that is amazing prediction.  Considering this aired at the end of March, Dr. King would be assassinated in less than a week with Bobby Kennedy following a few months later. 1968 was one hell of year in terms of politics, international relations, and social change.) So at these historians behest the Enterprise took a slingshot around the sun to come back to this famous year to see if an up close investigation will allow them to discover how the Earth survived.  Next week they should go back to the library of Alexandria to find out what caused the fire and see if they can preserve some of the ancient text.  

All of a sudden the ship begins to jerk.  It appears they have intercepted a long-range transporter beam that should not even be theoretically possible.  Kirk and Spock head down to the transporter room and witness a man materialize on the pad.  He is dressed in 20^th century clothing and has a cat named Isis.  The man introduces himself as Gary Seven and explains that he is a human from this time who is trained by advanced aliens to aid Earth in its coming crisis.  Kirk for some reason has hard time believing this, and even though he is in the past to get these types of answers, he decides to lock Seven in the brig.  Seven puts a fight and displays immunity to the Vulcan neve pinch but ultimately succumbs to Kirk’s forces.

Kirk not quite sure what to make of Mr. Seven

Kirk is having second thoughts about having Seven locked up.  He tells Spock who is taking care of the cat, that he is unsure about what to do and wants to be certain before making any decisions.  It all turns out to be an academic thought experiment because Seven takes it out of Kirk’s hands by escaping from the brig using a poor man’s psionic screwdriver.  He retrieves his cat and beams down to the surface.

  Now on Earth, Gary Seven proceeds to their headquarters to meet the agents that he is supposed to supervise.  When Seven arrives he doesn’t see his operatives anywhere.  He accesses the Beta 5 computer and identifies himself as Supervisor 194 and asks for the locations of the two agents listed as 201 and 347.  The Beta 5 demands more information to give him security clearance this leads Seven to explain his mission and what he his organization is all about.  He does this to the stratification of the Beta 5 and now the audience is aware of his complete backstory.  A woman named Roberta Lincoln enters and at first Seven thinks she is one of their operatives but it turns out she is not an agent just a secretary the agents hired. In questioning her Seven discovers that she knows absolutely nothing about who her employers actually are.  

Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln

With the Beta 5 now finally obeying him Seven discovers that his two operatives are both dead from a car accident.  He however will assume their mission and stop the launch of a nuclear satellite warhead.  With someone fake IDs created by the Beta 5 he manages to win over Ms. Lincoln.  She is also very impressed with the typewriter that responds to oral commands. 

Kirk decides to go to the surface looking for Seven.  Kirk chooses to bring Spock with him, which really seems like a poor choice considering they are in the Earth of the past.  You would think Kirk would choose one of the 400 some odd humans on the Enterprise who could probably blend in a little better?  Well Spock does have some experience in Earth’s past from last season.  Spock also explains to Kirk and the audiences about how satellites armed with nuclear warheads were such a danger in this time period.  The transporter records allow them to beam down fairly close to where Gary Seven had gone down to the surface.  They find Seven’s headquarters and barge in.  Lincoln tries to stop them but it doesn’t matter as Seven has made an escape using his own transporter.  Lincoln called in the police forcing Kirk to do some tricks with his own transporter in order to lose them. 

Kirk and Spock looking for answers!

Seven arrives at NASA and almost gets caught by some guards before pulling the wool over their eyes with his gadgets and gets to work on the rocket.  Kirk and Spock also head there but are not as lucky when it comes to not being captured.  Despite being under arrest Kirk manages to get word to Scotty to try to lock on Gary Seven.  While this is going on Lincoln is exploring the office and discovers its secrets and accidently makes their transporter bring Seven back before he was finished.  Seven is angry at Lincoln at first but realizes she prevented the Enterprise from taking him back.

Seven discovers through the Beta 5 that while his work was unfinished he may be able to take control of the rocket due to the adjustments that he did make.  This however scares poor Ms. Lincoln who thinks he is now some foreign agent who is out to harm the United States.   She hits him over the head and takes his weapon.   While this is going on Kirk is able to get Scotty to beam them directly from NASA to Seven’s apartment as the NASA personnel are responding to the rocket seemly gone rogue. 

Attempting to stop a bomb

When they get there they find there is now a serious chance this nuclear weapon will go off over Florida.  Spock doesn’t understand the Beta 5 enough to something about it in time.  Seven begs Kirk to let him help and Kirk reluctantly agrees.  Seven takes the controls and stops the nuke.  History tapes on the Enterprise show that this instance leads to a ban on nuclear weaponry in space. This makes Kirk think that everything that has happened was supposed to.  He wishes Seven and Lincoln luck as the same records show that the two of them will have many interesting adventures together.  For a moment Lincoln looks over at Isis and sees a woman in her place.  When she calls attention to her and the others turn their heads Isis is once again a cat.

Additional thoughts: This was not a Star Trek episode.  It sounds strange to say considering it is Star Trek’s season 2 final, but it isn’t a Star Trek episode.   This is a supposed to be a pilot episode to a new series called “Assignment: Earth.”  In it humans whose ancestors had left Earth with some friendly aliens some 6,000 years ago have returned with a special assignment to help Earth survive its nuclear age.  Gary Seven the main character is one such person.  The character strikes me as a type of Dr. Who-lite and he even has his own psionic screwdriver.  The pilot was rejected and so they decided to re-work it as a Star Trek episode. 

Caught at NASA

The fact that it is a pilot remade into a Star Trek episode is precisely its problem.  The Star Trek characters seemed roughly hammered in.  The crew of the Enterprise does not do anything useful and are entirely pointless to the plot.   If they had not been there Gary Seven would have gone straight to Earth, discovered his agents dead, meet Roberta Lincoln, gone to NASA before being pulled back by Lincoln, almost stopped by Lincoln until he talks her down and allows him to save the day.  Even Kirk’s point at the end about how they were supposed to be here is a poor argument.

Many adventures together just not live action!

Speaking of Kirk he is very poorly written in this episode as he comes off as almost incompetent.  If Assignment Earth was its own TV show and the Star Trek crew was guest staring I don’t think they would have won over any Assignment Earth fans.  First Kirk forgets why he is in the past. He is not on some mission to save the time line by someone who might disrupt it.  He is there to get some answers for 23^rd century historians on how Earth survived the year 1968.  When he meets Gary Seven his only real concern should be confirming he is from this time period.  Once that is confirmed then Kirk should realize whatever Seven is doing he is supposed to be doing it. In fact he now his answer to the historians question: friendly aliens who clearly don’t have a Federation-like prime directive.  The worst part is the end when Kirk tells Seven and Lincoln that he was able to confirm on his ship’s computers that everything was supposed to happen as is and all the adventures that the Seven and Lincoln will have together.  Well if he could do that then what was the whole point locking up Seven?  Kirk should have been able to find out who he was and what he was all about rather quickly.  Next time they should check their records sooner. 

Okay all working together now!

It is interesting that season 2 started with a lady that could turn into a cat in Catspaw and ends with a lady that can turn into a cat here.  Considering the problems the first one gave them we are lucky that I it was only Ms. Lincoln that saw the transformation.

So is she a cat that turns into a lady or a lady that turns into a cat!

So Starfleet has had a reasonable option for time travel for about a year now.  Instead of keeping this a super-secret they are already using it to send ships back to the past for no other point than to just check up on some things for local historians’ curiosity.  Am I the only one who finds that strange?

 FINAL GRADE 2 of 5

THE “FIRST” STAR TREK EPISODE, TAKE TWO

Episode Title:  Where No Man Has Gone Before

Air Date: 9/22/1966

Written by Samuel A. Peeples

Directed by James Goldstone

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. KIrk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             Paul Fix as Dr. Mark Piper       James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”   George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu    Gary Lockwood as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell     Sally Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner    Paul Carr as Lieutenant Lee Kelso      Lloyd Haynes as Lieutenant Alden       Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Second Class Smith       Bill Blackburn  as Lieutenant Hadley     Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Delta Vega 

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  USS Enterprise is out exploring the edge of the galaxy, an area of space unexplored by any people from Earth since SS Valiant.  Kirk gets done beating Spock at chess just as they are called away to discover they have found the Valiant’s “black box.”  On a funny note Spock mentions to Kirk that one of his ancestors was a human female.  This is funny because it is own mother, who I suppose is one’s most immediate ancestor; it just shows how Mr. Spock does like to talk about his past in vague terms.   

Kirk getting to know his First Officer

                Done with their game they head to the turbo lift.  Where they run into the star of this episode Gary Mitchell, who asks how their game went and easily picks up on Spock’s sour grapes about Kirk’s illogical game play.  Which to be frank anyone would pick up if they were in the room.  When they reach the transporter room Scotty brings the black box of the Valiant on to the ship.  Fortunately the Enterprise’s computer systems are so awesome they can work with two hundred year old computers without any interface problems what so ever.  

                On the bridge Kirk calls a meeting of the senior staff so he can stress with them the importance of their mission before announcing it to the whole crew.  On a side note, this also makes it plan to the viewer that with exception of Lt. Sulu and Lt. Cmdr. Mitchell, Kirk is visible younger than most his senior staff.  The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Piper, introduces Dr. Elizabeth Dehner who specialty is to study starship crews in stressful situations, which means if you’re on a crew and Dr. Dehner shows up it is not a good thing.  Mitchell tries to talk with Dehner but she shuts him down leading Mitchell to under his breath remark “walking freezer unit.”

                Spock downloads the Valiant’s records they discover that the Valiant at the galaxy’s edge encountered a force field.  This damaged the ship’s systems and a number of the crew were knocked unconscious.  Most of the passed our crew died but those that did not changed, Spock thought it was strange that the crew became obsessed about researching ESP.  The records end with the Captain of the Valiant given the order for the ship to self-destruct. 

Enterprise crew heading into danger and loving it!

                In the real world ESP is fake and those who claim to have it are all complete frauds but it world of Star Trek’s 23^rd century ESP is real and even documented.  Which leads me to wonder who won the million in James Randi’s famous challenge?  Kirk asked Dehner about ESP and she says she scores quite high, Kirk points out he wasn’t asking about her personally just what she knew about the subject in general, showing Dehner’s ESP skills to be somewhat lacking when put to the test.  She thinks ESP is harmless but Spock is not so sure pointing to cases where bad things could happen.  Nevertheless Captain Kirk makes the decision to go ahead as there are going to be more ships out this way and it’s their job to explore the dangers.

                As the Enterprise enters the barrier we learn that 200 more years of advance technology still can’t beat the barrier as the ship is rocked back in fourth.  They take server damage and the warp drive is shot beyond their ability to repair in space.  Several crew members, all with high esper scores, collapse.  Most die but two, Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner survive, Dehner is fine but Mitchell’s eyes have been changed to sliver.  

Mitchell is starting to like his new abilities.

                His eyes are not the only thing that has changed in sickbay Mitchell starts to experience strange sensations.   He can now read with at lighting speed photographic memory, he can tell who has come to visit him without looking , then he can see all over the ship, he can control his body functions, and he can move objects at will.  Kirk comes to see Mitchell and they talk and Kirk is pleased to see that Gary is still Gary.  However as time goes on Mitchell does seem to change.  At one point he talks down to Lt. Kelso, the helmsman who works by his side on the bridge, for failing to do his job right.  That wasn’t too bad because Mitchell was correct, but later many ship’s systems start to go haywire whenever Mitchell smiles and laughs from sickbay.

Mitchell is now becoming a growing concern!

                In the briefing room Lt. Sulu, one of the science officers, compares Mitchell’s growing power to the penny that doubles every day making a person a millionaire in month.  Kirk doesn’t want to give up on his friend and can’t bring himself to kill him.  Spock offers him another solution, the planet Delta Vega is in range of their impulse engines.  It is a fully automated mine for dilithium crystals[1] they were already headed there to salvage the crystals and equipment to repair the Enterprise once completed they can just leave Mitchell there.  Kirk doesn’t like this option either but comes realize he has no choice.

                In sickbay they manage to tranquilize Mitchell to get him unconscious long enough to get him to the transporter room and somehow gets him to stand on a transporter pad unconscious.   They beam to the surface where Mitchell is contained in a brig with a force field preventing him from escaping.  Mitchell attempts to break the force field only to be driven back.  For a moment his eyes turn back to normal before the power overtakes him again.  As a precaution Kirk has Lt. Kelso rig a self-destruct for the station as a last minute attempt if Mitchell were to escape.  Mitchell uses his telekinesis to strangle Kelso so he can’t use it.  Mitchell was now powerful enough to bring down the force field.  Tormenting Kirk with the statement “command and compassion is a fool’s mixture” and with a new electro blast power he knocks everyone out, except Dr. Dehner who now joins him with her eyes as silver as his.

Two for the price of one!

                When Kirk is awakened by Dr. Piper, he might have chosen to cut his losses.   The Enterprise was repaired and ready to go.  Mitchell had now apparently accepted exile and Dr. Dehner who had already expressed a desire to stay was with him.  However that is not what makes Captain Kirk Captain Kirk.   He now realized how wrong he had been.  Exile wasn’t going to stop Mitchell it was just going to help him build more power.  Not knowing the Dehner was equally affected, he feels he can still save her.  Ordering Piper back to the ship with orders for Mr. Spock to leave if they don’t hear from him in twelve hours and request Starfleet subject the planet to a lethal dose of radiation.  In the previous episode Number One used a laser cannon against entities who were masters of illusion, Kirk grabs a phaser rifle and heads after an entity who can alter matter with thought for real.

                Altering matter is just what Mitchell is doing, with Dr. Dehner at his side; he makes planets and water appear from dessert.  As they eat and drink from Gary’s new environment the two sense Captain Kirk coming.  Dehner goes out to confront Kirk, who is horrified at her new condition.  Nevertheless Kirk tries to reach her explaining the Mitchell’s mind has become warped reminding her how he mocked compassion, something that even a god needs.

                Mitchell, sensing that Kirk is actually getting to Dehner appears before them to confront his captain.  Kirk proves helpless before Mitchell’s power.   Mitchell torments the man who was once his best friend even going so far to make a grave for him that gets his middle initial wrong.  While this is happening Kirk continues to appeal to Dehner asking if she likes what she sees.  She doesn’t and turns on Mitchell and the two blast each other with their power.  Dehner passes out but Mitchell is drained.

                With his opponent’s power down Kirk lashes into Mitchell with his fierce fighting skills.  Attacking with grace and speed that must have made Muhammad Ali green with envy as he watched this as it came on air; Kirk starts a beat down on Mitchell.   Mitchell recovers and with fighting skills of equal grace fights Kirk to a standstill long enough for his power to restore.  Kirk is knocked back to where his phaser rifle is.  This is no big deal to Mitchell for he has involved beyond phaser fire.  Kirk however bets he hasn’t evolved beyond giant rocks falling on him and blasts the rock formation behind him.  Kirk is right and a giant rock falls down and crushes the would-be-god.  Kirk goes to check on Dehner but she dies of her injuries.

                On the bridge of the Enterprise Kirk notes that Dehner and Mitchell died in the performance of their duty, pointing out that Mitchell didn’t ask for what happened to him.  Spock in solidarity with Kirk says he felt for him to which gives Kirk hope for Mr. Spock.

Additional thoughts:  Where The Cage failed is Where No Man Has Gone Before succeeded.   The second pilot was the one that made studio heads want to climb on board.   Both had compelling stories but was the second pilot that brought the exciting action of Captain Kirk phaser blasting a mountain down on top of Gary Mitchell. 

It was also an unfortunate small win for bigotry; the studio was satisfied that there was no “annoying” female First Officer to take command of men while the Captain was off fighting for his life.  Fortunately, it was professional woman Dr. Dehner, who resists the temptation of power, turns of Mitchell opening a window for Captain Kirk to seize victory. 

"If you're going to kill me can you at least spell my name right?"

This episode is one of the primary reasons I prefer production order to air dates for the original series.  As most know the original series aired out of order.   Most Star Trek episodes are self-contained reducing the importance of what order the episodes are seen in.  However it doesn’t always work and Where No Man Has Gone Before is one of those examples.   The main reason is the relationship between Captain Kirk and Lt. Cmdr. Mitchell.

In the episode it is explained that Kirk first met Mitchell when he was a lieutenant and instructor at Starfleet Academy and Mitchell was his top student.  Mitchell would follow Kirk for the rest of his career finally ending up with Kirk as Captain of the Enterprise with Mitchell as a lieutenant commander, chief navigator, and I also suspect Second Officer after Spock.  Traditionally in Star Trek the Enterprise chain of command goes Kirk, Spock, and then Scotty.  But with Mitchell having an equal rank as Spock and Scotty and serving on the bridge, it would more sense for Mitchell to be after Spock.  Also given the relationship between Mitchell and Kirk, the Captain might have wanted for Mitchell to be the next in line.  Scotty replace Mitchell in that spot after the later's death. 

The friendship between Kirk and Mitchell helped the two men cancel each other’s weaknesses.   Kirk taught Mitchell to be a great Starfleet officer and to fly up the ranks of the service.  Mitchell helped turn Kirk from a “stack of books with legs” to a social charmer and ladies’ man.  Traits that are traditionally associated with Captain Kirk.  This works because the audience is never to have seen Kirk before, or if they have they go in knowing, as I did, that this episode was his first appearance.  Knowing this was first time William Shatner ever performed the role makes it easier to accept the information that is fed to you about Kirk and Mitchell’s relationship.  If you see this as the third episode it creates the question of: if Mitchell was so important where was he the first two episodes?  It is generally considered cheap to create a character in already established show make it seem important just to kill him off.  And I don’t think Gary Mitchell was cheap.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5     

---

[1] Still known by their old nickname of ‘lithium’.

THE “FIRST” STAR TREK EPISODE, TAKE ONE

Episode Title:  The Cage

Air Date: Did not air publicly, it was made in 1964 and screened by NBC in February 1965

Written by Gene Roddenberry

Directed by Robert Butler

Cast: Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike          Majel Barrett as Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley         Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Spock             John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce       Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José Tyler        Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Second Class J. M. Colt       Clegg Hoyt as Transporter Chief Pitcairn      Ed Madden as Enterprise Geologist            Adam Roarke as C.P.O. Garrison              Susan Oliver as Vina             Meg Wyllie as The Keeper           Malachi Throne as The Keeper (voice)         Georgia Schmidt as the First Talosian            Robert C. Johnson as the First Talosian (voice)         Serena Sande as the Second Talosian         Jon Lormer as  Dr. Theodore Haskins            Leonard Mudie as the Second Survivor            Anthony Jochim as the Third Survivor               Michael Dugan as The Kaylar                 Robert Phillips as Space Officer (Orion)              Joseph Mell as Earth Trader

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Talos IV

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The first scene opens on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, the crew notice sensor reading of some unknown object out in space but they can’t pick it up on their view screen.  It turns out that it wasn’t an object at all but a radio waive designed to fool ship sensors to think it was an object.  Captain Pike says that it was an old-fashioned distress call that was designed to track attention.  Spock is able to trace the signal to planet Talos IV.   He reports that is an M class planet[1] and it is possible that there are survivors.   Pike however doesn’t think this is likely given that the message was very old.  Whoever sent it probably died or was rescued long ago.  Pike said they had their own “sick and wounded” and decided they should stay on course to the starbase they were already headed for.  Once that was settled they could come back just in case.  Pike then nearly snaps at Yeoman Colt for doing her job.  He shares a joke with his First Officer about him not being use to “having a woman on the bridge.”  This must be a private joke between them seeing as there are plenty of women in Starfleet and Number One herself is a woman.  But whatever the joke is I don’t get it.

The Bridge of the Enterprise for the first time.

                Captain Pike suddenly realizes he is being way too dark and moody to stay on the bridge and decides to go be dark and moody in his quarters instead.  While there he calls the Doctor to come see him.  Not because he is sick but because he knows Boyce will bring booze.  Doctor Boyce brings the booze and Pike pretends to be surprised.  The two drink and Pike starts crying in his martini  about how his last mission went and how he lost people under his command.  He feels guilty and wants to quit his job and go retire back to Earth or become a merchant.  He wants to do something other than what he is doing, while the Doctor thinks he just needs a vacation.   Just then a call from Mr. Spock interrupts their drinking to tell them they have located survivors.  It’s a good thing that Pike only had one drink because now he has to organize a landing party.

"How dare you do your job in front of me Yeoman Colt!"

"So I heard you were being a dink on the bridge?"

                Captain Pike organizes his landing party and leaves Number One in command of the Enterprise.  The away team uses the transporter, a mode of transportation that would become the staple of the series being used for the first time.   They transport far enough way as not to startle the survivors and then they walk to the camp.  When they get there they find a group of old scientists and a young beautiful woman named Vina.  

                Pike really likes Vina and she feels similarly about him.  She is not at all shy coming outright and saying what a fine specimen of a man he is.  The lead scientist explains Vina was a child when they landed and she spent her whole life among aging scientists.

                While everyone is packing up, Vina takes Pike over the hill.  Pike probably thinks he is about to get lucky and is completely unaware of these large headed Talosians who have been watching him this whole time.   In an instant the camp and all its survivors disappear.  One of the Talosians appears from under the hill and zaps Pike with a weapon knocking him out.  They take him underground while the remaining landing party, led by Lts. Spock and Tyler try to free him by blasting the hill with their hand lasers, but to no avail.   

Vina wants that fine specimen of a man she is looking at!

"You can't take our Captain!  Oh, you can."

                When Pike wakes up he finds himself in a cage in what appears to be a zoo.  The Talosians come out to examine him and they communicate using thought patterns that even Pike can here.  Despite Pike being able to understand their form of communication the Talosians seem to be talking more at him than with him as they regard him as some sort of creature for their entertainment.  Pike demands to know what is going on and what their plans are and the Talosians think that is funny.   The one known as “the Keeper” shows off his telepathic skills by predicting what Pike will do before he does it.  They leave and Pike is placed in an illusion putting him back on Rigel VII where he had been weeks before.   It was in this place that he had his disastrous mission and members of his crew died.  Here Vina, the same woman from before but with a new dress and longer hair, is acting as the damsel in distress who Pike must protect.  Pike defeats the Rigelian warrior just like he did in real life, then he is back in the cage with Vina.  He tries to get information out of Vina but she speaks to him in riddles.

  

                Back on the Enterprise Number One takes command with the determination that would terrify studio executives and test audiences alike.  A woman in command of men?!?  Even women in test audiences wondered why she wasn’t allowing one of the boys to take charge.  While the senior staff discusses options Boyce tries to continually warn them what they are facing beings that can read their minds and create illusions so powerful they are like reality.  He echoes what Vina told Pike, even if it is not real they will still feel it. 

                Number One ultimately decided on the old US Grant belief that doing something was always better than doing nothing.  And a giant laser cannon powered by a starship’s engines is an awful lot of something!   However as they continue to blast the top of the hill nothing happens, or as the Doctor says maybe something did happen but they aren’t able to notice. 

                While his crew was blasting a big rock with lasers, Captain Pike continued his adventure in his cage of make believe.  The one consistent thing in each fantasy is the beautiful Vina who Pike comes to believe must also be real and prisoner like him.  She advises him on how to deal with their captors but also begs him to comply warning they can be punished with their own nightmares brought to life.  The Talosians are pleased as Pike becomes protective of Vina. 

                They are given different fantasies to try out.  In one fantasy the couple is put in an ideal domestic situation where they are husband and wife, who live on Earth, and ride out on Pike’s horses for daily picnic lunches.   When Pike starts calling it out for not being real it causes Vina to think she has figured out what is bothering Pike.  She rationalizes why none of the previous fantasizes worked for him.  Everything so far was pulled from his memories places he has been to before, where a person’s fantasy is about what they cannot or should not have.   With that the world transforms and Pike is now a wealthy merchant trader and Vina is dancing Orion slave girl.  This works for a moment but Pike then tries to leave with Vina following him.

Vina a damsel for Pike to save!

Vina a wife for Pike to love!

Vina a sexy slave girl for Pike to what ever he wants with.

                In his conversations with Vina, Pike starts to learn something about his captors.  At first he thought they captured him for their entertainment purposes to live experiences through him.   Vina tells him that the Talosians use to live on the surface but a horrible war brought them underground.  Pike reasoned the found physical life limited so instead they concentrated on their mental power.  Over time they become the big-headed masters of illusions.   Vina says it’s a trap that they are stuck living the experiences of others and have forgotten how to work the machines of their ancestors.   Then Pike learns the actual reason he was captured: they don’t want him to entertain them they want to rebuild their civilization with Vina. 

                Vina tries to explain that they are to be like Adam and Eve.  With that knowledge Pike has discovered an undeniable truth.  For all their telepathy and illusion making powers, the Talosians are an exceptionally stupid people.  They are so dumb that it is arguable that in the first episode Star Trek introduced us to the stupidest creature they would ever create.  As one later Star Trek character would say “How can you be so dumb with heads like that?”  

                It is really hard to conceive how stupid the Talosians, as a group, would have to be in order to believe that they could create and entire planetary population with just two people.  Why did they believe this?  Because Vina told them the story of Adam and Eve?  Did they find a copy of the Bible on the ship she crashed in?  Did they read the rest of it?  I assuming not since they didn’t try steal one of Pike’s ribs to grow a woman. 

                With the Vina not winning Pike over the Talosians grow more desperate.   As the crew of the Enterprise attempts another landing party the Talosians arrange that only Number One and Yeoman Colt are transported down right into Pike’s cage.  This actually is a better idea in terms of creating a world population.  If Pike reproduces with three women at least the next generation will only be required to marry half-siblings and not full ones.  However the Talosians are not thinking this way they expect Pike to choose between them. 

More women to reproduce with right idea

Vina understands and is angered by Talosians bringing in the new women.  She berates both of them leading Number One to mention that she went over Vina’s ship manifest and the only Vina in there was an adult.  As she begins to do the math the Keeper and his agents show up.  He demands Pike makes a choice and he begins to compare the new arrivals.  The Keeper points to Number One’s intelligence as good reason to choose her because she will provide intelligent offspring.  The Keeper also points out Number One often has him as the object of her fantasies.  He then mentions that the Yeoman also fantasizes about him and that she has “usually strong female drives.”

As the Keeper exposes the secret crushes of the Enterprise women I can hear in the back of my mind Dave Bautista’s voice “HA!! He just exposed your deepest darkest secret.”  It also leads me to wonder: what are Yeoman Colt’s strong female drives?  She always looks very meek and innocent as if a strong wind could probably blow her over.  Considering this is her one and only appearance it’s a shame we will never be able to find out.

Number One and Yeoman Rand had hand lasers that were set aside for being drained of power.  As Pike and his trio of women sleep however the Keeper himself sneaks in the cage and tries to steal them.  Pike however catches him, the Keeper tries make himself appear as a creature but Pike isn’t buying it.  Pike then tries one of the lasers on his cage.  When it doesn’t work he points it at the Keeper’s head explaining he thinks the lasers are working  but they are keeping them from seeing it.   The Keeper gives in but it is all just a ruse to the prisoners to the surface so the baby making and world building can begin.  This scene once more demonstrates the Talosians intelligence and stupidity, they are smart enough to lure their prisoners to the surface but dumb enough that they still think Pike can choose one of the females and start a civilization. 

Number One startles the Talosians by setting her laser to self-destruct that and when they scanned the Enterprise’s data base they also found the humans incompatible with captivity.  With this the Talosians give up and decided to let Pike and humans go.  Vina, however, tells Pike that she cannot leave with them.  As the two other women beam back up to the ship, the Talosians show Pike why Vina couldn’t go.  Now if you thought the Talosians were dumbest creatures in the galaxy going into this you discover that there is a level of stupidity in the Star Trek universe that you didn’t even know was possible.  Vina isn’t young and beautiful.  She was a young woman when her ship crashed and she had barely survived the Talosians helped as best they could but as they had never seen another human, and weren’t too particularly bright to begin with, all they ended up with was a mutilated Frankenstein type woman. 

So the Talosians thought they could create an entire planetary population with one healthy man and one horrible disfigured and mutilated middle aged woman!  "Everything works" according to Vina but with all due respect how can she know?  She hasn’t had much of an opportunity to become pregnant and I wouldn’t trust the word of Talosians.  Not because I thought they were lying but because they are not smart meaning they are probably just wrong .

The Talosians were betting their future on this woman's reproductive capabilities.  

Pike asks them to return Vina’s illusion of youth and beauty.  They do that and give her a fantasy Captain Pike to live with.  Pike doesn't seem bothered by that.  Pike returns to the Enterprise refusing to reveal Vina’s secret.  He goes back to snapping at his crew and being just as dark and moody as before.  Okay so maybe he is bothered by it. 

Additional thoughts: The Cage is an exciting episode with lots of twists and turns.  It is still clearly a prototype.   I can’t say it is the foundation of the series (I would consider that to be the early aired episodes of the first season) but it clearly starts to dig the foundation.   In this episode we see the heroic Captain Pike matched up against a powerful but not very bright opponent. 

 

                I suppose the reason that Pike never points out the obvious ridiculousness of the Talosians proposal to them is he is unsure what they will do to him if they discovered he and Vina were useless to their plans.  Either that or it might have something to do with the Bible Belt being central to ratings they didn’t want to seem as mocking.  Having a demon-eared science officer and woman first officer was hard enough. 

                Speaking of those two when trying to salvage the series those they were the first ones the studios want to jettison.   Rodenberry fought hard for both of them and the studio offered him one.  Classic Trek lore has it, according to Leonard Nimoy, the event was settled when Roddenberry chose to keep the Vulcan and marry the woman because he couldn’t do it the other way at least not legally.

                In comparison to the rest of the series some ways this episode was more advanced socially when it comes to women.  We have a woman as the second in command who takes charge when the Captain is kidnapped.  In other ways it was less, I didn’t see any people of color on this ship and even if I missed them all the speaking roles were with white characters. 

                Some good detail was when the Enterprise's computer was being scanned you see the last three US Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson in sequential order.  Since the Talosians were looking through historical records going back centuries they probably should have spent some time on the biography of King Charles II of Spain or King Tutankhamun of Egypt.  That way they could have learned incest was bad.  

                I first saw this episode when I was thirteen, my best friend’s father had all the original episodes on tape.  I remember how excited I was after I saw the Orion slave girl dance scene.  I think it has something to do with the late Susan Oliver’s natural sexiness.  As an adult I would really like to walk into a strip club and hear that number that I refer to simply as the “Orion Slave Girl music,” because I don’t know its actual name, playing over the speaker with real exotic dancers dancing to it.  "Wouldn't you say its worth a man's soul?" It is on my bucket list, if I had one.     

                Even with its short comings The Cage is a great part of Trek lore and a worthy start to the series.

FINAL GRADE:  (3 of 5)

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[1] M class is the Star Trek phrase for planets that can support life such as Earth.