Star Trek has turned 60. "The Man Trap" first aired in Canada on 6 September 1966 and in the US two days later. To mark the occasion, albeit a day late as I was watching Strange New Worlds, I watched the first pilot of the show made in 1964, called "The Cage". A good chunk of the material here was later used in the two-parter "The Menagerie", but this is the first time I've seen it in its original form.
My honest opinion? It's like I'm watching something from the 1950s, not the 1960s. The whole look of the show - big TV screens, paper reports, the uniforms etc. looks less refined and futuristic than the series itself would. The characters on-screen are entirely white with one exception, a transporter assistant with no lines. I'm reminded of White Christmas of all things. Even the much-parodied Orion slave girl scene has a rather white-looking Middle East.
Here, Jeffrey Hunter plays Christopher Pike, the role Anson Mount portrays in Strange New Worlds - and I don't like him. He's a male chauvinist with an excessively abrasive personality and a willingness to threaten violence that isn't countered by the charm that William Shatner has as Kirk... or indeed Mount has as Pike.
Majel Barrett as Number One - we don't get a fuller name for her here - is too cold and withdrawn. Would she sing karaoke in Klingon? I think not, even if she does fantasise about Pike. Not my cup of tea.
The best character of the lot - the only one kept to the main series - is Spock... and his eyebrows are pretty extreme here, not helped by the shorter haircut.
The plot is arguably the best thing about it, although I did think of Moopsy, but the resolution is if anything too pessimistic and frankly ableist. We also get an attempt at end of episode comedy that doesn't work at all, because all the characters are too frosty.
Conclusion
There's some interesting ideas here, but I am glad NBC asked for a second pilot and a retooling of the show. Shame we lost Number One, but we got so many better characters as a result.
5/10
