Space, the whitest frontier (Review: 'Star Trek' Pilot: "The Cage")

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Majel Barrett as Number One - we don't get a fuller name for her here - is too cold and withdrawn.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

'Star Trek' Table Read for Writers Guild Foundation

 

I watched this on Saturday in full - it covers not only "The Man Trap", the first broadcast episode of the show, but we also get "Mudd's Passion" from TAS. The special guests are some pretty big names in the SFF business as well.

Fiona Dourif was definitely the campest performer there - having seen clips of her in the Child's Play franchise, the woman definitely knows how to consume scenery. A great deal of fun all round.

You can buy it here for the next week or so for just $20 - it goes to a good cause too.

Review: 'Star Trek: The Animated Series' Season 1, Episodes 11 to 16

I'll be reviewing these six here, before moving onto the six episodes of Season 2 in another post.

11. The Terratin Incident

I must admit that when I saw the description of this one, I was expecting it to be a bit silly, but it actually worked very well indeed. It's a classic Trek concept - nasty thing happening to the Enterprise is in fact means of communication by a group with no other way of getting their message across. The concept is one that would fall over in live-action even today, but works very well in animation form. Mostly - sometimes the cheapness is still there. They definitely have some interesting lab animals too!

9/10

12. The Time Trap

Watching this Enemy Mine-style episode, where the Enterprise has to work with a Klingon vessel to get out of a space Bermuda Triangle, I had a distinct memory of reading a comic like this at primary school. Now that was many years ago. Indeed, I did - there's a similar, but not identical, plot from the Gold Key comics - published the year before! The episode in itself is pretty mediocre - the voice acting of the guest characters (Nichelle Nichols doing three of them!) is pretty poor, the twists unsurprising when they come and some logic issues that also turn up. One particular amusing moment is the sudden cut to the aftermath of an Orion dance we don't see - this was a U-rated show!

6/10

13. The Ambergris Element

Frankly, this one is rather silly. We've got rather quick mutations, the Enterprise being able to predict and influence quakes via phaser, documents holding up fine after centuries underwater, underwater creatures in silly outfits with more flat voice acting and a shuttle that can also be a submarine. Also, people taking a very long time to suffocate. Also, ambergris is basically whale laxative!

4/10

14. The Slaver Weapon

Now, I've most definitely heard of Larry Niven, but I hadn't known that he'd adapted a short story of his into an episode of this show. Only featuring Spock, Scotty and Sulu, this seems them investigating a "stasis box" and having to keep its contents out of the hands of the Kzinti, a cat-like alien race that Niven used extensively in his Known Space universe; although one also became a regular character in Lower Decks. A master of the genre, Niven's tale is far better than the sum of its parts (which include a pink spacecraft, possibly as Hal Sutherland was colour-blind) and his stuff here about AI is actually a good idea. One of the best of the run.

9/10

15. In the Eye of the Beholder

When I saw the description, I immediately thought of Moopsy, one of the most memorable creatures from Lower Decks. This is not that zoo; the owners are clearly smarter enough not to house that thing, although not smart enough to use writing or realise they're dealing with sapient life quite quickly. Then again, we had "human zoos" in the 20th century, so we can't exactly complain. A well-written tale with some interesting plot mechanics to get around the limited budget, which is obvious when you see Kirk speaking.

8/10

16. The Jihad

A high-concept affair involving the search for a missing religious artefact where Kirk and Spock have to work together with a variety of aliens - and a human woman with a thing for Kirk. However, this one is badly let down by the execution; the creatures are unconvincingly even in animation, there's some real logic holes here and the twist comes out of nowhere like a massive slam on anteaters. Would you have this title today?

6/10

Review: 'Star Trek: The Animated Series' Season 1, Episodes 1 to 10

1. Beyond the Farthest Star

This episode sees the ship far out in space where it encounters a long-dead starship stuck in orbit around a dead star. With another alien entity hijacking the ship and foiled again by Kirk's tactical genius, it's very Trek by numbers, just animated in what seems to be a rather cheap style. 

6/10

2. Yesteryear

While an interesting exploration of Vulcan youth, it's rather let down by a casual approach to the bootstrap paradox and time travel more generally. Also, more by a rather flat performance by 9-year-old Billy Simpson. Not his fault; his audition tape was used in the final cut, seemingly to save the cost of a 2nd recording session!

6/10

3. One of Our Planets is Missing

A race against time that goes rather quickly - there's some rather quick jumps in the course of single scenes - and the cheapness is rather obvious. Getting the computer to do the voice of the space cloud means that you don't have to hire a guest actor for one thing. This said, it's a well-written story overall and would have worked well as an audio drama. I did find myself wondering if they were planning to fly out the cloud's backside, which isn't something I thought I would write.

7/10

4. The Lorelei Signal

Another classical reference, although I had to actually look it up to see what it was - a 'siren' living in the rock of the same name on the Rhine in Germany. This is definitely an engaging episode, although possibility a bit clichéd and arguably sexist too in a way. What saves it a great deal is Uhura, who stands up and takes command when white-haired beautiful aliens aim to steal the lifeforce from the mostly helpless men. I'm reminded of "Hathor" from Stargate SG-1, where a similar thing happens - also of a few episodes of Doctor Who as well.

7/10

5. More Tribbles, More Troubles

Tribbles made for one of the most memorable episodes of The Original Series and have made no less than 20 appearances in the franchise to date, even if only as a cameo. The reappearance of Cyrano Jones, Stanley Adams, reprising his role, is admittedly somewhat limited by the cheap animation, but the whole thing is rather made up for by an excellent plot, with some clever Kirk tactics, some great humour ("throw tribbles at them") and the Klingons having a rather valid reason for their actions. A lot of fun all round.

9/10

6. The Survivor

The crew pick up a long-lost philanthropist by the unusual name of Carter Winston (voiced by an uncredited Ted Knight) - and just happens to have his fiancée on board. It turns out that Winston is definitely not what he appears and the Enterprise ends up in a pretty sticky situation, which Kirk manages to expertly get his way out of. Not the best episode of the run (especially in its depiction of the fiancée) but it still works pretty well. Spock gets an excellent zinger at the end.

7/10

7. The Infinite Vulcan

Filmation were too tight to hire Walter Koenig and have Chekov appear in this series, but they did have him write an episode. It's a story in scope that would stretch the budget of even the modern show and would require extensive Volume work to realise there. In animation that can be done much cheaper. It's actually a pretty good one too - with a tie-back to the Eugenics Wars, the second reference to "Indefinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" (a mantra of the franchise) and Sulu having a lot to do as well.

8/10

8. The Magicks of Magas-Tu

[My entry here got lost somehow and I can't find my notes about this one. I recall I made jokes about "Sympathy for the Devil. If I find them I will edit this.]

9. Once Upon A Planet

A sequel to "Shore Leave" from Season 1 of TOS, which I reviewed here. This episode, with creatures created as a resort of thoughts from the characters interpreted by a computer with a misguided impression of its visitors, put me rather in mind of Rick & Morty. Of course, that show would do it in a rather different manner and with far more crudity. We actually get a pretty decent episode here, with everyone getting something useful to do. Although who wears uniform on shore leave?

8/10

10. Mudd's Passion

I'm not a fan of love potions, which I consider a fancier form of GHB. So, I wasn't disposed to this story involving one Harcourt Fenton Mudd (dressed like he's heading for a discotheque) as soon as it started heading that way. It's a pretty poor Nurse Chapel, as she does something that I am pretty sure the SNW version of her would never do and the whole plot involves a couple of vials of liquid somehow managing to affect an entire ship that should have toxin protections in its life support system. Mudd does not turn up again until Discovery in 2017, which makes sense as most of the later shows are set long after he would have died.

3/10 

Update - February 2026

I am continuing to work my way through Star Trek: The Animated Series, but the other Star Trek series on at the moment, which is actually pretty good, is limiting my time for that. I might put up a post when I hit episode 10, so you at least get some content.

I've got some stuff on Netflix that I really ought to finish off that's been partly watched for years. One thing that's not been on there for years and which I might review is a Korean show called Agents of Mystery.

Blog updates

I'm continuing to work my way through Star Trek: The Animated Series - I may end up releasing the reviews for the first half of Season 1 when I get through that. Make things a bit shorter and quicker in posts there.

Also, a review of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2 episode is planned. I have yet to decide which one for certain.

Freaky Friday Finale (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.24, "Turnabout Intruder")

It's taken me over 11 years, but I have watched all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek, not counting "The Cage". I note that my original post in 2015 had me planning to watch "The Cage" after finishing Season 1, but I managed to completely forget about that, probably due to some changes with on-demand video service.

I am going to come back to that after I've done The Animated Series and so close out the TOS era on TV, which will, along with the rest of the Star Trek reviews going forward, be done via a single combined review for each season with a paragraph dedicated to each episode. These things do take a while to write.

So, we've seen strange studio worlds, sought out odd life and unusual civilisations and boldly gone where no costume designer has gone before. 

(I'm not even done with William Ware Theiss either, as he did the first season of The Next Generation.)

So, it's the end, but the moment has been prepared... sorry, wrong show. It is time to lower the curtain.

It is time for "Turnabout Intruder".

I think all the double entendres have been used here (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.23, "All Our Yesterdays")

I spent five years as a pupil librarian at school, but I never encountered one that acted like Mr Atoz.

This post contains spoilers for Strange New Worlds.

It's Mr Lava Lava (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.22, "The Savage Curtain")

I'd make a "four score" joke, but this is actually episode 77 of 79; TOS not quite reaching the 80 episode mark.

In any event, I got a feeling this was going to be a weird one just from the description on Netflix... 

Cloud District Nine (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.21, "The Cloud Minders")

Only four episodes left of this to go. I'll likely move to a whole season review system for the other Trek shows once this is done - a paragraph for each episode, basically.

There has been some comments on science fiction being "woke" recently, with counterpoints that it has always been "woke", especially Star Trek. This is true, but sometimes the political element is more obvious than in other episodes. This one is a particular example.

In which Hippies cancel Star Trek (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.20, "The Way to Eden")

There is a character in this episode called Tongo. He might as well be called Torgo, as this is arguably the most riffable episode of Star Trek I've yet come across.

That means it's awful in a funny way. Well, somewhat.

Our Very Disturbed Man Flint (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.19, "Requiem for Methuselah")

You can tell the episode has a messed up concept when Spock needs to step and erase someone's memory.

Death by Stupidity Squad (Review: 'Star Trek: Section 31')

Alternative titles are "Let's Hire Hitler", "I'd happily kill all of these except the haughty Starfleet brunette", "Alias but in the Star Trek universe and awful" and "There are better ways to spend a commute".

An Officer and No Gentlemen (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.18, "The Lights of Zetar")

One has to remember that while Star Trek could be remarkably progressive, it was a product of the 1960s and so could be very much of its time. A time when women could be paid less than men and viewed as the "weaker sex".

People, the prosecution presents Exhibit A.

Reverse the polarity of the magnetic probe (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.17, "That Which Survives")

There are episodes of Star Trek that the fandom loves. There are ones that it hates. Then are the ones that are so forgotten, Lower Decks hasn't even made a joke about them.

I get a feeling that this one doesn't receive much attention... and is clearly that another cheap one. Anyway, here we go:

• I've said it before and I'll say it again... Starfleet really needs defences against random people teleporting in.
• Losira's hair and make-up look like some form of LSD was involved in their desire. While her top must have involved a lot of double-sided tape. Lee Meriwether had been Miss America in 1955.
• That's a rather unconvincing-looking earthquake in what is obviously a studio set with a purple backdrop. No-one ever thought to add a cloud?
• A planet with no accessible water or non-poisonous foodstuff is not really a good place to set up home. Even Rimworld gives you those.
• Sometimes redshirts don't have to wear red. Although one does here.
• Phasers must be powerful if they can create an entire grave; something that takes multiple hours to do, even for a shallow one.
• Listen to Scotty! He knows what he's talking about, even when he phrases it in a rather strange way. But he doesn't even put on safety goggles when going in the Jeffries tube and gets far too panicky in the climax.
• "Lt. Amato". That's how you're burying him? Doesn't he even have a first name? Also, are you going to recover his body afterwards? His family might want it back!
• "I am for you". What is this? A Donald Trump ad?
• Strange women in purple distributing death by the touch of a hand does not make for a good system of security.
• Spock is very funny in this, playing emotionless Vulcan to the hilt.
• If every cell in Sulu's shoulder was disrupted, how does he still have a functioning left arm?
• Reverse the polarity of the magnetic probe? This appears before Jon Pertwee became the Doctor. Mind you, it's not done as easily here as in Doctor Who.

Conclusion

Saved from being truly bad by the Spock and Scotty stuff, that still doesn't make the episode very good.

It's notable that D.C. Fontana was so unhappy about how how far the story changed from her concept that she had her credit changed to "Michael Richards".

4/10

It's a D from me (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.16, "The Mark of Gideon")

Star Trek can frequently be a case of "great idea, shame about the execution" and this episode is clearly a case, clearly a cheapie to pad out the episode order.

Because the execution is very bad.

What's black and white and illogical all over? (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.15, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

I take notes when I'm watching this episode of things that stand out to me when I'm watching it. My ones for this episode extend to over 2 1/2 pages. A5 pages, that is.

In this case, the stuff standing out is not necessary good. Quite the opposite.

• The bi-coloured skin was the director's idea. It should have been rejected.
• Seriously, Starfleet needs better defences against mental ship hijacking. Also, how on earth do you hijack an electronic system using your mind anyway.
• An invisible spaceship of course saves you a lot of money. As well as reusing effects footage from a previous episode as they did for the original; the Netflix version uses the remastered CGI stuff.
• Kirk is a great poker player when he activates the self-destruct. He'll of course eventually self-destruct the Enterprise for real in The Search for Spock... with the same codes being used.
• One wonders how the crew of the Cerritos would have handled this. It may well have been a lot more enjoyable too.
• Alas, persecution did not end in the 20th century, as my own country demonstrates.
• There's a reference to the Vietnam War here, with an implicit comment about African-Americans being drafted to go and fight there - a reason why Muhammad Ali refused to serve, getting (among other things) banned from sanctioned boxing bouts for over three years. However, this is also a series that did "A Little Private War".
• Today's racists are a good deal less erudite.
• How do you spray something from orbit? Liquids don't stay liquid in a vacuum.
• "Proceeding without incident"... then there's a pretty big incident.
• Lokai is wearing some very tight trousers in this; he has a noticeable bulge.
• There's some stupidly fast repairing and travelling in this.
• For a species with little real contact with the Federation, they seem to know an awful lot about operating its technology.
• Piles of unburied corpses... yet vegetation is reclaiming the cities. That doesn't really make sense.
• By the end, it feels rather padded - by Fred Freiberger's admission, the chase scene was because they were running under-length.. There's also the use of stock footage from the Second World War of burning cities, also for padding.

Conclusion

This could have been an interesting story about racism and hate... with a page-one rewrite. Instead it's got less subtlety than the Doctor Who episode "Orphan 55", which is saying something.

It's really just awful.

2/10

I feel sorry for the scenery (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.14, "Whom Gods Destroy")

As a general rule, if someone is bursting into laughter at Star Trek because of how ridiculous it is, then it's clearly not a good episode. This one would frankly be really suited to be accompanied by Emily Connor, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot.

• Of course the asylum planet is called Elba.
• Considering that mental illness at the time included homosexuality and some people still think it's one, I'm not sure I'd want an instant cure to all mental illness. It also appears to not have worked that well as I am sure there are plenty of crazy people in Lower Decks. 
• Most insane people don't cackle to the best of my knowledge.
• The chess problem was a good bit of thinking by the Enterprise crew.
• There is a massive amount of hamming it up in this episode, by no means limited to Bill Shatner, although he does have his moments. Steve Ihnat (who died tragically young aged just 37) as Garth of Izar, eats a load of scenery in particular, along with Yvonne Craig.
• Speaking of Yvonne Craig, best known for playing Batgirl in the 1960s Batman series, her character is the sort of "Green Skinned Space Babe" that most people think of when imagining TOS, complete with another skimpy costume from the dirty mind of William Ware Theiss. D'Vana Tendi would not be impressed.
• Instant cellular metamorphosis? Really, that's just too silly even for Star Trek.
• Garth of Izar pretending to be Spock is clever though.
• Real power derives from the masses, not some farcical dining room ceremony!
• An explosive that can be set off by dropping it isn't really a very practical explosive. "Hoist by his own petard" comes to mind.
• The BBC skipped this episode in re-runs until the early 1990s because of the "torture" - I've seen much worse in 1970s Doctor Who.

Conclusion

Leonard Nimoy complained at length about the script for this and I can see why. This like many a work featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a few script passes away from actually being good.

But it really isn't. 

3/10

Not Skimping on the Skimpy (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.13, "Elaan of Troyius")

• Biochemical stuff making a woman irresistible to men? I've seen that sort of thing several times before. It's also date rape.
• Elaan wears no less than four revealing outfits in this episode. Some of the other outfits are typical Trek silly ones.
• Diplomacy is about being nice to people that you utterly despise. Jay Robinson does a great job as Petri in this regard, reminding me of the late Alan Rickman.
• Arranged marriages are inherently dubious. That should have been explored in more depth and would have been today.
• France Nuyen, who plays Elaan here worked with William Shatner four times, including on stage in The World of Suzie Wong in 1958-59, where they both won awards.
• I hadn't noticed this until I saw it discussed on Memory Alpha, but the Dragon Lady stereotype is in full force here - with a mixed heritage actress seemingly using brown make-up to make her skin darker.
• This marks the first appearance of the D7 battle cruiser in Klingon use; it previously featured in  "The Enterprise Incident" (filmed after this but aired earlier) in Romulan service.
• Engineering clearly isn't very well guarded. One red shirt, who swiftly ends up with a broken neck.
• We're in full "sneaky Russians" mode with the Klingons here. By having the Enterprise blow up and killing Elaan, they'll trigger a war and be able to take over the ruins.
• William Shatner does a very strong performance here, with subtle emotional performances and a strong commanding moment in the climax.

Conclusion

Some of the action in this is pretty good. Some of the gender and ethnic politics less so.

5/10

Space Saw (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.12, "The Empath")

I've never actually seen any of the Saw movies, by the way. Anyway:

• How did the record tape get on the table in the first place when the two people involved were transported away?
• This was one of the four TOS cases where someone sent in a script unsolicited and it actually got made into an episode. I wasn't aware you could actually do that!
• Of course, the lifeform is female!
• Clearly saving on the set construction costs here with the minimalist set construction more akin to a theatrical production. I'm reminded of "Spectre of the Gun", which did similar.
• That's a 1960s haircut if ever I've seen one.
• Having walked ten kilometres today, I can tell you that six is not a short distance to walk.
• Of course, Kirk's shirt comes off again! But McCoy's one gets damaged as well.
• This is all rather Swan Lake with the balletic style movements at times. Not that I've ever seen that.
• The Vians are torturing people. In fact, the BBC didn't air this in the original run and not at all until 1994, although Sky One aired shortly before that.
• There's some very good shots here with injuries fading in and out; remember this was pre-CGI.

Conclusion

An alright episode, but not a great one. Clearly a budget saver.

7/10