The cage or The Menagerie

As you know the studios thought the Cage was to cerebral so they changed TOS. I have always thought that TNG seemed truer to what Gene originally envisioned Star Trek to be without a studio dictating to him.

 

I like TNG, but all I can say is thank god for the studio!

 

I agree! TNG is a very close second to my love of TOS but I don't really think the more intellectual approach that TNG had would have worked with Kirk, Spock et al.

 

Candidly I've never thought TNG was more cerebral than TOS. TNG simply had a different style, kind of like Mac and PC for lack of a better analogy.

 

Yes, in retrospect maybe cerebral ins't the best word to use to describe TNG.

 

I enjoyed The Cage very much, but I prefer The Menagerie. Spock was excellant, and it incorporated much of The Cage, anyway.
What's great is we have both to enjoy.

 

Wow, I never made that connection until now - but I have to say I see the similarities between The Cage and TNG.
And - I must agree - the studio called this one right.

 

The older I get, the less I think I know. Did the suits really call Cage too cerebral? Or is that GR's spin? You have a fight with a giant, dancing green girl, Vina in a skimpy short dress, creepy, "bossy" (hilarious word, by the way) aliens . . . Not so cerebral in the aggregate, eh?

Regardless of the suits' opinion, whatever it really was, I'm with Asimov. It's beautiful.

 

That is the official story that the studio called it too cerebral. But I do disagree with them. It is a good episode. But I am glad that things worked out as they did. If the Cage had succeeded it would have been a very different type of show.

 

Does anyone know the actual point of making Mendez an illusion on the Enterprise?

 

Without the actual presence of Mendez as the third command officer required for the trial board, the entire court-martial was null and void. Of course, since the real Mendez ended up suspending General Order 7 for that occasion anyway, the charges against Spock were effectively dropped. The only story reason for Mendez being an illusion was a gratuitious shock moment.

Really, it strains credulity to think the Talosians were powerful enough to project their illusions across dozens or hundreds of light-years of interstellar space. And if Mendez was never really aboard the shuttlecraft either, at what point was the real Mendez replaced by the illusion? Did the Talosians distract Mendez while Kirk took a bathroom break on Starbase 11?

 

I'm talking more about the reasoning for replacing the real officer with an illusion? The real Mendez would've still been duty bound to give Spock a hearing, tying up Kirk during the trip to Talos IV.

 

^^ As I said above, with the real Commodore Mendez not present, there was no valid court-martial. Still an unnecessary gimmick, IMO.

 

The Cage. What Maurice said.

 

On the suits' side of the argument (or so I've read anyway), they did not believe that the show was too cerebral, but that they picked the most difficult of the storylines for development in order to see if the format could be delivered in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Later giving the cerebral excuse because what the really wanted (besides cast changes) was a more action-oriented series.

 

Either way they managed air the episode so not wasting the money to make to the first pilot.

 

Disagree. It's dramatically inert because it's all hand-waving with no consequences. Spock makes decision prior to the start of the show. Kirk pursues. Phony trial thats mostly WATCHING TV. A few melodramatic moments at commercial breaks. Surprise, the trial's a fake. Spock wins.

It's a shell around the real story.

 

I think Gene Roddenberry's challenge would probably be something like trying to determine the best picture frame to go around the Mona Lisa. I suppose you'd want a nice frame, but if the frame is too wonderful, it ends up competing with the work of art it is framing. I'd guess ideally you'd want something nice but somewhat innocuous.

If the frame isn't all that spectacular but is good enough to ensure that the painting itself gets out on exhibit instead of being locked away in an archive somewhere, then I guess it proably did its job. I think "The Menagerie" framing story needs to be pretty dramatically inert to not compete with the story it is framing.

So, "a dramatically inert shell?" I suppose so. Appropriately so? I say yes.

 

Sorry, I like the drama presented in Menagerie where Kirk has to stand by his firs officer and figure out how far he will go with that. I don't mind the courtroom scenes where they debate what they can and cannot allow, and then the watch material that is new to the audience, so what does it matter if it shot for this purpose or found footage?

Menagerie creates an interesting story for the purpose of using the footage, and does it well, that's the way I feel about it.

 

"The Menagerie" has a pretty interesting set-up. I'd even say that Part I is a terrific episode. But Kirk, Spock, and the rest (McCoy doesn't even appear!) are rather useless in Part II, which has no way of deriving drama outside of forcing cliffhangers only to reverse them when the show returns from commercial. It doesn't even work as a legal drama, since all the characters do (for the most part) is watch TV, and the trial is eventually revealed to be a total sham.

The interesting component of Part II has always been getting to see "The Cage." Since the 1980s (and conventions before that), however, we've been able to see the original in isolation, rendering "The Menagerie, Part II" far less interesting.