Could the Pike era have worked?

[Rojixus]

According to The Children Shall Lead, Uhura can configure one of her displays to be a mirror so she can look at herself.

Could this indicate Uhura's true "love interest?"

WOW

 

[dswynne1]

Let's say, for discussion's sake, that NBC still decides to give Desilu another chance to make a second pilot. And let's say that they still make some cast suggestions including making the crew look distinctly more multiracial. They would prefer that Number One be recast, but they're not making a big issue out of it.

Let's also say Jeffrey Hunter decides to stick around for the second pilot and for the series.

Does Hunter come out of his shell and feel more fleshed out as things progress? Does Majel Barrett become more nuanced? Does John Hoyt return or do we still get DeForest Kelley?

There are a lot of variables involved and while it's interesting to read stories set in the Pike era (in books and comics) the real question is could Star Trek have worked if they had proceeded with mostly the same cast from the first pilot? Could the Pike era have worked and lasted beyond half a season or even one season?


There is no right or wrong answer beause it's impossible to know how things could have played out. So much would depend on the stories, the writing and the cast gelling together.

But could it have worked or were NBC's instincts inarguably right in insisting on the changes they wanted? All the basic elements were already there, but it can be argued NBC's criticisms forced GR and company to regroup and work out their ideas beter.


I don't know myself. It is an intriguing idea. And there's the retroactive interest in the Pike era--the prehistory to TOS--but that's based partly on that period adding additional colour to the TOS universe. If Pike and company had continued all of Trek as we know it would be rewritten.

So could it have worked?

Thoughts anyone?

I think a Pike Era 'Trek would work well on the Silver Screen, in the same vane as "Forbidden Planet". In my fantasy, I would have started 'Trek as a trilogy that would come out a few years earlier (around the time of JFK's New Frontier speech. After the last film, I would move on the Shatner Trek Era (as is), have five seasons, then release a cartoon series, and then release a new film series after the conclusion of the cartoon series (three seasons minimum). There would be nine films in total (released every 12-18 months or so), divided into three trilogies featuring Kirk and crew. The first trilogy would begin with the V'Ger Incident. However, Kirk would still be captain of the USS Enterprise (a Commodore like Decker, perhaps?) and the second and third film adapt a novel/story from Blish or Fontana (I would definitely be interested in a story from Carl Sagan, set in the 'Trek universe). Yes, there would be some '70s aesthetics set in these first three films, but it could have been done well (THX 1138, 2001, Alien, The Andromeda Strain, Contact, etc.).

After that, we have the Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home. That's a trilogy in and of itself, so this arrangement is fine.

Then we have a the last trilogy. FF could be retooled to be better, TUC is fine. GEN would be redone entirely. It would feature Kirk passing on the torch to his Harriman, who would be his last first officer on the Enterprise-B (which I would have introduced in the last shot of TVH). Kirk could still find himself into the future, and end up stopping Soren as a bit of "unfinished business" that lasts for 80 years. The final shot would be the Enterprise-D showing up, where he is greeted by Picard, Spock and Dr. McCoy.

"It's been HOW many years?" Kirk asked. "Huh. Well, stranger things have happened..."

And, that's that. We move on to Picard Era, six films, then we get to the Abrams/BR movies.

IMO, of course...

 

[Christopher]

According to The Children Shall Lead, Uhura can configure one of her displays to be a mirror so she can look at herself.

That was an illusion. Sulu didn't configure the viewscreen to show a bunch of swords.

 

[wayne66]

I think that a Captain Pike series would have worked really well. Jeffrey Hunter was an able actor. A problem with The Cage is Pike's lack of screen time with his crew. The one scene with Dr. Boyce really works well in my opinion. It reminds me a lot of Kirk and McCoy interacting with each other. I am still grateful that we got William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He was outstanding.
I still think that a new Star Trek series could be done with Captain Pike leading the way. The other crew members would be Spock, the female No. 1 character and Dr. Boyce. I also think that Scotty could easily be there. Add Ensign Gary Mitchell as well. As Sally Kellerman's character said to Spock in Where No Man Has Gone Before, "You have known Lt. Mitchell for years Mr. Spock...I would like to think that Gary Mitchell joined the Enterprise crew during the Pike era. That is six characters right there that we have a familiarity with. I could see a new series with these characters working really well.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

According to The Children Shall Lead, Uhura can configure one of her displays to be a mirror so she can look at herself.

That was an illusion. Sulu didn't configure the viewscreen to show a bunch of swords.

I'm pretty sure that was a joke, Christopher.

 

[Terok Nor]

Of all the supporting cast Uhura was the one I wanted to see more of (and not just because she was hot). It's a shame she wasn't allowed to command the ship or have a few centric episodes like Scotty did.

For all of TOS' credits / strength, Uhura was one of its great, missed opportunities. One brief shot of her piloting in "Court Martial," repair work in "Who Mourns For Adonais?" and her actions aboard the mirror Enterprise was the best use of her character, proving she was trained in more than one field. It would not be until the animated series' "The Lorelei Signal" (1973) that Uhura would take command of the ship, and lead an all-female rescue / landing party.

I always forget about TAS. A lot of great work was done on that including giving Uhura a more central role. Great series.

 

[Spock's Barber]

It would not be until the animated series' "The Lorelei Signal" (1973) that Uhura would take command of the ship, and lead an all-female rescue / landing party.

I liked TAS because a few of the scripts were better than some of the TOS.

 

[Maurice]

I think a Pike Era 'Trek would work well on the Silver Screen, in the same vane as "Forbidden Planet".

Sorry, but this drives me nuts

the same vein as in along the same path
a weather vane
you're so vain

Thanks. Had to get that off my chest.

 

[Christopher]

Sorry, but this drives me nuts

the same vein as in along the same path
a weather vane
you're so vain

Thanks. Had to get that off my chest.

That jibes with my feelings about using "jives with," which is pure jive that makes me want to gibe at people.

 

[RandyS]

I think a Pike Era 'Trek would work well on the Silver Screen, in the same vane as "Forbidden Planet".

Sorry, but this drives me nuts

the same vein as in along the same path
a weather vane
you're so vain

Thanks. Had to get that off my chest.

I have the same problem with people who type "should of" instead of "should have".

 

[Spock's Barber]

I think a Pike Era 'Trek would work well on the Silver Screen, in the same vane as "Forbidden Planet".

Sorry, but this drives me nuts

the same vein as in along the same path
a weather vane
you're so vain

Thanks. Had to get that off my chest.

I have the same problem with people who type "should of" instead of "should have".

...or people who expect other forum users to decipher their text protocol messages, such as....

"U r fun-e. y not b bud-ez?"

 

[alpha_leonis]

I think that a Captain Pike series would have worked really well. Jeffrey Hunter was an able actor. A problem with The Cage is Pike's lack of screen time with his crew. The one scene with Dr. Boyce really works well in my opinion. It reminds me a lot of Kirk and McCoy interacting with each other.

Agreed. That scene with Pike and Boyce reminds me a *lot* of the scene we got later in TWOK, between Kirk and McCoy in Kirk's San Francisco apartment.

 

[Noname Given]

My first thought was that the more cerebral tone might not have worked on a weekly show that the network execs expected to be action/adventure-oriented.

But that kind of tone worked just fine for The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. However, they weren't exactly "action-adventure." What if Trek had turned out more like those shows?

Kor

You know, I've never bought the idea (stated by GR) that 'The Cage' was rejected primarily on the basis that it was 'too cerebral'. In the episode you have plenty of non-cerebral titillation (Susan Oliver as 'Veena' the green Orion slave girl wearing a very revealing costume and doing a rather provocative dance routine; and Kirk's combat with the 'Kilar' in a memory flashback sequence to the Rigel VII incident that was referenced earlier in the episode; and is one of the main reasons Pike is considering resigning. For the finale you have Pike executing an escape, fighting with the Keeper's illusion, etc; so there's a few 'action' pieces.

When you compare this to the pilot that sold the show ('Where No man Has Gone Before') - the exposition is almost as 'cerebral' as there's a lot of psychology discussion, and explanation of ESP, the discussion of Mitchel's increasing power, and the fact that he'll start to realize his hidden desires/fantasies because of it etc. - the only real 'action sequence' is the final fight involving Kirk, Mitchel and Dehnar.

Finally, (and IMO) the overall plot of the two pilots is similar in that the Talosians can create whatever images/events they want in a person's mind; and do so to great effect - essentially making them 'gods' of a sort; and in the end we see the result. Foe WMNHGB it's Mitchel who is granted the power to make anything he reams a reality; and we see the old adage of 'Absolute Power Corrupting Absolutely' being played out, and in the end (helped by someone with similar powers, but who still clings more to her humanity) is destroyed as a result.

Finally BOTH pilots seem to harken back to the plot of the film 'Forbidden Planet' - which also was in the end a story about the human psyche and what can happen when man's repressed/hidden desires are given free reign.

 

[Christopher]

You know, I've never bought the idea (stated by GR) that 'The Cage' was rejected primarily on the basis that it was 'too cerebral'. In the episode you have plenty of non-cerebral titillation (Susan Oliver as 'Veena' the green Orion slave girl wearing a very revealing costume and doing a rather provocative dance routine; and Kirk's combat with the 'Kilar' in a memory flashback sequence to the Rigel VII incident that was referenced earlier in the episode; and is one of the main reasons Pike is considering resigning. For the finale you have Pike executing an escape, fighting with the Keeper's illusion, etc; so there's a few 'action' pieces.

According to Solow and Justman in Inside Star Trek, "too cerebral" was the network's official party line for the rejection, but it was actually code for "too sexy." The titillation and the mating pairs/"Adam and Eve" angle of the story were what they were really uncomfortable with.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

You know, I've never bought the idea (stated by GR) that 'The Cage' was rejected primarily on the basis that it was 'too cerebral'. In the episode you have plenty of non-cerebral titillation (Susan Oliver as 'Veena' the green Orion slave girl wearing a very revealing costume and doing a rather provocative dance routine; and Kirk's combat with the 'Kilar' in a memory flashback sequence to the Rigel VII incident that was referenced earlier in the episode; and is one of the main reasons Pike is considering resigning. For the finale you have Pike executing an escape, fighting with the Keeper's illusion, etc; so there's a few 'action' pieces.

According to Solow and Justman in Inside Star Trek, "too cerebral" was the network's official party line for the rejection, but it was actually code for "too sexy." The titillation and the mating pairs/"Adam and Eve" angle of the story were what they were really uncomfortable with.

"The Cage" does come across as one man's erotic fantasies made manifest by brainy aliens.

 

[Nebusj]

According to Solow and Justman in Inside Star Trek, "too cerebral" was the network's official party line for the rejection, but it was actually code for "too sexy." The titillation and the mating pairs/"Adam and Eve" angle of the story were what they were really uncomfortable with.

"The Cage" does come across as one man's erotic fantasies made manifest by brainy aliens.

Which says good things for the oatmeal shortage, since ``The Cage'' and its fantasies strike me as some of the most anti-erotic stuff available.

 

[Kor]

You know, I've never bought the idea (stated by GR) that 'The Cage' was rejected primarily on the basis that it was 'too cerebral'. In the episode you have plenty of non-cerebral titillation (Susan Oliver as 'Veena' the green Orion slave girl wearing a very revealing costume and doing a rather provocative dance routine; and Kirk's combat with the 'Kilar' in a memory flashback sequence to the Rigel VII incident that was referenced earlier in the episode; and is one of the main reasons Pike is considering resigning. For the finale you have Pike executing an escape, fighting with the Keeper's illusion, etc; so there's a few 'action' pieces.

According to Solow and Justman in Inside Star Trek, "too cerebral" was the network's official party line for the rejection, but it was actually code for "too sexy." The titillation and the mating pairs/"Adam and Eve" angle of the story were what they were really uncomfortable with.

Ah, the kind of stuff that still only belonged in literary science fiction, but not on a weekly network television series.

Kor

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

My first thought was that the more cerebral tone might not have worked on a weekly show that the network execs expected to be action/adventure-oriented.

But that kind of tone worked just fine for The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. However, they weren't exactly "action-adventure." What if Trek had turned out more like those shows?

The anthology's single, non-continuing format granted that approach, since each story would be the first and last time their contained world would be explored. Continuing characters (and the plots that drive them) must behave like in a manner playing to not just the bigger concept, but the fabric--the humanity of those dealing with that concept. That's where and why WNMHGB excelled--selling ST, and the 1st pilot failed.

When you compare this to the pilot that sold the show ('Where No man Has Gone Before') - the exposition is almost as 'cerebral' as there's a lot of psychology discussion, and explanation of ESP, the discussion of Mitchel's increasing power, and the fact that he'll start to realize his hidden desires/fantasies because of it etc. - the only real 'action sequence' is the final fight involving Kirk, Mitchel and Dehnar.

Agreed--adding that the audience could relate to the hero to struggle the personal becoming a universal threat. This was no fight against (ultimately) being used for breeding through manipulation, but a deified friend posing a danger to all creation. There was no end to Mitchell's growth or hubris, but it was all on Kirk's heart and head to decide to extinguish this friend. No matter what Mitchell was becoming, killing a friend is an inescapable, permanent rip to the soul.

Kirk survived it, but even as he made his semi-humorous remark about Spock, his personal epilogue was heavy with melancholic feeling. There was no easy end to this first adventure. He did not get to escape a problem with a quip and its back to business, as in Pike's final scene.