Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x08 - "If Memory Serves"

It was broadcast on TV in 1988, due to the writers strike at the time. So yes, it was shown on prime time as a Star Trek show in the syndicated time slot for ST to fill a scheduling gap.

Here are its opening credits. Guess what it's titled as...



Regardless, DISCO has basically made it canon in the latest episode and the rules of canon/continuity are that the latest iteration supersedes previous ones in terms of priority.

 

The Cage is as canon as the rest of the franchise, and it was broadcast on TV in the 80s.

Than ignore 'The Cage', and pretend the previously on is referring to the footage seen in 'The Menagerie'.

 

Then I guess we can all now treat it with all the absolute respect it deserves.

 

There's barely even a topic here. I'm merging this with the main discussion thread.

 

No they aren't. You just made that up.

 

When TNG season 2 was delayed due to a writers strike they filled the gap with a 2 hour TV special which included the first broadcast of “The Cage”. And then it was added to the TOS syndication package (to make it 80 episodes), so it has been shown on TV stations repeatedly since then.

So yes it has been broadcast. It is really not up for debate.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Star_Trek_Saga:_From_One_Generation_To_The_Next

 

Are people seriously arguing that "The Cage" isn't Star Trek?

Get a grip.

 

Okay, my words were poorly chosen. How about "it's generally accepted by writers that.." Better?

 

Clearly, Discovery has now cemented "The Cage" into canon.

 

Not really. Is it generally accepted? Why does Terminator VI then pretend that Terminators III, IV and V never happened, and continues from II?

 

I have no idea because I never watched it. It's a reboot, isn't it? But in terms of Trek, this seems to be the accepted practice. If it's meant to be in the prime timeline and the newest series contradicts something, that's the *new* canon. Until it's changed again or re-contextualized in a later produced series. Fans obviously don't have to accept the new continuity if they don't want to but it is what it is.

 

She’s amazing in Orange is the New Black, but I didn’t have much use for her in Voyager.

I never got the memo that it wasn’t.

 

I have to admit I'm not enough of a nerd to know this, but what footage from The Cage didn't make it into The Menagerie?

 

Based only on my memory (so i could be wrong):
There is a scene at the end when the crew is debating about who Pike would have chosen as "Eve".
I think the embarrassing scene of Pike saying "I am not used to seeing women on the bridge" is only in "The Cage".
There is a conference room scene where they discuss how to rescue Pike and decide to use a more powerful laser.

Also the ending scene of Pike and Vina going up the mountain was edited differently. In "The Cage" it appears after the keeper says "and more" to indicate that Vina not only has her beauty but she even has an illusory Pike with her. In the "Menagerie this comes later to show Pike now has an illusion of healthy body and is reunited with Vina.

 

Some images of the Talosian makeup.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Buz2DE5F9XH/

 

I decided to re-watch this, I enjoyed it so much.

I'm sorry, but the Burnham/Spock exchange was gut-wrenching. Not only was it hard to watch as a fan of Spock, but it was hard because we know that human beings have this capacity for cruelty...it was an awesome scene. Peck and SMG have good chemistry. The remainder of the season is going to be intense.

 

Confusingly, the Keeper still gives Vina back her "illusion of beauty... and more" in The Menagerie, but we don't know what the hell he's talking about, because the scene of her descending with (illusory) Pike is cut for later in the episode (as "real" Pike).

If The Cage is somehow not canon, then If Memory Serves is the first time we learn that Vina was hooking up with a fake Pike. I guess it would explain Pike's reaction, as Vina had to explain this to him even though he clearly witnessed it in The Cage.

 

There's only one rule with canon (whether it's Star Trek or anything else): Canon is what the people currently in charge of the 'franchise' in question says it is. Which is in and of itself a non-sequitor. Of course whoever is presently in charge will decide that whatever they're making at the moment is what's 'canon.' That's not even debatable. What is debatable, however, is what the people currently in charge decide about any past iterations of the show.

Let's take Knight Rider for example. After the original show ended, there were like 5 different sequels in the form of TV shows and TV movies, each one basically invalidating the previous one. There were also some which ignored the fourth or fifth of the previous iterations but was in continuity with, say, the second. So in the case of Star Trek, in 2030 there may be yet another show that comes along where the people in charge of that could say that anything that came before it is invalidated, or only DS9 is now canon, or only the movies TWOK, TSFS, and TVH are now canon even though the show that they were based on, TOS, isn't. (Keep in mind, however, that this is different from a reboot, in which whatever is being produced at present has no bearing on past iterations because it doesn't take place in the same universe/continuity/canon/whatever to the past.)

What DSC is basically doing now in season 2 (I won't go into how I felt about season 1, since I've already done that ad infinitum) is that they are finally clearly acknowledging "The Cage\The Menagerie" while at the same time still being in a bit of a gray area as far as trying to be a legitimate prequel to TOS in general, thanks to what they started with in S1. However, I suspect that as the show continues through the second season and into the third, that that comparison will start to become more distinct. Just like what happened with ENT, where the producers at the time finally realized by the fourth season that the show needed to be more like TOS (although they were too late and went way overboard with the TOS references anyway...did we really need a two part episode to explain why the Klingons went from bumpy foreheads to smooth?)

 

Was this episode the first time we've heard the Talosians referred to as a "Warp-Capable" society prior to their nuclear war?

 

Pretty sure it’s a yes.