That version of the story has been pretty thoroughly debunked at this point, hasn't it?
I'm only working with information available in 1966
Anyway, I like
The Cage, it always kinda seemed like a hybrid between
Forbidden Planet and what will become
Star Trek, mainly because it borrows a lot of the visual aesthetic from it, but also the somewhat basic premise of the story(an ancient civilization destroyed by their folly, a lone blonde lady with a thing for the captain). But I like both, so I'm fine with that.
Regarding characters, Pike was a decent captain, calm, logical and deductive, almost Vulcan-like in dealing with the situation he was in. Though I'm always weirded out that he just ignores the distress signal at the start, that's just very un-Starfleety in retrospect. The doctor is a decent proto-McCoy, Spock is not very Spock like and I've always wondered how
Star Trek would have been like if the Enterprise had a female first officer throughout the series, namely would it be less or actually
more sexist than it was?
Interestingly, the framing story of a captain who's down in the dumps and who finds a new sense of purpose after a mission was reused, well several times, most notably in DS9's pilot
Emissary , but most recently in this year's
Star Trek: Beyond.
New Theory: Spock being injured and limping throughout the episode required the transplant of his smile muscles into his leg to restore his walking properly, that's why he's grinning like an idiot here, yet can't crack a smile later on.
