50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[The Old Mixer]

Though I'm always weirded out that he just ignores the distress signal at the start, that's just very un-Starfleety in retrospect.

Well, he does snap right into action when there's evidence of survivors. Prior to that, he's prioritizing dealing with the Enterprises "own sick and wounded first".

Which is interesting because one of the most common criticisms I see of TOS among newer viewers is that it deals too lightly with lost crewpeople. This episode could be said to be the opposite extreme...here Pike is having a crisis of confidence and is heading back to a colony planet with his tail between his legs because of three dead and seven injured. Kirk would have been on to the next mission.

 

[3D ChessMaster]

Trying to view The Cage through the eyes of a 60s TV exec I think going for a second pilot is a great idea. The show has promise with a great action scene in the fight at the castle, great make up gives believable aliens and some good actors are on the team,however....
The strange shouty Spock character
does not seem intelligent enough to be so high up on a starship. I like the idea of an alien high up in the crew but they need to improve on him.

Not so keen on the cold character of Number One (I always liked Majel's in ST) but her role does not work well here.
The doctor character is unconvincingly old to be a senior officer on a 5 year space expedition but maybe we can keep a place for him or someone sImilar to please the grandparents?
Not sure advertisers will appreciate that Pike gets the all American Dream from the Talosians plus his choice of ladies yet rejects it.

The show has potential if they can get some livelier interaction between the crew.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I think that as fans who "know the real Spock," we tend to get distracted by the emotive shouting...but he never comes off as unintelligent in "The Cage". There's definitely plenty of Classic Spock showing through the rough early performance.

 

[The Old Mixer]

So...that new show starts this Thursday...who's watching?

And what's going on in the world?

September 6 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas during a parliamentary meeting.
September 7 – The ocean liner SS Hanseatic catches fire and burns in New York Harbor.
September 8 – Star Trek, the science fiction television series, debuts on NBC in the United States with its first episode, titled "The Man Trap".
September 9 – NATO decides to move SHAPE headquarters to Belgium.

Some new arrivals on the charts this week:

"Walk Away Renee," The Left Banke

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"Last Train to Clarksville," The Monkees

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And new in the #1 position:

"You Can't Hurry Love," The Supremes

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For those of you wondering what else is on Thursday night...at 8:30 you could be watching My Three Sons on CBS; after which, if you feel like getting up and changing channel to ABC, you could catch Bewitched.

*

 

[locutus101]

I find it funny that they put a captain that's thinking of quitting his job in a pilot.

 

[3D ChessMaster]

I find it funny that they put a captain that's thinking of quitting his job in a pilot.

Yes , but I guess it's a standard trope -Guy wants to quit in the first reel gets roped in to adventure and gets his mojo back by the end.

 

[locutus101]

Yes , but I guess it's a standard trope -Guy wants to quit in the first reel gets roped in to adventure and gets his mojo back by the end.

Yes, I supposed it is.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Adam-12's pilot episode had Malloy planning to quit the force after losing a partner, then he gets Reed assigned to him and decides that he's still needed to show this guy the ropes.

 

[locutus101]

Yes, Lethal Weapon, the old guy was like two weeks from retirement, I think.

 

[3D ChessMaster]

Yes, Lethal Weapon, the old guy was like two weeks from retirement, I think.

Good one, How did TJ Hooker's first episode run? How was Shatner's character at the start?

Or maybe Casablanca, Bogart was going to sit out the war in his bar , then look who walks in.

 

[Elder Knight]

I remember that I was waiting to see the Tarzan series debut that was scheduled for the same night on NBC.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Something I was wondering about "The Cage"...towards the end, where one of the Talosians says to the other something to the effect of "Their recording methods are crude, are you prepared to assimilate?"...I was always under the impression that the line was specifically made for "The Menagerie" to explain how they were watching these events 11 years later. But it appears in every version of the "The Cage" that I've seen. If I'm right, what was originally there before they altered it for "The Menagerie"?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Oh, something from that show that's coming on NBC Thursday:

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[RAMA]

A 50th anniversary look at both the Pilot (yes I know it wasn't shown) and the creator, just to be nostalgic.

RAMA

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[locutus101]

I think I am going to learn a lot from this thread.

 

[jwb]

For a long time, the only known print of "The Cage" in existence was Gene Roddenberry's personal 16mm b&w copy he took to conventions, including the '66 World Science Fiction Convention.

Actually, the color version of "The Cage" was still around in September of 1966. But it was in the hands of Desilu, so Roddenberry had to show his black and white copy at conventions. Indeed, when the two part "Menagerie" was put together, the original color footage from "The Cage" was put right into it, and the trims were separated, thought to be discarded. That's why Roddenberry's black and white copy was used to complete the episode for the full version of "The Cage" released for Star Trek's twentieth anniversary in 1986. In 1988 the lost trims were rediscovered, and the full length color version of "The Cage" was restored.

I apologize for using your thread to announce this, but it really ties right in to what you guys are talking about here: I just had a book published about Star Trek TOS, and Amazon is giving away five free copies to people in the U.S: if you're quick enough, you can snag one: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/34592ccab84091e8

(Again, I apologize if this is breaking the rules, but I really want these books to go to hardcore fans of TOS.) Also, I have a pdf of the first 100 pages at my website, jwbraun.com

 

[dahj]

I find it funny that they put a captain that's thinking of quitting his job in a pilot.

It's even funnier because the guy playing him actually did quit

 

[The Old Mixer]

"You bet I'm tired--I'm tired of making pilots! I'm tired of being responsible for whether or not 203 cast and crew have jobs next year! I was Jesus, dammit!"

 

[locutus101]

"You bet I'm tired--I'm tired of making pilots! I'm tired of being responsible for whether or not 203 cast and crew have jobs next year! I was Jesus, dammit!"

 

[dahj]

Something I was wondering about "The Cage"...towards the end, where one of the Talosians says to the other something to the effect of "Their recording methods are crude, are you prepared to assimilate?"...I was always under the impression that the line was specifically made for "The Menagerie" to explain how they were watching these events 11 years later. But it appears in every version of the "The Cage" that I've seen. If I'm right, what was originally there before they altered it for "The Menagerie"?

Haven't seen The Menagerie in a while, is the context of that line different there?

Because it makes sense in The Cage the way it is, moments prior to that Spock says that the Talosians are downloading all their files because they're about to swat them, and then they read them and realize humans aren't really good for captivity based on those files.