Ever Notice His Hand Wrapped?
- Thread starter Doctor Bombay
- Start date
Yes.
I like to describe the situation in "The Cage" as similar to a setting where Earth is recovering from the fall of civilization. San Francisco is colonizing other area around San Francisco Bay and exploring farther away with aircraft. An aircraft from San Francisco lands somewhere in Baja California and gets in a fight with natives. The aircraft takes off and heads with wounded crew members toward the outpost at Benecia to get them hospital treatment.
Which seems illogical. Why not head for the closer and presumably much better hospitals in San Francisco?.
In "The Cage", and "Menagerie Part 1", they arrive at Talos IV, go into orbit, scan the surface, and detect what may be the survivors, and Pike decides to beam down.
I clearly saw Tyler's bandaged hand in this scene the last time I watched the episode, just the other day.
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Hold on, there's an actual place called Benecia?
Of course, the problem is compounded by the fact that TOS's writers had a strange obsession with the name "Rigel" and established multiple other inhabited worlds in the system -- the miners on Rigel XII, the cabaret on Rigel II, Hengist from Rigel IV, etc. So why go all the way to Vega for medical care when there are hospitals elsewhere in the Rigel system itself?
I tried to vaguely rationalize this in my novel The Captain's Oath last year by establishing that Vega Colony hosted Starfleet's finest, most advanced research hospital, so for cases that needed special care it was worth going out of the way to take them there rather than a nearer facility. Maybe some of Pike's crew suffered worse injuries in the Kalar attack than a limp or a bandaged hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benicia,_California
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It is worth noting that the script refers to "the Vega Colony" every time, so it's possible (in-universe) that alpha Leonis might not be the referenced star system at all.
edit to correct: alpha Lyrae, not alpha Leonis. Thanks, Phaser Two.
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Alpha Leonis? That's Regulus. Vega is Alpha Lyrae.
It was founded by Vincent Vega.
Yep, you're right. I was looking at Regulus at Wikipedia since it also is mentioned in the script ("go into business on Regulus or on the Orion colony") and typed the wrong star as a result.
Is Regulus so mentioned? That's great. I love this thread because I really don't know The Cage all that well. Some of you who know my posts know that I favor S3 and S2 over S1, in general, and so I am ashamed to say I've only watched The Cage maybe three times, and not in years. I think I will now rewatch it!
My thought: Rigel's "Out of Network" for Star Fleet (yes, they still use MONEY in the 23rd century) - so they can't use Rigel medical facilities unless it's a life or death emergency, and they STILL need a physician's referral.
Boooooooo!My thought: Rigel's "Out of Network" for Star Fleet (yes, they still use MONEY in the 23rd century) - so they can't use Rigel medical facilities unless it's a life or death emergency, and they STILL need a physician's referral.
I will be the first to point out that Spock runs awkwardly in Balance of Terror!
Oh wait.. Never mind.
Sorry, I take the blame for that. I didn't read the thread fully before I posted. I beg forgiveness with all the sincerity that Kirk used on Kara in the "great leader" speech in Spock's Brain.
Yes, sometimes I wonder if Pike meant a colony of Vegans in some other star system instead of a colony of Earth people on a planet in the Vega system, presumably the Vega IX colony mentioned in "Mirror, Mirror".
Or maybe a colony founded by someone with the Spanish surname Vega.
And of course there is also this line from "Menagerie Part i":
So Spock claimed they were on routine patrol on the voyage between Rigel VII and the Vega Colony. This is apparently inconsistent with rushing the wounded to the finest medical facility available, the one in the Vega Colony. It tends to imply that they were on a routine patrol that included stops at Rigel and Vega and Vega was the first place on their itinerary after Rigel where they could leaved wounded persons in a hospital.
Possibly "routine patrol" has a different meaning centuries in the future.
Or possibly their mission was originally a routine patrol but events modified the mission into taking the wounded to Vega.
In "The Menagerie Part 1", and thus also in "The Cage", Pike tells Dr. Boyce:
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I searched, but found no other thread or mention of this topic.
Watching "The Cage" I noticed for the first time that Jose Tyler's right hand is wrapped during the episode. I couldn't see if it was wrapped while he was on the surface of Talos IV, but it definitely is afterwards.
Any explanation for this to anyone's knowledge?
Yes, they had just come from the Rigel mission where Pike fought the Kaylar and lost his yeoman and two others, and seven were injured (including Tyler, apparently). It's a point of discussion in the "martini" scene with Dr. Boyce.
Kor
It is possible that Pike's next mission was to Vega, and his casualties did not warrant a diversion to Earth, or any other alteration to the original schedule. After all, his men were "up to it" when it mattered; they'd just suck it up, get off the ship during the mission to Vega, have a bit of recovery leave, and then rejoin the ship at Arcturus or whatever. No care needed, beyond what the ship already had offered. Just a bit of time off - so Vega would do.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
Thanks. I don't have either part of The Menagerie very well memorized either. Any episode totally (or almost totally in the case of the two-parter) lacking Scotty will always take it down a couple of notches for me. But I do need to rewatch The Cage.
I mean... They basically already showed us in "The Cage." Pike says that the Talosian illusion we see is just like what he experienced two weeks before, except for the presence of Vina.
Whether or not there was actually a woman on Rigel VII in a princess get up, it's not really clear. In Marvel's Star Trek: The Early Voyages depiction of the Rigel mission, the princess woman
betrays Pike and his crew and literally stabs Pike's Yeoman in the back.
On the Rigel/Vega thing, Roddenberry made a conscious choice to go with star names that sounded familiar to television viewers, whether or not they made actual sense in terms of astronomy. Creative license is wonderful thing.
It's little details like this that I quite love about The Cage. I like how it starts just after a crisis, that's great world-building, suggesting a history that exists before the episode begins. Instead of everyone being squeaky clean and on their merry duties like on any regular episode, we're introduced to every one at a time when they're recovering from tragedy and at a low ebb.
True, except Pike wasn't the only one affected by what happened.
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