The Acrylic Menagerie

[Christopher]

Technology is something we can possibly understand. Telepathy is magic. YMMV.

In the Trek universe, telepathy is presumed to be science, so it should follow some logical rules. Again, the entire point of the exercise is to use our imaginations to try to devise a logical explanation.

For that matter, even magic follows rules to some extent, unless it's badly written. It shouldn't just be a lazy cheat to let a writer contradict their own premises. If the premise is that Pike's brain damage prevents him from even thinking verbally, then even the most powerful telepathy -- or straight-up magic, even -- should not be able to change that, because the limitation is in Pike, not in the telepath. There would simply be nothing there to find, by any means. That's simple common sense.

 

[Just a Bill]

I have to agree with @Christopher on this one. Really every alien in Star Trek is a magic alien, and can do whatever the plot requires. If they need to magically teleport, or fly a planet around like an interceptor, or pop up with a new heretofore-unknown physical characteristic just in time to save the day, or as a race down to the last man and woman grow their hair over where their ears would be to mask the question of whether they would even have ears given their antennae, or wink in and out of existence by flattening their bodies to two, one, and then zero dimensions, or live on a geographical duplicate of Earth with no plausible explanation... well it's all really magic, isn't it? A new bit of reality, written into existence with a thought when a writer wants it to become part of the fictional universe.

Plot magic is everywhere and in everything on this show, and many other shows. (I wish I had a dollar for every time a character magically pretends not to see something that's off camera, something which we all know damn well was already right in their field of view before the camera turned to show it to the audience.) If "magic" is the answer to the Pike question, then it's kind of the answer to every question and our conversations become pointless. Seems kinda dreary.

 

[Uxi]

Consistency instead of making it up as they go is what separates good sci fi from bad. Trek kinda fell into the "subspace" hole to explain near every technology. Sometimes regrettable, but sometimes it's good to just relax and not take it too seriously, too.

 

[Christopher]

Consistency instead of making it up as they go is what separates good sci fi from bad. Trek kinda fell into the "subspace" hole to explain near every technology. Sometimes regrettable, but sometimes it's good to just relax and not take it too seriously, too.

I don't mind them using subspace repeatedly, because that is consistent. What bugged me is how they kept making up new particles-of-the-week and new elements all the time. Physics is more efficient than that, with the same particles, forces, etc. applying everywhere in different ways.

 

[Tallguy]

So in rewatching this gem of a story, a few items stuck out but it's not going to stop me from thinking it's an impressive reuse of pilot footage never intended to have been shown and in a cost-saving measure by enveloping them inside a new story, which is pretty nifty regardless (as well as expanding the universe and giving a glimpse of the past).

1. Pike can only bleep once for yes, or bleep twice for no. Since 23rd century technology was already showing talking computers and somehow Pike could bleep out a yes or a no, why was Pike's ability to communicate so limited? (Apart from ensuring the drama of the moment.) This is probably the one element of the story that doesn't quite fit, a wheelchair/life support system that prevents communication apart from a plot contrivance, but it was easy enough to accept and go along with. I'd argue there is one other issue, more an omission or missing link that would explain the end result, however... more on that later.

2. Pike is originally objecting, double-bleeping all over the place ("No, no, noooo!") over being kidnapped to be sent to a planet he'd hated for a while. I'm pretty sure he'd thought it all through, realized, and changed his mind over time and based on some clever guesswork, since nothing onscreen really confirms Spock was telling Pike of his plan to bring him back to Talos where he could have some form of life again.

3. So the 2-parter hinges around Talosian mind manipulation, how do we really know this isn't Spock doing anything altruistic to a former commander* but the Talosians changing their minds about keeping humans in their zoo (regardless if species reproduction were possible)?

* Which is unlikely; Spock has demonstrated loyalty and friendship several times to Kirk during many diverse occasions, so why not a former commander he also appreciated? This is the biggie and it is in character for Spock to do. He saw Pike in his current condition, recalled the events of all those years ago, and felt it was a better existence for Pike - and for whatever underlying reasons, the Talosians agreed. Probably because Pike was in a condition worse than Vina's and felt sympathetic (especially as their version of a pleasant prison is preferable to where Pike was at this juncture!!) - as with Vina, they weren't really malicious as such. Just complex, even if Vina makes supposition that if Pike had left they'd try to find another human. IMHO, both "Cage" and "Menagerie" are wonderful pieces of sci-fi for their own reasons...​

4. The penultimate commercial break where Spock tells the court to wait for the next transmission but the screen remains blank for several pointless seconds as if the people who are transmitting are trolling Spock, and then Spock is pronounced guilty by the tribunal - even Pike bleeps but once and without waiting. Cue commercial break, and after that we get tonal whiplash as Spock now states how Talos now controls the vessel and now they can see the rest of the transmission and the transmission comes up right on cue (which is good because, if it hadn't, we'd have a radically different ending...)

5. Given the Talosian leader is really nice at the end toward Kirk, I'm leaning toward a true change of heart and altruism, but I either missed a scene or some expanded inference has to be made to go between the Talosians' original intent via the transmitted scenes shown at the "trial", and to when the leader and Spock decided to do this nice thing for fried Captain Pike.

6. The ending is pretty pat as Starfleet sends notification they discovered the image transmissions and are A-OK and really nice with it, given Pike's history with the Talosians. Plus, the dialogue lifted from "The Cage" says it all about the mental abilities of the Talosians. If Mendez was a projection prior to this scene Uhura relays, could the Talosians be continuing to play more mindgames? And, if so, what purpse would it be for? They opted to leave the humans alone after they sifted through the ship's records, so it's more likely Spock would have contacted them to see if they would take Pike in and without asking anyone else and hoping Pike would realize and agree (noting that, in story, Spock also did not want to risk Kirk getting the death penalty either, hence doing this bit of insurrection solely on his own.)

Any nitpicks aside, the 110 minutes fly right on by and it's a very engaging story with a heartfelt ending. Definitely one of TOS's standouts that, again, made fantastic use of the unaired pilot. Now I want to see "The Cage" as itself again to be reminded of what we might have had for a series, had the suits greenlit "The Cage" instead of demanding big changes for an unprecedented second pilot. As a pilot, it's the most cerebral of Trek's extensive history, even if it's dated.

I don't have much to add but I wanted to say that this was a very good write up.

Obviously given decades of real life advancement as well as fictional Star Trek tech the "yes / no" limitation seems arbitrary and plotty. Your decision to roll with it is correct.

My objection is by making the Talosians abilities interstellar one wonders why they didn't send a fake Pike back to the Enterprise and have him meet with an "accident" when they are light years away. They won't look for him if they don't know he's missing. But in the pilot they're not that powerful.

I love the Kirk era wrap around. This is maybe the only episode that SNW makes better. WAY better, actually.

 

[Just a Bill]

For that matter, if they didn't know what Vina should look like when they were fixing her, how did they know what her illusion versions should look like? Presumably they only learned this from her mind after she was conscious, but then why not just "fix" her some more if their medical science is so incredible?

Others have already made some good responses to my Vina complaint, and I just now found another factor that somehow never clicked for me. Right now my wife and I are watching The Menagerie Part I, and I just heard this:

HASKINS: This is Vina. Her parents are dead. She was born almost as we crashed.​

So the fact that she was a newborn means (a) they couldn't read her mind to find out what she thought she looked like, and (b) her infancy was probably a significant complication in the stabilize/save/rebuild process. (It also implies that Vina herself never could have known what she really would have looked like; the prettied-up illusion version is probably her own idealized concept of what her mangled adult body would correspond to.)

Although I think now I've traded my old puzzle for a new one: As the only survivor of the crash, and a newborn, how did she ever learn to speak English? Doesn't seem like the standard "universal translator" answer solves this one for me. I suppose it has to be that she's always speaking Talosian (the language she's been hearing for the last two decades), and the Keeper & company are constantly overriding her speech just as they are overriding her appearance.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Others have already made some good responses to my Vina complaint, and I just now found another factor that somehow never clicked for me. Right now my wife and I are watching The Menagerie Part I, and I just heard this:

HASKINS: This is Vina. Her parents are dead. She was born almost as we crashed.​

So the fact that she was a newborn means (a) they couldn't read her mind to find out what she thought she looked like, and (b) her infancy was probably a significant complication in the stabilize/save/rebuild process. (It also implies that Vina herself never could have known what she really would have looked like; the prettied-up illusion version is probably her own idealized concept of what her mangled adult body would correspond to.)

Although I think now I've traded my old puzzle for a new one: As the only survivor of the crash, and a newborn, how did she ever learn to speak English? Doesn't seem like the standard "universal translator" answer solves this one for me. I suppose it has to be that she's always speaking Talosian (the language she's been hearing for the last two decades), and the Keeper & company are constantly overriding her speech just as they are overriding her appearance.

The reveal in part two is that Vina was an adult when the ship crashed. The claim that she was a child was part of the encampment illusion to justify her youthful appearance.

 

[Christopher]

So the fact that she was a newborn means (a) they couldn't read her mind to find out what she thought she looked like

But Vina wasn't a newborn. That was a lie to make Pike think she was only 18. Number One exposed the lie when she confronted Vina in the final act: "There was a Vina listed on that expedition as an adult crewman. Now, adding eighteen years to your age then..." Because to 1960s male attitudes, an 18-year-old girl was the peak of desirability, while a woman over 40 was icky. So the Talosians disguised the mature Vina as a barely-legal teen to make her more appealing to Pike, eww.

 

[Mudd]

The envelope story surrounding "The Cage" to make it the two-part "The Menagerie" is a complete narrative and continuity mess. There is no plot logic worthy of the name.

Best to enjoy without looking too closely -although now that a restored version of the pilot itself is available, I prefer to just watch that.

 

[Just a Bill]

LOL! So my memory of this these episodes still sucks, just not in the way I thought it sucked. Should've waited until tonight after watching part II before I posted.

Last night we also watched The Conscience of the King. The fact that the Talosians were selling Vina to Pike as 18, and Lenore was supposed to be 19, makes me wonder if Gene had some kind of barely-legal fetish going on. Oh, and now that I think about it, we also watched Miri yesterday afternoon. Yes, the girl is over 300, but we (and the good captain) didn't know that at first. And yes, he's sweet-talking her to get information, but it is not good optics. Physically and emotionally she is pre- or peri-pubescent.

Does this hint at a pattern with one or more of the writers? Maybe. I suppose we could go looking for more evidence, but I'm not gonna fault Kirk for displaying a mild "Uncle Jim" kind of affection for Jame Finney. It's too easy in today's toxic sociopolitical climate to read malicious intent into everything.

 

[Christopher]

The fact that the Talosians were selling Vina to Pike as 18, and Lenore was supposed to be 19, makes me wonder if Gene had some kind of barely-legal fetish going on.

No more so than was commonplace in the era, as I said. At the time, and really for most of the history of Western civilization, men were looking for wives who'd be able to bear lots of children over the years to come, thus favoring youth, while women were looking for husbands who'd be successful and good providers, thus favoring age and experience. So men being considerably older than their love interests was the norm.

Oh, and now that I think about it, we also watched Miri yesterday afternoon. Yes, the girl is over 300, but we (and the good captain) didn't know that at first. And yes, he's sweet-talking her to get information, but it is not good optics. Physically and emotionally she is pre- or peri-pubescent.

Kirk had no sexual intent there. Again, at the time, the assumption was that a girl's primary goal in life was to grow up to become a wife and mother. So telling a young girl she was pretty wasn't flirting with her, it was just reassuring her that she had what it took to be successful once she grew up, the equivalent of telling a boy that he was good at sports or a natural leader or something male-coded. Kirk was simply trying to compliment Miri and bolster her confidence.

These days, we consider it impolite for a man to flatter a woman's appearance, outside of specific contexts. Back then, it would've been considered impolite for a man not to flatter a woman's appearance, even if he didn't mean it.

Does this hint at a pattern with one or more of the writers?

The only pattern was that they were part of the same culture as everyone else. Again, all of this was completely normal at the time. And you could find far worse gender attitudes in a lot of other fiction of the era. (E.g. The Man from UNCLE, or a lot of Silver Age DC Comics.)

 

[Uxi]

The only pattern was that they were part of the same culture as everyone else. Again, all of this was completely normal at the time. And you could find far worse gender attitudes in a lot of other fiction of the era. (E.g. The Man from UNCLE, or a lot of Silver Age DC Comics.)

Still see that in a lot of anime where male main character might be 17 or 18 and the female love interest is 14-16.

 

[Christopher]

Still see that in a lot of anime where male main character might be 17 or 18 and the female love interest is 14-16.

Yeah, I see Japanese shows where teenage girls develop crushes on their teachers and it's treated as a normal thing (as it used to be regarded in the US).

Although I'm constrained to point out that we're talking about women like Vina (supposedly) and Lenore who are 18-19 and thus are legal adults. That is not at all the same thing.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

The envelope story surrounding "The Cage" to make it the two-part "The Menagerie" is a complete narrative and continuity mess. There is no plot logic worthy of the name.

Lock up Spock at the close of Act One, then unlock him for Act Two's opening teaser. LOST IN SPACE logic....

MENAGERIE is the one TOS episode James Blish could properly adapt

 

[T'Bonz]

No more so than was commonplace in the era, as I said. At the time, and really for most of the history of Western civilization, men were looking for wives who'd be able to bear lots of children over the years to come, thus favoring youth, while women were looking for husbands who'd be successful and good providers, thus favoring age and experience. So men being considerably older than their love interests was the norm.

As a genealogist who has researched a lot of marriages, I have to slightly disagree. While men were generally older than their wives, they were often pretty close in age, within five years or ten at the most.

One would be more apt to find much older men marrying much younger women if a) they were widowed with children and needed a mother for the children, b) they were wealthy, or c) it was an arranged marriage.

 

[Christopher]

As a genealogist who has researched a lot of marriages, I have to slightly disagree. While men were generally older than their wives, they were often pretty close in age, within five years or ten at the most.

One would be more apt to find much older men marrying much younger women if a) they were widowed with children and needed a mother for the children, b) they were wealthy, or c) it was an arranged marriage.

Granted, but I guess I was a little unclear. I was talking about what was considered desirable in a potential mate, not specifically about actual marriage. Even if men normally married women who were less than a decade their junior, it was still the tendency to be drawn to younger women. And sexual fantasies or fictional romantic scenarios are often exaggerated, so works of fiction presenting 18- or 19-year-old women as the peak of desirability would not have been uncommon.

Also, we're not talking about "much older men," but about a man in his early to mid-30s like Pike or Kirk being interested in a woman who's 18 or 19, a gap of only about 15 years. (Yes, Pike has been retconned now to have been in his upper 40s or so as of "The Cage," based on Bruce Greenwood's and Anson Mount's ages, but Jeffrey Hunter was in his upper 30s when it was made, and Roddenberry intended Pike to be c. 34.)

 

[Therin of Andor]

Pike can only bleep once for yes, or bleep twice for no. Since 23rd century technology was already showing talking computers and somehow Pike could bleep out a yes or a no, why was Pike's ability to communicate so limited?

Pike's private room on the starbase has visible door knob/handle. The only such device seen on a modern door in the whole three seasons. For the guy with no use of his arms or voice.

 

[Just a Bill]

... visible door knob/handle. The only such device seen on a modern door in the whole three seasons.

I can think of at least one more in a modern Federation context.

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/112-conscience-of-the-king/conscience-of-king-br-077.jpg

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/112-conscience-of-the-king/conscience-of-king-br-084.jpg

 

[Christopher]

I can think of at least one more in a modern Federation context.

But that's in a private home on a colony world, while the one in "The Menagerie" is on a starbase where you'd expect state-of-the-art facilities.

 

[Just a Bill]

But that's in a private home on a colony world, while the one in "The Menagerie" is on a starbase where you'd expect state-of-the-art facilities.

Sure, but that wasn't the claim, was it?

If we want to say it's the only hinged door seen on a starbase, I'll gladly subscribe to that newsletter. Or if we want to say it's rare, I'll march in that parade too. But in the context of "modern doors," which I interpreted to mean in the utopian 23rd-century Federation, there are a few more hinges, knobs, and/or handles to be found; and they are noteworthy precisely because of their rarity. Here are the ones I can remember (and now that I'm off my stupid mobile device, I can actually embed the pictures).

(Fun fact: That kid laying on the floor, Craig Huxley, will grow up to be the man who invents the massive Blaster Beam and wields it to give V'Ger its signature sound.)