The cage or The Menagerie

[Neutral Zone]

Which was the better 'The Cage' which was to be the pilot but was rejected. This was where Captain Pike was the captain of Enterprise, goes to Talos IV, gets captured by the super-minded Talosians and caged. The Talosians having the plan to get humans to breed and populate the planet etc.

The original story of The Cage is wrapped into the 'The Menagerie'. Spock kidnaps is former captain who has been severly crippled through heroics during a space accident, wants to take him to the now totally out of bounds planet Talos so he can live a happy-ever-after life etc.

My preference is the Cage as it is as a story on its own, though the other has it merits.

 

[Timewalker]

If "The Cage" had never existed, would the series writers have been able to come up with that story anyway? Not necessarily with the same actors, of course, but on paper?

 

[JoeD80]

Basically all the major scenes from the pilot are in the 2-parter, and I enjoyed the "current time" scenes a lot, so I'd have to go with The Menagerie.

 

[BillJ]

Easily The Cage, The Menagerie always felt awkward.

 

[Warped9]

Well The Cage was originally called The Menagerie when produced...until the title was given to the two-parter episode and hence the first pilot then became known as The Cage.

As interesting as it is I sightly prefer The Menagerie over The Cage. It's simply a bigger and deeper story spanning two eras.

 

[Elder Knight]

The Cage has more cohesiveness, and is a superb, stand-alone piece of science fiction. However, it's also a non-canonical imaginary elseworld story in Trek terms.

The Menagerie resuled from salvage and cost-cutting. However, it immeasurably enhanced the Trek universe by extending the history of the Federation and the Enterprise (not to mention Spock) well into the future's "past."
I seriously doubt that the show's writers would have given us this retroactive fleshing-out of the past had they not been forced into it by these budgetary considerations. I believe that the whole Star Trek concept would have been weakened by an anchor of born-yesterday components.
It’s a prime example of serendipity.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

"The Cage" or "The Menagerie" —*six of one, half a dozen of the other.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I loved "The Cage". I often wonder what Trek would have been like if it had been picked up and we'd gotten to know Pike and Number One better.

To me, "The Menagerie" seemed quite a fake episode--like a clip show. It didn't help that they always kept turning to the (TV) monitor to watch the events the Talosians were broadcasting.

 

[Maurice]

The Cage, because having characters watch TV is dramatically inert.

 

[BruntFCA]

The Cage.

It is one of my top ten trek episodes ever. I love the way that the episode feels, it's trek but at the same time it's not trek, it kind of has a twilight zone feel to it which I love. The Menagerie kills that atmosphere. I also like Captain Pike more then Kirk.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I like them both pretty much equally. The Cage is a good solid standalone episode and I like the framing story for The Menagerie.

 

[DAYoung]

I like 'Menagerie', because I enjoy Spock's deviousness. Nice to watch Vulcans being logically sneaky.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

It's hard to improve on what Asimov called his favorite science-fiction film.

But The Cage has still been seen in its entirety by very few people, because the complete surviving black-and-white print has not been released on disc. There are a lot of scenes with different timing from the original, because dramatic pauses between lines of dialogue were edited out to squeeze the footage into The Menagerie, and the pauses were never restored. Also, there is a small amount of dialogue that was trimmed and likewise never restored.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI__mmuIsiY[/yt]

 

[Neutral Zone]

As a side note, it was good see Spock deliver his lines with less volume his role grew. In his appearance in the Cage/Menagerie he shouted the lines as if all the crew were deaf.

 

[22 Stars]

The Cage, because having characters watch TV is dramatically inert.

I disagree, and what a strange thing to say. Other than about 20 seconds total of them 'watching the screen', The Menagerie is all narrative told either with Kirk and Spock in the 'present' or narrative from the 'past' with Pike.

In this case it was a chance to show the audience something produced with high production values, well written and adding to the backstory of their primary characters.

Sure it was a way to stretch the budget and production schedule, but I say well done and far from 'inert' whatever you meant to imply.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The first half the Menagerie isn't too bad, but it falls apart after Kirk arrives on the Enterprise. From then on the present day stuff is obvious filler.

 

[Gojira]

I do like both episodes pretty equally. However, is it just me or does The Cage feel more like a TNG episode than a TOS episode? It doers to me anyway.

 

[Warped9]

However, is it just me or does The Cage feel more like a TNG episode than a TOS episode? It doers to me anyway.

I've had the same thought. I feel it's the pacing and Pike's general behaviour making me think of Picard. Of course thats only because we've had TNG. Before TNG I'd have just said The Cage just feels different but with no real comparative reference.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Wow, I'm surprised The Menagerie isn't winning. I liked the way the trial added an extra dimension to what was otherwise a straightforward story about bossy aliens.

 

[BillJ]

I always wondered why they didn't take Pike someplace with telepathic aliens, like Vulcan? Seems like that would be the ideal place for someone with debilitating injuries.