Why was Pike's wheelchair in "The Menagerie" so Poor ?

[Timo]

We're not told he has any brain damage.

And furthermore, we're not told he does not have brain damage. All the talk is about his "mind", and we should agree by now that "mind" and "brain" are two different things.

...an inability to comprehend language

An inability to produce language would fit the bill here. Aphasia can come in all the obvious variants: "input failure", "output failure" and "input and output failure". Pike could have had the middle sort, understanding what was being said but being unable to respond in kind.

I never got the argument about the chair being "poor". It's a prop like any other TOS one: simplistic on the outside, but credited with great capabilities. Although just like you say, it's not explicitly credited with much in just one episode, any more than the tricorder or the phaser was; the full extent of the capabilities of these latter pieces of tech came only after an exposure of dozens of episodes.

The seeming lack of manipulative or obstacle-crossing abilities might have gone away had Pike continued as a recurring character, too. Much like the Daleks or R2-D2 gained those abilities after a few initial appearances where such shortcomings seemed overwhelming.

Anyway, a few hipshots at the details:

How does Pike eat?

Given how immobile his face appears to be, his mouth is probably incapable of handling food the usual way. So the two basic options are bypassing the mouth altogether (plenty of room in the chair for an IV feerding system or even an artificial stomach) or having a nurse squirt liquid food into the passive mouth.

How come he doesn't have a neural socket to connect his brain directly to a computer?

Again, for all we know, he does. And that's what allows him to beep yes or no.

That nothing external is shown is actually a good thing, just as with the neck brace: it's more plausible that way.

What exactly did they do to test him to be sure that his mind is coherent, that he can still understand language?

There are some real-world situations where such coherence is tested exactly like Pike's would - namely, quiz games where you are only allowed to answer "yes" or "no"!

Severely paralyzed people are also communicated with by observing primitive interaction means such as blinking. It would be impossibly complex to convert those means into, say, Morse code, but it's quite possible to assess the clarity of mind of the victim merely by using the interaction at a very low and simplistic level, such as "yes/no", "more/less", "right/wrong".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gary7]

Severely paralyzed people are also communicated with by observing primitive interaction means such as blinking. It would be impossibly complex to convert those means into, say, Morse code, but it's quite possible to assess the clarity of mind of the victim merely by using the interaction at a very low and simplistic level, such as "yes/no", "more/less", "right/wrong".

There, you've finally admitted it (frankly, I don't know why you put up such resistance). As you've now acknowledged, you can assess the clarity of mind of the victim. You put together an extensive battery of Yes/No response questions. This can assess whether or not Pike can comprehend language. It's implied that something like this was done, given the statements made about his mental capacity. And again, Kirk asks Pike a VERY important question about his future, whether or not he wants to go with the Talosians. If his comprehension was in doubt, it would be a pointless question. Pike responds "Yes". And so Pike goes down there. It does NOT happen where the Talosians give Pike the illusion of having a fully articulate active body, where he then says "NO!!! I didn't want to go! Beam me up out of here!" He is happy to see Vina, takes her hand, and stays. Thus I think this puts to rest this whole question about whether he had aphasia or not.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Well, no, it doesn't. As Timo says there's different kinds of Aphasia. The fact that he says nothing at the end proves nothing; the modern audience is free to speculate. Why are you so opposed to this idea?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Pike absolutely understands and responds directly to questions put to him during "The Menagerie." He displays no cognitive problems whatever, and Throne's character indicates that he has none.

Advancing "aphasia" as an explanation is the most trivial kind of apology for lazy writing.

 

[Timo]

"No cognitive problems" is an oversimplification in every case - all of us have some. Most of those need not be debilitating, though, and Broca's aphasia is no more so than, say, the physical inability to produce a voice. It's a common enough ailment and a standard plot complication in hospital shows; it's puzzling why it shouldn't qualify for scifi shows as well.

As for lazy writing, that tends to be a common synonym for lazy viewing... Pike's inability to communicate beyond beeps should warrant no more explanation than his inability to ascend stairs, as we can easily accept that a medical reason exists for both conditions. Even if it's due to fictional delta rays here, both of the injury types are commonly found in the real world.

...It's just that people in the 1960s weren't exposed to Broca injuries the same way as audiences in the 2010s. Possibly because there existed an embarrassing sort bigotry about the injuries of the brain, a tendency to bunch them all up with "he's crazy" or "his brain is gone". We should be well past that by now, with heroes like Rain Man and Leonard Shelby and whole schools of business management praising the virtues of controlled Asperger's.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Elder Knight]

Kirk has to wear anachronistic and antique eyeglasses because he's allergic to the 23rd century alternative.

Maybe Pike was for some reason unable to partake of regenerative treatments available, and hence is stuck in a 21st century device, because his condition is now quite rare.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

What I really want to know is why they stuck Pike in the one room on Starbase 11 WITHOUT automatic doors.

 

[Elder Knight]

Maybe Pike is being silenced by some bad guys in the Starfleet command to protect the Talos IV secrets. That would lend special poignancy to his condition, and further justify Spock's attempted rescue.

 

[scotpens]

Maybe Pike is being silenced by some bad guys in the Starfleet command to protect the Talos IV secrets. That would lend special poignancy to his condition, and further justify Spock's attempted rescue.

That’s highly unlikely, given Pike’s condition. Even if he were inclined to spill the beans about Talos IV, how would he communicate that information?

 

[Elder Knight]

Maybe he'd be very loquacious, given a proper computer interface. But to shut him up, they tell everybody "Poor fellow, all he can do is one light or two."

 

[sonak]

Pike absolutely understands and responds directly to questions put to him during "The Menagerie." He displays no cognitive problems whatever, and Throne's character indicates that he has none.

Advancing "aphasia" as an explanation is the most trivial kind of apology for lazy writing.

this. It's funny to see this thread mostly go off on someone's ass-pull tangent on aphasia which has nothing to do with what's brought up in the episode.