"The Cage" Star Trek: TOS
The Talosians, The Cage.
Episode	#n/a
Prod.	#n/a
Air date	n/a
Writer(s)	Gene Roddenbery
Director	Robert Butler
Guest(s)	Susan Oliver Meg Wyllie Peter Duryea Laurel Goodwin John Hoyt Clegg Hoyt Malachi Throne Mike Dugan Georgia Schmidt Robert C. Johnson Serena Sande Adam Roarke Leonard Mudie Anthony Jochim Ed Madden Robert Phillips Joseph Mell Janos Prohaska
Stardate	1513.1
Year	2254
Prev: None Next: The Man Trap

"The Cage" is the original pilot episode of the Star Trek science fiction franchise. It was made in 1964, but never broadcast on television until 1988. The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler. Image from Star Trek: The Original Series episode The Cage © 1964 Paramount Pictures, produced by Gene Roddenberry. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies are made. ... A television director is usually responsible for directing the actors and other taped aspects of a television production. ... Robert Butler (born November 17, 1927) was a very influential and highly demanded director from the mid 1960s all the way through the 1980s. ... Susan Oliver Susan Oliver (February 13, 1932 – May 10, 1990) was an American actress, television director and record-setting pilot. ... Laurel Goodwin (born August 11, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas) is an American actress. ... Promotional photo for John Hoyt John Hoyt was a film and televison actor. ... Janos Prohaska (October 10, 1919 - March 13, 1974) was a Hungarian actor and stunt man, best known for playing the roles of animals, real and imaginary. ... Stardate is the dating convention used in the fictional Star Trek universe. ... Jump to: navigation, search A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. ... The Man Trap was the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series to air on NBC. It is episode #6, and was broadcast on Thursday, September 8, 1966 at 8:30pm. ... http://www. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was born in El Paso, Texas, USA, and spent his boyhood in Los Angeles, California. ... Robert Butler (born November 17, 1927) was a very influential and highly demanded director from the mid 1960s all the way through the 1980s. ...

Primary cast

• Jeffrey Hunter  : Captain Christopher Pike
• Susan Oliver  : Vina
• Leonard Nimoy  : Mr. Spock
• Majel Barrett  : Number One
• John Hoyt  : Dr. Phillip Boyce
• Peter Duryea  : Lieutenant Jose Tyler
• Laurel Goodwin  : Yeoman J.M. Colt

"The Cage" had most of the essential features of Star Trek, but many differences in cast and terminology. The Captain of the starship USS Enterprise was not James T. Kirk, but Christopher Pike. Mr. Spock was present, but not as First Officer. That role was taken by a character known only as Number One, played by Majel Barrett. Spock's character differs somewhat from that seen in the rest of Star Trek: he displays much more emotion than usual. Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (November 25, 1926 - May 27, 1969) was a film and television actor. ... Susan Oliver Susan Oliver (February 13, 1932 – May 10, 1990) was an American actress, television director and record-setting pilot. ... Jump to: navigation, search Nimoy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, (1978). ... Majel Barret Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (born Majel Lee Hudec on February 23, 1932 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American actress and widow of television director/producer/writer Gene Roddenberry. ... Promotional photo for John Hoyt John Hoyt was a film and televison actor. ... Laurel Goodwin (born August 11, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas) is an American actress. ... This article is about the vehicle for interstellar travel. ... Jump to: navigation, search The starship Enterprise (NX-01) The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (2245-2270) Image:Nc1701a. ... James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) was captain of two Starships Enterprise (NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A) in the fictional Star Trek universe. ... Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike Christopher Pike is a fictional character in Star Trek. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ambassador Spock, commonly called Mr. ... Number One, in The Cage, the original pilot episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek, was the un-named intellectual, problem-solving second-in-command serving under Captain Christopher Pike. ... Majel Barret Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (born Majel Lee Hudec on February 23, 1932 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American actress and widow of television director/producer/writer Gene Roddenberry. ...

NBC reportedly called the pilot "too cerebral", "too intellectual", "not enough action", and "too slow", but rather than rejecting the series outright the network commissioned (in an unusual move) a second pilot: "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Rather than abandon the expensive footage, much of the footage was recycled in the later Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Menagerie", a two part episode, which revisited the events of the plot, and made it part of the continuity of the rest of the series. (The title of the original episode was changed from "The Cage" to the more accurate "The Menagerie" early on, but to distinguish it from the later two-parter, the original title is used.) Jump to: navigation, search The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... Jump to: navigation, search Where no man has gone before is a saying used in the introductory sequence of episodes of the science fiction television series Star Trek. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... The Menagerie is the first and only two-part episode of the Star Trek: The Original Series. ...

The process of editing ended up destroying what was thought to be the only known color print of the episode. For many decades, a print of the original pilot combining color footage from "The Menagerie" with black-and-white footage of the "lost" scenes taken from Roddenberry's all black-and-white print was shown at conventions and later used for early video releases of "The Cage". It was only in the late 1980s that a full-color print was discovered in Paramount's archives. Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Paramount Pictures logo used from 1987 to 2002. ...

The events of "The Cage" take place 13 years before Captain Kirk takes the helm of the Enterprise. There was also no stardate given. Stardate is the dating convention used in the fictional Star Trek universe. ...

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, receives a radio distress call from the fourth planet in the Talos star system. A landing party is assembled and beamed down to investigate. Tracking the distress signal to its source, the landing party discovers a camp of survivors from a scientific expedition that has been missing for 18 years. Among the survivors is a beautiful human female named Vina. Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike Christopher Pike is a fictional character in Star Trek. ...

Drowned by her beauty, Pike becomes concerned for Vina's well being and urges her to leave the planet with him. Soon however, Pike is caught off guard and is captured by the Talosians, a race of humanoids with bulbous shaped heads that live beneath the planet's surface. It is revealed that the distress call, and the crash survivors, except for Vina, are just illusions created by the Talosians to lure the Enterprise to the planet. While being imprisoned, Pike uncovers the Talosian's plans to repopulate their ravaged planet using himself and Vina as breeding stock for a healthier and more powerful generation of their race. In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Talosians were a race of humanoids who inhabited the planet Talos IV. They were very highly evolved and had incredibly large crania due to the extreme level to which their brains had been developed. ...

The Talosians try to use their power of illusion to interest Pike in Vina, and present her in various guises and settings, first as a Rigellian princess, a loving compassionate farm girl, then a sleazy, green-skinned Orion slave girl. Pike resists all forms, so the Talosians lure Pike's female first officer and female yeoman down from the Enterprise to offer further temptation. By then however, Pike discovers that his primitive human emotions can neutralize the Talosians' ability to read his mind, and he manages to escape to the surface of the planet along with his landing party.

The Talosians confront Pike and his companions before they can beam up, but the captain refuses to negotiate, even threatening to kill himself and the others rather than submit to the Talosians' demands. Frightened at losing their only hope in their future, the Talosians analyze the Enterprise's records and realize the human race is far too "independent" to be of adequate use to them.

Faced with no other options, the Talosians let the humans go. The others beam up, but Pike remains behind with Vina, urging her to leave with him. Vina then claims she is unable to leave the planet. It is discovered that an expedition had indeed crash landed on Talos IV, and Vina was the sole survivor. She was badly injured however, and left horribly disfigured, but with the aid of the Talosians' illusions, she is able to appear beautiful and in good health.

Realizing that the continued Talosian illusion of health and beauty is necessary for Vina, Pike returns to the Enterprise, but in an act of good will, the aliens send the captain an image of Vina on the starship's viewscreen. Not only is she beautiful again, but by her side is another illusion, that of the handsome Christopher Pike.

Trivia

• The episode featured the first appearance of green-skinned Orion Slave Girls. An episode of Star Trek: Enterprise titled Borderland, broadcast in 29 October 2004, featured the first on-screen appearance of male Orions, 40 years after their species was first mentioned.
• The uniforms worn by Starfleet personnel differ in one substantial way from most future series in that the outfit includes a hat or a cap, though no one is shown wearing one in this film. (One can be seen in Pike's quarters). The idea of a cap being part of the Starfleet uniform would be revived (in an on-again, off-again manner) in the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise, which takes place roughly a century earlier than The Cage.
• Jeffrey Hunter was invited to return as Capt. Pike in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" but declined, opening the door for William Shatner to be cast as Captain Kirk. Hunter subsequently died in an accident in 1969, leaving Trek fans to ponder how different the later revival of Trek might have been had Hunter continued into the series, if a revival even happened.
• A later episode of the Star Trek series, "The Menagerie", would establish that the events of The Cage take place about 11 years prior to the series, or 13 years prior to "The Menagerie".
• Gene Roddenberry considered, at this early stage, having Starfleet be basically a civilian-oriented space service which had no need for ranks. (This is why, in 'The Cage', most officers on the ship wear the same insignia - a single gold stripe on the sleeve - regardless of their shipboard duties.) However, by the time the actual series came to be made, Starfleet was clearly established as being based on the military, specifically the rank system and structure of the United States Navy.

The starship Enterprise (NX-01) Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. ... Borderland is the name of the 80th episode from the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. ... Jump to: navigation, search October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The starship Enterprise (NX-01) Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. ... Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (November 25, 1926 - May 27, 1969) was a film and television actor. ... Jump to: navigation, search William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek William Shatner (born in Montreal, Quebec, March 22, 1931) is an actor, writer and musical performer. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... Jump to: navigation, search The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ...

External Links

• The Cage article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki