The Cage
TOS wasn’t the first series I saw. I live in Poland and I’m not the old Trekkie generation. My first and favourite encounter with Star Trek was TNG. However, I’d rather go through everything in some logical order so let me start with my reflections about “The Cage”. Just remember, I saw this episode long after I saw TNG, VOY and some of DS9. Also, I had already known Captain Kirk when I saw Captain Pike, so my views may be strongly biased.
My first impression with “The Cage”, and with the whole series as well, was that it’s too old fashioned to be taken seriously. The visual standard of TNG was very strong at first. Then I started seeing the plot rather than scenography and slowly, I began to like what I saw more and more.
“The Cage” summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Stardate not given: The Enterprise, commanded by Captain Pike, discovers survivors from a ship that crashed on the planet Talos IV 20 years ago. Everything on the planet, including the young Vina who Pike is supposed to mate with, turns out an illusion created by the telepathic Talosians who want to breed slaves to maintain their machines. Pike and his crew finally prevail when they don’t believe in the Talosian illusions any longer. Vina, however, is actually a woman who was found alive by the Talosians. Since they didn’t know anything about human physiology, they couldn’t help her. She never recovered from her injuries and is kept alive only through the illusions.
I had been a science fiction fan much longer than I’ve been a Trekker. My favourite themes included hidden dimentions, mysterious dreams, second explanations - if you know what I mean. In other words, I’ve always liked this twisted kind of ending that enabled the reader to re-evaluate his ir her previous opinions about the whole adventure. “The Cage” certainly possess this feature.
Another reflection was that virtual reality, no matter how wonderful, can never replace real life experience. There are people out there who, when offered everything they’d ever dreamed of, would refuse it for the sake of reality.
As far as more trivial matters are concerned, I hated the actor playing Pike. When compared to Kirk, Janeway or even Picard, he seemed… “wooden”. I was glad the show went on without him. Of course, Bones has become invaluable but I didn’t mind the Doctor from the first episode.
One thing that I noticed was rather inconsistent behaviour of Spock. In this one episode, and maybe a couple more, he behaved more like a corporal- shouting orders and expecting military discipline. It was probably due to the fact that Spock’s character only developed a little later in the series and wasn’t fully established at the time.
All in all, “The Cage” wasn’t my favourite episode but I can see some advantages of it.