1x11 The Menagerie (1)

8.1/10. It’s hard for me to evaluate this one independently of my knowledge of this production history. While I don’t know much about the behind the scenes goings-on of TOS, I did learn that “The Cage” the original pilot for Star Trek, was repurposed for use in “The Menagerie,” even after the show was retooled. That means that this bit of corporate expediency (“we filmed all that stuff, may as well use it somehow”) allows some of the seams to show – particularly the fact that everything amounts to a frame story where we watch the main characters sit around and watch the original pilot.

And yet, that frame story offers one of the most compelling plots the show’s presented thus far. It’s encouraging that this one was written by Gene Roddenberry himself, as it has pacing, intrigue, and even improved dialogue that are spotty at best in other episodes.
For instance, so many Star Trek episodes (at least through the show’s first ten) have been about mysteries of some kind. It’s an easy way to try to hook viewers to stay through the end of the hour, to try to find out what the answer to the riddle is. But the problem is that many of those answers have been pretty obvious, many of the journeys to get there dull, and many of the answers themselves not particular inspiring.

Here, however, Roddenberry does a stellar job (no pun intended) at making not only the “what” but the “why” of the mystery in “The Menagerie” interesting. Much of that comes from the fact that focal point of that mystery is Spock himself. As usual, the show somewhat holds the audience’s hand by emphasizing that Spock is incapable of lying and is fiercely loyal, but even so, from prior episodes we know Spock’s character, we know his decency and devotion, and so it immediately grabs your attention when he’s the one hiding things from the Captain and basically commandeering the crew and the ship for a secret mission.

Frankly, it reminded me of an episode of The Next Generation, where the typically anodyne and guileless Data suddenly takes over the ship and sends it to a different land. These kinds of moments are exciting, not only because they show somebody on the crew as the antagonist (or at least the cause of the crisis of the week), but because the person causing those problem is otherwise so without malice or treachery that the audience instantly wonders what could make them act in this manner.

It’s also a little scary (and a little exciting) just how effective Spock and Data are in their quests. The way Spock is able to deceive the crew, maroon Kirk, and execute his mission is startling in how dangerous Spock could be if he genuinely wanted to cause trouble, and as with Data, it serves as a nice reminder to be glad he’s on our side.

But the episode also does a good job at building up to the “what” of the mystery, not just the intrigue of what would possess Spock to act like this. The fact that Kirk reads a top secret file about Talos IV and that visiting the planet is the last crime in the Starfleet rulebook (is Starfleet a thing yet? Everyone says “Earth Ship”) is punishable by death immediately heightens the stakes for what Spock is up to. In the same way, the fact that Spock has a history with Captain Pike, some past shared experience that not only motivates Spock to initiate this whole business, but to seek Pike’s blessing in the process adds to the mystery of what exactly happened on that planet and why it was enough for Starfleet to ban visiting, Pike to act as frantic in his warning as possible given the circumstances, and for Spock to risk court-martial and even death to get back.

Pike himself is one of the most iconic characters in Star Trek, with parodies in South Park and Futurama, and an important role in the 2009 reboot. That gives him some instant credibility for a viewer coming this late to the game, but beyond the reputation that proceeds him, there’s something weird and tragic about this maimed soldier, a man whose brain is reportedly fine but whose trapped in a useless body, that makes his story and his warnings quickly compelling. (And, as a bonus, there’s also a certain Hector Salamanca from Breaking Bad vibe that only heightens his presence to a modern viewer.

Oddly enough, the thrill of Spock’s deception and the ensuing chase culminates in a military tribunal. Courtroom drama is a somewhat odd place to take the story (albeit one that nicely allows for everyone to hang out and watch “The Cage”), but it works. Spock’s instant surrender and attempt to plead guilty, and the back and forth between Kirk, Mendez, and occasionally Pike is well-written. Given what’s at stake, turning the whole escapade into a hearing works surprisingly well as another part of the frame story.

Once we actually get into “The Cage,” though, things start to sag a bit. There are, understandably, going to be pacing issues when you spend 3/4 of an episode telling one story, and then abruptly shift toward telling another. But it is interesting to see a different version of the enterprise, both in-universe as a mini-prequel to the current season, and out-of-universe as a glimpse of an early conception of what the show might have been. (A female first officer, and Majel Barrett no less!)

Captain Pike’s laments in the vein of “heavy is the head that wears the crown” offers a unique contrast to Kirk, at least the Kirk we know. While the small part of the past adventures we see here amount to a pretty typical Star Trek story (something mysterious happens on an unknown planet, “let’s go investigate,” trouble ensues), Pike’s declarations that there’s other way he could live, that he might be ready to give up the chair, add dimension to the character in short order.

Of course we get a cliffhanger and hint toward part 2, with everything up in the air and much at stake. But it’s an encouraging first half of this story, one that admittedly slows down a bit once the show starts recycling its old footage, but one with a number of impressive elements that mark this as a notable episode out of the gate.