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| Spock is court-martialed! |
Original Air Date: Nov. 17 - 24, 1966. Written by: Gene Roddenberry. Directed by: Marc Daniels, Robert Butler.
THE PLOT
When the Enterprise receives an emergency message from Fleet Captain Pike at Starbase 11, Captain Kirk diverts the ship immediately. When he arrives, however, he learns that the Starbase never sent the message, and that Pike would have been incapable of sending it. While conducting a routine inspection of a cadet vessel, Pike was exposed to severe radiation - leaving him paralyzed, unable to move or speak, and only able to communicate from his full-body wheelchair by blinking once for "yes," twice for "no."
It gradually becomes clear that the message was a fake - and that it was sent by Spock! The Vulcan uses his considerable skills to take over the Enterprise and, with Pike in tow, puts the ship on course for a forbidden destination: Talos IV. Kirk and Starbase 11's commander, Commodore Mendez (Malachi Throne), stubbornly pursue in a shuttlecraft, refusing to turn back even when they have reached the limit of their fuel reserves. Spock cannot bring himself to leave them to die. He rescues his pursuers and surrenders himself, making only one request: an immediate court martial.
The court martial is convened, with Kirk, Mendez, and Pike presiding. Spock's defense is an impossibly detailed chronicle of Pike's mission to Talos IV. But when it is discovered that this is actually a transmission, being sent to the ship from Talos IV, the situation goes from serious to dire. Any communication with this planet is punishable by death - meaning that Spock has literally put his neck in the hangman's noose, and he just may drag Kirk's career down with him!
CHARACTERS
Captain Kirk: It is interesting to compare and contrast Pike and Kirk. Season One Shatner has a natural screen presence, commanding his scenes effortlessly. His interactions with co-stars Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly, and even with guest star Malachi Throne as Mendez, are marked by a warmth that was missing from Jeffrey Hunter's Pike - a difference that becomes instantly apparent once Spock's court martial begins. Pike's weariness, burnout, and fascination with Vina in the footage from The Cage is more interesting than any of Kirk's material in this episode, but Kirk comes across as a better fit for a television series lead.
Spock: It's also interesting to contrast the fully formed Spock that Leonard Nimoy had perfected by this point in the series against the prototypical version of The Cage. In the original pilot, he's not only bizarrely emotional, he also has a tendency to shout his lines. In the new footage, though Nimoy is now portraying a character who refuses to betray emotion, he seems more relaxed in his deliveries. There's a variance in tone and pitch that keeps him engaging. I particularly liked the final scene of Part One, when Spock draws on his friendship with Kirk to keep the captain from shutting down the trial. "Don't stop me. Don't let (Mendez) stop me." He doesn't show emotion, as such, but we still can sense his friendship with Kirk along with a distinct, if quiet, urgency.
Dr. McCoy: His reaction to Spock turning himself over for arrest is a highlight. Despite their verbal sparring, it is clear that McCoy trusts Spock almost as intrinsically as Kirk does, and he cannot believe that Spock would betray the captain. Outside of that, his role is pretty minor, though he gets a nice moment in which he laments the lack of insight into the workings of the human brain.
THOUGHTS
I had remembered The Menagerie as being largely just a "clip show," with a minimal amount of original footage framing a showing of The Cage. As someone once said, "the memory cheats." The first part of this 2-parter is almost entirely new. Spock's taking of the Enterprise doesn't come across as something to rush through to get to the clips. The episode takes some time with it, and the theft of the ship is actually rather compelling. It must have been startling on first showing, when viewers would have had no idea what Spock's plan was or why he was doing this.
I would actually rate the mostly original Part One as the stronger of the two episodes, benefiting from strong pacing and a genuine sense of intrigue and urgency. I'll admit that Part Two suffers for this review, given that I watched it not long after watching The Cage. But in Part Two, even the new footage starts to falter, with Spock, Kirk, and company providing bland recaps of the action after each commercial fadeout, and with a "tag" scene that does feel quite rushed (all I can say is, the transporter room must be directly adjacent to the room in which the court martial was held).
The Cage itself has been pruned. Not surprisingly, since the new context makes the Pike-centric material the absolute focus, most of the scenes not featuring him have been either severely shortened or removed entirely. There have also been tweaks within scenes, minor edits that seem to target potential arguments against Spock's decision. In the re-enactment of Pike's battle on Rigel 7, Vina no longer includes in her pleas with Pike to fight the giant, "Do you know what he'll do to me?" This may have been in part to cut a suggestion of a rape threat, but it also sidesteps the suggestion that the Talosians would allow the illusion to play out to such an extent.
The Talosians' "punishment" remains in the episode, one senses that the new context of The Menagerie makes it less desirable for viewers to dwell on that aspect. In the simulation of a picnic at Pike's family home, the exchange in which Vina tries to forestall Pike's questioning by reminding him of her "headaches" has been removed, along with Pike's remark that the "headaches" would be "hereditary." Even the Talosian leader's final words to Kirk - a more or less direct lift from his (its?) final words to Pike at the end of The Cage - have been made more benign, complete with the addition of a kindly smile and head bow.
The results may fit better with the new footage, but they also make the old story feel watered-down. I don't think it's entirely because of the rapid viewing of this after The Cage that the story seemed less compelling as presented here. I think the distraction of the (in Part Two, often pointless) Kirk/Spock/Mendez scenes, combined with the sanding off of some of the edges from the original version, reduced the effectiveness of the story.
Despite these niggles, both old story and new are well-told stories that are well presented. It's a good episode... but I don't think the end result is quite as good as The Cage was in its original form.
Rating: 7/10.
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Next Episode: Shore Leave
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One problem I had with part 1 of this two parter was that Mendez's showing the Talos file to Kirk seems to come out of nowhere; Mendez doesn't explain why he's doing that.
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