The Menagerie Part I and II by: Gene Roddenberry and directed by: Marc Daniels and Robert Butler

 

“The Menagerie Part I” and “Part II” are written by Gene Roddenberry.  “Part I” is directed by Marc Daniels and “Part II” is directed by Robert Butler.  They were filmed under production code 16, were the 11^th and 12^th episodes of Star Trek Season 1, and were broadcast from November 17-24, 1966.

 

“The Menagerie” is going to be a difficult story to discuss.  It’s the only story from Star Trek to be shown over two parts and was devised by Gene Roddenberry as a budget saver to have two episodes for less than the price of one, reusing footage from the initial pilot “The Cage” and filming a frame narrative set in the present on a couple of sets with a production time of only one week.  From the behind the scenes side, it’s actually quite a brilliant conceit to deal with the difficulty of the production schedule in this way as well as making it so the original cast and conceit of Star Trek could have their work shown to the world.  “The Cage” does exist in its original form and is included on home video releases, that does not mean “The Menagerie” has no purpose or has become redundant.  “Part I” actually only has the basic setup from “The Cage” while “Part II” has the most footage from “The Cage,” including altering some shots to provide an ending to the episode in the present which is dubbed and presented cleverly that you probably wouldn’t notice if you were watching at the time (not so much with modern screens).  Marc Daneils, director of “The Man Trap” directs the frame sequence and his direction is wonderful, elevating material that is clearly limited by very few sets and supporting actors.

 

The frame story is set in the present of the show with Kirk and Spock arriving on Starbase 11 in response to a call from former captain of the Enterprise Christopher Pike, played by Sean Kenney in the frame sequence and Jeffrey Hunter in the flashbacks.  Spock brings Pike to the Enterprise for a medical check and performs a mutiny to take the ship towards the forbidden planet of Talos IV.  Kirk chases in a shuttlecraft with Commodore Mendez, played by Malachi Throne, and eventually put Spock on court martial which leads into the footage of “The Cage”.  This is essentially all of “Part I” and honestly, it’s brilliant.  The pacing is amazing, Leonard Nimoy as Spock throughout manages to inject some subtle emotion to his scenes as you really get to see that he’s doing these shady dealings with the Talosians for his very old friend and colleague.  Nichelle Nichols and DeForest Kelley as Uhura and Bones both get to have these brilliant reactions to their colleague’s betrayal while William Shatner gives his best performance yet in “Part I” where he grapples with the fact he might be leading Spock to his death.  “Part II” continues the court martial and is where the frame story breaks down, mainly because instead of just letting the footage from “The Cage” play and tell the story to the court, there is a continual cutting back to the court martial scene to lead to commercial breaks.  This has a knock on effect that means the present day plot doesn’t have nearly enough time to adequately wrap up, eventually revealing that it has all been an illusion to stop Kirk from taking the Enterprise away from Talos IV.

 

Then Pike is sent down to the planet to live his days out and the story ends which really doesn’t work as a resolution and exacerbates an issue the story, and Star Trek up to this point has been having with blatant ableism.  It is revealed in “Part I” with Pike’s introduction that he was disfigured and confined to a wheelchair unable to even communicate outside of blinking a light to indicate yes or no.  This is already a not great piece of disabled representation, as at points in “Part I” characters comment on how tragic and much of a loss it is for the character of life, but the plot of “The Cage” reveals that the Talosians are the remnants of a race nearly extinguished in a great war so they have been searching for new species to help keep their culture alive through captivity (another issue with “The Cage” footage itself).  They have the power to alter the perceptions and reality of those on their planet and in its vicinity so Pike regains his ability essentially through magic.  This is treated in the denouement as the correct decision, even giving him a romantic partner who was also physically disabled and made whole again.  This continual thread of anyone who is not fully able bodied being treated as lesser has honestly stood out more since the rest of Star Trek’s politics so far have attempted to be progressive and these two episodes continue to take away the agency of any disabled character.  While some may say it’s just a reflection of it’s time, it does not make it okay and really makes the ending of this story feel awful.

 

The plot of “The Cage” that are shown through the two episodes of “The Menagerie” on its own is actually quite good and an interesting look at the original vision for Star Trek.  Only Leonard Nimoy as Spock and Majel Barrett from the show proper appear, with Spock being much younger and with different makeup and Barrett playing Number One, the second in command on the Enterprise.  Number One is atypical for a female character of the 1960s in that she is given power and command when Pike is on the planet.  There is a character who you can see the roots of Bones in Dr. Boyce played by John Hoyt who gets a nice little character scene that perhaps doesn’t need to be included in “The Menagerie” but would work in “The Cage”.  Jeffrey Hunter as Pike is also very charismatic as the leading man and able to show a real internal struggle as he attempts to be free.  The design of the Talosians while a bit standard alien costuming, this is a point in time where aliens like this hadn’t become so synonymous with sci-fi aliens so it really works.  The ending of “The Cage” plot also does fall apart in the end, with the characters being let go after the Talosians just decide they aren’t suitable which is really a shame since it also doesn’t feel like a real resolution.  Robert Butler’s direction is also quite ambitious with what it tries to do with the sets that aren’t nearly as polished as the show proper would be and he must be commended.

 

“The Menagerie” is a story that starts off great but doesn’t stick the landing.  It makes perfect sense why it was made but the resolution being so steeped in ableism as well as being such an anti-climax, ending on a quip between Spock and Kirk that just doesn’t land, means that it’s a story that doesn’t work.  While I usually try to give a score for a story of serialized television on the whole since these episodes are so different the scores will be split so Part I gets a 9/10 and Part II a 4/10.