The Menagerie

An excellent use of otherwise-wasted pilot footage. I wish they’d made more two-part episodes! Ah well; my notes:

• My interest was piqued as soon as they said the name Capt. Pike. :-)
• My first thought, as Pike was slowly turning around, was that his chair looked a bit like Davros’ (from the 70s Doctor Who Daleks); then all thoughts were blown away by that horrifying make-up.
• Spock’s actions were very intriguing, particularly in their thoroughness re the speech he’d recorded earlier.
• I sure was surprised to hear McCoy defend Spock! Unexpected! :-)
• Could only imagine how pissed Kirk was as they pulled in tight for the message that the Enterprise had left without him.
• They set up the pilot footage perfectly: you could believe that that was a younger Spock, and the one possible confusion of Majel’s presence was covered by her darker hair, worn in a style different from Chapel’s.
• I liked the old doctor’s comment about how bartenders and doctors both see two kinds of customers: the living and the dying.
• Capt. Pike says “Engage!” too! And that was quickly followed by his reference to his “Number 1″ — more indications of just how far back these Picard-isms (as I knew them) go.
• Spock seems to have a pronounced limp in that first shot of the away mission. It’s less obvious in later shots, but it struck me as strange.
• I knew the timelines were off, but I couldn’t shake the resemblance I noticed between the Keeper and Diana Muldaur (who played Doctor Pulaski on TNG).
• I got to liking that old doctor more and more as the second part of the episode continued: strange hair-style, but I liked his lines, and I felt they were really delivered with feeling.
• I really liked that incongruous argument between Pike and the Keeper, when he discovered the power of primitive thoughts, and the Talosian steadfastly stuck to its story about the crash survivor. It’s a technique you often see, but it’s rarely used to such effect: normally it descends into a general cacophony, and while Pike’s frustration was clear in this case, you could always discern both lines of dialogue.
• Sometimes Jeffrey Hunter (playing Pike) would get this look in his eye — particularly when he was feeding that horse — that reminded me of Chuck Connors in the opening of The Rifleman. :-)
• The slag that was left of the entrance to the underground was a nice touch.
• I wonder how they got that final footage of Jeffrey Hunter going back underground with Vina? Was it extra footage shot as Vina’s illusion of how the pilot ended? Or maybe an alternate ending? Interesting.