The Menagerie Part 1 (Star Trek TOS - S1E12)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

This week on Treks and Tangents we’re "reopening the cage" and exploring The Menagerie, Part 1.  Together we'll unpack if Morse Code still exists, court-martial chaos, and exactly how much lost pilot footage can be used without being boring.  Is Spock a criminal mastermind? Is Talos IV basically space therapy with a side of gaslighting? Are there no gas stations for shuttlecrafts in space?! Tune in and find out!

[End Transmission]

Chapters

• 7:22 Initial Impressions
• 9:10 Treking Through the Episode
• 49:16 Final Thoughts
• 53:12 Tribble Tidbits
• 59:09 Episode Ranking
• 1:04:44 Turbolift Tease

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Haley, frequency is open and welcome aboard tracks and tangents. I'm your co-host, Brian. And I'm your co-host, Jackie. I'm your Star Trek movie, The Trek Soft Home Pandans. And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. And this week we watched... Star Trek, the original series season one, episode 11, The Menagerie, part one. And welcome back aboard crew members, travelers, guests. Thank you so much for tuning in to another week for our podcast. I don't know if it's going to sound a little different this week. We went to record this episode and our control board for our microphones and how we record the podcast absolutely just crapped out. We couldn't get one of the microphones to record. Then we got it recording, but then the second microphone wouldn't get picked up. You get what you pay for everyone. Beware of all those five star reviews on Amazon. They're probably fake. Or someone has a phaser and blew it up. Or that. So we're in the process of getting it refunded because I am that paranoid person who buys the extra protection plan. So it's just a little bit of time, a little bit of effort, absolutely worth it. Even for what we paid for this cheap piece of crap. It does a while. It held up some. It held up for 11 episodes. Probably less than that. I think we recorded the first couple episodes like this. I don't remember. Well now we'll be we're being nostalgic. Yes. So we're back to our original setup until we get a little bit better setup. At least we had this as a backup. So we appreciate you tuning in and sticking with us. Just a couple show announcements. Are Patreon bonus episode series just launched if you're listening to this live when the episode launches last Friday? Woohoo! So this is where we do a little side dive into the Star Trek animated series, not lower decks, but the original 1970s Star Trek cartoon. We're calling it animated detours. That's available over at Patreon at patreon.com/treksintangents. It's a shorter episode, but it has really cool music. Jackie picked the music. So any feedback to the music to that you can give to Jackie. But part one is now live. We're going to continue to publish a bonus episode every fourth Friday once a month until we get bored or our recording schedule flattens out. We'll see, but that's the current goal. So if you want to check that out again over at our Patreon links in the episode description available to all crew members now. And as always we continue to thank you for liking, comment, sharing, engaging with the show. It's more fun for us when we get to reply to comments, reply to emails. Thank you all so much again for your support. But with all of that out of the way, let's just start up with our episode traditionally starting up with our TurboLifties. That was where last week we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode and Jackie without any other information tried to guess the plot of this week's episode. I found. Well, let's find out. In episodes past we've had me read the TurboLifties, but since we are investing in ourselves and trying to try out new things with the show, we decided what better way to upgrade our Star Trek podcast, but to integrate a Starfleet Starship computer and we'll have the computer read Jackie's TurboLifties from last week. Can we name the computer? Other than computer? Yeah, that's so boring. Okay, what do you want to name the computer? I don't know yet, but I was thinking like Cassie or Claire? Cassie or Claire. Tune in next week to find out what Jackie is named the computer with all that being said and no name at this moment, computer. What did Jackie guess to be the plot of this week's episode? Jackie stated last week. Well, I know what a menagerie is and that involves a lot of animals, but that would be kind of scary in space, but I mean, that is where I guess we are going to stay. A lot of some things going on, on the ship. So Jackie, how accurate do you think your guess was? Well, it's very much vague booking, so not very good. No, I think you missed the mark this week, but that's where you know animals. There's the animals in the cage in the prison, but yeah, it's not really a traditional. We haven't seen them yet though. We see them very briefly in the episode. I must have blinked. You must have blinked. Blank and they're gone. It's hard to guess this episode because this is such a uniquely structured and uniquely formatted episode. For those that didn't watch the episode or don't remember or have no idea what we're talking about, we covered the failed pilot for Star Trek, the cage as our very first episode. That was a pilot that was filmed to pitch the idea of Star Trek and it was wildly different. You had the Enterprise, you had Spock, but you had Captain Pike instead of Kirk. You had number one as the second in command. They didn't even give her a name. No, not really, but they filmed this entire pilot episode and the studio didn't accept it or didn't like it and didn't pick up the series. So they had to re-film additional pilots to try to pitch it again, but they had all of this footage and keeping in mind now 2025 is recording this episode end of 2025. Anyone can watch the failed pilot the cage on streaming. It's been released numerous times on DVD and Blu-ray box sets. It's wildly available, but back in 1966, that failed pilot never aired. It wasn't on television. Oh, so they're sneaky and they're like, hey, look at all this work we did. Yeah, so in context, people watching Star Trek on television in 1966 had never seen the cage had never seen the failed pilot. This two-part episode, The Menagerie, is the first time that they would see it. Oh, interesting. I thought I was watching it for the first time, because I don't remember a lot. So what did you think of the episode, Jackie? I am still on the edge of my seat waiting for part two, because there's a lot of hurry up and wait is what I was feeling with this episode. And Mr. Spock, it's being naughty. Yes, Spock is being very uncharacteristic. I really like this episode. I think this was a very unique way to reuse the footage and reuse the episode, the cage. I agree with that. I think the backstory that they filmed for it, with Spock kidnapping Pike, to take him to Talisfore, really adds a lot to the overall story of the cage. Almost like that's what was missing. It would have been interesting to see if they had incorporated that somewhat into the original pilot episode, the cage, if it had fared a little bit better, rather than a standalone episode, because as an episode by itself, the cage is not good. It's garbage. There's no context. There's no real story plot other than showing off some sci-fi effects. But when you add the context, we're 10 episodes into this now. TV audiences for two and a half months have started to grow on these characters. I think it really adds to overall the plot from the cage. I appreciate that also. If only they could have gotten a little bit more meat from the first from the cage. Sure. So with all that being said, Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode? I will do my best. Alrighty. Instead of starting the enterprise that we're used to, Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy are shown landing, beaming onto a star-based 11, which I'm assuming is like a compound, like an army base or something, a colony. Okay. That makes sense. So they're like, "Hello, we're here. You called us and a young lady." She says, "That's great. You're here. I don't know why you're here, but welcome." And then Kirk's like, "Well, that's weird because we were told to divert here for an emergency and Spock, who is my first officer, he'd never lie, so that's why we're here." Yeah. Specifically, Captain Kirk says that Spock received a communication from Captain Pike, the same character from the failed pilot, the cage, and everyone super confused will learn very quickly why, but everyone is claiming that this didn't happen, and in fact, it could not have happened. Captain Pike could not have sent out this communication to Spock. Exactly. So they're ushered into the Commodore's office, and in the office, Captain Kirk is insistent that the base had sent a message diverting them there, then the commander is saying, "No, look at our records. Nothing is sent. Nothing was received. Captain Pike can't even do anything, but why don't you know what happened to Captain Pike anyways?" And then in comes this, the same gal from the beginning, she's introduced as Miss Piper. She also is like, "Why don't you know?" So then all Spock is there. McQuay is there, Kirk's there, Piper and Commander Mendes, they all take a walk to the medical area with the ICU basically, and on the way, they're saying how Captain Pike couldn't have sent anything, because while he was inspecting another vessel, like a cadets vessel at the academy. So this would have been a training mission for not yet Starfleet officers. So he was inspecting that, and explosion happened. Captain Pike ran into rescue as many of the children as he could. Not quite children cadets. So we'd be talking about young adults. Okay, because that's why you can't watch it with the little CC thing, because if they don't understand what the person is saying, you're right down the wrong word. Yes, it definitely helps to take podcast notes with subtitles on. So he went into rescue as many of the cadets that were still alive. But he, after doing that, her rogue action, he was horribly injured. His body useless, basically, but only his mind is still, like it's like perfect, his mind, but his body can't do anything. Yeah, he was exposed to Delta wave radiation, which, yes, has made him completely immobile. Commodore Mendes brings the Enterprise crew into Captain Pike's quarters. Captain Pike is in a wheelchair of sorts, but it is a fully enclosed wheelchair up to his chest. It reminds me of the X-Men one. Yes, a very fancy version of Professor Xavier's wheelchair. But Commodore also explains to Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew that Pike is only able to communicate by causing a little light to blink and make a noise on the front of his wheelchair. And he's stuck answering one blink for yes and two blinks for no, which fine, I guess, Morse code does not exist. That was my exact thought, because I, okay, he totally could have sent out the message if somebody else knew Morse code. But maybe it can only do like short dots and not like the dashes. Yeah, I would imagine though. Yeah, I mean, maybe it is something that simple. I can imagine that there would be a multitude of ways that he would be able to form more complex sentences. It's also Star Trek. If his brain is fully functional and can light up one light, can he light up multiple lights, can he light up an orange light for a dot and blue lights for a dash? So it's, it's interesting. Certainly limitations of 1960s technology, imagination, irregardless, he can communicate. Yeah, they still speak about him as if he's an invalid. Like, he's just a piece of furniture. Yeah, it's a little interesting. They monitor him 24 hours a day, seven days a week fine. He definitely has medical needs that needs to be attended to. But yes, there are times where he, he being Captain Pike is treated like a fully functional person with their faculties and just extremely physically handicapped. And there are other times where he is considered and referred to and treated as if he is comatose and not physically or mentally present. So it varies back and forth. Commodore explains this will happen. And so they're like, okay, we'll, we'll leave. But Spock requests to speak with Captain Pike alone. Well, specifically, Captain Pike has seems to have some kind of preference to not receive visitors. And the Commodore asked if he wanted to make an exception for Spock and Kirk and the enterprise. And Pike says no, they need to go away in literally not some many words because he's yes and no. But then Spock asked Pike if he has Pike's permission or blessing to remain for a moment by himself and Pike says yes. And so everyone else leaves, but Spock remains with Pike's blessing. So, Bock is grateful, of course, but he talks to Captain Pike about like a plan that they had set in motion. Who knows when it six days away, but you know what Spock is telling him, you know what I have, what we're doing. You know why I'm here? I know I'm being wrong. He even said this mutiny. And Captain Pike is just beeping the whole time. No, constantly no. And Spock is refusing. He's very confident and determined to do this plan, whatever is in his mind. Right. And we have the opening credits. I'm over back in, Mendez's office. They're using the computer again, reading every transmission that's been sent and received, calling down to the computer center. And that officer saying, we've done everything possible, looking at it twice, three times. There's no, we can't find a record. Mendez even goes, we'll do the impossible. Yeah, it's important to note that it is both the Commodore saying that there is no record of the communication at the starbase, but also while Kirk is insistent that Spock did receive the message, Kirk doesn't have a copy of the message or record of the message being sent either. There is zero record of this. It's not a conflict of the enterprise and the starbase is computer. No one has a record. It is just Spock's word. Exactly. And so they question Spock. My, could he be lying? Why would he want to see the captain? And then Kirk even says, if he wanted to visit the captain, I would have granted him leave. Like, that's so silly. Don't accuse him. And then they show us Chief Humboldt, who is in the computer center doing the quote, impossible, looking for everything. And he steps away from the computer out of view of us, but in Slingx Spock, he's just like creeping along, getting to a specific computer to where he can put in, they look like the sets or eight tracks to start fencing with their machinery. Chief Humboldt comes back in, what are you doing? I have permission. Don't, it's all okay. And Chief is like, no, I didn't hear anything. So they start fighting. And then Spock's like, well, I'm down with you, Vulcan grip and Vulcan nerve pinch. Thank you. Nerve pinch. And he continues with inputting his tapes. And then of course, he has to dial everything specifically to change voices, because it can't just be his computer talking. Then we're back. Well, that is happening. We are taken over to the enterprise where Yehara is restarting to receive the message that Spock was trying to send. And was interrupted by Chief Humboldt. So she's like, come again. But can you please relay the message again? Yeah, this is all happening simultaneously is Spock is Spock had started to send the communication to the enterprise was interrupted by the technician with the fight. It's a weird thing because it could have led to a plot point where like, Uhura was questioning the transmission because of the delay, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. The point is Spock is able to get the communication up to the enterprise, convince the crew of the enterprise that these instructions and mission parameters should be fed directly into the computer. And he fakes Captain Kirk's voice with just a pre-recorded message that says, listen to Spock, Spock has the ability to command this mission. Exactly, because poor lieutenant Hansen who they left in charge has no idea what's happening. So Spock's like already put it in the computer to sit back and relax. So all that is happening. Kirk and McCoy are still watching Pike on that little computer screen that they monitor him 24 hours a day. Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy are discussing not only Pike's condition, but I mean Spock, what he lie in invocates they are unable to lie against their nature. They, I mean, that's impossible. But McCoy has to like remind Kirk that he's half human Spock and so he has human tendencies and Kirk counters that Spock has fully suppressed his half human side. Again, they're, they're springboarding off of each other. They're using each other as a sounding board where they're just spewing verbally theories and thoughts because they can't find evidence of the communication. So all evidence points back to Spock is the underlying common denominator. Did Spock receive communication from Starbase? Did he not? They don't really know. And then they're interrupted though by communication from enterprise that Dr McCoy needs to go back because there's a medical emergency go back to the enterprise. Yes, he has to go back immediately, but he doesn't know why and he even asked the question and no reply. So back to enterprise, he goes, he does not want to go though because he wants to know what's happening also. So with Dr McCoy gone, Commodore Minda's and Kirk are still in his office. Commodore Minda's brings out this top secret file that nobody should know read it about. It's secret. Well, they, and they're talking about talus 4 because at this point, they've dug deeper into trying to figure out this mystery. Again, why did no one just ask Spock and start talking to Spock? Right. At this point is a little weird, but they're digging further into Spock's past, Captain Pike's past, pulling back the curtain a little bit. Again, this all revolves around the failed pilot. The way that they explain this is the events of the cage all took place 13 years prior to the events of the menagerie. So Spock did serve on the enterprise with Pike. Pike was the captain of the enterprise 13 years ago. And they're able, they knew that going into this, but they're digging around the events that occurred during the cage on talus 4 meeting the big brain people, the talosians. All of that events became top secret. They got locked up. No one knows why. What is publicly known is General Order 7, think of it as Starfleet's Constitution and Rules, but General Order 7 is no one can visit talus 4 under any circumstances. That is what is publicly known. The penalty for which is capital punishment, the death penalty. What is in this top secret report that is revealed to Kirk is not what happened at talus 4, but it does share that the only people who have ever visited talus 4 were the enterprise when Captain Pike was the captain and Spock was serving under Captain Pike. And I just want to say I think the book I have no idea why I'm such a nerd, but this is one of my favorite props from the show. No, I liked it too. You have this little magnet ceiling device to the book. The book itself is hard bound. It absolutely looks like a textbook from the 60s or 70s, Goldleaf cover text. I have to go back. I'm sure people have done a deep dive, but the pretty much single page in this book. I don't know if there's any other pages, but the first page, the little report talking about how it was the enterprise that went to talus 4, the font, the layout, it just looked really cool. Like a diploma, almost very much like a diploma. And they had to cut the seal to open it. Well, that's the magnetic seal to it. Is he like twisted is little unlock key, ran it over like a security device that you would find attached to clothing at a department store. No, it was fancy. Yeah. Anyway, that's that's my tangent. But while they're doing that, Piper was looking at the screen and she noticed that Pike is no longer in his room. He's gone. And so like where would he be? And then immediately following Piper's report, we get a call down to Commodore and Kirk from an unnamed person somewhere on the starbase announcing that the enterprise is leaving orbit and warping away, of course, news to both of them. And refuses to say adios. Yeah, nothing. And we get another commercial break. So the enterprise is gone from starbase 11 under control of the computer. You heard does receive communication, like a signal from Spock that tells her the enterprise as it's warping out away from starbase 11, the computer is controlling it on autopilot. Oh, yeah, that's better. You heard received a communication signal, but Spock, who is on the ship, by the way, says don't reply to them. Listen to me. I am in command. Yeah, he orders full radio silence, not to communicate with anyone. Very secretive, of course, no one is supposed to be sharing details. No one knows where they're going because the coordinates were pre-programmed into the computer. The computer is not sharing. It's just a matter of everyone keep quiet, let the computer do its job. He's he's hijacked the enterprise, but no one knows he's hijacked it. Totally. And just as he's taught saying all this, my man, Dr. McCoy is walking on and he hears Spock tell them Kirk is on medical leave. That's why he's not here. That's why I'm the boss. And Dr. McCoy is like, are you sure? And he's like, who made the diagnosis? Why does he have to be unwashed? This is ridiculous. Plus, I have seen no medical emergency on the ship anywhere. That would have required me to beam up from starbase 11. And then Spock still ignoring. He does take McCoy to the guest quarters where that's where Captain Pike happens to be. And you know those tapes that Spock was messing around with. He does have a voice of Kirk telling McCoy leave Pike alone, don't ask questions. Just listen to Spock. He's he's got to under control step down or you know back off. To obey Spock as acting commander of the enterprise. Yes. And poor Captain Pike is like blinking the whole time. No, no, no, no, no, I need an adult. So and then Spock goes back to the bridge and the tunnel, Hanson's like, there is someone following us, but what should we do? Spock again says say nothing. Yeah, don't talk. They don't know who's following it. They really don't know what's following them either, but they're able to determine that it's the size of a starfleet shuttlecraft, which this does mark the first time that we see a shuttle craft. Not only see a shuttle craft in Star Trek, but we hear mention of a shuttle craft, these small little starships. I had no idea what it was until they showed it. And it's like a little, it's like a little car, like a train track. It's like an RV. Yes. So well that happens or they're talking about that on the enterprise. We then jump over to that very shuttle craft they're talking about. And I'm glad you figured it you knew this is called the Picasso. I could not find it. I just said shuttle craft. It says Picasso on the front, but it's tiny. Very tiny. And it only says Picasso on the front in the remastered version, which is the version that we are watching in the original version that aired using graphics and technology from 1966. It is a reused shot from a different episode. So it canonically does not make sense, but they're so creative. Yeah. I know more and more you watch this. The more and more I love the brains behind that idea more. But anyways, the Commodore Mendes and Captain Kirk are in the shuttle craft. They're trying to get a hold of the enterprise. Hello, what are you doing? Call me back. Silence. And Kirk is really angry. And then Mendes is, well, what are we going to do because we barely have enough fuel if if we're turning around to get home or are we just going to take our chances and keep going forward? Yeah, because it's been established that the shuttle craft does not have the ability to catch up to the enterprise. The enterprise is able to go faster than the shuttle craft. They've also at this point figured out that Spock is going to Talos for. It's no mystery at this point. Using the enterprise's library computer, Spock learns that the shuttle craft is going to run out of fuel. It's just coasting. They only have two hours of oxygen left and then Spock decides that he's going to change course. He stops the engines. He tells the computer that the shuttle craft will go on some random deck. Well, yeah, he orders he has the computer, the enterprise, lock onto the shuttle craft with a tractor beam so that it can be towed into the enterprise. Therefore, saving Kirk. At this point, he doesn't know that Commodore Mendes is on the shuttle craft, but that's another story. Big surprise. And so, while the enterprise is stopped, he also calls for arm security to come to the bridge. It tells the transporter team to, you know, beam Kirk aboard. And then he says, "Lutina Hanson, you're in command." Poor Hanson. He's like, "What? Again, poor guy. Dr. McQuay is still there on bridge, though." And then everyone's confused because up to this point, they think they're on just a normal, yes, authorized mission. So for Spock to summon a security team to the bridge without any apparent threat for him to relinquish command to a very subordinate officer, no one really knows why Spock's doing this. M'Quay is very big down himself. I just like him, but Spock turns himself into M'Quay and is like, as you're this senior officer present, so arrest me for mutiny. Everything that I said was false. Yeah, this is not an authorized mission. So the team comes and M'Quay doesn't want to, but he's like, "Take Spock to his quarters." Yeah, he specifically doesn't know what to do. And when he says, "Fine, I please you under arrest," but then he asks Spock if confinement to quarters would be sufficient. So it's almost like, I really don't want to do this, but is this bad enough? Is this an okay punishment for the moment? And he's like, "Sounds good." Yeah, that's fine. I'll hang out in my quarters. But so that happens. And then we pop back over to the transport room with Scotty and Kirk and Mendes hop on or beam up to the enterprise. And Hanson is so happy. He's like, "It's all yours, Captain." Yeah, I think Hanson sprinted from the bridge down to the transport room to relinquish command. I hope he has more things in the future. I kind of like him. Yeah, we'll see. So, okay, Kirk's like, "Thank you." And tells the computer that he's back in charge, stop doing what Spock told you to do. The computer refuses. He's like, "I, all of my command codes and whatnot is Chris Cross with life support." So if I stop all of that, there's big trouble happening because the ship will not be, you know, no one will be able to be alive on the ship anymore. Yeah, life support would disengage if they also were to disengage all of these commands that Spock has had programmed into it. At least the computer says until the enterprise reaches Talos 4. And then we get another commercial break. It was so nice of the computer to say, just until we get to Talos 4, then it's all yours. Yeah, of course the computer doesn't really understand the consequences that going to Talos 4 yet, but So, back from that commercial, they have to create a hearing because of Spock's being arrest. And Spock waves his right to the hearing and it's just, just give me my court Marshall. I bet it. Yeah, he waves his right to counsel. He waves his right to a preliminary hearing for his court Marshall and Spock wants to proceed directly to a court Marshall. Kirk tries a delay tactic and I think he's trying this as out of loyalty to Spock, but Kirk tries to say that they can't hold a court Marshall on the enterprise because protocol for a court Marshall would require three command level officers to preside over the court Marshall. And at the moment, there's only two. There's Kirk and there's Commodore Mendez, but Spock is quick to point out that Captain Pike is a command level officer and he's still on active duty, which Commodore Mendez blesses heart says that's technically true. We didn't have the heart to force him into retirement and it would have had to force him into retirement because Pike doesn't have the ability. Well, let's think about that for a minute. They could have asked him, do you want to retire yes or no? And he could have said yes or no. I guess Commodore Mendez's statement would be more accurate to say we didn't have the heart to approach that conversation with Captain Pike. As he that's one of the examples where they're talking about him as if it's a he's a it like that. Yeah. And only Spock is fully aware that he's an actual human just with limited abilities. Yeah, Spock and Spock definitely has this whole thing planned out very well to the sea because he's like all right, fine then. So they bring in Captain Pike. There's three command at the hearing. And we proceed with the official court Marshall where again, we get a captain's log from Kirk saying Spock has again waved counsel. He's entered a plea of guilty, which by the way, procedurally speaking, if Spock had pled guilty, they wouldn't have had a court Marshall. Court Marshall is a trial. If someone pleads guilty to the charges, there is no trial. There's just sentencing. So little factual error, Spock should have just waved his right to counsel so that they could proceed not pled guilty. And then I mean, Mendez also reminds Spock, you know, if we get to Talos 4, that's also the death penalty. Yes, I'm fully aware. Okay, so they why do you want to go to Talos 4? What's the purpose? And I mean, and to go with Captain Pike, considering that this is a death penalty staring at you. And then Spock is kind of snotty. It's like a little kid like, do you are those just comments or is it an actual thing that needs to go on the record as part of your hearing? It's like, of course, throwing the record. So well, and Spock specifically does this so that this having the Commodore officially requests an explanation to why they go to Talos 4 opens the ability for Spock to speak in his defense and give his reasoning, but it also allows him to start showing the visuals on the view screen. His own evidence. As evidence, which is important that it is introduced as evidence and allowed, which we'll get to in a minute. But Spock requests that the view screen be activated, we're going to extremely consolidate and gloss over anything that appears on the view screen for viewers. This is where we see the footage from the failed pilot the cage. We are not going to deep dive back into that plot. If you want to do a deep dive on that, go listen to the first episode of our podcast. And I also recommend just going back and watching the episode in its entirety just for context. But we do see the first flashback as I call them, the first view screen is the opening scene to that episode, the cage where we get the camera pan into the bridge. After watching it, they ask Pike if the person on screen that they just saw was in fact Captain Pike. Pike blinks once for yes. Kirk has this big exclamation that this detailed video record doesn't exist and is not normal protocol for a ship to take. Can it even make it? It sounded like they didn't have the ability to do it. Yeah, because they're literally viewing to break the fourth wall. They're literally viewing on the view screen like they're watching an episode of Star Trek. It's not a fixed camera. It is cinematic camera shots. Literally, they just watched a camera angle from outside of the enterprise. Zoom in through the top of the bridge into the bridge and it's a bird's eye view. Important for context because that is why Kirk is exclaiming that this is impossible because it's not just a little fixed webcam on someone's console on the bridge of the enterprise. But Spock, when question refuses to share why the records exist, which we'll explore later. But Pike again blinks yes to the question and confirms that these records were not being taken during the mission. So again, the source of where these visuals and this record comes from is currently a mystery. But the flashbacks continue. We watch the entire opening scenes to the cage where they discover the mysterious radio wave, the discussion of Talos 4. We have the entire flashback conversation of Pike in his quarters with the doctor where the doctor doesn't offer medicine. He offers booze. Thankfully, there's booze in the future. Well, I mean, people talk more to their bartender instead of the doctor, he said. Yeah, interesting. Where you, if anyone wants to do a deeper dive, go look into Synthehall and alcohol in Starfleet and that whole history. It's kind of interesting. But we continue watching on the view screen this flashback to receiving the message about the survivors on the planet. Pike redirecting the enterprise to go to Talos 4. So Mendez interrupts this whole thing happening and tells Spock we're in a court of space law. This is not a movie theater that why are we watching this and Spock double-checked and confirms with Pike that this is all actual events, just like what we already said. But if Spock can continue with this transmission, he will release control of the ship. They can turn back to wherever they need to go and all will be well. We just got to finish this whole transmission that Spock wants to present. Not transmission, presentation. That's what I meant. Presentations. It's important to distinguish at this point in the plot. They continue to refer to it as a presentation. But again, we don't know the source of where these records come from. And Mendez is like, this is ridiculous. So nope, I don't want to go further. But Kirk, he wants to know. I think he's also kind of fighting inside. Like, should I just believe my friend? Do I be the captain? You know, that fine line. And then Mendez says, oh, well, one yes, one no, we're tied. But Kirk is like, nope. We still have a captain, Pike here. What do you want to do? Captain Pike blinks. Yes. Let's continue. Yeah. So it's now two for continuing the presentation. And one no. So they have to continue, which we get our last commercial break to start the last part of the episode. And we come back out of the commercial break to the continuation of this presentation. We see the enterprise arrives at Talos. We see the Beaming Down. We see the awkward moment where they discover the little vibrating singing blue plant that sparked the smiles at. We get a recap and rewatch the discovery of Vena and the survivors on Talos 4. And we get the whole scene of kidnapping of Pike by the Talosians, the big brain people, the disappearance of the survivors. And we get the whole dramatic first attempt to cut into the elevator doors that Pike disappears into by Spock and the rest of the away team with their phasers. But then you hear interrups all of this because Starfleet is informing Commodore Mendes that their own monitors are showing the enterprise is receiving a transmission from Talos 4. And that's a violation of general orders. And this is the reveal that Spock shares that all of these videos for this presentation. These records are the source is direct transmissions from Talos 4. So somehow the Talosians, the big brain people are showing these images on the view screen. Is it them recording their memories and transmitting it? Is it them using their telepathic skills to take over the computer screen? That's I think what the show is trying to suggest is that the Talosians are using their telepathic abilities and their powers to take control of the view screen and show them these images. Yes, it's their memories, but they're controlling it. So it's not so much a video cassette replaying memories or replaying what has been recorded. It is the Talosians directly transmitting their thoughts and using the view screen as a way to visualize those thoughts. It's an interesting question if the Talosians have this power, could the Talosians have projected these same images without the view screen? Could they have projected them as just a holographic projection in the court Marshall room? Could they have directly implanted these thoughts and memories into the brain of Captain Kirk, the Commodore, and Pike, and everyone present? I don't know about that because Spock does request for the view screen. So, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how Spock knows that the Talosians plan to use the view screen that it's been it's it becomes obvious as you continue to watch these two episodes that the initial event that catapulted all of these series of events is the Talosians must have somehow communicated in cotton contact with Spock on the enterprise. So the Talosians have this ability to reach out across space wild to communicate with someone directly and convinced Spock that they needed to bring Captain Pike to Talos for. We'll cover it next episode, but it's just something to think about now. So, well that's so, but Starfleet then says Kirk, you are relieved of your command. This is ridiculous. You need to you are in charge of all of your crew. So, one crew did bad. You're also responsible. And Commodore Mendes, you are in charge and disable this contact. We need to get rid of this, whatever is happening. Yeah, Commodore, you're in charge of the ship. It needs to be stopped. The enterprise cannot reach Talos for is the communication from Starfleet. And Mendes goes on to like lecture Spock that not only you are looking at the best penalty, but now Kirk is too. Are you happy with yourself? And then Spock is like, no, Kirk knew nothing of this. This is all me. He shouldn't be in trouble at all. Mendes then tells Spock he needs to release the ship to manual control. Spock, he's so smart mouthed. He's like, no, I respect. Fully decline. And then Mendes is just like the core is in recess. We need a break. And everyone leaves. But Kirk confronts Spock though, like, what is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind? And then Spock replies that this has to continue what he's been doing. It's for not only for Kirk's own career, but for Captain Pike's life. Mike has to continue. And then Kirk orders the security guards to lock them up. And Captain Kirk is left alone in the briefing room. And then we get the girl inducing to be continued. Yep. And as we start to roll credits, we just kind of linger on Captain Kirk in the conference room as he contemplates the current situation. But then we roll credits. So Jackie, what did you think about season 1 episode 11, the Managerie part one? I'm really enjoying this episode. I am liking how we're going about the other military opportunities that are in the galaxy. This fleet command. I see. Fleet command that will very quickly go away and just become star fleet. But yes. Oh, I don't know. And then we're going to have Space Force. Oh well. Hey, we just I just I sent you a news article the other day as of this recording Space Force just had their first graduation of cadet academy. That's so awesome. And the cadets that were graduating Space Force war for the first time, the actual Space Force dress uniforms. Before this, they had wore a modified slightly version of the Air Force dress uniform. I just thought it was pretty cool. Me too. I think that's kind of I saw that and I watched this and I think it all just kind of mixed together all the different levels. And just like I mentioned earlier, the brains on the creators and the writers, I don't know. I'm just enjoying it. But I did not like that. We had to have it two parts. That's not fun for me. Yeah. I will agree with you. There is something about this backstory of Spock, committing Mutiny, kidnapping, Pike, Commodering the Enterprise, the context of the court martial as the reason to watch the events of the episode, the cage. And again, like context, it's very well received from an audience perspective as opposed to some of the other episodes in Star Trek that employ this idea of rewatching old footage. Again, this wouldn't have been old footage to a Star Trek fan watching this on television in the 60s, but there's an episode of Star Trek the next generation where 75% of the episode is old footage from past episodes that everyone had already seen. They've done this quite a bit in Star Trek Deep Space 9 to positive and negative results. The last episode of Star Trek Enterprise, we don't need to talk about it now, but again, an episode that reuses old footage. I don't want to say this was so well received simply because no one at this time had seen the cage episode and a lot of it had to do with how they framed it in this context of having an episode within an episode that you don't really get to see a lot of in Star Trek. So I also really enjoy the menagerie even though it's just rewatching the cage. I forgot to add this also brings up another theme that they've been showing us that everybody believes Spock is this one type of person that is just logical only numbers only you know zeroes and ones, but then we have to remember that he's also part human and all of our human flaws and the pros are still in him and it's like a fight kind of sort of, but then we also see that same theme is put on pike is he really able to give input or is he just pushing about tens with his brain? Yeah agreed. I don't know just makes you think. But I'll give some triple tidbits or fun facts to the episode. I had to kind of divide the fun facts into two parts because it's a two-part episode and the next episode is a lot more filler. We see a lot more. We spend a lot more time watching events from the episode, the cage, then we get new story plot points. So I wanted to save some of these triple tidbits for next week, but this week the menagerie part one first aired November 17 1966. Jeffrey Hunter who played Captain Pike in the cage was unavailable and too expensive to obtain for this episode. After Star Trek wasn't picked up by the studio after the cage he decided he wanted to focus more on feature films and movies as opposed to television. So he went off and started movie career. So by the time they get around to filming Star Trek has been picked up by the studio he's unavailable, he's doing movies, he's not going to take a huge pay cut to come on to do basically two episodes of television. Sounds like he got too big for his bitches. Yeah, so I'm a fair point. So actor Sean Keeney was used instead. His makeup, Sean's makeup took five hours to apply. His hair was also bleached white to simulate his medical condition, but the whiteness of his hair was too bright for the camera. So they had to after bleaching it and as part of putting his makeup on every day had to apply powder to the hair to soften it up for the camera. Roddenberry had originally wanted to take the footage from the cage and turn it into a full length film. They kicked around the idea very briefly after the pilot was rejected and then Star Trek took off with the new pilots, but again, Jeffrey Hunter wasn't available. There's just not enough footage there to turn it into a full length movie, so it was abandoned. This whole idea of reusing the cage in a new episode was only conceived because they got halfway through the production of the first season and they ran out of stories. They didn't have any other stories. So they came quickly came up with this idea to reuse the footage from the cage. They wrote out the script for the rest of the context of Spock's Mutiny within a couple days and that's where we got the episode. That's genius. Yeah. See, I love these people. This is, I had to look it up because as I noticed at the very end, probably saw it on the security officers a couple times, but the security officers tucked up underneath their shirts on their uniform is that cloth utility belt that we've seen before. This will be the last appearance of those cloth utility belts. So rest in peace, we hardly knew you. And then finally, General Order 7, the general order that says it is forbidden for anyone or any ship to visit Talos 4 under the penalty of death, it's worded in such a way that Spock wasn't just facing the death penalty for his actions and it wasn't just Kirk is his commanding officer. Everyone would be subject to the death penalty. The punishment literally is written and the command is written anyone who visits Talos 4 is subject to punishment by death. That's crazy. Which leads to the understanding of the purpose of creating General Order 7, Starfleet did not want the existence of the talosians to be common knowledge. They didn't want people going to Talos 4 to try to study them, gain their powers, whatever the reason, because they didn't want the talosians to escape their planet and run havoc across the galaxy. Their own area 51. Pretty much. From you to triangle all those things. Yeah. So later on in Star Trek General Order 7 is in fact rescinded. They do create a quarantine zone around Talos 4, but it is more of a quarantine as opposed to silence and denial because eventually news of the talosians does escape out. So instead they run Starfleet runs a blockade or a quarantine around the planet that basically just means for the same purpose no one can go interact with the talosians and the talosians cannot escape. So again there's going to be some questions later about the effectiveness and the plot points revolving around this, but for now those are your triple tidbits. That's a lot of stuff to do for some big headed people. Yeah. Well, and we'll touch on it very briefly here. Imagine if those talosians who have the ability to create the illusion of anything infiltrated Starfleet and got a board of starship and could pretty much do whatever they wanted they could like real life spies. Very much so. Thanks. So but we'll talk about it more next episode. For now those are your triple tidbits and we'll kind of round out the episode by sharing our episode ranking. This is where we pretend the episode is a member of our crew and what Starfleet rank we would assign them based on how much we enjoyed the episode when we watched it. A higher rank episode means we enjoyed the episode more and considered the episode a more valuable member of our crew for our starship and a lower rank means we think the episode was less entertaining and the episode is a more disposable member of our crew. I thought we are going to do this two-parter as one. This is hard now. We were going to record the Menagerie part one and two as a single episode as I thought about it and kind of planned out the episodes. I think while the majority of the episode is filler and is the replaying of the footage from the cage, I think there's enough topics to talk about that warrants two episodes. So we're going to rank this as two separate episodes. Okay, that makes sense. Our ranking system, the bottom of zero is going to be Ensign and then we work our way up. Ensign Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, which would be a 10 out of 10. There's only going to be one of those per season and then finally we do have a rank of admiral at the very top of the list. This would be an over-the-top episode, a perfect beyond perfect episode. We think it is the best episode ever. For reference, last week's episode, the Corbinite maneuver, Jackie rated middle of the road, a Lieutenant Commander. She's ranked four other episodes in this ranking system. She's got six Lieutenant Commander spots left, but I'm not doing a good job. No, you're just very weighted toward the bottom. Jackie, what would you rank the Managerie Part One as a crew member for the USS Galactic Glitter B? I'm going to surprise you because I'm going to go with Commander at this point. Commander, that's going to be just below Captain. This is going to be your second out of five rankings for Commander. The other episode it looks like was dagger of the mind that you ranked at this level. Why Commander? Again, like what I said about the themes and at least what I felt were the themes of the like double identities of at least two characters, Bach for sure. I mean, as a disabled person, I did understand if I was in Captain Pike shoes, I would not like to be thought of being and not needed. So I guess that's why I put it as a commander because all the things that happened, it's just hard to explain fully until I get the whole picture. All right, fair enough. Look at here as I'll spread out and fancy. Yeah, looking at my ranking system, mine is definitely more evenly ranked. Last week, the Corbinite maneuver I put is Captain, the only Captain spot available because it's the most entertaining episode so far. I guess I should mention way back when Jackie first ranked the cage all the way down at the bottom at Ensign. So from Ensign to Commander, interesting. Well, that we added we added more stuff to it. Yes, and we can always promote or demote our crew members at any time as we see fit or as needed. I'm going to give the Menagerie Part One a ranking for the USS Cosmic Shark, a lieutenant commander. That's going to be one step down from Commander. This will be the third episode I've ranked at this level. It is an entertaining episode by far adding context to the story of Captain Pike and Talos 4. Absolutely is entertaining and a welcome addition to the Star Trek universe. At the end of the day, it is still an episode that relies very heavily on the cage. I ranked the cage as a lieutenant, which would be also very similar to middle of the road, just one ranked down from Lieutenant Commander what I'm giving the Menagerie. I don't have a problem with the cage. I think the cage is a fine episode for Star Trek. It certainly gets elevated with the addition of the Menagerie, which is why the Menagerie I'm ranking higher. But at the end of the day, it's still just an average Star Trek episode for me. I'm ranking at Lieutenant Commander. I noticed we don't have a Commodore. We don't have a Commodore. I just knew that. I just found you know, figured that out now. Well, I could dig into the lore behind the ranking. I'm going to just spitball it and say that Commodore would be a non-star ship rank within Starfleet. Oh, like a paper pushing. Yeah, it's probably on level with Admiral. We could probably change the title of Admiral to Commodore. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. So as of recording, the Menagerie Part 1 on IMDB is ranked 8.2 out of 10. So very well received. We'll be back next week and to trek through another episode. But first, we have to give our TurboLift T's or Elevator Pitch to the next episode's plot before we go. I will give Jackie the title level wide. We all know what it is of next week's episode and Jackie with no other information other than the fact that she watched Part 1. We'll give a brief pitch to the plot, but we're going to change it up a little bit. It's very obvious. Next week's episode is entitled the Menagerie Part 2. So I think it's pretty obvious that Kirk and Spock are not executed for their actions. No, it didn't be over. Yeah, so because we have so much more Star Trek to get to. So it's pretty, I think it's pretty obvious with the whole context of the cage. Next week's episode's plot is pretty well known. But so we'll change it up a little bit. We'll do our TurboLift T's and two parts here. There are two, well, put it this way. There is one big plot twist to the Menagerie Part 2 that is the big reveal at the end of the episode that I don't think anyone without knowledge without seeing the episode is going to be able to guess just based off of prior events and the cage. So Jackie, the first part of your TurboLift T's is to guess what the big plot twist is that no one sees coming. Okay, well, I would assume that the Tolojian people is a given. So the twist is going to have to be they've taken over Spock's body and using it as a just like what you said, infiltrate and using it as like a projector of their ideas. Okay. The maybe Captain Pike is our God. Okay, we'll go with that. Part 2 to your TurboLift T's. We're going to spoiler, not spoiler. We're going to watch the rest of the footage of the cage. We see the rest of the footage play out except there is one change to the footage either addition or subtraction that is played out in the conference room during the court martial that not necessarily significantly slightly changes the context of the record of what happened during the cage. What is the small change to the plot of the cage that we see play out in the Manezary part 2? I have no idea. We don't have to give me a hint because there's a lot that hasn't happened yet. There is a lot that hasn't happened yet. We don't even know that if they're in basically a zoo. So the change that they make is toward the end of the plot of the cage. So think to what happens at the end of the cage, they escape their confinement, they go up to the planet, they eventually leave the planet, it's all the clue you're getting. Vina is going to have a humongous head also but they made her pretty. I like it. We'll go with that guess. Tune in next week to see how close Jackie's two guesses are for her TurboLift T's. He's going to have her staying beautiful blue eyes though. Okay. Yeah. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on patreon at patreon.com/treksentangins. Last week, we launched the first episode to our bonus episodes animated detours where we dive into the Star Trek animated series that's available to all crew members at our Patreon. You can also follow us on x.com at Trex_Tangins. We're also on Instagram and Blue Sky at Trexentangins. Jackie, where can people find you and what are you up to? I am on Instagram as jibum. I have also started playing with the website what not, which is kind of like an auction place so I have a little shop that has clothing from when I weighed over 400 pounds to handbags, hello kitty stuff, you name it, I got it but I just can't part with anything or in the trash so I made this cute little shop and it's called Glitter Bo-Bootic. I'd be happy to see you there. All right and you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv under username pirate-pound-town. I don't have a very regular schedule. Follow me and it'll tell you when I go live. It's in the evenings when I'm off of work. I'm trying to be more consistent right now Sunday afternoons early evenings or when I'm most likely to be found online so follow me over there. On YouTube I post video games and other random content on my main channel at pirate-pound-town. I have my coin collecting and hobby content at pirate treasure hunting where I post infrequently. I do post socially on Blue Sky at pirate-pound-town and I can be found on Instagram under pineapple cannibal because Instagram is anti-pirate. Links to all social media mention can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning into this episode. We hope you had fun like we did and we will see you all next week to be continued. We'll figure it out. And transmission.