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Revealing Differences Between Star Trek and Its Unaired Pilot
The original Star Trek pilot was imaginatively written, inventively designed, and elaborately produced. It was also a dud.
Despite the best efforts of creator-producer Gene Roddenberry and Desilu production chief Herb Solow, NBC passed on “The Cage,” an unusually ambitious and polished pilot filmed at a princely cost of nearly $616,000 (nearly $4.5 million in inflation-adjusted dollars), including $164,000 in overruns, which Desilu was forced to absorb. For decades afterward, Roddenberry derided the network for rejecting “The Cage,” mocking one executive’s assessment that the pilot was “too cerebral.” But Roddenberry’s bitterness belied the reality that he had played a game of bait-and-switch with NBC. He sold network executives on Star Trek by comparing the series to Westerns like the popular Wagon Train. “I said, ‘Look fellas, it’s little more than a Western,’” Roddenberry explained in an interview featured on the Star Trek: The Original Series Season One DVD collection. “‘They have space ships instead of horses, zap guns instead of six-shooters, but it’ll be familiar.’” Then he delivered “The Cage,” which is nothing at all like Wagon Train or any other Western ever made. “They didn’t get what they had asked for or agreed upon, and they were naturally very upset,” Roddenberry admitted.
NBC programming heads Grant Tinker, Jerry Stanley, and Mort Werner had other concerns as well. While the executives were dazzled by the show’s production values (they were knocked out by its sets, costumes, and special effects), they were far less impressed with the dramatic possibilities of the characters and with the performances of the cast. Also, they were troubled by the sexual content of the pilot story (especially the appearance of a scantily clad, green-skinned Orion slave girl): If Star Trek was always this racy, potential censorship issues loomed.
A quick recap of “The Cage” may be in order. Responding to a distress signal, a landing party from the starship Enterprise, led by Captain Christopher Pike, beams down to Talos IV, where a survey vessel crashed eighteen years earlier. Pike is captured by the planet’s wily natives, bubble-headed telepaths capable of reading minds and thought-casting powerful illusions. They try to entice the captain into mating with Vina, a lovely young Earth woman, in hopes of breeding a race of slaves. Vina proves unable to seduce Pike (even when, with telepathic help, she assumes the appearance of the aforementioned Orion), so the Talosians kidnap Pike’s all-business female first officer, called simply Number One, and his more amorously inclined yeoman, J. M. Colt, to serve as other potential mates. Yet still the captain resists. Pike overpowers one of his captors, but the aliens respond by taking mental control of the Enterprise. It appears to be a stalemate until the Talosians read the ship’s databanks and surmise that humans are “too violent” to make good slaves. The Earthlings are released—except for Vina, who it’s revealed was severely injured in the long-ago crash, her broken body crudely reconstructed by the Talosians. “They had never seen a woman before,” the misshapen Vina explains. She chooses to remain on Talos, where she can maintain her illusion of youth and beauty.
By the standards of 1960s television, this was a strikingly fresh and compelling yarn, one that would eventually make an excellent Star Trek episode (actually, two). Nevertheless, it’s fortunate for Trek fans that NBC rejected “The Cage.” Had the network accepted this pilot, Star Trek would have been a very different program—and, in all likelihood, a far less successful one. Despite the pilot’s undeniable strengths, most of the elements that made Star Trek so persistently popular are absent from “The Cage.” Here’s a rundown of telling contrasts between this original pilot and the final program:
Captain Pike
Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter), although brave and capable, tends toward melancholy, beset by self-doubt and recriminations. Distraught over the deaths of two crewmen on a recent away mission, and weary of the burdens of command, he considers resigning his commission with Starfleet. Hunter, best remembered for his portrayals of John Wayne’s sidekick Martin Pawley in The Searchers (1956) and Jesus in King of Kings (1961), delivers a thoughtful, sensitive performance. His take on the character hews closely to Roddenberry’s original conception of the starship captain as a spacefaring Horatio Hornblower, but it stands in stark contrast with William Shatner’s confident, swashbuckling James T. Kirk. Hunter’s brooding Pike strikes a more downbeat note for “The Cage” than is characteristic of the finished Star Trek. When the ebullient Shatner signed on to replace Hunter, Roddenberry was forced to reimagine the character. The high-spirited panache Shatner brought to his role helped brighten the tone of the entire show.
Mr. Spock
Although Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is featured in “The Cage,” he is hardly the coolly logical, emotionless Vulcan that would eventually become a television sensation. He flashes a broad grin when he encounters singing alien plants on the surface of Talos and, later, whirls and cries out in alarm when Number One and Yeoman Colt are beamed to the planet’s surface by the Talosians. As with Captain Pike, this Spock conforms closely to Roddenberry’s original vision of the character. The creator-producer’s initial outline for the series describes Spock as gentle-hearted, with “a quiet temperament in dramatic contrast with his satanic look. … His primary weakness is an almost catlike curiosity over anything the slightest [bit] ‘alien.’” In “The Cage,” however, the role is so thinly written that Spock is barely a character at all. The Vulcan second lieutenant is a bystander to the plot (even Yeoman Colt plays a more active role) and remains distinguishable from the rest of the crew only by Nimoy’s prosthetic ears. It’s hardly surprising that NBC executives, after receiving damning research from the network’s sales department regarding the character’s demonic appearance, wanted Spock eliminated; his presence adds little to the pilot. Ultimately, of course, Spock (and Nimoy) remained, becoming the only crew member from “The Cage” to stay on board with Star Trek. But along the way the character would undergo an even more profound alteration than the switch from captains Pike to Kirk.
“Number One”
In addition to a different captain (Christopher Pike, right, played by Jeffrey Hunter), “The Cage” also featured a very different Mr. Spock, at least in terms of personality.
In “The Cage” it’s the nameless female first officer, referred to simply as “Number One” (and played by Majel Barrett), that possesses an expressionless, emotionless demeanor. This is troublesome for a couple of reasons. First of all, there’s no logical reason for her to behave this way. (Even the Talosians dismiss her icy exterior as “largely a pretense.”) And secondly, although other characters in “The Cage” describe Number One as machinelike and unfeeling, Barrett doesn’t consistently play the part that way. She clearly seems embarrassed when the Talosians expose her hidden fantasies about Captain Pike, and again when, in the episode’s closing minutes, Yeoman Colt asks Pike which of the three women the captain would have chosen as his mate. At other points Barrett displays worry, frustration, and relief. But since the actress is trying to seem cool and unemotional, she comes off flat, showing none of the warmth and likeability she would later bring to her recurring role as Nurse Chapel, or to her Next Generation appearances as Lwaxana Troi. Although Roddenberry later charged that NBC wanted Number One eliminated from the show because the network was uncomfortable with a woman being second-in-command on a starship, Desilu production chief Herb Solow clarifies that the network actually encouraged the casting of women and minorities. “They just didn’t want Majel,” Solow writes in his book Inside Star Trek. Despite his personal attachment to Barrett, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, Roddenberry reluctantly eliminated Number One from the crew. With Star Trek’s second pilot he would conflate the character with Mr. Spock, elevating the Vulcan to first officer (granting him a far more prominent role in the storylines) and lending him the cool, unemotional personality originally intended for Number One. The rest would be television history.
Other Characters and Actors
Another striking feature of “The Cage” is that, aside from Number One, the Enterprise bridge crew is composed entirely of white men. There are no equivalents for Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Lieutenant Sulu (George Takei), or even any Scottish or Russian accents to be heard. In short, there’s nothing like the multinational rainbow coalition that served Captain Kirk, no at-a-glance depiction of a human future free of racism and xenophobia. This aspect of the show ranks among Star Trek’s most inspirational and widely admired features, and its absence greatly diminishes “The Cage.”
Yet there are further weaknesses among the pilot’s characters and cast. Dr. Phillip Boyce (John Hoyt) and Yeoman Colt (Laurel Goodwin) pale in comparison to their later counterparts, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Yeoman Janice Rand (Grant Lee Whitney). Although Hoyt and Goodwin are serviceable in their roles, both characters are hackneyed stereotypes. The folksy charm of McCoy, in particular, is sorely missed. Navigator Jose Tyler (who, despite his Latino first name, is played by the decidedly Anglo-looking Peter Duryea) has no discernible personality whatsoever, and Duryea’s performance is cringe-inducing. Perhaps most damaging of all, this ensemble demonstrates no inkling of the chemistry that quickly developed among Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The only cast members who seem to have any rapport are Hunter and guest star Susan Oliver as Vina. Week in and week out, the Shatner-Nimoy-Kelley team’s unique blend of personalities and performance styles gave fans something dynamic to watch, even when the plots were less than scintillating. It’s difficult to imagine the Hunter-Barrett-Hoyt trio spawning such devotion.
Sets, Costumes, and Lighting Design
“The Cage” seems far more somber than the later Trek, and not just because of Captain Pike’s dour personality. This is due in part to the pilot’s drab sets, costumes, and lighting. Captain Kirk’s Enterprise is a bright, color-splashed place. Its gleaming hallways are dotted with red, blue, and yellow instrument panels. Turbolift doors are painted red, as are the helm and the rail around the bridge. The captain’s cabin features a number of homey touches, including paintings, a sculpture, and even a potted plant. Male crew members sport their now-iconic gold, blue, and red tunics, while female crew members wear similarly colored miniskirt-length dresses (with go-go boots, no less). Even though it was shot on the same sets, Captain Pike’s Enterprise could hardly be more dissimilar. The Enterprise of “The Cage” is nearly monochromatic, full of blank gray walls. Turbolift doors are pale blue, barely distinguishable from gray, and the helm and bridge rail are painted black. The captain’s cabin is far more Spartan; its only visible amenity is a built-in shelf full of severe-looking books. As with most of the rest of the ship, its walls are unadorned. There are no red tunics in use aboard this Enterprise, only pale blue and gold (and even those colors are covered with charcoal gray jackets when the crew leaves the ship). Typically the lighting of future Star Trek episodes would be bright, designed to “pop” red objects, and sometimes employ purple, green, and blue gels to evocative effect. However, “The Cage” is flatly lit, underscoring the sterile, militaristic look of the sets and costumes. These are subtle differences, but they add up. And in sum, the Enterprise of “The Cage” seems like a far less inviting place to spend a five-year mission, or even a three-season run.
Differences in “Treknology”
In “The Cage,” Pike and his landing party are armed with lasers, not “phasers.” The Enterprise utilizes “hyperdrive” engines that warp time (not space), with rockets (rather than “impulse engines”) for backup propulsion. The ship avoids space debris with a “meteorite beam” rather than the familiar deflector screen. These variations may or may not seem minor, depending on how emotionally invested you are in the show’s imaginary technology. But taken as a whole, they suggest a less innovative and cohesive set of science fictional concepts than those employed by the finished program. While it took a while for all the details to coalesce, Star Trek’s casual employment of consistent futuristic technical jargon lent its stories an essential measure of believability. Its ideas seemed fresh, and its verbiage was unique. The use of Buck Rogers words like “laser” and “rocket” in “The Cage” makes the twenty-third century sound more like the 1930s. It doesn’t help matters that the props created for this pilot—especially the cylindrical “lasers” and chunky communicators—are clumsy-looking compared to those developed for the later series.
TV Guide advertisement for the long-delayed broadcast of Star Trek’s rejected original pilot, “The Cage.” The adventure finally aired October 15, 1988, twenty-four years after it was filmed.
Roddenberry and Solow had secured production funds for “The Cage” from NBC with the understanding that, if it were rejected, the pilot could be aired as a fill-in Movie of the Week. Star Trek was saved from that ignominious fate when network executives took the extraordinary step of requesting a second pilot. Eventually, all but nine minutes of “The Cage” would be used in the two-part episode “The Menagerie,” joined with a newly created framing sequence.
Roddenberry remained proud of “The Cage” and often showed a black-and-white 16 mm print of the show at Star Trek conventions and other public appearances. Unfortunately, the original negative of “The Cage” was cut up when “The Menagerie” was produced, and for many years the only extant complete version of the series’ first pilot was Roddenberry’s battered black-and-white print. Early home video releases of “The Cage” combined 16 mm black-and-white footage with the color 35 mm footage used in “The Menagerie.” Then, in 1987, the original negative trims from “The Cage” were discovered in a Los Angeles film vault, and a painstaking restoration was undertaken. The complete, full-color version of the original Star Trek pilot finally aired in 1988 as part of a television special, The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to Another, hosted by Patrick Stewart. Along with the seventy-nine original episodes, “The Cage” was digitally remastered in high definition, with new computer-generated visual effects, for release on Blu-ray in 2006.