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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Seminal Trek
SPOILERS
When Star Trek's production crew started falling behind in both schedule and budgets during the first season, they came up with the brilliant idea of using the unsold The Cage pilot as the basis for a two part episode. The result: One of the most important and brilliant Treks ever done!
Everyone knows the basic plot by now: Spock kidnaps his crippled former Captain, and hijacks the Enterprise, and sets course for the one forbidden planet in all The Federation. He eventually is court-martialed en route, and presents as his evidence an unusally detailed account of the Enterprise's visit to Talos IV 13 years prior.
THIS is the episode which cements Spock's character forever: the supposedly emotionless Vulcan, who demonstrates more passion and loyalty than most humans. Leonard Nimoy's performance is one of his best as Spock : initially seeming as though Spock had gone crazy almost, kidnapping Pike, using false computer tapes and voices to convince people that the ship is under 'secret orders', all sorts of indications SOMEthing must be wrong with Spock...until after the Talosian's plan is revealed,where it is found THEY have been manipulating events all along, and Spock returns to his stoic self.....except..when leaving the briefing room with Pike for the last time, his head bowed, shoulders slumped.
Shatner's understated performance in this has been sloughed off in some circles. I say :'unfair'...Frankly, it is PERFECT for the events - all during these events, Kirk acts rather stunned at all these events: His friend and 1st Officer has seemingly gone crazy and hijacked his ship, he almost dies going after him in a shutle, THEN he is releived of command for all of this! By the time the Talosians supposedly abandon Spock and forces the trial board to take a vote, even Kirk is convinced Spock should be put away.But..at the end..is able to smile when the Talosian shows him the 'rejuvenated' Pike happy again at last.
All of these performances are directed with care by Marc Daniels, the veteran TV director who was at the helm of the 'envelope'. They make an deliberate point of cutting to the more mature, unemotional Spock during the famous 'laughing' scene,and you can ALMOST see a flicker of 'was I THAT emotional?' cross his face!
The makeup used on Sean Kenney, the 'substitute' Captain Pike (Jeffery Hunter was unavailable),might be some of the best ever done for any Trek: it holds up totally through repeated cuts back and forth from the pilot footage: you are totally convinced this is an older, horribly maimed Jeffrey Hunter!
Some small parts of The Cage are cut: some shots of Pike's fellow 'zoo-mates', some VERY sexist lines about 'women on the bridge', and the obligatory 'aliens running through the computer' scene. None of these are very important to the plot of EITHER the pilot or the envelope.
And just to add some trivia:
Part II of The Menagerie was the highest rated episode of Star trek ever in prime time!
Actor Malachi Throne had been the original voice of the Talosian Keeper in the pilot. Since he was cast as Commodore Mendez, voice artist Vic Perrin was dubbed in as The Keeper.
As per the Director's Guild, Marc Daniels was credited as director for Part I, while the director of The Cage, Robert (Mr Pilot) Butler, was given the screen credit for Part II.
The Menagerie is amazing experience from start to finish!
Rating: 
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Just Too Much Perry Mason
I'd give this episode(s) 5 stars except for the reason the main story (The Cage) got incorperated into it, the Trial of Spock. Not only was it a sad excuse to re-view Capt. Pike's adventure but uses something a more perfect future should be done with - lawyers!
I realize that the story needed a context for the present Enterprise crew to contemplate Pike's story but Spock could have kidnapped Pike and explained the back story to audience in flashbacks during the trip (as an example). Even a battle scene where Kirk has to stop Spock from landing on Talos IV would have been great (oops! sorry, no decent special effects then).
Only the confrontation between Kirk and Spock should have been left alone.
p.s. ST:TOS also played the lawyer card in Court-Martial, a lame excuse for a story. ST:TNG had at least four court-cases, played out to predictable endings.
Among them:
1) Data is saved from a scientist who wants to dis-assemble him.
2) Riker is falsely accused of murder.
3) In The Drumhead an out of control witch hunt is stopped when the lawyer looses it!
4) A Society is freed from an alien posing as "their god".
Each case (no pun intended) was a better excuse than in "The Menagerie".
Rating: 
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I would recommend watching The Cage first
The Menagerie-This two part episode based on pilot #1, in which Spock is in the hot seat, is difficult to evaluate separately from `The Cage.' Overall, the team did a good job of generating an episode `without' another episode. On the other hand, the main thing going for the episode is The Cage. And it is better just to watch The Cage as it was intended, without all the artificial breaks. As noted by another reviewer, it isn't just the breaks in The Cage that are awkward; the need for breaks in The Menagerie also made for some awkward moments. So ultimately this episode was a clever way of presenting `The Cage', and not a lot more. The two exceptions: 1) it is interesting to see the extent of Spock's loyalty, and 2) the return of Pike to Talos IV was a nice touch. (2.5 stars for the Menagerie components alone, 3.5 overall)
Rating: -
Spock on trial
The only two part episode of TOS in which Spock goes on trial for kidnapping his old captain Christopher Pike to take him to the forbidden world of Talos IV.
Rating: -
ONE OF TREK'S BEST AND MOST CLEVER DRAMAS!!!
Volume 8 of the Star Trek DVD collection contains the series only 2 part episode. THE MENAGERIE is easily one of the series best dramas and also easily one of the best episodes of the first season. Creator Gene Roddenberry made a very clever move in this episode. Using the footage from the (at the time) un-seen pilot episode THE CAGE, he made an episode that revolved around Captain Pike.
The MENAGERIE takes place 13 years after the events that occured in THE CAGE. Spock was a crew member aboard the USS Enterprise during Cpt. Pike's command. However now Pike is severely crippled from a freak accident when he was saving some children. He is still the same person he once was only trapped inside a useless body, a vegetable if you will. When they arrive on a planet Spock and Kirk meet up with Pike after many years. Spock kidnaps Pike and sets the Enterprises course to Rigel IV the forbidden planet. He is arrested and sent to court for a court martial for disobeying Kirk orders. Spock explains why he is doing this and during the court shows footage that occured 13 years ago. If Spock is not guilty he will be able to continue his assignment if he is Kirk will be forced to find him guilty and the Vulcan will be court martialed.
THE MENAGERIE was a wonderful episode that ranks as one of the series most complex plots. Partly because it is a two parter but the best thing about this was Roddenberry was finally able to put some of the unused footage from THE CAGE to use. Although the run of THE CAGE here is quite disjointed it gives you the basic jist of the plot. It also features the famous bulb head aliens that treat human like zoo animals.
Overall Volume 8 is a essential 2 part Trek episode that must be seen. It is great to see Cpt. Pike again even though he is terribly scarred and says nothing. Still this DVD is one of the collections finest. Highly recommended!
