"The Menagerie" - in 1966!

[evilnate]

I was watching "The Menagerie" the other day, and while we know that today it's pretty much a clip show made from the superior "Cage", I was wondering what it would have been like watching it first run in 1966. While I was watching it, I was imagining what it would have been like not knowing that the shots of Captain Pike's crew were from a previously made pilot.

It struck me how epic it must have felt. Not only did we get to see a completely different crew, played by different actors, but the Enterprise itself looked different. The production values were generally higher than the average episodes up to that point, the effects were better, the makeup effects on the Talosians were far beyond any of the other makeup effects on the show. Not to mention, but this episode added a large amount of history to the show and the ship.

So I ask the people who were there: Did you know that this episode was made up of footage taken from an earlier pilot? Did it feel as big and epic as I'm imagining that it might have? Did you wonder how they made the Enterprise look different for just this one episode? And what did you think about Spock smiling?

 

[EnsignHarper]

I remember seeing it very early in the syndication run as a kid and thinking something of the effect that there had been an earlier series or something (pretty close, I know!).

BTW - The Menagerie part II was the highest rated episode of Trek in its first run....

 

[Captain Robert April]

^ What was the rating?

 

[Christopher]

As for how people would've reacted to the ship looking different or Spock smiling, I think TV viewers were used to shows making abrupt changes without explanation. In the days before widespread reruns, home video, and the Internet, there was less emphasis on the big-picture continuity stuff, more emphasis on each individual episode as an experience in itself. Look at something like Mission: Impossible, where they replaced the original team leader after the first season and went through many more cast changes over the years, but never offered a word of explanation for the changes.

And really, the changes in the ship have precedent in other Trek episodes. Stock Enterprise footage from the pilot was often intercut with more current footage, and the 3-foot and 6-foot miniatures had substantially different saucer proportions, so the ship would often change appearance from one shot to another in the same episode. And the sets went through a lot of changes from episode to episode, with new components being added on, so with the episodes being aired out of order, there were probably some discrepancies showing up. But again, without a lot of opportunities to refresh one's memory about old episodes, it probably didn't register as much on the viewers of the time.

I remember when I was a kid watching in reruns, I found "Where No Man Has Gone Before" something of an anomaly because of the unexplained changes in the ship and crew, but I either figured out or found out that it was an earlier pilot. I don't recall how I reacted to "The Menagerie." Perhaps I didn't question because the differences were explained in-story.


By the way, it might be worth pointing out something that's little-remembered these days: the original pilot was only called "The Cage" during the initial outlines, and was changed to "The Menagerie" before filming (although no onscreen title was shown). That's why the 2-parter is called that -- because it wasn't considered a separate work, but an expansion of the same work, and thus used the same title. But when The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman came out in 1981, it referred to the pilot version of "The Menagerie" by its working title "The Cage" in order to avoid confusion with the 2-parter (since it discussed both incarnations separately, unlike the earlier Star Trek Concordance which only covered the 2-parter). When the pilot finally came out on home video in 1986, Paramount followed Asherman's lead and released it as "The Cage," and it's been officially referred to by that name ever since. By now, probably a whole generation has grown up not realizing that "The Cage" wasn't the pilot's real title. (I think that back then I just thought of it as "the first pilot" to distinguish it from the 2-parter; I'm not sure if I got that from a written source or if it was just my own habit.)

Oh, and the James Blish adaptation in 1974's Star Trek 4 is called "The Menagerie" and consists only of material from the original pilot, since Blish couldn't figure out how to make the frame-and-flashback structure work in prose.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It was pretty amazing - me and the only other two kids in the world (as far as we knew) who watched the show talked about it a lot after Part I. It made the whole show seem more real, somehow - that there was some actual history behind it. Now, we weren't that analytical and we were watching on little old black and white TVs, so IIRC it wasn't like we picked up on a lot of the visual differences - beyond Spock, who certainly looked a lot different. So I guess a lot of that stuff registered subliminally with us.

 

[Captain Robert April]

By the way, it might be worth pointing out something that's little-remembered these days: the original pilot was only called "The Cage" during the initial outlines, and was changed to "The Menagerie" before filming (although no onscreen title was shown). That's why the 2-parter is called that -- because it wasn't considered a separate work, but an expansion of the same work, and thus used the same title. But when The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman came out in 1981, it referred to the pilot version of "The Menagerie" by its working title "The Cage" in order to avoid confusion with the 2-parter (since it discussed both incarnations separately, unlike the earlier Star Trek Concordance which only covered the 2-parter). When the pilot finally came out on home video in 1986, Paramount followed Asherman's lead and released it as "The Cage," and it's been officially referred to by that name ever since. By now, probably a whole generation has grown up not realizing that "The Cage" wasn't the pilot's real title. (I think that back then I just thought of it as "the first pilot" to distinguish it from the 2-parter; I'm not sure if I got that from a written source or if it was just my own habit.)

I make that very point frequently. And it will be in the next Concordance, even if it's just a notation in the lexicon.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Look at something like Mission: Impossible, where they replaced the original team leader after the first season and went through many more cast changes over the years, but never offered a word of explanation for the changes.

Not to pick a nit, but it was always clear that there were a lot of IMF team members. No reason to think the "missing" team members were no longer around (it's the Chekov / Khan thing). Replacing Steven Hill is something else again.

But again, without a lot of opportunities to refresh one's memory about old episodes, it probably didn't register as much on the viewers of the time.

Didn't register.... and didn't matter.

I remember when I was a kid watching in reruns, I found "Where No Man Has Gone Before" something of an anomaly because of the unexplained changes in the ship and crew, but I either figured out or found out that it was an earlier pilot.

I remember noticing the different uniforms, and especially the goose-neck personal screens, but what really got my attention was the budget -- real explosions right on the bridge! Exciting stuff!

As for the two parter, this is no mere clip show. The writers constructed a tense, interesting frame for the original pilot, which stands on its own merits (and is interestingly similar to TSFS). The end was a cop-out, of course.

 

[Nerys Myk]

When I was a kid I thought it was all original material with the changes made for that episode. I even thought post-accident Pike was Hunter.

 

[Gary7]

The first time I saw it was as a small child and I had no clue about what was going on. I just really liked it, because it depicted adventure as I'd wanted it to be. It made other sci-fi shows look really inferior and I found myself not enjoying them as much. Watching Star Trek was always fun, no matter how many times I'd seen the episode. Back then we didn't have VHS tapes, so on-air was the only way.

Later on as an adolescent, I had a friend who was also into Star Trek and we'd watch episodes together, discussing it at length afterward. My friend was convinced Hunter played both invalid and healthy Pike, but I disagreed. Sean Kenney appeared in the credits, but not listed as "Injured Captain Pike", so it was difficult to prove. It would be many years later before I finally got confirmation. Anyway, I remember feeling like it was amazing how much work went into the episode, creating the "past Enterprise" just for this episode. I had no idea it was from the first pilot. When I found out later, it made sense and I thought it was really cool. Watching the "The Cage" later on in its original form was quite a treat... like a long lost Star Trek episode, despite so much of it being familiar from "The Menagerie" parts 1&2.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I didnt't find out the "truth" until I read the Making of Star Trek when I was 13.

 

[Gary7]

^ That's how I found out too. Great book. I used the prop photos in the book as a guide to make clay phaser props. I was that much of a Trekkie.

 

[Christopher]

I didnt't find out the "truth" until I read the Making of Star Trek when I was 13.

Yeah, that's probably how I found out, since I bought the book when I was 7 (though I didn't get around to reading the whole thing for another couple of years; at that point, the Star Trek Action Toy Book that I bought from the same school book sale was more my speed).

 

[WRStone]

Well, here's a (lengthy) memory for you:

I was born in 1965. While one of my earliest memories is of the Mugato from "A Private Little War" in first-run, I don't remember "The Menagerie" until the early 1970s.

'Round about 1972, the main branch of the Lincoln, Nebraska Public Library obtained three 16mm prints of Star Trek episodes: "The Menagerie, Parts I & II" and "City On the Edge of Forever." They had a very early "multimedia" area in the library that included what we'd now call office cubicles. One had a filmstrip projector; one had a slide projector, and the third had a 16mm projector and reel-to-reel tape deck.

This was totally cutting-edge at the time. This was pre-consumer videotape. The only video recorders were at TV studios, for use by the local news. Even they tended to use film more often than videotape.

It was made even more cutting-edge by the "multimedia" area's use of mirrors. These were all film projectors. In order to get the image to appear bigger than a postage stamp in a limited space, the cubicles used an arrangement of mirrors. The image was ultimately rear-projected on a 17" diagonal screen two feet in front of the viewer's face.

Each of them made an ungodly amount of noise. The librarians learned to hate the sight of me.

Anyway, I was aware by that time that "The Cage" was the first pilot. At the time Roddenberry was lying his ass off about it. He was out on the college lecture circuit, during which he'd show "The Cage." He'd then tell capacity crowds:

"I showed that to NBC. They said it was too intelligent for you idiots in TV land -- but I had the last laugh! I snuck it in anyway, and it was nominated for a Hugo!"

The reality, of course, was that Star Trek episodes took longer to produce than they were scheduled for. By mid-season they were faced with having to tell the network they'd need air a re-run.

This was a huge deal at the time. Up until the late 1980s or so, TV shows always aired new episodes consecutively until the entire season was finished. Re-runs were only for summer.

The network would spend 25-50 consecutive weeks reminding the viewer to tune in next week for a new episode. Then they'd air reruns for the summer. Every September the network had a highly-publicized premiere week. They'd even have clip-show specials hosted by stars of popular TV series. They assumed that if you hadn't seen a new episode last week, you'd forgotten about the show completely and had to be reminded to tune back in.

For a show to be late with new episodes in 1966 had enormous financial implications. New shows had bigger audiences than re-runs, so the network sold airtime more expensively than during summer reruns. Being late was a sure sign that the show was in trouble, which translated to lower ad rates for the show.

A network might have tolerated a re-run of The Lucy Show (if Lucy were on her deathbed). Star Trek wasn't exactly putting butts in the seats. If it had been late, NBC could easily have decided to cut their losses and replace it mid-season.

As a middle-aged man today, I look at "The Menagerie" with serious admiration for Herb Solow.

Solow was Desilu's TV drama producers' (including Roddenberry's) boss. He was an important "buffer" between the creative and purely business interests of the company.

The business interests were hopelessly enmeshed in Lucille Ball's TV programs. They'd been made fabulously rich by them and didn't see any reason to change anything at Desilu. They didn't have a clue how to make anything other than three-camera, live-audience sit-coms (starring Lucille Ball).

Lucy thought the company needed to be more diverse. It produced shows like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Cannon.

So there was this political background in which Lucy's entrenched advisors and business partners were constantly putting bugs in Lucy's ear. To her credit, Lucy seems to have recognized that "her people" didn't know how to make TV drama. That's why Solow was hired, because he knew about it. She pretty much let Solow run things the way he liked. The way he ran it was by insulating his producers from Lucy and her crowd -- and this occasionally required skullduggery.

"The Menagerie" was masterful skullduggery. It not only brought the show from behind to ahead of schedule, it also works on several artistic levels. Solow should get more credit for it.

In real life, Roddenberry came into Herb Solow's office panicking. He knew he couldn't make the airdate in a couple of weeks. He wanted to tell Desilu management and NBC immediately so they could make plans and contact the sponsors, etc. He knew that by doing so, he was probably finished as a producer.

Solow told Roddenberry there was absolutely no way that upper management was ever going to hear about this, much less NBC. After prying Roddenberry off the ceiling, they went over exactly what film they actually had versus what they needed to make even a cheap, crappy episode. Solow pointed out that they hadn't included "The Cage" in their inventory of "film in the can."

"The Cage" was an entire story, not even an additional penny necessary to complete. It just wouldn't work with the show. One or the other of them got them over that hump by suggesting they frame it in the context of something that happened in Spock's past. It was a well-used TV convention in which entire episodes might occur in flashback. Even whole episodes of Lucy's various series had occurred in flashback.

But nobody knew this circa 1972. Back then, Roddenberry was touting "The Menagerie" as a piece of his genius that he snuck in behind the backs of NBC -- who were too stupid to know good TV when they saw it.

Anyway, in 1972 I had been watching 16mm prints to the point where I started splicing it myself when it broke -- I did a better job of splicing than the librarian, after all. All I knew of the backstory on "The Menagerie" was Roddenberry's spin.

In that context, not only is "The Cage" a pretty decent episode on its own, but working it into the series proper just looks like genius. Leaving out the story about "sneaking" it in, the framing story sets up the Star Trek as occurring in a "shared universe."

This wasn't an unheard-of concept at the time due to spin-offs. I suspect that few remember that Mork and Mindy was a spin-off of Happy Days ...

By having "The Cage" occur in Spock's past, it echoes real navies. A ship's crew will come and go, but there's always the ship. This was a meaningful social echo in 1964, when WWII veterans like Roddenberry were my age: mid-to-late-40s.

"The Menagerie" introduced conventions to the franchise that haven't been changed since. It made TNG and later shows conceivable because the truth is that the basic premise can be re-used infinitely with different casts.

Watching it on 16mm in 1972, I mostly thought it was cool. Here was this whole other group of people -- meaning there were others like the Enterprise crew out there somewhere. The Enterprise had to be the best, naturally -- but "The Menagerie" made it concrete that even the others might be cool. It was a glimpse of the larger Star Trek universe, which occurred fairly rarely in TOS.

Personally, this had an impact on my own tastes in SF. I like Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, Heinlein's Future History, H. Beam Piper's Terro-Human Future History and his Paratime series, and L. Neil Smith's Galactic Confederacy. I don't think I'd've been as interested in them in a young age had "The Menagerie" not exposed me to the "shared universe" concept.

Dakota Smith

 

[Captain Robert April]

Now a few corrections:

"Cannon" was a Quinn Martin production, starting in 1971, by which point Desilu was just a fond memory.

And, it was Bob Justman who was in a panic over the show not being able to make its airdate, and was preparing to send a letter to the network, at which point either Roddenberry or Solow, probably both, told him that under no circumstances was he to utter a word to the network about their schedule problems. Also, Justman raised his concerns pretty early in the production, because he was enough of a genius that he could tell, at the amount of time they were taking to complete episodes, they were gong to hit the wall at such-and-such time, which is precisely what happened. But because he raised his concerns early, Solow and Roddenberry had plenty of time to make contingency plans.

It's important to note here that Solow's job was to, essentially, run herd on the various shows under his purview, to make sure they're doing their jobs and not wasting the studio's and network's money (I have it on good authority that Solow was also drawing a paycheck from NBC, to make sure Crazy Gene wasn't about to spend them into the poorhouse). These shows included M:I, Mannix, and probably a few others besides Star Trek, so aside from periodic visits to the office to see if anything was done regarding Justman's airdate concerns, there's not a helluva lot he could do personally; he was just too busy. It was all up to Roddenberry and his staff.

Now, since Desilu was hammering Roddenberry to find some way to use "The Cage", and recoup some of the costs of what was at the time the most expensive television pilot ever shot.

Remember, one of GR's greatest strengths as a producer was being able to use the available resources in strange and innovative ways to get a show out of a jam.

Need to get the entire crew out of the way for the bulk of an episode and just leave your four or five main characters and guest stars? Well, shrink everyone down to the same shape as this little paperweight on my desk.

Need an alien plant and the greenhouse just doesn't get it? Pull it up by the roots and stick it back in the ground upside down. THERE'S your alien plant!

The Marines are yanking their technical adviser because you dared to mention Vietnam in an episode? Get out there and start training the extras on some basic marching drills.

So, when television show is faced with the prospect of not making its airdate, the options boil down to three options:

1) Air a rerun.

2) Put together a clip show.

3) Pray for two weeks of preemptions.

For a new show, options 1) and 3) are problematic at best, especially if you're struggling in the ratings, and normally 2) isn't an option because you haven't got enough footage in the can yet to do the old "Say, remember when we..."(cut to five flashbacks from previous episodes) routine. But Star Trek had over an hour of unseen footage, namely "The Cage". So, GR went off to write what soon became known as "the envelope", as in the envelope marked "OPEN ONLY IN CASE OF IMMINENT NUCLEAR ATTACK!" that's kept in the office safe "just in case."

So, production chugs along, and sure enough, they hit that wall Justman had been warning about. To show you how concerned GR was, he happened to be on vacation in Hawaii at the time.

Time to go get "the envelope."

The result was not just a clip show, not just a clip show with previously unseen footage, but a TWO PART CLIP SHOW!

Not only did they gain the time you generally get from putting out a clip show, but another week on top of that, which to a time-starved show like Star Trek is more precious than gold pressed latinum.

And I'm pretty sure the history of this episode was pretty honestly related in "The Making of Star Trek" back in 1968.

As for how he described it in his lectures, I'm pretty sure GR's exact words were...

"We made the first pilot, which was rejected for being too intellectual for you slobs in the television audience. It then went on to win the international Hugo Award, but then many things rejected by networks would win awards!"

 

[WRStone]

CRA: I stand corrected on details except the final one. You're quoting Roddenberry's Inside Star Trek album, which is indeed the way most fans heard it. I happened to hear it at the University of Nebraska a few months prior to the record's release. I think he varied the specific wording from time to time. Columbia Records caught one of his better deliveries for posterity.

In point of fact, I don't recall the specific wording I heard in person, just that it was slightly different than the record. My general recollection of the live lecture was that he'd toned a few things down when they recorded the album, but it was close to identical. In the album he talks about CBS: calls it "the network," but gives a derogatory anecdote about Lost In Space so the contemporary listener knows he's talking about CBS. In the live lecture, he just said, "CBS" (and included the derogatory Lost In Space anecdote).

 

[Captain Robert April]

He was in Denver the same year, at McNichols Sports Arena. To be honest, I was paraphrasing some, but the point I got from his mention of "The Cage" wasn't so much that he was oh so great for writing it, but that the networks oftentimes wouldn't know quality if it bit 'em on the ass. The only difference in the wording I recall is I'm pretty sure he said "cerebral" instead of "intellectual", as was recorded on the record.

Like I said, the whole genesis of the two-parter, and the "why" behind its production (along with the legendary decision by CBS to go with LIS instead of Star Trek) had been public record for several years by this point, with "The Making of Star Trek" in 1968 and, I think, David Gerrold's "The World of Star Trek" in the early 70's (at least a couple of years before Roddenberry's lecture tour).

Solow really didn't have that much to do with it, other than passing on Desilu's demand that GR find SOME use for that first pilot.

 

[Esteban]

Then, later, we found out the real "truth": that early 1st season story man John D.F Black wrote the envelope, and Roddenberry muscled him out of the credit.

It was a WGA decision, but the fact it went that far indicates "smoke in the room".

Knowing as we do GR, I'm willing to bet that John D.F. did indeed pen the majority of the envelope.

 

[Captain Robert April]

GR probably had John write some sort of framing element which they could insert the pilot footage into, possibly under the excuse that Gene was too busy to do it himself at the time and he needed it soon, then went about doing what he did to every script, proceeded to rewrite it, to put his own spin on it. I suspect the WGA decision had a big basis on who's idea it was in the first place, which favors Roddenberry, along with just how much was left of Black's version after GR was through with the rewrite. This requires a direct comparison with whatever materials both men provide to support their case, i.e, Black submits his version, Roddenberry submits his, and the arbitration board compares the two.

Who gets screen credit determines who gets paid, so these sorts of things are not something the Guild takes lightly.

 

[WRStone]

He was in Denver the same year, at McNichols Sports Arena.

Denver? Lucky bastard ... I was in Lincoln, Nebraska. Just old enough to attend the lecture, which drew a crowd at a large hall but would never have filled the city arena.

I was not old enough to go to the bar and hang out with GR afterward. A couple of college acquaintances, members of Star Base Andromeda (Lincoln's local ST fan club) got to go. Basically they took Gene and Majel to a local bar and kept them liquored up and talking long enough to get autographs on anything they wanted.

I have yet to get past my jealousy. Somewhere out there is my evil nemesis, Heim. He has several drink napkins with GR's signature, while I have none. He tasks me and I shall have him ... I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and ... aw, hell ...

HEEEEIIIIIMMMMMMMMMM !!

HEEEIIIIMMmmmmmm !!

heiiimmmm .... !

 

[spooky spice]

I saw the episode on it's first run in the UK (late 60s/early 70s) I didn't notice anything odd about the episode at all! I may have been too young to realise "ooh Spock was smiling there!"