trek.haus

TOS 0x1: They Actually Enjoy Being Taken To Q3DM17

Written Friday 27 September 2024 in The Original Series.

First, a note on watch order. We’ll be watching the entirety of Star Trek in series release order, i.e.: every series in sequence, every episode in order of release date. The only exceptions (so far) are starting with The Cage and watching the TOS and TNG movies after we finish their respective series.

Second, I actually haven’t seen the majority of Star Trek yet. I was a teenager in the early 2000s (in Australia), so I mostly watched reruns of TNG and DS9 mixed in with whatever new scraps of Voyager I could get my hands on. This isn’t going to be a breathless review by some grizzled veteran; instead it’s going to be a fresh-eyed exploration of the show by a guy who — at the time of this writing — still doesn’t quite know what a tribble is.

With that out of the way, let’s watch The Cage.

They Actually Enjoy Being Taken Advantage Of

I have a feeling that I’m going to spend the next few months learning all about Gene Roddenberry’s fetishes. The skimpy outfits, the leering looks, the whole “I can be anything you want” speech. The entirety of the bellydancing scene. There’s this ambient sense of playful voyeurism to the whole thing, like a kid banging two Barbie dolls together. I’m not accusing Roddenberry of anything — other than being a man in power in 1965 — but I can clearly tell this is being made by him, for him.

In a way it reminds me a lot of The Orville, in that it’s less “design by commitee” and more “one guy filming his friends play dress-up”. (I sincerely hope this is the last time Star Trek reminds me of The Orville instead of the other way around.)

Oh, and coming to this from the TNG “we’re all equals here” era is a brutal adjustment. I was watching early DS9 clips before this episode and seeing Pike balk at having a woman on the bridge is a shocking opposite to Kira’s introduction.

High-Definition Scuff Marks

Hoo boy that 1080p transfer really brings out all the details, don’t it. Not since the heady days of Diddy’s Kong Quest have I seen such blind trust in the fuzziness of CRT screens. Everything wobbles, everything cracks, everything looks like it’s made out of carpet samples and garbage bags.

However, underneath the lint-encrusted skin of this show I can see the strong bones of it all. They have the uniforms, the matte paintings, the amazing prosthetics; just enough of what you need to get the message across. Sometimes you see a cheap production and realise all the money in the world couldn’t save it, but I look at this and see that every dollar is being spent wisely. If I was a television executive in 1965 I’d give this guy a second chance too.

Look Into My Eyes

Again, fetishes. Someone on this crew has a thing for eyeballs because they’re all over this damn thing. If I was any good at video editing I’d make a supercut of every time someone in this episode stares into the middle distance, and it would be lengthy. It doesn’t… not work, though.

According to Wikipedia the main complaint NBC had for this episode was that it was “too cerebral” — and they are absolutely correct — but if you can survive the occasional thousand-yard-stare it really pulls together by the end. All the long glances and lengthy conversations give this episode a soft, meditative vibe; almost as if it’s more important for the characters to discuss the action than to experience it.

Humble Beginnings

The Cage is a mess. It’s a slow, clunky pile of bubblegum and paperclips that barely holds together and every complaint NBC ever had about it is completely correct. It’s also a teeny bit brilliant.

Again, if I was an exec in 1965 and some guy walked into my office with this it would merit a response. It still merits a response, 59 years later. I can see how squeezing this in between Bewitched and Ed Sullivan would get people excited. It’s so… different, and so confident in its differences. I just hope the real show has a proper budget.

Oh, one last thing. I like to take notes while I watch these episodes and it always seems like such a waste to delete them, so instead I’m publishing them under each post. If you’re incredibly bored or you desperately need to know what I thought during each moment of the show, click on the “Notes” button below.

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