For some of us, Star Trek is where it started, and where Star Trek started was The Cage.  To celebrate our 600th episode of Fusion Patrol, Simon and Eugene go where no podcast has ever gone before (I’m pretty sure about that claim, I couldn’t find any other podcasts that have ever taken a look at Star Trek, which honestly is a little strange.)

We discuss pushing the moral and technical boundaries of television in the 1960s, making multiple pilots and upcycling rejects, and Gene Roddenberry’s interesting ideas about sex.

Episode Synopsis

The USS Enterprise is en route to the Vega colony to tend their wounded and replace dead crew members after a conflict on Rigel VII when they receive a distress call sent 18 years ago from the SS Columbia.

With no evidence that there were survivors, Pike decides to continue to Vega.  The crew deaths on Rigel VII weigh heavily on him, and he confides in the ship’s doctor that he’s considering resigning.  

Dr. Boyce is skeptical.  Life is for meeting challenges, and Pike is doing exactly what Pike should be doing.  Besides, if not a starship captain, what would he do?

“I could go home to Earth and ride horses and have picnic lunches, or even become a trader in Orion sex slave women,” says Pike.

But the time for daydreaming is over, the Enterprise has confirmed there were survivors from the crash, and Pike redirects the ship to Talos IV to investigate.

On Talos IV, a barren, desolate planet, they find a survivors’  encampment of old men and one almost hypnotizingly beautiful young woman.  She is Vena, who was born just before the ship crashed.  She lures Pike away from the encampment to show him her etchings… er, a discovery, and before he realizes what’s happening, all the survivors and their encampment disappear, and Talosians come out of the ground and capture him.

Pike finds himself in a menagerie with other strange life forms.  A group of Talosians come to observe him.  They are communicating telepathically, discussing the new specimen, and although Pike can overhear their telepathic thoughts, they are ignoring him.  They leave with the ominous comment that the experiment can begin.

Aboard the Enterprise, the ship’s first officer, known only as Number One, is holding a staff meeting, discussing the situation.  Dr. Boyce warns that the mental power of these aliens are so great that they can make anyone see anything they want them to, and the illusion is so real that it is impossible to ignore.  They could make the crew destroy the Enterprise.

Nonetheless, they must try to rescue Capt. Pike.  Number One orders the ship’s power to be redirected to the planet where they can try to blast their way into the underground complex.

Pike is standing in his cage, and suddenly, he’s on Rigel VII again, reliving his recent fight there, but with a difference, this time, there’s a fairytale princess for him to rescue in the form of Vena.

Pike quickly realizes that this is all an illusion and his brain tells him that he should be safe in his cage.  But is this all an illusion, why did they pick Vena again?  Why not some other fantasy woman?

They are about to be attacked by the monstrous Kalar, and Vena seems terrified.  Pike’s questioning of her gets ambiguous answers, at best, but eventually, he has no choice but to fight and defeat the Kalar – and he is back in his cage, this time with Vena.  It’s dawning on Pike that Vena may be real, but he gets no straight answers from her.

The Enterprise crew attempt to blast the top of the Talosians’ secret entrance, but even the might of the Enterprise’s engines make no dent in it.  Dr. Boyce, always the voice of optimism, suggests that maybe they did, but the Talosians are preventing them from seeing it.

Pike continues questioning Vena and gets some info.  The Talosians developed their mental powers and became addicted to living and re-living the lives of the creatures in their menagerie.  They’re even losing the knowledge to repair their own machines.  Pike realizes that to maintain populations of animals, they’ll need a breeding pair of humans.  Vena confesses that she is a real human, and she disappears, screaming in pain, as the Talosians punish her.

Later, the Talosians put food in Pike’s cell, and the Keeper even speaks directly to him, expressing that they want their specimens to be happy in their new lives.  The Keeper confirms that Vena was the sole survivor of the crashed ship.  As Pike continues to be stubborn, the Keeper gives him his first taste of punishment: he is transported briefly to Hell.  He consumes his dinner. He discovers he can block their mind reading by holding hatred in his mind, and he also, encouragingly, demonstrates to the Keeper that he is protective of Vena.

…and he is on a Picnic near his hometown with his two horses and his beautiful wife, Vena.  He reflects that this is exactly what he’d been talking with Dr. Boyce about, and now he understands Boyce’s answer to him.  You have to face life head-on and not run away.

Stubborn to a fault, though, he continues to ply Vena with questions, trying to find a way for them to escape.  She explains that over the years, she has been beaten by their manipulations, and they own her.  She also explains that they plucked her idea of an ideal man from her mind and selected Pike.  She can’t help but love him.

Pike’s Keepers realize that dark, deep fantasy is more compelling than pleasant memories and so Pike is suddenly in a hedonistic, palatial estate, presumably on Orion.  He owns this den of inequity and is entertaining guests.  The band plays, and one of Pike’s green Orion sex slaves dances seductively for the appreciative guests.  She is, of course, Vena, and Pike’s resolve is beginning to weaken.  Vena corners him with lust in her eyes.

Aboard the Enterprise, Number One has formed a landing party.  They will attempt to beam into the Talosian facility directly, but when the Transporter is activated, only the women, Number One, and Yeoman Colt beam down.  They arrive in Pike’s cell, breaking Pike and Vena out of the illusion, much to Vena’s disappointment. 

Although they still have their lasers and communicators, they are nonfunctional and Pike throws them aside.

The Keeper arrives and explains:  Since you don’t want to get down to business with the first female specimen, we’ve brought you two more, and you can choose which one you like, both have got the hots for you.

Aboard the Enterprise, Spock, now in command, decides to run, but it is too late, the Talosians shut down the ship.  Looks like it’s swatting time.

Knowing that the Talosians cannot read his mind through strong, violent emotions, Pike has been keeping a mad on, and eventually, the Keeper pops in, trying to retrieve the lasers.  Pike pounces on him and, despite terrifying illusions, hangs on and threatens to break the Keeper’s neck.  He reasons that the laser actually worked and burned a hole in the cage and it’s true.  With the Keeper hostage, they make their way to the surface where the top of the base was indeed blown away.

They can still not contact the ship, and the Keeper tells them the truth.  They want them on the surface.  They want them to start a colony of slave humans to reclaim the planet.

Pike tries to make a deal.  I’ll stay with Vena if you let my crewmen and the ship leave, but Number One has other plans.  “It’s wrong to create a colony of slaves,” and she puts her laser on overload.  It will soon explode, killing them all.

In the nick of time, more Talosians arrive, having bothered to study the Enterprise’s history banks, and they have realized humans don’t like to be in captivity, even when it’s all fantasy-perfect.  Ok, you’re too dangerous.  You can leave.

Number One and Yeoman Colt are returned to the Enterprise, but Pike is held back.  

Vena won’t leave, and for Pike’s eyes only, it is revealed why.  Vena is an old woman, horribly disfigured.  The Talosians rescued her from the crash and healed her and put her back together, but they’d never seen a human, and it apparently never occurred to them that humans might be bilaterally symmetrical life themselves and all of their specimens that we’ve seen, or indeed to scan her mind to see what she thought she and humans looked like. 

Pike agrees with her reasons to stay, and not only is she restored to beauty, but the Talosians give her the illusion that Pike has stayed behind with her.

Back on the Enterprise, Pike is fresh and ready to go.  He’s had his vacation back home, and it’s time to head on.