• The Cage Part 2 March 08 - 5:03 am

Talos IV is referred to as being on the other side of the galaxy. Do they mean it`s in the Delta Quadrant?

Also, why does Jose Tyler (the navigator) say that the "time barrier" (warp) has been broken? The Columbia crashed only 18 years ago.

Yeah, that's right, Johnny. 35 years ago Roddenberry had this whole quadrant thing mapped out. That and stardates.

During the first beam-down sequence, the Asian transporter technician provides a major continuty error by wearing glasses in one shot. This is the only instance I can recall of a character in Trek wearing glasses, and it's an accident!

Like Kirk, he was probably alergic to Retnax 5. The cure for farsightedness. Kirk wore glasses in ST 2-4.

I guess it just hadn't occurred to anyone yet that there WOULDN'T be glasses in the future. It sure does look funny, but I'll bet no one even noticed or thought it strange back then.

A lot of things in this episode would be out of date by the 23rd Century. For instance, there are no PADDs but clipboards, there is a printer in the library computer console, and Pike even has an old style (even "old style" today) TV in his quarters!

In the book on the making of "Insurrection," there is a still photograph of the Enterprise librarian wearing glasses.

Anyone care to open a disscussion on how different Star Trek would have been had Jeffery Hunter and Majel Barret remained in the leads? He was certainly a much more serious captain then Kirk. I believe Pike would have ended up being more like Picard, and I think they missed out on a great opertunity with Number One. It could have been groundbreaking television to have had such a strong female as second in command. I'm sorry we never got the chance to see these characters developed.

As far as the old TV in Pikes quarters, he's an antique collector, didn't anybody tell you? It's a hobby.

Does anyone know why Nimoy has a bad limp in the first scene on Talos IV?

MF Yes It was supposed to be from the attack on Rigel Seven.

It is my understanding that the executives at NBC objected to the Number One character not because she was a woman but because of Majel Barrett's poor acting.

So why did they object to Spock?

Too satanic. In early publicity pix, they airbrushed out his ears and eyebrows.

I don't know about Jeffrey Hunter. His faced seemed stuck in a perpetual grimace. I guess he was supposed to look conflicted, but he just looked constipated.

I didn't think Majel Barrett's acting was that bad. I'll bet TPTB just didn't want a female lead.

NBC's nervousness about Spock is well documented. I've seen the air-brushed photo of Spock. Why it never occured to them to just release a publicity photo of Nimoy, I can't say.

Of course, in the pilot, Spock's character was much less important, about the level of Mr. Sulu in following series.

As you know, footage from this story was incorporated into the two-part story "The Menagerie". In doing so, however, the story has been changed a little bit. For example, as this story folds, the Talosians create an illusion of Pike to stay with Vina. Then, at the end of "The Menagerie", the footage of illusion-Pike is used to represent real-Pike's return to Talos after the court-martial. But knowing that Vina's had an illusion-Pike for 13 years, did real-Pike just replace illusion-Pike? Given that the same footage was used to represent two totally different scenes, I have to ask if "The Cage" can be considered canon.

If this takes place some 15 years before the series, then
1. The Enterprise had to be brand new, if the Admiral in ST III is right when he says she's 30 years old. What about Bob April?

2. Just how long was Spock in the Starfleet? Longer than Kirk it would seem. Just how old was he?

Is Number One really the most experienced officer on board? I think the doctor should be. Or possibly the captain, doncha think?

Talos IV is quarantined because the Talosians can cast illusions. In "Spectre of the Gun" Kirk is ordered to make contact with the Melkotians. He doesn't know at first about the powerful illusions but it's still pretty contrived. And why is he willing to disobey the superpowerful aliens but he's not willing to disobey Starfleet?
I guess the Melkotians are just "strategically located."
As for the line near the beginning, "The time barrier's been broken!" I think we can assume he just refers to the amount of time it takes to get from here to there. Maybe there was some major technological hurdle in getting starships to go faster than the whatever warp speed the previous starship was going.
By the way, I've read several different theories about Number One's name? What's your favorite? Maybe her name is just one of those long ones with lots of consonants and very few vowels, so the crew makes up other nicknames for her.

I can understand Pike calling Number One "Number One". Picard does that with Riker all the time. But why does Spock call her that?

Cuz they didn't have a name for her. Besides, it's standard navy parlance.

The novel "Vulcan`s Glory" says that`s her real name! It`s something to do with the planet she comes from (I haven`t read the book yet, just a description of it). But according to the "Early Voyages" comics, her name`s Robbins!

Then whoever wrote "Vulcan's Glory" doesn't know a **** thing. Sorry. These are basics here.

Well, Starfleet regs changed over the past 100 years... If this had been TNG, NumberOne would have gone down to the planet, and Pike would have had to sigh and pout and stay on board.

You know, for someone supposedly as tough as nails as Number One is supposed to be, that sigh and pout is out of character! Amazing what can be gleaned from a single episode, isn't it?

DC Fontana wrote "Vulcan`s Glory".

Really? Wow. I'm surprised. She of all people really should've known better.

I thought so too. Another maybe-nit- why is an exploratory ship carrying heavy laser cannon? I suppose it might have some uses, but it seems odd. A changed premise I suppose. Certainly we never saw one again, even during the recent Dominion War when one would be useful!

Just in case it encounters a hostile alien force on one of its exploratory missions, I would suppose.

True, but why do we never see one again? Even during a war! Sisco sure could have used one when he defended that captured enemy communications array.

Actually, the admiral in ST III said that the Enterprise is 20 years old, meaning the Cage occured a good 5-10 years before the ship was built. That might explain Number Ones coldness. She was freezing to death in space with no ship around her.

Doesn't the Captains Table book with Pike give her a name?

Phil notes how the members of Pike's bridge crew can wave their hands and change the magnification of the viewscreen and how Kirk's Enterprise lost this ability. Perhaps this device didn't prove all that practical because it wound up responding to all kinds of movement on the bridge when it wasn't supposed to. As an example, look how many people have discarded their "clapper" TVs because the TV kept going on or off when it registered a slight noise.

Years ago I rented this. At the time, the only color footage they had was what had been used in The Menagerie. It was interesting watching the show fluctuate between black & white and color and guessing why some lines didn't make it into The Menagerie. If I remember correctly one was Vina, in Color, saying to Pike, "I could wear anything you wish." Then the picture shifts to Black and White and I think her line is, "Or nothing if you wish." Then the picture is suddenly in Color again.

In the Classic Trekkers Guide, Phil wonders why Spock was smiling, shouting and showing emotion. Well, this episode takes place 14 years before Amok Time. (13 years before The Menagerie, and Amok Time was aired the next season.) Clearly his control over his emotions was slipping because of Pon Farr.

One of the Bridge officers says that the "Meteorite beam hasn't deflected it." A meteorite is a piece of space rock that has already crashed on a planet, in space they are referred to as meteoroids. (Or asteroids if they are larger than a kilometer.)

Dialogue states that the unknown thing is traveling at the speed of light, later the thing is identified as old style radio waves. The ship is identified as a research vessel that disappeared 18 years earlier and it is said that it would take the radio waves that long to travel from the Talos system. I think this is more than enough evidence to prove that the Enterprise is 18 light years from Talos. So far so good. Pike decides not to go to Talos, but to continue on to Vega to replace any injured crew members. A reference is made to Rigel VII where his yeoman was killed and seven crew members were injured. While not explicitly stated, the assumption is that the Enterprise is traveling from Rigel, 905 light years from Earth, to Vega, a star 26 light years from Earth. However, Pike tells the Talosians that he is from a stellar group at the other end of the galaxy. Has the galaxy suddenly shrunk? (On a side note, if you flew from Rigel to Vega you would pass about 8 light years from Earth. Rigel and Vega are on opposite sides of the Earth.)

When Mr. Spock shows a picture of the stars where Talos is, it looked like a picture of the Pleiades.

Is that a TV in Captain Pike's quarters? I thought TV was a fad that died out in the year 2040?

Pike's Enterprise has a compliment of 203 people. Kirk's Enterprise has about 430 people. However it is the same ship so why are there more than twice as many people on board the ship 13 years later? Were the engines just incredibly bulky and took up the extra space in Pike's time? Were there less jobs for crewmembers to do? Or didn't Starfleet have enough people to give the ship a full compliment?

Pike tells Number One that since she is the most experienced officer she must stay on board. Does this mean that she is more experienced than Captain Pike?

The survivors say, "They're men. They're Humans." They must not have seen Mr. Spock.

The tattered clothing of the survivors doesn't make much sense. This isn't some island on Earth where anyone may be marooned and they wouldn't know how to replace their clothes. The doctor says that the illusion showed them what they expected to see, including the tattered clothes. However, the Enterprise knows it was a research ship that crashed, and one of the illusions even states that all the men are old scientists. Are we supposed to believe that in the far future scientists won't know how to weave clothes from natural products or create artificial fabrics?

When the scientists vanish there is a continuity error. Spock's left hand is on some illusory equipment, then it is suddenly hanging by his side. The guy on the left of the screen is crouching, using some tool on an object that he is holding, then suddenly, the tool is several inches away from the object. (And since he is still holding the object then it must be something that he brought down from the ship. So was he fine tuning it or did it break while on the planet?)

Was Vina in the room all along or just when the illusion started?

Talk about a rapidly developing society, in just over a century, in the Deep Space Nine episode The Passenger, a criminal will have disrupted the computer system of Rigel VII. I guess that barbaric looking giant is really just a computer nerd. His world's answer to Bill Gates.

If the energy cannon is so dangerous that they have to run for cover before using it, then why are the controls mounted on the back of it? Clearly the designer felt that this would be the best place for the controls, so it should be safe, right? If it is not safe to stand next to the cannon when using it, then why not make the controls mobile, so that the user can take them behind the cover they are hiding behind?

So was Vina really punished or just pretending to scream so Pike would feel sympathy for her? Is Vina still in the room hidden by the Talosians illusion or did she leave?
When Vina disappears, why is her dress still there? Is the dress just an illusion to make Pike feel guilty or concerned for her fate?

When putting food in Pike's cage, why don't the Talosians just read Pike's mind to see when he is facing the other way, or just create a cover illusion so that it seems like the food has magically appeared? (Of course, at the end it is stated that the Talosians wanted the Humans on the surface, so maybe this was all part of the plan?)

It's a good thing for Number One that the Talosian dropped the illusion of the hole in the 'glass' when Pike threatened to blow off the Talosian's head. Number One was standing behind and holding the Talosian and her head was behind it's head. If Pike had fired, the blast would have taken off Number One's head as well. (Hmmm, maybe this explains why we never saw Number One again? On a later mission a similar situation occurred, Pike threatens to blow off some creature's head, it thinks he's bluffing "Oops. Mr. Spock, how would you like to be First Officer?")

Apparently illusions are not the only things the Talosians can do since they apparently operated the transporter to beam up the Yeoman and Number One. If the Talosians didn't operate the transporter then it must be able to beam up one person at a time by itself, since we didn't see the transporter chief do anything to the controls.

More likely is that some alien race invaded Rigel VII and set up shop.

I kind of find it funny that the Talosian's voice keeps changing from a higher pitched, ailien sounding voice, to a much deeper voice. Yes, it because of the variations between the pieces of footage (you can still tell the older colorized footage from the newer, by the crackles and pops in the back ground). I kind of have to wonder why this wasn't corrected.


BTW: Does anyone know if the original Cage video can still be purchased (where it keept changing from color to black and white)? For some reason, this version seemed to be much more mysterious and even a bit scary because of this

Keith Alan Morgan wrote that the reason Spock's emotions were slipping was because of Ponn Farr and the time would be right for the seven-year cycle. Well, in "Amok Time" Spock indicates that this is the first time Pon Farr has ever happened to him. Actually, there is nothing in the episode of "Amok Time" that says anything about a seven-year cycle, the indication there is that the Ponn Farr occurs to an individual "at the right time." The information about the seven-year cycle comes from "The Cloud-Minders" and seems to have been based on the writer(s) of that episode mishearing a line in "Amok Time", possibly the one in which Spock says that he and T'Pring were wedded when they were at the age of seven. In either case, Spock's brief loss of emotional control in this episode in no way resembles the black, brooding depression he later enters when he goes into Pon Farr in "Amok Time."

Todd: As for the differences in Spock's emotions in this episode and Amok Time here is my posted explanation from Amok Time.

Vulcans are overwhelmed by primitive emotions and a mating urge every seven years. The previous year in The Menagerie, Spock revealed that The Cage happened thirteen years ago. Which explains why Spock was so emotional in The Cage, fourteen years prior to this episode, so maybe Vulcans go through minor emotional breakdowns every seven years, but only once do they suffer the Big One as shown in this episode.

Spock doesn't limp in the first scene he does it several scenes. And if the Talosians are telepathic, why do they keep switching between telepathy and using their mouths?

Does anyone know if Leonard Nimoy actually did have a limp when this was shot? (as opposed to his character?)
Also look at one of the other crew - there's a sticking bandage, or large white band-aid, on his neck in several scenes? More of the aftermath from Rigel VII?

I've always wondered why Starfleet would institute a death penalty if anyone trespassed on this planet. Seems a bit harsh, doesn't it, for an organization that preaches peace and understanding and helping those less fortunate? Later in 'Turnabout Intruder', Chekov mistakenly refers to the wrong General Order that carries the death penalty; perhaps this is a new Order, the old one regarding Talos IV rescinded.

Has anyone ever considered the possibility of Number One being a robot? I came up with this theory because it seems to help explain some things. The name Number One would seem alright for a mechanical being, also her slight lack of emotions and, possibly her willingness to sacrifice herself for Captain Pike seems to suggest this. Number One could have been designed by Korby from 'What Are Little Girls Made Of', who could have modelled her body on his one-time lover Christine Chapel's, which would explain another long standing Trek mystery. I haven't seen 'The cage' or the 'The Menagerie' for a long time, so most of the facts about these episodes come from the Niticker's guide. Someone might want to see if I'm right or wrong here. The only question left unanswered is what ever happerned to her? was the development programme closed? Was she deavtivated to hush up the Cage Affair? I should think it wuld be possible to pick up a copy of the original video from a second hand outlet.

Wow. Edited by the Moderator to remove insult
And Number One is what first officers are called in the Navy.

And some people have no imagination. I like Richard's idea. It's definitely original!

If true, we were cheated out of an interesting scene that might have gone like this;
Number One (waving her arms in panic); Danger, Captain Pike, danger! Alien being approaching!
Dr.Boyce; Calm yourself, you bubble-haired booby.

OK it's the most plausable explanation for No. 1 & her name, & why she never turned up in the series again.

Maybe she never turned up again because she was killed in action.
A thought: was there a NextGen ep where Riker was only ever referred to as Number One. If so, she might very well have a name but it's just not mentioned here.

For that matter, why does the Keeper's voice change? Most of the episode it is a high-pitched (stereotypical big-brained-alien?) voice, but at one or two points (e.g. the line beginning "Since our life span is many times yours...") it suddenly goes deeper and more... well, masculine. (I believe this second voice is that of Malachi Throne, the actor who dubbed the Keeper's lines for all the original episode and then went on to play Pardek in the TNG episode "Unification".)

RUMINATIONS

This is the only episode in which the "warp factor" is called "Time warp factor".

In other words, the Original Enterprise under Kirk's command broke the time barrier as well when travelling planet to planet.
HERE'S PROOF....
In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Kirk comments that "Starbases that were once days away are now weeks away" (or something like that).

Here's another...

In the uncut version, when the Enterprise is being scanned, Spock calls for "rockets".

ROCKETS??????

That's not the worst of it, John; how about when Pike refers to his ship as 'the space vehicle Enterprise' ????? YUCK! We're talkin' starship here, Pike, not NASA's lunar module!

Rockets could be an early form self defence.

And "space vehicle", whilst it sounds primitive, is the most basic accurate description of the Enterprise.

Is the name Vena perhaps a nod to H.G.Wells' The Time Machine?

It's spelt 'Vina', but you could be right. Also could be a variation of Venus, the goddess of love, considering that's what the Taloasians had in mind for her and Pike.

Interestingly rockets are still in use during TNG. Remember those old Merculit ones from season 1's "Heart of Glory" ?

Slo-mo will do wonders for viewing this episode.

In the uncut version, when the Talosians are going through the Enterprise memory banks, you see faces being displayed on the screen.

One of the faces I distinctly remember from my first viewing was John F. Kennedy

I can't wait until the DVD version comes out so I can see who else is on that screen!

I can't be sure, but I thought I once saw President Lyndon Johnson displayed, too.

In his book, Phil mentioned a hand signal being used on the Bridge to acknowledge the fact they had achieved "Time Warp Factor".

I had a funny thought... maybe that's not the reason they did it.

Maybe the Navagator was signaling that they were going to make a right turn!

(Snicker, snicker)

Look carefully at the floor of the Bridge especially in front of the Turbo-lift door....

There is a black pad there....the same kind of pad that used to be at the automatic doors of major supermarkets.

This is never revisited in any TOS episode...

So in other words, the turbo-lift doors REALLY, REALLY opened by themselves in "The Cage", but after that, hired "auto-door people" to open / close them.

I really doubt that. The issue was speed, and they never found any mechanism to open the doors fast enough.

One thing too that was not revisited was a man from security at all times posted at the door on the Bridge and at the door in the Transporter room.

I often think of this epsidoe more in connection with Forbidden Planet (and suchlike) than the rest of Trek. As previously noted, Pike calls the Enterprise a "space vehicle" and Spock calls for "rockets". Also, standard sf terms are used, such as "hyperdrive" and "lasers". And Pike calls Number One "lieutenant". I assume this doesn`t mean the same as it does in later epsiodes. In this epsiode we have Pike (the captain), Number One (the 1st officer or "lieutenant"), Boyce (ship`s doctor), Jose Tyler (Navigator), Colt (Yeoman) and a couple of others. I assume the rank and position concepts hadn`t fully been planned yet. Also notice how everyone has one band on the sleeve.

I watched this episode on Sci-Fi today, and man did they whack it! The entire exchange between Dr. Boyce and Capt. Pike in Pike's quarters was cut, as was part of the scene when they're trying to blast the elevator with the cannon doohickey. I'm sure there was more, but I got disgusted and changed the channel. Shame on you, Sci-Fi Channel!!!

One interesting rank was that of helmsman, which seems a littled outdated even in the 1960s. I'm suprised Gene used this instead of pilot which seems more "with-it" considering the first astronaughts where pilots along Gene himself.

Yes, but Helmsman gives the show a nautical feel.

In answer to a couple of earlier postings:

1. Number One could not be an artificial lifeform. The Talosian read her mind. Would he be able to read Data's mind? I don't think so.

2. Vena's line about clothing was "Well I have to wear something, don't I?"

I noticed the glasses wearing transport technician loses them after a couple of shots.

Yes, that`s what Nat Hefferman was saying. The "accident" wasn`t that there were glasses at all, it was that they disappeared. It took me a while to realise this too.

Check out an episode of "Mysteries and Scandals" that runs occasionally on the "E" channel. In recent years, the story that Jeffrey Hunter was not available due to a film committment was shot down. First Shatner's "Star Trek Memories", then the book "Inside Star Trek" by Bob Justman and Herb Solow, and now this show (in which Solow is interviewed) says that Hunter's wife at the time, Dusty, made the decision for him to bow out of "Trek". Her attitude was, "My husband is a movie star and does not do television." This, of course, gave Bill Shatner his big break, and sent Hunter's career into a nosedive. I believe that if the decision was left to him, Hunter would have stayed with "Trek". Who knows how "Trek" would have turned out if Hunter had stayed? Hunter later on had two ex-wives, a third wife, kids and took anything to pay the bills.

All those events must have happened in a short time because according to one behind the scenes JH died in a climing accident in 1967, only 2-3 years after The Cage was rejected.

In reference to Charles Cabe's comment on Dec. 1998, I don't remember McCoy EVER saying anything to Kirk (Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan) when he brought him birthday presents of Romulan Ale and a pair of antique glasses that the glasses (and Rentinax) were for farsightedness.
Also, does ANYONE know why navy captains (or Starfleet captains) call the second in command "Number One"?

Because they hold the position of first officer.

Obviously, Rentinax is for vision problems; either farsightedness or nearsightedness. Nearsighteness is usally diagnosed at a young age (during Kirk's pre-Enterprise days). So that's not it, because Kirk's eye problem must be associated with age, and farshightedness usually appears late in life, usually after 40 or so. Granted, this is mostly conjecture, but it seems to make sense.

Jeffrey Hunter died in May, 1969, allegedly from a fall down stairs. The "Mysteries and Scandals" casts some doubt on that explanation, as the head injury is too severe for the number of stairs fallen off (three). His son was also interviewed, and it was said that he drank a great deal. (If he drank during filming of "The Cage,", his performance did not show it.) If my wife was mismanaging my career as badly as Hunter's wife was his, I'd probably drink, too.(No, that is not true. My wife suffers from mental illness, and I never thought about turning to drink to cope.) To Charles Cabe- I am 45 (almost 46) and am wearing bifocals to write this posting. I started wearing them just as I turned 42 in November 1996. So, to me, what you say makes sense.

Come to think of it, Kirk did hold the book he was reading before his son David came in to speak to him pretty far away from his face. I assume from that Kirk is farsighted.

Probably, since a major subtheme of the movie is Kirk's dealing with getting older. Since you tend toward farsightedness as you age (maybe my vision will regress from incredibly nearsighted to something closer to 20/20?), I also assume that Kirk is getting farsighted.

Here's info from the IMDB about Hunter's death:

While filming '¡Viva América!' in Spain, Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion (which in the film kills his character) and began complaining of dizziness and headaches. He was briefly hospitalized upon his return to Los Angeles. Soon afterwards, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) while on a stairway outside his home, and struck his head in the fall. He was found unconscious an unknown length of time later, with a swelling above his eye. He died during surgery to repair the skull fracture, at age 42.

The Database also says that Hunter lobbied for the part of Mike Brady on "The Brady Bunch", but was told he was too good-looking. He died before the show even premiered.

As a testament to the mismanagement of his career, check out his filmography. Pre-Trek has such highlights as "The Searchers", "King of Kings", and "The Longest Day". Post-Trek has such lowlights as "The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell", "Super Colt 38", and "Custer of the West".

Finally, here's a snippet from an interview made when Hunter was shooting "Star Trek".

Jeff's big enthusiasm at the moment is a pilot he's just finished for a new Desilu television series that will hopefully be on the air in the fall. It's a science fiction show -- year 2000, with Jeff playing an American cosmonaut who patrols the galaxy in a 190,000-ton space city. The 'ship' carries a crew of 203 people, who visit American colonies in space as well as unexplored planets.

"We run into pre-historic worlds, contemporary societies and civilizations far more developed than our own," he said. It's a great format because writers have a free hand -- they can have us land on a monster-infested planet, or deal in human relations involving the large number of people who live together on this gigantic ship.

"We should know within several weeks whether the show's been sold. It will be an hour long, in color with a regular cast of a half-dozen or so, and an important guest star part each week. They're calling it 'Star Trek.' The thing that intrigues me most about the show is that it is actually based on the Rand Corp.'s projection of things to come. Except for the fictional characters, it will almost be like getting a look into the future and some of the predictions will surely come true in our life-time.

"With all the weird surroundings of outer space the basic underlying theme of the show is a philosophical approach to man's relationship to woman. There are both sexes in the crew, in fact, the first officer is a woman."

But here's some comments from Hunter after he turned down doing more episodes.

"I was asked to do it," he said, "but had I accepted, I would have been tied up much longer than I care to be. I have several things brewing now and they should be coming to a head in the next few weeks. I love doing motion pictures and expect to be as busy as I want to be in them."

It's sad that not too long after this Hunter's movies would include "Super Colt 38", and he would be lobbying to be on "The Brady Bunch".

I believe the man was backing up (or more likely making excuses for) his wife (or maybe by that time, ex-wife. I'm sure Hunter's second marriage tanked due to her mismanaging of his career.) It is a husband's place to back up his wife, and in most cases (but not mine, she never has) a wife will back her husband. By the way, didn't Hunter do guest shots on episodic TV back in the late 60's? As for lobbying for the part of Mike Brady, was he that desperate? Just think-"The Brady Bunch", starring Jeffrey Hunter and Joyce Bulifant (who was originally cast as Carol, but fired in favor of Florence Henderson.) Maybe we might not be hearing that insipid theme song continually these days. I can only dream about that one.

"The Cage," which originally ran about 65 minutes, was cut down and inserted into the "Trek" syndication package around 1988 or '89. I remember watching it when WLIG (now WLNY) of Riverhead, New York picked up the Trek package around 1992, and "The Cage" was heavily edited. They rarely ran TOS, preferring to go with repeats of TNG (but not first run episodes-I believe WPIX Channel 11 here in New York had a lock on that.) They do not have repeats of TNG any more, since I guess PIX has a lock on that, too. I also heard a couple of years ago that Viacom was going to start its own sci-fi channel, once the Sci-Fi's rights to TOS expire. Any more on that?

If a movie about the early years of the Enterprise is ever done, how about Ray Liotta as Pike? Of course, this may be the most off the wall idea since Harve Bennett's "Starfleet Academy" movie idea of 1990. While watching "Goodfellas", I was struck by a resemblance between Liotta and Hunter. Of course, Liotta would need a voice transplant to pull it off, and his eternal wiseguy attitude would not cut it as the thoughtful Pike. Still, though, this was a thought that I would seek out opinions on.

Okay...I am confused. Why did the aliens want Pike...the writer can't seem to decide whether it was because they needed humans as slaves, whether they wanted the Tholosian race to survive or to keep the "Earth woman" company.

Maybe it was all three?

Something rather disturbing I realised just a few days ago: At the end Vina is given a fake Pike. The Keeper says "She has illusion, and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant". So in other words, the male needs to know that everything around him is real, and would not accept Vina if she wasn't, but the female can manage well with just an illusion?

Presumably Vina has been living with illusions for years and is used to them.

So even if Pike had stayed she would think on some level that he is an illusion, and not reality.

She stayed on Talos because she couldn't accept the reality of what she was.

Ray Liotta would make a very suitable Pike stand-in. However, there is also the possibility of the actor who played the liquid-metal Terminator in Terminator II: Judgement Day. I feel he could be displayed before the public as Pike easier than they would accept Ray Liotta. (and he "kinda" looks like Jeff Hunter also)

Robert Patrick would be a good choice. However, he is kinda tied up now with a little show called "The X-Files."

Number One could not be an android/robot... unless she is _so_ fully functional...

After all, The Keeper was telling Pike all the genetic potential of Number One versus Yeoman Colt for the children that could be borne.

(And, for that matter, why wouldn't the Keeper advocate that Pike mate with all three females? That would sure promote diversity in the gene pool.)

That idea may have been too risque for a 1964-65 audience, not to mention censors. Even by the end of the '60's, we (well not me) suffered through drivel like "Brady Bunch" and "Nanny and the Professor." I wouldn't put it past Roddenberry to have thought of it, though.

BAD SFX DEPT. When the Enterprise warps into the horizon, the ship makes a very severe port turn...like the Enterprise was on a stick and the guy holding the stick reached the star curtain and had nowhere else to go.

Ths FX in "The Cage" were relatively primitive, and they were done better in later "Trek" episodes. However, one of my favorite "Trek" shots came from "The Cage". It is an early shot where you see the Enterprise coming toward the camera. The camera goes down through the dome on top and right into the bridge.

Yes....that was good! I wish they continued it.

I love that shot so much I will add it to your "Things We Love" conversation.

I think, if they bring Pike back for a movie, it should be Patrick Stewart who plays him.

Robert Butler, the director of "The Cage", went on to direct the pilot for "Hill Street Blues" and the feature film "Turbulence."

DUMB SCENE:
It seems that "Number One" is upset that she can't go on the landing party mission....why? She's in command and there won't be another female in command of a Federation vessel until STIV...so quit grousing and enjoy it, Number One!
Sheez, what a baby!

Great Line:"If you had stayed who would have been Eve?"Yeoman Colt.

Ok,I all I know is that the Marvel comics have her name down as Colt,not sure if it was actually mentioned in The Cage or not.

Majel Barrett looked better as a brunette!

The Thalosian's voice fluctuates here as well. Probably technical problem.

Interesting trivia:According to the Star Trek Enclycopedia the role of the captain of the Enterprise was originally offered to Llyod Bridges of the popular series Sea Hunt.

Sorry, Gene. The water park wanted their wave machine back by Tuesday.
When Vina first takes Pike up the rock face in the beginning of the episode, right before he’s rendered unconscious, Vina disappears, which is indicated by a fluid, wave-like effect, but this signature is not present when any of the other illusions disappear.
Maybe the injuries on Rigel IV included carpel tunnel syndrome?
Why do Pike and the others release their grip on the Talosian’s neck when they reach the surface?
Maybe he’s in the middle of a major operation? One that involves going to Sweden and taking hormones?
This one’s really blatant: After Pike and his two female crewmen escape to the surface with the Talosian, Pike, at that point, offers the Talosian a deal: The Talosian’s life for the lives of his two crewmen. The Talosian, responds in a non-sequitir about Talosian lifespans and their plans to cultivate a human society, which is cut off by a retort by Pike. For some bizarre reason, the Talosian, when speaking this one sentence, does so with a much lower, deeper voice! When Number One then sets the laser gun to overload and the Talosian asks if it’s a deception, the Talosian’s voice is back to normal. For some reason, this occurred on a Channel 11 (the WB network) Trek marathon, but not on the Sci-Fi channel’s broadcast of the show.
Their favorite artists must be Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso. Too bad it wasn’t DaVinci.
Supposedly, the Talosians had no guide or reference when reconstructing Vina. It’s a well documented fact that most organisms, especially the more sophisticated multicellular ones (animals, vertebrates, primates, etc.) have anatomies characterized by bilateral symmetry. That is, everything one side of the body has (one eye, one arm, one leg, etc.), the other has as well, and also pertains to the porportional size of, and distance relationships between, the different facial features. This symmetry is a huge factor by which animals are attracted to one another, and is present among both genders, all races, many animals, and even infants, as demonstrated by a study of their attention span when showed different photos of people. This is also apparently true of all the alien races we’ve seen on Trek, including the Talosians! So why would they have given her such a asymmetrical face? Why would they have guessed that humans had a big lump on the left side of their faces? Or a huge hump on their shoulder? Or lines on their faces?
That’s one hell of a mosquito bite, babe!
And speaking of those lumps, where or how did the Talosians get the material for them? Where did that extra mass come from? Did the Talosians think Vina was shorter than she really was, ending up with several extra pounds of flesh left over, and not knowing where it went, just decided to stick it on her just anywhere?
I guess practice makes perfect.
And if they did such a bad job with her, how come their illusions of the male survivors, and for that matter, Vina herself, were so accurate?
The Talosians must have a really bad HMO
And isn’t cosmetic surgical technology sophisticated enough by the 23rd century to restore Vina’s appearance?

The voice changes occurred in the SciFi channel's broadcast. I just watched it.

I wonder if they're using different tapes at different times. I know that when the Sci-Fi channel acquired the rights in 1999, they were airing digitally remastered versions of the episodes, and showing them in 90 minute formats, in order to include the entire uncut episode, while maintaining the same amount of time for commericals. (Having their cake and eating it too, I suppose! ) Perhaps there are different versions of the master tapes?

It might have been mentioned before, but I just watched the episode.

When the landing party enter the transporter room for the first time, we see the controller with his Asian assistant who is wearing a pair of glasses and is writing something down. The camera pans away to Pike and the others transporting away and then the camera cuts back to the controller and assistant who now is no longer wearing glasses and has no notebook in his hand. Neither objects are in front of him either. Did he throw them at the landing party out of jealousy?

The voice changed because the original voice of the Keeper was dubbed by Malachi Throne ("It Takes A Thief".) Throne played Commodore Mendez in the televised two-parter, thus necessitating a new voice for the Keeper (I don't know whose.) Throne returned to Trek in 1991 to play Pardek in Next Gen's "Unification." The original voice was kept as the replacement voice actor only dubbed the lines to be used in the televised two-parter. When the pilot was restored to its full version (for home video and broadcast) the original Keeper voice had to be used in the un-dubbed footage.
In early "Trek" episodes there were two transporter technicians (eyeglasses or no) on duty. As the series went on, it was whittled down to one tech. Was the transporter improved? The console always looked the same. (I doubt it-it was probably due to the budget.) At some point, however, the picture of the starfield disappeared from the starboard bulkhead of the transporter room.

Is Malachi Throne the same man who played the Centauri Chancellor Malachi on B5? I had heard that the character was named after the actor.

Yes he was, although it was Emperor Malachi.

Throne played the Prime Minister (Malachi), rather than the Emperor Turhan. Played by Turhan Bey

Ah, thanks.

"Pike's Enterprise has a compliment of 203 people. Kirk's Enterprise has about 430 people.
However it is the same ship so why are there more than twice as many people on board the ship 13 years later? Were the engines just incredibly bulky and took up the extra space in Pike's time? Were there less jobs for crewmembers to do? Or didn't Starfleet have enough people to give the ship a full compliment?" (-Keith Alan Morgan-)

This may have been answered above, but it's conceivable that Pike's ship normally did have a full complement - the fact that there were so few during this mission could imply that half the crew were killed in the incident on Rigel. After all, the early scene between Pike and Boyce indicates that the "Enterprise" took unusually heavy losses on that mission, and it is conceivable that the ship was on its way back to a starbase just prior to picking up the distress call from the "Columbia," at which point we join the show.

Incidentally - fun trivia fact, which may also have been mentioned already but I couldn't resist:

In "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story," the excellent book by Herb Solow and Bob Justman about the making of the series, it is mentioned that Roddenberry at one point toyed with the idea of recalling Hunter et al to film extra scenes for "The Cage" and 'attempt to get a theatrical release for it.' If that had happened, then it would have been the original "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" - who can imagine what TMP itself would have been called if so? (Of course, in the event it didn't happen, partly because of the problem created by Hunter's wife - as the authors put it, things got to a point whereat they would have been happier "dealing with Jeff and his agent, or even Jeff and a gorilla, instead of Jeff and his wife" - and the decision to create "The Menagerie" finally sealed the fate of the as-yet unused pilot. BTW, Gene Roddenberry apparently gave William Shatner a private screening of "The Cage" as a taster of what he was in for in taking on the lead role, and to give him a model on which to base his own performance as Captain of the Enterprise.)

Hunter divorced that wife, Dusty, shortly afterward. His career was never the same after turning down Trek. He then took any role available to pay the bills.

Yeah, like the role of Jesus in "King of Kings"
What was the director thinking? Hunter was Way, way, WAY too young for the part! The film was blasted by the critics as a portrayal of "I Was A Teenage Jesus". I didn't care for it either.
The only redeeming quality of that movie was Miklos Rozsa's music

Actually, John, I think Hunter was in his early to mid thirties when he did "King Of Kings," which would have made him about the same age that Jesus was during his ministry on earth. I think the "Teenage Jesus" handle came about as he was considered a "pretty boy" actor. (Max Von Sydow was also in his early thirties during the filming of "Greatest Story Ever Told", BTW.) According to "Mysteries and Scandals", Hunter's career was already in a downturn at the time of "King Of Kings." (The director of "King Of Kings," BTW, was Nicholas Ray, who also helmed the James Dean classic "Rebel Without A Cause.")

Several people have questioned why the Talosian voices change at certain points with the added footage. I recalling reading that when "The Cage" was filmed, the creators used a fairly simple technique to make the Talosians seem more alien: They cast female actors to play the Talosians and then dubbed their parts with male voices. Since women move in subtly different ways than men, the incongruity would convey to the audience a sense that the Talosians were not human. (Incidentally, a lot of credit should go to the costume and makeup designers for the Talosian heads. They are better than some of the attachments I've seen used in TNG, DS9 or VOY.) When the footage was re-edited for b{The Menagerie}, TPTB recorded new voices. The Keeper's voice still sounds male, but it is higher pitched and has a processed sound to it.
Sometime after Star Trek went off the air, they lost the original color print of "The Cage" Someone (Roddenberry, I think) kept the black-and-white print. When Paramount released "The Cage" on video in the early 1980's, they edited the footage used in "The Menagerie" together with the footage from the black-and-white print. Around 1988, a copy of the color print of "The Cage" turned up, but not all of it was in good shape. (Look closely at the restored footage in the Mojave sequence. The color seems a bit washed out and the there is some background noise on the audio track.) Paramount simply replaced the black-and-white footage with the color footage from the recovered print. The footage taken from "The Menagerie" remains the same and the Talosian voices are different in the restored scenes.

Hunter was married to Dusty when he did "King Of Kings." Jeff divorced her after Dusty turned down Trek for him. (I like Herb Solow's explanation, in which he said that he could have shown Dusty "Gone With The Wind" and her reaction would have been the same.) Seeing Trek get on the air, and Hunter's probably thinking "That could have been me" may have been the last straw that broke his marriage up.

FUNNY THOUGHT:
At the end of the episode, the Talosians tell Pike that the human race is too violent.
Vina adds, "They can't use you."

What SHOULD have been added is the Talosian Leader saying, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."

And then Pike shown on the Enterprise viewscreen complaining about losing

Look at your favorite actresses as portrayed as Orion Slave Girls.

MarkN, that is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Thank you for posting the link

You know, in all fairness to Mrs. Hunter, the reason she likely didn't want Jeff to take the role was that she was afraid of him being typecast as a sci-fi actor, the same reason Lloyd Bridges and Jack Lord turned down the role as well. Think about it: can you think of anything not sci-fi related the cast has done since the series went off the air? Yes, Shatner had "TJ Hooker" and "Rescue 911", but that was after the Trek movies has revived his career. Nimoy did "Mission Impossible" (sci-fi related series) for a couple of seasons, but in his autobiography even he admits he can barely remember being on it (unlike Trek), and his current success is primarily due to being a director and producer (again, thanks to the Trek movies). Koenig did have a recurring role on "Babylon 5" (sci-fi again), but that's about all I can think of.

Nimoy has done countless voice-overs for shows on the Discovery Channel, but that is due (at least in part) to him being Mr. Spock.

Actors can and do have career turnarounds. Look at Leslie Nielsen. For years, he was a straight dramatic actor ("The Bold Ones," "Poseidon Adventure," and yes, a sci-fi flick, "Forbidden Planet.") Since "Airplane" and "Police Squad", he does nothing but comedy now; it helped revive his career. (I greatly admire him for his career turnaround, and Mr. Nielsen has said that comedy is something he had always wanted to do.) Jeff Hunter's career was already in a downslide when "Trek" came along; he may have felt that this was his last best chance to revive it. His wife had other opinions of what was best for him, though. It's too bad that those opinions cost him his marriage and his career turnaround.

Not only was Leslie Nielsen a straight dramatic actor, but he often played "the heavy".

Anyone else notice that the Technican in this episode later played Geological Technical Fisher in TOS-proper? Perphase they are supposed to be the same guy? Only problem with this is that this episode takes place quite a few years before (was it ten years?) TOS....

13 years. (The Menagerie)

Ah, so its been 13 years, but Fisher doesn't look 13 years older....

Neither does Spock.

Spock's a Vulcan. They age slower. Of course, he was *REALLY* callow if "The Cage" is 13 years pre-TOS, because he'd be only 29 (Vulcans live to about 200).

Vulcans age the same as anything else (1 second per 1 second) they just have longer lifespans & the changes may be more subtle.

Phil thought it was terrible that Vina supposedly wouldn't be accepted because of her deformities.

But maybe it was psychological--other people could accept her deformities, but maybe she'd still feel like an outsider, and they didn't have Betazoids to help yet.

Pike could tell that she was so used to illusion that she'd have too much trouble with reality. And the same kind of thing goes for the drastic plastic surgery she could have gotten. It would have been too much of a drastic change for her, maybe.

The Talosians should have done better, but they hadn't gone to medical school. How well would *you* do with plastic surgery? They did as well as they could and decided, "That's good enough, we'll give her illusions so she'll barely notice her deformities anyway."

Is any of that the least bit plausible?

On Vol. 40 of the TOS DVD...we get to see THE ORIGINAL version of "The Cage"...some of the original script was deleted because it sounded contoversial. (You MUST see this version!)

What did they add back in?

My beef with the Original Series DVD's is that they could fit more than two episodes per disc. If they can fit "Apocalypse Now Redux" (204 minutes, including credits that were not in the theatrical version) onto one disc, then why can't they fit more than two episodes on a disc?
(Answer-So you will buy more discs, increasing profitability for Viacom.)
That said, John, is the DVD version the same one that was released on VHS in 1986, alternating color and black and white? The pilot was about 65 minutes long, plus an introduction and an epilog from Gene Roddenberry, that was taped on the movie Transporter set. From there, Mr. Roddenberry made specific mention of the fact that no one on Trek smoked, despite the prevalence of cigarette commercials at the time TOS was made.

That's the one, Adam.

Supercooladdict...I'm not going to tell...you'll have to see it for yourself.

John, Come on man. I've seen it several times, I even have the b&w and color versions on VHS, but please what did they put back in? sexy alien broads? violent alien attack? topless bridge crew? bloody fight scene?

Mr Spock picking his nose?

Oh...all right..

Pike says, "I'm not used to having a woman on the Bridge"...Number One gives Pike a dirty look. Pike replies that Number One is "different".

Added dialogue to picnic scene...Pike even identifies city in background as "Mohave"

Added monologue by The Keeper to Pike explaining why they've imprisoned him.

Scenes of other alien "animals" behind the Plexiglass...and they look as fake as fake can be!

Yeoman Colt bumping into Pike twice and Pike scolding her.

Yeoman Colt asking "Which one (woman) would be "Eve"? with Number One chiding her.

Vina getting the illusionary Pike while the real Pike watches.

Spock showing an image of the Talosian and remarking how much bigger their brains are.
(Pretty interesting, seeing they never saw them)

The computers going berserk and showing Earth's history on the screens. (Funny thing, they show LBJ as the most current president)

The "Time Warp" sequence...complete with the "hand signal" (Chuckle)

and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Forgot one....added footage between Pike and the giant on Rigel. (Added dialogue between Pike & Vina too)

hmm. I hate say it but none of that seems the least bit new to me. I remember almost all of that from other versions I've seen.

I'm sorry. It seemed new to me...I never saw it.

I saw "The Cage" when Gene Roddenberry brought a black and white print to conventions in the '70's, and I found it absolutely thrilling to see it uncut back then. The black and white inserts I mentioned above were probably taken from this very print, as the sound there is very scratchy and worn. The cut footage with Pike makes him seem a bit more human.

A lot of the shots of the Enterprise racing thru space look very sloppy....The only one that was good was the one where they zoomed up to the dome on the Bridge and continued to the live action sequence inside the ship.

MISSING LINE: Pike: "Hey, could you turn down that music? I can't hear my Navigator tell me what Time Warp Factor we're at! He's gotta use hand signals!"

Sloppy for now, but probably almost state of the art back in 1964. Special effects were not taken seriously until "2001." Now, we see state of the art effects weekly on "Enterprise" and every time you play your "Star Trek-The Motion Picture" DVD.

Having had my first martini ever at this year's company Christmas party, I'm pretty surprised that Boyce offers one to Pike, who seems to just be on a break, and not really off duty; those things are strong! My vodka martini had 3 ounces of the stuff and I think an ounce of vermouth; this was written before the days of synthale so I gotta assume that it was real alcohol and Pike could have gotten a buzz from his drink, and then reported to the bridge. That would have made bumping into Yeoman Colt a whole new scene where Pike liked it!

Maybe Pike was quite used to martini's. I get the feeling from the old series that alchohol intolerance wasn't as common in that universe.

Yeah...remember that Trek, as originally conceived, was 'Horatio Hornblower in space'. The hard-drinking thing is part of that much older naval tradition, not the more PC Trek that evolved later.

Maybe he has it with plenty of soda.

I have never had a martini in all my 47 years. In fact, I don't like hard liquor at all (I'm a beer guy) and I don't keep any in the house.
McCoy never poured anyone a martini in the run of TOS. Saurian brandy was the strongest spirits used in TOS, and McCoy kept that in Sickbay for medicinal reasons.

McCoy also had:
"Finnagle's Folly" (Ultimate Computer)
Romulan Ale (STII)
Tennessee whiskey (STV)

Do not forget the "Altair Water" ordered in ST3 ... (who knows, it MIGHT be a mind-altering drink!)

I have been to the last 12 Kentucky Derby's. So I remembered when McCoy had a Mint Julep in "This Side of Paradise".

Once, on a television program (Father Dowling, I believe) the female lead was trying to get a job undercover as a bartender. The bar owner had her stand at the bar and create drinks as he rattled them off at her. I distinctly heard one of the drinks listed as "Vulcan Mind Probe." I have not been able to find it listed in any recent book of drinks. Has anyone else heard of this drink and what's in it, or was it simply a fake name for the show?

I once saw a poster with varius drinks and diagrams of how to make them. One of the drinks was a Vulcan Mind Probe, so I'm guessing the Father Dowling writers didn't make it up.

From BarMeister.com:

Vulcan Mind Probe
- 1 ¹/₂ oz Bacardi 151
- ¹/₂ oz Sambuca

From Experience:

Mint Julep
-1 oz Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey
-1 oz Sugar Water
over crushed ice
with a mint leaf

Sip and repeat

Re: the Talosians putting Vina together wrong but still being able to cast perfect illusions of the aged men. Well, after the ship crashed, Vina was near death, her mind was probably on the brink of shutting down and completely dying, but the Talosians cobbled the "mass of dying flesh" together the best they could. Later, when Vina had recovered, the Talosians could then read her mind and be able to see what humans looked like. Thus they could later create perfect illusions for the Enterprise crew.

The Cage DVD (color version) deletes a line -- "You were like a wild little animal thing" -- from Pike to Vina in the picnic scene.

This episode strongly implies that the Federation endorses slavery and slave trading.

Endorses? No. However, the Orions, a group of people who aren't part of the Federation (at least then) do. However, the fact that Pike thinks about becoming a slave trader says something about HIM.

I think he was being sarcastic about his change of profession. I mean I have talked with some of the other corporate wageslaves around here and we have all joked about finding some south pacific island setting ourselves up as king and having our own private harem of beautiful women. I think it was just showing how exasperated he was about losing so many crewmembers and not being the perfect captain. Sort of a kind of battle fatigue, blowing off steam not a real serious consideration. At least thats what I read it as.

If Number One was really an andriod, that would explain Barrett's acting, no doubt.

^^^I have been posting under the handle "Sir Rhosis" on this board for over a year. Would you please pick another handle to use in the future?

Thanks,

The Real Slim "Sir Rhosis"

I think the real "Sir Rhosis" has to prove it, a la Spock choosing b/w the Kirks.

^^^I'll send along a recent CAT-scan of my liver. :D

Hope I didn't sound too rude to the other guy.

Sir Rhosis

he probably didnt know. Ah well. *holding up the CAT scan* BTW, you need a transplant ;)

Did you find any cats?

The Captain's chair in the series was mounted on a second platform above the main bridge floor. That platform is missing in The Cage. Hunter had to stretch his legs out when he sat in the chair, which, IMHO, would have been uncomfortable.

At the end, the doctor mentions that Pike looks rested. If this is true, then Pike is a hothead 24 hours a day....he snaps at Colt (again) for being on the Bridge, he gives his crew angry looks, he yells at Number One (What are we running here, a cadet ship?) and chides his doctor. Sure, they were asking about "Who would be Eve?" But couldn't he just say in a cool & well mannered way, "Let's not talk about it & let's get on with our next assignment"?

I took the "cadet ship" line to Number One as a bit of humor, albeit couched in gruffness. When I was in the Marines, our First Sergeant yelled at us like this half the time; we'd smile and do as he said, no offense taken.

Sir Rhosis

After Colt and Number One have beamed down, the Keeper leaves near the end of the scene. Pike says, "No, don't help me. I've got to concentrate. They can't read through hate." Then, for some reason, the elevator doors open and the Keeper appears, after having just left. But nothing happens and the scene ends. Did the Keeper forget something?

The Keeper should have been able to use telepathy to detect that Pike wasn't asleep when he slipped in to get the lasers. But as Keith Alan Morgan pointed out, he wanted to get them to the surface anyway, so it may not be a nit.

When the first landing party beams down, the transporter chief says, "There's a canyon to the left." To the left of...what? Shouldn't he be using a compass direction and a reference point?

One of the Bridge officers says that the "Meteorite beam hasn't deflected it." A meteorite is a piece of space rock that has already crashed on a planet, in space they are referred to as meteoroids. - Keith Alan Morgan

It sounds like to me Tyler may be saying meteoroid - it's hard to tell. But they did mention meteroids a few lines previously.

Mark Swinton said that maybe there were only 203 people on the ship because half the crew could have been killed on Rigel. However, Pike said there were three dead and seven injured there. Also, he said he was "tired of being responsible for 203 lives," implying that it was a constant number.

If the energy cannon is so dangerous that they have to run for cover before using it, then why are the controls mounted on the back of it? Clearly the designer felt that this would be the best place for the controls, so it should be safe, right? If it is not safe to stand next to the cannon when using it, then why not make the controls mobile, so that the user can take them behind the cover they are hiding behind? - Keith Alan Morgan

Number One yelled at somebody to disengage, so they presumably have some kind of remote control, in addition to the controls on the cannon, which could be used for some pre-firing settings. What puzzles me is, why didn't Number One have the remote control? She was in charge of the operation.

Nove;
'Why didn't Number One have the remote control?'
Are you kidding? Once a guy has the remote a woman has no chance of prying it out of his fingers! It's a guy thing.

Probably just flipping through the settings seeing what else he can blow up. ;-)

More power! More power! Oooh ooh ooh!