The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 8 (The Lateness of the Hour)

One of the sad truths of Hollywood is that if you don’t get the ratings, you don’t get the cash.  In some cases, this means cancellation.  In other cases, it means episodes are made on a shoestring budget.  In the case of Star Trek, it meant both.  (The series was cut short, despite having to do many episodes entirely on the Enterprise during the third season.)

I would imagine that The Twilight Zone was never too good with the ratings.  The show has become a cult classic, but it was still a fantasy series when westerns were big.  Consider that it aired years before Star Trek, a show that was similarly considered different and groundbreaking.  Both shows also had a great many episodes that had one or two sets and a very limited cast.  In an effort to cut costs, Rod Serling was forced to shoot six episodes on videocassette, this one being the first.

The story is about an older couple and their daughter living entirely in their mansion.  All their needs are met by androids.  The Loren family wants for nothing.  Well, except the daughter, Jana.  Jana wants a little imperfection.  She wants to go outside and live life as normal people do.

What good is it to live in a sterile environment if it’s not fun or challenging?  She also seems to resent having artificial helpers.  She pleads with her father to get rid of them, finally threatening departure if he doesn’t.  It isn’t until after he’s destroyed them that she makes a startling realization.

Several things stand out.  First, I have to wonder how the parents could live like that without going stir crazy.  The daughter already seems to be at her wits’ end.  The parents see quite content.  It would seem that they’ve had enough of humanity.  They much prefer a controlled environment, including controlled people.

This brings me to my second point.  At some points, the parents would die.  I would imagine that Jana would no longer be obligated to stay in the house after they’re buried.  If this is the case, she would not be prepared to live on her own.  Even with a certain amount of counseling, she’d lack job experience.  I would imagine that if the estate could support three people, it would be enough for one, but I don’t think Jana’s the kind of person to sit around all day.  It’s also still possible that the money would run out, given inflation.

I would say it’s a testament to Serling and Co. that the episode came out as well as it did.  It’s a fairly contained episode that gives the obligatory twist at the end.  In that sense, it’s still satisfying.  It’s just that this is one of the episodes where a bigger budget might have helped.  Due to the video quality and a little overacting, it almost comes across as a soap opera.  It would be interesting to see what would have become of the episode with some more money.

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Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 12 (The Menagerie: Part II)

The Menagerie was the first two-part episode for the Star Trek franchise.  As I mentioned in the review of the first part, it was done as a means of getting the show back on schedule.  Spock abducted the former captain, Christopher Pike, so that he might be brought back to Talos IV and live out his days with a happy illusion.  He’s now confined to a wheelchair, but the Talosians could make him believe that he has is old body back.

Part II picks up where Part I left off.  Spock’s trial resumes, as does the transmission from Talos IV.  The transmission being shown is actually footage from the original pilot, The Cage.  Either way, appears that the Talosians’ reach goes far beyond their planetary system, making it seem useless to threaten would-be visitors with the death penalty.

This episode is almost entirely the reused footage from The Cage.  The episode ends with Spock taking Pike to the transporter room to be beamed down to the planet.  The Talosians give Kirk one final message that Pike will be taken care of.  However, I wonder if they’ll be able to do this.  It was established in The Cage that they had never seen a human before and it would stand to reason that they haven’t seen one since.  I’m not sure what they’ll do if Pike needs medical attention.

Either way, the entire trial was an illusion generated by the Talosians.  They knew that Kirk would never just sit back, given the situation.   Starbase 11 contacts the Enterprise and tells them that no charges will be pressed.  I have to wonder, though, why go through all the effort in the first place?  Did the Talosians feel that it was a way of repaying Pike for what they put him through?

Consider that the Talosians wanted Pike to start a population of humans to rebuild their planet.  It would have been bad to keep him captive for this reason.  I suppose Pike is little more than a captive either way, but why is it better for the Talosians to have him now?  Is being able to think he’s healthy again really worth it?  Is their guilt that bad?

Unfortunately, we never hear form Pike or the Talosians again in any of the TV series or movies.  It would have been interesting for The Next Generation to at least mention it.  (I have to wonder what would have happened if the Borg assimilated the Talosians.  That really would have been a threat.)  I always wondered if the Talosians had kept their word.  Their final line, “Captain Pike has an illusion and you have reality.  May you find your way as pleasant,” could just be a way of alleviating any worry or guilt on Kirk’s part.  The Next Generation was a lot better with continuity.  It would have been nice to have even a small throwback.

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Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 0 (The Cage)

Most Star Trek fans know that the original series had two pilots.  When Gene Roddenberry produced The Cage, NBC rejected it.  What the network eventually got was the version with Kirk, Spock and McCoy.  Before Captain James T. Kirk was Captain Christopher Pike.

The Cage starts with Pike considering retirement.  It’s not that being a captain is boring.  Quite the opposite.  He’s still licking his wounds from a mission where he lost several crewmembers.  That’s part of the job, but it doesn’t make it easy.

Before Pike can seriously consider it, The Enterprise gets a distress call from Talos IV.  It appears that a scientific expedition had been missing for almost two decades and crashed on the planet.  Most of the people are men.  The only notable exception is a young woman named Vina, who the men claim was born just as the ship landed.  Her beauty allows Pike to be taken in long enough to be captured by the native Talosians.

The entire crash site was an illusion projected by the Talosians for the purpose of capturing a male human.  Why?  Talosian society destroyed the surface of the planet.  They need a race of slaves to rebuild.  The idea is to use Pike and Vina to breed that slave race.

The one big problem is breaking Pike.  He seems to be resistant to all forms of persuasion and punishment.  Even though Vina is a real woman, she can be made to look any way Pike might desire.  They even allow two women from the Enterprise to beam down for Pike to choose from.  Even the threat of hell doesn’t seem to make Pike any more compliant.  It isn’t until the Talosians go through the Enterprise library that they realize humans aren’t suitable for their needs.  They allow the crew to leave, knowing that the Talosian race is ultimately doomed.

Even when I first saw the episode, it seems odd that they would only take one male from the landing party, especially considering that there were several to chose from.  You can’t really get a good breeding population with just one couple.  Even with three women, inbreeding would become a problem.  They actually have an entire ship to get people from.  (Pike eve gives the exact number of lives he’s responsible for: 203.)

My only thought is that the Talosians may have wanted to study humans before trying any long-term commitment.  It wasn’t stated that they were ignoring the ship.  Their main focus was simply trying to figure out how Pike worked.  Once they got him compliant the rest of the crew would have been easier.

It’s odd to think of what might have become of Star Trek if this pilot had been used.  Spock would be the only character retained and would become a lot less emotional.  (He can be seen smiling in this episode.)  The first officer was female.  Pike only called her Number One and she was played by none other than Majel Barrett.  From what I’ve read, that was just a little too progressive for NBC, who specifically told Roddenberry to get rid of the guy with the pointy ears.

The reworked series went on to air 79 episodes.  That was apparently enough to get it into syndication.  There’s no way to tell if NBC made the right call ordering a new pilot.  The original cast may or may not have done better.  Even with the changes, NBC moved the show around enough to eventually kill it.  Still, assuming it had been the pilot, what would it have been like to have a female first officer that early in the show?  During the run of the original series, Uhura is never shown taking command of the ship.  It wouldn’t be until the Next Generation that a woman would be in the captain’s chair.  (For that matter, what would the spin-off series even looked like?)

I enjoyed watching The Original Series when I was younger.  It wasn’t until years later that I would learn a lot of what went on behind the scenes.  Roddenberry would go on to marry Majel Barrett.  Apparently the two were having an affair at the time.  There are a few behind-the-scenes specials that I’ve seen that are interesting and offer some insight to the show.  (Two that come to mind are The Truth Is in the Stars and Chaos on the Bridge.)

Because of the magic of The Internet, I now have the opportunity to watch The Original series once again.  Thanks to Netflix, I now have access to Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise as well as The Animated Series.  I may wait a while to start watching Discovery, as I can only get that through All Access right now.  Maybe I’ll have some other option in the near future.

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