Star Trek TOS S1 E12 Review

I have a pretty busy day today so I'll only be able to review this one, but regardless, I still felt it only right to at least review the second half of the episode I watched yesterday.

Today's episode is called The Menagerie, Part II, and obviously acts as a followup to the previous episode, The Menagerie, Part I. This one has a lot more focus on the story of Christopher Pike on Talos IV, as the previous episode ended with him being captured by the Talosians, a race of aliens who have the ability to project extremely powerful illusions. In this episode, we see that Captain Pike was captured because they wanted an Adam for their Eve, a human woman named Vina who was saved from death by the Talosians after a crash on their planet. We get some cool illusion sequences involving Captain Pike and Vina, including a scene on Rigel XII where Pike fights off a monstrous soldier, a scene on Earth where Pike and Vina are having a picnic with some of his horses (Pike LOVES horses, which I will get to that fact when I start talking about Pike's more recent Trek appearances), and a scene where Vina appears as a green skinned Orion slave girl.


For a pilot episode in the 60s, this was quite creative with all the different locales and tones at play, and it was interesting to see Pike react to them. As for the main story with Kirk, it turns out that the Talosians will be able to provide Pike with an illusion of his former strength so he can be with Vina for the rest of his natural life. Pretty simple ending, but it is still fun, and especially with this story increasingly getting referenced in the newer series, I will probably go back to the themes and characters because of how they are being built upon in the current slate of shows.

Next time, we get to watch one of Trek's first murder mystery stories as people with an oddly specific past are being mysteriously killed, but only when, at the same time, a theater troupe happens to be performing in the same area. Can't say much more than that, but I assure you this one is quite fun. Keep an eye out for The Conscience of the King.

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