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Roddenberry: "These are sets from the last couple of Star Trek movies. You were the ones who said it first. Star Trek lives. And live it does. For over two decades it has. But now I want to take you back to a time when the Enterprise and Spock and Kirk and all the rest were just part of an idea I had. Back to the beginnings of "Star Trek". To the first pilot, a pilot being a film that demonstrates to the network what a new series will look like each

week. This 60 minutes you'll see is today considered something of a television document. And some regard it as perhaps as exciting as any "Star Trek" that's since been filmed. When the network saw what you son will see, they rejected it. From that day until now, the first pilot has never been seen in its original form. This "Star Trek" pilot story is called "The Cage"."
Spock: "Check the circuit"

Tyler: "All operating, sir."
Spock: "It can't be the screen then"
Roddenberry: "It begins on the bridge of a recognizable starship Enterprise, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike, played by the late Jeff Hunter. So far so good, except that TV in those days was at the peck of it's love affair with the western story. I wanted to sell my series so I promised the network that my "Star Trek" idea

would be little more than a space Western, a wagon train to the stars. Zap guns instead of six-shooters, spaceships instead of horses. But as I began to start writing that pilot, I suddenly realised that here was a chance to write the kind of drama I'd always dreamed of doing. I had seen science fiction movies before, but I always thought, not enough characterisation, not enough motivation. Perhaps I could use this as an excuse to go to those

far off planets, with little polka-dotted people, if necessary. And to be able to talk about love, war, nature, God, sex, all those things that go to make up the excitement of the human condition. Maybe the TV censors would let it pass because it all seemed so make-believe. So instead of a space Western I delivered a very different kind of story. One which dealt with the strange dangers of illusion, the enormous power of imagination, with whole worlds that could come from inside people's heads."

[Pike is in pain and screams as he is burned in flames]
Roddenberry: "As if that wasn't enough, back in those days before the phrase Women's Lib was ever heard, I put a woman in second in command of our starship. On top of this, my script required our actress, Majel Barrett, to play this woman as having a highly superior, computerised mind."

Pike: "She does a good job, alright. It's just that I can't get used to

having a woman on the bridge."

Roddenberry: "You might have thought that the ladies in our test audience would have appreciated that. But instead their comments were "Who does she think she is?"."

Pike: "No offence, Lieutenant. You're...different of course."

Roddenberry: "I had written in another character who wasn't even human, an alien who like Satan himself, complete with pointed

ears. Was that all? No, I was uncooperative in other ways too. For example no one onboard the USS Enterprise smoked, and tobacco advertising was key to networks profits in those days. Also, I'd refused to cast our crew "sensibly", which meant all whites. When the network finally saw the pilot some of their executives were outraged. I can't say I really blame them. For the considerable money they had put up, they certainly didn't get a

Western space opera. In fact nothing faintly like that. But this part of the story isn't as simple as good guys versus bad guys either. The network's very top program executive was impressed that this film made him feel like he'd been flying in a spaceship. Something almost never done before, the network ordered a second pilot, and this one had better be familiar action-adventure, or else. So the second "Star Trek" pilot was made, and was accepted, and the

rest turned into our shared history. Well if social fashions change, economics never do. By the time we got into the series, a money crunch was on, and we folded our pilot into another story which you know as "The Menagerie". The two part movie. That's how Captain Kirk met Christopher Pike and learned of his tragic fate. In the film that follows, parts are in color, parts in black and white. The color footage was used in "The Menagerie", the parts that are in black and white parts are all that is left from the first pilot. Now we'll roll the story that Kirk never saw, our unseen pilot "The Cage". And after it's over, come back - there's more to tell."

Spock: "Check the circuit."
Tyler: "All operating, sir."
Spock: "It can't be the screen then. Definitely something out there, Captain, headed this way."
Tyler: "It could be these meteorites."
Number One: "No, it's something else. There's still something out there."

Garison: "It's a radio wave, sir. We're passing through an old-style distress signal."
Spock: "They were keyed to cause interference and attract attention this way."
Garison: "A ship in trouble making a forced landing, sir. That's it. No other message."
Tyler: "I have a fix. It comes from the Talos star group."

Number One: "We've no ships or Earth colonies that far out."
Spock: "Their call letters check with a survey expedition. SS Columbia. It disappeared in that region approximately eighteen years ago."
Tyler: "It would take that long for a radio beam to travel from there to here."
Spock: "Records show the Talos group has never been explored.

Solar system similar to Earth, eleven planets. Number four seems to be Class M, oxygen atmosphere."
Number One: "Then they could still be alive, even after eighteen years."
Pike: "If they survived the crash."
Spock: "We aren't going to go, to be certain?"
Spock: "Not without any indication of survivors, no. Continue to the Vega Colony and take care of our own sick and injured first. You have the helm. Maintain present course."
Number One: "Yes, sir."

Pike: "What's that? I didn't say there's anything wrong with me."
Boyce: "I understand we picked up a distress signal."
Pike: "That's right. Unless we get anything more positive on it, it seems to me the condition of our own crew takes precedent. I'd like to log the ship's doctor's opinion, too."
Boyce: "Oh, I concur with yours, definitely."
Pike: "Good. I'm glad you do, because we're going to stop first at the Vega Colony and replace anybody who needs hospitalisation and also. What the devil are you putting in there, ice?"
Boyce: "Who wants a warm martini?"
Pike: "What makes you think I need one?"
Boyce: "Sometimes a man'll tell his bartender things he'll never tell his doctor. What's been on your mind, Chris, the fight on Rigel Seven?"
Pike: "Shouldn't it be? My only yeoman and two others dead, seven injured."
Boyce: "Was there anything you personally could have done to prevent it?"
Pike: "Oh, I should have smelled trouble when I saw the swords and the armour. Instead of that, I let myself get trapped in that deserted fortress and attacked by one of their warriors."
Boyce: "Chris, you set standards for yourself no one could meet. You treat everyone on board like a human being except yourself, and now you're tired and you."
Pike: "You bet I'm tired. You bet. I'm tired of being responsible for two hundred and three lives. I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't, and who's going on the landing party and who doesn't, and who lives and who dies. Boy, I've had it, Phil."
Boyce: "To the point of finally taking my advice, a rest leave?"
Pike: "To the point of considering resigning."
Boyce: "And do what?"
Pike: "Well, for one thing, go home. Nice little town with fifty miles of parkland around it. Remember I told you I had two horses, and we used to take some food and ride out all day."
Boyce: "Ah, that sounds exciting. Ride out with a picnic lunch every day."
Pike: "I said that's one place I might go. I might go into business on Regulus or on the Orion colony."
Boyce: "You, an Orion trader, dealing in green animal women, slaves?"
Pike: "The point is this isn't the only life available. There's a whole galaxy of things to choose from."
Boyce: "Not for you. A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on, and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away."
Pike: "Now you're beginning to talk like a doctor, bartender."
Boyce: "Take your choice. We both get the same two kinds of customers. The living and the dying."

Pike: "Address intercraft."
Tyler: "System open."
Pike: "This is the captain. Our destination is the Talos star group. Our time warp, factor seven."
Tyler: "Course computed and on the screen."
Number One: "All decks have acknowledged, sir."
Pike : "Engage."

Pike: "Yeoman."
Colt: "Yes, sir."
Pike: "I thought I told you that when I'm on the bridge..."
Colt: "But you wanted the reports by oh five hundred. It's oh five hundred now, sir."
Pike: "Oh, I see. Thank you."
Number One: "She's replacing your former yeoman, sir."
Pike: "She does a good job, all right. It's just that I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. No offence, Lieutenant. You're different, of course."

Old Man: "They're men. They're humans."
Pike: "Captain Christopher Pike, United Space Ship Enterprise."
Haskins: "Doctor Theodore Haskins, American Continent lnstitute."
Survivor: "Is Earth all right?"
Pike: "The same old Earth, and you'll see it very soon."
Tyler: "And you won't believe how fast you can get back. Well the time barrier's been broken. Our new ships can..."
(He's struck dumb by the sight of a lovely young woman)
Haskins: "This is Vina. Her parents are dead. She was born almost as we crashed."

Spock: "Spock here."
Number One (Over Communicator): "Landing party, come in."
Spock: "There is no survivors' encampment, Number One. This is all some sort of trap. We've lost the Captain. Do you read?"

Pike: "Can you hear me? My name is Christopher Pike, commander of the space vehicle Enterprise from a stellar group at the other end of this galaxy. Our intentions are peaceful. Can you understand me?"
(the aliens communicate with their minds, not voices)
Talosian: "It appears, Magistrate, that the intelligence of the specimen is shockingly limited."
Magistrate: "This is no surprise since his vessel was baited here so easily with a simulated message. As you can read in its thoughts, it is only now beginning to suspect that the survivors and encampment were a simple illusion we placed in their minds."
Pike: "You're not speaking, yet I can hear you."
Magistrate: "You will note the confusion as it reads our thought transmissions."
Pike: "All right then, telepathy. You can read my mind. I can read yours. Now, unless you want my ship to consider capturing me an unfriendly act."
Magistrate: "You now see the primitive fear threat reaction. The specimen is about to boast of his strength, the weaponry of his vessel, and so on. Next, frustrated into a need to display physical prowess, the creature will throw himself against the transparency."
Pike: "If you were in here, wouldn't you test the strength of these walls, too? There's a way out of any cage, and I'll find it."
Magistrate: "Despite its frustration, the creature appears more adaptable than our specimens from other planets. We can soon begin the experiment."

Vina: "It's over."
(Vina hugs her hero, then sees the Talosians watching them. The Talosians leave.)
Pike: "Why are you here?"
Vina: "To please you."
Pike: "Are you real?"
Vina: "As real as you wish."
Pike: "No, no. No, that's not an answer. I've never met you before, never even imagined you."
Vina: "Perhaps they made me out of dreams you've forgotten."
Pike: "What, and dress you in the same metal fabric they wear?"
Vina: "I have to wear something, don't I? I can wear whatever you wish, be anything you wish."
Pike: "So they can see how their specimen performs? They want to see how I react, is that it?"
Vina: "Don't you have a dream, something you've always wanted very badly?"
Pike: "Or do they do more than just watch me? Do they feel with me, too?"
Vina: "You can have whatever dream you want. I can become anything, any woman you've ever imagined. You can have anything you want in the whole universe. Let me please you."
Pike: "Yes. Yes, you can please me. You can tell me about them. Is there any way I can keep them from probing my mind, from using my thoughts against me? Does that frighten you? Does that mean there is a way?"
Vina: "You're a fool."
Pike: "Since you're not real, there's not much point in continuing this conversation, is there."

Number One: All circuits engaged, Mister Spock.
Spock (Over Communicator): Standing by, Number One.
Number One: Take cover.
Spock (Over communicator): Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
(The laser cannon blasts away.)

Magistrate: "The vial contains a nourishing protein complex."
Pike: "Is the keeper actually communicating with one of his animals?"
Magistrate: "If the form and the colour is not appealing, it can appear as any food you wish to visualise."
Pike: "And if I prefer."
Magistrate: "To starve? You overlook the unpleasant alternative of punishment."

Pike: "All right, all right, let's talk about the girl. You seem to be going out of your way to make her attractive, to make me feel protective."
Magistrate: "This is necessary in order to perpetuate the species.
Pike: It seems more important to you now that I begin to accept her and like her."
Magistrate: "We wish our specimens to be happy in their new life.

Pike: Assuming that's a lie, why would you want me attracted to her? So I'll feel love in a husband-wife relationship? That would be necessary only if you intend to build a family group or perhaps a whole human community."
Magistrate: "With the female now properly conditioned."
Pike: "You mean properly punished! I'm the one who's not co-operating! Why don't you punish me?"
Magistrate: "First, an emotion of protectiveness. Now one of sympathy. Excellent."

Spock: "We've located a magnetic field that seems to come from their underground generator."
Garison: "Could that be an illusion too?"
Number One: "Now, you all know the situation. We're hoping to transport down inside the Talosian community."
Spock: "If our measurements and readings are an illusion also, one could find oneself materialised inside solid rock."
Number One: "Nothing will be said if any volunteer wants to back out."
(Pitcairn energises but only Number One and Yeoman Colt dematerialise)
Spock: "The women!"

Vina: "It's not fair. I did what you asked."
Magistrate: "Since you resist the present specimen, you now have a selection."
Pike: "I'll break out of this zoo somehow and get to you. Is your blood red like ours? I'm going to find out."
Magistrate: "Each of the two new specimens has qualities in her favour. The female you call Number One has the superior mind and would produce highly intelligent children. Although she seems to lack emotion, this is largely a pretence. She has often has fantasies involving you. "
Pike: "All I want to do is get my hands on you. Can you read these thoughts? Images of hate, killing?"
Magistrate: "The other new arrival has considered you unreachable but now is realising this has changed. The factors in her favour are youth and strength, plus unusually strong female drives."
Pike: "You'll find my thoughts more interesting. Thoughts so primitive you can't understand. Emotions so ugly..." (stricken by pain)
Magistrate: "Wrong thinking is punishable. Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination."
(Magistrate leaves)
Number One: "Captain."
Pike: "No. No, don't help me. I have to concentrate. They can't read through hate."

Spock: "Address intercraft."
Garison: "Open, sir."
Spock: "This is the acting captain speaking. We have no choice now but to consider the safety of this vessel and the remainder of the crew. We're leaving. All decks prepare for hyperdrive. Time warp factor."
Tyler: "Mister Spock, the ship's controls have gone dead."

(The lights go out)
Spock: "Engine room!"
GARISON: "Open."
Spock: "Mister Spock here. Switch to rockets. We're blasting out.
Pitcairn (Over Comm): All systems are out, bridge. We've got nothing."
Tyler: "There's nothing. Every system aboard is fading out."

Pike: "Make contact, Number One."
Number One: "They kept us from seeing this, too. We cut through and never knew it. Captain."
(The communicator isn't working)
Magistrate: "As you see, your attempt to escape accomplished nothing."
Pike: "I want to contact our ship."
Magistrate: "You are now on the surface where we wished you to be. With the female of your choice, you will now begin carefully guided lives."
Pike: "And start by burying you?"
Magistrate: "That is your choice. To help you reclaim the planet's surface, our zoological gardens will furnish a variety of plant life."
Pike: "Look, I'll make a deal with you. You and your life for the lives of these two Earth women."
Magistrate: "Since our lifespan is many times yours, we have time to evolve you into a society trained to serve as artisans, technicians..."
Pike: "Do you understand what I'm saying? You give me proof that our ship is all right, send these two back, and I'll stay with Vina."

(Pike, Number One and Spock enter)
Boyce: "Hold on a minute."
Pike: "Oh, I feel fine, just fine."
Boyce: "You look a hundred percent better."
Pike: "You recommended a rest, a change of pace, didn't you? I've even been home. Does that make you happy? "
(He bumps into Colt again)

Pike: "Yeoman."
Colt: "Yes, sir."
Pike: "I thought I told you that when I'm on the bridge I..."
(She hands him a clip-board stuffed with papers for his signature)
Pike: "Oh. Oh yes. The reports. Thank you."
Colt: "Sir, I was wondering. Just curious. Who would have been Eve?"

Number One: "Yeoman! You've delivered your report."
COLT: "Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir."
Tyler: "Eve, sir? Yes, sir."
Boyce: "Eve as in Adam?"
Pike: "As in all ship's doctors are dirty old men. What are we running here, a cadet ship, Number One? Are we ready or not?"
Number One: "All decks show ready, sir."
Pike: "Engage."

Roddenberry: "I just wanted to share with you something that may lift your spirits as it did mine many years ago. All that nonsense about the dangers of mixed races living together on a spaceship, or anywhere and how some of our country were certain to refuse to televise "Star Trek" because we showed that, we showed such things. The hatred that would flood our mail, turning sponsors against us. In all the years of of "Star Trek" we never

received not one such letter. Not one."

[transporter warms up]
Roddenberry: "Human's are capable of so much than we yet understand. We're really something. ""Star Trek fans believe that. And so do I. For us, no limits."