Episode Trivia

TREKCORE > TOS > EPISODES > THE CAGE > Trivia

"The Cage" went into production in 1964.
   
This is the first ever Star Trek ever made.
   
This episode was never aired, only first aired in 1988.
   
Jeffery Hunter, only appeared in active footage of this episode in "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II".
   
Leonard Nimoy, is the only character to survive the un-aired pilot.
   
The episode takes place 13 years before the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
   
The Enterprise was almost called the U.S.S. Yorktown.
   
This is the time we see Orian Slave girls, until Star Trek: Enteprise.
   
The Enterprise is different in this episode.
   
Matthew Jefferies, designed the U.S.S. Enterprise.
   
In the fan made production, Star Trek: New Voyages. Pike helps Kirk in saving his Enterprise in theat episode "In Harms Way".
   
There is two cuts of "The Cage", one is in color and one own by Gene Roddenberry that was in black and white.
   
Majel Barrett, played Nurse Christine Chapel/Lt. M'Ress/Enterprise computer/Additional voices. She never reprises "Number One" from this lost pilot. She later plays the Enterprise-D'S computer, Defiant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the Voyager's computer in Star Trek: Voyager. She reprise her roles as ships computer in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part I" and "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", also in "These are the Voyages" in Star Trek: Enterprise. Majel, also played Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother.
   
Majel Barrett is married to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the series.
   
Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned the Talosians as being crab-like creatures, but budget constrains and the visual effect capabilities of the mid 1960's made this unfeisable.
   
This pilot was rejected by NBC, who thought Spock might scare children.
   
Spock served, 11 years with Captain Pike. This mentioned in "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II".
   
In "The Cage" Pike says he doesn't want women on his bridge, Number One being the singular exception, and he keeps ordering Colt off of it. Somehow, though, he overlooks the very obviously female crew-woman seated at the science station when the computer print-out about Talos is being generated.
   
Special effects of the ship in space were very expensive in the 60s and couldn't be wasted. So when a larger model was built with slightly different nacelles, shots of both versions became common, even within the same episode. This is why the Enterprise sometimes had red needle-tipped nacelles and sometimes lighted "spinning" ones, and in aft views she had either round white balls or perforated vents at the nacelles' ends.
   
In the first illusion, Vina runs down the path from the fortress to Pike. When we cut to close-ups, they're both suddenly standing much closer to the building than before, and the fortress has changed color from brownish orange to white.
   
When the doctor is mixing the drink and Pike gets up off the bed to accept it, an equipment shadow sweeps across the left side of the screen.
   
This is the first episode we saw the transporter.